Wake Up Call

            
 
After four years it is time to really continue this blog.  My goal now is to report on my gardening procedures most days I do something in the backyard. I believe this is finally the time when people will need to know how to successfully grow things to eat.  And I hope I can help with that need.  To some this may seem tedious or over simplified but to the novice it may be gold. 

 

A missionary friend of mine, Chris, teaches “Farming God’s Way” in Uganda to the locals.  With proper techniques he helps individuals grow much more for themselves in the same space than they normally get.  Recently he wrote: “Vegetables are much more challenging and need good feeding and excellent care.”  I agree, growing vegetables isn’t as easy as the seed package states.  It takes a lot of knowledge and timing and techniques to successfully get a productive garden going.

 

I don’t have a degree nor have all the answers and I’m always learning better ways but I think I can help people who need guidance getting a productive garden going.

 

The fellows at work knew I was a vegetable gardener and around the Queen’s birthday – Victoria Day in Canada, in the third week in May, they would ask, “M.R. did you get your garden in this week?”  I was always perturbed by that question.  I’d been getting my garden in since January and still wasn’t all done yet.  It was a continuing process. 

 

In January onion seeds were planted in flats and placed under the grow lights.  That was also when the seeds were ordered. By February the onions were moved into the south garage window.  In early March tomato seeds were started under lights and pepper seeds were pre-sprouted then planted. In mid-March spinach and lettuce mix were started indoors. 

 

In the beginning of April, it was cabbage and kale, basil and oregano under lights, then the tomatoes were transplanted into bigger pots and the onions left the garage window and stayed in the greenhouse.  Mid-April saw the onions transplanted into their bed and early potatoes in their beds.  Cucumbers, squashes, and melons were started in the house under the lights.  The end of April saw the mid-season spuds in their beds, peas seeded, and the tomatoes transplanted again into bigger pots and placed in the greenhouse.

 

Early May saw the cabbages and kale transplanted in their bed.  Mid-May the tomatoes were planted into the ground in two of the beds in the greenhouse.  Third week in May saw the cukes, peppers and melons into the last bed in the greenhouse and the corn was seeded and squashes transplanted into their bed outside.  Plus, the pole beans were seeded to fill out the pea / bean bed.  In early June the carrots, beets, parsnips and rutabagas go into their two beds.

 

All this time is also filled with fruit tree and vine pruning, starting as soon as the leaves drop in early December.  Grapes, kiwis, a fig peach, plum, apple and walnut plus several large ornamentals to prune as well.  Raspberries are caned and tied.  Strawberries, raspberries, hops and garlic are top dressed with organic fertilizer.  And the list goes on and on.

 

So “M.R. did you get your garden in this week?”   “Oh Sure!”