Food For Everyone Gardening Seminar Outline

Food For Everyone Gardening Seminar Outline

Classroom Instruction – 2 /1/2 hours
1.History and development of unique world-wide gardening methods.
2.Six Laws of Plant Growth – DVD Presentation of Sustainable Gardening.
3.Instruction in “The poor man’s hydroponic method” of gardening.
4.Instruction in “The best of organic” method of gardening.
5.When (based on ADLF), how, and where to plant all 4 types of vegetables.
6.Extend your growing season both Spring and Fall – Protecting your plants.
7.Organic vs chemical feeding of plants – the best of both worlds.
8.Heirloom vs hybrid seeds and how to avoid GMO seeds.
9.Growing your own seedlings for healthier plants early and late.
10.Gardening in the soil – “A great garden in any soil, with no soil amendments.”
11.Tools and techniques for eliminating weeds from the garden.
12. Video on creating and caring for a soil-bed garden with only ½ the water.
13.Successful gardening in containers of any size – Introduction to Grow-Boxes.
14.Controlling bugs, diseases, and animal pests.
15.Vertical growing to increase yields and reduce losses from pests and diseases.
16.In-The-Garden greenhouse for protection from both cold and heat.

In The Garden – Hands-on Workshop – 2-4 hours
1.Introduction to essential gardening tools and equipment.
2.Demonstrate proper soil preparation including elimination of weeds.
3.Plan and organize garden space to maximize sunshine & water availability.
4.Create a working soil-bed garden with raised, ridged beds.
5.Build Grow-Boxes (containers) and fill with soil mix materials.
6.Apply balanced natural mineral nutrients to the soils for a healthy garden.
7.Build T-Frames, install and demonstrate their use in growing vertically.
8.Discuss and demonstrate planting and covering seeds in all types of soil.
9.Teach and demonstrate planting seedlings in soil and container gardens.
10.Demonstrate watering methods for maximum results with minimum water.
11.Build and demonstrate ease of use and other benefits of automated watering.
12.Daily and weekly care and feeding of your garden for maximum yield.
13.Build and Demonstrate use of mini-greenhouses to extend growing season.
14.Demonstrate greenhouse-in-the garden to protect plants from heat & cold.


Food For Everyone Foundation
4348 Spring Brook Lane
Gardendale, Alabama 35071
(205) 607-6210 - (801) 915-4449
www.foodforeveryone.org - jim@growfood.com

Amazing gardening year so far

I have been blessed to find the Mittleider method.
The fact there is a Non-Profit teaching it around the world is icing on the cake.
It is an honor to help them and Mittleider gardening has kept myself and some friends feed for the last 3 years.

The proof is in the yields.
Thank You Dr. Jacob Mittleider and also
Jim Kennard who started the Food for Everyone Foundation

Here is our

Vimeo organic gardening channel

Do what you can to help a Non-Profit in an area you love and are passionate about. It is the best buzz there is.

Jim Kennard President of Food for Everyone Foundation

Interview with Jim Kennard founder of the Food for Everyone Foundation.

Gardening seminars

We will be in Utah between February 15 and March 5, and would be
willing to conduct free gardening seminars during that time, if there
is sufficient interest by church congregations or community gardening
groups.

The preferred format is for a 4 hour seminar, with 2 hours in the
classroom and 2 hours in the garden.

Jim Kennard

Pay It Forward" - You Can Too!

Q. I am a Mother of 5 children. I don't have a lot of knowledge about gardening and would like to learn more. I don't have a lot of time to spend gardening and need to find the best way.

A. I'm sharing my response to with you only to show how each of us can help make the world a better place by sharing - even in small ways - the good that we know. And perhaps you will come to know what motivates me a little better also.

Dear Mother: May I send you a gift to assist you? I am from a family of 13, and my mother didn't have time to do justice to a garden, so being the oldest boy at home most of the time, I was assigned that task. I would have loved the materials I'm going to suggest here.

On the website - at the Store, you can look at the materials the Foundation makes available. Any one of the gardening books can make you a proficient gardener!

There are a couple of things, however, that I think apply especially well to a busy mother. The 6 Steps to Successful Gardening book is very simple and easy to read and follow, with illustrations for virtually every step.

