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There's alot of info here, so it may take a bit for it to load. Great time to refresh that coffee!
One of the first things you need to know when you're ready to garden is which zone you live in. Below you will find a zone map so you can figure out your zone!
Contents
Companion Planting
E. Herbs that bring in the good bugs: Keep the good guys well fed and happy, an they will guard and protect your garden from the bad bugs.
A. Daisy-Family Herbs:
Goldenrod is one of the most effective daisy-family members for attracting good bugs. So are chamomile, coreopsis, marigold, sunflower, tansy, and yarrow. These will draw assassin bugs, honeybees, hover flies, lacewings, lady bugs and parasitic wasps.
B. Mint-Family herbs:
There are many types of mint. Look for the square stem. They have aromatic foliage and many small two-lipped flowers.
Mints attract honeybees, hover flies, parasitic wasps and many other helpful critters.
A word of caution...Mint is a very aggressive, speading plant! It can take over a garden before you know it. A way around this is to grow mint in a plastic container and bury the container half way in your garden. In addition to mint, try attracting the
good guys with bee balm, catnip, hyssop, lavender, sweet marjoram, oregano, sage, and thyme.
C. Carrot-Family Herbs:
Angelica, anise, caraway, dill and fennel are members of the carrot family. They attract hover flies, lacewings, lady bugs, parasitic wasps, and other good critters.
D. Other Herbs:
Chives and onions are also popular with the good bugs and critters, as are cover crops like buckwheat and clovers. Many common weeds, including dandelion, lamb's-quarters, and wild mustard, also attract beneficials.
BENEFICIAL INSECTS:
Your garden is actually a wild savage jungle on the insect level. It's a cannibalistic kingdom that can work to your advantage.
Ground beetles take shelter under permanent mulches and plantings. They devour slugs, cutworms, and other soil
dwelling pests.
Spined soldier bugs attack caterpillars and grubs, including armyworms and Mexican bean beetle larvae.
Tachinid flies lay eggs on or near plant-chewing caterpillars. Larvae parasitize the caterpillars.
Delicate lacewings adults feed on pollen and nectar; their larvae are know as "aphid lions". This predator
eats thrips, small caterpillars, mites, and other soft-bodied insects as well aphids.
Lady bugs and their larvae feast on aphids, mealybugs, soft scales, and spider mites.
Aphid midges can control more than 60 species of aphids.
Bring the beneficial bugs and animals to your garden
*Put up birdhouses to attract insect-eating birds.
*Planting pollen and nectar producing flowers as a food source for the good bugs.
*Provide a shallow water bath for the good bugs to drink from.
*Leave an area of your mulched or cover cropped garden undisturbed through the growing season to provide shelter for the good bugs.
*Put an overturned clay flower pot with a doorway broken in the side somewhere off the beaten path for a toad to take shelter
in.
Lets talk about the slimy slug that plagues most of North America.
Gardeners have devised numerous ways to trap or barricade these nasty, slimy critters.
Slugs and snails avoid contact with copper strips, maybe because they get an electric shock when they touch copper. Put strips
around tree trunks to keep them from the trunks. Bury strips around the edge of the garden bed, leaving 2 to 3 inches of the
copper exposed. Bend the top inch of the strip outward at a right angle to form a lip.
Board traps. Slugs and snails like to hide in dark, moist places during the day. Put boards, shingles, or even grapefruit rinds
around your garden. Check the traps daily and collect and destroy the hiding slimers.
The rough surface of wood ashes and cinders injures the skins of slugs and snails, causing them to dehydrate and die. Protect
individual plants or groups of plants by dusting a 2 inch wide strip of these materials around them. Reapply after rain.
This one is my Mom's favorite. Beer traps. Set a pie plate in the garden with the rim flush to the soil surface. Fill the plate
with beer. The slimers like beer. They crawl right in and drown. Use one plate for every 10 square feet of garden area you
want to protect.
Here's a tip for keeping the bunnies out of your garden. Strawberries dipped in whipped cream or chocolate, over shortcake, on pancakes, jams, jellies, there are a million
recipes for strawberries. My favorite- pick them, wash them off with the hose (cause I never make it all the way into the
house), and eat!!
Growing strawberries is an involved process but the yield is well worth the effort.
Site and Soil
Choose a site with full sun, fertile soil with lots of organic matter and a pH between 5.5 and 6.5. Avoid low spots where frost
tends to settle, areas where water puddles in Spring or after a rain. Avoid sites where lawn, strawberries, raspberries,
potatoes, or tomatoes grew previously.
Choosing Plants
Strawberries bear their first crop in as little as three months after planting. They will grow anywhere from Zones 3 through
10. There are two types of garden strawberries to choose from.
Junebearing Berries
Junebearing strawberries ripen a single crop over a week to ten days in late Spring. These are great for preserving because
you get lots of fruit all at once. Plant early, mid and late season cultivars to spread out your harvest.
Everbearing Berries
Everbearing strawberries bear two crops each season, one in Spring and a second, smaller one in Fall.Day-neutral cultivars,
such as "Tribute" and "Tristar" are a big improvement over standard Everbearing cultivars. They bear fruit throughout the
growing season. They have one big disadvantage: they will bear themselves to death if you ignore their needs. If you can
pick and de-runner them every few days and apply water consistently, day-neutrals are a strawberry lover's dream come true.
