Garden Update

I am almost finished putting in my summer garden. So I thought I would give you an update on what went in this year:

• Planted five Seminole pumpkins.  I plant this pumpkin every year.  It's a great producer. One plant produces about 10 pumpkins.  Seminole pumpkins are mislabeled, they are more like winter squash. The Seminole Indians grew them in the 1500's in the Everglades in south Florida.  They are great for this part of the world because they are not bothered by either bugs or diseases of any kind. They are sweet and tasty when served like winter squash.
• Planted six summer squash.  This is an heirloom called Early Prolific Straight Neck. I love it!  It keeps producing and producing.  However, here in the hot & humid south, it does get a lot of powdery mildew that requires spraying with a powdered milk and baking soda mix.  Doesn't matter to me, I still love it.  I expect to get about 200 squash this year.  I need at least 150 to make it one year without having to go to the store to buy them.
• Planted four hybrid acorn squash. I don't have a yearly goal for this winter squash, I just eat it fresh when I have it but I don't bother to purchase any from the store when I don't have it.
• Planted 80 green beans so far. I have room for 240.  I may just plant 160 and then use the rest of the raised bed for something else. I need 51 quarts to make it one year without purchasing any from the store.
• Planted 135 peanuts.  80 are Spanish peanuts and 55 are Virginia Jumbo.  Normally, I plant just Virginia Jumbo.  I switched to some Spanish peanuts because they have more oil in them. I am going to try to produce my own cooking oil this year.  That will be one more item I can stop purchasing from the store!  We don't use much oil in our cooking so I am shooting for 1 gallon of oil and I expect that to last most (if not all) of the next year. Will 80 plants produce enough peanuts to make 1 gallon of oil?  I have no idea!  I will let you know at the end of the summer.
• Planted five sweet potato slips.  I received these slips in March.  I was too busy with work to plant them and so they sat in a vase of water on the kitchen counter (by the window). I put them in one week ago.  Three of the slips don't look like they are going to make it.  Next year, I will just take an afternoon and plant them when they arrive rather than put it off.
• Planted about 30 tobacco seeds.  Many of them germinated, but when transplanting, I eliminated some of the smaller ones.  I now have 13 plants in six pots. You may be wondering what I do with the tobacco.  Well, I use it as an insecticide!  It is the only chemical insecticide I use and it is organic.  I put many of my houseplants outside for the summer. When fall arrives and its time for the plants to come in, they get sprayed with a tea made from tobacco.  It kills any bugs that may be lurking on the plants and no bug problems all winter long in the house.  Here is a picture of my newly transplanted tobacco.  Tobacco plants also make very pretty trumpet like flowers in September.

Last week, I also harvested the onions I planted in early spring. This is year two for these onions. I planted seeds last year, then stored the tiny onions (called sets) over winter. I put the sets out in late February.  I got 46 - plenty to last all year for our family.  I planted a day neutral hybrid called Candy.  Very easy to grow and my husband says quite tasty.  I will dry them and make onion powder.  Here they are waiting their turn in the dehydrator on my dining room table

I will be sure to take pictures and post updates as the summer progresses!

Do You Compost?

You can easily make your own compost! If you are allowed to have a compost pile in your neighborhood you can make one following these instructions:

1. Place four wooden stakes or metal poles in the ground. Ideal size is 4 X 4, but a 3 x 3 or 5 x 5 will work as well. Poles or stakes should be 3 to 4 feet tall.  Wrap the poles with chicken wire and secure the wire together at the ends.
2. Place course material in the bottom of the bin you just created. This can be straw, hay, pine straw, corn husks or other course material.
3. Add an 8' to 10" layer of leaves.
4. Add a shovel full of soil. Any soil will work.
5. Add a 2" to 3" layer of grass clippings. It is best not to use grass clippings that have been treated with pesticides.
6. Add water.
7. Start layering over with step #3. Repeat until you fill the bin.

If you live in a neighborhood that has covenants against compost piles, you can purchase a closed one like this Closed Compost Systems.

What do you put in a compost pile?

Leaves and grass are staples of any compost pile. You will need to keep a good balance of brown material (leaves) to the green material (grass). It should be about a 25 to 1 ratio of leaves to grass.  Keep this ratio and the pile won't smell. You can add lots of other things to your compost pile as well.

