Organic Gardening

Organic Gardening

Lots of people would like to grow their own organic vegetables, but don’t have the time, space or knowledge to make it happen. They think organic gardening is a lot of work – digging, tilling, and worst of all – weeding.  And it can be all of this.  I started organic gardening about 5 years ago and decided to have a victory garden done in beds.  My Mom has had gardens here in the past but had stopped working them.  So I purchased some mulch from a local outlet and started to work.  I reopened the beds Mom had made and started planting tomato plants and gradually over the years have added to it until I have quite a substantial garden space.  All planted in beds or areas that I have fenced in.  This year looks like it may be the best year ever in large part due to the efforts of my nephew who put in a watering system and helped us with every aspect of the garden.  I might add that this is his first efforts into gardening and he has learned most of what he has done by going on line and researching how to do it.

Planting and maintaining an organic garden is a rewarding experience. While many of the steps for making a new organic garden are similar to starting any type of garden, there are a few noticeable differences. For example, there is a lot more work up front, planning and analyzing the site. This work is essential for any organic garden: ideal conditions result in healthier plants, fewer pest and disease problems, and a more care-free garden.

I recently saw on TV where some folks had sold their house in the city and moved to the country to get back to nature and raise their own foods and enjoy the peace and quiet of the country.  Now they were selling their house in the country and moving back to the city.  They had determined that there wasn't much to do in the country and it was easier to just buy the vegetables.  Realistically, even if you do everything you can to make gardening easier, it is still gardening and requires a lot of effort.


Our goal is to produce quality vegetables but take out 90% of the physical work in getting the garden up and running.  I think we have accomplished some of this.  Here are the basic questions you need to ask when deciding to start your own organic garden.

• Where will I put the organic garden in my yard?
• How much sun will it require?
  
• How much room will an organic garden need?
• What water source will I use to sustain it?
  
• What materials do I need for a successful organic garden?
• How should I prepare the soil for my organic vegetables?
• What varieties of organic vegetables can I use?
• What organic vegetables will it make sense to grow and when do I plant?
• What are the easiest methods so that I can reduce the overall work required.
• How much time am I willing to invest in this effort.
  

I hope this blog will help answer some of these questions through our own experiences.  Perhaps making organic gardening so easy that your entire family will want to get involved and help with the process from start to finish.

Before you can start to answer these question you must first determine the goals for your garden. 

Goal Setting

Before you ever put shovel to soil, before you buy a single plant or seed, you need to know what your goals are for your new garden. Are you hoping for a pretty planting bed to give your home curb appeal? Maybe you’re planning a vegetable or herb garden, or that flower cutting garden you’ve always dreamed of. What you choose to grow will have a huge impact on selecting the site for your new garden. 

Whatever your goals are, it’s important to be realistic.  It is  best to start with something small and manageable. You can always expand beds later. Keep your hopes for expansion in mind as you consider your site. For us our goals were simple.  We wanted a garden space that was neat but the main goal was to produce organic vegetables.  In that we have succeeded in doing.



Question 1:  Where will I put the organic garden in my yard?

It is time to spend some time analyzing your yard. Where would be the best place to put a new garden? Keeping your goals in mind, start observing areas of your yard that look like they’ll work. If it’s an herb or vegetable garden you’ve got in mind, you’ll need a site that gets at least six hours of sun per day. You’ll also need to make sure that the site drains well—if it’s like a swamp in the spring and summer, it won’t work for herbs and vegetables, which prefer well-drained soil. If it’s an ornamental bed, consider placing it where you can enjoy it from inside your house as well. 
 
Question 2:  How much sun will it require?

This is a very important question.  After you have selected a site spend a couple of days watching the site to make sure it will be getting enough sun to grow your vegetables and/or herbs or other plants.   How many hours of sun does it get? Does it get bright morning sun, or hot afternoon sun? 


Question 3:  How big will I make my garden?


Now that you have your perfect site selected, it’s time to start digging. The first step will be deciding on the size and shape of your new garden. This can be done by putting down a garden hose and adjusting it until you get the size and shape you want, which is a good option for beds with curved borders. If you are going with a more formal, geometrical bed, you can use string and stakes to create an outline, or simply measure the size and mark your borders in paint.  Since I was using previously used beds this was predetermined for me. 


