The Gardening Project

Pickle

Pickling cucumbers is a great way to preserve fruit from your garden. Pickling cucumbers are smaller than the variety of cucumbers you would put in your salad.

I have never pickled anything before, but the concept is pretty simple. Keep everything sterile; add water and vinegar, salts, and spices. Seal in a mason jar.

When planting cucumbers, you should always remember that cucumbers like good drainage. Build a mound of dirt and plant at the top of the mound.

Calories and Nutritional Information for Cucumbers

Ambrosia Melon

This will be my first time growing a melon. The melon is of the ambrosia variety, which is a close relative to the cantaloupe.

Melons are ground spreaders and take up a considerable amount of space. To combat this problem I have built a trellis in the shape of an “A” for it to grow up and down. The trellis is simply made out of cattails from the river next to my garden.

Growing vertically can save space and allow you to fit more plants into your garden. Saving space in your garden is always important, especially for someone like me who has a small urban garden.

Calories and Nutritional Information for Cantaloupe Melons

Angiosperm

Garden vegetables are in a huge category of plants called angiosperms. The life cycle of an angiosperm is simple:

GERMINATION. Angiosperms start as a seed and germinate when the weather has warmed and rainfall is adequate.  This part of the cycle usually takes place indoors or in a green house starting as early as February for fruits like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons, etc.

VEGETATIVE GROWTH STAGE. Once the seed is germinated the plant goes through the vegetative growth stage. The vegetative growth stage starts indoors and continues after last frost when the vegetables are transplanted outside into your garden.

FLOWERING STAGE. Angiosperms then produce flowers. Angiosperms usually flower for a few weeks to a month during beginning/mid-summer.

FRUITING STAGE. Once the flowers become pollinated, they will turn in on themselves and start developing into fruit.

The fruits contain seeds which don’t get digested by our stomachs. Animals eat the fruit and the seeds spread.

Easy Gardening

Nothing makes gardening more satisfying than your first harvest. This Snow pea is a gardening delight. I picked it last weekend and it was delicious. Peas are easy to grow.

Before you plant them you should germinate them. Every gardener has their tricks, but I find that simply putting them in a glass of water for 24 hours works wonders.

If you want to get a little more complex with your gardening, place them on a wet paper towel, fold it over, and put in a Ziploc bag for a day or so. Once most of them have sprouted little tails transplant them into the ground.

Note: Peas grow up! I use a lattice made of string but a few sticks crossed together will work too. Another idea is to grow them next to a chain link fence or any other vertical object that they can grab on to.

COMPOSTING

Composting…yum. Unlike popular belief, compost doesn’t smell (sorry). I could talk for pages about composting. We could go over different types of bacteria, optimal temperatures, carbon: nitrogen ratios, etc. You’re in luck, I’m not going to do that (yet).

Here is the secret to composting…. Ready??… Put leaves, veggie scraps from dinner, and garden leftovers into a pile and wait. That’s it.

You don’t need an overwhelmingly complex composting bin bought at Super Joes Magic Compost Corner for hundreds of dollars. I have made bins made out of left over wood and chicken wire. Most common type by far is just an ol’ pile of leaves. Any of these types will result in compost.