Prep Blog Review: 5 Tips For Your Spring Gardening  

Many of us have long started tending to our gardens and researching the best techniques to ensure healthy crops. And this week we’ve done part of the research for you.

We have covered several topics, from testing your soil to how to grow vegetables and fruits in buckets, you’ll find plenty of useful information for your garden here. So scroll down to find out more and remember to drop us a line in the comments section to let us know your best gardening tips.

1. Why We Use Raised Beds For Our Annual Crops

“I have to admit that I was a reluctant convert to raised bed gardening. I grew up gardening in tilled soil and I loved it. I loved the smell of freshly turned dirt and I enjoyed plowing and rotor-tilling. I always grew good crops that way and well, “if it ain’t broke…don’t fix it” has been my motto. Then we moved our family and cattle herd to the St. Lawrence valley, in the Thousand Island region of northern NY. The new farm lays very low and the soil is heavy clay.

Clay ground can grow fantastic crops but our farm is wet, and wet clay is a vegetable growers worst nightmare. After several less than successful (dare I say completely failed) attempts at gardening on the new farm, we took the leap and started using some raised beds.”

Read more on North Country Farmer.

2. 15 Fruits And Veggies You Can Grow In Buckets

“Do you live in an apartment or a house with a small backyard? Have you always wanted a garden but don’t have enough space? There’s a solution: Bucket gardening. All you need are some 5 gallon buckets, rocks, peat moss, planting soil, and compost. That might sound like a lot, but it’s actually very simple. This article explains how to grow food in buckets.

Not only is bucket gardening a great solution for people with limited space, it has many advantages over traditional gardening. You can have a greater variety of plants, you won’t have to do any weeding, you’ll have fewer pests deal with, etc. Here’s a list of the many benefits of bucket gardening.”

Read more on Urban Survival Site.

3. It Is Never Too Early To Prepare For Your Garden

“I love sitting by my wood stove during the winter months preparing for my garden.  I organize my seeds, layout my garden on graph paper and utilize a now faithful tool called the Garden Notebook by Angi Schneider.  The Garden Notebook is a printable e-book which allows you to track your garden year after year.  Keeping notes of your garden each year can be extremely helpful moving forward in many ways.

Being able to record how much you produced at the end of the year based on how much you planted will aid you in determining if you need to plant more for the following year to fill your pantry shelves.  Documenting how you got rid of certain pests and what worked best for your soil is also helpful.”

Read more on Prepare Mag.

4. Uses for Nettles

“Stinging Nettle – (Urtica dioica L. )

Is a called stinging because of it stinging hairs called trichomes on the leaves and stems, which act like hypodermic needles.  Grow’s 3 to 7 ft tall in the summer . It bears small greenish or brownish numerous flowers.. The leaves and stems are very hairy with non-stinging hairs but many are stinging.

Time of Year: Spring through fall

Location:  All of North America”

Read more on Prepper Herb of the Week.

5. DIY Garden Soil Testing

“April 15th is more than just tax day at my house. It’s also the last average spring frost date for my area. In other words, it’s full steam ahead into the gardening season, baby!!

Now, before we get to planting, we need to make sure our soil is up to snuff.  Good healthy plants come from good, healthy soil, so knowing the composition or structure of your soil is a good place to start.  Once you know what you’re dealing with, you’ll know how to amend it. Simple, DIY garden soil testing will help you figure out what type of soil composition you have.”

Read more on Home Ready Home.

This article has been written by Brenda E. Walsh for Survivopedia.