New Beginings

Dear Family and Friends,
I know I have not used this medium, but thought it would be a good way to share our gardening efforts through out the year. Many of you have asked about when to do things in the garden. So I thought every time we do something I will share it on the blog. This is a big stretch for me, but I thought I would make a commitment to make it happen.
Last week David and I sat down and figured out where we would be planting things in our garden. To help you with this and other home gardening questions, we highly recommend the book, Successful Home Gardening, by E. Gordon Wells, Jr. Costco carries his book at least in Utah. This is a fabulous resource for gardening. The most important factor in determining where to plant things is their water need. Cool season shallow rooted plants like lettuce, spinach, beets, carrots, peas, broccoli and berries need water twice a week. Intermediate rooting depth plants such as beans, corn peppers, eggplant zucchini cucumbers onions pumpkins need water once a week. Warm season deep rooted plants like tomatoes, watermelons butternut squash fruit trees need water every 10 days to 2 weeks. We also pulled out our seeds and took an inventory of what we had and what we wanted to order. We made our list and I will be placing the order this week. This year we will also be trying peat pellets for starting our plants in. We have never used them before, but Brother Wells suggested using them. We also learned about mycorrhizal fungi from Brother Wells. This product helps your plant develop tiny roots off of main roots so the plant can absorb more water and nutrients. It can be ordered through www.fungi.com or Cooks nursery in Lindon carries it. It doesn't require very much. Where we live the soil is very alkaline making it hard to grow somethings. We learned about adding sulfur in the fall. As the sulfur breaks down over the winter it turns into sulfuric acid and lowers the ph of the soil. Most plants grow well in soil with ph between 6 - 7. Unfortunately we range closer to 7.5 -8. If you haven't added fertilizer, now would be a good time. If you will use 16-16-8 you will need 1 quart per 180 sq. feet. In the quart jar place 4/5 16-16-8 and 1/5 Ironite. Shake the ingredients to mix and then spread evenly over the 180 sq. feet. You need to put down 2 qts of sulfur over the same area. Purchase Martin's brand sulfur, it breaks down much better. Once you fertilize you need to till it in. We also added large amounts of organic material last fall, leaves, grass clippings and composted material. If you use grass clippings they need to be free of weed and feed. I hope this helps. We plan on planting the early spring crops mid March. I will be planting by seeds in the green house in March also. Always prune stone fruit after March 1st. Seed fruit can be pruned after December. Also if you are treating trees, grapes or berries for chlorosis you need to apply the chelated iron in March. You apply fertilizer to perennials once a year. You use soluble fertilizer that you add to the snow and let in leach down into the plant. Use: 30-10-10 (Miracle Grow) 1/3 quart, mix with 1/3 quart of ammonia sulfate and 1/3 quart Ironite. Again you apply 1 quart to 180 sq. feet This is applied late Feb. or early March.
This is probably more than you wanted to know. But hopefully it will get some of you jump started with your garden. Happy Gardening Christy