Spring has filled the air around here… at least it’s become warm enough for me to realize the ground isn’t going to stay cold for long and I better get some of the garden fertilized and seedlings started.
The first step of this whole process is to make sure we are getting non-GMO seeds. With the recent surrender of Whole Foods, Organic Valley, and Stoneyfeild Farms to the Monsanto GMO dictatorship, it is more important then EVER to make sure you are as close to your food as possible… knowing where your food comes from is the only real way to ensure what you are putting in your mouth is what Mother Nature indended.
You should be aware that even *organic* products use genetically modified contaminated products these days… very disappointing. All foods containing corn, soybeans, canola (and the animal products that have fed off of these GMO products) are now contaminated with genetically engineered products… an infestation that is irreversible.
Due to cross pollination, the introduction of GMO crops has now made *organic* crops (and the animals that feed off of this so called organic grain) pretty much obsolete. No such thing any more. At this point, most “natural” processed foods and animal product foods sold in stores (even natural stores such as Whole Foods) are labeled organic but have GMO derivatives in them.
So… more then any years past, I am extremely grateful for the land we have and the soil in my own backyard. More then any years past, I’d like to can more and preserve more and eat more straight from my own backyard. More then any years past, I’d like to make sure I start with heriloom quality seeds… seeds that are pure and non-GMO.
Generally, the seeds you find on a rack at a garden store or seedlings from your local hardware store are going to be a hybrid seed. This means that the seeds are not heirloom quality… you can’t trust that the seeds that are produced on that plant you grew can be replanted and grown to produce the same product. A hybrid plant may have some seeds that come out bearing a different type of fruit then the parent plant. Huh? No science experiments in my garden, please.
I love Bakers Creek Heirloom Seed Catalog… love the company and love the gorgeous catalog I get the pleasure of looking through each year. Every single seed they sell is guaranteed heirloom… pure and preserved. You can save the seeds from your fruits and use them the next year to start your garden all over again.
Many folks recommend getting your seeds from a catalog as opposed to your local store anyway because seed companies store their seeds in temperature controlled rooms… unlike at hardware store warehouses where they have been stacked in an overheated warehouse to be destroyed. Having the seeds ship straight to you ensures their success.
Over the next few weeks, I’d love to share with you our gardening strategy and I would *love* to hear tips from you folks as well. I’ve got lots of little tidbits along the way (would you be shocked to hear that I use our own urine to add nitrogen back into the soil of our houseplants? No fake green “miracle grow” for us… organic pee is where it’s at! I have my kids pee into an old yogurt container and I dilute this out 1:10 and then water the houseplants… they’ve never looked better! And my hubby is in charge of peeing on the fruit trees in the backyard!)
Okay, here are the crops we are growing off our land this year:
Tomatoes… both cherry sized and large tomatoes for canning
Carrots… yellow and orange
Watermelon… Georgia Rattlesnake and Ali Baba
Cucumber
Lettuce… Rocky Top Lettuce mix
Strawberry Popcorn
Onions
Those are the tried and true veggies and fruits that I *know* we’ll eat and use. We have some blueberry bushes who are growing and two nectarine trees who are only a few years old… those are investments in the future! A Satsuma orange tree as well that is only a baby and I am *hoping* survived the frosty winter.
My two favorite guys, amending the soil in our garden… working compost into our garden beds. We use two giant garbage cans (the huge kind you put out on the curb) that I’ve drilled holes all over the sides and bottom, to let moisture, bugs, worms, etc… work their way into the mix… We fill both compost bins up over the winter and spread them out over our 8 garden beds each spring… re-filling them over the summer and re-amending the soil in the fall before planting our winter garden. The beds are created by old untreated cedar lumbar roughly laid down in rectangles in the middle of the backyard and along one fence as well… we use open beds for lettuce and carrots and such, and the long fence bed for trellising our tomatoes and staking our corn.
This Friday I’ll share with you a little tutorial about how we started our seedlings this year… using nothing but these lovely seeds and recycled items from our house and composted soil. Our entire garden and all the fruits and veggies we eat will have all come from about $30 worth of heirloom seeds and soil that we amend from our own food scraps. Awesome what Mother Nature can do!
Here my daughter helps her Daddy create a flower bed out of old cinder blocks we found in the yard when we moved into this home. We planted zinnia plants inside each hole of the cinder blocks and sprinkled a packet of wildflower seeds in the middle! I will enjoy sharing pictures of our garden’s progress with you this spring, and would love to see links to your garden pictures, tips, successes and challenges as well! Please leave them for me to check out in the comment section!
