We had a strange winter. It was supposed to be the dry season, but we got more rain than we did in the wet season. So I spent the few dry days we had in January working up the new beds and bolstering the old ones.

Over Wintered Plantings and New Spring Growth

Planted red-top turnips in late November and they are prolific. The rhubarb came on strong with the hail storms, and the Swiss chard, spinach and kale and lettuces came through very well.

I have artichokes that seemed to flourish on the cold and rain. The horseradish is sprouting new tops. The beans did well, and I am planting more. I also have collards, mustard and endive coming in. I plant straight into the ground. And the trees are showing their spring green, and the fruit trees are beginning to blossom.

Using Sand and Raised Beds to Help Improve Soil Structure

We are also building soil for a larger patch in the field. We have red hardpan clay. So we’re laying volcanic sand over the clay, and then burying it in wheat straw, a layer of cow manure and then mulch.

After it sets a bit, we pull and mix it together and form our raised beds, which are about 18″ high. I have already planted one long row with cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and a few artichokes. We made a squash bed tucked behind the east garden wall where it will get first light and some relief from the late afternoon sun that is so hot.

Trellising Peas, Beans, Squash, and Tomatoes

We are using the garden wall to string up our peas, beans, squashes and bush pickles. Going to train my tomatoes on the walls, too, and see how that works.

I will be adding more variation as I build more rows. Hope to have some good rows ready before June when the rains begin. The most damage we received was to our flowers, we had some wicked hail. But it looks like everything is recovering.

Always looking for advice and tips, signed: Churchill from Patzcuaro, Mexico.

Thanks for the report Churchill; it’s always interesting to hear what’s growing in other gardens and in other climates and countries! Churchill is an organic gardener and previous contributor here on the Veggie Gardening Tips website.

First up are some of the common organic mulches that are more natural and will decompose and add organic matter to the soil as they break down:

Wood Chips or Shavings
Wood chips are one of the most commonly used types of mulch. It is best to choose older, decomposed wood mulch. Wood mulch that has not properly aged can contain toxins that are harmful to young plants. Some disadvantages include the quick decomposition of wood shavings and the possible attraction of termites.

Bark
Bark is another popular type of organic mulch. It is one of the most attractive mulch materials. Common types of bark mulch include pine, cedar and cypress. Bark mulch is available as nuggets, shredded, or in chunks. The nuggets provide the best level of weed prevention. High quality cedar mulch is one of the most expensive types of mulch.

Pine Needles
Pine needles are one of the less expensive types of mulch. They are long lasting and attractive. Pine needles allow water to get to the soil easily.

Stone, Gravel, Pebbles and Crushed Stone
One of the best benefits of stone mulch is that it is long lasting. Colored stones can add additional color to your landscape. A 1-inch layer of small rocks will provide good weed control. Be aware that light shades of stone will reflect heat back up towards plants, which may be harmful.

Landscape Fabric
Landscape fabric is also known as geotextile. The fabric is better than plastic because it allows air and moisture to penetrate into the soil. It is considered the best non-living mulch for long-term use. Landscape fabric is very effective at controlling weeds. Some grass may grow through the tiny holes in the fabric.

Recycled Rubber
Recycled rubber is used for many outdoor products, from patio tiles to mulch. Recycled rubber is often used in playgrounds as it provides a soft alternative to wood chips. Recycled rubber has many of the same benefits as organic mulch, including helping to retain moisture, moderating soil temperature and adding beauty to your landscape. It is available in many colors and won’t fade.

Many thanks to Marcy for sharing her landscaping tips. This is just a partial list of potential garden mulches, and don’t pass on the homegrown sources right in your own neighborhood such as shredded leaves, grass clippings, utility limb chippings, and mulch produced at municipal recycling centers.

Marcy Tate is a passionate gardener and home improvement diva who works her magic armed with nothing but a hammer, screwdriver, and crazy glue! She recently relocated to Wyoming, has worked with landscaping contractors for over a decade, and can be found blogging at Networx.com.

Garden mulch can enhance the look of your garden and help keep your garden healthy. Placing mulch in your garden can also save you time by decreasing the need for watering, applying herbicides and pulling weeds. A healthy vegetable and fruit garden always begins with healthy soil, and a healthy soil can be encouraged through mulching.

