From a Tiny Seed...

Jack & The Beanstalk 2.0

Well, friends, our garden project has officially started. While my husband and I are certainly not pros, I have high hopes for our harvest.  Our goal is to keep us well stocked with fresh veggies through the summer and hopefully have enough surplus to "winter over."  With this in mind, we thought we would try our hand at successive planting. If it works, bonus.  If not, I'm sure you'll hear all about what NOT to do from yours truly. 

So, what have we started so far?  We've got broccoli plants in the ground, and we've sown our first batches of carrots, onions, and spinach.  There's a lot more to get in the ground, but it's a start.  We'll be planting like this, little bits at a time, over the course of the growing season.  We both work, my husband and I, and it's not always possible to get the whole thing knocked out in a weekend.  But this successive planting method means that, for most of our vegetables, we don't have to get everything in the ground at once.  We sow a little this week, a little next week, and everything is supposed to be ready for harvesting in batches (you know, um, successively?), thus prolonging the season, and thus things are ready for harvest in more manageable quantities.  I don't know, it sounds like genius to me.  Here's hoping.

If you're thinking of growing some of your own food, here are a few links that I found helpful:

For Okie Gardeners
The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension has great information.  I, for one, found this planting guide invaluable:
http://osufacts.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-1092/HLA-6004web.pdf


And look!  There's one for planting fruit!
http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-1015/HLA-6222web.pdf


For Anyone
http://www.almanac.com/content/beginners-vegetable-garden


http://www.urbanorganicgardener.com/grow-your-own/start/


http://eartheasy.com/grow_backyard_vegetable_garden.html


and here are the two books I'm relying on the most this season.