On-Site Report from Popayan, Colombia

8 days ago

Below is the latest letter we received from Dr. Alfonso Tenorio, who was responsible for getting us to conduct a training project in Colombia from November, 2007 to March, 2008. His statements sound almost like “puffing”, but he has worked for 11 years trying to help the people of his community improve their health and self-sufficiency through family food production – without success, so he knows whereof he speaks.

“Dear Elder and Sister Kennard: Thank you for your support. I will give the (graduation) certificates in a special activity.

In the party and elegant lunch for 32 graduates, our students shared their testimonies about the project and its impact on them. I know with strong confidence that IT IS OUR SOLUTION. The impact of the global food crisis will be terrible for countries like ours, and we know that a very important opportunity will be this kind of project in small (family garden) size. The Minister of Agriculture in Colombia told us that this kind of projects should be pushed.

Elder, the capability to produce food with this method is incredible, incredible! You know that I have had “success” with the conventional methods, but with this method I now know real success. You have to see my garden… I have a lot of red beans (frijol cargamanto) that you planted in my garden, do you remenber? A lot! A lot of swiss chard in only 4 meters – only 4 meters!

My storage capacity is not enough for such an amount of foods. My spinach is perfect, my potatoes produced a lot, not big (harvested early), but a lot and delicious. My beans, my radishes, and my carrots are all excellent. But my cabbages are giant, giant! They are ready to win a contest.

We have a lot of rain, a lot (almost every day), however your tomatoes under the partial plastic solution are good, very good. The agronomists can hardly believe what they see, because it isn’t a complete greenhouse, only a small roof (traditional practice is to grow tomatoes only in greenhouses, because of the almost daily rains during much of the year).

Tata’s garden is beautiful, and you will not believe me if I tell you that she is the new provider of lettuce and cauliflower for the most important restaurant in the city (from a small backyard garden). Yes, that’s incredible.

The Dean and the professors of the (University Agriculture) faculty are happy and they want to expand the project. This new semester we will have several groups of students from the university working with us using this method.

In 15 days we will begin projects in 5 colleges of the city. In one week we will begin the new (training) course with 30 more members. The gardens of Elizabeth, Family Quina, and Gabriel are beautiful. (Probably those are the ones he’s seen. Other gardens were also doing great at last report)

Thank you Elder and Sister, thanks a lot for your support. Don’t forget the words of Gabriel and Elizabeth “we know that this project will be the remedy of our poverty”. I know it will!

Best regards,

Dr. Alfonso Tenorio”

You Can Figure The Perfect Fertilizer No Matter What's Available

12 days ago

Today I’ll teach you a very important lesson on fertilizers, which will let you figure out how much of each compound to use, so that you can get the perfect fertilizer mix at the least cost.

The goal is to obtain and use NPK in the ratio of 110-60-110. This is called by some fertilizer companies “the preferred horticultural mix”, and this particular set of numbers is the amount of actual fertilizer needed to grow a crop on one acre of ground – in pounds. For hectares the numbers are 125-68-125 in KG’s. Don’t worry about that for now, unless you are actually planting acres or hectares. The ratios are what is important.

No matter what fertilizers are available, so long as you have all three of the major nutrients, you can figure out and then buy and mix just the amounts you need of each compound to get those ratios. And of course in doing so you also want to buy the compounds that will end up costing you the least money.

1) Make a spreadsheet with the following headings:

Fertilizer – %’s Bag Weight Cost/bag “To Purchase” Cost N(125) P (68) K (125)

2) List the fertilizers that are available to you, with their weights and costs in the proper columns.

3)Calculate how much of each fertilizer you will need to buy to get the amount in brackets by that nutrient, by dividing the bracketed number by the % of fertilizer in the mix – such as 125/.46 = 272kg for Urea – 46-0-0.

4) Calculate the cost for that much urea and put that in the Cost column.

5) Do the same thing for each of the fertilizers you have available.

When you’re finished your spreadsheet should look like this, if you’re using the same fertilizers I’ve listed here.

Fertilizer – %’s Bag Weight Cost/bag “To Purchase” Cost N(125) P (68) K (125) SmBtch kg #
46-0-0 40 kg $35.20 272 kg $ 240 125 0 0 39 86
0-45-0 ” 25.20 151 kg 95 0 68 0 22 48
0-0-60 ” 39.20 208 kg 204 0 0 125 30 66 TOTALS 611 kg $ 539 125 68 125 91kg 200#

I’m sorry it is such a mess. The narrow columns don’t lend themselves to these things. I’ll save this article as a Word file in the Files section of the MittleiderMethodGardening@yahoogroups.com for anyone who cares to see it in a better format.

