I ended with a reference to your calendar. I recommend some sort of calendar or plan when planting a garden. I found a great reference to use.
http://www.organicsoilhelp.com/planner.html
After you have picked out your seed, or even during the selection process, put your last and first average frost dates into this and then put in the days to maturity of the seed you are using and it will tell you when to start/plant seeds for your area and if you can have two plantings, spring/fall.
Then you can just write down on a wall calendar or desk calendar when you need to start them. I would also put the frost dates on this as well. Another handy thing to add to a calendar would be daily high and low temperatures. If you are so inclined and have the means, you can add precipitation. For my area, wind is also a consideration.
I would use a desk calendar or a daily journal type calendar for keeping larger amounts of information. A daily journal type calendar would also be handy to keep from year to year for comparison, and to perhaps pass onto another generation in your area.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Cold Hardiness Zone Map
So you have ordered your seeds or are still working on it. How much time do you have to grow what you ordered?
A great reference is a cold hardiness zone map. This is a detailed map of the "zones" for the U.S. Example is Kansas City, MO. This is mostly a 5 zone, and most zones are broken into a and b. It shows that it can be a combination between 5b and 6a. My suggestion if you live in combination area, you use the lower zone for planning/growing purposes. In my part of the world due to the mountains we have 3a through 4a combination. I always plan for 3a then I know it will survive the winters here, if I am doing long term plantings.
http://www.aston-simms.com/DSN/wwwastonsimmscom/Content/Images/USZoneMap.jpg
Using this will help you plan your garden. On the back of many seed packages there is a simplified version of this with a general time frame in which to plant if you live in this area. It will also tell you if you need to start the seeds indoors or direct sow.
Using this information and your seed packets, you can start your calendar.
A great reference is a cold hardiness zone map. This is a detailed map of the "zones" for the U.S. Example is Kansas City, MO. This is mostly a 5 zone, and most zones are broken into a and b. It shows that it can be a combination between 5b and 6a. My suggestion if you live in combination area, you use the lower zone for planning/growing purposes. In my part of the world due to the mountains we have 3a through 4a combination. I always plan for 3a then I know it will survive the winters here, if I am doing long term plantings.
http://www.aston-simms.com/DSN/wwwastonsimmscom/Content/Images/USZoneMap.jpg
Using this will help you plan your garden. On the back of many seed packages there is a simplified version of this with a general time frame in which to plant if you live in this area. It will also tell you if you need to start the seeds indoors or direct sow.
Using this information and your seed packets, you can start your calendar.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Location
My yard is on an incline, so I have to have several beds to do my gardening.
The reasons for this amount to one word - drainage. This applys to not only water but air as well.
The lower end of my yard is in a shallow valley. This causes issues in the spring when the snow melt begins and my yard floods for days on end. In a dry land farming area, my neighbors don't empathize with me at all, but it makes it difficult to get down there to do any planting. So I have beds at the upper end of my house along the driveway, as mentioned in my first post, and on the south side of my house for spring planting.
This shallow valley also suffers from cold air drainage as well. There can be a 3 degree temperature change from that part of my yard to my mom's who lives 1/2 a block up the hill from me. This makes for a shorter growing season in that area of my yard. I often have to wait until the first week of June to plant this area due to temperature and drainage.
So the bed on the southern side of my house and the one on the east side of my yard, they are both uphill and are not affected by the drainage. They work well for earlier plantings, such as peas, or spinach, cool weather plants that don't need to be wet. The bed in the lower end of my yard is actually good for plants that require more water, such as corn, and by planting according to the these needs, I use less water.
So location is a large factor when planning where to put your garden(s).
The reasons for this amount to one word - drainage. This applys to not only water but air as well.
The lower end of my yard is in a shallow valley. This causes issues in the spring when the snow melt begins and my yard floods for days on end. In a dry land farming area, my neighbors don't empathize with me at all, but it makes it difficult to get down there to do any planting. So I have beds at the upper end of my house along the driveway, as mentioned in my first post, and on the south side of my house for spring planting.
This shallow valley also suffers from cold air drainage as well. There can be a 3 degree temperature change from that part of my yard to my mom's who lives 1/2 a block up the hill from me. This makes for a shorter growing season in that area of my yard. I often have to wait until the first week of June to plant this area due to temperature and drainage.
So the bed on the southern side of my house and the one on the east side of my yard, they are both uphill and are not affected by the drainage. They work well for earlier plantings, such as peas, or spinach, cool weather plants that don't need to be wet. The bed in the lower end of my yard is actually good for plants that require more water, such as corn, and by planting according to the these needs, I use less water.
So location is a large factor when planning where to put your garden(s).
