When we moved to the farm I knew nothing about gardening. I mean nothing! I didn’t know that there were cool season crops and warm season crops. I thought you went out one day, put all the seeds in the ground and waited for the bounty to begin! I bought some books and did a lot of reading. I knew I wanted to grow organically. My first attempt was a little 12 x 12 foot garden – seriously! It was successful enough to whet all of our appetites for a real garden! I went looking for something to help me plan a garden. I wanted a book that would say to me….in March you plant this, and this and this….and then I could turn to April and find out that I needed to plant this and this…..but I found NO SUCH BOOK! I found plenty of books where I could look up each individual plant, read about it and figure out when to plant.

I wanted something simple and easy to use. I also got lots of advice from farmers who have been planting all their lives….the advice went something like this…”Well, little gal, (in a very condescending tone with a smirk!) you jest figure out when you want to eat it, count back the days listed on your seed packet and plant it then”. I am sure there was a great deal of laughing behind my back! Think about it….who wouldn’t like to eat sweet corn on May 1st? But, I can tell you from experience that if you plant it in February you will NOT be eating sweet corn on May 1st! (I counted back on my seed packet – 😳) I offered to pay people for advice but what I often heard was….”I had to learn the hard way and you will too”. I must say that my initial opinion of gardeners wasn’t very nice. But I did learn!

We learned so well that we were the first organic growers at our farmer’s market.  We offered a CSA basket to dozens of families. We sold to a local upscale restaurant who loved our food so much they put  a note on each white-cloth covered table sending customers directly to us! We provided for all of our fresh eating needs and were able to preserve for most of our winter needs. There is something about serving Thanksgiving supper and knowing that every single thing on that table was the work of your own hands.

Over the years, as I have added new crops and done the research for each one, I have grumbled…I mean….promised to write a book to help newcomers to gardening. I wanted to write what I always needed – something to tell me what to do when, without having to look everything up in a variety of books. Something simple…something so easy to use that someone who had NEVER gardened could pick it up and be successful their first time. Well, I didn’t end up writing a book – I wrote a calendar. A PERPETUAL calendar.

The information in my calendar is based on 15 years of records kept here on our farm, along with some advice from local “old-timers” who were willing to share a bit about the signs to watch for in nature. I have begun to see the signs, cycles and patterns provided by God in nature and to plant accordingly. If we begin to recognize these signs on our own lands and in our own gardens, we can then plan our activities to work in harmony with them. I find that I am then rewarded with abundant harvests and less problems throughout the gardening season.

Now, my planting calendar is a strange calendar…it has no dates. It is a perpetual calendar…. you use it year after year. When you turn to April, for example, there is a list of seeds to start, a list of what you should direct seed into the garden, a list of what to transplant (from seeds you started in a previous month) and what should be ready to harvest from earlier plantings. You will also find out how to make an herbal infusion! There is also an area under each month to keep some of your own notes.

January gives you seed ordering advice with a list of recommended herbs, help in finding Praying Mantis cases to place in your garden for spring, a crop rotation plan and what to be doing inside and outside to prepare for the gardening season! June will help you fight pests, stake tomato plants and make terrific salsa along with the list of what to seed, transplant and harvest that is included in each month. Every month has garden tips and advice from fighting pests to saving seed. There are several of our most popular family recipes throughout this calendar too. I have included recipes using herbs – my Creamy Basil Dressing is one of my favorite recipes of all times!

At the end of the calendar is a list of my favorite seed and garden suppliers along with their phone numbers and websites. Almost everything I grow is open pollinated (so we can save the seed and save money!) and you will find that my resource list reflects this. I have also listed my favorite varieties of veggies and flowers. These are plants that I have grown and tasted and loved! There is also a copy of the page that I use in the greenhouse to record my garden notes.

You should be keeping notes on your gardening efforts – almost like a journal. Be sure to record what you plant and when, make a note on germination times, record where you put it in the garden and finally any pest/disease problems, how it produced and how it tasted. I have eliminated a lot of varieties over the years because we didn’t like the taste or it didn’t produce well. Also keep notes on the weather, temperature, rain, snow, sunshine, you will be surprised what you can learn by looking back. I also make a note when I first see the pests emerge – this gives me an idea of when to be looking for them. I will know to be prepared to fight the “bad guys” before they can multiply to enormous proportions in the garden!

