Get The Biggest Bang For The Effort From Your Garden

A garden can be a lot of work. The last thing you need when planning for an on going food source is failure. This post is not intended to tell you "How To Grow A Garden", it is intended to help you avoid the many potholes you will encounter. You can google "How to grow_________" [fill in the blank] for specific information.

There are two huge producers you should concentrate on when choosing what to plant, tomatoes and bush beans. They will give you the most food in the least space with a minimum amount of effort. There are 7 basic elements to a successful harvest, and a supply of seeds for next year.
1. Use non-hybrid plants or seeds. Commonly called "heirloom" varieties.
2. Location for you garden must have Full sun at least 3/4's of the day. All day is best.
3. Good drainage. Plants must have water, but they will die if they sit in it.
4. Loose ground so the roots can breath grow.
5. Food, I use Miracle Grow Shake and Feed. [ Great stuff ]
6. Enough space between the plants so they can grow without competing with each other for food.
7. KEEP THE WEEDS AWAY!! They will steal everything your plants need to live.

Why heirloom? Why tomatoes and bush beans?

Saving the seeds [ google how to save _________seeds ] from a non-hybrid, will insure you get the exact same plant next year as you had this year. If you save seeds from a genetically engineered hybrid, you could get anything or nothing, you just don't know.

Three dozen tomato plants will give you all the tomatoes you can handle. [They should be started indoors about a month before moving to the garden] Similarly 50 to 75 feet of bush beans will do the same.

When planting tomatoes plants, put them into the ground up to the first set of leafs, and remember they grow like a weed. If your the ambitious sort, you can stake [5-6'] and tie them to keep them under control. Or you can do nothing. After planting, I spread straw under them and let them go wild. This keeps the slugs from gnawing on them AND keeps down the weeds.

Two other huge producers are cucumbers and zucchini. Both can be made into pickles. The draw back is a little striped bug(ger) called the cucumber beetle. One bite from these $##%##^ & and the plant is done.

There are all types of bagged dry sauce mixes you can buy to make use of your tomatoes, or you can just can them whole.
[Easy way to remove skins on peaches and tomatoes for canning . Take a large pot, fill to half with water, bring to boil, put peaches / tomatoes in till skin begins to wrinkle, drop immediately into ice water till cool, skins come right off.]

There are also mixes to make pickles. [ Important, unless you want rubber pickles, CUT THE A 1/4" OFF EACH END. Use cold cucumbers, and a 1/8 teaspoon of "PICKLING" Salt helps. Do not use regular salt.

Just a reminder, when canning for emergencies, use the smallest jar you can completely use at one time. You may not have electricity to refrigerate the left overs. Make sure to wash in cold water all fruits and Veggies before canning.

Our next post will cover the canning process. Ya all come back now, ya hear. Bookmark us, Subscribe to our feed, email us to a friend in need.