My next step was to remove the grass and other plants that were currently occupying the area.  If it is a small area you can simply dig it up with a shovel removing most of the grass and weeds/plants.  We used a tiller because our area was quite large.  A good garden requires good soil so I added compost and finely ground mulch to the garden.  Compost can be purchased if you do not want to make your own.  I purchased our first in bulk from a local garden center.   


You can also take soil samples to determine the nutrients and acidity level of the soil.  I purchased a testing kit from our local garden center.  You can determine your need based on what plants you are planting.

Question 4:  Water source?

We have a well for gardening so our garden bed was near the outlet for the well.  It was also near our city water outlet as well.  Gardens will need extra water so this should be a consideration for your site selection as well.  This year we have a complete watering system put in on timers with the exception of one small tomato bed which we still water by hand.  It has certainly made things a lot easier and has removed a substantial amount of time required for the garden.


.Question 5:  What about plant Selection?

This is the fun part: your garden is ready for plants. Time to hit the nursery and make your selections. A word of caution: most nurseries carry plants that were conventionally grown using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. They will bring some trace amounts of these chemicals into your garden. Also, plants grown conventionally tend to get almost “addicted” to the chemicals they are raised on, and will show signs of stress when weaned off of these chemicals. They will adjust to chemical-free conditions in time. 

It’s getting easier to find organically-grown plants in many home and garden centers. If you are starting your garden early in the season, you can select organic seeds and start your own plants.  I do a lot of this.  Organic plants and seeds will always clearly be labeled as such. There are also several good catalogs that sell organic plants. 

As far as the plants themselves, be sure to closely inspect any plant before you bring it home. Look for signs of insect or disease problems. Remove the plant from the pot and inspect the root system. Does it look healthy and robust, or is it straggly and weak? If the plant is root bound, you can still purchase the plant, but you will need to slice the root ball before planting so the roots will start growing out.

Question 6:  How about Planting?

When you get your plants home, give them all a good drink of water, even if you plan on planting them immediately. A thoroughly moist root ball will help your plant adjust better to its new surroundings, lessening transplant shock. 

To plant your plants, dig a hole just as deep and at least twice as wide as the root ball of your plant. Place the plant in your prepared hole, back fill with the soil you removed, tamp it in, and water it thoroughly.  Sometimes I put water into the hole and allow it to soak in before I plant.  This assures me that the plant will have plenty of water.


Once you have all of your plants in, give the entire garden a three inch layer of organic mulch, such as shredded bark, hay, chopped leaves, or grass clippings. This will keep weeds down while retaining soil moisture.  I cannot overemphasize this step.  You do not want to be hoeing all summer.  Now I have tried putting down black out covers and use these in some cases but the easiest to start with is just using mulch from your local garden center.  It works very well for us.


Labeling your plants now will ensure that you will remember exactly what you planted. You can do this by installing plant labels near each plant, or by making a map of the garden to keep for future reference. This will help remind you where plants should be emerging in the spring.  Also next season you will want to rotate your plants to different areas in your bed knowing where they are will help you with this as well.


There is some work involved in creating a new organic garden, but it will pay off in the years of enjoyment you will gain from it.  We enjoy ours and especially the food that comes from it.

Sweet Potato and Coconut Cornbread/ Gluten Free/ Low GI

I am spending my days trying to cook meals that are in keeping with the UltraMind Solution Diet and incorporate coconut which many people are claiming helps or improves dementia in alzheimer's patients.  This  recipe is healthy, uses whole foods, adds fiber to the diet, incorporates coconut and abides with the UltraMind Solution Diet and the blood type diet my sister feels she should be on. It is also Gluten Free and Low GI.   I took my standard G/F cornbread recipe and tampered with it and came up with a big hit.  The idea came from another website but my ingredients are fewer and easier to make.