If you don't have any leaves, you can add:

• Newspaper
• Paper plates (make sure the package states they can go into a compost pile)
• Hay, straw or pine straw
• Sawdust (not too much or you can compensate by adding more nitrogen)
• Dryer lint
• Wood ashes (not too many)

If you don't have any grass clippings without pesticides, you can add:

• Vegetables scraps from the kitchen (veggie peelings, fruit peelings, eggshells, and/or coffee grounds)
• Manure from animals that do not eat meat
• Weeds (preferably before they flower and set seed)
• 10-10-10 fertilizer (small amounts - you can use fertilizer if you don't have anything else in this list to replace the grass. It can also be used to help break down sawdust.)

To keep the compost pile healthy, you shouldn't add:

• Diseased plants
• Meat
• Oily food scraps
• Dog/cat manure
• Invasive weeds

Turn the pile every three weeks or so if you want compost in about one year's time. If you don't want to turn the pile, you will still get compost, but it can take two to three years before it is ready. 

If you make an effort, you will never have to purchase potting soil again!

Happy Memorial Day!

Today is the day we honor all service members who gave their life in defense of our country. Remember all of those brave men and women who died so we could stay free. While you're at it ,don't forget to say thank you to the veterans and active duty service personnel for their sacrifice.  If you have a family member who has served this great country, give him or her a hug.

If you don't have any family members who have served, find a vet and do the same thing.  I bet you have one as a neighbor! 

Then, go and enjoy time with your family. When everyone is seated and ready to eat, say a prayer for those service members who have died to keep you free.

Enjoy your day!

Gardening In Raised Beds

Today I put in the squash and pumpkins. Since the soil here is nothing but clay, we use raised beds. Raised beds allow us to control the soil the vegetables grow in and we can tailor it to the needs of the plant. Here is a picture of one of my raised beds left over from last year.

I use a unique method of preparing and managing the garden. It's different from 99% of the gardens around the world but I bet you'll find it can really help you succeed with your garden. One of the key differences in how I manage my garden is bug control.  I aim for minimal to no bug damage each year. However, I don't use chemicals for bug control, even organic ones. This requires a completely different way of looking at the problem of bug control. Let me explain how you can garden bug free too!  

The first step to keeping bugs under control is good soil.  If you read Mel Bartholomew's New SquareFoot Gardening book, he states that good soil is a mixture of 1/3 organics (read that to mean compost), 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 vermiculite. I agree with and follow his advice. Just add the mixture in the amounts listed to prepare the soil if you are starting from scratch.  Think of it as a one time investment. If you have already created your raised beds, you can continue to improve your soil by adding compost. Even if you don't use raised beds, you can still greatly improve your soil by following Mel's advice and adding the ingredients above as well.  Don't worry if you don't have a compost pile, you can easily purchase bags of compost at a local gardening center.  However, it is much cheaper and easier to make your own.  Look for a post on how start your own compost pile next week.

So, to refresh the soil from last year's garden, you need to add soil amendments.  I added compost and a bit of 10-10-10- fertilizer.  The fertilizer was in support of my favorite squash. Since squash are heavy feeders they'll need additional fertilizer throughout the season.  Mix the amendments into the soil and rake flat.  Since our summers are hot and can be dry as well, I added a soaker hose.  Here is a picture.

This is where I break with conventional gardening practices. The next step is to cover the entire bed with aluminum foil (shiney side up). I haven't seen this technique covered in many other blogs or gardening books, but it really does work great!  It keeps the bugs away. Here is a picture of the bed half covered.

It is a little hard to see in this picture, but the aluminum foil is simply taped together using regular scotch tape. I placed about a 2" piece of tape every 2 - 2 1/2 feet.  I also stapled the foil to the wood of the raised bed.  Here is a close up of the staples.  The image isn't too clear the sun was shining directly on the foil. But, you can still make out two of the staples.

What exactly is the aluminum foil doing?  Well, the foil confuses bugs that want to land on the leaves and deposit their eggs.  The bugs can't figure out which side is the underside of the leaves because the sun appears to be shining on both sides. They move on to an easier plant.  This treatment works extremely well for squash vine borers, squash and stink bugs and mexican bean beatles.  Unfortunately, all of these pests are in great supply where I live.  My raised bed is about 25 feet long. It took four passes to cover the whole bed.  I bought a 250 sq ft roll of aluminum foil on sale last Christmas (purchased with coupons!) and I used half the roll. All together it cost me just a few dollars to cover the 25 foot long bed. It is a lot cheaper (and safer) than spraying chemical pesticides all season long. 

