Organic Heirloom Gardening Wannabes

After years of resistance, My hubby finally convinced me to start our own organic, heirloom garden this year. I'm thrilled and terrified all at the same time. I've always gleaned from everyone else's gardens. However, after watching the documentary, "Food, Inc", an instant play Netflix, I was never so motivated.  I asked around to find out where I could buy heirloom seeds and it turns out there is a local company who carries heirloom seeds. They ship everywhere. I checked out their website at http://www.abceeds.com/ and decided to load the kids up, go down to their warehouse, and save some bucks on shipping. So glad I went in and talked to the owners. They were super helpful and patient as my kids ran around their warehouse. Luckily, they had lots of redheads in their family, so they gave them a lot of grace ;-) He was a master gardner and answered a ton of my questions. He said he has a lot of advice on his website, too.

I bought 24 packs of seeds. I know, I'm crazy! If you don't know me, when I do something, I do it with gusto. I can't help it! I've gotta live and learn I guess. My goal is to fill my freezer with as much "fresh" produce as possible, so I don't have to buy veggies during the winter for cooking. It seemed expensive, but some of these seed packs I can split out with friends and family, and I shouldn't have to buy seed again if I save some back each year. So I guess it seemed like a good investment. Here is what I bought, all heirloom varieties:

Purple Top White Globe Turnip- 25 seeds

Cherry Belle Radish- 400 Seeds

Waltham 22 Broccoli - 25 Seeds

Cauliflower-Bonney

Sweet Onion (Bulb) - 150 Seeds

Gold King Carrot- 250 Seeds

Cucumber - 15 Seeds

All Seasons Cabbage - 25 Seeds

Salad Bowl Green Lettuce - 25 Seeds

Blue Lake 274 Bush Bean- 50 Seeds

Oregon Sugar Pod II Pea- 50 Seeds

Santa Fe Grande Hot Pepper - 15 Seeds

Grande Pepper- 20 Seeds

California Wonderbell (Bell Pepper) - 15 Seeds

Hales Best Jumbo Cantaloupe - 10 Seeds

Crimson Sweet Watermelon- 15 Seeds

Tall Utah Celery- 25 Seeds

Dill-Long Island Mammoth Herb- 2 grams

Sage Herb- 2 grams

Thyme Herb- 2 grams

Oregano Herb- 2 grams

Coriander-Long Standing (Cilantro) Herb- 2 grams

Parsley Herb- 2 grams

Basil-Italian Large Leaf Herb- 2 grams

Subtotal: $51.93

Here is our future garden plot. We have a huge backyard and the corner by where we buried out dog (you can see his cross in the corner) should be a good spot. It is very gently sloped which should provide adequate drainage. We can adjust the space as needed. A sweet friend from MOPS, Laurie, gave us this Earth Machine composter. Clearly it isn't going to be big enough for the garden we want to grow, however I'm still going to use it to feed our tomato plants and flower beds. We'll have to build a larger compost pile somewhere near the garden. Since our compost won't be ready in time this year, we'll have to buy some from a local nursery to get started, then next year, (if we do everything right), we should be ready to start using our own compost material. I love being able to save my kitchen scraps, instead of sending them down the garbage disposal!Any guesses at to what this is? Yep, it's well! Before we had kids, my hubby got a wild idea and decided to drill a well by hand. He set up a pully/weight system and would drop the weight down on the pipe, while I would push the pipe (fitted with a sand-tip) around and around. It worked! We hit the water table at about 15 feet. Took us about a year to do it (working at it in our spare time). However, we didn't cap it (my husband was waiting for a water pump to fall into his lap - he's a big-time scrounger) and as soon as Josiah came along and was able to toddle around the yard, I caught him throwing rocks down the pipe. I duct-taped this can to the top and waited for my husband to return home from his deployment to Iraq. Guess what? Five years later, this is what it still looks like. Now that we are doing a garden, my hubby is going to try to see if we can salvage this well, despite the rocks thrown in. Anybody have any ideas? We'd really like to not use city water for this garden. It would save us a lot of $$$.


The sweet owners of ABCeeds gave each of my kids a green bean seed and pot. When the seed germinates it says "I love you". The kids were so excited, they planted them as soon as they got home. I figured this garden would be a good hands-on homeschooling experience for both kids (and parents).
 
I would love to hear from you veteran gardeners out there. Please leave a comment with your favorite gardening tip. I'm a sponge! I really want to learn as much as I can. One question, I've heard some plants do better next to each other. Which plants on my list should I plant near each other? I'm planning to do some posts about our gardening adventures from start to finish, both the successes and failures. I hope you'll follow me on this adventure and either give me advice or learn along with me :-)
 
God Bless,
Jackie