Blessed Be Yal All!! Are you ready to manifest the magic within you? Take a deep breath. For just a moment take a look around you. Find 10 things in your sight that you are grateful for. Sit quiet for just a moment and reflect on that feeling. Close your eyes and breath in slow, exhaling slowly. You may see an energy ball behind the darkness of your closed eyes, focus on that energy for a moment and as you do, you will notice that ball becoming bigger. You may even notice yourself physically smiling. This ball is your positive energy manifested. It is the feeling of all the hopes and dreams you have becoming real before your inner self. Reach out with your minds eye and grab it...just take it and hold it close to your heart Chakra. You can physically do this as well if you are more versed in energy work. Once you do hold it tight, concentrate on it, make the ball bigger and more bright..push your energy into that ball until it looks as if it will explode. Just as soon as you can almost physically feel heat coming from this area place it and your hand flat to your chest, pushing all of that energy into yourself and directly into your Heart Chakra. As you do, hold on to the feeling your energy brings you, breath in and as you breath out..open your eyes. You have officially stepped through the veil and have begun your journey to find your inner peace. You have just manifested magic literally within you!!
Now I would wager to say you never thought you could manifest magic...right? Do you believe now? Well, manifesting a sacred garden space really requires nothing more than just that...just as you created the ball of energy, you can also learn to manifest and create a magic garden of your own. The magic you have just created is what makes the space so special, sacred. Its a place of growth and reflection. Much like the journey we just explored above. So, if your ready to grow, learn and sow the seeds of inner peace...you've come to the right place.
Part II Sow Too Speak.....
Now that you have figured out the area you want to plant in, the sun exposure and shade...now its time to think about plants and what you are going to plant. If you're anything like me than you just go for the gusto and want to plant everything! But before you begin to sow your seeds, there is a few steps that will really save you time later on, by knowing what to plant and when, you educate yourself just a bit more and your overall yield will show the energy you put into learning it. The time of year really does determine what plants are best to grow.
Planting for all season:
You can grow a garden all year long. Depending where you are in the growing zone map, some plants will grow better than others in your region. We live in Oregon and go by the Zone 7A guidelines.
You will find many charts and cheat sheets out there that can help guide you, but they are not all centered around your exact Geo area so be OK with experimenting a little. There are no firm rules in gardening, merely suggestions to help you grow bigger and better vegetables. We will display several along the way to help you get a better visual of what we are discussing and are available for download free in our B. store. All of the material I cover in my blogs, or cheat sheets can be downloaded there.
Keep in mind this is nearly a guideline for my zone but it will show a rough idea of what you can plant and a round about of when to sow, transplant and harvest. Again, this is just a guideline, because I plan on showing you how you can keep your garden growing all year long!
There are only a few basic rules of thumb to follow:
When to start your seeds:
It is a great idea to start your seedlings inside or in a greenhouse, you'll want to sow your seeds at least 6-8 weeks before the first frost. This is easy to determine. Check the Farmers Almanac website for your first and last freeze dates. This is really the most important information you will need when starting your magic garden. Direct sowing means that instead of starting them in pods or as seedling, you would just place them directly in the ground or box, which ever you are planting in.
You can check your locations First and Last Freeze by going to their website at https://www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates
You can also get a planting calendar on the same site. This will narrow down the growing season by zip code. https://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-calendar
Once you know your first freeze date, you will want to grab a calendar and go back 6-8 weeks. This will be the week you want to plant. But not all seeds germinate on the same time line.
Every seeds has its own set of variables. From the length of germination, to when it can be harvested. This information will allow you to accurately calendar your first harvest.
How to read the seed package:
I had no idea when I got started the amount of information I would need to understand how my garden would work. I knew that the general information on the seed packs were relevant to the seeds themselves but never realized the importance.
The first thing it normally gives you is the name of the seed and sometimes its actual scientific name.
2. The Type of plant it is. The back of the package will tell you if your seeds are an Annual or a Perennial.
Annual plants are plants with a life cycle that lasts only one year. They grow from seed, bloom, produce seeds, and die in one growing season. They then need to be replanted each spring.
Perennial plants live for more than two years. They return year after year and continue growing until they reach maturity, which varies by plant but averages three to five years. Unlike annuals, perennials tend to bloom for just a short time — one to three weeks — each year. Examples of popular perennial flowers include tulips, asters, black-eyed susans, and lilies.
3. The Description. This mentally paint you a picture of your plant once it is fully matured. This can help you not just visualize the size the plant might get but the yield to which you should expect from a fully healthy plant. It may even give suggestions on how to prepare it in meals.
4. Zone Map. This will tell you where these particular seeds grow best geographically. Again you would be surprised at what you can grow in your area if your willing to give it a try. Experiment, go hog wild...whats the worst that could happen? You might grow something cool.
5. Defined Seed Type. The package normally will also tell you if your seeds are Heirloom or if they are a hybrid type of seed. SO, what does that really mean?? I stole this info from one of my favorite information sites Bonnie Plants. Check them out at https://bonnieplants.com/gardening/what-is-an-heirloom-what-is-a-hybrid/
They just already had all the information so why tweak it, if it aint broke. They are an amazing resource for any level gardening.