And the Garden Wizard CD automates the planning and creation steps, and gives you a wealth of background assistance and guidance.

Depending on the ages and computer literacy of your children, and the possibilities of getting them involved in a "fun" gardening project, I believe you would benefit from either one or both of these.

Because My own wife - recently deceased - raised 5 girls, I felt a kinship for some reason when I read your note, and would like to send you one or the other of these two resources as a gift.

Please , if you would like to take me up on the offer, just give me your address and I'll get something on its way tomorrow.

Best wishes for success in the most important work in the world - raising children. And I hope you can get some of them involved in gardening with you. I still thank my own mom 53 years later for getting me started (she even entered one of "my" pumpkins in the State Fair, for which I received a ribbon!).

Now don't start sending me names of people you know who want a free book or CD, because I couldn't begin to fill the requests.

Instead, I challenge each of you reading this to think of ways to "Pay Forward" the knowledge by which you've been blessed, by helping and/or encouraging others - in this way or any one of countless others.

Do you have neighbors or family you'd like to see improve their gardening efforts? How about a widow or single mother who needs a little boost?

I can help any of you who would like to use the Foundation's gardening materials in this way. If you buy 5 or more, for charitable purposes only, in any combination, I will make the Garden Wizard CD and 6 Steps to Successful Gardening available for 1/2 price for the next 30 days, as the gardening season is getting started.

And if you are REALLY interested in helping others, I invite you to consider assisting people in many other countries, who almost ALL need help! As one example among many I could name, the Madagascar garden project I conducted in 2002 is suffering the effects of a typhoon that destroyed the greenhouse and storage shed. It is devastating to this little school that has been running on virtually no money since I left, except for the year's supply of fertilizers and seeds I left with them.

Crop Rotation Yes or No

Drastic Crop Rotation - Change the Entire Location Every Year - Good Idea??

Author: Jim Kennard

Q. My husband said you should change the location of your vegetable garden every year. Is this correct?

A. This idea is impractical and unnecessary. Most family garden areas are too small to even rotate crops adequately, much less having the space to move the entire garden to a new location.

If you maintain a clean, weed-free garden, grow your crops fast, harvest at peak maturity, and don't introduce diseases into your garden, you should be able to grow indefinitely in the same garden spot.

If one or more crops are over-run with pests or disease, you may need to avoid planting that crop for a year or more, unless you have a large enough area that you can move that crop some distance away, where the disease or bugs that have wintered over won't get to them.

Soil amendments Needed Yes or NO?

Hi everyone, My name is Tom and I live in central California in the
foothills ..I have been trying to grow a garden for several years only
to end up with nothing for my effort. I have decomposed granite for
soil and it will not grow anything except weeds. I can't even get fruit
trees to grow. I need some help, Please. The area where I want the
garden is in full sun all day, its 20 x 40 ft. All I have been able to
put in the ground is rabbit and steer manure in the past. I'm just
finding out about using other soil amendments. I would welcome some
input as I really need to raise some food. If it is allowed you may
contact me at (. Thank You


Tom: I assisted Dr. Mittleider create a large highly successful teaching and demonstration garden at the Adventist school named Weimar, 50 miles East of Sacramento, in a location where we had to use pick-axes to plant our tomatoes.

We used NO soil amendments. The folks there had previously been paying to have horse manure delivered, and paying to have pine needles taken away. Dr. Mittleider had the unused horse manure removed and used the pine needles (chopped up with a hammer mill) to grow healthy seedlings.

You can have a very successful garden in your soil simply by eliminating the weeds and then using the Mittleider Magic nutrients and watering regularly. We promise the world "a great garden in any soil (without soil amendments)" .

Jim Kennard
__._,_.___

New to the mittleider method whats the fertilier all about

I, also, have just found out about this method. I got the book and
read faithfully after I had put in most of the garden. I have
planted 13 tomato plants in a row about 25 feet long. Finally tying
them up was educational. I did it this morning. I have pipe above
about 6 foot and used clothes line to tie them up. Cutting off the
strong shoots hurt me and probably put the plants into shock. I did
keep the shoots that were flowering so three of the plants have two
strong stems tied up. What do I do with the one that is really a
bush of many small shoots. I left it alone for now and will try to
treat it as a bush and only thin it a little.

