This will be the first of several editions I will be writing for the Spirit of the Times. I will walk you through the stages I have learned over the years of how to begin your very own organic vegetable garden. And while these practices I will lay out may very well be applied to a flower garden, my main focus will be growing sustainable crops for you, your families and even your community. Depending, of course, on the size of the area you will be planting.

But before I begin, let me tell you a little about my organic gardening background…

To start with, I am no horticulture specialist, nor do I have any degrees in botany. But, what I do have is 15 years of experience in cultivating and nourishing the earth to produce fresh, organic crops here in northeast Georgia.

Growing up in the country I saw many vegetable gardens come and go. My Father was one who tried endlessly, being a retired carpenter, to perfect his own organic garden each year. I would watch year after year as he would work to amend the red clay soil that we here in north Georgia seem to be cursed with. He would add lime and calcium, and would constantly have me doing pH tests on the soil to see if had yet become what it needed to be to produce the abundant food he so desired. And year after year it would not live up to expectations.

One day, on a stroll through the woods with my Dad, he decided to lift up a layer of leaves underneath a patch of wild bushes that seemed to be flourishing. What he found would change the way he thought of gardening for the rest of his life…

It was under this layer of leaves that nature introduced to him the way to grow anything and everything. Because under this decaying foliage, he found the natural way that soil is amended. Layer upon layer of decaying leaves, sticks and bark, broken down further and further the deeper he would dig. Until finally, just before digging into the rich soil that was buried underneath all of this; a layer of earthworms that seemed to be living off of the decaying matter. As he dug into the soil, he found more earthworms, some so big that we questioned whether or not they were baby snakes! And the soil so rich and filled with nutrients – it seemed as if every tree or bush in the area was spreading its roots out to try and tap into it. Although, later, we found that the majority of the forest bed was covered with the same rich loam.

The goal at this point was to reproduce what we found in the woods that day back in our vegetable garden. In order to accomplish this, we needed leaves. Lots and lots of leaves; truckloads to be exact! For the area we had to cover was nearly 1000 square feet! But how could we get so many leaves? And have them broken down enough to produce the rich loamy soil we found in the woods?

First, we located all the hardwood trees in our area; most of which ended up being on our neighbors properties. So, my Father contacted each neighbor and asked if they would mind if we gathered leaves from their forest floor. Each one, as you can well imagine, had absolutely no problem allowing us to do this. Many even mentioned that they had wanted to do that very thing for years but just never got around to it.

So, packing down and carrying as many leaves as we could stuff into the small bed of my Dads Toyota pick-up, we would bring them home and unload them in the middle of the garden area. Load after load, day after day, leaves upon leaves piled up until you could no longer tell it was a garden at all!

From this point, we needed to figure out how to get the leaves to break down the way they do in the forest; only much faster! We thought of composting them (which I will go into in a later addition). But that would most likely take months, if not years with all the leaves we had. So we thought of spreading them across the top of the ground and letting them decompose naturally as they do in the woods. But that would probably take much more time than even composting. So, finally my Dad began running the lawn mower over the leaves. And after about 2 hours of doing this, all of the sudden this massive pile of leaves had been reduced to 1/3 of its original size!

The leaves at this point were then spread out across the garden and tilled into the clay dirt with a “rear end” tiller. I would not recommend trying to start a garden using a “front end” tiller. Meaning, the tines that break up the earth are located on the front of the tiller. This is just mindless torture! But if it is all you have, then it will work, but believe me…so will you!

What happened that year amazed each and every one of us. The vegetables were all big, juicy and absolutely delicious! The tomato plants were as tall as my father who stood 5 foot 10 inches! And the size of the fruits were amazing to say the very least. Most of them were the size of softballs! Here are pictures of my Mother and Father, and those fantastic tomato plants that year:

 

For several years after this, my Fathers garden continued to produce tremendous bounty. So much that we began selling it to anyone and everyone in our area. My Father became well known in our community for the amazing fruits and vegetables he had produced! I would like to add that every garden that was planted from that day forward has never been sprayed with chemicals of any kind, nor touched with non-organic fertilizers.

My Dad passed away in 1997 and I took over the job of tending to the garden. Since his passing, I have discovered new ways to reap the same benefits from the garden, with much less work. And I will be sharing this information with all of you each month. But for now, and since it is fall, I would highly recommend to those of you interested in starting your own vegetable garden in the spring, that you go out into the yard or woods and collect as many leaves as you possibly can. And do not burn them (as some are in the habit of doing)! Pile them somewhere that winds will not carry them off. It doesn’t matter if they are stored in a barn or outside where they are affected by the elements. You may also bag them up for storage. The main thing is: Collect those leaves!

If you are like my Dad and have all the time in the world, you already know what you should do with them…shred them (a lawnmower works okay, but to be efficient I would recommend a leaf shredder) and till them in to your garden!

But for the majority of you who most likely have very little time or money (that thing we so despise!) I will give you alternatives that will cut that time in half. But, you will have to wait until the next issue of the Spirit of the Times.

In the next issue we will be discussing composting…until then, grab a rake my friends!

If you have any questions or if there is a certain gardening topic you would like for me to cover, please feel free to contact me.

And thank you for your interest.