I’ve never had much luck with starting seeds indoors. Every year I look at the cost of a packet of seeds in comparison to started plants at the nursery and decide to try again. And every year I think that in future I should save the money and frustration and just plan to buy the started plants at the nursery in future.

That whole damping off thing is a killer. Of plants, of gardening enthusiasm, of all my vague dreams of harvesting my own seeds in the fall to start the following spring.

This year was going to be different. This year I started with heirloom varieties, partially because of that vague dream of saving my own seeds, and partially just because I like the stories behind them. It’s like planting a little piece of agricultural history as you read that the corn you are planting was the first yellow corn found acceptable for human consumption.

This year I planted them with much more soil and did away with the flimsy plastic greenhouse cover in favor of monitoring the moisture daily with my finger.

This year I had nowhere to go during those most critical days of a newly sprouted seedling. In years past, it was often a weekend away that resulted in too much or too little moisture for wee little sprouts who barely poked their heads out of the soil before returning to it.

This year my seedlings grew. Thrived, even.

If it weren’t for Abby, the herbicidal cat, and Pepper, the pepper killer, I’d likely have had more tomatoes and peppers than I knew what to do with. As it was, I had seven tomato plants and twelve pepper plants sitting in their containers. Outgrowing their containers. Begging me to move them to the garden.

My husband and I sat down with some old fencing we found in the barn and made cages for the tomatoes. I wanted them to get just a little bigger, just a little more resistant to goose nibbles and rabbit munches. I wanted them to live.

I found a strange pleasure in buying tomatoes and peppers at the store. Every time I looked over the pinkish tomatoes, not quite finished with their ripening after being picked green in California or Chile or somewhere else warmer than Nebraska, I thought of vine ripened sweetness from my own garden. Every time I winced at the price of green peppers and thought of breaking down and buying them frozen, I thought of fresh abundance in my harvest basket.

Then planting day came.

Then a storm came.

I carefully plucked the tomato leaves out of the muck and propped them against the bottom wire of their cage so they could dry out. The peppers seemed to savor the rain. I thought all was well.

Then a real storm came.

A storm with wind that shook the house. A storm that forced rain under a section of the roof which proceeded to pour down the bathroom wall and into the basement. A storm with hail. Quarter sized hail that flattened the corn, drove the tomatoes back into the muck and broke the spirit of the pepper plants that seemed so joyful the day before. By afternoon, it was clear the tomatoes and peppers were dead. The corn I’m still not sure about, but it persists in looking healthy, even if it is growing at a 45 degree angle.

Today, I took no pleasure in buying two tomatoes and a green pepper.

Buying started plants was like an admission of defeat.

Who knew a simple vegetable garden could be such an emotional roller coaster?

I feel like I’m sort of stating the obvious here, but sometimes the obvious needs to be said.

You know those plant tags that come stuck in the soil of potted plants? They’re there for a reason. They tell you really neat things like how often your plant wishes to be fertilized, whether it likes sunny locations or prefers shade, and whether it likes acidic soil or something more neutral.

You can even find out things like that on a seed packet. It is amazing all the information that comes packed in such a small space.

I know people pretty much want to do what they want to do. We want to stay up late, so we invent light bulbs and caffeine and then complain of insomnia. We have a spot in the yard that needs a bit of color so we plant a rose bush, never mind the giant oak tree shading out even the most tolerant of grasses. Then we spend the life of the plant researching pests and disease and figure we just aren’t cut out for roses when it finally succumbs.

Now, when you begin to plant, you have a choice: Follow the instructions and have a pretty good chance at a healthy plant, or stick it wherever you want and guarantee seasons of fighting pest and disease because the plant isn’t getting what it needs from the day you put it in the ground.

The people who owned our last house before us were obviously gardeners. The property was full of irises, peonies, tiger lillies, roses, tulips and many other lovely plants. Some of them I still can’t identify, but they were beautiful.

Still, they stuck the tiger lillies under the water spout where they only got a few hours of sun each day. They limped along, with crinkled foliage, and crinkled flowers that bloomed weeks after our neighbor’s show was over. I moved them over to my butterfly garden to provide a bit of a windbreak and they did better there the year they were transplanted than they ever had before.

This property, on the other hand, was left vacant for at least two years. Weeds had taken over all the flower beds, and waist high grasses hid the flower beds from view. Even with years of neglect, an abundance of flowers have fought their way through the tangled mess of weeds to give us quite a show and the encouragement to help them a little in their struggle.

Because they started out healthy and were given every chance to succeed, they’re coping with a little hardship. Whether that is weeds, a dry spell or an insect attack doesn’t matter. A healthy plant has its own natural defenses.

