Summer tends to turn into fall way to quick for me and all too soon the temperature drops as do the leaves on the trees and it’s time to put those garden tools away for another year.

I don’t like putting tools away quite yet. I prefer to take the time in the fall to prepare our vegetable garden for the following spring as well as our flower beds so I don’t have to waste time the following spring.

Clean Up The Veggie Garden

Once your veggie garden is finished producing for this year it’s a good time to clear out any weeds, leaves and spent plants that could carry insects and disease that would not be good for next year’s garden. They should be put into the compost bin or pile where they will get heated enough to kill off insects and disease and make quality compost for the following growing season.

We didn’t have a lot of weeds in the garden this year because I planted things so that the weeds wouldn’t get space or sunlight. It worked quite well for our first year.

Note To Self: Be sure to over-turn the compost bin contents so they have a good start next spring when the sun starts warming it up again.

This is the time of year I start planning what to grow next season and what I should leave out that didn’t do so well this year. I also look at what did well of course but where I located them. Did they get the required sunlight or did some things over shadow other things.

Planning The Planting Of Next Year’s Vegetable Crop

This year was our best vegetable garden season since we bought our home. That being said, based on what I learned this year I should be able to create an even better veggie garden for next year.

Why do I think that? Well as spring turned to summer I noticed that some of what I planted over-shadows other veggies which caused them to grow and mature much slower than if they weren’t shadowed. So by rearranging the planting order the veggies will have much more direct sunlight and I’ll have a better garden.

I planted the tomatoes on the north side of the garden where did well but quickly blocked the direct sunlight our bell, banana and cayenne pepper plants needed. The pepper plants grew tall to get to the sun and they blocked most of the sun from the beans. So it’s like I planted the entire vegetable garden in reverse order.

If I didn’t change anything other than the planting order I would have far more produce, earlier in the season. So this is already a part of our next year vegetable garden plan.

Trim Those Trees Blocking The Sun

The fall is the time to get rid of dead branches and trees that block the sun’s path across your veggie garden. We have at least three trees that shaded our garden this year. I couldn’t believe how fast they grew and the difference it made to our vegetable garden.

Trees on Property Fence Blocking Direct Sunlight To Our Veggie Garden

Clean Your Garden Tools

Dad always gave me the job of cleaning and oiling garden tools for the winter so they would be ready for next growing season. We had a lot of tools and it took me days to clean and put them all away. Well after dad’s approval. Many times over the years I had to redo the cleaning as it didn’t pass approval.

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I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase ‘”Going Green”. For most of us today those words are in reference to  becoming an organic gardener.

If you happen to be one of those going green it means not using anything that’s not natural or is harmful to the environment, people or animals.

You’ll only being using natural products for your gardens, so no manmade poisons that can harm you, your family or the environment.

A Few Tips For Organic Gardeners

Even a small amount of organic gardening is better than none at all. If everyone would take a step, no matter how small, toward Going Green the world would be a better place for our kids to live and raise a family.

Your first and most important step is to either never start using them harmful chemicals and sprays or if you already use them, your first step is to stop using them. When we bought our home there was a lot of harmful chemicals in the garden shed.

We got rid of all that stuff on the first spring clean up day so it would be disposed of properly, but sadly I think something in that pile poisoned our dog Shadow. She was only seven and didn’t last 3 weeks here. It was a very sad day for us.

Now let me relax you a bit if you are fearing you can’t have a great yard and gardens without pesticides because there are plenty of organic and safe products for everything poisons have been used for in the past.

Make Your Own Organic Compost

For our first home gardening experience we purchased organic compost. That was for the first year, after that we used a compost bin to produce our own compost. Although we found our first compost bin to be rather small and plan to build a bigger one.

It seems the more we produce the more we want to increase our gardens, so the more compost we need.

I’ve become a real stickler for recycling and using the kitchen and yard waste to make compost so we are not putting it out for garbage pickup to go to the landfill.

We were fortunate to have found a brand new compost bin behind our garage when we moved onto our home as it immediately made me want to start using it. It took that first year to produce compost and I was blown away with the magic that is composting.

