Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Fall Vegetable Gardening Prep

We've started thinking about fall vegetable gardening at our house. This weekend, my kids and I planted lettuce, beets, and collards into transplant trays. Kaity, the 2-year-old, loves to garden. We should have hundreds of lettuce plants coming up in each container thanks to her.

We're also going to be planting mustard, cabbage, sugar snap peas, carrots, and radishes seeded directly into the garden. I'd like to get strawberry and tomato plants and I'm still looking for broccoli and squash seed. I'm going to try one of the local seed and feed stores today to see what they might have available.

My dad just visited family in Ohio and brought home giant pumpkin seeds for us. He's recommending we plant them on the septic drain field - the pumpkins could be as much as 1,000 pounds! My Uncle Randall (who's 85 or so) in Ohio told us we should feed the pumpkin plants milk. Anyone have any idea why? I'd love some comments on this.

We're considering doing raised beds this year for the vegetable garden. I think I'm going to try 4 beds that are 4 feet by 8 feet by 6 inches. My son, Will - the earth mover, is going to love this. He'll get to fill all of the beds with potting soil. It'll be like a big, dirty sandbox.

Vegetable gardening is one of the best activities to get my family outside together. My kids love looking for new stuff to harvest in the garden and my husband and I both enjoy growing our own food. A lot of what we grow, I won't eat. But, much of the joy of vegetable gardening is giving it away to family and friends.

1 comment:

Sarah Graddy said...

How do you "feed" pumpkins milk? Luckily you've got cows right there to help you figure it out.