Enjoy these Great Advantages of Mulch in the Landscape:

• Helps moderate the soil temperature
• Enhances the growth of fruit and vegetables planted
• Retains moisture during dry weather, reducing the need for watering
• Reduces excessive weed growth
• Natural mulches can improve the structure of the soil
• As mulch decays it becomes topsoil adding nutrients to the soil
• Enhances the beauty of your home by adding color and uniformity
• Mulch helps prevent damage to trees and shrubs by lawn equipment

There are two general categories of mulch; organic and inorganic. Organic mulch is made from natural matter, such as bark, wood chips, leaves, pine needles, or grass clippings. Inorganic mulch includes gravel, pebbles, black plastic and landscape fabrics.

Making Comparisons between Organic and Inorganic Mulches

Organic mulch is the most beneficial to your garden. Unlike manufactured mulches, organic mulch helps improve soil by adding organic matter as it decomposes. According to the United States Department of Agriculture; “Mulch may also encourage the growth of worms and other beneficial soil organisms that can help improve soil structure and the availability of nutrients for plants.”

Organic mulch also costs less than inorganic mulches. Many local Park and Recreation Departments give away woodchips and bark at no charge. A small disadvantage is that because organic mulch decomposes over time, it needs to be replaced after several years.

While inorganic mulch (also known as man-made mulch) doesn’t benefit your garden as much as organic mulches, it is easier to maintain. The various types of inorganic mulch do not attract pests and do not decompose. Inorganic mulch is an especially good weed barrier.

Tomorrow Marcy will return to identify specific types of mulch and their application as useful elements in the garden or around the home landscape.

Marcy Tate is a passionate gardener and home improvement diva who works her magic armed with nothing but a hammer, screwdriver, and crazy glue! She recently relocated to Wyoming, has worked with landscaping contractors for over a decade, and can be found blogging at Networx.com.

Building or growing living and naturally healthy soil often begins with some mindset changes.

Maximum Quantity vs. Quality in the Home Garden

Most of these are easy for the home gardener, such as quality over quantity. Maximum yield growing is not a normal concept for the home gardener, but is forefront for the industrial producer.

Eliminating chemical use that destroys the living organisms that create the soil and its nutrients is sometimes hard to accept, but all bugs are not bad in the garden. Most bugs go for weakened or nutritionally deficient plants, so they are the symptom, not the true problem.

Addressing the Real Garden Problems rather than Symptoms

Getting rid of the bugs doesn’t solve the underlying nutrient deficiency, only the appearance of the plants. When you dig into the soil and see lots of worms, pill bugs, and other little crawly things, along with some white mold, this is great!

This is exactly what you want to see, as all of these factors combine to break down the compost and other matter into nutrients and minerals that can be used by the plants. When this is happening, the soil has its very own completely operational ecosystem. This is healthy soil.

The Ultimate Benefits of Maintaining a Living Soil Community

There are many really good reference books on what is and how to grow healthy soil, but the premise is easy. Soil must be fed, kept away from chemicals and allowed to develop its multiple layers of living communities that enrich the soil.

Encouragement of all the living things that make up the soil such as worms, pillbugs, fungi, molds, beneficial nematodes and bacteria will keep the soil vibrant and fertile. Once this process is ongoing, the production, flavor and nutrition of the garden will be amazing!

Cindy Scott has a degree in greenhouse management, and is the resident grower in the family. She has been collecting articles on soils, seed saving, and general growing for over 10 years. She developed a Grow Native! Plant Sale and Educational Festival that educates gardeners in the Central Arizona Highlands, that is now in its fourth year.

Stephen Scott has a business background and is an acknowledged chili-head who loves the hotter side of things and loves to cook. The appeal of the garden and growing is to supply the freshest ingredients for the meals! He has a large interest in self sustainability- being able to do and produce most of what one needs. They have built a greenhouse from recycled materials that provides year round produce and plants for the garden.

Zones are identified based on the relative location and accessibility, and then crops or gardening activities are matched to these regions depending on their allotment of time, space, labor, and other requirements. Zone 1 consists of the growing areas that are closest at hand and can be occupied by a variety of plants that are compact,  productive, and require intensive management.

Making it Easy to Keep a Close Eye on High Maintenance Plants

Examples of Zone 1 cultivation could range from a windowsill of potted herbs, to a deck or patio filled with containers of fig trees and bay laurel plants, or even a bed of edible flowers, baby cutting lettuces, and culinary herbs all growing alongside the home.