Using the materials shown above you end up with an NPK mix of approximately 20-11-20 at a cost of $.88 per kg, or $35.20 for a 40 kg bag. This is much less – for a much better NPK ratio – than the $58.50 you would pay for 13-15-13 (this is figured in cost to Samoa from Australia).

Including smaller batch amounts allows you to mix the size batch that you need without losing accuracy. I chose the amounts I did to give you an amount of NPK in pounds that you can easily use with the pre-mixed Micro-Nutrient Mix available from the Foundation’s website at www.growfood.com in the Materials section. 200# of NPK would require 5 packages (10 packets) of MicroMix and 30# of Epsom Salt to yield 235# of Mittleider Magic Weekly Feed Mix.

If the fertilizers available are different than the ones I’ve listed above you will need to solve for the amounts a little differently. Start with the compound that is the only choice for a particular nutrient (DAP – or 18-46-0 for instance). Figure out how much P you will need to buy, then figure out how much nitrogen you received “free” in the deal and put that in the N column. When solving for nitrogen you need to buy less of the next compound because of what you already have in the DAP.

You can do this even when you have all three represented, such as 13-23-13.

Can We Learn Something From the Small Plot INtensive (SPIN) Gardening Website?

19 days ago

I received the following question, which I believe may be of interest to some of you serious vegetable gardeners:

“I am looking at several options in gardening and hope you can
clarify something – I am mainly looking at the Mittleider and the
SPIN Farming www.spinfarming.com processes. The two do not appear to be exclusive of each other but I know nothing of ether program (material ordered) so I am hoping you can provide any comparison/contrast if there is any and confirm if the two can be used in a single gardening system?”

I didn’t have much time to check it out, but I will do more later if
possible before leaving for Armenia and the Republic of Georgia, where we are working on two humanitarian projects.

It appears from the first glance that there are many areas of
compatibility, and that a person can learn much about marketing
crops from this website.

Two things I noted include

1) they use beds that are 2’ wide with 2’ aisles. This is not as
efficient as using narrower beds and wider aisles. Beds of 18” – tip of ridge to tip of ridge – which gives a 12”-wide planting area,
are ideal for plant spacing, feeding, weeding, and watering. Wider
aisles are also better. If you are growing smaller plants
exclusively you can use 2’ – or even narrower – aisles, but when you plant large plants, such as zucchini, and climbing plants, you need wider aisles to provide adequate space and light for the plants as they reach maturity. I suspect our plant spacing may be different (closer) than theirs also.

2) They also use only organic materials to feed their plants. This
certainly can work, but has drawbacks and hazards. Most manure and compost have not been sterilized, and therefore can have diseases, bugs, and weed seeds in it, which will flourish in your garden and substantially reduce your yield. Unless the organic material HAS been composted very efficiently in an aerobic process, which requires sustained temperatures of 140+ for several weeks, you get the aforementioned problems, plus you get much lower nutritional value.

And of course you do not know what or how much you are feeding your plants, since every batch of manure/compost is different, and
because none of them have been analyzed to determine their nutrient content. You can expect the manure to have much LESS nutrition than the original plant contained because of going through the cow, then sitting in a compost pile for months in the rain and snow.

Another problem with using organic materials – typically done one
time before planting – is that several inches of manure/compost
often contain much MORE mineral salts than are good for tiny young plants, and sometimes germination and growth are inhibited or the plants even killed with too much of a good thing. Then, in a couple of months, when large and ever-bearing plants need constant nutrition for producing several months of fruit harvest, the nutrition from the one-time-applied organic material is pretty much used up, and your plants stop producing – right when they should be really getting into it!

If you can learn and apply the growing procedures as demonstrated to be extremely successful in 32 countries around the world over the past 45 years, and use the marketing and other skills taught by these folks, you can have the best of both.

Soaker Hoses and Container Sizes Recommended

32 days ago

Friends: I received questions the answers to which I believe are important enough to share.

Q. I was just introduced to this method by a friend. I live in S. Florida and, for the first time, planted tomatoes in pots along my northern fence line with good results. After the tomatoes I added pole beans, cucumbers, strawberries and radishes (all in pots). So far everything seems to be thriving.