Compost Your Kitchen Scraps

Instead of throwing your table scrapes, old newspapers and other paper products into the garbage can, you can place them into a compost pile or compost container and let them break down into an all natural fertilizer. You can also speed up the decomposition by making sure you aerate (by turning over) and adding water to the compost pile.

Some people have a kitchen compost bin but we just put ours in a container with a lid on it to keep any odour down and then take it out to our compost bin, even in the winter months.

Compost Bins For Kitchen And Yard

We use cardboard and newspapers when we want to start a new garden bed project we done dig up the sod like we used to. It is back breaking work in our yard and being 60 years old it just takes me way too long so instead I put the newspaper and cardboard down to cover the lawn or area I want to have as our garden and then I build the garden right on top.

The Start of a New Flower Bed

This is a project I am working on that may not be complete until next season but we have got it started. You can see the cardboard sticking out. It might look a bit strange being piled so high but I ran out of cardboard and newspaper so I just pile the dirt higher for now. I will cover this with a tarp to keep the light out so nothing starts growing.

As we get more cardboard boxes I will increase its size, make a circle and then spread the soil over the entire area. I will keep the tarp over it it and by next season the grass should be no problem and we have a new spot to grow a fruit tree, some perennials and plenty of annual flowers.

In conclusion it is completely possible to “go green” in your yard and garden you just need to look for alternatives and that where having access to the Internet comes in. If you don’t have full access then be sure to check with your local nurseries or garden centers.

Guest Post by: Robert

While most of us today are aware of the dangers of pesticides and artificial fertilizers, another problem with fruits and vegetables from the supermarket is that they probably only contain a fraction of the nutrients that they should and don’t taste like my home-grown veggies. Why is this happening?

Modern commercial agriculture is often more concerned with how well a vegetable can stand up to mechanical harvesting, or whether it will be able to resist herbicides than with how many vitamins and minerals it contains. If you are concerned not only about chemical residues, but also about getting the best nutrition possible for your family, the answer is to grow your own.

Size Doesn’t Always Matter

It is not necessary to have a huge garden or dozens of acres to grow a garden, even a small plot can provide a surprisingly large amount of tasty, fresh produce. Growing your garden organically means that you will be using nothing artificial or harmful – everything that goes on your garden soil or the plants in it will be completely natural and organic.

As someone who has grown organically for years, I can tell you that it is not hard to get away from chemicals and still get in a good harvest. Not only that, but you will not have to worry about bacterial contamination on vegetables that will be eaten raw, like lettuce. I was also astounded, after years of supermarket foods, to find out how delicious fresh organic vegetables actually are!

We Love Our Compost Bin

One of the first things most organic gardeners learn about is composting. Composting is a way to turn kitchen scraps such as parings from fruits and vegetables, tea bags, and eggshells into a nutrient rich addition for the soil. The most efficient way to produce compost is by using a compost bin.

These bins usually add a bacterial starter to get the process of breaking down the vegetative matter started. The leaves that clutter up our gardens in the autumn also can be tossed into the compost bin. Compost will not only add nutrients to the soil, it also prevents the soil from becoming compacted, making it easier for plant roots to grow.

Raised Bed Gardens

A very good space saving way to garden is to use intensive gardening. This calls for the use of raised beds which warm the soil up faster in spring, and this helps to extend your growing season.

When using intensive gardening, it is possible to control the quality of your soil more effectively than with a regular garden bed.

After making the framework, you will need to fill it in with soil. This is your chance to add manure, compost, and wood ashes to your basic soil to provide your plants with the best growing medium possible. Because the soil will be so rich, this method allows you to pack the plants in more closely, and also to grow plants on trellises above the main crop.

Pests can be a problem in any garden, but will not usually have a serious impact on your harvest. However, we have found that slugs can do an immense amount of damage – they can eat seedlings to the ground and can cause quite a loss.

There are organic solutions, that we have used, that do control slugs and other pest insects, while leaving the beneficial insects alone. Diatomaceous earth is truly the gardener’s best friend. This is made up of the skeletons of fossil diatoms and is very effective at getting rid of not only slugs, but flea beetles, potato bugs, and cabbage moth caterpillars. It is totally safe for humans and pets.

