GardenGuru

The month of February is sandwiched between hard winter and early signs of spring in the second half of March. It is an interesting month for our gardening psyche. We are between the last two months of hard winter and a few more weeks of "milder" winter. I do, however, remember that Knoxville, TN had a 24 inch snowfall in the middle of March several years ago, that tied up traffic in a huge area for a very long time, stranding drivers on freeways for hours. Much in the way of preparedness comes to mind in that scenario. Nevertheless, we are optimists here and desire the new hope and new beginnings that spring always brings to our lives.

February is a gardeners planning month. If you gardened last year that experience will prepare you for what you will do this year. By thinking about the type and amounts of particular plants you planted, how they performed, the amounts of produce they generated, and how you were able to consume or store them, will have a tremendous amount to do with what you plan this year. At least it should. If gardening is just a fun hobby that you tire of about July, then maybe not. If, however, you truly want to maximize your gardens output to the highest and best levels for your family then planning is a necessity.

When I first started to garden seriously I was producing food for my wife and 5 children (eventually 7 in all) that we actually consumed and was a major part of our existence. For about five years that garden made the difference between low level surviving and actually eating well. I carefully grew only a few things that would produce well and we would actually enjoy eating. I had already had some previous gardens that allowed me to experiment with the items that didn't really matter in our diet. I also was able to see the value in using every square inch of the garden. Instead of planting in the typical row design I came up with my own style of planting smaller high intensity plantings that amazingly maximized my garden space. The amount of production for the size of the garden I had was astounding. My neighbors noticed as well. By the way, this particular garden area had not been previously cultivated and consisted of pretty heavy clay. By incorporating lots of organic matter in the soil I made that little plot very fertile and productive.

I have, in the years since, added to those skills by continually experimenting and trying new and better ways to do things. Planning will always produce a better, more productive and useful garden. I have rarely planned to the extent of writing out ideas or mapping things on paper, doing things in my head always seemed to suffice. Last year I was tired of not being able to remember which variety of cucumber was planted where (those cute little plastic tabs you can place next to the plant always get buried or lost) or which tomato variety was the one on the end, and so I made a map. My map consisted of hand drawn images and lines on a regular piece of notebook paper. I made notes about the hardiness and productivity of the plants and how good the fruit tasted. That simple act has proven to be much more valuable than I ever thought.

I tried two different varieties of cucumbers planting them both in hill type plantings and row type plantings. By keeping track of progress in this way I found that the hill plantings didn't turn out nearly as well as the row plantings and the new bush variety of cucumber was not nearly as hardy, productive, or tasty as the typical vine variety. I also planted two small rows of Pontiac potatoes from one and a half pounds of purchased seed potato. The previous year I had planted Yukon golds and the production was not as good as I had hoped. By trying another variety I was able to learn something about potatoes. I had never planted them before those two years so I was still in the learning stage. The Pontiac variety produced 36 lbs of potatoes from that little pound and a half that I purchased. Because of that experiment I will plant enough Pontiac potatoes this year to produce 100 lbs with confidence. I can say with a good amount of certainty that I am able to produce quality potatoes in large amounts if I need to.

Most gardening efforts are focused on the very useful annual vegetables we all love. But what about the perennials? I have several perennial garden varieties that are great producers but require a whole different style of management and dedication. Lets not even get to the subject of fruit trees yet. I have a several year old gooseberry bush, a several year old red currant bush, a five year old large planting of Heritage Raspberries (which have produced phenomenally well), a three year old planting of 10 black currant bushes (which will hopefully produce their first full crop this year) and a two year old planting of triple crown blackberries (which should produce many gallons of berries this year, and which I am drooling over even as we speak) and two very productive rhubarb plants. Soil preparation for perennials is the number one most important aspect of planning that you will ever undertake. I will make a full blog post about this before the week is up.

Simple attempts on my part to improve both my garden and the approach I take to managing it have proven to be very valuable for me. Planning can be as simple as looking at seed catalogs and as in depth as getting your soil analyzed. The single most important step you will ever take for garden planning is getting the soil ready. Before the week is up I will have a post focusing on this topic as well.

Thanks for viewing. May your gardening experience be productive and FUN.

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