agricurious.com

It’s funny how the arrival of a couple of really pretty days has the power to really brighten someone’s outlook about things!  As soon as the snowy, blustery, gray, dull and dreary skies of Januaary and February cleared, a bit, I found myself starting to really think about Spring and the gardening year to come!

So, the plot has not changed, much from last year to this…I have, as usual, let the prevailing grass and weeds overtake the plot for the winter, but I have a sneaking suspicion that, this year, I’m going to rely a lot more on a good layer of mulch to keep those at bay than I have in the past! 

So, the first few tasks have appeared on my to-do list, such as: 1) Take a good look at the last 2-3 years’ plans, and determine where to rotate this year’s crops,  2) have the tiller serviced and okayed for takeoff, 3) spend some time deciding exactly WHAT and HOW MUCH I want to try to grow this year.

I shouldn’t have to extoll the virtues of crop rotation, but I will say that the practice of not planting the same families of plants in the same area for 2-3 years makes a huge difference in the nutrients left in the soil and in helping plants resist diseases.

This is a great time of year, before tools will start being used intensively, to inspect, clean and repair anything that might need a tuneup or sharpening.

The two biggest questions of the Spring garden planning season are WHAT and HOW MUCH?  The answers to these 2 questions will help determine exactly how much time and energy will be required to meet your gardening goals for the year. 

Did you have as many tomatoes as you thought you would last year?  Did you, in fact, put up all that tomato sauce you thought you would?  Do you like the idea of having your own home-made, organic frozen or canned sauce available in the dead of winter?  

Just a cautionary note–those first few Spring days may make you want to plant HUGE amounts of EVERYTHING, so beware!  Do you want to weed, feed and nurture huge amounts of everything?  Do you, realistically, have that kind of time?  It may be better to encourage small amounts of high-quality, properly cared-for produce than to produce large amounts of pest and disease-ridden plants with sub-par fruit.  Think about it–there’s no crime in starting small!

Whatever you decide, have a beautiful Spring!  I promise to do a much  better job of checking in from time to time to let you know how my decisions have played out!  Happy Gardening!

This was really a great weekend!  For a guy who’d committed himself to having a big, productive garden this year, I had gotten terribly behind in my weeding and maintenance.  Thanks to my odd work schedule and all the Spring rains, the weeds were literally about to take over the garden.  Fortunately, this weekend, that all changed!

I worked a few hours on Saturday to make up for some time during last week, then came home, took a nap, and headed out to do battle!  I started with the broccoli/watermelons in bed 10 and moved to the peppers in bed 15.  Looked at as a whole, I didn’t think I’d ever get caught up!

By spending 30 minutes here and an hour or so there, I’ve worked back through all the weeding!  It’s sad, but I actually discovered 3 small lettuce plants in the process.  Now that they have a bit of elbow room, they may even survive and thrive!

Other activities this weekend included putting some compost tea on the beans and harvesting the first of the peas.  Look for updated pictures soon!

I’ve had a really nice day, today!  Due to some pretty odd circumstances all coming together to make a very cool whole, I had a chance to spend a good bit of today puttering around my garden!  It’s been more than a little while since I last posted an update, and I feel it is time to get you up-to-speed.

One of the most-recent additions to my yard is my sunflowers.   These are about 2 weeks old.

The peas are the real stars of the show at this point.  They were planted on 3/22, and have little pea pods all over the place! Here’s a shot of the Snowbird variety from bed 2:

And their pretty little blooms!

Also growing right along are my garlic 

the broccoli transplants 

the mustard greens (beautiful!),

the peppers

and the watermelons.

There were a couple times, there, a few weeks ago, when I was starting to wonder if any of it would ever grow.  It’s really hard to believe now!

Next up, it’ll be time to start eating those lovely peas and replacing those pea plants with cucumbers and tomatoes!

What a busy Winter it was, and what a busy Spring it’s been!  One of my goals for this year is to grow more of our own food than we have in the past, and, to do so, I had to reclaim a good portion of my back yard from the grass.  SInce this Spring has been a wet one, I’ve gotten a little behind on my cultivating and planting.  But, on this gorgeous Easter Sunday afternooon, I will take advantage of the slightly moist ground and the beautiful warm sunshine and get back on track!

