Country Wisdom & Know How

ISBN-13: 978-1579123680

Gardening is not intuitive and should not be taken for granted. Put seed in ground, water, harvest? It's not that simple. I have gotten green things to come out of the ground with that, but "harvest" has been more conceptual than practical.

I bought this book in 2007, and I've kept it on the shelf. I was reminded of it when I saw the most recent edition at the book store.

The edition I have has 8pt font, 400+ pages, and they are the size of a 1/2 sheet newspaper. I forgot how much I like to read non-fiction for fun, but this is A LOT of text to look at. I lost my momentum to read it cover to cover. The newer edition has three times the illustrations. I went at this with a mission though.

I started reading a couple of days ago. There is gobs of information on plants, gardening, building things for gardening, cooking things from the garden, feeding birds, crop crafts... - I got a little heady there for a minute. I'm just reading about gardening for now. 

I thought I had the seed start stuff down, but I was missing bits.

A lot of my doing has been aping my neighbors. I see some with shallow trays with soil and tiny seedlings. And I see styrofoam cups with bigger seedlings. In both cases, I've seen them carried out to the garden for planting, but I missed a step.

When people have been taking the tiny seedlings to the garden, they've gone straight into the soil in what I call nursery beds. They are used in high crop rotation gardens. There are two growing beds to each nursery bed. The most mature bed is harvested every day with fresh greens. The second most mature bed is growing, and the nursery bed has all of the seedlings. As the most mature bed is harvested, the medium seedlings are planted with a handful of manure in the empty spots. Two beds are constantly being harvested and transferred to while the nursery bed has new seedlings starting all of the time. Crops change as the weather changes. These beds are done in addition to crops that need longer grow time like squash and cucumber. 

I failed to notice how carefully the nursery bed is attended, especially in extreme temperatures. The reason those gardeners are able to move tiny seedlings outside is because the nursery bed is so carefully tended to mimic what others take for granted by starting indoors for a longer amount of time.

The coffee cup transplants have stayed indoors longer to get taller and stronger and only put outside when the weather stabilized. There is no crop rotation. Things are planted close together, harvested periodically through the summer, and by harvesting, the plants are thinned allowing the plants that stay in the ground longest to get the largest for a fall harvest. This allows for eating "baby" veg too, but with less variety.

Since I saw both sizes of seedlings go in to the garden, I assumed they were equivalent. When I grew my seedlings in my Burpee seed starter set to a couple of inches tall, I put them in the ground, they died. I bought plants from a vendor and they went off gangbusters.

My reading told me I should start seeds, transplant them into larger containers, grow them bigger, and then put them outside. I thought that transplanting and then transplanting again would be harmful, but I'm reading that not only is it necessary, it could be beneficial for the plant's hardiness.

I had started many seeds in shallow-ish plasic containers with seeds every .5 inch or so (like I saw in the first example I mentioned above). Today, I dug out the squash and zucchini seedlings which were nearly 6" tall with roots that were running around the sides of the plastic containers. I put them into individual plastic party cups. I also replanted spinach - which I realize was going to sprout like a bed of grass if I hadn't done something. The first spinach to come up had 1" stems with 1.5" leaves. They were floppy, but developing their secondary leaves. When I went through that planter box, I realized that the tiny seedlings that had barely broken through had super root structures. I transplanted all of the seedlingswith three to five per party cups I filled 20 plastic cups with the spinach alone! If I would have left it be, they would have choked. I'm going to grow spinach and herbs in a vertical planting system to save ground space. I think I'll have plenty.

B.Sprouts and cherry tomatoes are over 1" tall. I'll have to transfer those in the next day or so. Peppers are starting to emerge. Peas, which I started less than a week ago in Burpee seed starters are threatening to get huge quick, so I'll have to move those before they get root bound in their little starter pods.

I will have plenty of seeds to transfer and lots to give away. I think I'll do much better this year. 

I still have lots to read. More seeds starting and more seedlings to move. Traditional planting dates around here happen mid-May to Memorial Day. I think I'll be very ready to meet the day.

Rain tonight, ice pellets Sunday night, and snow on Monday. The weather is back to "normal." It's comforting.