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“How to plant and grow Asparagus”

ASPARAGUS, one of the most delicious of all vegetables, is doubly prized because it can be had so early in the season.
From old, well established plantings, it can be cut for at least two months, or until other vegetables come in to take its place. Asparagus is a plant anyone can grow, and it will grow almost anywhere.

Even though asparagus is a plant that will grow in almost any soil, this does not mean asparagus will take care of itself. True, it will live on and on, and I do not know if it would ever die out, though utterly neglected, but, in order to get a fine harvest, it is necessary that the plant should be maintained and taking care of like any other vegetable in your garden.

There is no vegetable that you grow that will better repay good treatment. Asparagus seems to do best in rather sandy soils, but, it has been said, it will grow in all gardens, and do well if thoroughly manured, without much regard to the nature of the soil.

Heavy soils can be improved by working sand into them, until they take on a friable quality. Plenty of food is the secret of successful culture, with the beginner backyard gardener.

Asparagus can be grown from seed, or from roots, which nurseries, garden shops or mail order catalogs furnish in one, two, and three year old sizes. I would advise planting roots, as you will get plants of cutting size a year or two sooner than you will from seedlings, and they will require less attention.

Two year old roots are best. Conover’s Colossal is one of the standard varieties for planting in the north. The Mammoth is very fine flavored, tender, and prolific. There are several other kinds listed in the catalogs, but there is very little difference between them. Most kinds are good. There is not much difference in quality as there is in the size.

As a general rule of thumb, the larger type of asparagus are coarser than those of medium habit, but good cultivation will make almost any kind tender and fine flavored.

Plant the roots in rows four feet apart, and two and a half feet apart in the row. The crowns of the plants should be at least six inches below the surface. In order to get them deep enough, dig trenches to receive them, allowing for extra depth required for the roots.

Shallow planting is never satisfactory. Make the soil very rich by working into it liberal quantities of well decomposed manure. Cow manure is better than anything else, in the line of fertilizers.

Keep the ground free from weeds. Cover the rows of asparagus with coarse manure in the fall. In spring, fork this covering well into the soil, and add more manure. Keep the ground around the asparagus plants well cultivated throughout the season. If the growth is strong, some may be cut the second season.

You will find that a bed of asparagus will be one of the most appreciable features of the home garden and, it will remain good for a life time, growing better with age if the soil is thoroughly enriched each year, and weeds and grass are prevented from crowding it.

Whatever manure you use it should be well worked into the soil on each side of the row not simply spread on the surface. Get it down where the roots can get at it.

Happy Gardening!

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“Essential steps for planning a vegetable garden”

Setting up a home vegetable garden isn’t as simple as picking up your tools, digging and planting some seeds. It entails careful planning before you start growing vegetables. This ensures that you will have a harvest at the end of the season. Planning for setting-up a home vegetable garden consists of many steps: selecting a site; and planning the vegetable garden.

A beginner might think that, when planting a vegetable garden a lot of space is necessary for that garden. What they don’t know is that a 25 foot square area is adequate enough to grow vegetables for the entire family.

No matter what the size of your vegetable garden, plan on five essential factors when picking a garden site. First, there should be a source of energy for plants to grow. Hence, your planned vegetable garden site should be exposed to at least six to eight hours of sunlight per day. So, you have to cross out areas near buildings, trees or shrubs from the list of potential garden sites.

Another garden essential on planning is its proximity to the house. When the garden is close to the house, you are more likely to pay your garden more visits to keep up with jobs like weeding, watering, and controlling pests.

Soil is another essential to planning your vegetable garden. Having ideally natural rich soil isn’t always the case. However, the soil that you use should have the required nutrients and the right texture. In cases where you have heavy clay or sandy soil, you can improve the soil by using organic matter.

Water is another essential for a plants survival. The garden should receive at least an inch of water every week. Thus, the site should be placed near a water source.