Another good product is one that relies on iron to disrupt the slug’s metabolism, and we have used this, too. Beneficial insects such as ladybugs, praying mantis, and lacewings also do a very good job at keeping your food plants safe.

Row covers are another way to keep pests off your vegetables, as well as being an excellent way to garden when early or late frosts can be a problem.

When deciding what to plant in your garden, stay with vegetables that your family enjoys most. It is also possible to get a head start on the planting season by starting some seeds indoors. Almost every vegetable that you will want to grow can be started inside. Tomatoes and eggplants, of course, will need the extra time, but we have found that summer and winter squash, lettuce, and even corn will be happy to start life in a peat pot. Not only will the strong seedlings be better able to resist pests and diseases, you will also be able to enjoy the fruits of your labour’s earlier.

Image by Paul Stainthorp via Flickr

We only started our little vegetable garden a couple of years ago. We soon discovered we had concrete for backyard soil. Okay it’s not concrete but it’s heavy dense clay that’s almost concrete. We could barely grow grass in our yard.

It took some labour but I dug it up to about a foot deep, maybe just a bit deeper and then started amending the soil with fresh top soil, compost, manure and peatmoss.

Each year since I have dug it up deep and amended the soil again. We add more peatmoss and the compost we had created since we started. It’s great to have compost and it’s so much better than putting all our yard and kitchen waste at the road side to be put in the landfill.

How To Double Dig Your Garden

The idea is simple however be prepared to work a little.

I start at one end of my garden and start digging a trench that’s about a shovel or spade depth. I flip the shovel full to my left as I am right handed and move through my garden left to right.

Once I reach the opposite side of the garden I have a trench that’s about 10 or 12 inches deep. The content or dirt is piled along the one edge.

Next I start digging again, in the same trench, and dig another shovel depth and just turn it right in the trench.

Once I reach the opposite, which is back where I started, I start a new trench to the right of the first one and take that dirt and put it right into the trench to my left.

This is a great way of turning your soil and aerating it at the same time. Over time, as I do this for the first couple of years and then I will continue doing this every 2 or 3 years.

Our garden soil is getting so rich now I don’t even need to use my foot to get the shovel in the dirt. You wouldn’t know it’s the same area that not so long ago seemed like concrete.

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Rhubarb just happens to be one of my favourite dessert ingredients. Apparently rhubarb is not even a fruit, but it sure tastes great. Add strawberries and it’s, well like heaven in your mouth.

We get plenty of rhubarb to last us all summer however it’s in a mostly shaded area behind the garage, where we found it when we bought the place.

We want to transplant the existing rhubarb from the north side of the garage, which is mostly shaded, to the south side where it will get a lot more direct sunlight.

More rhubarb means we could start preserving it for pie fillings and desserts throughout the winter months. Just like back when I was a kid growing up on the farm.

We have been thinking about transplanting the rhubarb for a couple of years, just haven’t got around to doing it yet.

The fact we’ve never transplanted rhubarb might be why we put it off for so long. No more excuses.

So this morning I spent some time online looking through helpful web sites and videos. I thought it would be nice to get it right the first time around.

Currently our yard is still mostly covered with snow and what ground is visible is still frozen solid so I figured now is the time to be learnin’.

The snow is going down really fast so it won’t be long before we can start digging.

Early Spring Transplanting Rhubarb

Once the ground is workable, usually early April here in New Brunswick Canada, we have the perfect spot picked to transplant it. Of course we will prepare the new spot so we can put the plants back in the ground quickly as they don’t appreciate being naked and out of the ground drying up.

We’ve learned that you should transplant your rhubarb before it has much of a chance to start growing.

Note: You can transplant rhubarb at those times the plant is dormant, such as late fall, early winter or early spring.

Dig Deep To Get All The Roots

The better job you do at digging up the root system of your rhubarb plant the faster your plant will start growing. So do be careful when digging it for transplanting.

Cutting Your Rhubarb Into Sections

Our rhubarb patch was mature when we purchased our home 5 years ago and probably should have been transplanted then. We just had too many other priorities at the time.