All this was done before I learned about your method and I’m
enthusiastic enough about the results I’ve had that I would like to
convert the backyard space into a “Mittleider” garden.

There is enough room for three 3’X 20’ box flats. I had planned
(before reading the info in the MittleiderMethodGardening@yahoo.groups.com group) to water by running soaker hoses down the center of each flat and covering them with mulch. Is there some reason this wouldn’t be a good idea? Thanks for any help (will need all I can get), Loretta

A. Boxes or 18” (2 rows) or 4’ (4 rows) are the most efficient for growing most vegetables. A 3’ width doesn’t provide enough space between rows of plants for adequate light when they get big – unless you grow only carrots, beets, lettuce, etc. And with large and climbing plants 3’ gives only enough space for one row – the same as an 18” box.

We don’t recommend you cover your ground unter the plants with mulch, as it is a haven for bugs and disease. When planting close together, as we recommend, your plants will shade the ground fairly quickly, to preserve moisture and inhibit weed growth.

The problems with soaker hoses are that they don’t always water every plant evenly; you don’t know how much water plants are receiving, sometimes they plug up – either from material in the water supply or from dirt on the ground on which they lie – and they are easy to cut with a garden tool.

Project to work with 200 farmers growing carrots - Georgia

37 days ago

Following is an email dialog I had this evening with Charles Specht, director of a fine humanitarian organization in the Republic of Georgia, in which we give him some suggestions on helping 200 carrot farmers have greater success in their planting this year.

C.S. “I have quick question for you about carrots. We want to help about 200 farmers plant carrots using MM. The place is at high elevation, very similar to what you have around Gyumri. These are serious carrot growers, so they want to make good use of their available space. As we understand, the following version of the MM would be appropriate:

1. 100 or 150 cm beds; 2. laying-out the rows perpendicular to the ridge; and 3. mixing seeds with sand to control seeding rate.

Fertilization, we understand to be standard MM with the fertilizer quantities adjusted for bed width.”

J.K Jacob often planted in 1.5 meter-wide beds in his early years, but over time came to believe 1.2 meters was a better width, because it was difficult for people to reach the center of the wider beds. They also planted across the beds as you are planning, but watering had to be done by hand. Many commercial growers who were trained this way by Dr Mittleider still grow this way with great success.

In Colombia we had many “double beds” of 1.2 meters, with four rows of vegetables running lengthwise, and they seemed to work very well. We were not there long enough to see the carrots mature, but they were growing very well.

We plant carrots and other small seeds using one part seed and 100 parts sand, thoroughly mixed. They are sprinkled carefully in SHALLOW furrows, and then covered with about 1/8th” of sand.

There are supposed to be about 19,000 carrot seeds in 1 ounce (28.5 grams), or 667 per gram. Planted 3 cm apart it would require only about 333 to plant a row, but our experience with family growers has been that there is some attrition.

I usually plant 2 1/2 grams of carrot seed per 10 meters. This gives more than needed, and sometimes some thinning is still required. It may well be that your commercial growers can refine that to a better number.

I normally recommend bed widths of 1.2 meters, rather than 1 meter. If you plant 4 rows in that width you can plant each row 30 cm apart, starting just inside the outside ridges, and have a small aisle down the middle for taking care of the plants, harvesting, etc.

Again, this is structured for a family garden, and in those situations you can’t plan on always having the same plant varieties planted from year to year, so we make the beds wide enough that most of the smaller plants can be planted 4 rows to a bed in that width.

Perhaps your commercial growers will want to try it in one meter and eliminate the center walking aisle.

We use just double the fertilizer in a 1.2 meter-wide bed that we do in a half-meter bed – because we’re dealing with 4 rows of plants instead of two.

I am so interested to hear about your tomatoes! I hope your people are doing the recommended pruning of leaves as soon as they start to overlap. This shocks the plant a bit, stops the growth for a few days while the plant makes its stem thicker and stronger, and makes for a much stronger and healthier transplant into the garden. That pruning needs to be done at least twice, and when plants go into the garden they should be pruned again.

Latest Humanitarian Project Results - Popayan, Colombia 2008

38 days ago

Recap of Project Accomplishments to-date after 4 months

This is a two-year project designed to help 100 families gain a measure of self-sufficiency in their food production. Also, after they are trained participants are expected to teach and assist other members and neighbors in growing gardens.

