General Gardening

Shepherds Hill Farm and Gardens

General Gardening

It was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine.

As you know, the first Gardener was our Precious Father God! He created His perfect earth as a garden. It was here that His creativity came alive. Oh, to see for just a moment the glory that must have been Eden. I understand His desire to spend part of each and every day walking through the garden - enjoying, breathing in, loving and communing with His children.

Here on Shepherds Hill we truly enjoy working the Earth. Plowing, tilling, weeding, planting, harvesting, and often just sitting and looking at the wonders. To wake up and go outside early and find the first peony bursting open. Or to bend down and move a leaf to discover the first pure red strawberry of the Spring. To see the blackberries change from white, to pink, to red, to shiny purple black! And the corn - the corn as it climbs to the sky - as if reaching out to embrace God.

Simple pleasures - yes, I suppose. Watching your babies go from toddling through and discovering worms to growing tall and strong and hearing them sing and laugh as they pick green beans and then race inside to start snapping cause "we're canning today"! Seeing them giggle as each one tries to fill the first pot with peeled tomatoes. Sauce or Salsa - which one will it be?

It is true that there are many, MANY more important things than composting or weeding. But it is during these times spent working the soil that I have come to know that my Father loves me. He likes me. And He forgives me and gives me hope for tomorrow.

One of the garden plots

With the help of Mr. San and his tractor!!

The New Garden

We are well into April and the urge to get into the garden is overwhelming. Our new farm is a learning experience from beginning to end and I must admit that I love the challenge. For many years I have been use to the typical Alabama clay soil for gardening in but our new home has much better structure in the soil – more of a sandy loam.

When we came to view the place for the first time we brought with us a shovel. Yes, we went out into the yard and garden areas and dug holes to see what kind of soil the place would have. Then and only then did we actually begin discussions on buying the place. For a family that is very connected to the land, the house was only part of the consideration to buy. It would have been pointless to purchase a new home if we couldn’t grow a good garden.

The area where we decided to put the gardens had a well established centipede lawn. It was lovely but absolutely useless. Lawns are very pretty, but to us vegetables, herbs and fruits growing is much prettier. So we began the process to convert that carpet of green into a rich and flourishing vegetable garden.

Where to begin? First, I recommend doing a soil test. You can get one from your county extension agent. There are directions on the package. If your test shows that you need to amend the soil then you can do that first.

So the next major part of the process is to remove any sod/grass that you have. If you want you can scrap up the sod and replant it elsewhere or you can till it all up and this is what we did. Paul bought us a very nice, large new tiller and we began tilling immediately. I have to admit that eventhough I knew the soil was good I was astonished to see black soil churning up instead of the familiar red clay. Paul and I had to stop and just look at it because we were so overwhelmed at the richness of it. Another thing that stunned us was the lack of grub worms in the soil. This place has not been farmed before and the soil has not been turned. I am really getting a new understanding of working with fresh soil. Lord willing we will be good stewards of this land and it will remain rich and perhaps even richer as we use the most diligent and healthy practices in making this garden grow.

Within a week of moving we made sure to begin our compost area. At the moment it is just a pile but we will be constructing bins to make it easier and more attractive. A pile works well but we want it to be closer to the garden than it is now and this will be in full view of our little road so we want it to look a little more orderly than just a huge pile of steaming dirt. J We place all of our vegetable waste, old animal bedding, and fallen leaves into the pile and we turn it a couple of times a week. Our main problem is that this area is fireant friendly and they have found the compost pile. I am trying to be diligent to pour boiling water on the pile regularly to kill them or at least drive them out. As the pile heats up this will help to get rid of them.

Within the next couple of months, along with the regular planting, weeding and hopefully harvesting of our garden, our goal is to add as much organic material to the soil as we can get our hands on. Our own animals will produce a good deal of manure and old bedding to add, but we want to get into the woods and find plenty of leaf mold to add as well. Erin has begun a small vermiculture box and is growing worms. As this develops I would love to have this be a large part of our gardening plan because there is nothing better for the garden than those ooey gooey earthworms!!! Be sure to check back often because from this point on we will be updating our gardening sections of the website often!

NO MORE GARDEN OF WEEDIN'!

One of the hardest things about gardening is dealing with the weeds that are inevitable in every garden! No one is immune and no one enjoys weeding. I want to devote a little space to the subject of how to get rid of and keep rid of weeds.

