Gearing Up For Gardening and Canning Season

You can listen to this as a podcast: Gearing Up For Gardening and Canning Season and you can listen to any of my Cooke's Frontier Shows on The Survival Mom Radio Network at any time. Thanks for listening! 

So here in Oregon, we're all looking forward to getting out and digging in the dirt. The sun has been shining and it's been warm, near the 70s, for a few days now and this weekend is shaping up to be beautiful and bright. The thing about living in my particular part of the state is that we either get a ton of rain or a frost right about the time we're getting ready to plant our seeds.

This year is going to be even more of a challenege because we have virtually NO snowpack and that's going to mean a possibility of a really, really dry summer. For some communities this might mean no gardens at all, since water use may be restricted because of the drought. Gardening in the southern part of the state could provide a challenge this year.

For the first time in a long time, my family and I aren't going to be planting a big garden because we plan to have our house for sale and I don't want to have to leave a beautiful garden. We'll be doing some container gardening that can be moved easily and we're going to be relying on a few local u-pick places for what I want to can and dehydrate.

This makes our chickens happy, because they'll continue to get free range of the entire garden this year while we stick to a couple of raised beds and on the deck containers.
However, even though we are not planning on full scale gardening this year, there are things that I will still be doing that you can be too, unless you're still covered with snow and then you'll have to wait a little while longer.

• Get your garden planned out on paper. Know what you're going to plant, and where, and how much you want to get in the ground. 
• Turn the ground over and amend with compost. Right now is a really great time to turn your garden space over once and add in some compost or amendments. This discourages the weeds from starting and may even allow you to catch a little "poor man's fetilizer" aka a late snowfall. 
• Get the compost going! If you don't already have a compost pile or bin going, get on it! This is a great oportunity to literally turn trash into treasure. 
• Check on all of your hoses and sprinklers. If you need to purchase replacement hoses, soaker hose or sprinklers, do it now while there is still a lot of selection so you can get what you really want and not just have to take what's available. 
• Check on the condition of the handles of your hand tools. Are they cracked? Do they need replaced? Do the handles need sanded and rubbed with a coat verithane or poly urethane. Make sure your tools are in good working order. Maybe the metal pieces have some rust that needs removed. Now, while we still have some downtime is a great time to take care of those little shores. 
• Be sure you have a weed control plan in mind. Are you going to use a commercial weed spray? Are you going to use newspaper or straw as barriers? Start gathering up those items so that they are on hand and ready to go when you are. 
• Now is a good time to mulch in your berries and cane fruits (like raspberries and blueberries) with compost and straw. If they need tied up, now is a good time to do that, too. 
• Plant new fruit trees or berries you might want to add to your garden this year. We added a fair amount of nice trees last year that someone will really enjoy in 3 years or so. It's kind if a bummer to put work into a garden place and then decide to move, but that's ok. Maybe our new house will be already set up. I can hold out hope for that at least, LOL
• Check what you still have canned up. Does it need used up? Is it past its prime? If you keep a tally of what you canned and what you have used, this is a good time to take a look at what you might have run short on and what you canned too much of. Compost fruits and veggies that need to be tossed if you have them. Clean your shelves off and get rid of clutter wherever you store your home canned goods. 
• Count your canning jars. Check for chips, cracks and broken jars and get rid of them. Decide if you need to get more jars or if you think you'll be ok for another year. Right now is a great time to put the word out, through word of mouth or places like Craigslist to ask for jars. A couple of years ago, I posted a craigslist add that ended up scoring me 20 cases of wide mouth jars FOR FREE from a woman who didn't want to can anymore and wanted them to go to a good home. 
• Take stock of your canning lids, rings, canning and pickling salt, spices, etc. If you are sure you have a couple of containers of lemon juice sitting on your shelf now, you won't have to run to the store while you're in the middle of canning tomatoes later on. 
• Have your pressure canner gauged checked to be sure it's working properly. Our extension service does it for free, so you might take a look and see if yours does too.  Not having it working when you need it can be a HUGE pain when you have items waiting to be processed and you're waiting on a part or piece of your canner. I like to make sure that my canning basket is still inside of my water bath canner at the same time. With my kids you never know, it could be a part of a tree house by now, so if I find it missing I have plenty of time to track it down and give it a good scrub. 

Make a wish list of items you want to can. This helps me know not only how much I need to plant, but also helps me out when I see a really great sale on something that I can stock up and preserve now, like a great deal on 50# of potatoes or something. I like knowing what I have in mind for goals so I can work towards them and have a mark to hit.

If you don't use your dehydrator year round, now is a good time to get it out and check on it too. We use ours all the time so it's always out and I know it's in good working order, but running a batch of apple slices or something through yours if it's been in storage can help you detect any possible problems you may be facing.

I love this time of year, it makes me happy and hopeful to know that soon the very things we need to provide for our families I can take an active part in growing, harvest and preserving. It really connects you to the life cycle and keeps you grounded, I think. Plus, there is just something about digging in the dirt that's awesome at any age.

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