The fifth essential to planning a vegetable garden is good air drainage. Locating the garden in a low spot like the base will only bring about the formation of frost since it is impossible for cold air to drain away. So, do away with these low spots and opt to locate the garden on high ground.

As mentioned earlier, the essentials to planning your vegetable garden is a major step in setting up the home vegetable garden. This major step is divided into two.

The first involves the selection of the vegetables to be grown in the vegetable garden. In selecting the vegetables, you should consider space limitations, climate and other factors that may inhibit the growth of the vegetables you want to include in your garden.

It is always best to look up which vegetables will grow well in your vegetable garden environment before including them in your garden. This saves you the time and the frustration of having nothing to harvest.

The last and final step in planning your vegetable garden, makes use of your artistic skills. This step requires you to make a diagram containing the kinds of vegetables to be planted, the distance
between plots and the time of planting. You can also put in the dates to remind you of the necessary tasks.

Vegetable gardening may save you a fortune in buying these products from the nearest supermarket. However, it isn’t an easy task. It requires at least the five essential steps for planning a vegetable garden as mentioned above to yield a harvest at the end of the planting season.

As the saying goes, you only reap what you sow.

Have a great time planting!

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“Planting a Fall vegetable garden”

Many have tried vegetable gardening during the fall season. A lot of those supports have failed due to lack of thoughtful planning and poor cultural practices.

Planning the maturity cycle of fall vegetables should be a top priority when it comes to fall vegetable gardening. The early days of August are usually the best time for seeding in the fall.

However, seeding shorter-season vegetables like turnips and leafy greens are planted a month after.

Soil preparation should be done after you decide on what to do with your previous spring garden. It may be a simple decision but before you destroy everything, save the ones that you need for the fall like your tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and your okra.

A fall vegetable garden should have a perfect seedbed. To make this possible, your soil should have a depth of 6 to 8 inches. Tilling your soil one to two weeks before you plant your vegetable garden is important. This makes the soil perfect for seeding because time allows the crop residue to decompose.

If you lack healthy soil for seeding, you can always add dehydrated cow manure or compost before tilling your fall vegetable garden.

During the spring and summer seasons, seeds are planted shallow however, in a fall season, in order to plant successfully, seeding should be at least one to two times deeper than the usual because the soils moisture level is lower than the spring and summer planting seasons.

As all gardening, water is one of the most important ingredients in providing healthy growth for your fall vegetable garden. Make sure that your garden receives at least one inch of water per week.

If you fail to provide a sufficient amount of moisture for your fall vegetables, it can create poor growth for your vegetable plants, to the point were you could lose your fall vegetable crop.

A fall vegetable garden can be complicated to the uninformed, but with reading and proper planning you’ll find it as easy as 1, 2, and 3.

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“Winter Protection for Raspberries and Blackberries”

Both raspberries and blackberries should have protection in winter, especially in the North East.

My method for preparing my raspberry and blackberry plants for the winter, begins by starting at the end of the row, where I gather all the canes from a hill, form them into a bunch, and bend the blackberry and raspberry canes down to the ground as flatly as possible, working them slowly.

By working the canes down to the ground slowly and carefully, I avoid breaking or cracking the stalks at their junction with the roots.

It is a good idea to have another person help you when this work is being done. Not using another person to help you would make this task difficult to accomplish.

Have one person bend the blackberry and raspberry plants over and that person hold the raspberry and blackberry plants down, while the other person puts a spadeful of soil on the plants to keep them in place.

Once this has been done, take the blackberry or raspberry plant from the next hill and bend them down so that its top overlaps the crown of the hill that was first treated. Continue doing this until all the plants in a row are flat, and in a line from one end of the line to the other end.

Once all the blackberry or raspberry plants have been laid down, walk along the rows and with a spade throw soil up against the plants. After this has been completed, cover the rest of the plants with a mulch such as straw or hay eliminating the remainder of the blackberry plant from being exposed to the elements.