Friday, January 7, 2011
Space considerations
Another major issue with gardening is space. I am lucky that I have a large yard and I can make it all into a garden if I want to. The biggest reason I do not do this is because there is only one of me and a garden that large would leave no time for anything else.
The largest space users are squash with 1 plant every 1 1/2 to 2 ft (squared), if you use the square foot garden method. They only recommend that you have 3 plants per person so all in all you would only be using 6 ft (squared). That would by 3 ft by 2 ft, not that bad. Melons are a little less space with one plant per square foot and a recommended number of 3 so 3 square feet. Those items you need more of may require a lot more space. Peas for example, for storage they recommend 150 plants per person. You can fit 8 pea plants into a square foot, so you would need 18.75 square feet for them. Using 4 x 4 beds (which I don't, but my mother does) you would need 1.25 beds of just peas. I use longer beds so it would be 9.5 feet by 2 feet wide of just peas. That actually isn't that bad, but if you have more than 1 person, you then multiply that by the number of people and we start talking space. Corn is a very large space user. They recommend 1 plant per square foot and 40 plants per person. That is 40 square feet of space for 1 person. My mom would need 3.25 4x4 beds of corn for her alone. Corn does not lend itself to this, but I like to grow it for summer barbeques and the like, but not necessarily for storage.
If you don't have a lot of space, say you are in an apartment or townhouse, and don't have a yard to garden in, you can do container gardens. Almost all plants can be done in containers, and most seed companies will even note their recommendations for containers. I will go into container gardening due to the difference in needs for this type of gardening.
So take into account what space you have to work with, and the more space you use, the more time you will need.
The largest space users are squash with 1 plant every 1 1/2 to 2 ft (squared), if you use the square foot garden method. They only recommend that you have 3 plants per person so all in all you would only be using 6 ft (squared). That would by 3 ft by 2 ft, not that bad. Melons are a little less space with one plant per square foot and a recommended number of 3 so 3 square feet. Those items you need more of may require a lot more space. Peas for example, for storage they recommend 150 plants per person. You can fit 8 pea plants into a square foot, so you would need 18.75 square feet for them. Using 4 x 4 beds (which I don't, but my mother does) you would need 1.25 beds of just peas. I use longer beds so it would be 9.5 feet by 2 feet wide of just peas. That actually isn't that bad, but if you have more than 1 person, you then multiply that by the number of people and we start talking space. Corn is a very large space user. They recommend 1 plant per square foot and 40 plants per person. That is 40 square feet of space for 1 person. My mom would need 3.25 4x4 beds of corn for her alone. Corn does not lend itself to this, but I like to grow it for summer barbeques and the like, but not necessarily for storage.
If you don't have a lot of space, say you are in an apartment or townhouse, and don't have a yard to garden in, you can do container gardens. Almost all plants can be done in containers, and most seed companies will even note their recommendations for containers. I will go into container gardening due to the difference in needs for this type of gardening.
So take into account what space you have to work with, and the more space you use, the more time you will need.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
My garden plans so far....
Using the previous two days posts I will now show you what I have for my garden so far.
I purchased seed before christmas with a coupon for $20 off a $40 order.
First item I bough was - Northern Xtra Sweet Bicolor (sh2) Sweet Corn for $5.99 for 250 seeds (germination of 90%) so 225 seeds making each one $0.0266 then multiplying that by 40 (corn plants per person (if you have the space) for freezing/canning) you come up with $1.0649 for a years supply of corn. So I will list the name, the price, total seed count, 90%, cost per seed, then cost per person. I will list this one as the first item.
So for $10.98 you can grow the above and have enough for a year. The ones in red are "duplicates" - I bought two colors of corn, 3 types of peas, two types of tomatoes, and two types of winter squash. So if I had only bought the most expensive of these, my per person cost would be $8.27 before discount. I paid $9.85 in shipping for a total of $57.59, minus the discount it came to $37.69. So the cost with shipping after discount was 81.49% of total seed cost. 81.49% of $8.27 is $6.52 for produce for 1 person per year. How much produce can you buy for that? Enough for 1 week even?
Food for thought...
I purchased seed before christmas with a coupon for $20 off a $40 order.