Sweet Potato and Coconut Cornbread  Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup G/F Cornmeal
1/2 Cup Coconut Meal
1/2 Cup Sorghum Flour (Sweet White)
1 tsp. cinnamon (Ceylon variety - avoid cassia which is the most common cinnamon)
1 tsp. vanilla (G/F)
1 medium sweet potato cut up/boiled/mashed
1 to 1 1/2 cup almond milk (This may vary)
1 large egg - Free Range
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

Optional:
1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients together.  (Coconut meal, Sorghum flour and Cornmeal)

Add egg, vanilla,  coconut oil, mashed sweet potato to the mixture.    Mix together.

Add in almond milk gradually until the mixture is  the consistency of a regular cornbread cake mixture.  Not like biscuit dough which is too thick and not like cake mix which is too thin.  So the batter should be of  medium consistency.

Grease the Muffin pan with olive oil before putting in the batter.

Pour into Muffin pans.   Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes dependent on your oven.

Discussion of Ingredients:

G/F Cornmeal - Any brand is OK with me.  You can buy regular cornmeal (no cornmeal mix) from the grocery store dependant on whether you are gluten intolerant or celiac.  The best way is to bite the bullet and buy G/F.  I will say that I am going to use less and less of cornmeal because it is higher GI than other flours.  I have begun using Coconut meal for more and more things that I used cornmeal to make.  Coconut meal has a much lower GI value.

Coconut Meal - This is naturally G/F.  I bought this at our local Indian market and it was relatively inexpensive.  I wish that I had a grinder that would turn it into Coconut flour but nothing I have will do the job for me.

Sorghum flour - This is just one of the flours that I keep on hand but you could easily use blanched almond flour which is also low GI and Gluten Free.

Cinnamon - There has been so much controversy over the type of cinnamon that we use.  Cassia is the type of cinnamon that we find most often in the United States and is cheap and readily available. Ceylon cinnamon uses only the thin inner bark, has a finer, less dense, and more crumbly texture, and is considered to be less strong than cassia. Cassia has a much stronger (somewhat harsher) flavor than Ceylon cinnamon.  Cassia cinnamon contains a moderately toxic component called coumarin  and has been  known to cause liver and kidney damage in high concentrations. Ceylon cinnamon has negligible amounts of coumarin.  For that reason, I recommend using Ceylon cinnamon which may result in a slightly different taste in your cooking.  Cinnamon is also known to help lower blood sugar.

Extra Virgin Coconut Oil - I am trying to incorporate more coconut into our diet because my Mom has dementia.  I also have focus issues as well.

Sweet Potato - I keep these cut up and frozen.  I just took a few out and popped them in a boiler.  When they were done, I just mashed them up and they were ready.  You can also use a fresh one - Peel,  cut up and boil until done. 

Raisins:  I didn't use these today as we were eating this bread with butter peas and I didn't think we needed the sugar in them.

Family Comments:

My family loved this recipe.  I plan to try it again using organic apples or organic pears that  I have in my freezer that I put up this summer.

Squash Casserole - GF/Low GI

This recipe is one of our all time favorites and it is so easy.  I have used this recipe so many different ways.   In the past I have sliced potatoes  & ground beef into this recipe but no longer do it because of the high GI of potatoes.

Recipe Ingredients:

3-4  squash sliced thin
1 vidalia onion - sliced thin
1/2 stick of GF butter
 salt and pepper to taste

Optional:
bell pepper thinly chopped (about 2 TBLS)
carrots shredded - (1 TBLS)
almost any vegetable for color

Directions:

Layer squash then onions then a few pats of butter in a casserole dish.  Continue doing this until vegetables are used.  Cover with a lid or foil and  cook  on 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  (If you want to do this in a microwave follow the same procedure but cook for 15 minutes or until squash are tender -  I try to stay away from microwave cooking)

Discussion of Ingredients:

Squash:  Most often I use frozen squash from my organic garden.  I love being able to go to the freezer and pull out a quart package of squash and cook this recipe.  Tastes just like I picked it from the garden and cooked it.

Vidalia Onion:   I love cooking with these onions.  They are so good and especially in this recipe.  You can only get these onions  for certain months during the summer.  They say we can get it through December but I have never been able to find it that late in the season.   I look forward to getting fresh Vidalia's   every year.  This year I froze about 8 quarts of vidalia's to use this winter.   I prefer fresh but this works too.  If you choose to freeze onions you will want to double bag them as their aroma will permeate your freezer.

