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Gardening With Gwen

by Gwen Irvin

As the dawn of a new millennium is closing in on us we are all looking on how to prepare for our families and our community. I began my preparation by taking a look to see what my family likes to eat and then build from there. I have gardened for the past 7 years so I am able to preserve my harvest for future use. I only can what my family will eat, so as not to waste precious space and time. I love gardening because we are eating healthier and I know exactly what has been used in my garden in way of pesticides. It is also a great way to get prepared for Y2K. I am able to also put up enough food for my extended family as well as friends, thus being able to help out a lot of people.

There are different ways to garden. You can grow in containers on your patio or deck or in your flower garden if you do not have enough room for a vegetable garden:

Container gardening is great for limited space and definitely cuts down on the weeds that must be picked. Just about every vegetable can be grown in containers. You can use all sized of pots, cans, plastic buckets, plastic trash containers, garbage cans, fiber pots and fruit baskets . The larger the container the more soil you will need. A large amount of soil allows the plant roots to draw on the reserved moisture and nutrients. Bear in mind that you need to place your pots or containers in the right area so that you do not shadow out other lower growing plants. Tomatoes, cucumbers, pole beans and peas grow tall, so they will need to be placed in the back of other smaller growing plants.

You can also grow in your flower garden placing squash, cucumbers on trellises, tomatoes in a very sunny area at the back of the flower garden. You can incorporate just about every vegetable into your flower garden, but you must always take into account the room that is required to grow the vegetables. Most vegetables have wonderful flowers and they will blend in with your flowers. Just imagine friends coming over and looking at your flower garden and to their surprise see tomatoes growing in the background.

In a vegetable garden you have a specific area just for vegetables to grow. I have a garden that is 74’ by 30’. I do not use this area for anything other than vegetables. Last year I grow 38 lbs of carrots in an area of 5’ by 25’. I was able to can enough carrots for myself for a year as well as a few for family members. I try to grow every vegetable that we eat so that I can always have our favorites on hand.

My garden also is a great way to get ready for Y2K. Preserve every thing you can so you can be prepared for the unexpected. If you start now just think of how much you can put up by December 31, 1999. Remember to only grow and preserve what your family will eat day in and day out. Or try fixing a new vegetables for dinner to see if your family is going to like it before you plant the seeds so you don’t waste precious money, space and time. Gardening should always be enjoyable, but it does required a lot of work.

Good luck and happy gardening.
Gwen