rowlocal
It's about that time again. Year Two of Scott Farm has officially begun. If you followed last years blog you'd remember it was a pretty difficult first year for an inexperienced gardener. Between insects, diseases, freak hailstorms and squirrels I had my hands full but I still managed to get a crapload of veggies and learned a lot of hard lessons.
This year I'm armed with more knowledge and experience, plus a fantastic companion book called "Rodale's Complete Guide to Organic Gardening". When it says "Complete" it means it. It has everything from A to Z, plus troubleshooting for all your plants whether it be with the soil, insects or diseases specific to those plants. Highly recommended!
As you can see from the photo I'm mostly starting from seed this year. I have green beans, spinach, two types of tomatoes, pumpkin, jalapenos and broccoli. I also have two sapling basil plants and plan to get some white onion bulbs to finish out the garden. The pumpkin I'm planting sometime in June so they're ready for Mia's first birthday as we're planning a "fallsy" backyard birthday for her. Yeah I said "fallsy".
You need to start growing something. Even if you don't think you have the room, you do. You don't need land. Just some pots, soil, a plant, good sunlight and water. If you've never grown anything yourself now is the time. It's tastier, healthier, cheaper and just fun to do.
There's a reason most of us don't eat as healthy as we should. Good produce at the store is expensive and doesn't keep long. For about $5 you can grow dozens of tomatoes from spring to fall with just one plant. Last year I had cucumbers and I scratched my head about why mine looked so different from the store versions. The store ships them from west coast to east coast and coats them in wax to preserve. By the time I buy one it looks like a shiny turd that will go rotten in my fridge in a few days. I had cucumbers from my garden in my fridge for almost a month and they were as fresh and tasty as if I'd just picked them.
Not only do you get fresher produce that tastes 100x better than the store stuff, but if you can manage your garden organically then you know there are zero pesticides or fungicides in the food you eat. You don't have to worry about a salmonella outbreak in your spinach because you got yours from your garden, and unless you're out there taking a crap in the soil you won't have a problem.
For first year gardeners who don't have any land to work with, go to your local nursery (or even Home Depot if that's all that is around) in a few weeks and buy sapling plants. They've already grown from seed and are about 3-6 inches high, all you need to do is put them in a pot and take care of 'em. Most produce will start maturing in 2 months, and from that point on you'll be getting a steady supply of it until the fall and even winter if you keep it out of the cold.
Any questions, let me know and if you have your own "Recession Garden" starting I'd like to hear about what you're doing.
