Gardening success……

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I have posted pictures of my gardening projects here before. My current garden is approx 30 feet long by 20 feet wide. So far this summer I would estimate I have harvested around 125 pounds of vegetables. I have never had such a successful year – and it is only mid-June. Still a lot of growing time left.

Living in the Southeast – the 2 biggest problems I have faced is the intense sun/heat, and a lack of rain. In years past I pretty much let nature take its course; meaning that I did not intervene very much.

So – to what do I owe my success?

Water – we have had some decent rains, and I have made certain that in-between rains I watered consistently
Soil- Every year I have amended the soil just prior to tilling. Typically I have added additional top soil, gardening soil, potting soil, and sand. The garden started off with nothing but clay – and is quite different now. This year I added a decent amout of Black Kow composted cow manure. I believe that made a huge difference.
Spacing – I planted a lot of stuff – but made certain that each plant had plenty of room for root growth. I made mounds rather than rows, and each mound was substantial in size and tilled well prior to planting.

About once every couple of weeks I used liquid Miracle Grow as well.

Anyways – as I have stated before that gardening is a crucial long-term survival skill. Simply throwing seeds in the ground will not work. The time for you to start experimenting with gardening and growing your own food is now.

We are giving away a tremendous amount of produce right now. We have far too many cucumbers and summer squash……What a great problem to have!!!!!! Much of the summer squash and zucchini we have picked have gone into the freezer for eating during the winter.

Would love to here from others about their experience with gardening and its relation to survival/preparedness.

Take care all – going to go grill some squash.

Rourke

Tags: food storage, Gardening

Gardening | Rourke June 13, 2010

2 Comments to “Gardening success……”

By LynnS, June 21, 2010 @ 6:26 pm

Rourke, Consider dehydrating your extras since storage requires no power, just an airtight container!

Also, canning (water bath process) is a simple-to-learn procedure that will help you hold over your extra harvest. I can all sorts of fruits, jams, fruit butters, relishes, tomato sauces, pastes, etc. You get the idea! If you don’t have enough to fill a canning kettle, try “small batch canning” which I have provided instructions for on my blog. This process also works if you have no true canning kettle but do have a large pot and some type of a loose fitting lid or cover.

Those extra cucumbers and squash could be made into pickles with only a few simple ingredients (adding vinegar, sugar, and salt). Very easy and very inexpensive!!

Once you begin preserving your own foods, you will not only save money but you will have better quality foods!
By Rourke, June 21, 2010 @ 6:35 pm

Thanks LynnS –

I am looking forward to learning canning. I would love to make my own spaghetti/tomato sauce and can for long term storage. I have so many cucumbers this year that I can’t give enough away – sp pickling makes sense. Hopefully I will harvest enough tomato’s to give it a try.

I will definitely be checking out your blog.

Rourke