Seriously. After selecting the right cultivars for your area, planting it according to the directions is the most important factor in a healthy plant and a healthy plant is the key to not needing an abundance of chemicals to help the plant along.

For more on beginning organic gardening, well, it’s a whole series! Just click the link or the button at the beginning of the entry!

gardening organic organic gardening

I left the children’s water table under a porch light the other night and woke to find this.

I thought what any chicken owner would think.

My chickens were delighted. So the next night I made sure the water table was parked there and placed a bucket under our other porch light. Suddenly I’m motivated to fix the other two outdoor lights we have.

What’s more, June bugs are a bit of a pest, defoliating shrubs and trees in early spring. By mid summer, their grubs are ready to start damaging your lawn and even your vegetable patch.

A healthy lawn is usually able to handle a mild attack of June bug larva, but they can become a problem when conditions are dry (as they usually are here in Nebraska come August) or if the larva population is just too large. My chickens are doing their part to keep the numbers under control!

I may even go sweep up all the beetles that crash land on my sidewalk and patio. I think they’ll store nicely in a bucket until morning.

June bug garden chicken organic pest control

First, we planned a beautiful garden on paper. A garden that would provide a significant source of food for our family. A garden big enough that we’re going to have to buy another freezer to store the harvest in, if we ever get the harvest planted.

Then we plowed. It was April. A little late to get started since I had snow peas, lettuce and spinach that were all good to go in the ground. But to plow, you need a tractor and a plow and that all takes time.

Then it rained. It rained so much that Nebraska’s wheat harvest is struggling with mold and fungus issues.

As the last frost date quickly approached, I wondered if we would be able to get the garden tilled in time to even get in the carrots.

Then we had a late freeze. A late freeze that took out between 40 and 60% of Nebraska’s sugar beet crop. I learned that having a garden, even if it is just sitting there waiting for you to do something with it, makes you pay attention to the news and the weather report in a different way.

Finally, we gave up on the idea of purchasing a disc harrow for the tractor and decided to rent a tiller. But we still had to wait for it to stop raining.

It finally did. For three days in a row. On the third day, the ground was dry enough to till.

Then we waited for the rain so we could plant.

And waited.

And waited.

And finally bought a hose.

I planted 100 square feet of corn as the sun went down, approximately 1/4 of what is planned for this garden. Today, the goal is to finish the corn and the beans.

As much work as planting is . . . well, I’m trying not to think about what the harvest will be like.

At least I’ll have help with the weeding.

Check out more Saturday on the Farm posts at Linda’s Lunacy!

Our garden is finally plowed and tilled. I’m working on making tomato cages out of strips of old fencing and figuring when I can go ahead and plant. This young lady weighs heavily on my mind.

See how she’s looking so longingly at my garden? She sees it the same way I do, as if it were already green and lush and heavy with produce. And she isn’t the only one. Cabbage moths, grasshoppers, hornworms, aphids and countless other pests, some of which are too small to even see, are all hanging out in the soil, the surrounding plants, the air and possibly on my transplants themselves waiting for their take of my harvest.

Winning the battle against these unwelcome intruders begins long before they are actually a problem, however. In fact, it begins before you even plant your first seeds. It begins by choosing the cultivars most appropriate for your area. That advice may be a little late for most of you, but it is never too early to start planning for next year.

How to choose the best plants for your area:

Decide what plants you want to grow.

Get to know your county extension’s website. All those glowing descriptions in the catalogs don’t mean half as much as a recommendation from someone whose job it is to compare the success of various cultivars in your area.

Know your USDA Hardiness Zone. Remember that this is only a general guide. Just because I’m in Zone 5 doesn’t mean everything labeled Zone 5 will survive a Nebraska summer. Or a Nebraska winter. Or the Nebraska wind.

Know your first and last frost dates. This is important for timely planting, but also for ensuring that your growing season is long enough for the plants you favor.

Know the microclimate of your area and where your garden will be located. Is it on a south facing slope or near a warming structure such as a retaining wall or the house? You may be looking at plants normally grown a little further to the south.

Know your soil. Is it clay? Sandy loam? Full of rocks? Is it acidic, neutral or a little alkaline?

Watch your garden and see how many hours of sun it gets. Is it enough for the sun loving tomatoes you crave? Do you have a little shade to help keep your lettuce going longer into early summer?

Know how many freeze hours are typical for your area. This is really only relevant if you are interested in fruit trees.

Choose disease resistant varieties.

Be willing to change your garden plans. We had our hearts set on blueberries, but according to our research, there just aren’t any good cultivars for our area. They require too much soil amendment and about the only way to grow them is in a container buried in the ground. That sounds like a plan for years of fighting against nature to maintain an ill-suited plant.

