Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Posted by
Deanna Lack
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The first photo was taken April 15 last year, before my seedlings went into the ground. The second was taken today, 3 weeks earlier in the year... ... wow, this year's bunch looks so much better. I think I leveled up my gardening skills! I provided better light this year and I think that's what's made the difference.
That said, I thought I'd share what went right and what went wrong last year, in case there are any other new-ish gardeners who would like info on avoiding the same mistakes I made.
First, I had heard you could grow stuff right in straw bales, so to save money on dirt in my raised beds I put a layer of straw in the bottom. This would've been great, IF I'd done it the fall before I wanted to put my garden in, but I did it in March, so my plants were growing in straw and I think as a result, didn't do great. Toward the end of the season, as the straw broke down, the tomatoes went crazy, and I picked a gallon of them the day before our first frost. But that straw is nice and decomposed now, and I think I'll reap the benefits this year.
Lost a lot of stuff to bugs. Here in Tennessee it's a constant battle. The flea beetles got the eggplant, the squash bugs and squash vine borers did in the zucchini after a minimal harvest, and I got some cucumbers but then the cucumber beetles came calling with the Blight, which destroyed the cukes, and the watermelons too. I also had Japanese beetles on the beans, and the little yellow caterpillars, which reduced my harvest. Plan for this year: traps for the cuke beetles and floating row covers on all of the above.
I started squash and cuke seeds with the tomatoes and eggplant. I lost all those seedlings to rot and they got pot bound, so curcurbits go right in the ground from now on. Or, I won't start them till 2 weeks before they go in the garden.
I put lemon balm, a mint relative, in the vegetable beds. It's going to be a weed if I leave them there. Anyone want a lemon balm plant? Need to move them to a different spot, but I do love the herb.
I think grandpa's heirloom Soldacki tomatoes don't much like the climate here... I may put them somewhere they get a little bit of shade every day so they're not in the blazing TN sun.
Carrots needed something... lighter, sandier soil, I think. They came out stubby. Broccoli failed utterly, but I planted it too late. The peppers also needed something, and I think this is a crop I do not have an affinity for, but I do use them, so I need to figure out the problem. I think the straw may have had a lot to do with it.
Successes:
- Had a bumper crop of tomatoes toward the end of the season, and canned my own salsa for the first time.
- Peas! They are so easy to grow. This year's are off to a good start, too.
- Herbs. I have an affinity for a lot of them and they make my thumb feel green. My regular basil didn't do as well as it did in a pot the year before, but the purple basil produced more than I knew what to do with. I have a cabinet full of dried herbs, still.
- Swiss chard. Which, unfortunately, Russ hates.
- Determinate cherry tomatoes did really well all year.
- I got tons of raspberries on my everbearing Heritage bush, and also a decent crop of sour cherries off my dwarf North Star tree, considering it was its first year.
- I definitely learned a lot!
That's the report... I'll keep you updated on this year's organic garden and food preservation efforts as we go!
Posted by
Deanna Lack
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Five Color Swiss Chard from The Bearfoot Shaman on EtsyLike gardeners everywhere, I'm looking out my window the past few days at the snow-covered (even more snow-covered than has been usual for my time in Tennessee) ground and daydreaming of turning some of that land and getting my hands in the dirt and...
ordering seeds.
I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one obsessing over seed catalogs these days. In my temperate zone it'll be time to start some seeds indoors in about two weeks. So I'm ordering this week and next from my four favorite companies: Seed Savers Exchange, Heirloom Seeds and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and Richter's Herbs.
I'm ordering all heirloom varieties. My husband isn't too keen on technicolor vegetables; he thinks it's weird, and yellow tomato sauce doesn't appeal to him in the least. As I ponder this, it occurs to me: the reason it's weird is because the biodiversity of the crops we eat, and even the crops we grow, has drastically dwindled in this century, till the only tomatoes anyone's ever seen were red.
But heirlooms are a piece of history, and usually not bred for color but superior flavor or other great qualities - what they are NOT bred for is pesticide and herbicide resistance. I feel a special responsibility to preserve heirloom varieties since one of them - the Soldacki tomato - was brought by my grandfather's family from Poland, and he has preserved them throughout his lifetime, but now is unable to garden at almost 88 years old. With industrial farming threatening crop diversity, I think the need is even more pressing.
So my rabid catalog perusing is socially and environmentally responsible. At least that's what I'm telling myself. This is my first year of "real" gardening, so come fall I'll be saving those seeds for next year (and thumbing my nose at Monsanto and their self-aborting seeds, in the process).
Oh, and Etsy has some heirloom varieties as well. There's something really cool about buying from a human being who's preserved the seeds themselves, so check it out.
ordering seeds.
I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one obsessing over seed catalogs these days. In my temperate zone it'll be time to start some seeds indoors in about two weeks. So I'm ordering this week and next from my four favorite companies: Seed Savers Exchange, Heirloom Seeds and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and Richter's Herbs.
I'm ordering all heirloom varieties. My husband isn't too keen on technicolor vegetables; he thinks it's weird, and yellow tomato sauce doesn't appeal to him in the least. As I ponder this, it occurs to me: the reason it's weird is because the biodiversity of the crops we eat, and even the crops we grow, has drastically dwindled in this century, till the only tomatoes anyone's ever seen were red.
But heirlooms are a piece of history, and usually not bred for color but superior flavor or other great qualities - what they are NOT bred for is pesticide and herbicide resistance. I feel a special responsibility to preserve heirloom varieties since one of them - the Soldacki tomato - was brought by my grandfather's family from Poland, and he has preserved them throughout his lifetime, but now is unable to garden at almost 88 years old. With industrial farming threatening crop diversity, I think the need is even more pressing.
So my rabid catalog perusing is socially and environmentally responsible. At least that's what I'm telling myself. This is my first year of "real" gardening, so come fall I'll be saving those seeds for next year (and thumbing my nose at Monsanto and their self-aborting seeds, in the process).
Oh, and Etsy has some heirloom varieties as well. There's something really cool about buying from a human being who's preserved the seeds themselves, so check it out.
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