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Welcome New Gardeners to a very rewarding and enjoyable endeavor. Gardening has been stated as being the #1 hobby in the United States. We haven’t taken a poll ourselves but can attest to the benefits of gardening. We desire to help you in your adventure in gardening.
There are several pages on this web site that we encourage you to visit:
 | Garden Tips |
| Gardening Terms 101 |
| Kid’s Garden Pages: (there are some things you will find interesting.) |
| Seed Starting: (visit only if interested, starting your own seeds is not necessary to garden.) |
| Garden Questions and Discussions: (don’t be shy, ask all the questions you want and check out other peoples questions and answers also.) |
First of all let us explain why we encourage organic gardening. Nature has a natural cycle of life that can either be assisted or hindered. When the cycle is broken everything will suffer.
Examples:
You have probably heard of DDT and possibly you are aware of some of the results of its use. DDT caused drastic damage to birds resulting in their eggshells to be so delicate that they would break during incubation. Many types of birds declined in numbers, some of which became endangered. DDT has now been banned and numbers are increasing of the injured birds.
Earthworms are essential to the health of your soil. They perform many tasks in your soil; aerating it, decomposing dead vegetation and turning it into organic matter to nourish your soil. When herbicides and insecticides are applied to an area there is the potential of killing the worms, among other beneficial living organisms. When you don’t have worms your soil will be unhealthy and then start a chain of events. For instance the birds in your yard that eat worms will suffer and on it goes.
When you kill off pests you don’t want you will also harm the beneficial insects at the same time. Beneficial insects are the ones you need to keep around to eat the insects that harm your plants. Studies have shown that initially the target pest is reduced but because the natural predator has also probably been killed that the target pest will increase in the future. Bees will be also harmed; if bees aren’t around to pollinate your crops you won’t have fruits and vegetables to harvest.
There are also beneficial microbes in your soil that will be destroyed by the use of chemicals. The ecosystem in your yard was designed to work harmoniously to the benefit of all. We encourage you to nurture the life in your yard with organic practices.
Some of your gardens will be decided because of the location of your house, e.g. flowerbeds around the house. If you have a choice as where to locate your vegetable garden use these guidelines:
| An open sunny location is best. Vegetables will perform their best with at least 6 to 8 hours of sunlight a day. If you can’t find that in your yard, there are methods to help you still have a vegetable garden, but 6 or more hours of sunlight is preferred. |
| The condition of your soil is important. You can have a soil test done but you can also tell if it is good soil with some personal observations. Is it sandy or clay? These will need to be amended. Is it soggy even when there hasn’t been any rain for a while? Soggy soil is not a good choice. Take a handful into your hand, squeeze it together. Good soil, if damp, will form a soft ball that crumbles easily. It is dark in color and has a nice “earthy” smell. |
| If possible place your garden in a higher rather than lower area. Cold air settles into low areas first, so these areas will be frosted first. |
| Place your garden where you will be able to get water to it. You will not like lugging water to your garden when it is hot outside, just when your plants will need it most. If your garden is far from the house, be sure to look for the longest hose possible. With looking around, we were able to find a hose that was 150 feet. But not every store carried this length. |
| Trees can cause you headaches, stay away from them if possible. They will shade your garden and can also rob your plants of needed nutrients and water. |
If your site has grass or weeds it will be to your benefit to cover the area the first year with newspapers and soil instead of tilling it under. If you till the sod under, then plant in the broken up sod your weeds will be tremendous. Grass and weeds don’t die just because they were tilled under, they will be there waiting to make a come back. One morning you will wake up and you will know the weed monsters attacked your garden. ‘Weeds’ are anything you don’t want growing where they are growing.
I have used this method with great success; put newspapers down where your garden will be, no glossy colored papers. Wet this area down and then put soil on top of the papers. If you don’t have any soil then call around and get a load of topsoil brought in. Some people have used soil from a mushroom farm.
Dig into the soil, through the paper, and into the original ground to put in plants. If you have seeds you will plant in the topsoil. You will need to heavily pierce the papers, (try a pitch fork,) and make the topsoil very thick in these areas. Keep your new garden well watered. Your weeds should be minimal unless you got a load of soil with a lot of weed seeds in it.
In the fall till all of this under, the paper should be rotting by this time. If you mulched your garden during the summer with grass clippings your soil will be well nourished for next year’s garden.
| Vegetables: | Flowers: |
| Tomatoes | Cosmos |
| Lettuce | Marigolds |
| Green beans | Sunflowers |
| Spinach | Sweet alyssum |
| Zucchini | Zinnias |
| Broccoli | Balsam |
| Peas (spring planting) | Cleome |
| Corn (if plenty of sun) | Morning Glories |
| Onions (from sets) | Nasturtium |
| Squash | Four O’ Clocks |
| Beets | Poppies, Annual types (sow in fall or very early spring) |
| Pumpkins | California Poppies (sow in fall or very early spring) |
| Radishes | |
| Tomatillos |
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