Zone 1 harbors plants nearby for easy access to the crops that you use most often; such as culinary herbs and fresh garnishes. Or it can serve as a base for plants that require frequent attention; such as container grown edibles. The close proximity means that demanding plants occupying this initial zone are much less likely to be forgotten or neglected!

Extending out into the landscape will be additional zones that are arranged according to increasing distances and decreasing access. Crops are then organized according to their needs and how often they require direct attention. Zones don’t have to be laid out in sequence and in some cases a particular zone can be omitted altogether.

The High Yield Vegetable Production Zones

The intermediate gardening zones are where most of the action takes place, and will likely be the most productive areas of an edible landscape.

Zone 2 is not as closely managed but still occupies a very convenient and readily accessible location. This is a perfect spot for the raised beds of your main vegetable garden. This second zone doesn’t require the constant, daily attention of the plants in the first zone though.

Next up, Zone 3 requires even less management, can be a bit further removed, and would make a great location for those perennial edible beds containing asparagus, rhubarb, blackberries, fruit trees, or a medicinal herb garden. Zone 3 could also be the ideal place for those special backyard gardening projects such as worm composting bins and solitary bee shelters.

Those Remote but Essential Outer Perimeter Zones

Zone 4 can be situated in a more remote or less visible section of the landscape. Crops in this area require only minimal or seasonal attention. Examples of Zone 4 crops include such low maintenance items as mushroom logs and your compost pile.

Finally, Zone 5 is located on the perimeter or most remote parts of the landscape and consist of wild or barely managed regions. Examples of zone 5 areas around the home include hedgerows, fence lines, border plantings, and areas that are left intentionally uncultivated.

Zone 5 should be a sanctuary for wildlife and a place where you can watch and learn from the lessons that Mother Nature reveals when left to her own devices. No matter how large or small your landscape may be, and regardless of where it is located, working from the perspective of zones will help you to become a more efficient and wiser gardener and to manage your entire landscape better!

How would you like to receive a free Cobrahead Cultivator to help control those pesky weeds, or a Garden Shark Mulch Rake to use in your backyard? Maybe you’d prefer a new Oxo Garlic Press to prepare those home grown garlic bulbs, a Marble Mortar & Pestle set to crush your fresh herbs, or a Fiskars Soil Knife that can fill many roles around the garden.

Have you had your eye on that Rain Reserve System, an EarthBox Garden Kit, or the Can-O-Worms Composter that you’ve listened to me brag about? Well Cyber Monday may just be the perfect time to do a little shopping and save some dough thanks to this great offer from OpenSky.

Don’t Forget to Use Your Special Coupon Code

The OpenSky “Cyber Monday” promotion will allow you to obtain a FREE $25 GIFT just by shopping with any of the OpenSky Shopkeepers and mentioning the following coupon code at checkout: kenny2509. That’s $25 off of any item, there is no minimum purchase, and no shipping charges… so this really is a free gift promotion!

But don’t delay as there are only a few thousand coupons being distributed throughout the community of OpenSky Shops and once they have been issued the promotion will come to a close. The coupon code becomes active Monday morning, November 30, 2009, is limited to one use per customer, and valid only in the U.S. and Canada.

Feel free to share the details and coupon code with your friends and family also. Any questions related to this Cyber Monday promotion can be directed to OpenSky by email at customerservice@theopenskyproject.com or by telephone at (877) 734-OPEN (6736), weekdays between 8 AM and 5 PM Eastern time.

Find the Perfect Recommendation at an OpenSky Shop

So go ahead and take a good look at what the OpenSky Experts have to recommend as unique gift ideas and then cash in with your $25 coupon code: kenny2509. I think you’ll discover just how quick and easy it can be to do all your holiday shopping and locate some very interesting gifts right here at the OpenSky community.

After you score please stop back and share in the comment section below to let us know how you used your gift coupon. I’ll also post a note in the comment section if I receive notice that all the coupons have been handed out and the promotional period is over, but act quickly and you won’t have to worry about missing out on this free offer!

The popularity of this promotion has crashed some of the OpenSky servers but we are aware of the issue and working to add more resources to meet the demand. If you’re having difficulty accessing a link the problem should be resolved very shortly. Thanks for your patience.

