Staying Fit by Gardening

Gardening can be a great way of keeping active. Staying fit by gardening means that you keep at it, doing it quite often. The first step in creating a garden is, you must determine what size you wish your garden to be.

In our case, we used to make more than one garden. In the back yard was a garden that was 15 feet long x 15 feet wide. On the East side of the property we had a squash/pumpkin garden that was about 20 feet long by ten feet wide; and in the front of the house, beneath the windows, were flower gardens.

Realize, though, that the bigger your gardens are, the more upkeep you’ll have to do on them. That’s where ‘Staying Fit by Gardening’ comes in. Don’t think that, just because a garden looks simple that it’s an easy thing to accomplish.

Mulch is a good start. Begin by dumping all your organic material in one place. Composting is a great way of creating good fertilizer. The main thing with composting is to know what you should compost, what you should never compost, and how to compost. First, buy a composting bin. They will make things really easy for you, as they’ll keep it from spreading, make it look nice, and give you a neat way of storing it. Black compost bins will radiate the heat to the compost, keep the heat inside and intensify the action. You can also build your own bin by looking on the internet for plans, or even have a bin-less compost ‘heap’. Bin-less systems oftentimes don’t work because you start throwing things on the pile which have a depth to them. Things won’t compost properly if they’re getting lots of air throughout them because someone put branches on there. Staying fit by gardening means that you do many different things, not just stand there and wait for crops to grow. First, unless you put some effort into it, your crops will wither and die, instead of grow.

Grass and lawn clippings make good compost, hay, kitchen wastes such as peels/rinds, coffee grounds, eggshells etc. They should be soft and moist. You can also bury your compost about 8” deep. This will keep the neighborhood pets out of it. Don’t put things like scraps of meat in it or fatty foods. Leaves are good and straw or grass that has gone to seed; wood sawdust and chips are good.

If you put your hand into the compost, it should be extremely hot. If they’re not getting hot, they need more moisture.

My father used to ask the farmer across the street if he could have a wheelbarrow of manure to put on his gardens. Each of these things will keep you fit. Buy a wheelbarrow, and use it to transport mulch, compost or manure (if handy). Nothing beats manure as fertilizer.

Next, you should determine the pH of your soil. If it’s too acidic or too alkaline it would behoove you to purchase topsoil from your local store. You should have, at least, four inches of good topsoil that isn’t either too acidic or too alkaline. Tomatoes will grow well in acidic soil, but carrots will be thin and spindly. So, you might determine the plants that do well in acidic soil, and plant those there. Then, put the topsoil in the areas which are more temperamental. Staying fit by gardening is a good way to have fun, as well. Enjoy your garden.