Gardening 101 Part 2

My deepest apologies for the delay - these last few weeks have been busy but not really - just enjoying the beautiful weather and lots of time with the kiddos.  Here is my part 2 to gardening in boxes or containers!

Soil:

The soil is very important - I never though it was - trust me it is.  You see I normally have a brown thumb as in I have killed every plant that has ever been in my possession until I started my garden.  Again I highly recommend: All New Square Foot Gardening.  Best gardening book ever.  But in case you don't want to buy it or only plan to plant a few spots I will tell you how we did it.

1. 1/3 Compost - you are supposed to use 5 different types or homemade - we used two and our garden is growing amazingly.
2. 1/3 Vermiculite - almost looks like gold flakes - the only place we can find this is at Osh (Orchard Supply and Hardware) this is the most expensive portion but you never have to replace it!
3. 1/3 Peat Moss - we bough Miracle Gro peat moss at Home Depot and haven't looked back.  Mel suggests baled peat moss but we couldn't find it and I was antsy to start. 

You need 1/3 of each to make a rich moisture trap that will have your plants thriving!  Then each time you take out an entire plant you just add compost and voila your plants will grow.  I have only killed a few things since using this method and the first was because I didn't water it (oops) and the second because the bugs got it. 

Once you have your containers and soil you are ready to plant.  Buy some seeds or plant seedlings and get started but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't plant them based upon the directions on the seed packet - plant them close together.  16 carrots in a box, 9 bean plants, 1 tomato per square, 9 onions or garlic, 4 lettuce heads, etc etc. 

Happy Gardening!

Ash of All Trades

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fallish Foods - Meal Plan Week of Aug 26th

Image
The cake my sister and I made and decorated last week! Welcome to fall everyone!  My husband's favorite season is now upon us - next week's menus and going forward will probably include some soups and stews with warm baked breads.  We are loving the warm days and cool nights plus we have planted a bunch of new fall crops.  Baking is what we are most excited for around this house especially since we can do it without running the air too much!  The corn dogs we made this weekend! Here is our menu for the week: Monday: Breakfast: French Toast, Yogurt, Plums Lunch: Egg Salad Sandwiches, Peas, Apples Dinner: Gumbo from California Cookbook (one of my favorites), Garlic Bread sticks Tuesday: Breakfast: Granola Bars, Yogurt, Blueberries Lunch: Bologna Sandwiches, Carrot Sticks, Applesauce Dinner: Tostadas, Corn, Spanish Rice in our rice cooker Wednesday: Breakfast: Banana Nut Muffins, Scrambled Egg Lunch: Baked Potatoes with Toppings, Grapes Dinner: J
Read more

Garden Update

Image
We had an awesome week - weather wise - until the weekend then we got slammed by wind.  Thankfully we didn't sustain any major damage (although our patio cover tried to fly across the yard and we had to anchor it down better).  The garden is a bit wind blown and everything is leaning but we harvested some yummy food this week: Two Strawberries @ .5 Ounces Kale @ 12.25 Ounces 3 Artichoke @ 1 Pound 4.375 Ounces A Grand total of 2.07 Pounds The girls ate the strawberries and LOVED them - Little C keeps checking for more every time she goes outside and Big C tells her they are not ready then secretly asks if she can have the next ripe one!  For the kale I am going to try steaming it down like spinach and freezing it?!?  And I cannot wait to steam the artichoke and eat them dipped in mayonnaise - yummy! Happy Gardening All, Ash of All Trades
Read more

Theme Thursday: Bugs & Insects

Image
This week (and next) we are working on bugs and insects.  Lots of Eric Carle inspiration here folks and the girls are loving it!  The books we read over and over and over are: For activities we started with: Playing with our caterpillar felts. The girls reenacted the Eric Carle Story using their kitchen food. Big C also had to order the pieces by "age" telling the story of transformation. And they just played with them making them talk and such. Then we did fingerprint ants.  These are Big C's she even drew the antennae and legs! (They are supposed to be in tunnels). Then we made a glue web.  Squeeze white glue in the shape of a web. Let dry and voila! Little C's fingerprint ant.  She did not like paint on her fingers. Played with our fly, spider, and web. Talked about how spiders trap flies and drink their blood. Again they made her talk and named her and made her friendly.  Made caterpillars out of playdoh.  Big C also made an egg on a leaf and a cocoon. Then
Read more