by Nancy Johnston
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Dirty Knees, A Gardening Book for Rockbridge County Virginia
This book was written for Rockbridge County, Virginia, however, it is useful in many other areas. Within the United States, it will be very helpful to vegetable gardeners located near the 38th parallel. Also for vegetable gardeners whose frost free date in spring is about May 5 and their first killing frost in fall is about October 10. During the growing season of 2003, I continued to use this guide for vegetable gardening in Gallatin, Tennessee.
My original motivation for writing about vegetable gardening was frustration. For any specific vegetable, I had to check 5 or 6 gardening books to find all the information I wanted to know. I also found such vague phrases like “as soon as the soil can be worked” or “as soon as the grass turns green” which are useless in the planning process. So I wrote my own book. I am now sharing it with you. This book is organized on a monthly checklist system. It’s March, so what can I do in my garden?
The Needs of the Seeds
Growing Your Own Vegetable Transplants
If you want to plant a vegetable garden, you will find that many crops can easily be direct seeded in the open garden. This works fine for many vegetables if your growing season is long enough. However, for many reasons, gardeners will often want to plant some seeds of certain vegetables and start them inside or under controlled conditions. These small plants that are grown in advance and later set out in the open garden are called transplants. Do you currently rush out to a nursery and purchase transplants of such vegetables as tomatoes and peppers? Maybe you would like to try growing your own from seed. This book will help.
If you think you must have an expensive heated greenhouse to grow transplants, you need this book. You can grow your own transplants inside your home under lights. Many gardening books provide only a few paragraphs on this topic. This one is thorough!