Gardening - Where to find information

[Mayhim]

Ah, Spring...and here come the seed catalogs! Time to start thinking about getting the 2008 garden planned out.

I have found a fabulous amount of gardening information through the state and county agricultural extensions offices online. You can find general gardening information for beginners or much more specific information on vegetable, fruit trees, turf, and pest problems.

I won't give any specific pages since each of you has a different starting point, but HERE'S A GOOGLE that will get you started. Information on those pages, and the web in general, can usually be found by searching using such keywords as agriculture, publications, vegetables, turf grass, or fruit tree.

I wish you luck with your gardens this year, and though I'm not a Master Gardener I offer to assist you in whatever way I can. 40 years at it and I still enjoy playing in the dirt.

Happy Composting!!!



(edited to change the google parameters...)

[Mayhim]

And for any that may be concerned with issues of Peak Compost, I have not yet heard any reports thereof...

[lovemysan]

I did square foot gardens last year. They did okay. They seemed to stunt the plants though. My corn grew in miniature.

[Mayhim]

I tried corn a long time ago, but it's such a space hog. Corn at roadside farmer stands and even in the market is so cheap that I don't even bother to plant it. I started planting 'taters instead. I do occasionally get some volunteer corn from what the squirrels plant to prettify around the feeder.

Perhaps the seeds were planted too close. I have that problem BAD with radishes. The leaves look great but the root is practically invisible. The good part is, at least with most veggies, as you pick, the ones left behind have a chance to get bigger.

I once had the book on SFG, but lent it out and it never came back. Fortunately, I read it first. It opened my eyes about what plants need vs how we've always done it.

I think the most valuable lesson I took away from the SFG was using raised beds. Half the garden is in raised beds and the other half is still free-form. I'd like to put the whole thing in RBs but I still have things that I prefer to have out in the open.

[WisJim]

We have about a half acre in garden, and maybe 2 acres in fruit trees and berries, etc. We keep careful track of what we spend on food (actually we keep careful track of what we spend on everything, and have for over 30 years) and we find that we are spending less and less on food, including garden expenses and groceries at the store, each year. The garden and orchard take a lot of time, but the garden is also my wife's chief hobby.

Interestingly, our fuel costs for transportation keep dropping too, although our total transportation costs remain about the same over the last 5 or 6 years.

[1fixitman]

I do not do traditional gardening but like to trim the hedges and watch the azaleas bloom. If any of you want some orgonite for gardening purposes I will mail some to you for free. Maybe 10 or 12 pieces so you can verify as I did that the energy from these devices make plants grow like gangbusters. All I need is a snail mail address and any name to place on the package. The energy signature is good for close to 6 feet from the orgonite and radiates like a ball from the center. PM with info and I will ship.