Start preparing the soil a full year before you plan to plant. Test your soil and adjust the ph as needed. Dig out every
perennial weed. Plant a buckwheat cover crop over the entire planting area. Mow or till your cover crop a few weeks before
planting time.
I find the Matted row system of planting is the easiest and most productive. With this system, plant crowns far apart in single
rows and allow runners to fill in the space between the crowns. This system is good for strawberries that produce lots of
runners (Junebearers and vigorous standard everbearers) ; it also requires less work than the hill system.
Set plants 18 inches apart in a single row running down the center of a raised bed. Leave 4 feet between rows. Straw or
other organic mulch is the best choice for this system.
Setting Plant
Strawberries are usually sold as bundles of bareroot plants. I follow these steps when I'm ready to plant.
1. Cut all the roots back to 4 inches from the base of the crown.
2. Soak the roots in compost tea for 15 to 20 minutes, then dust roots with a mixture of 2 cups of kelp meal plus one cup
bonemeal.
3. Dig a 6 inch deep, 6 inch diameter hole for each plant. Build a 5 inch high cone of soil and compost in the center of the
hole.
4. Drape the roots over the cone and fill the hole in with soil. Take special care to set each plant so that its crown is just half
covered with soil.
5. Tuck 2 to 4 inches of straw or pine needles around each plant. Then give each plant a pint of compost tea to settle the soil
and get growth off to a good start.
Training Plants
1. Remove all flowers once a week for three months after planting so the plants can grow sturdy roots.
2. Allow the plants to produce runners in the space between crowns and to spread within an 18 inch wide band along the
length of the row. Remove runners outside the 18 inch wide area every few weeks during the growing season.
Boil 3 quarts of water. Remove from heat. Put a raw piece of liver in the water and let it steep for 20 minutes. Remove the liver. Pour the liquid in a spray bottle and mist your plants with it. This method is effective with rabbits and deer, but has to be reapplied often, especially after a rain.
Harvesting
Pick your berries when they are red and taste good, since they won't ripen further off the plant. Leave the green caps attached till your ready to use them.
Renovating Beds
renovating your beds after harvest will lengthen their productive life.
1. After the last berries are picked, use your mower, set at 1 to 2 inches, to mow off the leaves and stems. Be sure the blade is high enough so you aren't cutting into the crowns. Use your bagger or rake to remove all the leaves.
2. Dig up any plants outside the designated row. Remove all weeds. Thin out some of the smaller plants so that the remaining plants are at least 6 inches apart each way.
3. When all the weeds and extra plants have been removed, spread a 1 inch layer of compost over the entire bed. Then water
the bed with diluted fish fertilizer and apply straw mulch.
Whether your personal favorite is a solid 1 pound beefsteak or dish of dainty cherry tomatoes, you can't beat the flavor of a home grown garden tomato!
One important choice to make is whether to grow determinate or indeterminate tomatoes. Determinate types are bushy and compact; the plants set all their fruit within about a two week period, and then decline. Indeterminate types are normally pruned and staked. The vines, which can reach 20 feet, produce fruit until the first frost or until they succumb to disease.
Site and Soil
Tomatoes need at least 6 to 8 hours of direct sun each day. ( In areas with very hot summers, provide partial shade). Tomatoes do best in a loose, rich, well drained soil with a pH between 5.5 and 6.8. Add generous amounts of compost or well rotted manure, and prepare rows. If your soil is heavy or your growing season is short, plant your tomatoes in raised beds.
Planting
If your growing season is long enough, sow seeds directly in the ground when the soil temperature is at least 60 degrees.
If your planting nursery grown plants, transplant them on an overcast day. Dig large holes for seedlings. Put one cup kelp meal and one cup of bonemeal in the bottom of the hole to provide potassium and phosphorus. Set the transplants lower than they grew in pots. If the transplant are large, remove bottom leaves and plant deep. Roots will form from the stem.
If your sowing seeds directly in the garden, plant them inch deep every 2 inches. Whether transplanting or direct-sowing, allow 1 to 3 feet between staked plants in rows spaced 3 feet apart. For tomatoes that will not be staked, space 3 feet apart in rows set 4 feet apart. Water well after planting, and cover with cloches.
Seasonal Care
Tomatoes need even moisture and regular feeding to produce the best yields. You may want to support your plants in cages or train them on a trellis. Staked plants have a lower overall yields than plants that are left to sprawl, but they produce more tomatoes per square foot. The fruit of staked plants is also less susceptible to disease and tends to have a higher vitamin C content.
All tomato plants tend to produce suckers- shoots that appear between the main stem of the plant and the petioles (stems of the leaves). You may want to prune off suckers to keep plants within bounds and to channel their energy into producing fruit rather than leaves.
Harvesting
Tomatoes are ready to harvest 55 to 90 days from transplanting. Fruits are ready to pick when they have developed their full mature color. You can also harvest them when they begin to show stripes of mature color. Let them ripen at room temp out of direct sunlight.
Here's one of my favorites!
The Gardener's Home Companion has detailed instructions on everything to do with gardening, from zone info to soil treatments.It's available at
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Credits
Grandma Patterson and my Gardening Bible-Rondale's Garden Answers-Vegetables,Fruits and Herbs.
Now, what to do with all these veggies and fruits! Check out Canning Tips for different methods of preserving all those wonderful things you have grown!