Organic Gardening, No Frills

The Master Gardener says...

Well you have to start somewhere!
Let me just say master gardener I am not. I have had some successes and many more failures in the gardening arena. I plan great things and the more elusive plants just opt to make it easy on themselves and promptly off themselves. Suicide by feared gardener. I can just see the note.

 To whom it May concern, 
 We saw last years crops!
                       Regards
                         The Plants

But hey, I am a trooper and have high hopes for this years garden. We even started building a mighty fence to keep all the goats and chickens out of it. Purchased a nice big old green house to start plants next year in. There is always so much to do here that I tend to start out the season quite ambitious and by mid season just feel overwhelmed. So I have to remind myself why we started this, to simplify life, to be more responsible for what I contribute to the world. 

This year I am planning to take it on simply. If the green house doesn't make it up this year, that is ok. I will just make a place for it in the garden, to on start next fall.
So one small step for Farm Fresh Daily, one giant step for mankind. Ambitious huh! 
I know a few things, novice that I am. My tomatoes do lovely, however I tend to get over ambitious and end up with far too many. Which in itself wouldn't be a problem if I was canning. 

Note to self : Add canning next to the list. 

My squash is divine and again another one where you don't realize you over planted until it is too late. In gardening, I am learning less is honestly more. Lettuce is another one I get myself in trouble with, not so much with over planting lettuce but by mistiming. I learned you must seed in a more staggered schedule. Plant those all at once and you will find yourself overwhelmed and feeling more like a rabbit than much else.  

With all the scary GMO information out there, I now make sure I start my own garden seeds from a resource that supplies heirloom, organic, non gmo seeds. It is just the way it has to be. If you have not looked into the GMO travesty ongoing in our country I encourage you to do just that. It makes it much more difficult to make it simple, but remember this is also about being responsible. We personally do not use commercial fertilizer, nor any commercial weed control. Fertilizer is produced right here at the farm from our animals. Goat berries are wonderful and chicken poop slurries is manna from heaven.  
*** Chicken slurry article to follow***

So now we look at the actual plant product and we opted to start from seeds. The goal is to have real food, not Frankenstein creations. I mean seriously who wants to eat frankenfoods that make you sick? Not me that is for certain!

So here we are, spring has arrived and I am itching to get my plants outdoor. I find myself in zone 7 on Cape Cod, so it is still too nippy to move the plants outside, but there is life here and things are sprouting up wonderfully. 

We have two mini indoor greenhouses that can be had pretty cheaply around town. We found ours at the local Christmas tree Shop for 19.99 a piece. I thought that was a pretty darn good deal. So go out and take a look around in the local shops and worst case scenerio order online for next years start.

Here are my little indoor green houses just for show, they now have a nice place in front of a sunny window. I found them to be quite sufficient for all my needs and as you can guess from my seedling above they certainly have done their jobs as my seedling took right off.

This year I am so excited I have heirloom blue tomatoes, multicolored carrots and tomatillos along with the status quo. I am going to have alot of winter squashes in the ground, especially Delicata squash which just so happens to be my whole family's favorite. They bypass potatos for them and that says something for a family strewn with Irish genetics.

So keep watching to see how Farm Fresh Daily's garden grows!

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