As I said before every garden has weeds. Weeds are any plant that grows in an area where it is not wanted. :-))) Morning glories are abhorred by many gardeners - but they are sold by almost every garden supply company. Why? Well, morning glories are beautiful plants, but when they are invading your corn they are just a menacing weed.

You must treat all weeds with the same mindset as you do any other plant. First, realize that all plants have a life cycle and certain criteria for good growth and reproduction. What do all plants need to survive? Soil-nutrients, water, light. When a plant is deprived of these things they cannot grow nor reproduce. Most "weeds" have become well adapted to harsh growing conditions in order to survive and so it is going to take a wise person to eradicate them from the garden plot.

Lets deal with nutrients first. The soil that you have in your garden is loaded with nutrients. Some plant can thrive in even the most pathetic soil. You cannot plant a rose, fertilize, mulch, and water that soil without all of that helping the weeds to grow as well. One thing you can do is keeping your focus on your plant. When I a putting fertilizer in my garden in preparation to grow tomatoes, I do not broadcast the fertilizer everywhere. We dig a trench/hole, put a small amount of fertilizer or composted manure in the bottom of the hole, and then cover that with a little soil. Then I plant my tomato plant on top of this. My fertilizer is right there for my tomato to take in. Get the picture? Spot fertilizing helps the plants you want to help.

Next we will deal with water. Here is the south we are dealing with a changing climate. Xeroscaping is learning to use native plants in a way to conserve water. With this in mind it is obvious that if weeds do not receive water they will die out quickly. If you water the entire garden overhead you are wasting a great deal of water and you are watering weeds. Why would you need to water the walkways between the rows? When we plant we use a sprayer on the end of the hose and water each plant individually or at least each row only where something has been planted. You can also purchase a soaker hose that is placed alongside the plants and slowly soaks the area.

Another idea I have read about but not done personally is to take a 2-liter soda bottle, cut an opening in the bottom and punch holes in the cap with a nail. Then you turn the bottle upside down near a plant, fill the bottle with water through the hole you made and then the water slowly drips through the cap into the soil.

Whatever you choose to do as far as method of watering, if you can cut down on watering the weeds then you truly have cut the weeding battle in half.

Light is another necessity for any plant. This is really easy to control. Mulch, mulch, mulch! You can put mulch, about 3 to 5 inches deep around your plants and literally starve the weeds from any light. The mulch will keep the soil moist and cool as well and you have triple the benefit. You can mulch with leaves, compost, mulching fabric, old newspapers, and old carpet - there are so many options.

One more idea is to block plant or wide row plant. The theory here is that the plants grow up and give a "canopy" over themselves so that no weeds can get light and grow. I do this with my bush beans, greens, and limas and it works beautifully. As we harvest we pick out any extra weeds that have managed to shoot up.

Lastly, let me talk a bit about the growth cycle of plants - weeds in particular. Weeds grow from runners, tap roots or seeds. If you can break the growth cycle then you can prevent the second generation of weeds. Obviously runners will have to be pulled out of the soil. Taproots have to be dug and I will add what my father-in-law Bruce would tell Paul when he was young. "Dig it all out, son or you'll have to dig it again." Truer words were never spoken - taproots go very deep and each little piece that you leave in the ground will grow another plant.

Finally - we will deal with weeds that come up from seeds. This really is a common sense point, but sometimes I lack common sense. Every plant's goal is to make seed to bring forth a new generation. This is how God designed them all. If you can get rid of the weed before it has time to make seed then you put a halt to any further generations. :-)))) A plant grows, makes flowers and then comes the seed. If you allow it to get to the flower stage you probably already have seeds.

There is nothing more precious than a little child blowing a dandelion puffball and watching the feathery wisps fly into the air. DON'T LET THEM DO IT NEAR YOUR GARDEN!!! Each of these sweet little puffballs makes hundreds of dandelions and they will invade every inch of your soil. So many times I have looked at all the pretty little tiny white flowers dotting the yard or the yellow teeny little daisy everywhere - soooo pretty! NOT! These are the precursors to weeds. Pull these before they can make seed and stop the future generations.

For our family gardening is a joy and triumph every year. But the one thing we all mutually agree that we dislike is weeding! As we try to end our weeding struggles I hope some of this helps you to realize that you can get a handle on yours. Just - KILL IT BEFORE IT GROWS!!!