5 Things You Should Be Doing in the Garden Now

What should you be doing in your garden right now? There are many things you could be doing in your garden right now and really it depends on what your particular garden needs but here are a few ideas for you.

1. Adding organic matter. I add organic matter AT LEAST twice a year. One is in the fall we grind up our leaves with the lawn mower and spread them all around the grow boxes after they are all cleaned out for the winter. Then we also add a nice thick layer of mulch around
   
   

How to Grow the Biggest, Best Strawberries Ever

Growing strawberries is not hard, they like to spread and perpetuate themselves, however, if left to themselves, the production and size of your strawberries will go down .

The key to a big strawberry is a big plant with nice big healthy leaves that it grows on. So how do you get that to happen?

1. After the snow first melts in the spring, cover your patch with a row cover to start warming it up and giving the plants a head start on growth. Just remember that they might need to be watered as the water dose not get through the row cover a s easily as if there were no cover. You will be amazed at how much this helps them grow.


2. Renovate the patch right after the harvest of strawberries is over. They need enough space to

Top 5 Vegetables That Grow Well In Shade

Having enough space in your yard to grow every thing can be a big problem for a gardener. Especially because most of those vegetables and fruit like to have full sun! I have good news for you. There are some vegetables that do well in part shade. Of course they will need some sun during the day say about 3 hours to get what they need from the sun. Planting some in the shadier areas of your yard will save those sunny spots to grow the sun lovers like tomatoes, peppers, and squash plants.

The trick to knowing if your plant will do OK with less sunlight is this: If the vegetable is grown to eat the leafy part, or possibly the roots, they do well without as much sun. If the vegetable is grown to eat a fruit that is produced by the plant, it needs lots of sunlight. Growing these vegetables in part shade might also help to keep the soil from drying out so quickly.

3 Important Things to Consider When Choosing a Location for Your Vegetable Garden

1. Sunlight- How much sunlight will your plants need. Most likely if you are growing vegetables they will need AT LEAST 8 hours of sunlight a day during the growing season. If you have a shady yard, this can be addressed by building a grow box with a bottom and on wheels that you can move throughout the year to get enough sun light. Or you could consider growing your vegetables interspersed in the landscaping of your yard.


2. Proximity- Having a location that is close to the kitchen door is ideal,