2009 April - Gardening

Preparedness Newsletter
April 2009

“We will see the day when we will live on what we produce....”
-Pres. Marion G. Romney

Spiritual Goal: Attend the temple one more session than you normally do this month.

Provident Living Goal: If you normally do not grow a garden, plan to grow at least one vegetable this year. If you already have a garden, either grow a vegetable you haven't tried before OR try a new method or technique this year.
Basic Storage Goal: Garden Seeds – enough for one years planting
Seeds for sprouting – alfalfa, mung, radish, lentils, peas, etc.
Dried potatoes
72-Hour Kit: Granola Bars
Hot Chocolate Mix
Jerky
Hard candy
Expanded Storage: Olive oil for consecrating

Thought:
Everyone starts as a beginner gardener at one point in their life. Some people start as children and are taught how to garden by their parents or grandparents, while others start much later in life. At whatever age you begin gardening, it is always best to start with vegetables that are easy to grow. This will allow you to feel immediate success and begin to truly love the enjoyment of gardening.

Home Gardening
Gardening is a wonderful antidote for psychological stress....a source of solitude....a respite from everyday problems. And with all that digging and hoeing, it gives a pretty good workout. You might even discover that gardening is good for the spirit.

Every yard has space for a garden. Take some of the lawn area. Use part of the flower garden, or have a cooperative garden where vegetables and flowers are grown together. Vegetables can also be used to border the flowerbeds. Some vegetables can grow in pots or planters on a patio.

Plan: Plan your garden to fit the space you have available. Find out which vegetables grow best in your area and plant the kinds your family prefers. Locate your garden in a spot that will have a least 6 hours of direct sunlight each day. Generally the soil you have in your yard will grow a good garden.
Plan the good neighbor plant policy. Dill planted among tomatoes will keep tomato worms away. Garlic cuts down the appeal of the garden to destructive insects in general. Lemon balm, sweet basil and mint attract bees for better pollination of crops, nasturtiums will keep the cucumber and Mexican bean beetles away. Thyme keeps cabbage worms from broccoli and geraniums discourage Japanese beetles. If planted next to each other, the following will produce bigger, healthier yields: beans with tomatoes, corn, potatoes, or cucumbers; carrots with radishes or peas; corn with beans, sunflowers, squash or pumpkins; lettuce with carrots, cucumbers, beets, beans, peas or tomatoes; onions with potatoes or carrots; peas with corn beans, potatoes, tomatoes, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, or spinach; pumpkins with corn, beans, sunflowers or peas; radishes with peas, lettuce, beans, carrots or onions; spinach with peas, onions or peppers; tomatoes with dill, marigolds, spinach or lettuce.

Prepare: Spade or have your garden spot tilled when the soil is not too wet. To determine if the soil is dry enough, squeeze a handful into a tight ball and break it apart with the fingers. If the ball crumbles it is safe to spade. Rake area to level and break up clods.


Use Good Seeds and Plants:
Beets – Detroit Dark
Red Early Wonder

Pumpkin-Big Moon
Jack O Lantern
Wee-Bee-Little
Jack-B-Little

Carrots-Danvers
Nantes
Imperator

Radish- Cherry Bell
French Breakfast
Hailstone

Cucumber-Boston Pickling
Straight Eight
Marketmore 76

Squash -Banana
Hubbard
Spaghetti
Buttercup
Sweet Meat
Crookneck
Black Beauty Zucchini

Onion - Walla Walla
Sweet Spanish
Tokyo Bunching

Lettuce-Butter Crunch
Red Sails
Summertime
Barcarolle (Romaine)

Tomato -Early Temptation
Oregon Spring
Red Cherry
Roma





Classification by resistance to frost
Hardy – Plant as soon as ground can be worked about 6 to 8 weeks before last killing frost*.
Broccoli, cabbage, garlic, lettuce, onion(seeds or sets), parsley, peas, radishes, spinach

Half Hardy – Plant 2 to 4 weeks before last killing frost*.
Potatoes, beets, carrots, onion (transplants)

Tender – Do not plant before last killing frost*,
Snap beans, sweet corn, tomatoes
plant about 10 days later.

Very Tender – Plant when soil and weather are
warm, 2 to 3 weeks after last killing frost*.
Cucumber, lima beans, eggplant, peppers,pumpkins, squash



The average date of the last killing frost in Spring is: *May 23rd
The average date of the first frost in Fall is: September 18th
Number of frost-free growing days: 118
Zone: 5


Starting Seeds Indoors
Sow 6 to 8 weeks before plants are to be set out. Fill small pots with a good starting soil. A good starting soil is 1/3 each of peat, sand or vermiculite and garden soil, sterilized in 180-degree oven for 45 minutes. Moisten the starting soil well about two hours before planting. Drop 3 seeds in each pot. Cover with newspaper, plastic or glass, leaving a small opening on a corner and keep in a warm place (70 – 80 degrees). Water with a fine spray when soil becomes dry to the touch. When seedlings appear, remove cover and place them in a cooler room. When they get their second pair of leaves, clip off all but the largest plant in each pot. When 2 inches tall, transplant the healthy plants into individual pots.
Wait until all danger of frost is over. Give your plants gradual exposure to conditions they will encounter outdoors by placing them outside a few hours each day for a week. Give them a good drink before removing them from containers. Dig a hole so the plant will be slightly deeper than it was in the container. Water the plant in the hole with a cupful of root starter solution. Cover with soil pressed down firmly but gently to avoid air pockets. Protect from cold or extreme heat by covering with hot-caps or milk jugs with the bottoms and lids removed.

