Sharon's Garden: Front Yard Farms

http://daniellecornelius.com/

Front Yard Farms

Well I have made the leap to start my own little business. Do what you love and the money will follow, right? The name I have chosen is Front Yard Farms. My intent is to help people create beautiful veggie gardens and create food for themselves. Teach people sustainable practices as well as help with some ornamental gardening, selling herbs and veggie starts as well as ornamental starts. I visited my friend Monica's garden to give her some advice. She is a fairly experienced gardener so it was inspiring as well as helpful for me to get my mind really in the mode of my business plan. My next project is to help my dear friend Danielle, who has a bit of a brown thumb. We are going to get that brown thumb nice and green. Danielle has really taken on the responsibility to live in a more sustainable way. She has really gotten into the spirit of recycling everything, networking with others to generate good practices in her home and life, and has really made an effort to take good care of her mind and body. So she has decided as part of her process that she needs to become more one with nature and be able to be a little more self sufficient in her garden. We are going to start out with baby steps. She has a few things in mind that she wants to accomplish. First she wants to grow her own food, second she wants to compost more and understand the process, third she wants to be able to have fresh cut flowers for her house, and finally she wants to learn to can the veggies she grows. The last part is not something that I will provide for other clients but I am going to teach her what I know about canning. I should also say that much of this process for her is going to be therapeutic. She is going to challenge herself in an area that may have been a little overwhelming for her. Her husband does most of the gardening and now Danielle wants to be an active participant in the process. So we are going to start some projects that are just hers alone. I will blog about it here and Danielle is going to blog about it on her blog. Look for a website coming soon for Front Yard Farms. A woman on a mission to spread the love of gardening one person at a time.

Planting Schedule

Today I planted some more seeds indoors. I got quite into the spirit of things today by pasterizing soil at home. I baked my potting soil in the oven for thirty minutes at 250 degrees. You may think this is a bit extreme and a bit stinky. It is worth it in the end when you see those darling little plants poke their heads out of the soil in those pots lining the window sills.
Once I got my soil out of the oven I started basil, Walla Walla onions and some pickling cucumbers. We will see what happens with the onions. I understand that onion seeds don't save very well. Meaning you should by or save new seeds every year. Many other seeds save fine for a few years under the right conditions. Keeping them dry and cool. I also started peas outsided today. I plan to start some chamomile, leeks and more cucs inside this weekend. On the 20th I will start some coriander, eggplants, and start some leek seeds outside. March 27th I will sow carrots, bush beans, lettuce, spinach, radish, kohlrabi and watercress outside. April 17th I will sow cucs, onions, more radishes, and tunips outside. I will continue to plant turnips, lettuce and possibly carrots every three weeks after the 17th of April to get a good winter crop going. I plan to plant lettuce under a cucumber trellise. When the last frost has happened, which should be about April 3rd and the soil is quite warm I will start to move my starts outside. Is there anything magical to these dates you ask. No. It is just how I planned my planting schedule this year. In years past I have scrambled around trying to get plants in the ground and being a bit late on most. Who knows if I do the garden dance enough they may become magical dates. There is quite a good chart for winter gardens on Territorial Seeds website.

I busted out the pots and dirt today people...

Okay as promised here is a sneak peek at my schedule of planting. Today I managed to start some tomatoes inside in pots. (The other half is in Vegas for three weeks so I can pack the kitchen with little pots of treasure with no complaint). I started Morgage lifters, a Japanese black tomato that is actually from Russia, claims to have a rich flavor, mmmm. I started two others, one collected from a friend's garden I have renamed the Cherry Lynsky and another that my mom renamed Cucamonga. Hopefully I will get those little peas in the ground. Hopefully it won't rain too much. So stay tuned I will be writing out a complete schedule or it may got like this. But I'd like to be able to give those of you that want it a heads up so you can plan. Happy gardening.

Planting Schedule

I have made a commitment.  Well at least I put it on my calendar with the goal of following through.  I have decided that I am going to start my seeds indoors on February 7th.  I will make every effort to log the days that I start seeds and plant things.  I am really focusing on my veggy garden this season.  I have been inspired to grow fall and winter veggies this year.  During our "lunch time chats" at the MG program a gardener that has been growing winter veggies for twenty years brought in a sample of his beautiful crop.  In the past I have been too late to get my starts in the grown for fall and winter veggies or been intimidated by the process.  I am making it a goal of mine this year to write on the calendar when to put in all my seeds and plants.  Maybe I will get it right this year.  Or at least some of it right.  Stay tuned for planting schedules and some good info on vermiculture.