A greenhouse and model garden were installed at the Agriculture campus of the local University. 30 participant leaders committed to devoting between 12 and 20 hours per week for 12 weeks, to learn scientific food production and grow their own gardens.

Two-hour classes were held 3 days per week, and students worked in the greenhouse and garden an additional 2 to 5 hours per day. Separate concentrated classes were also taught to a group of University Professors and to a group of State Agronomists.

The greenhouse produces 20,000 seedlings every 6-8 weeks. This is sufficient to provide seedlings for the model garden and 100 families, with excess to sell or give away.

The Model garden produces many tons of vegetables each month. Most produce is donated and is used to improve the lives of the poor throughout the community.

In the first 3 months most participant leaders created productive gardens that are the best their communities have ever seen, and are selling and sharing excess garden produce, as well as teaching and assisting their neighbors in their gardens.

A great amount of favorable publicity has been generated for the project. Both the Mayor and the Governor are highly complementary, and both are requesting extensions of the project to teach and train other school and community groups. The Governor even requested project students create a garden on his own property, and he takes great pleasure as he watches its progress from his bedroom window each morning.

Several leaders have been hired to reproduce the project garden and training in 5 local high schools, and the State Agriculture Department have contracted with the project leaders to train graduating college agronomy students, who will then be hired to teach and demonstrate these methods in their assigned communities.

Project leaders are also taking seriously their responsibility to train and assist the other participant families, and many additional participants are now growing successful and productive gardens for the first time.

Pictures of the Project Model garden, as well as a few Student gardens can be seen at MittleiderMethodGardening@yahoo.groups.com – a free group where thousands of families learn about and share their gardening experience.

Teaching & Demonstrating Family Gardening in South America

73 days ago

We have been privileged to live in Popayan, Colombia for the past 4 months as we have conducted a humanitarian food production training project for the LDS Church.

The project’s immediate goal is to assist 100 families learn to grow more and healthier food, and teach them how to cook, use, and preserve it. The extended goal is to bless the lives of families throughout the community in the same way.

To do this we have been training 30 leaders to become the best vegetable gardeners in the Cauca State, and then teach and assist others to grow healthy gardens.

It is an intensive and time-consuming course requiring 6 hours per week in the classroom and 12-15 hours in the garden – all for three months.

We are doing the training at the University of Cauca’s Agriculture Campus. We have a large greenhouse and model garden, which when fully planted will be 190 10 meter-long soil-beds.

The University staff are interested and supportive, especially after I conducted an 8 hour mini-seminar one week, and then one of the professors conducted a one-month experiment which compared our methods with their traditional methods. The difference in plants was so dramatic that is is amazing even to me. And the professor is eager to learn more and apply it in his teaching.

We are now beginning to see the fruits of our labors, as we visit our students’ gardens and those of their neighbors and friends. Just today we were thrilled with the garden of Gabriel and Francisco which is truly a thing of beauty where less than 2 months ago there was nothing but junk, trees, and weeds, with chickens and geese roaming freely.

These industrious men invited dozens of their neighbors to come and experience something unique. They even had the Mayor’s wife and Executive Secretary come.

About 50 people were rewarded with a 5 course dinner cooked by my wife Araksya, which was almost entirely made from garden vegetables. She topped it off with Zucchini bread, and everyone LOVED it.

A tour of the garden also really gave these good people something to think about, as I said to each of them “you, too can do this!” And many of them took recipes home with them, while others wrote down the website address.

It’s leaders like these that can and will really make a difference for good in their communities, and we were very gratified to be able to participate with them in the occasion.

Twenty Important Characteristics of the Food For Everyone Training Program

160 days ago

1. The program teaches truly sustainable methods for raising a wealth of food crops in virtually any soil, in almost any climate or season, and at practically any elevation—in other words, under almost any conditions.

2. The program uses scientific principles and procedures, has been tested and proven in many countries over the course of 40+ years, and is not a passing fad. It carefully teaches and demonstrates the best known agricultural procedures.

3. The program is simple in that almost anyone can learn it and carry it out, either in home gardens or on large acreages. And the basics can be learned well enough to grow highly productive gardens even by people who cannot read or write.

4. For large field-crop operations, the program tests and balances the soil regularly and applies natural mineral nutrients as needed for it to produce almost any kind of crops, even many crops traditionally considered unsuitable for growing in a particular climate. In home gardens, a complete, balanced natural mineral nutrient mix is used, which requires no soil test and feeds plants properly.

