Well, it is time to arise and begin. We began the process of tilling the leaf cover into the soil and prepping it for the garden we will begin to plant. We sat down with our seeds, list of produce we plan to raise this year, and graphing paper. We laid out the garden for the upcoming year. We covered what goes in the square food garden frames and what will go in wide raised bed rows. Our soil is being tested to see if we need to add anything to it for the upcoming growing season. The remains of the fall garden are being harvested. We picked and shelled the peas and threw the pea vines to the chickens. I have started to dehydrate the cabbage that we don't use fresh. We have one plant of broccoli we are waiting to finish going to seed so we can collect the seeds. We have been cleaning the isles of chickweed and are getting ready to clean out the chicken house to mulch the paths with and cover over with leaves to begin to compost the refuse for when we till next fall. We have also checked the sprinkler system and cleaned it up for set up in April. We have begun to clean up the grapes and see if we need to replace any. I am excited to get out of doors and into the garden again. We have begun to stir the compost heap and overlayer it with the chickweed and leaves so it will begin to heat up again and break down the garden refuse into good compost for later usage.
The tomato bed is getting ready to get a good fence around it after last years revelation, when the rabbit ate my first tomato planting. The trellis' are cleaned off and ready to be put back up and we have some work to do on the blackberries, they need to be cleaned, mulched and cuttings taken for new bushes. Within the next two weeks we will put out sugar peas and get the cold frame ready to cover them if we have frost. We will feed the carrots fertilizer and clip back the asparagus. We will also plant potatoes on the dark nights of February. I also will begin my greenhouse seeding for later transplant, Kale and some broccoli, maybe a few cabbage too. All of this will be journaled and recorded, especially the new types of veggies I bought to try. Everything planted will be heirlooms.
The key for a good start to the season is the soil testing and the leaf mulch that we put in the garden in the fall, being turned in. You can plant all the seeds you want, but if the soil has no nutrients to support them it is pointless. Gardens are a lot of backbreaking work and at times a good deal of heartbreak. It is better to be prepared. Last year we never mulched our plants after we planted them and they were choked out, or deprived of water in the drought months, because the sun dried out the ground and the weeds stole the moisture. Your preparations are the most impostant thing you do. So now is the most important time of your garden. Get your soil tested; turn in mulch and whatever recommendations the Agriculture extension recommends on your soil test and make sure you have a good watering system.
If this is your first year to garden 'START SMALL' I cannot emphasize this enough. Our first garden was hit by a huge drought and we lost almost everything we planted, the soil was poor and the plants fought with the weeds. I worked my behind off to fight the weeds and lost. The next year I did similar with the prep in place and ended up with too much produce for me to put up properly. We had over 20 bushels of zucchini that year and we would give some to people everytime they came over, soon they stopped visiting. So pick 8-10 things you are sure your family will eat and look and read about recommendations for your family size. Our garden is now 1/4 acre for the four of us.
We do plant 150 plus tomato plants because I make 100 jars of spaghetti/pizza sauce, 52 quarts of stewed tomatoes, 50 quarts of soup mix and 25 quarts of tomatoe juice, I also dehydrated 2-6gallons of 'sun-dried' tomatoes for sandwiches and pizza topping. I plant a 75 foot row of a variety of squash, 3-4 rows of corn, 1 row of pole string and lima beans, 3 rows of bush string and lima beans, 1 row of sweet peppers, etc. We have figured out what we need and we try to not waste any of it. This is the key of start small and work on your plans. It cost us a lot of money in the early years because of failure to plan and prep. A garden is hard work, probably the hardest work you will do outside and being smart by preparing will help make the harvest that much tastier. Happy prepping!
