first planting of the year

I gave each child a 3x4 foot plot for their own to plant and take care of. We added some starter fertilizer mix I already had and they all planted peas and then various carrots, onions, lettuce, kale, beets and spinach and chard. I hope it grows!! It was cold but we got it done. We also planted tomatoes and peppers indoors on Saturday.

Snow!!

It snowed a lot today and it has been extremely cold. I found out that we are on the 40 degree latitude line and that is the same as Spain and southern Italy and Greece. So our daylength here is great for growing all kinds of veggies year round. My husband said he would build me a greenhouse and I have to find someone to tear out a bunch of scrub oak to make room for it!!

Bed Prep

Today we dug and raked and forked our garden beds to get ready for planting. It was pretty cold so we didn't bother planting anything yet. I think I just have a hard time following instructions. I did when I was first learning to cook. The recipe was just a guide and I made some pretty gross stuff. The advantage to cooking is that you get a new chance to start over everyday. With gardening you don't get a new chance until the next season. I tried doing some fall plantings and such but the summer crops are a one time trial. So if you don't get it right you have to wait til the following year.

So I think I may have reached my number of tries and learned exactly what not to do. I really think I am on the right track now. I think that everytime I added organic matter to the gardens, it was too much and the microbes tied up the nitrogen. Also, I think the garden needs continual applications on nitrogen and it also need to be watered evenly without even a hint of drying out. I have been reading "Gardening When it Counts" by Steve Solomon and that has clearedup a number of things in my mind. Also many of the books are written for different soils and climates than my Utah alkaline mountainous short season.

I also need to follow what my dad does because he gets fabulous results. So my plan is to not add any compost or organic matter this spring except for the grass and leaves that are already on the beds. They can act as a mulch to break down slowly and keep in moisture. Also I'm going to fertilize with fish emulsion regularly-- I have to talk to my dad about how often to fertilize and water. I am also going to spread bloodmeal on the beds before planting as well as a micronutrient mixture such as azomite or kelp meal. I think they have been mineral deficient.

wish me luck!!

weather update

it has been soooooo cold-- the sun shines but it is below freezing and especially cold at night.

Plants are growing!!

The snow has pretty much melted. It snowed on Tuesday, but it's pretty much gone again now. I went out to see if my fall crops have started growing and they have!! There are lots of little spinach plants, little lettuce plants and kale and cilantro!! I have also gotten my soil test results and an organic gardening book and I think I know what a lot my problem has been -- the soil is sandy and alkaline which is a bad combination. I also have hardly any worms. So I am going to feed the worms and fertilize the plants. I hope this the year I have a good garden-- produce and everything is soooooo expensive!!

What has happened since last post

I sent my soil samples into the the lab to be tested. I did one sample of my rotten raised bed and one sample of the soil just in my yard. The bad thing is that I sent my check for $4 less than I was supposed to, so I didn't get any results, so I mailed the $4 but forgot to put any information with it and I still haven't gotten my results!! I didn't care for awhile and I didn't care about my garden and stopped everything even saving garden scraps because we were going to move, but now we're not because banks selling foreclosed homes are retarded!!! We are disappointed, but really in a great situation here, so I started gardening again.

Oh, before we were going to move, I spread out alfalfa pellets on my dumb garden bed-- I should call it # 1 and then covered it with clear plastic so it will compost the pellets into the earth and hopefully release Nitrogen. I did this after digging up the whole thing and letting the kids use it as a dirt box. They had so much fun and really got the ground good and mixed I think. So just yesterday, I laid down the drip tape and planted lettuce, chard, beets, spinach and fennel. I plan to plant some more and maybe if I get a beautiful garden, we'll move. We'll see what happens!!

Today

About a week ago I dug out the entire garden bed that was doing the very worst. Nothing was growing. It was completely stunted and very depressing. I dug it all out. I dug out a bunch of added stuff mostly on the right hand side and tried to get down to the original dirt. There were lots of roots, I think either alfalfa or most likely scrub oak, no worms. The kids played in it for about a week and today I cultivated it and spread out a bunch of alfalfa pellets. Not being able to find the sprayer, I just covered it with plastic to keep out the critters and to heat it up good and make the pellets dissolve.