If you look beyond national chain stores, you will find a wealth of cultivars allowing you to grow your favorite garden vegetables in a wide variety of climates and soil conditions. As you learn more about your area, you may even find plants you had never considered before.

The most important thing to remember in organic gardening is to work with the local environment as much as possible rather than against it.

For more in this series on beginning organic gardening, just click on the button. And please share your gardening experiences! How did you select your plants? Where are your favorite places to purchase seeds and young plants?

gardening organic organic gardening plant selection

The Industrial Revolution brought many changes to American life, drawing more and more people off the farm and into cities. The internal combustion engine allowed tractors to take over the work of horses (and many field hands). The development of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides did away with the need for expensive and time consuming land management practices and increased the productivity of farms run by fewer and fewer people. In the 19th century, for example, the ideal size of the family farm was 160 acres, the basis for the size of claims in the Homestead Act. By the end of the 20th century, the size had increased to over 400 acres, with each acre increasing in its productivity.

Science, it seemed, had solved the problem of supplying our ever-growing cities with food.

Or had it? Already in 1926, Sir Albert Howard began studying the relationship of healthy soils and healthy communities while in India and found their “traditional” agricultural practices superior to the industrialized agriculture of the West. He went on to develop organic farming techniques and influenced other scientists and farmers. In 1942, Jerome Rodale introduced the magazine “Organic Farming and Gardening,” with Sir Albert Howard serving as his associate editor. The Victory Gardens of World War II brought gardening back to the masses, and “Organic Farming and Gardening” brought knowledge of organic principles into the mainstream.

Well, almost, anyway.

Today, we have less faith in the science and technology that has brought us incredible yields at a lower cost. The demand for chemical free food is growing as awareness of the potential dangers of long term exposure increases. With this has come a standardization of practices and a legal definition of what can be considered “organic.” From the USDA National Standards Board Definition (1995):

Organic agriculture is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony.

While I doubt many of my readers are interested in actually becoming certified organic growers in order to put more healthy salads on their tables, it is important to note that the legal definition of the term “organic” refers only to food, and not even all types of food. The use of the term for honey or seafood, for example, is not regulated. It is up to the producer to decide what organic means in these cases, and oftentimes their practices are no different than standard agricultural practices. The law also does not define what organic means for garden products so do not assume that because a fertilizer or pesticide is labeled organic that it is any different from any other fertilizer or pesticide on the market.

The most important aspect of organic gardening is its attention to the health of the soil and the chemical free approach to pest management. There is a lot more to maintaining a healthy garden, however, than a good compost pile and refraining from spraying any chemicals. It is a whole system of management, emphasizing the integration of cultural, biological and mechanical practices. And even if you plan to spray for garden pests because you just can’t bear to lose any more cucumbers, your garden will benefit from implementing other organic practices.

Organic gardening really is about good gardening . . . good stewardship, of our land, which oftentimes makes spraying unnecessary because a healthy plant has its own defenses against pests and disease.

gardening organic organic gardening

Tomorrow, I’ll be starting a series on beginning organic gardening and would love your thoughts and experiences!

Some of the issues I am looking at covering are:

• What is organic gardening?
• Plant selection
• Site selection
• Soil amendments
• Beginning composting
• Weed control
• Pest control
• Disease control

In the mean time, I’d love to know about your experiences with organic gardening. Have you tried only to cede your garden to the bugs? Or have you found your garden to be relatively healthy? Why are you interested in organic gardening?

Feel free to share links to your blog as well if you’ve written about your experiences and concerns regarding gardening. I’d love you to join the discussion so we can all learn from each other!

gardening garden organic organic gardening

Taking the lead from Freedom Lover’s Academy and Living Our Way, I thought I’d share some pictures of our garden in progress.

First, our hired help. My husband’s baby. The Ford 9N tractor:

He actually left me with specific instructions for staging the photo.

“Make sure you get the barn in the background. But not the water heater.”

I think the model makes the picture, but that’s a mom speaking. For my husband, it is all about the toys. Er, tools.

Hey, you can even see the aforementioned water heater along with the plow and the blade. We don’t have much use for a snow blade in April, but they are cheaper out of season. And my husband has regraded our driveway twice, now. You can also see the hosta. What a surprise to walk out to the barn one morning and find a neat row of beautiful hosta.

One of our neighbors told us this place used to be “done up real nice.” Evidence of that is all around, peeking through an unkempt field…

…and fighting for space within the confines of an old flower bed.

We have found the outlines of several such beds in the field and my daughter has taken it upon herself to revive them. She’s collecting papers to lay down around the flowers to kill the grass and beginning to plan what she wants to add to each.

