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Adventures in Organic Gardening

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The Science of Gardening

Four Basic Things to Consider When Starting a Garden

September 24, 2018 by Cathi Leave a Comment

Space: Do you have the space to put in a garden. Of course, if you aren’t blessed with much of a yard or if yours is filled up with a pool, or the kids trampoline, or whatever else, there are many many books and blog posts written about container gardening. If you want to do a raised bed on the ground, you can easily start with something even as small as four feet by four feet. In fact, starting small is a great idea. The last thing you want to do is put in too much garden, then wear yourself out and get frustrated trying to keep up with everything.

Gardening is like learning how to drive a car with a manual transmission. At first there is a lot to pay attention to. It’s frustrating and seems impossible. But then after a while it becomes more second nature and less overwhelming. So, starting small is a good idea. I started with a single bed that measured approximately 4 feet by 10 feet.

Sunlight: Everything you’ll want to grow needs sunlight. Lots and lots of sunlight. Sure, there are some things you can grow with slightly less sunlight, but even those things grow better with LOTS of sunlight. Most vegetables need about six hours of sunlight per day. Things like tomatoes and squash need more like 8. Plants where the part you eat is the root can tolerate less light than that. (Think beets and potatoes).

Irrigation: Your new garden is going to need to be watered regularly (although less than you might expect). Your enthusiasm will likely wane if you’re carrying water, or hauling hoses, or dealing with kinks in hoses, or any of a number of other watering inconveniences.

The easiest thing is to install a simple drip irrigation system. You could run a garden hose from the spigot on the house, to your garden bed, attach a timer to it, and water automatically.

Even if you don’t want to go to those lengths at first, at least try to make the garden bed on conveient proximity to a water source. Of course, don’t sacrifice sunlight. (See above.)

Soil: If the only thing you seek to do as a beginning gardener is to have good soil, you can’t help but be successful. Do what it takes to have healthy soil and everything else will fall into place. Add organic material regularly, and cover with a think layer of mulch.

Filed Under: Garden Journal, The Science of Gardening, Updates on My Gardens

Rain vs Watering

April 20, 2012 by Cathi 1 Comment

Rain is great for your garden.
Rain, rain..come on!

Have you ever noticed how green everything looks after it rains?  Well, it wasn’t your imagination.

Rain that falls from the sky and waters your garden provides more than just moisture. Turns out that rain allows plants to take in the Oxygen and Nitrogen that naturally occurs in the air.  When lightning strikes, it gives the Oxygen and Nitrogen molecules enough energy to form nitrates which the plants can take up.  The atmosphere is about 21% Oxygen and 78% Nitrogen.  That’s a lot of Nitrogen waiting to green up your plants.

Another thing I didn’t realize until I started researching this post is that dust is another thing in rain that helps plants.  Have you ever noticed how rain settles the dust?  The dust in the air is filled with all kinds of organic goodness that goes straight to your plants when the dust filled rain falls in your garden.

There are also things added to city water that are great for you, but not so much for your plants.  Additionally, rain water has a neutral pH, which helps.

So, rain dance anyone?

Filed Under: The Science of Gardening

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Meet Cathi

I have what most people would consider strange hobbies. Even though I live in a suburb in an HOA, I have a large garden. I also have 18 chickens and an apiary with 10 bee hives.

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