Once the beds are covered, you can plant your seeds. Poke a hole in the aluminium foil where you want to put the seed.  Make the hole fairly large to accomodate the seed and let the sun shine on the soil.  Here is what mine looks like.  Remember, I only planted squash and pumpkins in this section.

The last step is to poke some drainage holes in the foil so water will seep in when it rains.  Go easy on the poking, you don't really need too many holes.  The rain will find the soil through the gaps in the foil. What I do is spray the foil with the hose and see where the water is standing in puddles. Then, I poke holes there. I use a fork to keep the holes small.

If you have a plant that requires additional feeding throughout the summer, you can add fertilizer in the gaps in the aluminum foil.  Be careful with the application and you shouldn't have to worry about tearing the foil.  If you accidently do tear the foil, just cover it with scotch tape.  I am amazed each year how well the scotch tape holds.  It doesn't have to hold forever, just until the plants appear. Once they start to come in, the weight of the plants will hold the foil down.  I have yet to require a large repair job. The foil just seems to stay in place. 

This works so well, I know I won't see any bugs at all until late August.  That is when the leaves grow so large that they completely cover the foil and the sun can't reach it.  At this point, I start spraying, if necessary.  However, I don't use conventional sprays.  My motto is, "If you can't eat it, don't spray it on the vegetables!"  I promise I will cover what to do about bugs in a future post.  In the meantime if you have a bug problem, email me and I will be happy to help. 

Happy Gardening!

Growing Tomatoes in Pots

Growing tomatoes is fun!  They grow easily in pots which works really well if you have limited space like me. You can avoid some common problems later in the growing season by properly  preparing them for transplanting. You won't find most of these tips in gardening books.  They are the things I learned through many, many long conversations with avid gardeners combined with 25 years of personal experience in the garden and a master gardener certification.

In my garden, I use commercial potting soil. No need to get new bags every year,I resuse the same soil from year to year. Here is my pile of potting soil from last year's tomatoes.  It sat like this all winter.

Now that I am ready to use it again, I will need to refresh the soil by adding some admendments.  I added a bit of fertilizer, (tomatoes are heavy feeders) and some compost.  Here is the refreshed soil ready to go into my pots.

The first thing you need to do is find a suitable pot.  The 3 gallon buckets you got from the grocery store for free work really well for tomatoes (see Monday's post) and the best part about using them is you won't need to repot again later in the summer. That is what I am going to use here.

Planting tomatoes in pots does require some additional amendments. These amendments help tomatoes planted directly into the ground as well. To add amendments, fill about 1/3 of the pot with the soil. Then add four antacid tablets to the pot. Yes, antacid tablets!  I use the big box store brand . Doesn't matter if it is fruit flavored or mint. I use 750 mg.  This stuff is calcium carbonate which tomatoes need to prevent blossom end rot.  Don't put too many in the pot at once. If there is too much calcuim in the soil, the tomato can't get the other trace minerials it needs (such as baron).  My experience has been that four antacid tablets seem like the right number to add at the time of transplanting into a large pot or bucket.  You will need to add two or three more to the pot each month to prevent blossom end rot.

If you are placing your tomatoes directy in the ground, you are less likely to have a problem with blossom end rot so only put the four in the hole with the tomato when you transplant it, you won't be adding more tablets each month.

The other amendment I use is Agrosoke crystals.The label calls them Root Watering Crystals, Agrosoke is the brand name. I get mine at one of the home improvement centers in the gardening department. This stuff will help keep the soil evenly moist between waterings or rain. Evenly mosit soil reduces blossom end rot and split or cracked tomatoes. Here is what the pot looks like when you add the soil amendments.

At this point, you can add a couple of additional handfulls of dirt, then mix it well or just leave it like you see in the picture and fill the pot up with soil.

Now, lets address the tomato plant itself. Tomatoes transplant easily. However, to give the plant the best possible chance to establish itself in its new home, submerge the plant in the soil up to the top leaves.  Do this whether you plat the tomato in a pot or in the ground. Before submerging it, remove all the bottom leaves.  You can just pinch them off with your fingernail.  Here is a before and after picture to show you what I mean.

Now the tomato is ready to be planted. Gently firm the soil around the stem of the tomato so it doesn't break.

Tomatoes don't like to have the soil splash on their leaves so the last step is to mulch the plant.  You can use hay, small pebbles or pine straw.  The point is to make sure when you water or when it rains, the leaves don't get dirt on them.  I use pine straw because it is widely available here in the south. 

So there you have it!  A tomato plant transplanted to its new home and all set to grow and produce wonderful jucy tomatoes for eating all summer long!