Planning Your Garden- Step 1
You can plant anything in your garden, but it doesn't mean just anything will grow there.
So before you start running away with ideas of what kind of vegetables and fruits you would like in your garden, you need to find out which plant hardiness zone you live in. The USDA divided North America into 11 hardiness zones.
These zones provide a guide in figuring out which plants will grow and survive in your location and minimum annual temperatures. The National Gardening Association has a great zone finder tool. Just type in your zipcode and it will tell you what zone you live in and also gives you a lot of helpful resources like a regional report with helpful hints suited to your area and a tool to help you find plants that grow in your zone.
Tips:
- Just because the map says you live in one zone doesn't necessarily mean that you only can have plants rated in that zone. If you have a lot of snow cover in the winter the ground stays warmer so you can probably grow plants that are rated for a high zone since their roots will be well insulated. Also keep in mind your summer temperatures, length of days, soil moisture and drainage and elevation as these can affect plant choices too.
- Your hardiness zone number does not tell you when you can plant your garden. You need to go by your first and last freeze/frost dates. This gardening website has a really user friendly frost date finder tool with more in-depth information.
Based on these tools I found out that
- I live in hardiness zone 6B and that each winter, on average, my risk of frost is from October 26 through April 22. Almost certainly, however, I will receive frost from November 14 through March 25. I am almost guaranteed that I will not get frost from May 20 through October 7. My frost-free growing season is around 187 days.
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I had to break this into two comments - the second one follows . . .
ReplyDeleteHubbies 'try' to be nice - at least we like the idea, but sometimes Life happens, and those we love see us in ways we don't understand. Anyway, that was how my experience with 25 years of my first marriage went, and ended. "Oh well . . ."(As my older daughter liked to say)
'Bout that garden - Health = nutrition: Nutrition = food: Healthy food = healthy source: Healthy source = well, it equals the nutrients in the dirt! Yeah, what your dirt is, is your health!
For some 40 years I've made nutritious dirt for my gardens. And gardens I makes for others. It started with raising worms in corrugated cardboard in the 70s. The worms made awesome dirt from that huge pile of cardboard, and the garden plants thrived. Our garden back then was in pure clay - hard-firing clay. Not your better garden soil, I assure you!:-))
Then I learned hot composting. Super dirt! Gather ALL the non-chemical-treated plant material you can find; cut small branches and other objects, such as plant stems in to 10 inch or shorter sections, and tear paper and cardboard into less than 6 inch chunks. Leaves and grass and kitchen wastes are small enough, but I like to soak kitchen wastes in urine for a few days in a closed plastic bucket(Yeah, it sounds nasty, but urine is the very best composting agent on this little planet!:-)) Search YouTube for practical ways to use this fantastic garden nutrient.
It doesn't take a lot of space for a good-sized hot compost pile - a 5 X 5 foot area if that's all there is - and about 6 foot vertical clearance to work a fork.
I learned that turning the pile - a "must" for getting air into the pile - is hard work, so I developed a simple method to NOT have to turn the pile:-))
First, on the ground make a 4 to 6 inch layer of small branches that will allow air to get under the whole pile. Add a layer of "brown" material - like paper, non-corrugated cardboard, Fall leaves, anything that was once a plant that has dried or is stemy. Make this layer about 6 inches thick.
On that layer add about 1 to 3 inches of "green" material. Anything high in nitrogen, or proteins. This is where urine-soaked kitchen wastes shine! Corrugated cardboard glue is high-protein, which makes a fair "green" material, but the cardboard itself uses most of its nitrogen. Fresh, or even last moth's piled lawn mowing works, but if it's brown and dry, it will be less than ideal.
If "green" material is not available, ammonium phosphate, blood meal, and urea make excellent sources of nitrogen. Urea is highest, with 46%, ammonium phosphate has about 15%; blood meal about 2%. Use an appropriate amount to replace or supplement the "green" material layer. I usually just sprinkle in handfuls over the layers. If more is needed because the pile did not heat, I water more in from the top.
Next, repeat these two layers until the pile is two feet high. Add about a 2 - 3 inch layer of cut branches. Repeat the "brown" "green" layers fot another two feet. Add another layer of branch material and more "brown" "green" layers till the pile is five to seven feet high. Cap with finished compost, soil, even sand or any fine material you would grow your plants in. a topping thick enough to block most air but not all, and course enough to allow water through fast and unblocked.
Now thoroughly soak the pile through the topping layer, or before it's added. Make certain the entire pile is soaking wet. Each week check the pile moisture and add just enough for a nice wet look to the rod used to check the inner content.
I use a long steel rod to monitor the moisture and temperature of piles I make. The more rust the better! Simply jam it through the pile in various places, wait a couple of minutes for the steel to warm to the actual temperature, and test it by feel. The temperature should reach 120 F or above for a week or two. Longer for larger piles.
Second part . . .
ReplyDeleteIf heat does not show in a week, the pile needs to be rebuilt. Pay attention to how it packs. A tight packing is best. I sometimes need to jump on the pile to compact it, but most piles are fine enough and with the water, heavy enough to compact themselves. Too tight a packing is not good.
When the pile is finished it turns cold. The material may appear like whatever it was when first added, but it should be dark brown and crumble with the slightest touch, or as it is turned by fork or shovel.
I separate the branch material to use in the next pile with an old wire and spring bed frame. Welded wire fencing of about 4 inch by 2 inch will work well. Or, for smaller piles I simply use my 10-tine horse stable fork and shake the compost between the tines, or rake small amounts over the ground til the fine material separates and the sticks can be forked off. Some sticks in the garden are great slug deterrent - slugs don't like rough surface, or sharp dust and stones. I use diatomaceous earth on and around plants to keep slugs away, too.
That's it! Now you have the high-nutrient dirt your garden plant crave! The nutrients give the plants both health and bug, disease and parasite resistance. You'll see less bug bites and less diseases plants, if any, growing in 100% soil you make this way.
Enjoy!:-))