Be sure to make a “map” of your garden each year. This is for your crop rotation plan. If you rotate your crop families, then you will eliminate a lot of pest and disease problems. We’re laying out our garden differently this year and I’ve made a new map – so I will know what I planted where next year.

I  use my calendar each month. I can take it to the greenhouse and know exactly what I should be doing. I also keep notes of everything I plant and the date I plant it, when it germinates, when it goes into the garden and how it does. I refer back to other years when something seems to be taking a long time to germinate – I can quickly tell if it is on time or if my seed is bad and I need to replant. I also look for pest information, weather patterns, favorite varieties (should I plant more or less of this?).

You will find that notes are good. I learned to do this from watching my Grandpa. He kept calendars for years…just short notes on each day of weather, pests, and planting times. I believe that my calendar is filling a need. I do a lot of public speaking and when I speak at garden events my printed calendars always sell out. People from other parts of the country are able to purchase online because I  added a conversion table for other planting zones. I guess there are many other frustrated gardeners out there looking for a simpler way to garden.

Perhaps more and more people are finding out that simple is good!

My calendar will be available as a PDF download when my soaps go up for sale!  I usually print it on paper and put it in sheet protectors in a binder.  That way I can keep my garden notes there and refere back year to year. You could also print it on 80 lb. card stock so it lasts. Remember – you don’t throw this calendar away – you use it year after year!

Are you growing a garden this year?  With grocery store prices steadily climbing (at least in my area!) it’s a very good plan! What garden questions do you have?

 

This morning we mixed potting soil.  Two of my sons live here on the farm and we worked together this morning to fill a container for the greenhouse.  I’m going to share the process and the recipe – it’s so much cheaper than buying it and you know everything that’s in it!

Here is our mixing area. In the background you see a corncrib that was here when I bought the farm over 20 years ago. We don’t raise corn for cattle (just for us) so we use it for storage of things we use around the farm that don’t fall into the garden, toolshed, chicken coop, fencing categories.

I bought a cement mixer at an auction – we have mixed our own feed, mixed cement for projects and use it to mix our potting soil in it ! It has an electric motor but you can also crank it by hand.  One of the best purchases I ever made – less than $100- 22 years ago!

We keep our recipe out here so we always have it on hand…there have been too many trips back to the house to retrieve that “recipe”! Please excuse the messy counter – farms aren’t neat and clean!  When you see a special on TV (i.e. Martha Stewart’s farm) just know that hundreds of people have worked hard for that photo shoot so you don’t see the nitty gritty.  For goodness sake…you don’t even see cow poop in the fields! How do they do that? Photoshop? Curious minds want to know!

We aren’t here to win an Instagram award – so we are keeping it real! Looks like I need to use that On Guard cleaner on that bench.  People..the struggle is real…if you have chickens you have chicken poop!  Our chickens free range so it really is a struggle! We do plan to close off this shed to reduce the constant “chicken poop” problem.  It’s on our project list….probably this fall or winter when we aren’t trying to get the garden going!

We start with peat moss….but we want to get the chunks out.  We dump it onto a screen over a trash can and just by moving my hands through it the finer pieces fall into the trash can below it.

It’s such an easy job that I can hire my 7 year old grandson to help!

We typically do a full bale of peat moss at one time and then store it in a trashcan.  See the larger chunks that are left?  We put those in a different trash can and save them to mulch the flower beds around our house!  We don’t want those in our potting mix because it becomes a real struggle for tender young shoots to try to grow past those large pieces of bark while trying to emerge from the soil.  We want potting mix that is fine and fluffy for seedlings while still giving them a punch of nutrients to start them on their way!

We put the peat moss in the mixer and begin adding the rest of the amendments.sometimes we use our own cow manure and sometimes (usually when we are in a hurry) we will purchase Black Kow to use.  If you don’t own cows or goats or chickens…Black Kow is a great option for mixing your own potting soil.  Just a note….this “recipe” can be made much smaller if you are growing a small garden. I have already used two trashcans of this mix in the greenhouse and I’m just getting started!

Once we get all of the amendments into the mixer – we begin to crank the wheel!

 

While Joshua is spinning the mixer, Elijah is using a tool that he made to help get anything stuck to the side back down into the center of the mixer.  We don’t want any pot to get a boat load of manure, or perlite or any one thing.

We are striving for a nice even mix of everything! You could do this in a large tube with a shovel – you DON’T need a cement mixer for this.  Just use what you have at home!  

