All through the garden year we plan the next year through our mistakes and a few good choices. After over 20 years of gardening the same lessons come back and as I get older they are even more needed in writing to remember next year. So easy to forget the lessons.
Potatoes: they slouch so badly - I will grow less and only two rows instead of four, expecting them to take up any isle left between them and anything else.
Beans: I can't preserve them so I like them so grow less. One pole bean and one bush. Leave the drying beans for someone else except for the Hutterite soup bean. And no matter what the package says, it is a pole bean. Edamame is the exception to the rule. If I could just get the Masai bean to grow that would be my choice.
Tomatoes: I will grow half as many and only one peacevine cherry but it must be grown because for a month while the others grow and grow, I am eating tomatoes. One Roma for sauce and the other 2 will be Brandywines.
Radishes: don't bother - use nasturtium flowers. They don't bolt.
Squash: Two zucchinis not five. Less winter squash.
Melons: two not five. I will decide later which to grow from those I am growing this year.
Cabbages: I love them but a couple in pots will be enough.
Brocolli: Two and stick to Calabrese. These and cabbage are best in the north side of the garden where sun is limited to 5-6 hours.
Cauliflower: Let someone else do it. It takes a lot of space for one harvest.
Kale: Grow about 4 and in pots or find the copper tape and use wood chips for mulch.
Celery: I am conflicted. I want to grow some but two rows is nuts.
Onions: I must. To go out and get one when I am cooking - but remember that I can get them all winter at the Amish market so don't try to grow to stock up unless you want to add them to sauce.
Cucumbers: Wait to start them. There has been no problem with the striped beetle on the plants I put out in July. Buy the plants at the Amish market later. Right now they are still in pots and the slugs were killed before the pots went to their spot. I may leave them in pots - 8" seems all right for them.
Beets: I grew a row so I could keep them - maybe start them later after the peas are done in that space? I was going to start some but am out of steam and may not get to it. Time for a principle of energy conservation - my energy.
Okra: probaly could grow two rows vs four. I love to grow it but don't need quite so much.
Corn: takes a lot of room and the Amish market carries organically grown and I can freeze some of theirs.
Fava: Can't get it elsewhere so grow it in the field where it is happy.
Peas: probably would grow it again but stick to something that does not need shelling.
Herbs: The oregano and thyme are always there. I need basil, dill, cilantro, and rosemary for cooking. I may make a raised bed somewhere with the 2" hemlock cut offs I have for these. Put wood chips around the outside.
Sweet potatoes: They keep all winter and are not work plus I can eat the leaves so probably I will continue to grow them.
Salad greens: Luckily I have the raised three beds on legs for these so I will continue growing them.
Wild edibles: Don't grow spinach - use lamb quarters. Use the wild spring onions - no need to grow scallions.
Volunteers: I had kale this year and so many potatotes. Just reserve a row for potatoes and move the volunteers to the row. Of course there were tomatoes - start less plants?
Perennial veggies: sea kale, good king henry, welch onion, lovage - use it better, and asparagus,
Strawberries: Yes they are work and take vigilance against slugs but I love them. Maybe I need raised rows to keep them up off the ground. What about the edging that Home depot carries as edging that could keep the ground edges vertical? Is there taller edging? Is there something to repurpose to use? Wish those styrofoam trays were stronger.
Stinging Nettle
Making Peace
Sunday, July 28, 2013
ORGANICS AND HYPOCRITES
The other day I was doing battle with the second (there has been a third since) round with the squash bug eggs. I have grown 5 zucchinis and it was a task to look on and under every leaf and loosen the eggs and spray them away. If I were an organic grower with 100 plants, this would be impossible to do. Yet, if these eggs are allowed to hatch, the nymphs will kill the plant, leaf by leaf, as they suck the juices and dry the leaves out. I understand why controls that are not really good for the environment and, are questionable for our healthy, are used. One cannot grow in volume, sanely, without some of these. Pyrethrums persist in the environment and spinosad has residual that hurts beneficials. I don't know if rotenone is still allowed but I would not use it. My conclusion? Don't ask of someone else what you cannot or are not willing to do. If we want to tie up large areas of land in gas sucking areas called lawns, for no good reason other than blind adherence to a false norm, then don't complain when growers do what they must to provide us with food. Either do it yourself or stop being hypocritical about the fact that you must eat. We hoard land so wildlife and pollinators must look elsewhere for habitat and plants while we blindly destroy our own nest and then arrogantly demand growers give us something that is not possible.