Heirloom beans are a fantastic crop for the backyard gardener, and if you’re a bit cramped for growing space pole beans allow you to go vertical in order to increase your yields even more. So here’s Barb from her small but productive garden in Northern Virginia:

Springing for an Economical Mix of Pole Bean Seeds

Hiya, Kenny! I am going to report on beans today. This is the first year I have dedicated space to pole beans. One was an early producer called “Spanish Music.” The second packet was a mix of three different beans. This is what I want to talk about.

I have never been a fan of buying mixed seeds. Oh, I’ll spring for salad mixes, of course, but really prefer one-per-package. I guess it’s the purist in me. BUT this small packet of three pole beans has turned out to be the best investment made.

Painting an Attractive Picture for the Small Space Gardener

You know I have an extremely small garden space. I put in maybe a dozen of each type of bean seeds, taking slightly more than six linear feet. The mix had white, red and brown seeds. They grew into a yellow wax type, a lovely purple string bean, and a green bean.

The other packet, Spanish Music is a wide, flat bean that can reach 10″ long and a full inch in width and still not be tough.  Here it is, mid September. This small allotment of space for pole beans produces three pounds of beans a week! They have outgrown the trellis by several feet, and I have to use a ladder to pick the upper reaches.

For the small space gardener, this type of mixed packaging can be a real money saver. One packet of three bean varieties, and I still have leftover seed. If I had bought three separate packets I would have more unused seed than I could use in years.

Using that Valuable Real Estate under the Bean Trellis

Underneath the bean trellis, the leeks are growing and the summer lettuces are giving way to the winter salad greens. Earlier this season you wrote about leeks not liking beans. Now I can tell you why…

Beans have an amazing root system. The leeks which are closest to the beans, and I mean within a foot of the bean row, are not as large as those which are three feet away. But the beans will come down and those leeks will be harvested last. We’ll see how they compare at the end of the winter.

Thanks for all your help and advice, hope this letter spurs someone else to take a chance on a small space garden.

Thank you Barb for sharing this great advice on growing pole beans in the backyard and for your perspective from a smaller sized garden. Pole beans are extremely easy to grow, very productive, and ideal for planting in the confined quarters of a small space vegetable garden.

Hi Kenny!  You’ve been a big help to me in the past with my gardening stuff, so I just kind of wanted to show you what I got going on out there with my tomatoes.  You had mentioned the problems you had with cages and trellises… I did too so I started making my own trellises.

Creating an Attractive and Sturdy Tomato Support

They cost about 10 bucks each to make and take about 2-3 hours each, but they never bend or break, can be used for years and years, and I think they look beautiful.  These are not buried in the ground.

I used 4  pieces of 6 inch pipe  about 18 inches long… filled them with pea gravel about 6 inches, put in the trellis, leveled it, then filled it to the top with pea gravel (actually the top ½ inch is white marble for looks).  This way, the boards NEVER rot, I can remove it annually and redo stain and waterproof if necessary and the whole process of removal and re-installation takes about 10 minutes.

I am sending a picture of it early in the season so you can see the trellis and one late in the season so you can see the size the things get to in it. It is very heavy with fruit. I have been pulling tomatoes since the 4th of July (ended up being a pretty easy day to remember).

Extending the Reach of Your Tomato Plants even Further

A little magic fertilizer system helps with the size… the picture with me in it was taken about the middle of June; the plant is well over 6 foot now and has consumed the trellis.

Oh, by the way, you can’t really see them in the pictures, but the “extension” of the trellis serves a purpose later as the plant grows bigger around. I take wire insulation hangars, drill holes in the ends of the “extensions” and put the wire through them.

These hangars are very strong and take a heck of a lot to bend them. In essence, you end up with a “dual layer frame” type of trellis, and the outer layer poses no problems in reaching past into the plant to harvest yer bootie!

There’s More than One Way to Trellis a Vegetable Plant

As John has just shown, there are many angles to take in constructing a trellis or structure for supporting all of your homegrown veggies and fruits. There’s no right or wrong way, just whatever works for you.

The trellises can also be adapted or modified to support other vegetables and fruits. For example squash plants and even melon vines can be trained to grow and bear fruits on a trellis.

I still love the support system that I shared in my tomato trellising video, but there are so many great options and techniques for supporting your plants and they will all help improve production, plant health, and help maintain order out in the vegetable patch.

John M. has been gardening for ten years and has watched his garden grow larger with each passing season. Tomatoes are John’s favorite crop and they grow like trees in his backyard vegetable garden. He admits that it wouldn’t be possible without the religious watering, pruning, and nurturing provided by his lovely assistant Peggy!