Garden Prep

Today I'm going to start preparing my raised beds for spring. Yesterday I went to Lowes and got some landscaping timbers, and nails. Now were going to get all my feed bags out of the barn and were going to lay them out and begin. Here's the instructions if you'd like to build your own.
First you'll need 8 landscaping timbers. Second you'llneed 12 nails. They need to be big enough to drive through two landscaping timbers. And thirdly you'll need a form of weed preventative. You can buy it in the store or you can use newspaper. But I will be using my old feedbags that are lying in my barn floor. First you lay out four landscaping timbers in a perfect square. Next you will lay out your bags within the square. It's best to cut one side and spread them open. Make sure you tuck them under the edges of the timbers. Once that's complete lay your other four timbers on the previous four and overlap the corners. Then hammer three nails into each corner. This will prevent them from sliding around. Now when you're ready you can add your compost. Just toss it on top of the feed bags and spread it out. When its time to plant this spring your garden bed will be ready. I am thinking of a way to cover it for those cold nights that surprise us. I will post about that if I figure it out. I'm thinking of using pvc pipes and plastic sheeting, kind of like a green house. I haven't quite figured it all out yet. Well take a look at the pics below. I hope this was informative enough.

More on Gardening

Today I bought six blueberry bushes. I didn't get them planted because it started sleeting on me before I got home and it didn't let up til after dark. Tomorrow its supposed to rain early and then move out so I will get them planted tomorrow. I got three climax and three tifblue. Both are of the rabbiteye variety. The climax will fruit in the early season and the tifblue will fruit later keeping me in the berries just a little bit longer. I would say probably from May til July. I worked on a blueberry farm growing up. So I picked up a few things. I am pretty sure I will have no problem getting them to grow. I will probably try to propagate them later on, taking clippings off of them and dipping them in take root and then planting them in my little trays with a drip system of some kind and placing them in sunlight. The soil needs to have a high acid ph, so I will need to plant them in a potting mix with peat moss. For those of you who have never done it that's most of what you need to know. There is also info you can get on it. I picked up an info packet a few years ago from msu. They have a blueberry extension program near where I live. Blueberries are very good for you. They taste great too. I love making blueberry cobbler, blueberry jelly, blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, etc. There are so many different things you can make with blueberries. My brother even made a blueberry wine that was delicious. It wasn't too sweet and it wasn't too strong. It was literally just right. But my favorite way to eat blueberry is straight off the bush. I really think that fruit trees or bushes are the way to go when landscaping your yard. They are not only beautiful, they give back to ya every year. One thing you may have to worry about is birds. I've heard that if you put an aluminum pie plate in the berry bush its supposed to scare the birds away. I don't really know if this works, but I'm willing to find out. I just hope it doesn't look too tacky. Another great idea is pecan trees. But then you have to figure out how to outsmart the squirrels. I really wish I had a place and the know how to raise bees because they keep the fruit trees pollinated. I remember being in the blueberry field and having to run to the trucks as the bees started coming in. It was like all of a sudden this black cloud came flying in and all you hear is this big buzzing sound. As a kid I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I guess it wouldnt be if I had been allergic. The lady I worked for had something worked out with someone who had honey bees and they had a whole bunch of hives on the property near the blueberry field. I don't really have a good place to put honey bees due to the flash flooding. Everything that doesn't flood too bad is up around the house. My husband is allergic so being by the house would be a bad idea. I have no idea if my daughter is. I don't really want to chance it and find out she is. So anyway that's all for today. Well its actually already the next morning just looked at the clock and realized its 1AM so I reckon its bedtime yall. I hope yall got some good information about blueberries. Catch yall later, Country Mama

Get Your Gardens Ready

It's getting to be that time of year again. I'm getting my garden ready for planting. I also planted some potatoes today. I found an article on YouTube about planting potatoes in buckets. Well I decided to use a garbage can. I cut holes in the bottom and then I filled it about a quarter of a way full and buried my potatoes, sprouts up. As it grows I will add more soil to it. Later you just turn the garbage can over and dump them out. It should be full of potatoes. Or if you choose you can just dig them out. I can't wait to see if this works. I hope it does because we eat a lot of potatoes I plan on getting a couple more garbage cans and planting red potatoes and sweet potatoes. I love gardening but I don't really get a lot of sunshine except for one small area that I can plant a garden so I'm all for ingenuity. I love learning new ways to garden in a small area. I also like to can my veggies and fruit. There's just something about growing your own food that I like. I feel pride in knowing that I grew something that I can feed my family. This year I plan on planting tomatoes, bellpeppers, cucumbers, squash, potatoes, onions, cabbage only because the school sent one home for a scholarship competition. My daughter is determined to win. The kid who grows the biggest cabbage wins a scholarship. So we are going to grow cabbage this year.  I will be adding another raised bed this year so I can grow okra, peas and possibly corn if there's room. My daughter loves corn. I know it won't be much but were a small family of three. I think it will be enough for us. I will grow some things in big pots and I'm going to try to grow some watermelons out by the branch. I can't grow a garden there because it sometimes floods but I may chance it to grow watermelon. Who knows I haven't decided yet. Good Friday will be here before you know it. Get ready gardeners!
Country Mama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-s1U-W510k&feature=youtube_gdata_player