Like raising laying hens, gardening is something almost everyone who has a farm does. But for those of you who don’t, I will share some reasons why it’s a good idea to have one, and also some of our best gardening tips.
# 1 Healthier Produce and Greater Food Security
I recently noticed that a bag of organic zucchini we had bought at Costco had been packed about three weeks before we bought it! First of all, how do they keep it looking fresh for that long?
Secondly, if we pulled a zucchini from our garden (which we hope to be able to do soon) and put it in the fridge, I don’t think it would look fresh three weeks later. One answer might be that the variety of zucchini that stores carry is a much tougher variety than most people choose to grow at home.
That would be the best situation. But it is possible that they are treating it with something they aren’t telling us about. When you grow your own food, you know what goes on it and how long it is stored.
Also, food starts to lose nutrients the minute it is pulled, so I wonder how many nutrients are in those zucchini three weeks after they are pulled?
When you grow your own food, you can eat it almost immediately after harvesting. That means you get far more nutrients than from produce that has been sitting around for weeks.
It also means that you can grow the best tasting variety’s because you don’t have to worry about shipping it all over the country and having it sit in the store for weeks without spoiling.
You can also grow it in nutrient dense soils, not the depleted soils of huge mono-crop farms.
# 2 Lowered Food Bills
Having a garden can save you money not only by providing food for your family but also for your animals. If you have rabbits they can be raised entirely on leafy greens and hay.
This winter we plan to try to grow enough greens to feed our rabbits through the winter rather than feeding pellets like we have been doing in the past. Pigs and chickens will eat almost anything you can grow, and milking goats will benefit from being fed sunflower seeds in addition to grain.
# 3 A Use for The Compost from The Deep Bedding System
The deep bedding system is a great idea for wintering your animals, but without a garden, what are you going to do with all the resulting compost? Having a garden gives you a way to turn it into food!
Our Top Gardening Tips
We have had a garden almost every year for about the past 13 years. All with varying degrees of success and using slightly different methods. Our most successful one so far was in TX in 2022 in a flood plain. Our neighbor tilled it for us and then we shoveled the soil into beds (SO much work!).
We have improved our photography skills in the last two years, but here is an example harvest.
It may have produced well, but we could hardly walk in it because we had plants growing all over the paths, watering took forever, weeds were out of control, and it was hard to divide the boxes up into squares because the soil would wash into the paths changing the size of the beds and making it unclear where the edge of the bed was.
Last year we didn't have much of a garden because we were moving, but this year I think we might have our best garden yet! Keep reading to find out our top gardening tips which we would like to share based on what we have experienced.
# 1 Grow Primarily in Raised Beds
Raised beds let you grow your plants in ideal soil regardless of what kind of soil you naturally have and practically eliminate the need to weed.
Also, in the spring the soil in them warms up faster than in in-ground beds. In general, they just tend to be more enjoyable to use, and the more you enjoy something, the more likely you are to do it. Which includes taking care of the garden when it's 95 degrees and humid.
This year we are using raised beds made with 2X6's. We used our tractor to double dig the area underneath them to basically eliminate weeds growing up from underneath, and also to give deep rooted plants more soil to grow into. If you don't have a tractor, double digging is extremely labor intensive and unnecessary, especially with raised beds.
Instead, you can either just dig/scrape of the top two or so inches of soil to get rid of the grass, or put something down underneath to stop the weeds, such as several layers of cardboard or weed cloth.
We are building ours 12" deep, which is plenty. You only need to build them 6", as that is only about as deep as most vegetables grow their roots. However, deeper soil is better for some plants.
# 2 Grow Vertically
Unless your garden has paths that are over 20 feet wide, or you never grow climbing plants you will need to trellis some of your plants if you want to be able to walk in your garden without swimming through plants. Trellising is also better for the plants. It keeps the fruit and leaves off the ground which reduces problems with insects and mold or mildew.
There are many options when it comes to growing vertically. We are going to try to use cattle panels this year and they are really nice for several reasons. They are very sturdy, they aren't very expensive if you choose the cheaper ones, they work well for trellising all types of plants, and you can bend them into tunnels to create shaded walkways!
# 3 Install Drip Irrigation if You Have a Large Garden
Dragging a hose around and watering by hand is about the most inefficient way you could possibly water a garden bigger than a few small beds. First of all, it is a lot of work and takes a very long time. Second, it is very hard to water evenly and deeply enough. And third, you tend to break plants by dragging the hose over them.
Soaker hoses break easily and water extremely unevenly. Drip irrigation saves time, money, and increases plant health especially if you put it on a timer. We are installing our first drip irrigation system this year and I think it is going to work great!
# 4 Purchase compost in Bulk
We have always purchased our compost and other soil amendments in bags from places like Lowe's, Home Depot, and Costco. It was expensive but we wanted to have organic soil and hadn't looked into other sources yet.
Then this year, I think because our neighbor in TX (who had a great garden) told us about it, we decided to check to see if any garden stores around us carried bulk organic (or at least chemical free) compost that would be cheaper. One nursery we called (Green Valley Nursery, for those of you who are within driving distance of Claremore OK) had organic compost.
However it was I think mainly composted woody material, which isn't good for vegetable gardens since it ties up nitrogen. But the person on the phone told us that they also sell a mixture of half sandy loam and half mushroom compost. It wasn't certified organic, but he told us that it is very clean (as far as chemical content) because it has to be that way to grow mushrooms in. Mushrooms are very sensitive to chemicals.
So, we had a trailer load delivered. We figured that it is at least three times cheaper than buying it in bags! And I don't know if there are other places where you can buy the same mix, but if you can I would recommend you do. It saves you the time of mixing the compost with other things.
Compost on its own can be used as raised bed soil, however, it tends to get pretty compacted. At least the woody compost we have used in the past does. If you could find compost made from a variety of materials it might be better.
If you can only get compost in bulk a mix of 1/3 peat moss 1/3 compost and 1/3 coarse vermiculite (as done in the square foot gardening method, which is basically what we follow) works very well.
# 5 Harden Off Transplants
We learned the hard way why people are always saying to do this. We put out many of our transplants out in the garden during a period of extremally windy weather (30-40 MPH) and lost quite a few of them because their stems snapped in the wind.
I would recommend first that you avoid planting in very windy weather if you can. Then, make sure you harden off your transplants! Start by bringing them outside for an hour the first day, two hours the second day, and so on for a week.
Another thing that will help is making sure your transplants have enough light while they are growing so they don't get stretched out. The shorter and sturdier their stems are the less likely they will snap.
Well, hopefully this blog will help you have a great garden this year! If anyone has any tips they would like to share we would love to hear them!
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