Tag: growing

Teaching Kids to Love Gardening

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The kids love the giant rhubarb leaves.

When I was little, my family had several small garden plots, each about 4 feet by 4 feet, all in a row and bordered with long square wooden posts.  Each of the kids in the family got a plot to themselves to grow whatever they wanted.  My sister, Anna, grew pumpkins one year.  And I remember growing a mix of wildflowers. I think my sister, Becca, liked to grow carrots.  Most years we would simply grow whatever vegetable we felt like in the moment.  We always had at least one family plot for bush beans, and it was our job, as kids, to pick them.  We never liked picking beans, but we always loved tending our own plots and watching our vegetables or flowers grow.

Luci loves to help move the flower pots around.

It was a simple thing, but it turned work in to pleasure.  Now I’m all grown up, but I still feel like a kid who gets to design and grow whatever she wants each spring.

Double eggplant and other odd shaped vegetables are always a fun find.

There’s something magical about taking care of a garden that will then take care of you.  Here are a few ways to involve the kiddos in that magic:

  • Let them plant with you.  You can make the hole, and the kids can put the seed in.
  • Let kids pick and eat veggies from the garden for snack time.
  • Have the kids help look for and collect potatoes when you dig them up.  It’s like finding a hidden treasure!
  • Make a little garden plot for each child where they can grow and tend whatever they want.
  • Ask the children to choose a veggie from the garden to eat with your meal.
  • Have the children paint rocks or sticks to use as garden markers.
I plant orange, yellow, purple and white carrots. Not because I prefer rainbow carrots, but because the kids love picking colorful carrots.

My Grandad used to have a beautiful strawberry patch.  He would tell us to go pick some strawberries and we’d ask “where should we put them?”  He’d say “in your breadbasket,” which was code for “stomach.”

We don’t preserve many peas on my homestead because the kids like to eat all of them from the vine!

I have great memories as a child in the garden.  And now I get to share my love of gardening with my nephews and niece, and they’re loving it, too.  What ways are you teaching the kids in your life to love the garden?

DIY Pallet Composting System

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You can never have enough compost, right? That stuff is garden gold! The thing is, it takes lots of time to get your compost heap from start to finish. And if you keep adding things to it, it’ll just mean that you start over again from the beginning. The key is to have a composting system that allows for two or more heaps so that they can be at different stages in the composting process.

Before we get in to the system, let’s discuss a few key elements that will ensure your composting success:

Materials

Compost should include a variety of material, both green and brown. Green materials are things like fruit and vegetable waste, grass clippings and animal manure, which are nitrogen rich and provide lots of protein for your compost. Brown materials include dead leaves, hay, straw, wood shavings and cardboard. Brown materials provide energy, meaning they are food for the microbes that will be breaking down your compost and turning it in to garden gold. Naturally, the smaller the size of your compost materials, the faster they will break down, so consider shredding boxes or paper, mowing over leaves to cut them up, and breaking garden waste in to smaller pieces.

Moisture

Your compost pile needs to be watered to stay alive. Consider keeping it in the shade so the sun won’t dry it out, and/or keep it covered with plastic. Alternatively, if you have a very wet summer, you might consider covering your system with a piece of plywood to keep it from getting too wet.

Size

The ideal size for a compost heap is about 3 cubic feet. Compost generates heat as it breaks down, which is a necessary component of the process. If your heap is smaller than 3 feet tall, wide and deep, it might not get hot enough. Going bigger than 3 cubic feet won’t hurt, though going too big will make the next part difficult, which is…

Turning

Your compost heap needs to be turned regularly. Mixing will introduce air in to the living pile and help it break down. If you want to make the process as quick as possible, turn your pile weekly. This will give it time to heat up between turns. The ideal temp to look for is 140-160 degrees Fahrenheit.

The DIY System:

Materials:
5 wood pallets
Nails or wire ties (such as electric fence wire)

Instructions:
Place two pallets on end, in a row and secure with wire ties or nails.
Place remaining three pallets on end and perpendicular to the first two, one on either end and one in the center. Secure with wire ties or nails.

And that’s it! I built my composting system against a garden fence, but you could place yours against a shed, or if it needs to be freestanding, you might consider pounding some posts to secure it to.


As you can see, I use one section of my system for a hotbed. The bottom of the hotbed is hot, un-composted manure, so next year I’ll mix and remove the compost on that side. When I removed the material from last years hotbed this Spring, the horse manure had broken down very nicely! This year I’m using chicken manure and straw, so we’ll see how it looks next Spring; it may return to the compost pile. Although my composting system is a nice place for a hotbed, I’d really like another place for a compost pile! I think I’ll build on another section to my system. And that’s part of the beauty! You can customize and make 10 sections, if you have the space and materials. Let me know if you try it out! Happy composting!

The Complete Guide to Growing Tomatoes

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Apart from being a delicious and versatile addition to any meal, tomatoes are a great source of vitamin C, potassium, folate and vitamin K.

When you consider what varieties of tomatoes to grow, you may decide you want a cherry tomato for snacking or salads, a slicing tomato for sandwiches, and a fleshy tomato for cooking sauces.

My personal favorites are the Gardner’s Delight for a red cherry tomato and Sungold Select for a yellow cherry tomato.
Some slicing tomato varieties include Moskvich, Abe Lincoln and Bella Rose.
Roma tomatoes are the perfect choice for salsa, spaghetti sauce and tomato paste.

How Many Tomatoes do you Plant?