OK - Do I dress the plants with the #1 and weekly now? This is the
first time this land has been used as a veg garden. I tilled it last
fall and twice this spring prior to planting anything. I did no
testing of the soil nor did I add anything prior to planting. At
planting I added 16,16,16. What should I do now to my corn, zuchinni
and acorn squash, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.

Keeping up with the weeds is daily work.

Thanks for being such a good recourse.

With plants 2' apart you can certainly let more than one stem grow. Keep them guided around your "string", and prune future sucker stems.

Is the tomato that looks like a bush a determinate? If it's roma, celebrity, or other patio variety then leave it a bush. It it's indeterminate you're best served to try and limit the stems, or it will be all stems and little fruit.

If you did not add calcium to your soil before planting I would certainly do THAT now. Make the Pre-Plant formula by combining lime (or gypsum if you receive less than 20" of annual rainfall), Epsom Salts, and 20 Mule Team Borax in a ratio of 80-4-1. Apply 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) per running foot, and work into the top inch or two of the soil, along with the #1 (Weekly Feed) mix.

Each week after doing this make-up feeding apply the Weekly Feed mix to your rows of plants at the rate of 1/2 ounce (one tablespoon) per running foot.. Corn is fed only until it tassels. The others are best fed until 8 weeks before the first expected fall frost.

Jim Kennard

Using rain covers over your garden yes or no

Was wondering if planting under rain covers changes how I will need to
manage the application of weekly feed to the plants?
Edwin.

You shouldn't change the application of fertilizers. You may need to water those fertilizers in, however, if you have been counting on rainfall to do that for you, and if your rain covers are so effective that water is not getting into the beds regularly.

Jim Kennard

Large scale Mittleider gardening yes it works.

Hi
I'm a newbie, and just love what you are doing.
I will be making some Grow Beds this gardening season
and using Mittleider Method's.
I also have some pasture land and would like to try the
Mitteider Method on 2 or 3 acres. If possible?
How much pre-plant would I use per acre?
How much Micro-nutrients per acre?
How often?

Thanks
Hillwert

Hillwert & Group:

If you are broadcasting you need 1,000 pounds per acre. If you are applying it into just the bed area you need 500 pounds (250 30' beds per acre).

Do not use the micro-nutrients by themselves. They are only to be used after mixing with the proper amount of NPK and magnesium sulfate.

Weekly Feed is applied in 1/2 the quantities Pre-Plant is, but it's applied several times. If you were growing wheat you would apply 500# if broadcasting, and 250 if applying just to the planted areas.

Jim Kennard
__._,_.___

Using material between your soil beds yes of no?

Jim and/or group,

1. Would it be advisable to lay something between the grow boxes/beds
to help keep weeds down? I have some rubber like black material (roofing) that I could use. Would that provide a breeding place for bugs, etc and not
a good idea?

2. Has anyone use 8 ounce "coffee" (throw away) cups for the transition
stage of seedlings form sprout tray to larger container?

Nelson

Nelson & Group:

We don't recommend using anything except E. & O. (early and often) Weeding.

The coffee cups should be okay, unless they have coffee grounds in them.

Jim Kennard

Mittleider gardening where to start?

Hi JIm- As you know, i am new to the Mettleider Method of Gardening,
and I am not quite sure where to start to learn the Method. I have read
lots from all the web sites, but still not sure what exactly
the "Method" is. Could you give me some direction as to where to start
to learn the method and what I should be doing now to get things ready
for planting.
Thanks,
Natasha

Group:

The best place to start is the Learn section at www.growfood. com. That contains the complete Mittleider Gardening Basics book, which is the result of a collaberation among several Brigham Young University educators and Dr. Mittleider.

To get started, consider planting indoors with Grow-Lights. I've written several short articles here and in the FAQ section of the website that describe that process.

