Gardening Season!!!

As we plug along with our little life on the great big planet, my husband Warren and I have made it our goal to produce as much of our own organically grown food as we can manage.  We are committed to the work it takes to tent to a large garden + preserving the harvest.  If we can make a little impact on this great world, by buying less traveled food, less food treated with pesticides, less food that is processed then we feel it is not a choose it is our way of life!

We (and by we I mean Warren) has prepared most of the beds in the garden.  He has spent the passed 2 years adding compost, manure (mostly chicken) ,  & some organic fertilizer into each bed to bring the soil to were it is healthy and will produce great crops. After lots of trial and error, we are STARTING to get the hang of what the garden NEEDS.  Warren spends all winter plotting out the crops in the garden, rotation, sun exposure, how taller plants shade smaller ones, what can be planted in the shade of the tall plants etc...

He has been learning a great deal about beneficial bugs in the garden.  What bugs are good and bad.  What plants attract the good bugs to the garden too.  For instance if you let one or two of  your broccoli plant go to flower you will attract beneficial bugs.  And by rotating your crops the bugs such as those big ugly tomato bugs that hang out in the dirt from the year before will spend allot more time triing to figure out where this years dinner went!  He has a great book that he LOVES, but I cant find it right now? I will add it to the post as soon as I pry it from him later!
The book is The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control.

So, we have started to plant already thanks to the unusually warm weather (global warming?) we have had here in the North East...(80 degrees in April?) Warren started some plants from seed inside the house in our spare room/junk room/man town/craft room......tomatoes, broccoli,lettuce, peppers,watermelon, zucchini, & squash.  All of these except the tomato are planted, the tomatoes are still in the cold frame getting ready for planting this weekend.  The cold frame is made of cinder block we had laying around , reclaimed wood and 2 glass windows from our old house we tour down 3 yrs ago.  (pic to follow) .  The peas were planted early, I don't remember when?  but they are big already.   We bought white and red onions and white and red potatoes from the local feed store and they are sprouting already! 

The garlic was planted in the fall and is growing well.  We also just planted asparagus that has sprouted too,though we wont get any we can eat until next year.

We try to make Family Gardening Time, especially when we are planting, the boys love being in the garden, especially James.  They have their own dirt pile next to the compost pile that they play in when they are done "working" in the garden.  James Loves the worms in the compost pile!  I want them to think that growing a garden is just something that you do!  Growing your own food is good for you and the Earth too!

There is still alot to be planted, hopefully this weekend....bush beans, pole beans, carrots, beets, radishes, spinach, & cucumbers.  Its Allot of work, but so worth it come August...then come back and read about my adventures in food preservation!!!