Basics of gardening

On Saturday, April 18, I was able to teach a series of four seminars on "Gardening 101" to the River Edge Stake in West Jordan. It was difficult to pare everything down to just a half hour lesson. I hope anybody learned enough to help. The stake really did a good job with their spring fair. They also had classes on Square Foot Gardening, preserving foods, pruning trees and a variety of other things.

I fear that we're going to need to know a great deal more about these things as we move through the current economic situation. If we wait for the government to bail us out we may get awfully hungry.

After the spring fair, Cathy and I went to buy some tomato plants. I really like the heirloom varieties. We bought a Black Krim, a Black Cherry, a White, and a couple others. A couple of the plants were so large that I needed to plant them using a trenching method.

In trenching, you dig a long trench, lay the plant in the trench, and only leave the very top of the plant exposed to the air. The entire length of the plant then roots, and provide a very stable and robust plant. I also used some new soil amendments. I bought some Humate and some Sustain. I think I embarassed Cathy, when I referred to the Sustain as viagra for plants.

Humate is minerals from the Emery county area that are the remains of ancient lava beds. it is in a granular form, and is rich in minerals.

Sustain is a timed release fertilizer made from turkey manure. It has been processed in such a way that it does not burn the plants, and releases the nutrients over a "sustained period of time.

In addition to the tomaotoes, I also planted a very hot pepper plant and an italian eggplant. Both are heirloom varieties. I'm excited to see how they do in the garden.

I got my asparagas planted as well. I won't be able to harvest any this year, but by next year I should have an abbundance of fresh asparagas.

I still need to plant my horseradish plant. I'll get that done on Saturday. I'm excited to dig some up this fall and make my own fresh horseradish sauce. Who knows how it will turn out. I'll keep you posted.