Gardening for Fresh Whole Foods - Part 1

There are many ways to obtain whole food products these days. There are a number of various whole food products on the market. Though the term "Whole Foods" can apply to a variety of all natural foods, today I am focusing on fresh vegetables.

Obviously, you can purchase fresh vegetables at your local stores. Super Wal-Mart and Jewell seem to have an abundant variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. The Whole Foods Market is quickly becoming the nation's hottest spot for purchasing whole food products. I shop there myself and strongly recommend it. But there are some drawbacks to purchasing whole food goods this way. One, they tend to be expensive. Additionally, with all the pesticides and herbicides utilized in the growing process, one can never be too sure... is it really healthy to eat?

Local markets are great places to purchase whole food products. I am referring to those simple road-side markets you see now and again. If you get to know the individual running the fruit and vegetable stand, you may be able to find out where the produce is grown, what pesticides are used, etc., if you want to get into that detail.

But my purpose today is to focus on that one way to obtain pure, unadulterated whole food produce, and that is from your very own garden. It is a lot of work, but the all natural profits are worth it.

The first thing you need to think about is what you intend to grow. You need to chose produce that will flourish in your region. It's simple, don't try to raise blue berries in Texas - it ain't happening! Blue berries need a little cooler environment, such as is found in the state of Maine for example. But most vegetables, berries and nuts grow well throughout the United States; you may just want to check out what grows best where you live.

Another tool you will want to acquire is a copy of the Farmer's Almanac. This is a really handy publication that recommends appropriate planting times. I have no idea where they come up with the information; I only know that it tends to be accurate and that it works.

Maybe you're wondering if I'm a gardening expert. I don't have a degree in gardening, and I don't own a gardening business. I only grew up on a farm where we depended on gardening for food. So I'm no expert, I just know how to grow vegetables!

So once you know what variety of crops you want to grow, and you've obtained your copy of the Farmer's Almanac, you're probably ready to start gardening. The first thing you need to do is pick a good spot. If you're doing a small plot, like a flower bed, or a huge, monstor garden across three acres, it doesn't matter. You need plenty of sunlight. If your flower bed is always in shadow, you're garden will do poorly. Having trees or buildings to the north or south isn't a problem. But you want to pick a location where you get sunlight all day, or for as much of the day as possible. It's all about location, location, location! You will also want to try and pick anyplace OTHER than a low spot. Otherwise, it is going to rain, your garden is going to flood, and the result will be a nice mud hole. If there is a little slope to the ground so that the water runs off,even better. Nice and flat is best.

Soil preparation is a big part of gardening. Don't take this the wrong way, but we're going to talk a lot of crap now; specifically, manure. You need to turn over the soil well in advance of your gardening activity; preferably, the fall before your spring planting, spring before your fall planting, etc.; how you do it is up to you. If it's a small plot, a hoe will work. A little bit larger and you will probably want to use a roto-tiller. If you grew up like I did, on a farm, you might be into using a tractor and plow. As long as you get the soil turned over, you're doing a great thing. Just make sure you go DEEP. Don't go for a little surface agitation; at least 10-12 inches. The looser the soil, the easier it will be for the roots, watering, etc. Once the soil is turned over, the grass will eventually die, but fresh grass will sprout eventually. It's one of the things you have to deal with while gardening - weeds. I suppose you could use a chemical like Round Up and treat the area first, but that's up to you. If we want to keep it organic, we want to stay away from chemicals.

After you get the soil turned over, it is time to fertilize. All I can tell you is what Dad and I used to do. We had cattle, and twice a year we scraped out the cow lot with a tractor and scraper. This resulted in creating huge piles of a dirt/manure mixture, more manure than dirt. We would spread this mixture by the truckload on the garden spot - 8 to 12 inches deep to be exact. Then we would plow all that under and do it all again. 8 to 12 inches deep spread all over the garden, and plow it under. I recommend using cattle manure if possible. I don't know that horse manure would work. I know for sure that chicken manure or other poultry manure will NOT work because it is highly acidic, high in ammonia. After plowing the manure under, there is no need to wait, you can start planting immediately.

This concludes Part 1 of this blog on gardening. If you'd like to read more, come back in a few days for part 2!