As we dig up the rhubarb I will cut into sections or split it so that each section only has 2 or 3 crowns showing. From what I can see by looking at it now I should be able to have 5-10 new plants.

We do plan to put them back in the ground immediately but if something comes up and we can’t I understand that I can put them in a plastic back and locate them in a cool dark spot for a day or two.

Avoid Shady Spots

Of course I have already mentioned that our patch of rhubarb is on the north side of the garage where it’s just too shadym we also know that it will do much better in full sun, so we are moving it to the south side of our property.

I do think that at the time the rhubarb was planted there were no tree to block the sun, however it was still not the best place to plant as the garage itself blocks the sun there in the summer.

Preparing The New Location

Our soil is heavy dense clay that doesn’t drain well at all. We have dug deep for planting other things and tested to see how long it would take to drain.

Well it took days, not minutes or hours, so we dug a little deeper and then mixed the clay with peat and top soil and mixed it well. We then put some of it back in the hole and did the water test again.

This time it only took about a half hour or so to drain. Not hours or days this time. We will do the same thing once we actually dig up the new location so we will have strong healthy rhubarb.

Our top soil comes from the compost we make and it rocks. We were so happy to learn how to make compost but that’s another blog post.

So now we are ready to transplant our rhubarb plants and looking forward to learning how to preserve it for winter use.

As we are preparing for the transplant and actually doing it I hope to be able to video the process and make a video available at that time.

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Image via Wikipedia

For the previous 5 or 6 years I’ve watched more and more people turn to vegetable gardening to save a few dollars on grocery day. I believe the reason for the rise in veggie gardening  is because of our economy and lack of job security, as well as the lack of pay increases today. It’s basically why we started growing vegetables in our backyard.

Like so many others we were feeling the economic pinch and saw something somewhere that suggested starting a garden to grow vegetables. Grow a little, save a little.

We Actually Grew Vegetables And Saved Some Money

I pay much attention to how Dad grew his vegetable garden when I was a kid, as I was more into eating that figuring out how to grow veggies. Although I do remember crawling around the garden on my hands and knees pulling weeds. Our first year gardening has some mistakes but we had great results on our very first year.

We All Make Mistakes, Fix Them And Move On

I am one of those guys who thinks he knows stuff he really doesn’t so yes I did make mistakes but not so many that I gave up. The mistakes I made were fixable and I do eventually learn. The mistakes I made were not enough to dampen my spirits. Vegetable gardening, like most things in life, needs to be learning but even I was able to have a great first garden.

We Even Gave Growing Herbs Indoors A Try

Our first gardening season came and went way too fast and it was going to be nearly half a year before we could do it all again. The perfect time to grow a herb garden indoors.

We were quite excited when our herbs started to grow. I was kind of thinking it might be harder to grow herbs in the house but it was pretty straight forward. We were able to grow them right on the windowsill in the kitchen. All we did was put soil in a pot, added herb seeds and watered them.

Our kitchen doesn’t get a lot of good sunlight during the winter so we did have to move our herb garden to the living room to get that extra sunlight. Other than that it was definitely a breeze growing kitchen herbs, and they taste so good on just about everything.

Vegetables Which Have Been Grown Organically Are Healthier And Taste So Good

Back when I was a kid every one sprayed poison on the crops, my dad wasn’t any different. It’s really amazing we lived through those times. I suffered from migraines for most of my life because I wasn’t aware I was so sensitive to pesticides. Today I use zero chemicals on our vegetables and we wash what we buy very thoroughly before consuming.

To keep the heavy dense clay in our backyard loose and  healthy we produce yard waste compost and use that, along with peatmoss from our local nursery, to make our garden soil healthy and to keep it draining well. The results are vegetables with healthy stalks and leaves because of the healthy well drained root system.

To Finish

Give vegetable gardening a try and experience the great flavours and save yourself some money on your grocery bill. Even if you don’t have a lot of space you can still grow your veggies in containers. Who knows you may just find a new hobby like we did. Learn more from this organic vegetable gardening guide.

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If you want to produce the best compost you just need to follow a few tips and your garden will thank you. Just a few minutes with the right information will save you from putting the wrong things in the compost bin.

