Will you be gardening this year? I’m watching the blowing snow as I write this and am dreaming of the day I can get back to the soil and harvest fresh, ripe produce!

I’ve rounded up 30 Tips you can use in your organic garden. Here’s to warm temperatures, fertile soil, and abundant produce!

At my house, I have raised beds. You can see my garden layout here. If you are planning your garden, here’s a bit more inspiration:

Planning Your Organic Garden:

Here’s a wonderful resource for an Edible Garden How-To.

Keeper of the Home shares How to Plant a Garden That Works For Where You Live.

It’s good to remember that Tiny Gardens Can Grow Anywhere.

Mom Prepares has a list of Decorative Shrubbery You Can Eat.

Have you failed at gardening in the past? Make sure you read these tips on How Not to Fail at Gardening. Good, common sense to starting your garden.

Think you have no room for a garden? Good Girl Gone Green has plans and the low down on Planting a Sustainable Front Lawn Garden. The results are beautiful!

Planning What To Grow:

Now that you’ve got a garden spot, what will you grow?

For first time gardeners, here are Easy Vegetables to Grow. My family favorites? Radishes (shocking, right? but true!), beets, zucchini and tomatoes.

Looking for more advice? Frugal Farm Wife lists her Easy Grow Garden Picks.

The Creative Christian Mama shares her Favorite Herbs to Grow. Please make sure to include some herbs in your garden. Mint grows with no help at all and makes the best tea!

Don’t forget about edible flowers! This Chick Cooks has a list of  Edible Flowers to Grow in Your Garden. Marigolds are always in my gardens and I’m adding nasturtium this year.

If you saw my garden plan, you saw I have a bed that gets partial shade. Here are 40 fruits, vegetables and herbs that grow in partial shade.

How to Save Money on Your Garden:

As you start planning your garden, remember Craig’s List Equals Cheap Plants

Bideshis No More has a brilliant idea for a Community Plant Trade. Fill your garden by trading your extras! No one to trade with? May I suggest finding a local garden forum online? Most have these types fo plant trades.

And of course, remember to upcycle.

Starting Seeds:

Starting your own seeds helps keep your gardening costs low. Here are a few tips for seed starting.

Smithspirations has a guide to Deciphering Seeds and what terms like “open-pollinated” and “heirloom” really mean.

When it comes to seed starting, Green Bean Gardens has an excellent resource for Seed Starting.

Eliza K shows how to take my least favorite packaging (hint: the apples at Costco) and turn them into mini greenhouses.

Have you made eggshell planters before? Here’s how to do it. These can go right into the garden and they provide extra nutrients for your seedlings.

Vegetable Tips:

If you are including growing potatoes on your list (and this year I am!) remember these Planting Potato Tips from a Master Gardener.

Here’s the low down on Planting Snap Peas from a Life in Balance.

Everyone wants to grow delicious tomatoes. Here is Tomato Growing 101.

If you are planting peas, you’ll need to build a Pea Trellis.

 Eliminating Garden Pests and Weeds:

Emily from Random Recycling shares how to Keep Pests Out of Your Garden Naturally.

Small Footprint Family has how to Control Fungus Gnats Organically 

Here’s my tips for How to Kill Weeds Organically.

Composting is a Key Element to Organic Gardening:

Living Crunchy has instructions on How to Make Your Own Compost Bin. 

Red & Honey has a guide on How to Start a Successful Backyard Compost.

Your Gardening Friend tells How to Take Care of Compost Worms.

Tools:

Here’s a seriously brilliant idea for Storing Your Gardening Tools by A Seed Inspired! When planning your garden, you may want to implement this idea.

Learning and Yearning shares Why Rototillers May be More Harmful than Helpful in an Organic Garden

The first thing that will go in my garden – sugar snap peas – will be planted as soon as this new snow moves out. Are you growing a garden this year?

Will you be starting a garden this year? My friend Phoebe has a new eBook available for just $3.95! Click here to get your copy.

Frugal Gardening 101: The Comprehensive Guide to Vegetable Gardening Without Breaking the Bank, is just that. A 50 page guide to show you everything you need to know about starting your home garden. All the way from the benefits of home gardening, the cost, all the steps to getting started, organic pest control, vermicomposting, plans to build your own tomato cages–and so much more!

PLUS: With your purchase you also receive a FREE Gardening Journal and Seedling/Plant Labels.