Jim Kennard

What plants to start from seeds

This is the first year that I am trying seeds. Do i plant everything
from seeds in my house frist and then transplant out into my garden? Or
are there some plants that do better being planted directly into the
ground. I have always planted starts from the nursey.
Thanks,
Natasha

Natasha & Group:

Some plants are better to grow from seed in your garden, including beets, spinach, swiss chard, carrots, radishes, etc.

Some are optional, but using seedlings for many of your garden plants, especially the ones with high production value, can increase your yield substantially. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, squash, melons, etc. come to mind

Growing tomatoes a-z

This is a long subject.
If you build the sunken grow beds, and the deep soil is clay, will
it not fill up with water like a Bowl during heavy rainy spells and
rot the roots? Or even water too much not knowing it?

Am I to understand from looking at the HOt Bed Photos that horse
manure is being used in sunken beds to heat it up? Since horse manure
is strong stuff, will it not burn up the roots when they finally
reach the manure? SUch as tomato roots.

Just how deep should a sunken bed be dug for tomato plants?

I grow tomatoes in a greenhouse early to beat the extreme late Spring
and Summer heat. I am in the process of doing that right now, only
much earlier than I normally do.
The plants are 5 weeks old and about to be transplanted to bigger pots.
I was trying to figure out how to keep my soil warm in the greenhouse
grow beds but was told not to add fresh horse manure to my beds or it
would burn the roots and make the plants tall, leggy and decrease
production due to high nitrogen levels in horse manure. I need
advise. I can get horse manure by pick up truck loads for $35.
The greenhouse is 20x96. Two grow beds 3x76 ft with soaker hoses
for irrigation. Each bed is a double row of tomatoes.
I use the Mittleider Method for fertilizing by placing it under the
soaker hoses every week with a little dab of calcium nitrate.
I added 3 pounds of calcium nitrate to the mittleider mixture. The
plants grow huge and very productive Til the summer heat arrives then
they get heat scald. If i take the poly off the greenhouse-- -they get
foliage fungus due to rains. I even have a 30% shade cloth to help
lower temps on the greenhouse frame with poly off. Danged if I do and
Danged if I don't.

This is part of my Income. I must make it work on little income to
spare. The other part of my income is Greenhouse Business--growing
and selling veggie plants, bedding plants and hanging baskets. I do
all this myself with no employees. So much goes through my mind, I
dont know if I am coming or going.

I have about 3 acres to work with, the other 7 is horse pasture for
neighbor and land for our children.

Carolyn

Carolyn & Group:

We don't recommend sunken beds, nor do we use much horse manure, but we will sometimes build a hot-bed using horse manure for raising seedling plants. Here's how: Dig a hole 2' deep X 4' wide and 6' long (you can make it longer, but much wider is difficult to work with. 3' wide may be enough for some of you.

At the bottom of the hole place 1' of aged horse manure. Cover that with 6" of soil. Cover that with 6" of sawdust & sand mixture (2/1).

The aged horse manure will produce some heat - enough to warm the soil mixture, but not enough to hurt your plants, and the roots won't get to it to get burned.

Mix 16 ounces of Mittleider Pre-Plant Mix and 8 ounces of Weekly Feed Mix into the sawdust/sand soil medium.

Plant your seeds in the first 18" across one end, with 75-100 small seeds in each 18" row. You could have rows every 3" across the 4" width, giving you 17 rows of seeds, for a total of 1700 seedlings.

Place bent PVC pipe or heavy wire over the seeded portion of the hot-bed and cover with 6-mil greenhouse plastic.

Then cover the entire hot-bed with PVC pipe or wire and plastic, securing the plastic with dirt all around the edges.

The double covering over the small section will keep the seeds warmer - enough to germinate and start to grow.

Water well, and keep moist at all times.

After seedlings appear begin watering with the dilute fertilizer solution of 12 ounces of Weekly-Feed in 30 gallons of water.

As soon as the seedlings have their first set of true leaves and are ready, transplant them into the balance of the space in your hot-bed.

Detailed instructions for transplanting (and everything else you want to know about growing tomato (or other) seedlings is contained in Let's Grow Tomatoes, which you can get electronically at www.howtoorganicgarden.com

You should space your seedlings 2 1/4 to 2 1/2" apart in your hot-house soil.

