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Any suggestions on a variety of corn for a smaller veggie plot?
I like Country Gentleman. It is a shoe-peg type corn (kernals are not in rows), but it is very tasty. It has a traditional corn flavor, not super, super sweet like many hybrid corn. They are too sweet for me.
The master gardeners, Ag extension is the best place to go for lots of questions..Because what I can grow in oregon may not work in missouri.
On freezing corn..I husk mine let dry a bit on cake cooling racks and wrap it in press and seal..It will last a long time..then microwave it when your ready to eat it..We freeze 40 ears every summer for the two of us..Green beans are easy to grow..
I agree check out the square foot gardening..its neat .great way to grow herbs..In our demo veg garden where i spend my spare time we show case square foot and raised beds..
Check out the Totally Tomato web site..there catalogue is just good reading..Ha Ha.
guess thats all my 2 cents worth
Well, I think you have already pointed out your main problem--your first year you planted a smaller garden and it did well. Then you planted a huge garden and it failed. Go back to the smaller garden and slowly increase it year by year.
For something more managable, you may want to grow only one large crop (like green beans) and keep your other crops in a smaller scale--just enough to eat while harvesting. I don't think gardening is that hard--just stick the seeds in the ground, water and weed. However, I grew up gardening and both my parents were raised on farm--so there may be things I just innately know.
Even so, a small basic vegetable garden is pretty managable for most people and provides a lot of food. Once you start talking acre(s), you are farming (IMO). My parents had a 100' by 20' garden (appx.) for a four person family. My mother canned tomatoes (and sauce) and green beans, kept potatoes and onions in the basement every year, plus a few other items that varied from year to year.
The difficult part is keeping up with the harvest. Canning is hot work and I remember my mother fretting over the canning schedule--trying to fit it all in around the rest of lifes' schedule. Although I agree with Branson about canning vs. freezing, freezing may be your best bet to begin with because it is sooo easy! If you do can, make sure you bring your pressure canner into the extension office to have it calibrated.
And you can sign up for the master gardening classes, too. It may help answer a lot of questions.
A word on the master gardener class, don't sign up for it unless you have most of year to devote to it..Its not only class room time but what they call pay back hours in the form of community service,working in their demo gardens if they have them, doing clinic's , a phone desk ect..
Here in oregon its 66 hours of class room and another 66 hours payback..Lots of work but the knowledge is worth it...
Good luck with this whole project.
A word on the master gardener class, don't sign up for it unless you have most of year to devote to it..Its not only class room time but what they call pay back hours in the form of community service,working in their demo gardens if they have them, doing clinic's , a phone desk ect..
Here in oregon its 66 hours of class room and another 66 hours payback..Lots of work but the knowledge is worth it...
Good luck with this whole project.
Also they spend WAAAAAYYYYYYY too much time talking about growing flowers - which are nice, don't get me wrong. But I don't really care that much about growing flowers. LOL (At least this is true in Missouri YMMV)
I didn't even think about the differences between states and the master gardening classes. In Arizona, you need 50 hours of community service, but only if you want to get your 'pin'. And from what I have gleaned from local master gardeners, our county focusses a lot of overall gardening from the soil up. I gues I'm lucky--I'm excited to take it in the fall.
We are in michigan, and seeds wise I buy mine from our local Nursery.
I dont cann my beans, I take them from the garden rinse and dry and freeze but we have a generator and dont have to worry about loosing power to the Freezer.
Everything else gets canned.
I would talk to a LOCAL Nursery they can help you with all that.
We have a big garden and making it even bigger this year.
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