Planting Weeks and Weekends

One of the main sources of food for the pioneer family was the vegetable garden. The pioneer family either brought seeds with them or bought them once they arrived to their new home. Producing a thriving garden was essential in feeding the family. The vegetable garden’s success had a great impact on the family’s nutrition intake and whether they would be able to survive in their new location.

Growing a kitchen garden in the pioneer days as well as today takes planning, time, money and energy. It does take knowledge and experience to grow a garden. Unfortunately the only way to get this knowledge and experience is through on the job learning, which means you have got to garden to become better at it. Gardening sometimes can be fickle, what worked or grew well last year may not do as well this year. Gardening is dependent on things we sometimes cannot control such as the weather.

Gardening is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding things you can do for yourself and your family. When you garden you are saving money and providing healthy food for your family. It is always exciting when you can go out to your own vegetable garden to select what you will feed your family for supper. The taste of these fresh vegetables is wonderful and full of nutrition. 

It is now March and our last day for expected frost is the 15^th of this month. But, I have also seen freezing weather as late as April so this March 15^th is just only a guide. Now that it is March it is time to get some seeds in the garden.

Husband tilling corn field.

I am planting sweet corn.

Planting rows of corn.

The main thing I need to get planted is the corn crop. My husband tilled up the ground in the corn field. I used my triangle shaped hoe and made my lines in the ground where I will place my seeds. The lines are about 1 ½ to 2 inches in depth. I made four planting rows then I left a small walkway about two feet wide, where I can walk between each set of four rows. I dropped corn by hand into the lines I made about six inches apart. I covered each seed with soil. I then had a bit of space left in my corn field where I transplanted sunflowers, cantaloupes and watermelons from the greenhouse.

Cantaloupes in greenhouse are ready to be transplanted.

Cantaloupes planted in the field.

Sunflowers in greenhouse ready to be transplanted.

Newly transplanted sunflowers.

Watermelons in greenhouse ready to be transplanted.

Watermelon transplanted to the field.

In my raised beds I had to remove weeds and add a bit of soil topped off with compost. In these raised beds in my garden I transplanted tomatoes, squash, zucchinis and peppers from the green house. I then mulched around each plant with a good four inch deep of free wood chips I got from the tree cutting company that was cutting trees along the roadway a few months ago. After mulching I had to lay wire across the vegetable beds supported by either bricks or wood so as not to squash the plants. This wire is used to provide protection for my plants against critters in my garden that are inclined to dig and eat around my plants.

Squash in greenhouse ready to be transplanted.

Squash planted in rasided bed with wire to protect it from critters. Wire will be removed once plants are established.

Tomatoes ready to transplant in the garden.

I will add tomato cages around the tomato plants to support the growing tomatoes.

Zuchinni ready to be transplanted from the greenhouse to the garden.

Zuchinni planted in garden and is critter proof.

Planting a vegetable garden is not complicated but it is time consuming. I thought I could plant my garden in a weekend. Wrong!  It took all of my weekends in March and I still have a few things to get transplanted such as my herbs and okra. Oh well, bit by bit I will get it done.