Summertime gardening!
We have just planted our summer gardens.
For weeks I have been waiting to plant my gardens. The rainfall and cold have made it hard to work my garden beds so I am optimistic to say we at last got some sun and the gardens are now planted.
Our summer gardens are planted with the help of four of my daughters. We are preparing our garden beds and have planted onions, squash,potatoes and corn; cucumbers, peppers and squash. In early spring when we had a clear stretch of weather and my wife planted our spring garden of lettuce, broccoli, cabbage and peas.
Planting our future! Family gardening is all about your future and the future of the earth.
Our organic gardens are planted on about three acres, they include a vineyard, small orchard and feed for our animals.
Our way of preparing our garden beds.
Preparing garden beds:
We prepare our garden beds in one of two ways.
Sheet compost:
We sheet compost in the fall using 6 inches or more of manure or mulch.
We cultivate our beds in the early spring and add broken down manure, rock minerals and any other amendments we may have to enrich the soil.
Cover Crop:
After the fall harvest clear the beds and hand turn or roto till the garden.
Use a grain and a legume for your fall cover crop. Green manure crops such as austrian peas and annual rye work well for winter bed cover.
Turn your cover crops in 2-4 weeks before your spring or summer planting. Till again right before planting and then prepare garden beds using [url]https://www.family-gardens.com/organic-compost.html[/url]compost and broken down manure and any other amendments we have for the season and long term fertility of the beds.
In my early days on the homestead we used to till everything in by hand, now I turn everything in with a roto tiller and will be using a tractor as part of my retirement plan. My wife still exclusively uses the hand farm style, incorporating our barn manure in a sheet composting method.
The rosefamily homestead garden produces about 80% of our families food.
Reap what you sow, eat what you grow!
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