You cover your blackberry and raspberry plants with soil and mulch, not to keep out frost as many might expect, but to prevent exposure to sun shine which extracts frost.

During the night the plant freezes again, and the frequent alternations of freezing and thawing result in a rupture of plant cells. The covering of soil and mulch keep out the sun, and the canes remain frozen, which is precisely what we want for our blackberry and raspberry plants.

In spring, after the frost has thawed out of the ground, remove the covering of mulch, and walk along the rows with a pitchfork, inserting its tines under the blackberry and raspberry canes lifting them carefully out from under the soil and mulch that was thrown over them in fall.

At first your blackberry plants will have anything but an upright look, but as the sap begins to circulate in them they will resume their old position.

Once the soil has been leveled down around your raspberry plants, apply some spring manure, such as: cow manure or chicken manure, either one will work fine, then your blackberry and raspberry plants can be tied to the wires attached to your stakes in the garden.

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“Pruning and Maintaining Blackberry Plants”

My system of pruning raspberries and blackberries, is so simple that there is really hardly enough about it to be called a system.

First I remove the stakes and wires used to train the blackberry plants because they will be in the way when the time comes to give the plants winter protection.

The stakes and wires for the blackberry and raspberry plants also interfere with the use of the cultivator, which should be run along the rows frequently after the seasons crop of fruit has been gathered, to keep grass and weeds from getting established among the plants, and to prevent the soil from becoming hard.

Once the stakes and wire for the blackberry plants are removed, I nip off the top of the young canes, when they are about three feet high. This encourages the production of laterals, and gives as much bearing surface as the plants can produce.

This is all the pruning my blackberry plants get, except in the cutting away of the old growth, after fruiting, and the occasional thinning out of young canes if there seems to be more than are necessary.

If a blackberry cane is pinched back when about three feet tall, it will not make more than a foot more of growth, that season, and this will make it just about the right height to tie to your upper wire in spring.

The ground should be well manured each season. Work the manure into the soil around the roots, so the blackberry plants will get the full benefit of it early in the season, when their fruit is setting.

By keeping the soil highly manured, you increase the size of the fruit and you secure a strong growth of canes for fruiting next season. By practicing this method of feeding your blackberry plants, they will in turn continue to multiply and produce fruit.

Indeed, if neglected for a single season, your blackberry plants will show signs of deterioration, and it will take some time to bring them back to the vigorous state they were before. If given proper care, the backyard gardener’s fruits will remain in healthy condition for 150 years.

There is no reason why your blackberry plants should not continue to be productive if you encourage your plants to fully renew them-selves each year.

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“Method of Training Blackberry Plants”

My method for training blackberry plants starts with one set of stakes set about eight feet apart on each side of the row, about a foot away from the blackberry plants.

These stakes should be at least four feet tall, and strong enough to stand the strain of two wires run along the blackberry plants from one end of the row to the other.

The first wire should measure about two feet from the ground, and the other wire should run along the blackberry plants near the top. During the spring, I tie the canes of last year’s blackberry growth, the fruiting stalks of the plants, dividing them as evenly as possible between the two sides of the row.

The purpose for training the blackberry plants is two fold.
The first reason, it helps support the canes in such a manner that the fruit from the blackberry plants are easier to pick during harvest time and the training helps reduce the chance of the canes likely falling under their own weight.

Secondly, their fruit is kept away from the dirt helping to reduce the chance of soil born disease. This also allows the new growth of the season to be tied up in the middle of the row where it will not interfere in the least with the fruit-bearing portions of the plants.

After the blackberry plant’s old canes have ripened their crop of fruit, cut them off. They have completed their work, and the sooner they are out of the way the better.

Next year the growth of this season should be
spread out and tied to the wires in the same manner, and the
plants allowed to renew themselves by sending up a growth of canes, as described above.

This process of blackberry plants goes on year after year. The old roots remain, but we get an entirely new growth of fruiting stalks each season.

