It's January and that means it's time to start planning!

 Hello Everyone! Happy New Years ( I know its 4 days late)!!!  So one of my biggest questions that I get is when is it time to start preparing for your garden and livestock rotation.  The way I was raised and the way I used to do things are two separate ideas.  I was raised to start planning the garden in January.  What I have been doing until recently is wait to the last minute.  In this blog, I will be going over why it is important to start planning in January.

So yes I am a huge procrastinator and one thing 2020 taught me was that I need to get rid of that flaw immediately.  So here it is 2021 and I am taking on what was passed down to me when I was a kid and it did help tremendously because we were never out of food.  So January is the best time to start planning what you are going to do with your garden and livestock.  The main reason is that you can start getting prepared and start growing the food you need at the beginning of the growing season.  This way if something goes wrong, you have the whole growing season to remedy the issue instead of a couple of weeks.

So this is what you need to do (or at least what I do).  Grab a notebook and write down what you would like to grow.  Then look up when do these items grow (such as in the southeastern region of the United States iceberg lettuce can be planted in January).  Find out what do these plants need to be successfully grown, like does it need full sun or partial sun just to name one example.  Now survey the area where you want to grow your vegetables at and draw it in your notebook.  Start marking where you would want to grow items.  If you plan on growing in raised beds then start getting the materials ready to make your raised beds.  Or if you plan on growing in the ground, then you need to start preparing the soil for what you are growing.  And then finally figure out where you want to purchase your seeds.

When it comes to livestock you need to take a few things into consideration.  For instance are you new to raising this livestock or have you already raised them and need to replenish your herd or flock.  Another thing you need to look at is whether or not you have an area prepared for the livestock you are getting.  And finally if you have the materials for the area to either build or make repairs.  For my family and farm, we eat a lot of turkey and chicken.  And we raise chickens in a rotation so right before we do our final harvest we have order new chicks to start the cycle all over again.  Our turkeys are different. We initially purchased 15 turkeys but lost 4 prior to harvesting time because turkeys are harder to raise (this topic will be a totally different blog post).  However, the plan when we first purchased the turkeys was to be able to raise a flock that would multiply and we are doing this buy keeping 1 tom (gobbler) and 3 hens.  This way we could have up to 45 turkey poults the next year and that could be extra income for the farm and enough turkey to help sustain us for the year.  

These are the steps that I do (now and as a kid) prior to getting ready for the year's growing season. Some of the places that I get my seeds are Seeds of Change (seedsofchange.com) and Burpee Seeds (www.burpee.com).  And I get my chickens and turkeys from Welp Hatcheries (www.welphatchery.com).  I hope you find this informative and feel free to follow us.  

Don't Have Much Space, No Problem Container Garden!

One of the biggest comments that I hear about gardening is that they don't have much space or live in an apartment.  My response is the same to everyone who says that, no problem you can grow veggies and herbs in containers on your porch or even in your apartment.  There really shouldn't be a reason why you can't grow your own food.  This way you will know where it is coming from and how fresh it really is.

So here are a few things you can look at when it comes to growing your own food in your container garden. 1) What are wanting to grow? 2) How big do the plants get? 3) Does the plant need a pollinator (like bees) or are they self pollinating?  4) How big of a space do you have?

So probably the most important of the four questions is how big of a space do you have?  Why is this important? Simple, you need to know if you can spread out or if you need to go vertical with your plants.  I have built in the past a compact vertical system that included 3 rows of 5 Home Depot buckets.  The back row had tomatoes, the middle row had green beans, and the front row had lettuce.  And this was when I lived in an apartment and had a balcony.  My neighbor had multiple flower pots around her balcony with herbs and lettuces because she had a larger balcony.  And then if you have a small yard you can do pots as well.  It is all about what you are looking for.

Now here comes the meat and potatoes, what are you wanting to grow?  Its hard to have a garden when you don't know what you want to grow.  Are you wanting to have an herb garden or a salsa garden?  Or are you wanting to vegetables that you eat regularly?  These are important questions because you need to know what you want to eat.  For example, I knew in my apartment that I like to eat fresh green beans, have salads, and I loved tomato sandwiches.  So that is what I grew.  One good thing about the seed companies today are they sell seeds for salsa gardens or herb gardens.  One good company that has an great reputation is Seeds of Change.  I have found their seeds to be very good and at Tractor Supply stores.  Another good seed company is the Black Duck Brand Seeds which you can find on Amazon in assorted packs.  If you are not comfortable with seeds and you just want the plant, you can go to stores like The Home Depot, Lowes, or Walmart and buy the plants and soil and get a little head start.

Another key question for where and how big of a space you need is how big do my plants get?  This is key because some plants like cucumbers, squash, and pole beans like to vine and take up a lot of space, which means you would more in likely want to vertical garden.  Other plants will bush out like bush beans.  And one question that would tie into this would be are the plants self pollinators or do they need bees to help pollinate.  This is key because plants like spinach, lettuce, and cabbage don't need any help with pollinating.  But tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers need the bees, so unless you want to pollinate these plants with a Q tip they would be better to be used outside.   And if you are going to plant inside you might need a grow light to ensure your plants are getting enough adequate light to be able to grow and not get stunted growth.

I hope this helps point you in the right direction with what you want to grow and that you can virtually grow anywhere.  You don't need acres to have a garden, you can have one in your backyard and porch.  Heck, we have a container garden and a regular garden.  So you can do both.  Have fun with it and enjoy the fresh veggies that you will be getting from your own container garden.

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