I've been reviewing the 2011 growing calendar, but still very confused. Which dates actually apply to NW Louisiana? I will be starting with a small garden…maybe even a raised one since my back doesn't cooperate with working too near the ground. I'm also not sure about our soil, so I may I might also do some containers. There are several dates in the calendar with the same vegetables listed. How do you choose the right one?
New Louisiana gardener needs help
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GARDEN SUCCESS STORY… for “NW Louisiana Gardener” and others of us who’s “back doesn’t cooperate…”
More than 20 years ago, I had picked up a gardening book, and have studied the method off and on, thinking, “I’m gonna try this guy’s system one of these days…”
Having been unwisely ‘careful’ not to learn farming from my daddy… now that I’ve retired to the farm several years ago with limited funds… have a great 5 or so tilled acres, and tried row gardening on a small plot… which each time, failed for various reasons: too much garden to keep up with (or wanted to take a trip)… with too high water bill; no tractor, and too costly to hire; increasingly rebelling against all the labor intensive efforts.
When rattlesnakes and other varmints tried to share the space I balked…
…and resurrected that book… picked up a newer version, knowing he had been perfecting his technique some 27 years… Mel Bartholemew’s updated “ALL NEW Square Foot Gardening.”
Now you don’t have to build a porch to do this… it’ll work most any place that has the right sun exposure… In June 2010, finished enclosing an old-fashioned 10′ X 20′ ‘screened-in porch’ on the sunny South and West side of my folks’ old rock house I had refurbished… and put it right on the ground, enclosing my Daddy’s water-filled cistern… but made it snake-and-critter proof… Hung an old porch swing from the rafters…. and slept out there the rest of the summer… So knew it wouldn’t be a bust, if I never grew anything!
Cost a bit for materials to get set up, but I’ll never again have to worry about tilling, weeding, thinning, water bill, snakes, or an aching back!
Just built waist-high boxes from old scrap lumber, dug up some well-composted mule manure from the barn, and bought the rest of the needed stuff from Garden World and Lowes… make my “Mel’s Mix” inside the porch out of the West Texas wind, measuring with 5 gallon buckets… installed one-time-cost little-bitty drip irrigation (from Lowe’s)add one scoop of Mel’s Mix after harvest, and keep poking seeds in (one at a time — no thinning); turn on the drip irrigation from rain barrels, and enjoy watching it grow from my porch swing! (During the drouth, I had to fill my rain barrels from the faucet… but with no water waste, I saw NO water bill increase! I experimented with which veggies when! Cost of seeds are minimal with this system!)
Now that I know I can have gardening success, I’ve since, built a 20 X 20 Snake-varmint-proof Garden Yard with no roof, I’ll begin using this Spring – and expect to feed a family and more from the two plots… if I can add some dwarf fruit trees… and keep venison on the table too!
Found it really important to follow Mel’s system precisely, before incorporating “container gardening…” It really is not the same! ONE square foot fed me and the chickens all the greens we could eat, for the short weeks I had seeds in the soil before hard freeze hit.
Have decided to keep my little fig tree-in-a-tub on the ‘porch,’ as I don’t wanna share that lucious fruit with the birds. Surrounded the tub with hay and tarps for the Winter, so roots don’t freeze. Seems to be doing well.
Happy Gardening, and Shalom! CBJ
Find your last frost date from the Almanac and use the planting dates after that date. You still have to wait for your ground to be ready to work and warmed up. Once your ground is tillable and tilled you can use the planting dates forward from then. You might check with your state agriculltural department for books on gardening. They will be for your local area.
Frank