Gardening Season is Almost Here

I’m not much of a gardener. I want to be. I know how to plant the seeds. When I was a teenager, the four of us kids helped Mom plant the garden, when we lived in Illinois. We also helped can and freeze our produce. That’s what I’d like to do again. My husband got me a Pressure Cooker/Canner and I’m anxious to use it. I haven’t had good fortune growing much of anything in the past 10 years or so, here in Texas.

Year before last my husband and I planted a small garden in the back yard. We planted tomatoes, zucchini, cantaloupe, onions. The only thing we got out of it was the zucchini. They were delicious.

I now know that part of our problem with our little garden bed was that we don’t live near anything that attracts bees so our plants didn’t get pollinated. Our neighborhood doesn’t have very many trees or bushes or flowers. So I know I need to plant flowers at one end of the garden to attract bees.

Another problem we have is that our soil is black clay. I tried to mix in some sand to allow for drainage but I guess I didn’t get the mixture right. I did put in some manure too. It’s possible that we didn’t have the soil tilled well enough either. And then there’s the issue of not having ANY shade in the back yard so the garden was in the blasting sun pretty much all day long. Then I also think that sometimes the type of seeds make a difference too. I bought the hybrid seeds that they sold at Walmart and Lowe’s. A number of variables made our garden pretty much a flop.

So this year I’m going to try things a little different. I’m going to try a raised garden bed. I found some great info on how to build a raised garden bed here at Pioneer Woman.

I’m also going to use a mixture of manure fertilizer, compost and sand in with my clay. I found some great information for that. Take a look at these.

   $14.95 through Amazon. Just click on the image to purchase. Charles has some great information about composting. He was in the 1987 Guinness World Record Book. He grew a Better Boy tomato plant to 20ft tall and it produced 352 lbs of tomatoes. He also grew Silver Queen corn to 17ft tall and he grew a 6ft 2in Pecan tree, in one growing season, FROM SEED.

The World’s Best Compost – The How & Why, a tutorial on making colloidal humus compost using bio-dynamics, a technique anyone can do. It does require a lot of space, probably best for rural farms.

I ordered seeds today. I can hardly wait to get them.

 Survival Fruit Seeds, $19.99 non-Hybrid, no GMO, Heirloom, packaged in Labeled paper envelopes. Plus Bonus Step by Step Instructions on how to collect new viable seeds from your plants, for generations to come, delivered in 4 to 9 days. Click the image if you want to purchase some.

  Wholesale Bulk Pack 34,500 seeds, no GMO, non-Hybrid Fresh Garden Seeds, $39.95, delivered in 5 to 22 days. Click on the image if you want to order some too.

I found something else I’d like to try, Rain Barrels, capturing rain from my rain gutters, to use for gardening, especially after the brutal drought we had last year. And you know plants grow so much better with rain water than with treated city water.

Read 6 reasons to harvest rain water.

  Tierra Derco 79-gallon Polypropylene Rain Saver $114.93 ships free with Super Saver Shipping. You can click on the image if you want to purchase one.

  Tierra Derco Graf Standard 82-gallon Polypropylene Rain Saver $87.83 ships free with Super Saver Shipping. You can click on the image if you’re interested in ordering one.

I hope and pray that this year I will have great success with my garden. Hope you do too, if you’re growing a garden.

Have a wonderful week!

the Urban Woman

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