Since many of you are probably spending more time at home, I hope that you are getting to enjoy this beautiful spring weather. My family and I have been spending many, many hours outside both in the commercial garden planting and growing veggies for you a well as in our own family garden and homestead. If you have never grown a garden before this would be a great time to do it. Here are a few tips.
1. Place your garden where you can easily see it and access it. You will care for something more if it is located close to your normal traffic areas.
2. Plant a lot SMALLER garden than you think you can handle. A smaller garden well cared for will yield more harvest than a large garden poorly cared for.
3. If you are patient you can kill the weeds or grass for a new garden area by soaking the spot thoroughly with a hose and then laying a tarp over the spot for several weeks.
4. Treat your veggie garden like a flower bed! Just add some potting soil or compost on top of the ground and cover with a mulch of leaves or grass clippings. Then pull back the mulch where you want to plant, tucking the mulch back around when the plants get taller.
5. Some easy starter crops: Tomatoes, bush green beans, squash, peppers, herbs, lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, turnips, okra, potatoes.
6. For planting dates look up the SOW app in the app store or google play. The Alabama extension system developed it and it will tell you what you can plant today.