Here is to your garden and a lovely spring! xoxo
Ohhh..I love this. I too love to garden and get my feet and hands in the dirt. Are you planting now? I was wondering if I should wait or is it warm enough? Seed catalogs are dangerous…I want to grow everything lol…
I went for it, Aleka… I’ve got about a third of the seeds in the ground… I know it’s so early though, it would have been safer to wait but I got caught up in that gorgeous weather! I’ve got the carrots and lettuce and flower seeds in the ground… I’m starting the tomato seedlings inside… the rest is just waiting for another good weekend to get planted!!!!! LMK how your garden is going! xoxo
Oh no, too early gals. Be patient
Man! I already have them in the ground! Well… we’ll see… I’ll share pics with you here as they come up! xoxo
This is the first spring that I am going to garden with my kids because we had an old 1920 garage and a driveway ripped out of our backyard and then had it all leveled last spring/summer. But, I’ve been really wanting to garden with them! My dad always grew extensive gardens while I grew up. I wil be ordering the catalog you suggested and peeking back in to see more advice from you on the seedlings…thanks! Sarah
also, laura…can you e-mail and let me know which varieties of watermelon and onion have worked best for you? Though we have different climates, so I don’t know how much it’ll help! What is the strawberry popcorn?
Hello my friend! I’ll email you but I also wanted to reply here for others to see… this is actually my first year with onion from seeds… if you want a more fool proof way, you can order onion starters that are already mini bulbs. I’m afraid I’ve started the seeds too late for onion (I think you are supposed to start in the winter) but I figure I’ll give it a try and harvest them later… might be pulling them up in late fall! That will be a treat. All the watermelon I’ve started from seed from that company have worked… but in the south watermelon grows easy! They say in the catalog what grows where. They raved about the Ali Baba so that’s what I’m going to try this year… I think it will grow well where you are too! Oh the strawberry popcorn would work REALLY well for you… the corn grows better where you are then where we are… your kids would love it! You grow the corn (the color is pink!) and then take the ears off and let it dry (last year I just put mine in a cool closet for a few weeks) and then use your fingers to take all the dry kernels off and store in a bag to use in your hot air popper — it was delicious! They have several different types of popcorn you can grow, last year we did black popcorn and it was amazing. The kids loved it! You can also stick an entire ear of corn (unshucked) into a paper bag and in your microwave and it will pop up and give you a bag of popcorn! We don’t have a microwave but I’ve always wanted to try that for fun! You could just store ears of the popcorn and pop them in the microwave… so neat! Thanks for your comments and please let me know how your garden does!!! xoxoxo
You don’t have a microwave?? How in the world do you cook Stoffers?
It was surprisingly easy to give up. I should write a blog post about it, actually. Thanks for a good idea! You can survive without Stouffers… the hardest part is giving up the simplicity of microwave popcorn! xoxo
Dear Dr. Laura,
Loved today’s garden story. Can you share with us some of the recipes or meals you make for your family?
Wow Gail, what a great idea! As I grow and harvest each crop, I will definitely share my recipes — fabbo idea! Thank you for that! I have an amazing spaghetti sauce recipe to share…. some good easy salads too! xoxo
Great information, Laura. I think I’ll give a go to container gardening this year since our yard space is dwindling. If you have any advice on that, I’d love to hear it.
That first picture of Craig scared me… As I scrolled down, I thought you were showing a picture of him peeing on the garden! HA!!!!!
Great post today, thanks!
That’s hilarious! I’m so glad you told me that, you just made my day, girl! xoxo
Laura,
Thanks for sharing your experience. I have gardened last spring and fall and both seasons didn’t turn out too well. I am thinking my soil isn’t just right yet. What do you recommend if you don’t have your own compost? I will start my own compost as soon as possible, just don’t have anything yet to prep my soil for the spring seeds.
Also, what tomato seeds have worked out for you? I have tried tomatoes last spring and the plants grew like crazy and I also had a few tomatoes on them but they would never turn green and eventually rot. I LOVE tomoatoes though and would love to grow them in my own backyard. Any advise would be fantastic….
I will definitely order that catalog as I have not made very good experience with the organic seeds bought at Lowe’s.
Good Luck, can’t wait to see pics of your garden when everything starts growing.
BTW, Love reading your posts.