This method works out quite well as it keeps the growth of each season apart, and makes it easy to remove the old wood.

You will run in to problems if you allow the growth of each season to mix with the previous season. If you allow this to happen, your plants will become bushy and serious injury can occur to your hands.

When this happens your blackberry plants are left alone, and after a year or two of neglect the plants fail to provide good fruit crops or “have run out”.

Many backyard gardeners fail with their crop of raspberry or blackberry plants for this reason. They figure the plants are no good and they end up pulling them out.

As long as you keep pruning your blackberry or raspberry canes after they have produced your crop of fruit, your plants will continue to produce a fruit harvest for you.

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I thought I would write a short post on one of the reasons why fencing around your vegetable garden is a good idea!

Around the end of May a week or so after Memorial Day I decided I would rototill about a 1200 square foot spot in my brothers backyard. I came back a couple days later to plant some tomatoes, squash, muskmelon, and the
Heirloom plant from seed “Scarlet Runner”. This plant germinates and sends out runners to grab anything that will support its ten foot vine growth.

Well it was late afternoon and the sky above started getting dark and gray. Eventually the dark gray clouds
started moving closer and a storm started, you could hear loud thunder and see quite a bit of lightening. I decided to pick up most of my tools and leave some of the vegetable plants outside to catch a little bit of watering from compliments of Mother Nature.

I went inside and had dinner with my brother two nieces and sister in-law. The rain came down hard and I could not see anything in front of me while looking out the kitchen window.

Eventually the storm ended and my brother and I noticed something about 300 yards out towards the back of the yard and we had no idea what it was. We finally walked out back to see what this big black object was. Once we got close enough we realized it turned out to be a snapping turtle.

She just sat there and looked at us after she pulled her head into her shell wondering who was going to make the first move.

My Brother and I decided to turn around and leave the turtle alone. I walked back to the garage attached to the house to put a way a few tools and plants that I would becoming back to plant the next day.

As I went back to my truck which was parked out in the backyard I noticed the turtle did a 180 and headed back to the pond it came from which was about 100 feet a way and six feet down the embankment into the pond.

I came back the following evening to finish planting my garden and all the plants were set to go at least for another week before I needed to go back out to the garden which is about 1/2 hour from my home.

Two to three days letter my Brother sends me an email with some attached pictures for me to view. In the title of his email he sent me, he wrote “Pretty Garden”. Not knowing what he was talking about, I had to open it.

To my surprise! What did he take pictures of? Yes you guessed correct snapping turtles laying eggs all through the garden in different areas.

About 100 feet from the garden my brother had a small pile of loam gravel and clay and in this pile were many eggs about the size of a quarter which my brother’s dog dug up and left. More animals came after this bonus surprise and helped their self. I never new what these turtle eggs looked like until I saw them uncovered.

To my surprise they were the size of a quarter with a leathery white shell on the out side of the egg.

Little did I know but this garden turned out to be garden central for the next three days for all the snapping turtles dropping by to lay their eggs and they all gathered around picking different spots in the garden.

So below is one of the pictures of the snapping turtle laying her eggs.

Here is one picture of a different turtle looking at my brother wondering what my brother is up to as he gets closer to her with the camera. This snapping turtle was in a different part of the garden during the same time the previous turtle was laying her own eggs.

Well, I will keep my eyes open with the hope of catching these turtles hatching from their eggs and heading back to the pond. If I do catch them then I will plan on posting them to this blog.

Turtle eggs gives a new definition to growing a vegetable garden.

This is just one reason to make a point of putting a fence around your vegetable garden.

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“Growing Raspberry and Blackberry Plants”

The home garden is not complete unless it contains such small
fruits as the raspberry and blackberry plants. They are second only to the strawberry in general flavor, and these raspberry and blackberry plants would be planted more often than they are
presently if the backyard gardener understood how easily the raspberry and blackberry plants can be maintained, and what wonderful returns these plants will make for the comparatively small amount of care they require.

