Get your Gardens growing
Anybody remember the war time Victory Gardens? Does it ever seem like we are at war, only without boots on the ground? Prices going up, and shelves threatening to be empty. Uncertainty about what is even half of the stuff on the nutrition labels. There are many reasons to grow your own food. One reason is to take pressure off of the greater food system.
Last time I was talking about issues of scale. Well, if we can produce more for ourselves, save money and use that savings to support local small businesses instead of the global corporations, we can help to shift the demand and lower the cost of locally produced products. Big businesses would have to support local producers to keep up with this trend, creating even more demand for local producers.
Back to being your own producer. It is time to get started. If you have Sunshine, you can grow plants. Whether it’s a pot, a raised bed, or a piece of Earth you can get a seed to create food for your family. No matter the type of gardening, vegetables prefer fluffy soil that is well draining and fertile. This can be achieved with a mix of potting mix and compost, or by amending your garden soil with compost and or minerals (or not, but organic matter helps to loosen soil, hold moisture, and feed the biology.).
Right now you can be direct sowing seeds into prepared garden soil for: baby greens like; arugula, kale, chard, lettuce, spinach, mustard, tat soi, broccoli raab, etc., root crops like; carrots, beets, radishes, turnips, potatoes, don’t forget some peas if you have a way to trellis (tomato stakes and twine work for us). Onions can be planted after seeds are started in trays, or from sets which are last years young onion bulbs that will size up or become green onions before flowering. You may have already started or get started on staples for transplanting into the garden after 3-5 weeks in a tray; broccoli, cabbabe, cauliflower, asian cabbages, lettuce heads, kale, chard, kohlrabi, onions, leeks, fennel, herbs, etc. are ready to plant. If you have a protected and warm environment like a cold frame, green house, or grow lights get started on some eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers. We like to start them earlier and put them into bigger pots with compost to size up before planting.
In a couple weeks we will be direct sowing beans into the gardens and sowing squash and cucumbers in trays for transplant. We like to do another sowing of all crops every 10-20 days to ensure we can continue having a harvest to share. If you’re feeding a small family, try to contain your excitement and do smaller sowings more often and enjoy a variety of produce all season. If you have the room, grow enough to can, freeze, or dehydrate to keep your homegrown flavor for winter time.
We do take advantage of reusable woven ground cover to suppress weeds and if you are going big you may want to consider this. If you know us, we love our row covers and highly recommend getting some floating recover (a.k.a remay or agribon) for season extension and pest protection. We weigh these down with sand bags.
If you have any questions about gardening, getting started, finding supplies, or whatever feel free to reach out to us. Sammy and I will do our best to answer, we have plenty of books and friends to consult if we don’t know. We support you all growing your own food even if it puts us out of business, but as I say I do believe home grown food is indirectly also supporting small farms. I hope you all get to have some fun in the Sun, and are blessed with a wonderful bounty.