Ready? Set. PLANT! It's almost garden time in NC!

It's almost garden time in North Carolina!

This is our second year of gardening at our home. Really, it's the first "official" year as last year was just an 8x6 raised bed with a few veggies.

This year I have stepped up to the plate and have actually dug up ground. Probably about 30x10 in size.

I just purchased some head lettuce seeds, carrot seeds, winter peas, and onion sets. We can start planting these vegetables starting February 1 according to the internet articles I've read. I'm a month behind because I haven't been willing to brave the "cold". Of course, it doesn't get too cold in this part of NC, but 30 degrees is a show-stopper for the most part.

I also bought my very first blueberry bushes. I got three of them from the local hardware/seed store. I'm very excited about these bushes. I know they will not start producing for a year or so, but once they do....fresh blueberries!!

I gleened most of my very limited gardening expertise from my father. He was raised on garden goods and carried that through and tought his children. Of course, it wasn't anything like classroom or internet teaching. It was get out there and get to work on those weeds learning. We learned to plant, weed, water, weed, pick, week, pick, week, harvest, weed....seems like we weeded alot.

My dad would plan a HUGE garden each year because he had "his boys to work it". One brave day, my brother suggested (with a hint of apprehension) that Dad plant only as much as HE could handle. My father responded with extra weed pullin' for my brother. I learned from his mistakes. I kept my mouth shut!

Now my dad is my first point of contact if I have any kind of gardening question. He's just a phone call away. I'm sure I'll be keeping the phones hot when I start planting and fertilizing. He loves it though.

I also try to use the internet and books as resources.

I found this great OLD book about vegetable gardening. It's from 1947 but is chock full of useful information. Gardening hasn't changed much since those days, other than the myriad of resources, chemicals, equipment, and technology available. But the basic how-to grow a vegetable or fruit is pretty much the same.

This book, entitled Vegetable Crops by Homer Thompson is for sale, along with many many others, at my online bookstore http://jklbooksupply.ecrater.com/. You can find all kinds of books at this site or one of the others featured at the top of this blog page.

While you're at it, look around the blog and feel free to comment or take the poll.

Happy blogging and have fun gardening!!!