Butter:  If you have Celiac or you are  gluten intolerant you will want to buy GF butter.

Salt/Pepper:  I am trying to cut back on the salt so I increase the Pepper to compensate.

That's it.  So simple and easy.  Hope you enjoy.

Sharpshooter77

Freezing - Apples and Pears - Organic

I have been freezing fruits and vegetables that we have grown in our organic garden all Summer. Freezing or Canning is a great way of having wonderful organic foods without all the additives you have in bought goods all year long. A friend of our family has been bringing me organic apples, pears and blackberries this summer. I have been thrilled to get them.

I prefer freezing to canning for a number of reasons. First, it is easier and takes less time than canning. In canning you spend a great deal of time cleaning jars and maintaining the proper lids and canning equipment. Of course, I have all of the necessary equipment to can but presently have my jars stored in an out building. My Mother was a great homemaker and canned much more than I do. My health issues have forced me to find the easy way in doing everything.

I prefer freezing to canning because foods are not as likely to spoil. In canning bacteria may continue to grow. With freezing the bacteria will not grow until thawed out. The downside of freezing is that foods cannot be stored for a long period of time. Depending on the food, from 6 months to one year. Foods may become icy or freezer burned and start turning colors. While the food may still be safe to eat the taste may be affected.

Today, we put 5 quarts of pears and 5 quarts of apples in the freezer. Many people put their apples and pears up in different ways for different purposes. I do not do this. I like to be able to go to the freezer and take out apples and then turn them into whatever I want to use them for whether it is applesauce, apples for pies or cakes. Also, some people use anti-darkening agents and/or sugar. Again I do not. This is the process I follow.

Food Preparation - Organic Apples and Pears


1. Wash, peel, core, wash the fruit again and slice the fruit


2. Blanche the fruit ( Put a small amount of water in a large cooker and cook until it begins to get soft. You will need to keep an eye on it to keep it from scorching. Turn the fruit as needed.)

3. Cool completely

4. Get your containers ready -

I use freezer bags because I can lay the bags flat when they are freezing and can get more food into my freezers. Use thick ones that are made for freezing or double them if you don't have good thick bags. I also label them with the food item (i.e., pears, apples, etc) and the date so I know when the food was put into the freezer. That way I can use the items that have been in the freezer the longest. I keep the various items together on the same shelf as it makes a specific food item easier to find.

If you do not want to use freezer bags you may use any type of container that you have. Some people even use canning jars but I rarely do this as I am afraid that a jar might break and make a mess. I have never had this happen but I am very cautious using them.

My Mom used plastic freezer containers because they were reusable from year to year. I personally do not like them because I can't see into them. She put labels on them but she had to move things around a lot to find what she was looking for. She would also use butter dishes or other plastic containers. I like to recycle plastic jars as long as I am not planning on heating them in the microwave. I make my own chicken, beef, and vegetable broth to season foods and they are very handy for that. So literally, almost any container will do.

5. Fill your container leaving room for the food to expand. WORD OF CAUTION: Do not overfill your container. The food will expand and then you will have a busted bag to deal with. To fill the bags I put the empty bag into an Ice Cream container. Any food spillage will go into the container and I have found that my bag stands up better as it helps hold the sides up. .

6. Dry bags and Label with Food item name and the date.

7. Place in freezer so that it will freeze flat then they can be placed on other shelves and will stack neatly.


We have three freezers. We have two upright freezers which is my favorite and one chest type freezer. The chest freezer is difficult because food items will get down in the bottom and never seem to come to the top. This Summer one of our children unplugged the chest type freezer and we had a terrible mess when it was discovered. The good thing is that we cleaned it out completely. I try to keep things organized by putting certain items in there. I may put large turkeys in there. Currently I have my vadalia onions that I put up this summer in there. I plan to put my sweet potatoes in there as well. I use one of my uprights for meats and things I want to get into more frequently.

I hope you can use some of the tips I have listed here. Leave your questions as a comment and I will try to answer.


You may also want to check out my other blog by looking at sharpshooter77.wordpress.com .

Have a great day and Be Blessed.