OK its cold out side. Actually we've warmed up slightly today but still its under 30 and there is snow yet on the ground. But its time. Its time to pull out the seed catalogs or start viewing your bookmarked web pages for seeds.
I believe a garden this year will be very important, as the economy gets worse prices will rise. There will be more lay offs and less money to spend on needed items never mind fun items. I don't buy the government lies, er uh, I mean line, that the economy is now improving and we are starting to see the benefits of all that stimulus money. In fact I do believe we will see a crash of major proportions by the end of the year.
This post isn't so much about the economic down turns we all are facing except that it is a good reason to start gardening if you never laid a spade to the soil before. So where do you begin? For you first timers there will be a lot to consider and I cant cover it all in this little post. But lets make a short list of what your going to need.
1.) Land. You will need to determine the plot size and location. Will you want raised beds or a more traditional plot? Will you want one plot or several? How large depends on the amount you plan to harvest. This should be determined from the size of your family or how many you plan to feed from this garden. Also the type of vegetables planted would need to be considered in the size of the garden. Things like squash take up lots of space. Lettuce not as much, and some plants you could get multiple harvest from in the same growing season.
2.) Location. Again lots involved here. What are you intending to grow? Will it need full sun? Will it do OK on partial sun? What is your soil like? What are the critters like?
3.) What are you planning on growing. Will it be things that preserve well, or items you'll need to consume quickly? Almost everything can be canned, most items can be dried. Then of course there is freezing. We have done all three, but I usually can or dehydrate most of our produce as it doesn't use our valuable freezer space. Now along with what you are planing to grow have you decided on seed type? When ever possible I try and use heirloom seeds. There are a lot of reasons to consider heirloom varieties over modern hybrids. Hybrids are generally bred for a specific purpose and often as not it has little to do with taste. Most are bred to conform to shipping, or how well they will ripen when picked early, or even looks. Now heirlooms are from stock that are generations old. They would have been the type of tomato, eggplant, squash, your great grand parents grew up with. Taste is usually great but they may not lend them selves to well to shipping or picking 2-3 weeks early. The other great factor in heirlooms seeds is you have a known commodity. If you plan on saving seeds from your garden this year to plant in next years garden using heirlooms is the only way to go. The reason being is the seed you saved from this years German tomato will be what you get next year. But with a hybred the seeds you save this year may revert back to one of the parent plants (an unknown) or it may be sterile and not produce fruit.
There are a lot of books and websites that cover gardening. I suggest the local extension service for the best advice for the area you live in. http://www.extension.umn.edu/ I've included the university of MN link. There are plenty of other sites out there and you can make gardening as simple or complex as you want. There is plenty I didn't discuss, so I suggest doing a bit of research. I hope this helps someone and I would enjoy feed back.
God Bless
Mark
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