Hybrid Plants
A hybrid vegetable is created when plant breeders intentionally cross-pollinate two different varieties of a plant, aiming to produce an offspring, or hybrid, that contains the best traits of each of the parents. Cross-pollination is a natural process that occurs within members of the same plant species.
In hybridization, pollination is carefully controlled to ensure that the right plants are crossed to achieve the desired combination of characteristics, such as bigger size or better disease resistance. The process of developing a hybrid typically requires many years.
One example is Juliet, a 1999 All-America Selections winner. This Roma-style grape tomato offers great taste and productivity along with improved disease resistance to increase success in the garden. Another is Sun Gold, a prolific yellow cherry tomato that’s so sweet and delicious, it’s like candy from the garden.
In general, hybrids offer some combination of these favorable traits: dependability, less required care, early maturity, higher yield, improved flavor, specific plant size, and/or better disease resistance. Hybrid vegetables typically look like the veggies you’d find at a supermarket.
Heirloom Plants
How experts define heirlooms can vary, but typically they are at least 50 years old, and are often pre-WWII varieties. Most heirlooms come from seed that has been handed down for generations in a particular region or area, hand-selected by gardeners for a special trait. Others may have been developed by a university a long time ago (again, at least 50 years), in the early days of commercial breeding. All heirloom vegetables are open-pollinated, which means they’re pollinated by insects or wind without human intervention. In addition, they tend to remain stable in their characteristics from one year to the next.
Many gardeners agree that most heirloom varieties boast greater flavor than that found in hybrids, especially among tomatoes. Bonnie’s heirloom tomato varieties are clearly marked on the plant trays.
While hybrid plants typically yield a crop that is uniform in both appearance and timing, heirloom vegetables may produce a “mixed bag” harvest. The harvest may come in less predictably, and fruit size can vary greatly even on the same plant.
Heirlooms are far more deep than you may think. These are seeds that are pretty much guaranteed to be GMO free and were originated before we had the majority of the major chemical treatments AG uses today. They come with stories and generations of knowledge. These are pretty much 99% pure and hardly ever come with decease or fungus attached. These are the purest seeds on the markets and with germination rates as far as 99% as well, there really is no reason to mess around, if your going big...go Heirloom.
6. Planting Time. This is the seed manufactures suggestion as to when the best time of year is to plant the seeds per your Hardiness zone, but along with everything else in gardening you just have to try it yourself. Not all results are typical.
7. Sun exposure. This will indicate the exact type of sun exposure your seeds will need to grow their best. This is a great way to determine if the seed you want to plant will work in the area of your garden you've chosen to tackle.
8. Water exposure. Some seed packs will tell you a rough estimate of how much water it will require to get your plant babies Earth Side. This is very important as some plants are very sensitive to the amount of water then receive and when.
9. Sowing Depth. This will tell you how deep into the soil you will need to sow you seed. You could use a measuring stick if you need to be anal about it but for me, I use the end of a pencil, paint brush or sharpie.
SPECIAL NOTE: Not all plants need to be sown into dirt, there are some such as micro-greens that can just be sprinkled on top of the soil. We will be hitting this subject hard in an upcoming post.
10. Plant Spacing. This area will tell you how far apart to plant your seedling once they are ready for transplant. This is the typical instructions however we have found with companion planting, the area may not need as much space to grow in. This is another subject we will be speaking about coming up in a separate blog.
11. Days to Harvest. While this is self explanatory but it should be stated that this really does depend on when you planted, what you planted, where you are planting it, your Geo location and the level of care you give your plants.
Each company has it's own diagrams on the back of their packages but for the most part the information it provides is relatively the same. Take a look at the seed packages before you decide to buy..some plants may not be compatible with the area in which you live.
My favorite place to shop for seeds is www.seedsnow.com not only do you get amazing deals but you can also sign up to win free seeds as well. I also suggest Baker Creek and MIGardener when it comes to shopping, education and variety.
Now that you have a little back ground on seeds and proper instructions on how to read the package...my next blog will be SEED SHOPPING! What to shop for, how to shop and the best discounts on the web. We will also discuss seed sanitizing, types of seed diseases and how to treat them for any type of fungus or virus it may be carrying. Then finally we will actually plant some stuff!!!
Although you'll never stop learning during this journey, you will become knowledgeable fairly quickly. There are no right or wrong ways to grow your seeds, the more experimenting you do, the more fun your going to have. I started this blog with the phrase find yourself in your own creation. because in all I've learned in a short period of time...which is a butt load, the one thing I found out that was the most surprising is that I found myself. I manifested magic, I took a chance on myself, I learned new things and kept up studying everything I could get my hands on...F'd up like it was my job and still...I keep going. I do this now because I believe that anyone is capable and if they can't see that in themselves...I'd like to help those like me find a path to start. Dream again, hope again...build ourselves up as we build the world around us. So why not make it as beautiful as you are. If you don't see it now...you will find it here. If you create the ball of energy...I will help you use it. We are in this together you and I...I've got your back anytime...any questions or comments, just leave them below. I believe in myself now...I believe in you.
Until next time! Don't let the lil B. sting ya where the good goddess seat ya!
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