DISCLAIMER: I live in central Indiana. What I do may not be
appropriate for your particular region or climate. For best results, check your hardiness zone for planting dates on the back of the seed packets.
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| Grandpa Hill with 3 of the little ones. |
So, the warm temps we’ve been experiencing have us all
dreaming of the impending Spring. This time of year always has me thinking
about my garden. I love the time I spend tending and harvesting the fresh
vegetables with my family. It reminds me of summers spent with my Dad in his
garden and putting up the produce with my Mom. You’ve never had a pickle until
you’ve eaten one of Mama Hills freshly canned spears!! The old man still
maintains a large garden and keeps all of his grand-kids involved with the
tending of it. From running the tiller to picking vegetables, the kids are
learning a valuable skill and bonding with their grandpa. My little one helped
pick and then can a batch of green beans last summer. You’ve never seen someone
so proud at the dinner table as when we share a jar of “his” beans!
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| Stock photo of a bucket garden. |
For me, stepping out the back door on a summer evening to
grab a fat, warm, ripe tomato is truly one of life’s simple joys! I love knowing that the vegetables my family
eats are guaranteed completely organic. Not to mention the money saved on side
dishes, condiments and sauces that are made after harvest. If you don’t have enough
yard space for even a small garden you can easily have a bucket-garden. Due to
construction last summer we couldn’t have our full garden. Instead we planted
tomatoes and peppers in large 5 gallon buckets and left them to grow on our
back patio. (For Cayuga locals, Palucci’s Pizza Express sells buckets of the
perfect size for $2 each!) http://www.facebook.com/PaluccisPizza
So, the first question I always have is: What do I want from
my garden? My first response is always: for the jalapenos to grow this year.
Just ONCE I would like a successful jalapeno season! My three realistic choices
are always zucchini, green beans and tomatoes. They are versatile in a variety
of recipes, or stand alone as sides. They’re also easy to “put up” for future
use. There is nothing quite as satisfying as green beans that taste
garden-fresh in January! We also make
and freeze our own pizza and spaghetti sauce. Don’t be intimidated by “canning”
or “putting up” your garden’s bounty. We will cover all of that this summer. I
will also be available for any questions! Contrary to popular belief, you don’t
need a lot of specialty items such as a pressure cooker for everything. The
only thing I use my pressure cooker for is canning green beans and jams. All
the rest: pickles, sauces, corn, zucchini (sliced & shredded), pie fruit,
peppers (if they would ever grow) etc I freeze or use the Water Bath Method.
BUT I am getting ahead of myself. We’ll return to this topic in a few months!
Late February to early March is when I start planning and
planting. (YES…planting) When we first started our garden journey I would go to
the greenhouse in the Spring and purchase my plants and drop them in the
ground. Voila..easy…but kind of expensive if you think about it. I can buy an
entire packet of seeds for under $1. Also, greenhouses tend to use a lot of
pesticides and fertilizer, which makes me uneasy. Plants like corn, melons,
zucchini, eggplant and green beans do perfectly fine and have a long growing
season if they are planted directly in the ground from seed. I usually put them
in the ground in early to mid May. I just wait until we are beyond any chance
of frost and the soil is starting to warm up. They grow quickly in rich, moist
soil. However, jalapenos, tomatoes and broccoli I start indoors to make sure
they have a good, solid season. For these I like to start at least 6 weeks
before they will go into the garden. The broccoli can be started 7 – 8 weeks
prior to planting. It can also survive and thrive in cooler temps. If
maintained you will be eating fresh broccoli from late spring to mid-fall. (and
will have plenty to put up for winter) Just make sure to cut the florets before
they bloom.
To get your crops started indoors is quite simple. You can
buy the indoor starter kits OR make your own! FYI, the starter kits can be
reused. The first year we did this, my son and I used Dixie cups, a cookie
sheet and saran wrap and it worked just fine. However, we now have grown and
expanded to plastic planting cells that have their own tray and a clear plastic
hood. I reuse the same ones annually.
Items needed:- Growing vessel such as cell packs or Dixie cups. Also, a flat tray to put them in. Make sure your cell is at least 2” wide and a minimum of 2” deep. If you use a Dixie cup, poke a few tiny holes in the bottom for drainage.
