Need a few gardening tips?
I am novice gardener, learning as I go. The idea behind growing a garden is what I love. After a long hard winter on the prairie, there is something therapeutic to me to have a vegetable garden. Then I love what the garden grows, fresh vegetables that we eat daily plus I dabbled in freezing and canning last year and want to expand on that this year from garden produce. Opening a bag of frozen tomato sauce in the dead of winter gives me a slice of summer and reminds of the seasons to come.
But having time to do the gardening is another thing. If you are in the same boat as me, here are a 3 easy and simple tips from my (two) years of gardening.
1. Put good help to work in the garden
Like when a farmer comes to visit, such as my brother last weekend, bribe him with an offer such as “if you help me weed, I’ll pay you in jars of fresh salsa made from the garden” or just threaten “if you want to eat during your visit this weekend, I need you to weed now!”
Then there is putting good help that are your children to work.
No matter what our teenager son says when I ask him to weed, once he is done weeding the garden he is proud of his work. He may or may not admit that to you. Personally, I think teenagers need to be taught responsibility, accountability and work ethic. Our son despises weeds and weeding but he has learned to get the job done right. If he doesn’t, he has to keep weeding. I’m a hard knock mom in the garden. Because our teenager son works in the garden, he sets the example for his little sisters.
The result is that Miss E has gotten into gardening.
Her speciality is watering.
Bottom line, don’t garden on your own if you don’t have to. Utilize warm bodies and hands around you.
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| I needed a garden side cup of coffee while I pulled out my failed broccoli. |
2. Gardens aren’t perfect. Don’t sweat it.
Family and work commitments kept me from even looking at the garden most of June. The broccoli went to seed. I didn’t cry. I just went to the one and only grocery store in our area to buy a few heads of broccoli for the broccoli salad I was making and didn’t sweat it.
My garden isn’t perfect and neither am I. And thankfully, my prairie grocery store keeps a supply of broccoli in the produce section probably grown by a farmer in California that doesn’t let his crop go to seed.
Bottom line, only Martha Stewart’s garden is perfect. Enjoy yours, even if only half of your spinach or carrots came up from seed, the cantaloupe and watermelon seedlings died or your broccoli went to seed.
Flowering broccoli is quite pretty.
3. Ask the experts. Learn. Experiment.
I need all the help I can get it. I read a little advice, look on our Extension Service web sites for insight and also listened to my brother when he said “get some liquid nitrogen on your corn because the leaves look a little yellow. ” Yes, sir.
I also am a sucker for marketing. Miracle-Gro? I am believer. Anything with the name “miracle” in it my garden needs.
Every day, I love going out to the garden, poking around in it, pulling some weeds, picking some lettuce and today the girls and I ate our first sugar snap peas from it.
Gardening isn’t about achieving the perfect garden for me. It’s about the peacefulness I feel there while growing a few vegetables on the prairie in our short summer season. It’s about having our family all part of the gardening process from seeding to weeding to watering to picking to freezing and canning.
The garden will probably expand in future years as long as my helping hands continue to help and no one minds when the broccoli goes to seed.
Do you have a garden? Have any fool proof tips to share with a novice gardener like me?
wagfarms says
July 8, 2011 at 3:33 amWe ate sugar snap peas this morning as well! Of course, my four peas didn’t make it to the house before they were snarfed down by my boys, but it was well worth it! I love your gardening tips…and may have to try the Miracle-gro thing…I’ve never used it before!
texwisgirl says
July 8, 2011 at 3:36 amlove the kiddos getting involved. 🙂
jtgirlblogs says
July 8, 2011 at 3:48 am“Anything with the name “miracle” in it my garden needs.”- We must have the same kind of garden!!! 🙂
The Wife of a Dairyman says
July 8, 2011 at 5:27 amkatie, your garden looks like it’s growing wonderfully!
We finally put our garden in yesterday! This is the first time I planted it from starter plants and not seeds because we are so late due to our cooler weather this year. Hopefully it’ll grow as nicely as yours!
Dianna says
July 8, 2011 at 10:49 amNo garden for me – just a few flowers to keep watered, deadheaded, etc.
Love that picture of Miss E watering!
Lisa @ Two Bears Farm says
July 8, 2011 at 12:02 pmGreat tips! When my boys are older they’d better plan on getting their butts out there to weed! 😉
Birdman says
July 8, 2011 at 12:30 pmHahahahaha! Thanks for the hints. I could use them.
Leslie says
July 8, 2011 at 1:05 pmI didn’t get a true garden in this year. I finally got some tomatoes and cucumbers planted up next to my house (the only way I can seem to keep them watered is to have them in sight constantly). I also put some lettuce/arugula/spinach in a pot, green peppers in one, and some string beans in another. I’ve never planted anything but flowers close to my house, but they seem to be thriving for now. I look so forward to eating some of it.
Farmchick says
July 8, 2011 at 1:47 pmMartha’s garden is perfect because she has full time gardeners! Our garden isn’t perfect either, but we do enjoy it and really enjoy the fresh veggies it produces.
p.s. I am making your chicken drumsticks tonight!
Anna @ Sometimes On Tuesdays says
July 8, 2011 at 4:40 pmMiss E is cute!
I always used to use manure on my garden. It was great for tomatoes! I also had a compost pile that I would incorporate into the soil in the spring.
Good luck with the gardening!
Homeschool on the Croft says
July 8, 2011 at 8:45 pmWell, we’re kind of new to gardening too – only 4 years since we began. Our garden has got bigger and bigger, but this year, we’ve said, Enough! We can’t make it any bigger because it takes So. Much. Work.
I’m writing this having just come in from the plot and my back is killing me. I need a masseur, but none to be found!
I love seeing your kids at work there. My two girls (14 and 16) aren’t too keen, but they make a deal with me: ‘We’ll make dinner and do the housework while you’re in the plot, Mum’….. Can’t argue with that!
Emily @Zweber Farms says
July 9, 2011 at 8:28 amMy tip: “share” garden with Mother in Law. She loves to garden, I don’t. But I do help with the harvest and canning/freezing
Lana says
July 9, 2011 at 10:02 pmGreat job on your garden. I have to admit, mine lost the weed battle for about two years straight, but this year, I can still seed the dirt from the sun room! Wooo! I found if I don’t plant things close together, there is more room to till and hoe, mostly hoeing. Keep up the great work, and I too have introduced the girls to the art of pulling weeds. So fun! 😉
Secret Mom Thoughts says
July 11, 2011 at 8:26 pmMy garden is definitely far from perfect but I love the fresh veggies so it is worth the trouble.