Rumor has it....

The rumors are getting around:  I'm planting a garden!


 Now the free advice is flowing in.


Here is an e-mail from my sister, Lise.  She and her husband, John, own Blackbird Farm near Rock Springs, Wisconsin.  They are in their second year of working towards being certified organic growers.

Dear April, Mom says you are going to do a garden this year at Karen's. I have hundreds of plants started, Most selectively bred heirlooms, some hybrids, all toxin and disease free. I purchase seeds from six different sources that specialize in highly productive, disease resistant varieties for both home gardens and commercial organic operations. Thirty different tomato varieties including a prolific Polish paste tomato, Czech lavender - which is supposed to be the hardiest lavender on the face of the earth! And the list goes on & on. There are so many websites on this subject, take a look at organicgardeningguru.com, very short and to the point about improving soil, planting, WEEDS (#1 nightmare in this business), etc. Pick your spot start preparing the soil then right next to it plot a space for next year, dig it up and plant buckwheat (a cover crop), when it flowers till it under and plant buckwheat again. Let it flower, till it under. Then plant winter rye. This will smother out weeds from that plot to a great extent and the"green manure" will greatly improve the soil setting you up for a better start next year. Buckwheat and rye are cheap, you scatter the seed by hand (broadcast) and rake it in. This simple advance planning pays off immensely! Cover crops improve the nutrients in soil and the microbial organism population of the soil, the latter of which is important for nutrient uptake and can be ruined by the use of toxic chemicals to fertilize or to kill weeds, pests, powdery mildew and so on. Anyways, come up and pick out as many plants as you want, I always start more than I can sell and wind up throwing them on the compost rows! Happy growing season!      lise    

Lise is very excited about what they are doing and I must say they are doing a great job!  The first thing she sold at the farmer's market last year was her excess seedlings.  She had all kinds of very nifty and unusual plants.  But, oh my goodness, I got tired just reading the e-mail.  In fact, I had to lay down on the floor and do deep breathing exercises to quell the panic.

I think Lise wrote me to counter the advice I was getting from Mom.  (There is a gardening philosophy DEBATE going on between the two of them).  Mom is 88 now, and still gardens.  In fact, she has grown her own vegetables since at least  1951 - which is the first garden that I remember.  Anyway, Mom doesn't use the computer, so she calls me:

Phone call #1:

"Don't waste your energy on adding bags and bags of peat moss to your soil.  Here's what you do when you plant your tomatoes:  pull off the small leaves towards the bottom of the plant.  Dig a hole deep enough to plant it up to where the bigger leaves are growing.  Put some container mix (you know, the kind with the fertilizer in it ) in the bottom of the hole.  This gives the roots some food and some room to grow easy.  Then after you fill the hole back up with dirt, sprinkle some fertilizer around the bottom of the plant.  Be careful not to overdo it, because you could 'burn' the plant.  DON'T TELL LISE I TOLD YOU TO USE FERTILIZER.  But it works good.  And doing it this way saves lots of money."

Phone call #2:

"I forgot to tell you that I don't use Miracle-Gro for my fertilizer.  I buy Expert at Walmart.  It works just as good and costs a lot less.  I think you ought to plant a lettuce mix.  You could do that pretty soon. Make a little furrow, plant your seeds and cover them with the potting mix.  I haven't had any problems with the rabbits eating this". 

(I had been worried about varmints eating things like lettuce and green beans).  I could have said " Oh yeah! How about the woodchuck".  But I didn't.  He has a very bad reputation in Mom's garden.  I hope you noticed:  Mom is ALL about saving money.

Anyway, there you have my free advice.   I myself pondered "lasagna gardening", "square foot" gardening, and other bookish advice.  But, since I usually complicate everything, I've decided to try the "dig a hole, stick it in, and see if it grows" method - at least for this year.