Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Neighborhood Gardens

The Health Nut has awakened from her winter slumber and has been noticing garden plots all over the suburbs. Now that is a beautiful site (or sight). Soon the burbs could look like the hills of Tuscany where every useable plot of land is planted with vegetable gardens, grape vines, olive trees, and other types of fruit trees. How refreshing!

Now is a great time to clear a spot and go to your nearest nursery and pick up some seedlings or plant your own seeds. Gardening is so much fun and it is good exercise. The rewards are worth the hassle.

First make sure you put up a good fence that deer cannot jump over (they can clear 7 feet) and watch out for other critters. If you have a dog, he or she will keep the varmints away. You might want to add a scarecrow as the birds can wreck havoc on a garden.

Second add some worm castings to the soil along with some good topsoil. The worm castings (a nice euphemism) for worm poop adds nutrients to the soil. The topsoil helps the soil hold water in the dry weather by breaking up the red clay of Virginia.

Thirdly, mark what the vegetables are so when they start to grow you won't confuse them with weeds.

Then have at it and enjoy the process.

Stay tuned for more gardening updates.