Shielding us from the farmland to the south is an entire hedge of lilacs.

Lilacs which are filling the spring air with their perfume.

Then, there’s the garden we’re working on. I wanted to take some video of my husband plowing with his new toys, but unfortunately the camera batteries were dead. The sight of him on his new tractor, the anticipation of breaking the first ground, and the hilarity of watching tractor tires spin at the attempt shall forever be etched in my memory but I lack any photographic evidence.

A few tries, however, and he started to learn his machine. The finished product, nicknamed “the Grand Canyon” by the children who love to jump from clod to clod:

Obviously, we aren’t quite ready for planting, which means we have probably missed potatoes for this year and my peas will have to wait for fall. I do, however, have a window full of tomatoes and peppers and a few onions that have survived, waiting on a freshly tilled garden and our last frost date.

It actually measures over 3,000 square feet which is why I’m not out there with a hoe. We found a disc harrow for the right price, but lacking a pickup is proving a bit of an inconvenience in purchasing tractor implements. If we can get delivery worked out, I’ll share some video.

How is your gardening going? I’d love to see pictures, so please feel free to share links to entries describing your spring gardening!

I finally took some time over the weekend to plan out my spring planting calendar and was pleased to note that the only vegetables I had missed starting on time were those in the brassica family I have vowed never to plant again. At least until next year, when I plan to have a screened box to protect them from those inane little worms that left my broccoli, cabbage and Brussels sprouts nothing but green skeletons last year.

For those of you who would like a little help with what to plant when (believe it or not, you aren’t supposed to start seeds the minute they’re available at WalMart, nor plant them the first sunny day after they’re available), I decided to make my planting calendar available as a free download.  It is actually color coded for zones three through ten, though I know absolutely nothing about gardening in warmer climates. Do y’all even start seeds down there? If you are further north, you may want to actually start seeds earlier than I’ve indicated due to a shorter growing season. Who wants their tomatoes to die back a week after they start really coming on? The dates on the calendar were achieved by counting backwards from the last frost date in each zone and comparing that to the charts in Square Foot Gardening.

If you are not sure what zone you are in, Burpee has a nice map on their website that even lets you enter your zip code for an immediate confirmation that you can indeed read your location correctly.  You then take that information and look at my March planting calendar and notice the bottom where each of the zones are printed in a different color. Say you are zone 5, like me. You will notice that “zone 5″ is green. Just follow the dates printed in green for a rough estimate of when to start or plant seeds.

“Start” refers to the date you should start seeds indoors. If you have cold frames or some other method of warming the soil and protecting young seedlings from the cold, you can start the seeds there…but if you are that far along in your gardening experience, you probably do not need me to tell you when to start your seeds. “Plant” refers to the date you should plant either the seeds or your seedlings outdoors.

March is a pretty easy month for us northern gardeners. Here in the great Midwestern swampland, it is still too wet to even think about tilling. It is, however, a good time to think about starting a compost pile if you don’t have one already.  You can also map out your garden on paper and start a garden journal to keep track of your successes and failures to learn from next year.  Next week, I’ll share some ways to extend the growing season a little into those tempting, Springy mornings we are currently getting without having to worry about the fact that we are still a long ways away from that “after all danger of frost” date printed on the back of the seed packet.

I will also put up April’s calendar by the first of April to help you through your gardening chores for next month so remember to come back if you find this at all helpful!

Also consider sharing in the Share the Harvest challenge! Plant a little extra to share with a neighbor, friend or family member who could use it and enter to win $15 in free seeds! You can also download my free e-book, Developing Christian Character Through Gardening, to help turn you garden into a summer lesson on The Parable of the Sower.

Any questions? Is there any information that would be helpful to include as I start working on subsequent calendars?

gardening garden planting planting guide

This Monday I am offering all my readers a free e-book: Developing Christian Character Through Gardening.   All you need to do is click on the link to download!  I have offered this e-book before, but just recently edited it, clarifying a section and checking the links to make sure they all still lead where they are supposed to lead.  Just click to open, and feel free to share the link to this free resource with your friends!  I only ask that you link to this entry rather than directly to the download so I can get “paid” through the small amount of traffic that might generate!  Thanks!

Note: Clicking on the link should open a pdf.  It worked several hundred times, and then stopped working.   Appears to be fixed, now.  If not, please contact me.

Since I would like to write more e-books, I would love your feedback.  Are the instructions clear?  Do the lessons fit together?  Is there something missing?  Is there a lesson you particularly enjoy?  Why?

Let me know what you think, and enjoy gardening with your children!

And while you are gardening together, please consider Sharing the Harvest!

free e-book lesson Christian homeschool homeschooling