Planting – Make a trench with a corner of a hoe. Rows running north and south will minimize shading. Follow the directions on the seed packet. Firm the soil down well. Water. Thin when the plants are 2 or 3 inches high.

Cultivate – Keep the garden as free of weeds as possible. This may be done by hoeing or weeding. Mulch can be used. Mulching helps keep more moisture in the soil and builds up the soil as it decays.

Mulching – Wait until the plants are well above ground before mulching. If the mulch is started too early, it will act as a layer of insulation, keeping the ground around the plants cooler than it should be for good growing. Natural or organic fertilizer may be added to the mulch. The best mulch is organic. Straw, hay or grass clippings are fine. Leaves must be chopped up.

Watering – Most gardens require a moisture supply equal to about an inch of rain a week during the growing season. It is much better to give the garden a good soaking about once a week than to water it sparingly more often. Light sprinklings at frequent interval do little good.


The Art of Watering Your Garden
Instead of putting your garden on a watering schedule, it is better to monitor your garden daily to determine watering needs in the growing cycle. You will need to consider your soil, the kinds of plants growing and the weather. Sandy soil holds much less water than clay soil. Larger plants need more water than small plants. And hot and windy weather dries out the soil.
Germinating seeds and seedlings need to be kept moist without being washed away. Developing plants need to be watered deeply, but less often, to encourage deep root growth. Water to a depth of at least six inches and then let the top inch or two dry out before watering again. Over-watering can drown plants and leach away nutrients. Garden plants that have been watered properly and have developed deep roots only need to be watered every 5 to 7 days in hot weather. When planning your water delivery system, remember in sandy soil the water soaks straight down and in clay soil the water spreads horizontally.


Gardening Tips:
Avoid walking in the garden when the foliage and soil are wet.
Examine garden often to keep ahead of potential problems.


Garden Seed Storage
To store seeds properly, the goal is to place the seed into a set of conditions that are the polar opposite of what is required to germinate the seed. For proper germination, seeds require moisture and warmth. Some seeds also require light and humidity. To store seeds, a cool, dry place with little to no humidity is best. For good results, take your packets of seeds and wrap them in a brown paper bag, date the bag and put them in the freezer.

Collecting and Storing Future Seeds from Your Vegetable Garden

Collect seeds only from plants that have come from non-hybrid seeds. Be selective and only collect vegetable seeds from the most vigorous plants in your garden. Do not simply collect from the first ripened vegetables. Selecting seeds from the healthiest vegetables in your garden will help ensure you get healthy and high yield producing seeds.
Saving Seeds from Tomatoes, Squash and other vegetables
Saving fleshy vegetables seeds, such as tomatoes and squash is easy. Wait until these vegetables are fully ripened and then scoop out their seeds, along with the gel surrounding them. Place the seeds and gel mixture in a glass jar along with some water. Twice a day stir or swirl the mixture until it ferments and the seeds sink to the bottom. This usually occurs within five days. Afterwards, pour off the liquid, thoroughly rinse the seeds and spread them out on paper towels to dry in a well ventilated place.
Collecting Bean Seeds, Pea Seeds, Corn Seeds
To save beans and peas, wait until the pods are ripe. When beans and peas are fully ripened they turn dry and crackly on the vine and the seeds rattle inside. This may take up to an additional month after you would normally harvest the peas or beans to eat. After you have collected the pods from the plants, spread them out to dry in a well ventilated area. Let them dry at least two weeks before shelling.
Like beans and peas, corn should also remain on the stalk to dry until the kernels dent. Other similar types of seeds should be gathered when they are completely formed, hard, and filled with “meat”.
Collecting Pepper Seeds
Saving pepper seeds is the easiest type of seed to collect and store of all vegetable seeds. Allow some of your healthiest peppers to stay on the vine until they become fully ripened and begin to wrinkle. Remove the seeds from the peppers and spread them out to dry in a well ventilated place.

After your seeds have completely dried, you can easily store them in Ziploc bags. Label the seeds with name and date. Keep the seeds in a cool, dry place until you are ready to plant them.

