Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Compost


Is this what it is suppose to look like? I really don't know. It's not very pretty or fancy,but I am just looking for a natural way to fertilize my garden and not the county trash pile!
My sweet daddy made the posts for me and gave me the plastic green fence to make it. He even drilled little holes in the posts for me to tie the fence to. He is a good daddy! Next, I loosened the dirt and now I just throw all my veggie and fruit scraps on it. Other decomposing things such as dying plants and leaves will do great in it also. Absolutely no meat and artificial foods, please! I turn the soil twice or more a week. My kids really like to do it, too. They ask if they can go rake the "soup". Cute.
Now this is not sitting in the middle of my yard, although it wouldn't be much of an eye sore as some things in my yard. :) I put it behind my shed out of seeing eyes passing by my house. My neighbors behind me, of course, get to gaze upon this beauty all the time! Lucky them! I should go knock on there doors and ask for them to save their scraps for my natural living! HAHA! Do you think they would do it?
So here is the start of my natural gardening. I think I'll like this way better than using manure. I just hope it gives me the results that I am looking for....of course, I mean, perfect veggies! Now...if I could only figure out a natural way to keep the bugs from eating them! I would have an organic garden! Have any ideas?

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Almost Garden Time


AHHHH! This warm weather is teasing me so! I know we are probably just having a short warm spell, but it makes me ache for the time to plant my garden! I can taste the tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, and corn now! Oh!, the excitement!
I've been dreaming of a larger garden this year and had my heart set on one, but after research I've learned that bigger is not better! It's that way for several reasons. It's harder to keep the weeds out and keep the produce picked because of the hot summer days. I read this article (http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/articles/general-view/archive/2009/february/06/learn-and-live-well/)in a magazine I receive in the mail called No Greater Joy Magazine. First, let me say, if you are a parent I highly recommend this magazine! Just visit http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/magazine/ to sign up for their free magazine.
So now my dream is to have a garden like Debbi Pearl's garden. I just read this article a few weeks ago, so I am probably too late to do it like hers but I will be ready come fall. I have even started my own compost for fertilizer!! Pictures and how to do that is coming in the next post.
So I plan to plant more variety of vegetables but the square footage will be the same. So come on April! I'm ready to plant my veggies! Will you have a garden? What will you plant?