The raspberry plant is much more widely cultivated than the blackberry plant, for several reasons:
1. It is considered hardier.
2. It yields more bountifully.
3. It is supposed to require less care.

The first reason above I consider it not that important because both raspberry and blackberry plants must be given some type of protection during the winter, especially in the north east. It is just as easy to protect the raspberry plant as it is for the blackberry plant.

While it may be true that the home gardener can pick more fruit
from the raspberry than from the blackberry, the raspberry is not the same in quality as the blackberry plant, therefore where quality is considered more important than quantity the home gardener should not overlook planting the blackberry plant.

Don’t get me wrong, the raspberry plant is a wonderful, tasty fruit and by all means is not an inferior plant, but the blackberry plant has a peculiar wine-like juiciness combined with its delightful acidity, makes it a general favorite wherever it is grown.

In short, while the raspberry is good very good indeed the blackberry is a little better. The impression that the blackberry requires more care than the raspberry is not really been proved, In fact, it can be grown quite as easily.

Both plants are grown from root-cuttings, as a general practice. Nurserymen produce their stock from this manner of propagation, and it is the best method for the home gardener to follow if you sets out to grow your own plants, because it is likely to give stronger plants than any other.

Old plants are dug up, and their roots are cut apart in such a manner that each piece reserved for planting has a growing point. These pieces, taken in fall, are put into boxes of sand, and
buried in the ground and left there over winter. A callus forms on each piece during the winter, from which roots will be emitted later on, when the pieces are planted in the open ground, in
spring.

The nature of this callus is not clearly understood, yet, but it some how in some way supports the root-cutting until roots are formed for that purpose. These cuttings should be planted in rows in fine soil, and left there until they have made considerable
growth. Then they should be transplanted to their spot in the garden where they are expected to bear fruit.

When planting small fruits, I would recommend you plant your raspberry and blackberry plants at one side of the vegetable garden, or somewhere where they will not interfere with the weeding and cultivating of your vegetable garden. Give them a place of their own, and make it a permanent one.

Most home gardeners will purchase their plants from the nursery.
Indeed, this would be the smart thing to do, unless you choose to save a little money and propagate your own stock from old roots which you can get from a neighbor who has plants to give away.

The plants sent out from the dealers will be one year old. These plants will have had one season’s growth from root cuttings. Set them out in rows five feet apart, and at least four feet apart in the row. Five, or even six, will be better, if you have plenty of garden space available, then this will provide you with more room to work with, among your raspberry and blackberry plants.

Your raspberry and blackberry plants will most likely cover half the ground the first season, if you give these plants a rich soil and keep them growing.

This will be necessary if you expect to pick a good crop of fruit from your raspberries and blackberries next year.

Remember to cultivate between your raspberry and blackberry plants most of the season. This will help your plants to become thoroughly established and they should start making strong vigorous growth.

If your raspberries and blackberries do not seem to be making as strong a growth as you think they should, then apply more manure, and work it well into the ground and around the roots of your plants.

After the first year, when your raspberry and blackberry plants have become thoroughly established, they will start to meet in the rows, and when this happens it will be difficult to cultivate between and around the plants. Here the hoe will come into play.

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“Growing Raspberry Plants”

Red Antwerp raspberry plant. Canes dark brown, long, short-jointed. Fruit
fairly thimble-shaped. Flesh firm, rich, juicy, with a fine,
sweet flavor. Ripe about the fourth of July.

There is a variety of a raspberry plant called Red Antwerp, generally cultivated, with small fruit,
readily broken into pieces, and wood of a reddish-brown color.

Franconia raspberry plant, is a hardier variety than the former, and does
better in colder latitudes. Fruit large, conical, of a bright red
color. Flesh firm ;flavor sharp ; rich and abundant. Ripe about the middle of July.

White, or Yellow Antwerp raspberry plant. Fruit are nearly as large as the
Red Antwerp ; of the same shape. Flesh yellow, very tender,
rich, and very sweat. Wood yellow ; a great bearer.