Cherry Tomatoes: Plant 1-4 plants per person

Slicing Tomatoes: Plant 1-4 plants per person

Cooking Tomatoes: Plant 3-6 of each variety. This will yield about 8-10 quarts of sauces or salsas

How to Start Tomato Plants

Start seedlings indoors about 6-8 weeks before the last frost. You can find your typical last frost date here.

To start tomato seedlings, fill a tray with a seed starting soil mix. You can use a tray with cells that was made for this purpose, or you can use an old cake pan or tupperware or even solo cups or eggshells.

Plant seeds at a depth of 1/4 inch in moist soil.

In order for seeds to germinate (start growing) they’ll need to be kept at a temperature between 70-80 degrees and humid. If you don’t have an indoor greenhouse, you can cover your tray with plastic and place it on top of your refrigerator for warmth.

Seeds will germinate in 5-12 days.

Once your seeds have germinated, your tomato plants will need full sun for 16 hours of the day. Grow lights will make for stronger tomato plants than the sun in a windowsill. To prevent seedlings from becoming “leggy” or “spindly,” meaning tall, thin and weak with sparse leaves, the distance you keep between your plants and the grow light is important. If using LED grow lights, keep the light 3-6 inches from the top of the plant. If using a full-spectrum grow light, 8-10 inches is ideal.

When seedlings are two to three inches tall and have two sets of true leaves, it’s time to upgrade your plant to a larger pot! Gently scoop your plant out of the soil (I use a spoon to aid me), and replant it deep in the new pot, with the soil coming just below the leaves.

Be sure that you use pots that allow for draining out the bottom. This is helpful for two reasons:
1. It prevents your plant from getting waterlogged or rotting by allowing excess water to drain.
2. Watering plants from the bottom is very good for young vegetable plants! Place your plants in a dish of water, and let the soil absorb it from the bottom up. That way you’ll know that the roots are getting the water they need. Be sure not to leave your plants to sit in water for more than a couple minutes.

If you choose to use a tall container for planting (such as a solo cup), transplant your young plant deep in the pot. As the tomato plant grows, you can fill it in with soil. The fuzzies on the stem of a tomato plant will become roots once it’s below the soil, which will make for a stronger plant. If you fill in your pot as the plant grows, you won’t need to upgrade to a larger pot as often (maybe not at all) before it goes outside.

Hardening off your Tomato Plants

Your tomato plants have been so gently nurtured, but it’s time to get them used to the harsh environment that they’ll soon experience. You can start by setting up a rotating fan on your plants while they’re indoors.

To introduce them to the outdoors, start by placing them outdoors where they won’t be in direct sunlight or strong winds. Keep your plants in a tote with high walls so that they’ll have a little extra protection from the elements. Leave them to sit out of doors for ten minutes at a time, gradually increasing the amount of time and amount of sun and wind exposure over about ten days. Be sure to water them well before placing them outside as the sun and wind will dry out their soil quickly.

Once your plants are able to comfortably stay a night out of doors, they’re ready to go to their home in the garden!

Transplanting to the Garden

Soil
Tomatoes like a soil PH of 6.0-6.8. A soil PH of 7.0 is neutral, so tomatoes like their soil on the slightly acidic side.

Sunlight
Tomatoes will need at least 8 hours of full sun to be happy in the garden. Be sure not to plant it near anything that will cast a shadow.

Spacing
Space your tomatoes 2-3 feet apart to allow for growth and airflow. Without proper ventilation you tomato plants will be more susceptible to disease.

Preparing
Dig a deep hole where you want your tomato plant to live. Place a handful of crushed up eggshells in the hole. This will give your plants an extra boost of calcium, which may help prevent blossom end rot. You can also add some Epsom salt to the hole, which will provide an extra boost of magnesium and sulfur, which are both very good for tomatoes. Cover your eggshells with a layer of soil so that the roots don’t come in to direct contact with it.

Before placing your tomato plant in the hole, remove the bottom leaves. And I mean from half way up your stem. Gently pluck them off. Then plant your tomato plant to the depth of about 4 inches below the remaining leaves. This will give your tomato more strength and better roots. Trust me, your plant will thank you!

Supporting
Tomatoes will need supports to grow in the garden. You can use a tomato cage, or you can tie your tomato stalk to a stake. You can also hang garden twine from above and train your plant to grow intertwined with it. Without these supports your tomato plants will fall over and be at risk of parasites and disease due to laying in the dirt and not having adequate air circulation.

Care
Tomato plants will need about 1-2 inches of water a week. Keep an eye on the weather forecast. Tomatoes prefer one or two good soakings a week rather than daily watering, though your weather conditions will need to be taken in to account and you may find that you do need to water daily. Aim for the soil to be moistened at a depth of 6-8 inches with each watering. Tomatoes hate to have their leaves wet, so water them at the ground and not from above with sprinklers. If the bottom leaves are getting dirty from the water splashing, remove them from the plant so as not to introduce disease to the plant. Water your plants in the morning and not at night. Plants can grow fungus when cold night temperatures are combined with the damp of watering.

Companion Planting

Tomatoes have natural friends and enemies in the garden. Take this in to consideration for happy plants.

Friends:
Basil Asparagus
Beans Borage
Carrots Celery
Chives Collards
Cucumber Garlic
Lettuce Marigold
Mint Nasturtium
Onion Parsley
Peppers

Enemies:
Brassicas Dill
Corn Kohlrabi
Potatoes Walnut Trees

Tomatoes are one of my favorite vegetables to grow. If you haven’t grown them before, give them a try and enjoy the fruits of your labor!