Spring has Sprung – Garden Edition
26 March 2010
9 Comments
It looks like the last frost has come and gone, which meant last weekend was tillin’ time. We got out and tilled up the garden for round two of our veggie growing experiments. I started my first garden last year with the expectation of just using it as a learning experience. Sure, we got quite a few treats out of it, but the most important part was that we learned a lot of lessons.
A few quick things I learned:
- We have a lot of clay in our soil. You can till sand into clay soil to help break it down.
- When buying bags of top soil, mulch, pete moss, etc. look for the ones with a tear. It seems most stores will happily give you 50% off to take them. I’m pretty sure that a torn bag of dirt is just as good as a bag of dirt with a little rip.
- If seed packets come on fabric strips with a perforation down the middle, you SHOULD tear the perforation and plant them end-to-end. We ended up with LOTS of cucumbers last year, and they were VERY close together. (I guess we should have thinned them once they started sprouting)
- It is not necessary to water every night. For some reason, I got it in my head that we were supposed to water the garden every night (unless it rained). I bought some soaker hoses and let ‘em run. That pretty much shot any money savings the garden could have produced when the water bill came!
- Tomatoes really need those cages around them.
- Our local deer and rabbits like to shop at our new grocery garden.
- I have no idea how to harvest garlic. We planted several heads, but never knew when to harvest it. What we planted looked just like what we usually buy at the grocery, so I wasn’t sure what was supposed to happen there. Anybody have any advice on that one?
Tika decided the box of leftover seeds needed to be guarded closely!
What garden tips do you have to share? What has (and hasn’t) worked well for you in the past?
Hi Seth, it’s Christina. Hi! Garlic should be planted in the fall and harvested in the spring or summer when the shoots (also called scapes) start turning brown. Each shoot is a layer of paper around the cloves. Most garlic should be harvested when there are at least 3-5 green shoots still left. If you wait until everything turns brown (like you would for onions), it’ll be too late. Good luck!
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Also, it sounds like you put the whole head of garlic in the ground when you planted? Break it into individual cloves and plant them 6″ deep once they sprout. They’ll sprout naturally on your counter in some sunlight.
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Sether Reply:
March 26th, 2010 at 11:23 AM
Ooops, yeah… we put the whole head in. I think that is what the directions on the package said to do. Grrr.
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One last thing…DON’t overwater. Sorry, can you tell I work in agriculture? Plant roots like to have wet-dry cycling, meaning they like to completely dry out before more water is added. This promotes healthy roots. However, once things are in full bloom, it’s not necessary to completely dry down the soil before re-watering.
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Sether Reply:
March 26th, 2010 at 11:23 AM
Yeah, we definitely learned that one last year. It will take some time to figure out the right balance between giving them enough water, and letting them get too dry.
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Haha, I love the picture of your fat cat in the box. And I hope you aren’t offended that I called Tika fat! Fat cats are the BEST!
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Sether Reply:
March 26th, 2010 at 11:22 AM
LOL. I won’t tell her you said that…
She’s a sweetie, but definitely “big boned”.
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Brian and I just cleaned out our little garden at his house. We would love to offer some help out at your place in return for a little help at ours? This could include some much needed grilling time?
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Hi Seth,
Last summer I wrote a post about growing garlic. I think you probably figured out your biggest problem with help from Tina, but check this out if you like!
http://kitchen-55.com/?p=144
I also just did a piece on starting your first garden too.
I am usually checking out gardening blogs, but of course cooking blogs go hand in hand
Happy gardening! (and cooking)
Beth
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