First item I bough was - Northern Xtra Sweet Bicolor (sh2) Sweet Corn for $5.99 for 250 seeds (germination of 90%) so 225 seeds making each one $0.0266 then multiplying that by 40 (corn plants per person (if you have the space) for freezing/canning) you come up with $1.0649 for a years supply of corn. So I will list the name, the price, total seed count, 90%, cost per seed, then cost per person. I will list this one as the first item.
| Name | Price | Seeds | 90% | price/seed | price/person |
| Northern Xtra Sweet Bicolor (sh2) Sweet Corn | $5.99 | 250 | 225 | $0.03 | $1.06 |
| Northern Xtra Sweet Yellow (sh2) Sweet Corn | $5.99 | 250 | 225 | $0.03 | $1.06 |
| Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach | $1.99 | 300 | 270 | $0.01 | $0.15 |
| Danvers Half Long Carrot | $1.99 | 1500 | 1350 | $0.00 | $0.03 |
| Maestro Shell Peas | $2.49 | 225 | 203 | $0.01 | $1.84 |
| Lincoln Shell Pea | $2.49 | 225 | 203 | $0.01 | $1.84 |
| Oregon Sugar Pod II Snow Pea | $2.49 | 175 | 158 | $0.02 | $2.37 |
| Buttercrunch Lettuce | $1.99 | 500 | 450 | $0.00 | $0.04 |
| Cherry Belle Radish | $1.99 | 500 | 450 | $0.00 | $0.09 |
| Ruby Queen Beet | $1.99 | 400 | 360 | $0.01 | $0.11 |
| Early Contender Bush Beans | $2.49 | 150 | 135 | $0.02 | $0.18 |
| Medley Blend of Hybrids Summer Squash | $4.99 | 25 | 23 | $0.22 | $0.67 |
| Delicious Tomato | $2.49 | 75 | 68 | $0.04 | $0.18 |
| Beefsteak (VF) Tomato | $2.49 | 75 | 68 | $0.04 | $0.18 |
| Bon Bon Hybrid Winter Squash | $3.99 | 15 | 14 | $0.30 | $0.89 |
| Waltham Butternut Winter Squash | $1.99 | 25 | 23 | $0.09 | $0.27 |
$47.84 | $0.81 | $10.98 |
So for $10.98 you can grow the above and have enough for a year. The ones in red are "duplicates" - I bought two colors of corn, 3 types of peas, two types of tomatoes, and two types of winter squash. So if I had only bought the most expensive of these, my per person cost would be $8.27 before discount. I paid $9.85 in shipping for a total of $57.59, minus the discount it came to $37.69. So the cost with shipping after discount was 81.49% of total seed cost. 81.49% of $8.27 is $6.52 for produce for 1 person per year. How much produce can you buy for that? Enough for 1 week even?
Food for thought...
Monday, January 3, 2011
How many plants?
My plan for my garden is to provide enough for my family not only for the gardening/harvest seasons but for the rest of the year. So I wil be planning on a garden large enough to can some of the harvest - my children love fresh vegetables.
Going by the general knowledge available on researching the web, I decided to look at beans. Since I live in an area with a very short growing season, I don't do dried beans, yet. Beans come as bush or pole beans. Bush beans have a shorter time to yield while pole beans take longer. There isn't a whole lot of difference say for Blue Lake - 58 days for bush or 65 days for pole beans. I do bush beans because I have had good experience with them and little with the pole beans due to the high winds in my area.
The productivity seems to be much in favor of pole beans. They yield almost twice as much per plant as a bush bean does. The average given for plant per person on the web is 10 plants. But if you get twice as much from a pole bean as from a bush bean, you need to take this into account. In checking gardening forums I found that one garden said they had a yield of 6.4 lbs of beans from a pole bean plant while the average for a bush bean was 3.33 lbs. If you planted 10 plants per person of the pole beans, with the average serving of 4 ounces (with 16 oz in a pound), you would be able to have beans as a side at 256 meals in a year (calculation would be 10 plants x 6.4 lbs x 4 (4 servings per pound)). If you did it this with bush beans it would come out to 133 meals in a year. So it depends on how much you like beans what you would plant. Green beans are a big favorite in my household, so I would be safe in planting more of the bush beans as I would not have as much to harvest.
Research yields on the variety of seeds you choose for your garden and take this into account when choosing how much to buy and plant.
Here are the general guidelines for plants per person.
10 bean
20 beet
5 broccoli
5 brussel sprout
5 cabbage
3 cantaloupe
20 carrot
5 cauliflower
20 onion
5 pepper
10 potato
20 radish
10 spinach
3 squash
5 tomato
20 turnip
Going by the general knowledge available on researching the web, I decided to look at beans. Since I live in an area with a very short growing season, I don't do dried beans, yet. Beans come as bush or pole beans. Bush beans have a shorter time to yield while pole beans take longer. There isn't a whole lot of difference say for Blue Lake - 58 days for bush or 65 days for pole beans. I do bush beans because I have had good experience with them and little with the pole beans due to the high winds in my area.