Elaina
Hi Elaina! Did you grow your seeds indoors? I haven’t had much luck with seeds if I start them off right in my garden… but if I grow a nice strong beautiful seedling indoors, those plants produce heavily! On friday, I’m going to show you exactly how I start tomatoes inside… I love all the tomato seeds at Bakers… this year I’m trying pearly pink, big month, and amish paste tomatoes. For the soil, the BEST thing is manure… if you can purchase a truckload of horse manure from your local garden shop (and have them deliver it) your garden will thank you for years and YEARS. I bet that will help your tomato production too — the fruits are only as good as the soil. Likely your soil has enough nutrients to produce a beautiful plant but not enough to support production of fruit. Try the horse manure and meanwhile start those seeds inside and lets see how it goes this year! keep me posted! xoxo
Awesome. Thanks sooo much for the advise. Mom actually has a Horse Farm right next to their neighborhood
. Maybe they will give me some for free 
Laura truely green with envy. My seeds were purchased we were going to start then inside this past weekend but then found out Friday afternoon that we will be moving this spring instead so i’ll live vicariously through your garden until arrival at our new home and plans for a new garden take shape.
Man! I’ll have to mail you a jar of some canned veggie or another since your loving spirit will be a part of my garden this year vicariously! I hope your new home has an AMAZING backyard just waiting for you!!!! Keep me posted! xoxo
Hi Laura!
Love today’s post!!! My father-in-law was one of the first to have an organic mini farm, with chickens and roosters too! We always enjoyed the fruits of his labor. We live on Kiawah where it’s a challenge to grow veggies. We’ve removed as many trees as the ARB will allow and keep pruning to let sun in. Deer are another problem.
After reading your post, I think we need to give it one more try. Maybe a small raised bed with a wire mesh over it???? Better yet, you have inspired us to take a portion of a lot we own here and farm it! It makes no sense to build on it now and since we’re paying taxes on it, why not enjoy it? We’re going to start the process today! See what you’ve started? We’ll let you know what happens…
Love the way you are raising your children. You are giving them such a great foundation for future health and happiness.
Many thanks for your inspiration!!!
Thanks Patty! Your comment made my day! Go you… create that farm! Sounds like so much fun!!!! xoxoxo to you!
Leaves are another great amendment to the soil.
Oh Mary Jo that’s a fabulous point! Thank you for adding that, it’s so helpful and so true! xoxo
And mulch, mulch,mulch.
What a great post again……I have tried now for 2 years to establish a good garden…..but the soil here in the South is very different from what I am used to have…..very acidic in its way and the only things which I was so far successful to grow are cucumber, basil, some water melons, blueberries and azaleas….as a matter of fact they even like to be watered in spring with a couple of drops of organic apple vinegar:):):) but pee might do the trick as well….xoxox
Before the decision of the USDA for MONSANTO I was actually ready to give up my garden here in the South……Now I have reconsidered.( by the way I still believe we all should go and protest louder – after all this is the country of the “FREE AND BRAVE”) I also truly believe that the soil here needs some help first, even before you put your heirloom seeds in the ground….coming from the biodynamic “society” in Europe, I will try this year to give it a try in this direction. First I will put some preparations in the soil and later I will also apply silicia ( all this preparations are not expensive and can be ordered from The Josephine Porter Institut) in order to stay more biodynamic I will try to plant this year the right flowers in between the veggies to attract bees and fight off all the pests ( like cricket’s, there is certain flowers which have a smell which these animals can’t stand..lol) I have here in my garden. Last year I had actually beautiful broccoli and sunflowers but the crickets were all eating it….
And very important is that people which start a garden understand their “compost”. There is a lot of killer compost’s here out unfortunately and it does not have to be labeled either. Lot’s of toxins in them, so putting organic seeds in it, will not be more healthy than buying pesticide or GMO laden food.
I was just wondering where I could get heirloom seed…..thank you very much for this……xoxoxox
Thanks Gabrielle… love your advice and input, as usual!!!! If you know the name of the caterpillar repellant flower, let me know! You rock! xoxo
marigolds are supposed to repel pests. we have not had much luck with it.
my husband does hydroponic gardening.
You’ve definelty inspired me to check out the seed catalog and plant garden. Hopefully my thumbs will be green this year as I haven’t had much luck in the past. For a novice like me, the step-by-step how to’s of gardening are great. Thanks for the extra push!
I build a bunch of raised beds last year and then filled them with sheet composting materials. The pictures of the empty beds are up, but I haven’t finished the time lapse video I made of filling the beds with hay and dirt and 3 truckloads of manure (a two week process).
http://wisdomofthemoon.blogspot.com/2010/10/raised-beds-long-time-coming.html
I’ve planned out my garden and just need to buy the seeds. So exciting!
Thank you thank you thank you for the link! Everybody needs to check out your amazing blog. Love the garden beds and love that building it was a family affair
Beautiful pics, too! xoxo
Thanks so much! After starting the seeds, my next project is to lay out a drip system for watering. Hopefully I’ll get to that this season.