5. The program uses any available organic materials that are disease, insect, and weed-free, including freshly harvested crop residue, green-manure, and cover crops; but this program is different than some that are commonly referred to as complete organic gardening methods. Additional natural mineral nutrient fertilizers are used to build up a complete balance in the soil – in other words, to restore the soil to its original Edenic composition as far as possible. It is often referred to as “the best of organic gardening”.

6. Weeds are taboo in Foundation garden beds, aisles, and perimeters. They are simply not permitted anywhere in the Foundation’s gardens or fields.

7. Practically every foot of space is made productive. This makes for a very economical and efficient gardening operation, as it requires no more effort or expense to create and maintain such gardens than traditionally cultivated areas. Even small garden plots can thus produce very large yields.

8. To produce healthy, fast-growing, disease and pest-free (in other words almost perfect) plants, Foundation-trained growers grow seedlings of many varieties in a greenhouse that is kept free of insects, weeds, and diseases.

9. The program produces commercial-quality plants of uniform size, color, and quality in all stages of growth; with very low mortality rates.

10. Each plant is given individual attention as needed, even to surrounding it with an insecticidal ring of sawdust in extreme situations, such as if cutworms are present in the garden. Also, if garden soils carry disease, healthy greenhouse transplants are protected by a liquid fungicidal shield. And in all cases a starter natural mineral nutrient minimizes transplant shock and assists the plant until normal growth takes over.

11. Where no soil is available, “custom” soil is manufactured with a combination of as much as 75% of any combination of sawdust, rice hulls, coffee hulls, peat moss, ground-up bark, or even ground-up coconut husks or pine needles and the balance of sand, or if necessary other available clean, disease-free soil.

12. On very rare occasions where necessary, the entire garden may be sterilized of insect life, diseases, and noxious weeds. This process has previously been accomplished by fumigating the area under plastic covers with methyl bromide gas. Recently this has become largely unavailable, and steam or flame is used if possible.

13. The program makes drastic changes in primitive farming methods encountered so many places around the world by introducing scientific agricultural methods, modern equipment, and all the natural mineral fertilizers called for by accurate soil testing, often increasing yields by ten times.

14. This new program consistently produces fantastically abundant crops that are neatly uniform in quality, size, and color.

15. Foundation-inspired gardens are a financial success, with yields typically increased five to ten times. They are actually saving millions of people in over 30 countries from slow starvation, and have raised educational and hospital institutions from failure and threatened closure to financial security.

16. Gardens are organized and laid out uniformly and symmetrically, and all crops are planted in straight lines or pleasing curves, resulting in gardens and fields of park-like beauty.

17. Whenever a plant shows discoloration, wilting, leaf damage, or other signs of stress, Program graduates note the symptoms and often know the cause, whether it’s disease, bug infestation, or nutrient deficiency. If nutrients are found to be deficient they prescribe a corrective treatment and spoon-feed the affected plant or plants with the necessary plant nutrients. If it is a matter of disease or bug infestation, they act as doctors, observing symptoms to diagnose and prescribe the corrective treatment as far as possible.

18. Every gardening operation is carefully budgeted and plans are made for making maximum use of the harvest, including sharing or marketing any surpluses.

19. Gardening or farming using the efficient Foundation methods is actually a highly enjoyable experience. We know from wide experience that with the use of these scientific methods greatly increased yields can consistently be obtained.

20. Although Jim Kennard is an expert gardener, he is first of all an inspiring teacher. He has caught the spirit of true education, and seeks to arouse in his students the desire to glean “from men and books and laboratories, from field and forest and whispering wind”, and more. He teaches that every truth is worth learning; that harnessing our appetites and directing our energies toward good ends produce rewards far greater than garden crops. And he teaches and demonstrates that true education is the harmonious development of the individual’s physical, mental, and spiritual powers.

Limited Garden Space? See What 128 square feet Can Do

180 days ago

A member of the MittleiderMethodGardening@yahoo.groups.com wrote with questions about his very small garden. I believe my answers and suggestions can benefit many who read this, as most of what I said has wide application.

I do not recommend growing in 2’-wide beds normally, because 18” widths are most efficient. But when someone has only 2’ to work with, then we need to maximize its usefulness. Enjoy.

“I’m in the process of builiding raised beds down the side of my
house. I live in Las Vegas, NV.

When finished I will have 64 feet x 2 feet of planting space.