Fastolff raspberry plant. Fruit is very large ; of an oval, conical form. Flesh very rich, juice abundant, and makes a beautiful dessert fruit. It will never be a popular market fruit, being so soft that it will transport well, but will hold its place for home consumption. Ripe 4th of July.

Ohio Ever-bearing raspberry plant. Fruit conical ; color black ; large size, produced in clusters on the points of the shoots. Flesh dark-red, juice not very abundant, produces through the whole sea-son till frost, and quite indispensable on this account. Wood strong, of a dark purple color.

PROPAGATION.

This is of the easiest character. Give the raspberry plants rich, deep, sandy loamy soil, and they will send up an abundance of suckers every season, each of which will form a plant and produce fruit the following year.

PLANTING.

Raspberry plants should be put out in rows three feet apart and four feet from row to row. Give the raspberry plants plenty of manure every year. Dig deep, but not close to the bottom of the raspberry plant. An area partially shaded, or naturally moist, though not wet, is the best spot. Plants will last for years if properly attended to by enriching the soil every year.

PRUNING.

Pruning Raspberry plants, can be reduced to a simple rule. In the Autumn cut out all the old wood that produced fruit the past summer, close to the ground ; tie up the new shoots to a stake or trellis, about five feet high ; then cut off about a foot of the tops of the shoots, and the work is done. In colder areas the
raspberry plants, after having been deprived of their old wood, have to be laid down all Winter, and covered with earth, Spruce, or Pine branches, till Spring, when they are lifted and tied up as above.

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“Raised bed gardens”

A step up from the traditional garden!

Limited space in your backyard shouldn’t stop you from planting vegetables in your garden. There is always a way to conquer this shortcoming. It involves the use of a raised bed. A wooden frame filled with a soil describes a raised bed often used in gardening. Using this structure, you can grow plants above the level of the grounds.

Having a raised bed garden has its own advantages since it’s flexible and easy to use. For instance, the soil mixture is easily controlled in raised beds since you can dictate the content of your soil mixture. You can actually come up with the soil mixture that contains all the nutritional requirements of the crop that you are going to plant in your raised bed. However this isn’t the only good thing about this type of garden.

Adjustable height is another one of the numerous benefits of a raised bed garden. Moreover, it gives you more space for planting with this type of design so you don’t have to step into the bed to maintain it. This allows you to produce more vegetables and fruits.

Raised bed gardens also make maintenance easy. In raised beds, weeds and pests are easily removed from the bed. The number of black plastic mulch used in controlling weeds is significantly lessened. Your crops also become unavailable to rodents and pests for their consumption.

Another great advantage involves making watering easier and more efficient. Only areas where plants grow are irrigated. Moreover, you don’t have to walk in between your garden rows.

In a raised bed garden, soil and plants can easily be changed. During the summer, you can plant annuals. Then you can easily replant the bed with bulbs in the latter part of the growing season.

Soil in raised beds will warm up sooner during the beginning of the growing season since there is less soil area that needs to warm up to the surrounding temperatures. This enables you to start your vegetable seeds or transplant vegetable plants sooner.

By having a raised bed with your garden soil heating up sooner this will help extend your growing season and allow you to have more plantings and more harvest per growing season.

Lastly, creativity is tapped when it comes to raised bed
gardening. Building a raised bed requires you to make use of different kinds of materials such as hardwoods, bricks, stones, and even recycled materials. So you really have to make your imagination work in order to make an effective yet attractive raised bed. The material for a raised bed garden can be endless.

The nice concept to raised bed planting is the flexibility you gain based on what you want to plant and the advantage to getting an early jump start to the growing season.

Having a raised bed garden has its own advantages. Sometimes, under certain conditions, it is much better than a traditional garden. So take a look at these raised bed gardens to see which type of garden fits your life. So let your imagination run wild!

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