So far this year, I have managed to plant 5 beds of peas, some lettuces, garlic, radishes and onions.  To get back on track with my plan, I will need to plant broccoli, carrots, beans, spinich, and sweet potatoes.  So, this afternoon, I will be outside happliy becoming more grounded, soaking up some sunshine and reconnecting with the tradition of nurturing your own food.  Margaret Atwood said, “in Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”  Today should not disappoint!

I think I may have discovered something about myself over the last little bit.  Yes, I’m curious about big agriculture, but I’m also every bit as curious about how backyard gardeners get things done. 

I haven’t posted anything for quite some time, but I’ve been busy putting together what I’ll be doing in my own backyard garden this spring and summer. 

My family always had a garden when I was growing up, and, frankly, I hated working in the garden as a kid.  However, I’ve always had an interest in the self-sufficient lifestyle, and, last year, I planted my first attempt at my own garden.  Last summer we discovered the joys of fresh bush beans, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and Japanese eggplant (prolific like you wouldn’t believe!)! 

Well, you might say I got bitten by the bug–we had a nice little harvest last year, but I started thinking about upping the ante.  For one thing, we got started late last year, and our peas never produced a thing.  I knew that even with our little plot we could do more, and I wanted to figure out how to get the maximum yield.

Last year’s planning and execution was based largely on Storey’s Basic Country Skills, and it made a teriffic introduction.  To really go for maximum production, I went on the hunt for some books that could help me put together a real calendar of garden work.  In the process, I found two extraordinary books–Jeff Ball’s The Self-Sufficient Suburban Garden and Sal Gilbertie’s Home Gardening at its Best. 

Jeff convinced me that I could produce a year’s worth of several veggies in my little plot, and Sal helped me put together the “when.”  So far, here’s how my calendar has been working.

I’m working in Zone 7 with an average last frost date of April 19th.  You will definitely need to make adjustments to your calendar based on your average last date of frost.

Based on Sal’s recommendations, I needed to start onions from seed indoors on January 25th.  Seeds need plenty of moisture and light to germinate and grow properly, so I bought one of those 72-unit miniature greenhouses with the peat discs, loaded it up with onion seeds and arranged a fluorscent light with a timer to provide enough supplemental light so the seeds get 16 hours of light a day.

The seedlings?  They’re doing great!  They will be transplanted as part of the First Planting Group (along with the peas, garlic, shallots, leeks and chives) on March 22nd.  I’ll get some pics posted very shortly!

Keep coming back–I’ll keep you up-to-date on how the garden grows!

A good place to start is Why–Why did I put together a site called agricurious.com? 

Well, I’m sure a lot of it has to do with growing up in rural North Carolina in an old house on a dirt road surrounded by fields.  I’d smell the earth being plowed each year, hear the noise and commotion of the large tractors and equipment as the crops were being planted, watch as it would get harder and harder to see the road beyond the growing plants, and, finally, see the equipment return as the crops were harvested. 

The sad part is that, at the time, I took the processes of organized agriculture completely for granted.  Even though I was perfectly situated to learn a lot about what made the world of food and other agricultural products work, I missed the experience almost entirely.  I say “almost” because I gained a small appreciation of what it takes to grow food crops from our family garden, and I worked in tobacco a few summers.

I was fortunate enough to go to a high school that had a chapter of the FFA–the Future Farmers of America.  Unfortunately, since I had other ideas of what I’d do with my life, I never took a course in agriculture.  It’s only in recent years that I’ve caught myself driving to or from work and wondering what was being planted in this field or what that particular piece of machinery did. 

So, slowly but surely, over time, I became…agricurious!  Thank you for joining me as we discover more about how crops are planted, raised and harvested!

Thank you for taking a moment to check us out!  Check back often for an in-depth look at how various crops are planted, cared for, harvested, processed and shipped to the consumer!

If you’ve ever been curious about where your food (clothes, fuel, etc) comes from, keep checking here for the answers!