Happy Farming . com

Photo by mckaysavage.

1. Write your own garden calender on when to do what and print it out and put it on the wall to be more effective at growing food
2. Write a garden journal to learn more effectively from your experiences
3. Purchase an extra 5 kg kitchen scale and a notebook to find out how much food you are actually able to grow per square meter
4. Make friends with local horse breeders or horse riding schools to get a stable supply of horse manure for your beds
5. Collect organic scraps in a small box in the kitchen and throw it on the compost heap to have something to feed back to your soil. It’s free nutrients for the soil.
6. Turn your compost regularly to speed up composting
7. Collect leaves in the fall and add them to your compost
8. Get an axe and a chopping block for chopping up branches in 5 cm (2 inch) pieces for your compost. Longer pieces than that will sabotage your compost production.
9. Build composting boxes with three compartments with front and top access to make it easy to produce compost
10. Hedge clippings goes into the compost. It’s free nutrients for the soil.
11. Seedlings need 17 hours of light each day to stay healthy
12. Plant fruit trees in your garden to provide shade in the middle of the day
13. Use wood chips on the lanes between your beds instead of spending time on cutting grass
14. Seed saving takes up a lot of area and many spare plants
15. Water the soil not the plants to avoid fungus
16. Grow winter vegetables for a higher yield per square meter
17. Increase diversity in your garden and be rewarded with healthy plants and more food
18. Take good care of the birds in your garden and they will help you debug your garden
19. Some butterflies are devils in disguises as their larvae will eat up your vegetables
20. It takes time to re-establish the small ecosystem in an area coming out of monoculture
21. Growing food is not a new idea. There are many helpful people out there who will help you if you dare to ask.
22. You’ll never be entirely self-sufficient. You’ll always be dependent on the sun. The goal is to have fun and be happy.

Add your best tip in the comments section below.

Photo by foxypar4.

Soil

Garlic needs plenty of sun and rich soil with pH 6.5 to 7.0. Lots of organic matter is preferred. It’s good to dig in green manure and dig the soil down to 30 cm (12 inch).

Planting

It is possible to plant garlic in early spring, but it’s not recommended since the soil is difficult to work with at this time. Plant in the fall, maybe even after the first frost has arrived. Take a garlic bulb and break it into cloves just before planting, so that the cloves don’t dry out. Each clove acts an individual seed. Plant the largest cloves of the bulbs in an upright position 2 cm (1 inch) below the surface. The plants need to be 10 cm (4 inch) apart and the space between rows should be 45 cm (18) apart.

Growing

Each clove grows into a bulb with up to 20 cloves. The root system of the cloves should have begun to develop before winter arrives, but the tops should not break the surface yet. Remove any weeds since garlic have a hard time competing with weeds. Garlic goes dormant over the winter and is not harmed by frost or snow.

Harvest

It’s time to harvest when the leaves goes brown and die away. Stop watering a few weeks before harvest. It takes 10 months from planting garlic until they’re ready to be harvested.

Storage

Garlic is best stored in a cool and dry place. Hang the bulbs to dry for a week and then brush off the dirt. The temperature should be around 10 deg C. (50 deg. F) for storage.