- Clear plastic cover to act as a “greenhouse” for the seeds. You can use plastic wrap or plastic bags.
- Potting Soil
- Seed packets
- Colored toothpicks to mark what you’re growing. (E.g. red toothpicks in the tomatoes, green in the broccoli, etc) Otherwise, expect to be confused.
- A light source. I have a bay window in my kitchen, any sunny window will do (although not TOO bright to burn the seedlings) I suppose you could use an artificial light source, but I won’t guarantee the results!
What to do?
- Fill your cells or Dixie cups almost to the top with fresh soil.
- Place them in the large tray. (To catch excess water)
- Plant your seeds at the depth determined by the back of your seed packet. MARK YOUR CELL!!!!! Otherwise you will end up with Cherry Tomatoes growing in your flowerbed. (YES…. this happened last summer!)
- Water but do not drown your little seeds
- Cover with the clear plastic hood and place in a warm location that has indirect minimal sunlight. I keep my seeds covered until after they germinate. Once they are a decent size I remove the clear plastic hood. (It works like a little green house.) Check the seed packet for info on each plant’s germination rules.
- Once the seedlings sprout, remove the hood/clear plastic and place them in a sunny location. (Not too bright…you don’t want to burn them!) Be sure to keep the soil moist and to rotate the tray once a day so both sides of the tray grow evenly.
- Once we are past danger of frost and the soil is starting to warm, till your garden and acclimate your plants to the outdoors by taking them outside during the day for a week. Then, plant them! Review the seed packets to see how far apart they should be planted.
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| My Father-in-law and son tilling our garden in 2010. |
What’s going on at Retro Mama’s place this year?
- Corn: Well, we won’t be planting corn. Corn requires a lot of growing space. You have to plant a ton of it to get enough to even mess with. My parents have a huge garden so I usually pilfer all my fresh corn from them. (shhh….) Sometimes I will even hit the farmers market and buy a bunch of it to put up for winter. But grow it myself? Nah…. my minimal space is too valuable.
- Tomatoes: I intend to plant 10 - 15 Romas, 2 Cherry and 2 Beef Steak tomato plants. I use the Romas for making pizza and spaghetti sauce. They are very “meaty” with less wasted pulp and they have a deep rich flavor that makes them the perfect candidate. The Beef Steak and Cherry tomatoes are great to eat fresh, but I really don’t do anything with them once summer is over. Sometimes I will use leftover Beef Steaks in my sauces, just so they don’t go to waste but that’s not their primary purpose in life.
- Zucchini: I always put in two plants. One plant produces enough zucchini to be more than sufficient for my family to eat fresh all summer long and have plenty to put up for recipes and bread later. HOWEVER, zucchini gets lonely. A single plant doesn’t produce well and sometimes dies early. Trust me…just plant two…
- Broccoli: I’m putting in about 5 plants. As long as we keep cutting the florets we always have more than enough to eat fresh and put up enough to last us all winter long. In my experience, the more we cut the broccoli the better it grows. We tend to have produce well into the fall after everything else is brown and dead.
- Green Beans: I’ll plant 4 or 5 long rows. They take up the majority of my garden space. I “can” the majority of them. FYI, they’re not a great candidate for bucket gardens. Like the broccoli, if I continue to pick them I have fresh beans for most of the summer and into the early fall. A lot of other gardeners have told me they typically get one or two harvests and then they die off. (Maybe the beans just feel sorry for me because of the wretched jalapenos???)
- Jalapenos: Oh the bane of my existence, the flippin’ jalapenos!!! EVERY year I plant them, every year they yield minimal results. While the rest of the garden flourishes in its glorious bounty the jalapenos stubbornly refuse to yield anything more than a pepper or two. The hateful little peppers are never more than a couple inches long. Sometimes I feel like they are mocking me and the efforts I put forth. Yet, my husband and I love them…. both fresh and canned so I try and try again! I’m just not ready to admit to defeat. This year I’m going to put in 5 plants and see how they do. If it is another epic fail, I may have to raise the white flag to those wretched peppers….
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