My planting list is as follows…

Vegetables:

1. Bell Pepper
2. Onions
3. Tomatoes
4. Carrots
5. Lettuce
6. Squash
7. Strawberries
8. Dwarf Lemon
9. Dwarf Lime
10. Jalepenos
11. Spinach
12. Corn

Herbs:

1. Cilantro
2. Basil
3. Rosemary
4. Garlic
5. Shallots
6. Lavender
7. Chives
9. Aloevera
10. Coriander
11. Bay

I’m not sure how to space these, how much of each or how little of each to plant, and which will work well together.”

First I would forget the corn. It takes up too much space to be worthwhile in that size garden. I would also avoid strawberries – because they spread quickly, and because every critter in the world loves them and will follow the smell and invade your garden to get them.

Next, I would plant your lemon and lime trees on the extreme North or East, as they will soon shade other things around them. Space them according to their size at maturity, so they aren’t crowded.

I would plant my herbs in the full 2’-wide planting area between the two trees, unless there is a shadier spot, as these can grow with less direct sunlight than fruiting plants. They can be planted in 4 rows – 6” apart – if you are willing to keep them picked so they don’t get too bushy. Perhaps 12’ X 2’ would be sufficient for all of those.

I would plant onions, carrots, leaf lettuce, and spinach in 3 rows across the 2’ width, with 5’ of row for each (15’ of plants), which would use up another 20’.

Peppers would get 10’ in my garden, planted in two rows 12” apart, and jalapenos would get only 10% of that space (18 Bell & 2 Jal). And if I had my way 4’ of the 10 would be eggplant instead.

That leaves us with tomatoes and squash. For me, these are of prime importance in the garden (except we’d add eggplants & peppers to the mix), and I would devote 12’ to tomatoes grown 8” apart in one row (using T-Frames) or 16” apart on both sides of the planting area (if using stakes). I would use indeterminate
plants such as Better Boy or Big Beef, and would prune carefully to keep leaves off the ground and provide light to the fruit. Either method gives you 20 plants that should produce more than 500# over 6 months.

For squash I would plant 4 zucchini plants in 6’ on one side of the bed. Again, regular pruning of older leaves is important to help you avoid or at least delay powdery mildew and maximize your yield. And the last 4’ would be devoted to 6 plants of another summer squash that climbs, and I’d put that on T-Frames as
well (next to the tomatoes).

It is very important to understand and commit to harvesting everything at peak maturity, and removing plants from the garden immediately. In Las Vegas you should be able to grow 3 or 4 crops of lettuce and spinach, and two of carrots.

Used this way and done properly, 64’ X 2’ will give you a LOT of produce.

Starting a New Garden - Winter Planting - Weeding, Watering & Care for Success

183 days ago

I recommend that every gardener read the following exchange I had recently with an aspiring Mittleider gardener. And there are over 400 other short articles answering common gardening questions in the FAQ section of this website.

Q. I have a 1000 square foot veggie garden in Coastal Mississippi that I have been very unsuccessful with in the past 4 years. We have clay soil and Iam a lazy gardener. I don’t think about the garden much … until it is dried out and infested. I plan on changing my ways!

I want to start a garden this weekend. My husband will till the ground and remove the grass (again).

My questions are: What seeds can I plant this month? I don’t want to buy plants. I would like to plant spinach, butternut squash, cauliflower and broccoli. Where do you get those seeds? My local big box retailers don’t have seeds anymore.

My husband wants to lay soaker hoses on the garden rows and cover the entire garden bed with black plastic. Is this a good idea?

A. A 1,000 square foot garden can grow a tremendous amount of produce IF YOU DO IT RIGHT (how about 5,000# of tomatoes)! If left alone, or done haphazardly, however, it will be a big disappointment, and you’ll grow weeds instead, so “changing your ways” is definitely important.

You can always buy seeds from Burpee, Park, Harris, Gurney, or one of the other seed companies on the internet.

Clay soil is NOT a problem if you will create slightly raised, level, ridged beds as described in the Mittleider gardening books and in the free e-book at www.growfood.com in the Learn section. And be sure to use the recommended natural mineral nutrients as instructed!

Lay out and stake your garden with 18” soil-beds, and aisles at least 3’ wide. Use 4 2” X 2” PAINTED stakes per soil-bed. Depending on your dimensions you can have 11 – 20’-long beds with 3’-wide aisles.