The productivity seems to be much in favor of pole beans. They yield almost twice as much per plant as a bush bean does. The average given for plant per person on the web is 10 plants. But if you get twice as much from a pole bean as from a bush bean, you need to take this into account. In checking gardening forums I found that one garden said they had a yield of 6.4 lbs of beans from a pole bean plant while the average for a bush bean was 3.33 lbs. If you planted 10 plants per person of the pole beans, with the average serving of 4 ounces (with 16 oz in a pound), you would be able to have beans as a side at 256 meals in a year (calculation would be 10 plants x 6.4 lbs x 4 (4 servings per pound)). If you did it this with bush beans it would come out to 133 meals in a year. So it depends on how much you like beans what you would plant. Green beans are a big favorite in my household, so I would be safe in planting more of the bush beans as I would not have as much to harvest.
Research yields on the variety of seeds you choose for your garden and take this into account when choosing how much to buy and plant.
Here are the general guidelines for plants per person.
10 bean
20 beet
5 broccoli
5 brussel sprout
5 cabbage
3 cantaloupe
20 carrot
5 cauliflower
20 onion
5 pepper
10 potato
20 radish
10 spinach
3 squash
5 tomato
20 turnip
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Time to plan and prepare
The picture is of my driveway, on the left side of which I have a bed in progress. You can's see it for the snow, so now is the time to plan and prepare for spring.
I have received several seed catalogs in the mail and I love to look at them. They all have coupons that if you buy a certain amount you will get that amount free. This is a great way to save but only if you are going to use what you buy. A suggestion I have is to get together with your neighbors/friends/gardening group and buy together. That way you have a use for all of the seeds you order and if you get enough people together, then you can buy several varieties to see what works for your area. Also, you will also have some of everything, so if you want to grow zucchini (and you don't need many of these), but another in your group does not, everyone gets what they want.
Most seed packets come with many more seeds than 1 gardener needs in a year. Examples I just pulled from some seed packets. Spinach packet has 1200 seeds, corn, 250 seeds, pepper,100 seeds, peas, 225 seeds, beans, 150 seeds. With new seeds the germination should be at least 90% (or you need to change seed companies) you don't need this many of anything unless you are doing a community garden, or you have a large family. With the examples I gave above, 1200 spinach seeds would yield 1080 spinach plants, and the recommended plants per person is 10 plants. That means you have enough seed for 108 people. Sharing is a great idea, and the cost is (say $3.99 packet of 1200 seeds with 1080 germinated seeds so $3.99/1080 is $.00369 per plant or 3.7 cents for 10. A can of spinach just doing a quick search is $1.49. That is quite a savings.
So continuing the example, now using my household, I have two teenage children, one of which I would testify must eat his body weight in food each day, I would plan for a 4 person garden. So I would need 40 plants making the spinach a cost of 14.7 cents for my family for spinach. So for 1/10 of the price of 1 can of spinach I can grow my own for my entire family. I will go with this number for now but later I will also add in the cost of canning them.
So go get those seed catalogs and your friends, and happy planning!
I have received several seed catalogs in the mail and I love to look at them. They all have coupons that if you buy a certain amount you will get that amount free. This is a great way to save but only if you are going to use what you buy. A suggestion I have is to get together with your neighbors/friends/gardening group and buy together. That way you have a use for all of the seeds you order and if you get enough people together, then you can buy several varieties to see what works for your area. Also, you will also have some of everything, so if you want to grow zucchini (and you don't need many of these), but another in your group does not, everyone gets what they want.
Most seed packets come with many more seeds than 1 gardener needs in a year. Examples I just pulled from some seed packets. Spinach packet has 1200 seeds, corn, 250 seeds, pepper,100 seeds, peas, 225 seeds, beans, 150 seeds. With new seeds the germination should be at least 90% (or you need to change seed companies) you don't need this many of anything unless you are doing a community garden, or you have a large family. With the examples I gave above, 1200 spinach seeds would yield 1080 spinach plants, and the recommended plants per person is 10 plants. That means you have enough seed for 108 people. Sharing is a great idea, and the cost is (say $3.99 packet of 1200 seeds with 1080 germinated seeds so $3.99/1080 is $.00369 per plant or 3.7 cents for 10. A can of spinach just doing a quick search is $1.49. That is quite a savings.
So continuing the example, now using my household, I have two teenage children, one of which I would testify must eat his body weight in food each day, I would plan for a 4 person garden. So I would need 40 plants making the spinach a cost of 14.7 cents for my family for spinach. So for 1/10 of the price of 1 can of spinach I can grow my own for my entire family. I will go with this number for now but later I will also add in the cost of canning them.
So go get those seed catalogs and your friends, and happy planning!
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