Out Of The Soil
All things gardening
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THE BENEFITS OF GARDENING
Gardening can sooth the soul and calm the body. With the sun on your shoulders, you can let the your worries slip away, at least for a short while, and enter your own realm of soothing moist soil and the thought of the future fruits of your labors. But it's not really work - not when the time spent is so thouroughly enjoyable!
Gardening is seasonal, but the joys it brings cover you year round. The products are visible on your table months after the last vegetable harvest has been reaped and the memories of your roses in full bloom help many a gardener through the long winter months.
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.by Robert Frost
VEGETABLE GARDENS
Vegetable gardens are the salt of the earth. There is a functionality to them that keeps you going from April through September. From preparing the soil to planting to weeding and finally to the harvest. But for most of us it doesn't even stop there. 
After the harvest it's time to "put up" the tomatoes as my mother used to say. Days of canning and making jam. Preparing all the vegetables for the long winter ahead. My mother, a farmers wife, would have canning bees with the neighboring farm wives. From garden to garden they would go and "put up" everyone's canned goods. While I'm not a farmer's wife - in fact my yard is quite small - I still like to preserve as much of my labor as possible by canning and freezing.
Of course, when all that canning and freezing is finished the holidays are upon us - but after that? Why it's time to plan for the next year! What can I do better? What do I want to add or remove? Maybe I should move the beans to........
Gardening - the perpetual hobby and it saves a lot of money at the grocery store too! The vegetables taste better and people just love fresh jam. Come join me as I prepare!
GARDENING BASICS
SOIL:
The first step in creating a productive vegetable garden is preparing the soil. Almost any soil can be made fit for growing if you work into it enough organic matter in the form of decayed leaves, compost, peat moss, sawdust, ground bark or manure. All of these add body to light sandy soils, giving them the needed capacity to hold moisture and nutrients; they also loosen heavy clay soils so that air and water can penetrate.
COMPOST
A compost pile can be built in any number of ways. However, the simplest is to drive 4 stakes into the ground about a foot or so deep and then wrap chicken wire around them to create an enclosure. You will want your compost pile to be about 3 feet high. Besides leaves and lawn clippings (only if not exposed to fertilized or weed killers recently), you can throw in dead plant stems, the cut off portions of beets, carrots, potato peels etc. On top of every 4-6 inches of compost sprinkle about a pint of 5-10-5 fertilizer and a dusting of ground limestone, then cover with a 2 inch layer of soil. Indent the center slightly to create a bowl that will hold rain water longer. If rainfall is scarce wet your compost once in a while. Turn your compost pile over every 4-6 weeks so that the material on the outside of the pile gets into the center where the "brewing" is occurring. The compost will be ready to use when it is dark and crumbly, in about 3-6 months. a 2 inch application each Spring - worked into the soil of your garden - before planting, will make your garden hugely productive.
SOIL pH BALANCE
The pH scale is a method of measuring the acidity or alkalinity of any substance. I'ts reported on a scale of 0-14, with 0 indicating the greatest degree of acidity, 7 being the beutral point and 14 indicating the greatest degree of alkalinity.
Most plants will grow nicely at a fairly neutral pH between 6.0 and 7. Some can grow where the pH is as low as 5.5 and a few even as loa as 5 - but even these plants will do well where the pH is 6.5.
If you live in the eastern part if the US, chances are that you'll have to add some lime to your soil to raise the pH to within acceptable limits. If you're in the western or southern portions of the country your soil is probably alkaline and you'll need to add sulfur to get the pH down to at least 7 and preferably 6.5 pH.
In a small garden, it's almost impossible to provide a different pH level for each plant. So rather than try to do that, correct the overall pH level to one that is acceptable to most plants. As you gain in gardening experience you may then want to experiment with more precise pH levels for each plant - or section of your garden.