Once we are done mixing – we dump that portion into the trash can that will head to the greenhouse! Joshua is wearing a mask not because of the virus – this poor kid is allergic to EVERYTHING that grows in TN.  Seasonal threats are high right now – our oak trees are dumping a boat load of pollen. On top of that, mixing all of these amendments also creates a lot of dust that bothers him.  Did you know that a blend of Lavender, Lemon and Peppermint essential oils will support you during seasonal threats?  Message me if you want more info on this!

We made 4 batches of this recipe today.  It filled the trashcan for the greenhouse and there is a little bit left in the mixer for when I need a “refill”!  A good plan because I go through this stuff like water!  I don’t buy plant starts….I like to start everything in my little greenhouse. From very early spring until we get ready for our fall garden the greenhouse is bustling with activity!

The guys even toted it down to the greenhouse for me!

Here  it is – I’ll be going through quite a bit of this in the morning or late this afternoon – I need to re-pot some plants so they don’t get leggy or stressed – that can cause them to produce poorly when they get into the garden! I used to sell my plants at the local farmer’s market.  I always did well because I took the time to re-pot everything.  I wanted people to buy plants that would be strong and healthy and produce an abundance in their gardens! When you are starting seeds, always remember to re-pot your plants as necessary so that they will give you an abundance of food all season long!

 

Ready for my recipe?  You should be able to get all of this at either a farm store or nursery!

This recipe is found in my Perpetual Garden Calendar. Oh!  I haven’t told you about that?  I’ll do a post on that soon but it will also be available when the shop opens for soap!  I created it because I was tired of carrying garden books to the garden – remember I knew NOTHING about gardening 22 years ago when I moved to this farm! I always said I would write a gardening book but I did better than that.  More details coming soon!

Happy planting!

Cheri

True confession time!  My life has been a bit crazy and stressful for the last few years and growing a garden was just not part of the plan.  Sometimes we have to pivot and change when life throws us curveballs don’t we?

I haven’t liked the idea of being unprepared for an emergency.  I have missed canning and knowing that I could feed my family no matter what because my shelves were filled with my own canned goods.

I was inspired by a friend of mine in New York!   I have never met Herrick and Marlene in person but have known them for some time. He’s an amazing inventor and writer – I encourage you to visit his blog. He wrote about a new kind of gardening he is trying and we are going to do the same this year – you’ll see more about that in another post coming soon.

This inspired me to get busy in the green house starting some seed. Oh dear!  I found so many things in dis-repair.  My little happy place had become very sad indeed.  It was filled with cardboard – our plan to fight the Bermuda Grass that has taken over our garden area. The 20 year old doors were in poor shape, the screen along the sides needed to be replaced…so much to do. But, we were determined to spend a day (or three!) cleaning it up!  What’s the first course of action? Move the temporary fence so the cattle can clean up the grass and weeds so you can get in the door!

Once inside – oh my the mess! Virginia Creeper and other weeds had taken over on the right side.  Cardboard was everywhere. The used doors we had installed over 20 years ago were shot.  Pots and flats were scattered everywhere! But we were determined to do this!

We got busy moving out all the trash, pulling weeds and “uninstalling” all the cardboard!  Elijah and I worked a good part of the day – it wasn’t hard…well…except for that Virginia Creeper – that stuff is tenacious! But, since this is an organic farm we just pulled it all and put it on the fire we built for the cardboard.

Although we found a huge mess (The Bad) – we also found some hidden treasures (The Good)!  Evidently a praying mantis or two found its way into the greenhouse to lay some egg cases on the Virginia Creeper.

Under a piece of cardboard against an end wall we found a nest…

They hadn’t been there long…I float tested those eggs and everyone of them was fine! By the end of the day most of the cardboard was gone, the benches were repaired, new doors ordered so we can keep the chickens out and new screen ordered for the side walls to keep cats, coons, possums, chickens and wasps and other bugs out! { Hhmmm….Why do the wasps like my greenhouse so much she wonders!}

There’s a bit left to do in this picture – I’ll post an updated one soon – all the flats and pots have been sorted, some given away and some tossed.  The “Ugly” part – well…I was moving to fast to take a picture when we found the lizards, spiders and skinks…oh my!

Next job? Mixing our potting soil so we can get some seeds planted – but I will save that for another post and I’ll share my recipe then for that potting mix! SO much cheaper that store bought!

Happy planting!