Gardening Class #1

All about starting a garden...mainly a vegetable garden.  Today was the first class that I held here at Irish Gardens.  I wanted to share the knowledge that I have gained and my love for planting with others so I decided to have a class.  It was open to all ages.  I only had one person show up but thats ok.  We still had fun and I think she learned something.

One of the things I wanted to do especially if kids showed up was give them a chance to plant some veggies here in a special garden and come back at least once a month to check on them.  All the veggies produced from their plantings would be theirs to keep. 

Here is what we did and what we learned.

 The new garden area.  It seems every year I add a new garden.  Hubby's ok with that as it makes it less grass for him to mow.9

 My student - A (no names really needed) planted and learned.  First when building a new bed lay some newspaper down first...then the soil.  This acts as a weed blocker with out the price of the fabric.  Deeper is not always better is something else she learned.  Some plants do just fine in a little amount of dirt.  Then it was on to planting.  We discussed the use of square foot gardening and how much you can really get into this one garden...quite a lot.  To the right here she planted beans and carrots.

 Then after that we talked about some companion planting.  How planting marigolds with tomato's is smart for many reasons.  We talked about other companion plants as well but didn't plant those.  Maybe next time.  After the marigolds and tomato's the left were planted it was time to water.

 Lastly or maybe we talked about it first was onions.  And their crazyness in my gardens, but it gave A a chance to see what they look like from small seed bulb to harvest.  Granted these are far from the size you would find in the stores but the smell is dead on and sometimes you don't need all that onion...just a little bit.

A successful class if you ask me.  I had fun and I think she did too and thats all that matters right?

Companion Planting Part2

After reading the tons of information on the internet I have decided to try a little companion planting. Turns out I was lucky in that I had already planted plants and they are compatible.


In the first picture you are looking at the left side of my green house. Where front to back you have Green Beans, Broccoli, and Tomato....and also some Mint thru out. The mint was planted today for Ant control....turns out the ants love my greenhouse dirt and climat. But the other 3 plants are all compatible with each other.





The second picture is of the right side of my greenhouse where front to back is Green Peppers, Peas, and Cauliflower with again Mint planted thru out. Again I am using the mint here for ant control. But these 3 plants work good together. The two sides of the greenhouse are only separtated by dirt but they are far enough away that the beans and pepper won't effect each other as those two are not very compatible.





The last two pictures are of the garden off the kitchen...the garden as a whole has onions, carrots, lettuce, and rhubarb. All of which work very well together. The Rhubarb is known to crowd out other plants but as long as I space things right each year we should be good. In the first of these two there is Carrot and Lettuce growing side by side....In the last one you can see that the lettuce is thriving under the shade of the rhubarb's big leaves.

Companion Planting Part1

So I was once again scoring the internet for information on the plants I want to grow. I came across an article talking about companion planting. Wondering what it is all about I read on. Turns out there are times when the spacing between plants is not needed. Basically speaking you can plant more than one kind of plant in the row. For example I found out that in my corn bed I can plant Pumpkins...and a few herbs as well.

Companion planting serves many purposes I found out. They can reduce the amount of pests and insects that attack your plants. They can even attract the bennificial ones....like bees for pollinisations. Some can provide shade for others, or even something for them to climb on. They can help each other produce a higher yeild or bigger better flowers. Another thing I read was that sometimes they help each other in a more scientific way. One plant uses something in the soil and another plant produces it. It can be it's own mini ecosystem in your back yard.

There are tons of sites all over that have charts of what plants are compatible or incompatible. What plants are used for certain pest control. Some charts even tell you if it is for better yields. Below are a few of the sites that I found that have (I think) well put together charts or just really good info.

Links:
1) http://www.tinkersgardens.com/vegetables/companionplanting.asp - this site had a lot of information including a herb companion chart complete with pests they repell.
2) http://www.gardensablaze.com/Companions/CompanionYield.htm - This site will take yoiu to the better yields chart but at the top has links to a pest control chart and a attract beneficial instects chart
3) http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/complant.html - This one also has a chart but also has some good information.


I hope that you all find this post and these links helpful. I know I have. I plan on starting my pumpkins now and planting them in with my corn. And maybe add some Mint to keep ants away and Basil or Garlic to keep the Mosquitoes away....course I may just plant Garlic all over my yard to keep Mosquitoes away.