I would only plant 1/2 bed of cauliflower and 1/2 bed of broccoli, for the following reason. Single-crop plants mature all at once. This means that even with only 10’ rows of each you will have 20 heads of cauliflower and 20 heads of brocolli all mature at virtually the same time, and THEY’LL ALL NEED TO BE PICKED AT THE SAME TIME. Otherwise they get bad, and they attract both bugs and diseases.

Whenever you plant a single-crop vegetable, plant only what you can use, give away, sell, or store in the 1-2 week ideal harvesting window. If you want them all season you MUST do several small plantings – spaced at 2-week intervals.

It’s for this reason, as well as to get the most from your gardening efforts and limited space, that I recommend growing EVERBEARING crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, pole beans, peppers, eggplant, melons and squash. And I recommend you grow everything vertically using T-Frames or stakes!

Be CERTAIN that your garden is totally weed free, including a 4-5’ periphery, at the time of planting. And use a 2-way hoe to quickly and easily weed again about 10 days after planting, or as soon as the weeds begin to show their faces. NEVER WAIT for the weeds to grow bigger! They’re most vulnerable when they are tiny, and they are very easy to eliminate. You may have to do this two or three times, but then you will have a healthy, weed-free garden all season long. It will also reduce your problems with bugs and diseases!

Growing seedlings in a mixture of sawdust (or peat moss, perlite, etc.) and sand in a 2 to 1 ratio, using plastic trays, is the best way to start the plants you are describing, with the possible exception of the spinach. They will grow faster and will be healthier than what you grow in the ground from seed. The seedlings must have constant sunlight to thrive, just as when they were in the garden. Growing seedlings is very rewarding, and is a simple process, but you MUST follow the steps accurately and consistently.

You can learn to become very competent at growing your own seedlings by reading Chapter 22 of The Mittleider Gardening Course – available in the Store section.

If you decide to grow from seeds in the ground, make sure your seed-bed is soft and smooth. Scratch a SHALLOW furrow on both sides of the bed near the ridges the full length of the bed – or as far as you are planting that vegetable. For very small seeds mix seeds with sand in a 1 to 100 ratio, and sprinkle carefully the length of the row, as evenly as possible. Then cover the seeds WITH SAND rather than the clay soil. Meanwhile, remember that only ONE OUNCE of small seeds like tomato seeds includes TEN THOUSAND SEEDS, so don’t plant too many!

Which crops you should plant depends on the temperatures in your growing area. Most places cannot grow warm-weather crops like tomatoes, peppers, beans, melons, and squash in the winter months. I believe Mississippi is no exception. Wait to transplant those into the garden until daytime temperatures are 65-70 and night-time temperatures are 50 or above.

Cool-weather crops like cauliflower and broccoli, and even spinach, beets, and the like, can be planted when it’s colder, but don’t plant if you have frosts at night, and remember that even these hardy plants need daytime temperatures above 50 degrees fahrenheit to grow.

Using black plastic is generally NOT a good idea when planting seeds. The open space needed for seeds to emerge and grow successfully leaves room for weeds to grow as well. And weeds from all around the opening will find it and choke out your tiny vegetable seedlings as they emerge. Meanwhile, the plastic makes it very difficult to weed thoroughly and successfully.

Black plastic can be used successfully when growing seedlings, but it is not a cure-all, and I believe is less desireable than leaving the ground bare and weeding properly.

Using soaker hoses for watering is much less than ideal for several reasons: The holes are easily plugged; weeding around the hose is difficult; the hose is easily cut when attempting to weed around it; water quantity is uncertain and often inadequate.

The best and easiest watering method I know is the semi-automated method taught in chapter 16 of the Mittleider Gardening Course. This uses 3/4” Schedule 200 PVC pipe drilled with 3 #57 holes every 4” running down the center of the soil-bed, and lifted off the soil about 2” by small 2 X 4” wooden blocks. Water is controlled by an inexpensive ball valve placed at the head of each row, and the whole garden is plumbed together for fast and accurate watering.

If you can’t or don’t want to automate your watering, simply wrap a large rag around the end of your garden hose, then place the hose in the soil-bed. If your beds are level the entire soil-bed will quickly receive the needed 1” of water. And whichever method you use, remember to water daily – especially in warm weather – unless it rains.

Finally, feed your plants the natural mineral nutrients they must have for healthy growth. And provide those nutrients regularly throughout the growth cycle to maximize your yields of tasty, healthy fruits and vegetables. The free ebook in the Learn section gives complete instructions for fertilizing your garden.

Successful Gardening!

Jim

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