SLUGS
It seems the slugs modify my behavior as the IRS modifies my filing. Take the eggplants - I grew them in pots last year and don't remember a slug problem but this year, with them in the ground, I have had to add eggplant to my vigil. Also the eggplants want to slouch so perhaps a tomato cage for each next year and better spacing so I can see the slugs and the fruit too. Grow less. That is becoming the mantra for next year. The brassicas - even those in large pots suffer but not so bad as the cabbages that offer hiding places for slugs on the ground. Again, grow less. Slugs like beer but not as much as they like brassicas. I will have to attend to the edges of the garden better so what is outside in the wilder areas won't be so willing to enter. I have noticed that they don't like rough wood chips so I can edge the garden with those over cardboard or why not weed mat like the kind at our local hardware store or home depot. The beer should be put between the wilder areas and the brassicas so they smell the beer first. Putting it by the brassicas doesn't work as the ignore it. My ammonia bottle goes everywhere with me - better than handling the slimy blobs. One cup of ammonia to a gallon jug filled with water sits on the porch to refill my quart bottle. Maybe the brassicas will have to be grown so there is space between them and that means a lot less plants. Cabbages take so much room if they are grown without overlapping but it may be worth it. Sluggo claims that there were taste tests done and I am convinced that brassica leaves were not used in that test. I have spread it liberally just to see slugs happily munching away while the sluggo went untouched. I have started pre treating an area with beer before planting so there are less slugs in an area when a seedling goes out. If I see a lot of slugs on a rainy night and less the next night it just means they are not hungry and the weather is not ideal. I don't believe mulch nets more slugs as I have seen unmulched cabbages with more damage than my own. Last year I found them hiding in groups in cracks in the ground - it was a drought. I also think there is some sort of social behavior going on - they sleep in groups and sometimes I will find a lot of them on a single species and none on something they were on the night before. Pre dinner strategy meetings?
It seems the slugs modify my behavior as the IRS modifies my filing. Take the eggplants - I grew them in pots last year and don't remember a slug problem but this year, with them in the ground, I have had to add eggplant to my vigil. Also the eggplants want to slouch so perhaps a tomato cage for each next year and better spacing so I can see the slugs and the fruit too. Grow less. That is becoming the mantra for next year. The brassicas - even those in large pots suffer but not so bad as the cabbages that offer hiding places for slugs on the ground. Again, grow less. Slugs like beer but not as much as they like brassicas. I will have to attend to the edges of the garden better so what is outside in the wilder areas won't be so willing to enter. I have noticed that they don't like rough wood chips so I can edge the garden with those over cardboard or why not weed mat like the kind at our local hardware store or home depot. The beer should be put between the wilder areas and the brassicas so they smell the beer first. Putting it by the brassicas doesn't work as the ignore it. My ammonia bottle goes everywhere with me - better than handling the slimy blobs. One cup of ammonia to a gallon jug filled with water sits on the porch to refill my quart bottle. Maybe the brassicas will have to be grown so there is space between them and that means a lot less plants. Cabbages take so much room if they are grown without overlapping but it may be worth it. Sluggo claims that there were taste tests done and I am convinced that brassica leaves were not used in that test. I have spread it liberally just to see slugs happily munching away while the sluggo went untouched. I have started pre treating an area with beer before planting so there are less slugs in an area when a seedling goes out. If I see a lot of slugs on a rainy night and less the next night it just means they are not hungry and the weather is not ideal. I don't believe mulch nets more slugs as I have seen unmulched cabbages with more damage than my own. Last year I found them hiding in groups in cracks in the ground - it was a drought. I also think there is some sort of social behavior going on - they sleep in groups and sometimes I will find a lot of them on a single species and none on something they were on the night before. Pre dinner strategy meetings?
Sunday, January 13, 2013
january 13, 2013
It is the january thaw and to our north is a bare, green yard and to our south is a bare green yard. Ours which is the farthest 3000 square feet is the area over the geothermal field and is in its third year since the digging was done. Our yard, only that part that is over the geothermal loop field, is white. The snow is melting very slowly. The only explanation I have is that the ground is colder as the heat is being removed to heat the house. I wonder what this will mean for the trees we planted and whether it will take longer for the soil to warm up. If the buds respond to the sun, how will the roots react as they will surely be colder?
It is the january thaw and to our north is a bare, green yard and to our south is a bare green yard. Ours which is the farthest 3000 square feet is the area over the geothermal field and is in its third year since the digging was done. Our yard, only that part that is over the geothermal loop field, is white. The snow is melting very slowly. The only explanation I have is that the ground is colder as the heat is being removed to heat the house. I wonder what this will mean for the trees we planted and whether it will take longer for the soil to warm up. If the buds respond to the sun, how will the roots react as they will surely be colder?
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