Raised Bed Gardening
Gardening in raised beds means that you grow your plants above the level of the ground. This is done by building a structure and filling it with soil. Wood, concrete blocks, bricks and other materials can be used to build a raised bed.
The advantages of a raised bed garden are: you can customize the soil mixture; soil drainage is improved; you can produce larger quantities of vegetables in the same amount of space; controlling weeds is easier; crop rotation is easy; watering is easy; and you can grow crops closer together which helps shade the soil and prevent evaporation.
Customize your raised bed gardens to fit your needs. Two medium length beds with a space between them are better than one long bed. They will be easier to walk around and you can work from both sides. Calculate how wide you want them by sitting at a table and reaching out your arms for a comfortable working distance for you. Your raised bed can be 8 or 9 inches deep unless you plan on growing deep root vegetables. And you can design your beds so you can work standing or sitting from a chair.
For more tips on raised bed gardening see www.raisedbedgardeningtips.com.

Container Gardening
Many kinds of vegetables can be grown in containers. Attention must be given to choosing the container, using a good soil mix, planting and spacing requirements, fertilizing, watering, variety selection, and providing five hours or more of full sun.
There are many types of containers that can be used. It is best not to use dark colored containers because they will absorb more heat and dry out faster. Drainage is the most important consideration in choosing the container. Your container should have adequate holes in the bottom for proper drainage. Drainage can be reduced when a container is set on a solid surface. Raising the container one or two inches off the floor by setting it on wooden blocks will solve this problem. The size of the container will be determined by the vegetable to be grown in it. Shallow rooted crops such as radishes, lettuce, peppers and herbs need a container that is at least six inches in diameter and eight inches deep.
Use a “soilless” planting mix for soil. Plant more seeds than needed, then thin the plants after the foliage of the seedlings are touching. Now you can start using fertilizer, since soilless mixes have very little nutrients. Plants need food to thrive.
Watering is the most important part of container gardening. Some vegetables need watering every day depending on their size and the weather. The best way to water is with a watering can or a spray attachment on a garden hose. The goal is to keep the soil moist but not wet. To figure out if your plants need water, stick your finger down into the soil about an inch. If the soil feels dry, add water. If you are not sure, wait and check later. Be sure the water is cool first. At the height of summer, you many need to water everyday and sometimes twice a day.
Most vegetables need at least six full hours of direct sunlight everyday. Most vegetables don't like cold soil. So don't put them outside until you know it is warm enough. The soil needs to be at least 60 degrees.

Compost Tea
For those gardeners who use it, compost tea is liquid gold.
Why use compost tea? 1. You are recycling. 2. Save money. You don't have to buy fertilizers. 3. You will know the quality and safety of your food.
To make compost tea: Fill a container (5 gallon bucket) with a variety of compost material (1 ½ gallons of fresh compost). Fill the container with water (4 ½ gallons warm water). Cover the bucket. Stir mixture everyday. After a week, it is ready to use. Drain off the liquid tea. Use a strainer to keep the larger particles out of the tea. Pure compost tea is too strong for your plants so you will need to dilute it. Use 10 parts water with 1 part tea. The leftover solid materials can be spread on the garden or onto a compost pile. Pour the solution into a watering can or misting bottle. If you are going to use the tea in a sprayer, strain the tea through cheesecloth. (You could also place the compost in cloth and steep it in the water for a week.)
What to compost: The more types of materials that you put into your compost mix, the wider the range of essential plant micro nutrients will be in your compost tea. You need four parts “green” materials and one part “brown” material. The brown materials provide the carbon. They are dead weeds, dead flowers, dead leaves, black and white newspaper, sawdust, crushed shells, straw or hay, wood ashes, and wood shavings. The green materials provide the nitrogen. They are coffee grounds, egg shells, grass clippings, kitchen fruit scraps, kitchen vegetable scraps, manures (not pet or human), and green weeds. You can also add brown cardboard and hair trimmings. Things to avoid are weeds with lots of seeds, bones, dairy products, dead animals, fish, meats, and treated wood.

Manure Tea
You can make manure tea using the same method above. Just substitute 1 ½ gallons well-cured manure for the compost and use the solution the same way. Chicken manure is stronger and will need to be diluted more.
Seed Starter Tonic
Whether you start your seeds indoors or out, give them a tonic.
1 cup white vinegar
1 Tbsp baby shampoo or liquid dish soap
2 cups warm water
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, and let your seeds soak in the mixture overnight before planting.



Dampening-Off Prevention Tonic
Young seedlings are at risk for damping-off, a disease that causes their lower stems to rot. There is no cure, but you can prevent it by using sterile seed-starting soil and this tonic.
4 tsp chamomile tea
1 tsp liquid dish soap
Mix ingredients together in 1 quart boiling water. Let steep for at least an hour, strain, then cool. Mist the seedlings as soon as they appear.



Seedling Strengthener
2 cups manure
½ cup instant tea granules
5 gallons warm water

Put the manure and tea in an old nylon and let it steep in 5 gallons water for several days. Dilute the mixture with four parts warm water to one part mixture before using.



Homemade Fertilizer
4 parts seed meal
½ part ordinary agricultural powdered lime
½ part gypsum
½ part dolomitic lime
For best results add:
1 part bone meal or 1 part kelp meal

Apply this mixture at 4 to 6 quarts every fifty feet in a 12 to 18 inch row. Apply before planting. Work the fertilizer into the soil with a hoe. For tomatoes, sprinkle an additional small amount around the plant every few weeks.