As soon as seedlings' leaves begin to overlap their neighbors, you must prune them back, otherwise the stems will stretch looking for light, and your plants will be leggy and weak.

As soon as it's warm enough in your garden transplant out of the hot-bed into the soil. For tomatoes this will be 6-8 weeks after you planted your seeds.

To keep your tomatoes from getting too hot you probably need to have the plastic walls roll up. This will greatly increase the ventilation and cool the plants somewhat. Splashing white-wash on the under side of the plastic can also add some shade. Be sure you use something that will wash off easily later.

Jim Kennard

Growing seedlings indoors with lights

Jim I understand we should use one hot and one cool light. Silly
question, but how do we tell the difference (they are called "warm" & "cool" in the stores - JK)??

Second question: Indoor lights provide 50% of the needed light - that is why we should have them on for 18 hours versus 8 (probably not that much, but it's the best you can do - jk)?

Is it ok to have the lights on longer, perhaps 20 hours (sure, just get up at 3 A.M. and turn them off (-: - jk)? Is there a schedule of hours, like 18 then 17 then 16 we should use before transplanting to the garden (not really, and if there were it would get longer, rather than shorter - jk)?

If people want more information Jim set up a page on the main FFEF
website (it's called the FAQ section, with articles on indoor growing - jk), and we also have a Squidoo lens at the following address - http://www.squidoo. com/growlights

As always, Thank you Jim and Happy Holidays to everyone.

Steve

Grab the Mittleider gardening software for the holidays
http://foodforevery one.org/garden_ master/

Mixing your own Fertilizer

i have on hand 50# of 15-0-15 and 5# of 0-46-0.
>
> how much of 0-46-0 do i need to add to make a 15-15-15 fertilizer
>
> or close to it
>
> thanks wayne
>
>
> Wayne& Group:
>
> What you would REALLY like to have is 13-7.5-13! That is the ratio
in the Pre-mixed Mittleider Magic fertilizers that are sold in the
Mountain West, and that's what I'd tell people how to make, if the
stores sold the right materials to make it.
>
> You have a GOOD situation for making a Weekly Feed mix that is very
good.
>
> Mix 28# of your 15-0-15 with 5$ of the 0-46-0, and you'll have 4.2N
- 2.3P - 4.2K.
>
> If you're mixing with the pre-mixed micro-nutrients from the
Foundation, just use 20# of that NPK mix, along with 3# of magnesium
sulfate, and you've got a good Weekly Feed.
>
> Jim Kennard
>
Jim, to help me (and all of us) understand this mixing, is the basic
formula for mixing your NPK to ensure that each of the N, P and K are
in 13-7.5-13 proportion. For each part of P, you need 1.75 parts of N
and K?

So, in the example above, 5# of 0-46-0 would have 46 x 5 parts of P =
230. This needs 1.75 times 230 = 402 parts of N and K. Since each #
of 15-0-15 has 15 parts of N and K, divide 402 by 15 to get 26.8#.

Or is my formula off?


group:

It's really quite simple. The ideal NPK ratio is 110-60-110. That is a RATIO - not percentages. This is "the preferred horticultural mix", according to some of the big fertilizer companies.

Then why don't they sell it that way? That would mean one fertilizer would feed all plants, and they wouldn't make much money. Of course they would also need to add the secondary and micro-nutrients, but it would be a start anyway.

Jim Kennard

Heat and drought how does a Mittleider garden fare compared to other gardening methods

I am familiar with the situations that you are referring to, both heat and drought. While in South Africa we lived in the hottest capital of the country, although summer was our rainy season, so watering regularly was never an issue; no water restrictions worth mentioning. It is imperative though that you do water regularly to keep the soil moist at all times (dig a little hole and feel that moisture is there). Now that we live in Australia we again have very hot summers in our area but we are in the worst drought in recorded history. So we have water restrictions too.

Seeing that you will only have 2 or so beds I'd recommend the following:

Find out from your council if you are allowed to water your small veggie patch by hand (a bucket or watering can) during the days you are not to irrigate (sometimes restrictions are for automated systems that wet lawns and flower beds). If you are allowed, then watering two beds by hand is not too much to ask. (try not to wet the leaves of your crops).