We have a compost bin out behind the garage for a couple of years before I ever tried it. I am sure they previous owners were scared they’d mess up because it was never even used.

Even though it’s possible to compost just using a pile it’s messy, looks terrible and will attract animals looking for food scraps.

Constructing A Compost Bin

Our compost bin is plastic and kind of looks like an upside down garbage can but you can construct your own compost bin with a few stakes and chicken wire. I would suggest you make it about 3 feet square for the best air circulation. That seems to be just the right size for everything to work right.

Filling Your Compost Bin (What To Put In Your Compost Bin)

What’s the best or most balanced mixture for your compost bin, for getting the best results in the shortest time frame.

Green Yard And Kitchen Waste

The green waste is usually high in nitrogen. It’s the green waste that activates the heat process in your compost. Some heat generating yard waste is better at heating, like fresh young weeds that haven’t gone to seed yet. Be sure you keep those grass trimmings as they work well too. We also use our kitchen waste, fruit, vegetable, coffee grounds. We don’t drink much tea but you can use the tea leaves as well, even the bag.

Brown Usable Waste

The brown waste is usually high in carbon. Brown waste includes leaves that fall in autumn, all those dead flowers, plants and weeds. You can also use those cardboard tubes from Christmas wrapping paper, foil wrap, etc. If you use straw to cover flower beds or strawberries you can recycle that through your compost bin when you’re done with it.

What Other Things Can Go In The Compost Bin

We have grocery bags that are made from recycled cloth but every once in a while we will shop somewhere they give us paper bags, if they don’t have a lot of colour or ink we put them straight in the compost bin, well I rip them up to make the pieces break down faster. We also use our egg shell in the compost bin but I also use them to keep slugs out of my garden. Don’t forget the paper towels you use they can go in as well.

Air Circulation For Breathing Room

Your compost bin works best when it has a good flow of air and will NOT stink like some compost bins do, those without a good air supply as it take more bacteria when the air flow is not enough.

Each time you turn your compost pile it will get a new supply of air and will loosen the compost for better air circulation.

Just A Little Water

We keep our compost bin slightly damp but not too wet. Kind of like a sponge you just squeezed the water from, it’s just damp.

Our compost bin has a lid on it that helps to keep a lot of the moisture from the green waste from evaporating so we don’t need to use water much at all, but we keep a close watch on it in the hot dry weather.

We started our composting without adding any extra soil to help jump start the process but I have heard that it’s beneficial at the start so feel free to add some top soil between the layers of compost. A small amount of garden soil between each layer will introduce the bacteria needed to start the compost cycle. The soil that was still attached to plants we pulled and added to the compost bin was enough for us to have great results.

I was so impressed with the first compost we created. It was just like top soil you buy at the nursery but it was created right in our own compost bin.

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Have desire to grow your own vegetable garden? We went for many years before we were in a situation where we could have our own vegetable garden and now we do and I just double the size from last year.

Learning a few things about vegetable gardening will make the task more enjoyable, to the point where it may well become your favourite hobbies.

Follow a few steps before you plant anything and you will have a healthier vegetable garden with less work.

Steps To Planting Your First Garden

1. Location, Location, Location

Location is important. You need sunlight and good drainage. These are two vital components to a good veggie garden. Anything else you need for your garden can be added.

Steer clear of trees if possible as their roots can rob nutrients from the soil and in the summer their branches can over shade your garden, blocking that vital sunlight. Like our first vegetable garden.

2. Preparing The Soil

Our vegetable garden used to be part of our lawn and the soil beneath the turf was very dense clay that wouldn’t drain for days after a heavy rain. But we wanted a vegetable garden so that didn’t stop us.

First we removed the sod with as little dirt as possible. We even let it dry in the yard so we could pound the excess dirt off it.

Next I dug the entire plot to about a foot deep and mixed in fresh topsoil we have from composting and also added a few bags of peatmoss to help break the soil into something workable.

We tested the garden once we had added the compost and peatmoss to see how well it drained and found we had improved it considerable. So now it drains in hours instead of days.

