Gardening!

Hi Everyone! Welcome to my gardening page! As you may know gardening is a very important part of my life! Many have said that I am very dedicated to running the community garden! A lot of the stuff that I have learned from the garden was from my good friend Fritz Langley. He has been a very kind and great mentor to me, and I hope that I can share some of his wisdome with you guys!

In today's world, garden education has become an increasingly important subject. Especially for our youth! It is important because we need to know where our food comes from and how to grow it ourselves, using natural and organic techniques! On this page I will share tips and tricks on how to garden and grow fresh food yourself!

Starting from Seed

The best way to grow plants is starting from seed, staring in the mid-to-late spring (around May). This means that the plant is fully grown by you! It also will cut down on the water, pesticides, and plastic waste used by people who pre-grow plants that you buy at the store. Make sure to follow the directions on the seed packet on how deep to plant the seeds, and how much water to feed the plant. You can feel free to ask an adult to make sure you are following these directions precisely! Some plants may require you to grow them indoors for a few months depending on the climate where you live. These could be such as to as tomatoes, peppers or other plants. But don't be affraind to directly sow, or plant them outdoors! That is where plants natural habitat is afterall! After a about a week or two of watering, you should get some amazing seedlings that will turn intro big strong plants in a month or two!

Another cool thing about seeds is that for many plants, you can use the seeds from the fruit you grow for next year's crop! You can just simply dry out the seeds, put them in an envelope, and store them in a dry place until next spring! Next year's plants will now not only be 100% your own, but they will grow bigger, and stronger because they are now use to your growing environment!

Harvesting!

In mid-summer you should start to see some fruit growing on your plants. If you don't see fruit growing at this point, or your plant didn't make it that far than that's ok too! My first Tomato named Tom didn't make it very long either! Until I brought him to Fritz and he Turned Tom into a strong tomato! Whenever you have a problem make sure to talk to your parents about it! Once your have their fruit, they should preparing for their harvest! Make sure to look at a picture of your plants to see what the fruit looks like when it is ripe! You can find a picture of the fruit on your seed packet. The harvesting season can vary from plant to plant, most plants genrally are harvested from mid-summer to early fall (July-September).

Once your fruit is ripe, it's ready to be eaten! You will now have delicious tomatoes, peppers, squash, zuchini, carrots and more! It is really a thrilling and fun process growing food from seed!

Enjoying your Crop

One of the ways I like to enjoy my food is sharing it with friends and family! I can tell you guys a quick story about when I first learned about the Community Garden. I thought that the tomatoes would grow back instantly, so I picked every ripe one off the vines. I quickly learned that this was not the way that a community garden worked, so I shared all the tomatoes with friends and family. There are also so many great recipes and food that we can make with plant's from the garden! When I was trying to be Amish, we made some tomato sauce for our pizza out of fresh tomatoes that I grew. Arthur and the gang loved it! But just remember not to use Muffy's tomato sunscreen, unless you want your skin to turn red!

Keep up to date with this page on Buster's World for more gardening tips and tricks to come!