Here’s a peek at the Table of Contents:

Why Should I Garden?
Cost of Home Gardening
Starting Your Home Garden
Where to Purchase Seeds
Why Non-GMO Seeds?
Keeping a Gardening Journal
Starting Your Seeds
When to Plant
Seed Starting Cups
Choosing a Seed Starting Mix
Planting your Seedlings
Determining Seedling Problems
Hardening Off your Seedlings
Preparing Your Soil and Garden Spot
Companion Planting
Crop Rotation
Three Sisters Planting Method
Amending Your Soil
Vermicomposting
Container Gardening/Vertical Gardening
Permanent Gardening Beds
Extending Your Gardening Season
Hoop Gardening
Cold Frames
Cloches
Frugal and Organic Pesticide Options
Insecticidal Soap
Horticultural Oil
Neem Oil
Diamataceous Earth
Organic Weed Control
Cover Crops
Utilizing Rain Water
Building Your Own Rain Barrel
Creating Your Own Garden Trellis
Making Your Own Organic Fertilizer
Frost Dates Chart
Saving Your Seeds
Cross-Pollinating Plants
Seed Saving Methods
Storing Your Seeds

Whew! This should answer all your gardening questions!

On March 15th – St. Patrick’s Day – I did a brave, brave thing. I planted pea seeds.

My sugar pod peas about 1 month ago.

A little early for Colorado, but we had such a beautiful spring I just couldn’t resist. I planted two varieties: Oregon Sugar Pod and Sugar Snap. Since the sugar pods are expected to grow to 6 feet, we needed to build a trellis.

We built 3 separate pea trellises. Here is why:

1. They are heavy. Building 3 separate ones made them manageable.
2. We plan to rotate our crop. This year they are in a 12 foot bed. Next year, we will move them into the tomato bed which is only 9 feet. Building 3 separate trellises will allow us to use them in the shorter bed.

How to build a pea trellis:

1. Build an A-Frame out of lumber. You can use recycled wood for this project if you have a source.
2. Remember the trellis should be about 6 feet high for most varieties of peas.
3. Use hinges to secure the tops so they can be folded down and stored over the winter.
4. Staple fine mesh chicken wire across the frame.
5. These are heavy, but we found they blew over in the high Colorado winds. Secure them when installing them.

These are my pea plants today! They are underplanted with leaf lettuce – which we’ve already harvested one crop – and I added a cucumber plant as well. My plants have blooms and I drool just thinking about the day we have actual peas!

Why rotate our peas and tomatoes? Peas fix nitrogen to the soil while tomatoes require a great deal of nitrogen. By rotating them, you use the plant’s natural biology to get a better crop. Will it work? I’ll let you know next year! {wink}

Last year’s fruit garden plan

Last year I was struck with either the greatest – or the stupidest – idea I’ve ever had. To grow some of our own food. Little did I know I gardening is not a hobby. It is an obsession.

It’s been one year since we first laid out our plan for our fruit garden (pictured above).  While we laid out our plans with the very best of intentions, we only managed to plant last year the raspberries, the strawberries and the wild currants. Here’s what I learned:

• Strawberries – The first year we were supposed to pinch the blooms off to make a hardier plant. This meant each family member only got to eat one homegrown strawberry last year. All the other blooms were pinched.
• Raspberries – I was pretty sure none of our raspberry plants were going to make it. Again, we each got to eat one raspberry apiece – that was it. They were all red raspberries – none of the yellow produced.
• Rhubarb – I missed the window. I was supposed to plant the rhubarb in April and by the time the weather and my schedule permitted, it was too late in the season. So, I had to wait until this year.
• Currants – Despite finding these on Craig’s list, driving about 30 minutes away then digging them up to relocate to our backyard, they did ok. No fruit though.
• White Pumpkins – I did plant these last year, but I moved them to a different location.

So how is the fruit garden this year?

So far, the fruit garden is happy!

The strawberries have tons of blooms and the fruit is starting to set. If we can beat the birds and the racoons, we will actually get to enjoy our own homegrown strawberries this year.

The raspberries are back and are spreading. I think in the future I am going to need a plan on how to best train (or is that restrain?) them. However, this usually involves roping my husband into a home improvement project he has no desire to do. So, I’m letting them grow wild in the meantime.

Hard to see against the big green bush behind them, my currants have survived being transplanted and look like they are filling out. I really don’t hold out any hope that we will have currants this year. So, we’ll wait.

I planted rhubarb but it is totally ticked off. I don’t know if I missed a watering, if I neglected to add enough compost, or if the weather got too cold. Whatever. It is NOT happy. Here’s the deal with rhubarb – you shouldn’t harvest it until the third year. So if it doesn’t make it, it could be 2015 before I ever get to eat any homegrown rhubarb. Crazy isn’t it? So those of you with a patch that you inherited with the home you bought (wasn’t it a prerequisite in the 70′s to plant rhubarb?) treasure it!

Greatest lesson learned? If you want to eat homegrown fruit, you need patience in spades. (pun so totally intended) While I do expect to being eating raspberries and strawberries, gardening is a crap shoot. So the best advice I have? Don’t wait! If you have ever wanted your own little fruit patch, you need to act now.

Linked to Tuesday Garden Party