If the prices at the grocery store are getting to be too much for your budget it is time to start thinking about growing your own. Even if you manage a garden through the summer months as prices go up every gardener dreams of extending the growing season or moving to a location where the weather facilitates year round gardening.
For most of us, moving is not an option. We've made our roots in our communities, we have family and friends nearby that we don't want to move away from, or we simply can not afford to move. We can grow enough to last the year but then we are consumed for months afterward canning, drying, or paying for the freezer to keep our summer vegetables as fresh as possible.
But consider this: you could have your own fresh vegetables year round just by adding a greenhouse to your gardening scheme. Whether to start your plants from seed or bring container vegetables indoors, a greenhouse is a great addition to your home. By adding even a simple, inexpensive greenhouse and employing the tips below to plant an early spring garden, a fall garden, and overwintering the hardier vegetables, you'll be growing vegetables for longer periods than the standard 60-90 day growing season.
With plants started earlier, for your early spring garden, you can employ the use of protective plastic covers and heat absorbing mulches to trick the plants into thinking they're in full summer heat. This speeds the growth of early vegetables and ensures that you'll be in salad greens and sugar snap peas by May.
On the other side of summer, fall garden plants keep growing right up until the first hard freeze (a hard freeze is more than a light frost). Broccoli and brussel sprouts, cabbages and kale last well into the cold months of your region. Carrots, potatoes, parsnips and other root vegetables can be left right in the ground with a little mulch over top until snow removal becomes a pain to dig them out. Once they are in your house the shelf life of turnips, rutabagas, carrots, parsnips, and Bermuda onions will be between two and three months if stored in a cool location.
Long storage vegetables such as squash, sweet potatoes, yams, cooking onions and garlic can be stored in breathable containers in a cool area of your house for up to 9 months.
To save the most time and keep your plants going strong, harvest your country garden's bounty every few days. I keep large plastic bags in the freezer for the different vegetables and use them up as required. Beans are one of my favorites to pick this way as I know they are going from garden to freezer and then to the table in less than 20 minutes of handling time. There is no time for them to sit in the fridge waiting for me to have enough to freeze or can. The same is true of tomatoes. I freeze them as they come in from the garden, even if only two at a time, and when I'm ready to make salsa, spaghetti sauce or canned antipasto, I take them out, run them under cold water for 30 seconds and slip off the skins. This eliminates scoring, scorching and peeling tomatoes before use and keeps them fresh until I'm ready to use them.
Adding these few tips to a lighter freezing and canning schedule extends the season of feeding your family fresh garden vegetables and saves you piles of money at the grocery store checkout.
This article on country lighting is provided by Laura Childs of the popular country living website, GoodByeCityLife.com. For more rustic and country lighting tips visit us online at Country Lighting, or start from the Country Living home page for information on raising animals, working from home, raising children in the country, and much more.
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