If not, I'd consider attaching a water tank to the down-pipes of your roof gutters to make use of any little rain that may fall. You are free to use that water for drinking or irrigation. And maybe on your irrigation days you can fill up your tanks or containers. As a last resort I will consider using grey water.

Make sure you get enough sun. Having a sunny strip at a certain time of year does not mean that you will have it later, seeing that the sun moves N and S through the seasons. If shade may be a problem, consider planting more leafy vegetables that can ustilize the available light better.

If any trees are too close to the beds you might find their roots
competing sooner or later (besides the problem of shade they throw); you should be able to see their roots if they are present at the time you dig over your patch.

Keep to the recommendations of shaping the slightly raised beds. Once the veggies take off and fill their space they provide their own shade, just keep watering to make sure the soils stay moist. Veggies grow fast, don't have as deep roots as more woody crops and benefit by shorter irrigation cycles more frequently; there is no reason to irrigate deeper than the root zone as soil is not a reservoir for water. Too much water will only leach your minerals past the root zone.

Surprisingly, we have one more thing in common Diane - my landlord will not allow me to have a veggie patch anywhere. I found a wonderful alternative that, so far, works very well!

Where my wife works they had plenty of polystyrene containers/boxes!
Putting two and two together I realised that polystyrene (in our hot
climate) is a perfect insulation material. I find that they work much better out in the sun than plastic or even clay pots. They don't get cooked by the sun due to being white and thus provide good insulation so that the root zone doesn't over-heat or dry out too quickly.

I drilled drainage holes and now grow my veggies in them! The boxes are the perfect size and deep enough (8'' plus). I also have some in plastic pots and clay pots and the polystyrene outperforms them both. Now it is not ideal growing in containers; having your roots have access to natural soil such as in Mittleider grow-boxes is better; but I simply have no other choice. I can also move my containers around to wherever the sun gets to them more.

I keep my containers raised off the ground in order to make sure
they drain well and to avoid diseases (Same as what you would do for
seedling trays or seedling flats). Simply lay them on some wooden stakes or something similar.

The only other crop I grew amongst some open patches in the garden beds (where they get enough sun) is climbing (indeterminate) tomatoes. They yield profusely and a few plants will see to our need throughout our summer this year. I grow them as single stems up a stake and keep any leaves clear off the ground. Cucumbers, climbing beans or other climbing plants can also be considered.

The FFEF website has ample instructions on how to feed plants in pots. For those people in flats or small court yards, I recommend trying out growing in containers. Herbs are of course an easy and rewarding thing to grow in pots. A little goes a long way and you can dry them (in your Excalibur Diane) and cook delicious meals.

Consider also that if you have a friendly neighbor (who might have a better patch of ground); you may want to introduce them to the Mittleider Method and share the fun of growing and sharing a garden together and sharing in the costs.

All the best with your pursuits,

Late fall early winter gardening

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.

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 might 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 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 at www.growfood. com.

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 suspect 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 brocolli, 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.

Successful Gardening!

Jim Kennard

Mittleider gardening in extreme heat

I live in the desert of Arizona, so our climates are probably pretty much the same. Right now is the time to plant kale, chard, spinach, collards, lettuce, mesclun mix (which is a great market crop), cilantro, parsley, carrots, turnips, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, mizuna and other oriental greens. Check out your local county co-operative extension office for more ideas of crops. I have a combination of grow boxes and grow beds. The dirt is full of caliche here, so my root vegetables I do in the boxes. The boxes are an investment at first, but I like them better as they are easier to use from year to year - less digging with a shovel. Try planting some rainbow chard, purple and yellow carrots, unique vegetables that do well at a market and you can't find in the grocery stores.
Good luck.


I inherited my grandmothers farm last year. Lived in cities all my
life when not overseas military so don't know squat about gardening.
Being on disability (woke from a coma 2002) I have limited resources.
This first garden got beat up by the sun. Squash and watermelon made
it along with tomatoes (just barely) but nothing else. Coyotes got
into the melons bad. Want to grow some food to eat and possibly sell
to help stretch the budget. Any suggestions on what will grow out here?