What's Growing In My Garden...

By Amy Eizinger of A Latte' With Ott, A and  The Real Farmwives of America & Friends

After a bit of a rainy start our garden is really starting to take off. Lots of the plants are blooming or starting to put on fruit. So here's a little peak at what's growing in my garden.

1.) Potatoes, but not just any potatoes Blue Adirondack Potatoes that will be purple in color on both the inside and the outside. We are anticipating harvesting these soon.

2.) Butternut Squash. We did have some Spring Greens planted and after we were done with them we planted squash in its place to be ready this fall.

3.) Kohlrabi. Not many people know what Kohlrabi is but it a bulb like vegetable that kind of taste like a radish uncooked or broccoli after it's cooked.

4.) Tomatoes. I've got several blooming and several starting to put on fruit and I cannot wait for them to turn red so we can start to enjoy them.

5.) Zucchini. These guys have just started to bloom and take off.

6.) A Sunflower. I always plant sunflowers in my garden because they look so pretty, and this one is almost as tall am me.

7.) Green Beans. This year we tried pole bean which are growing up a fence.  I'm hoping this will make for some easier harvesting.

8.) Cilantro. We are trying herbs in our garden for the first time this year and this is going to taste great when I make fresh salsa.

9.) Eggplant. This is one of many blooms on our eggplants, and I love the purple color.

Gardening: How to prep your soil with farm fresh fertilizer

Guest Post By Leah of The Real Farmwives of America and Friends and Beyer Beware.

With the warm weather we have been experiencing in Indiana, you can’t help but want to be outside playing in the dirt. At our house, that is exactly what we have been doing. After I convinced my husband to build me raised beds for our vegetable garden this year, we had to do a fast track to soil prep. Luckily, we still have about 15 dairy heifers at the farm still that provided just what our soil needed. Organic matter and nutrients.

Nothing is better than fresh cow manure for your garden. I know I am a bit biased. We brought over a skid loader scoop full and layered the top soil and manure together.

We let it settle for a week and then hit with our tiller to get all the organic matter incorporated into the top soil. There were quite a few red worms in the manure as well which really helped get the coil aeration going as well.

Now, we are going to wait for the soil to settle another week before planting our spring plants. One thing I feel I have to mention. I am a firm believer of using organic matter and fertilizer that we get from livestock; however I am not going to plant an organic garden. By mid-summer my veggies will be covered with various pests from bugs to worms to disease. Trust me, Sevin Dust will find its way to my plants. I will win the battle over the pest.

As you can see I have some extra top soil and manure left after I filled up my raised beds. No fear though, I have flower boxes to fill later this spring. I just piled up the soil and manure by my compost box.

Do you remember your grandparents or parents having compost piles on the side of the barn when you were little. I always remember seeing lots of grapefruit rinds and eggs shells in my grandparent’s compost pile. Well, mine currently looks like this:

Oranges and egg shells sprinkled with kitty litter and the remnants of last summer’s potted flowers. This is going to be some divine potting soil in the very near future when I get the manure and top soil mixed in with it. Throw in some red worms to speed up the break down cycle and you have happy flowers mid-summer.

Now, the tough question, what to plant???

Gardening Tips From Real Farmwives of America & Friends Ott, A.

Guest Post By Real Farmwives of America & Friends' Amy Ott of A Latte with Ott, A

Here in Central Indiana there is still a chill in the air, but as each day passes another robin hops around our yard, the length of the day gets a little bit longer and the grass green up a little bit more. This is a great time of year to start planning your garden.  Here are a few tips for simple tasks to help ensure a successful garden later in the growing season. 

Plant some pansies. Pansies are a great flower to plant in early spring as they are hardy enough to be resistant to frost and come in several pretty colors.

Plant cool season crops such as peas, onions, swiss chard, spinach and lettuce in early spring so they mature before the hot weather arrives.

There's an old wives tail that you should plant your potatoes before Good Friday for good results.  (Except for this year where Easter is really late, you may want to do plant them a little earlier.)

Plant seeds inside to transplant into your garden later in the season. Seed trays are a great way to get plants started, just keep the seedlings in sunny place.

Plot out your garden space so crops grow in different spots than in previous seasons. This not only helps your soil, but also keeps plants from being susceptible to disease.

Clean up garden area and prepare the soil.  This can be as simple as cleaning out any dead plants on weeds that overwintered, to tilling the soil, to adding compost.

Does the Winter's chill make you long for your Spring garden?

As seed magazines cram your mailbox over the next couple months, Indiana's Family of Farmers are making it a little easier to start your garden this year! We are giving away a $25 gift card for Burpee seeds this week.

To enter please leave a separate comment below for each of the following entries:

1. Follow the Indiana Family of Farmers blog through Google Friend Connect (see right column)

2. Follow @familyoffarmers on twitter

3. Become a fan of Family of Farmers on Facebook

4. Share this on Facebook

5. Share this #giveaway on Twitter and reference @familyoffarmers

Entries will be accepted until 9 pm EDT on Thursday. The winner will be chosen at random and announced on Friday morning.