3. Know Your Local Planting Zones

There are a lot of vegetables one can grow but you need to decide what you like the most, making sure it will grow in your growing zone. For this you can look up the growing zones for where you live.

We live in New Brunswick Canada so we looked that up along with the phrase ‘growing zone’ or ‘vegetable growing zone’.

Note: We decided we wanted to grow a few things that needed a longer growing periods, so I started those inside a couple of months early so they were well started before planting them outside.

4. How to Maintain Your Vegetable Garden

A vegetable garden doesn’t maintain itself very well and will soon be taken over by weeds if not watched. Keep a head of the weeds and it becomes rather easy to maintain. On the other hand leave it for a week or two and you may start to see the vegetable plants start to suffer.

We have our rows of vegetables running north to south for a couple of reasons.

I mentioned this but it’s important so I will mention it again. Your vegetable garden must drain well or your veggie roots will drown the plants.

We added compost and peatmoss but we also set the rows so the water would drain but not erode the garden.

5. Know Your Garden Pests

Take the time to learn about the pest that like what you grow so you can learn how to control pests organically.

Completing each task doesn’t take too long, especially when it’s planned. We on the other hand didn’t learn before we started our first vegetable garden. Instead I just started digging in so we ended up with a lot more work than we needed so learn from my mistakes and plan your vegetable garden before planting it and happy gardening.

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Man we have some lazy birds in our neighbourhood, they can’t even take the time to dig out after a storm like we have to do. Well no more. I’m not climbing up there again.

Yesterday, after so much snow and ice it looked like it was all going to be gone if we had just one more day of favourable weather, but NOooooo!!

Mother Nature decided to give the kids a day off from school so they can play in all this gorgeous light fluffy snow.

I remember back to when I was a kid going to grade school. It was like a hundred years ago but still fresh in my mind, just how much I loved playing in the snow with my brother John.

I can see our little birdhouse from my office window and thought I should go out and snap a few shots before the wind picks up and cleans it all off.

I was looking at a really cute birdhouse today. I think it would go great between two of our big pine trees.

Dura-Craft Birdhouse Bed & Breakfast Feeder

I headed out to the compost bin this morning and of course had to put on all kinds of winter gear just to get out there. It was frozen and covered with snow. Just one more reason I wish we had a kitchen composter for the winter months. Sure would beat hauling my butt out behind the garage.

Okay I shouldn’t complain about going out to the compost bin just because it’s cold out. I suppose I could just put the kitchen waste meant for the composter into a bucket outside the backdoor and just take it out there when it’s a little nicer.

Although if I was just having fun I would be all over the backyard jumping in the snow without complaints so maybe I should just get the job done.

The bushes that give us such great privacy in the summer doesn’t always do so well in the winter but today it’s covered with so much snow it’s like a curtain. Beautiful to look at as well.

I don’t see any birds eating the berries today. I guess they are still sleeping, maybe that’s why they didn’t shovel out yet. Guess they have a snow day as well.

Last year when I dug our first garden, a section 4×16 feet was to remove the sod or turf first. Once I have the top layer removed I take as much dirt from the sod as I can and then put the rest of the sod in my compost bin to use later.

I know, you could just turn the sod into the ground where it will break down but I really do prefer to put it into the compost bin.

I dug my garden down almost 2 feet so that I could work the soil and add to it, as it was clay that was as hard as concrete. But not any more, it’s gorgeous soil now and it only took a bit of elbow grease to do it.

Note: It’s better to dig the dirt and take it right out of the hole you’re digging. I didn’t do that on my first garden and it was a whole lot more work than it needed to be.

On the second garden I dug up I piled the dirt on a big tarp so that I didn’t have to fight to get the dirt out of our lawn later.

Once You Have Your Garden Dug Up

Now is when your compost comes in handy, if you have a compost bin that is. If not, get one started but for now you can buy the quantity you need but be ready for next year with your own compost.

Our soil was such hard clay that it wouldn’t drain like it should so we added the compost but we also added some sand and peatmoss and now our garden drains as it should. NO MORE DROWNED VEGGIES.

Each year we add more compost to the gardens and each year we are producing more and more. This year our garden will grow large enough that we plan to preserve veggies and fruit for the following winter.