I really want to hand down everything I know about gardening to my daughters.
Things like .... never pick your green beans while the plants still have dew one them.
The best time to plant your root vegetables.
How to properly plant things. (Usually not according to seed packet instructions.)
What vegetables should never be planted next to each other. Such as squash and melons. Sweetcorn and popcorn, and many more.
The harvesting and preservation of all the vegetables.
Gardening, especially if you depend on your garden to supply a year's worth of food for your family is a lot of work, but so worth it.
Hmmm... Interesting topic for another book, methinks. ;)
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should. :)
DeleteHmmm... Interesting topic for another book, methinks. ;)
ReplyDeleteI love the garden, just not the work. My hubby always did that and I took care of the kitchen part.
ReplyDeleteI loved planting the garden, didn't mind keeping it clean, harvesting was very rewarding, but I was always glad when the last can of food had sealed and canning season was over for the year.
DeleteJust curious why you don't pick your green beans with dew still on them! Can you explain?!
ReplyDeleteIt can put an end to new bean production.
DeleteBig gardens sure are a lot of work, but it's so wonderful to be able to go to the freezer or can cellar all winter long and have veggies!
ReplyDeleteIt is a great feeling having your can shelves filled with food enough to last a year!
DeleteI'm not a gardener, other than flowers, but I was certainly raised by one. My father is a born and raised on a farm die hard gardener. He and his parents before him had the most beautiful, enormous gardens on my grandparents chicken farm. The sight of a big garden always takes me back to the carefree days of running in the sunshine with my cousins on that country farm...
ReplyDeleteLovely memories!
DeleteI used to have a huge garden when we lived in Nebraska. Here, I plant a few green beans, rhubarb and some flowers.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Betsy
Green beans and flowers provide a nice amount of gardening. :)
DeleteI've learned lessons about gardening even from my small yard. I agree with you on not planting things according to the seed packet instructions.
ReplyDeleteI also have advice for my children when they're older, such as... don't pick your cantaloupe until it falls off the stem. I picked a premature cantaloupe from my garden last summer, thinking it was ripe. But when I cut inside, I could clearly tell it wasn't ready yet.
It doesn't work very well checking watermelons by cutting a small plug out of it.
DeleteDon't ask me how I know. :)
Oh, wow, now we really need to chat someday, because I need to pick your brain about all things gardening! We have a small vegetable garden each year (we have limited space living in the suburbs) and I am always willing to learn how to do things better. We start some plants from seeds (makes for a great homeschool science project!) and enjoy watching the entire process. We do a lot of canning, as well. :-)
ReplyDeleteFeel free to ask me anything you want to.
DeleteI hope you have a garden soon so you can share your gardening knowledge with your daughters. I love gardening and have had large and small ones wherever we lived. In the last few years it has been container gardening...always tomatoes and squash. Nice post...enjoyed your gardening tips.
ReplyDeleteSue at CollectInTexas Gal
Our area has been stricken with horrible tomato blight for the last how ever many years. Otherwise I would try growing a few in a container too.
DeleteWell, I know about zucchini and cantaloupe; we grew a lot of "zuck-alope: one year. We would spend our summers at my grandparents, and they and my sister and I, would sit at the picnic table in the evening, snapping string beans. It wasn't work when you could play word games, or just chat.
ReplyDeleteI never did learn how to grow things, though; if we had to live on what *I* grew, the funeral would have been a long time ago.
We always enjoyed chatting, singing, or playing games while we took care of beans and peas.
DeleteI'm glad you're able to get food from sources other than self raised. :)
Do you know if you can still grow some vegetables without a full day of sun on them? Our neighbors tree starting blocking some of my garden from receiving the amount of sunlight they used to. And between our house and our tree in the other side of the yard, I just don't know how much good sun it gets. Also, how important is it to add compost or fertilizer to the soil each year?
ReplyDeleteWhether or not you need a full day of sun depends a lot on where you live. While we lived in Missouri it wasn't as important since it was a lot hotter during the day, and much warmer during the night. Where we live now gardens need full sun all day long. Nights get quite cool and plants won't get their needed warmth unless they have full sun.
DeleteWe always used plenty of natural "fertilizer" Plowing it in every spring for best results.
I'm in Minnesota so yes, not warm enough at night. I may look into a community garden space that gets enough sun. But then I would just need a resource for the natural fertilizer!
DeleteI love to garden. I had a small one last year but guess we shall see if we can have one this year. I would love to do it again. It's so relaxing to just go in the garden and pick the veggies and herbs. Gives me good memories of my grandpa and I going into the garden and I help picking the veggies with him when I was little.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. :) Have a wonderful weekend.
great post.
ReplyDeleteTeach me! I'm embarking on my first garden adventure this year. I've taken a few classes and read a few books, but there's not going to really be any way to get it until I try.
ReplyDeleteThose are all things I'd love to know! I've always wanted a bountiful garden, but have been intimidated by all the things I don't know. We just plant a few things at a time and see what succeeds. I'm sure we've made plenty of mistakes.
ReplyDelete