Mumsy's Romantic Garden Advice

[BlueMouse]

mumsy, how do I know if my carrots are ready to pull? I've never grown them before. I only had three survive all the rain..... My garden is such a flop this year. Nothing has done well excpet the kale and tomatoes. I'm not sure if the tomatoes are going to have enough warm weather to ripen at this point.

 

[MumsyII]

mumsy, how do I know if my carrots are ready to pull? I've never grown them before. I only had three survive all the rain..... My garden is such a flop this year. Nothing has done well excpet the kale and tomatoes. I'm not sure if the tomatoes are going to have enough warm weather to ripen at this point.

I pulled most of my carrots this morning and didn't get a picture. Carrots are ready to pull when you see their shoulders. You should be able to see the top most part of the carrot just showing above the soil. You can pull them at the baby stage like I do when thinning. Or let them stay in the ground to get bigger. I usually pull all my carrots no matter what size at the end of the summer. Fall rains here will start to rot them or they get very hairy with feeler roots all over them.

My husband is going to help me tent my cukes and peppers and we are going to close the ends on the tomato house this weekend. Night time temps are dipping to 60 degrees at night and if it gets cooler, nothing will ripen. Soil needs to stay warm for warm season crops. Rain makes the soil cold. Mulching with something organic this time of year will help conserve heat in the soil. Can't do this for root vegetables without encouraging pests to take up residence and munching things under the mulch.

I'm truly sorry so many folks are having a bum year with their vegetable gardens. There is always next year. Farming is like that.

 

[MumsyII]

Here you go BlueMouse.

The bed I raise my carrots, beets, and leeks in is more than half harvested. The soil is very loose and rich.

I've been harvesting and thinning at the same time for a couple months. You can't see the shoulders with these but when I pulled up the green one in the middle, this is what I got.


Four inches long and two inches in diameter. My soil is so loose, I can brush the soil away from the 'shoulders' and see how big the top is and whether I want to pull it or not.

 

[armorfirelady]

Mumsy do you think you don't have blight problems because you used a hoop coop for you tomatoes? Could the morning and evening dew we have here be part of the problem?

I am going to try the hay bales next year for plants and am curious if there will be less blight because of being in the hay bale.

And I have a lot of metal fencing I could make a hoop coop with for part of the veggie garden as well. I'm curious if I would have less blight even though my tomatoes throughout the whole garden have it.

I was working in the garden today and found a couple pumpkins that had started to rot. No clue why. But the gourds that I didn't plant and are growing out the compost pile have produced a bunch of gourds hanging down the sides of the compost pile. I found this

I am going to let it grow to see if it will be twin gourds as it gets bigger.

 

[MumsyII]

Mumsy do you think you don't have blight problems because you used a hoop coop for you tomatoes? Could the morning and evening dew we have here be part of the problem?

I am going to try the hay bales next year for plants and am curious if there will be less blight because of being in the hay bale.

And I have a lot of metal fencing I could make a hoop coop with for part of the veggie garden as well. I'm curious if I would have less blight even though my tomatoes throughout the whole garden have it.

I was working in the garden today and found a couple pumpkins that had started to rot. No clue why. But the gourds that I didn't plant and are growing out the compost pile have produced a bunch of gourds hanging down the sides of the compost pile. I found this

I am going to let it grow to see if it will be twin gourds as it gets bigger.

Yes. I really do think not having over head rain or sprinklers on the tomatoes made a difference. There is condensation dripping from leaves in the morning but it drys naturally.

Some of my pumpkins and squash rotted too. But all those growing off the ground are perfect. I picked the largest pumpkin today and want it to cure so I can use it to freeze for puree. I was afraid if I left it out another week it would rot too.

Gourds are awesome. I planted bird house gourd late and it is just now blooming and setting little fruit. I may have to tent it to get any to finish.




It is a real balancing act to give enough moisture to the vegetable garden but not too much. I am still learning. This is the best vegetable garden I've ever had in my life. Next year could be a different story. Farming is unpredictable.

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote: How do you water them in your hoop coop then? Hand water? I use a sprinkler to water my garden and normally I turn it on and walk away to do other things. It is able to water my whole garden. But a hoop house would prevent the sprinkler watering the plants inside. Maybe a soaker hose?
And do you face the ends a certain way so that the wind doesnt blow in it when its colder?

I have tried bird house gourds & snake gourds. I get a lot of green vines & blooms but no fruit. I would love for them to grow arounf my compost bin. Maybe I will have better luck next year since the drainage is better. Why is it the ones you dont plant or fuss over grow better?

 

[MumsyII]

How do you water them in your hoop coop then? Hand water? I use a sprinkler to water my garden and normally I turn it on and walk away to do other things. It is able to water my whole garden. But a hoop house would prevent the sprinkler watering the plants inside. Maybe a soaker hose?
And do you face the ends a certain way so that the wind doesnt blow in it when its colder?

I have tried bird house gourds & snake gourds. I get a lot of green vines & blooms but no fruit. I would love for them to grow arounf my compost bin. Maybe I will have better luck next year since the drainage is better. Why is it the ones you dont plant or fuss over grow better?

After planting in Spring, I hand watered out of buckets that warmed to air temp. I fill lots of buckets all spring and use them when seedlings are young. No cold water shock. When the plants were growing well, I drug a hose around and soaked the beds. I have not watered inside the hoop house for a month now. It's dry but the roots have gone down deep into the soil below the raised beds.

The hoop house is facing South to North. Wind is not a factor. My garden is completely surrounded with trees and heavy vegetation. Although the corn blew down last night. Wet loose soil + tall corn+ wind = flattened corn. The plastic on the hoop house never budged.

It's so true. Fun stuff happens when you don't plan on it in the garden. I did not train squash and pumpkins to grow up. They did it on their own because I didn't interfere. I never would have got so many nice fruit if I had been out there fussing.

 

[armorfirelady]

Hmmm I might just contunue my exreiments next Spring with a small hoop and see which plants do better...the straw or hoop.

I did find a benefit of wayward pumpkins in my garden..........My kale I planted in early spring is growing under the pumpkin leaves and I have enough for a 5th cutting

 

[BlueMouse]

Went out to water today. I HAVE TOMATOES GETTING RED! this makes me very excited! and I'm cutting Kale and picking beans every day. I'm busy with little people under foot so I tend to have a Kale/fruit/protien powder smoothie for breakfast every morning. Some days for lunch too. I've found that the purple Kale is not as drought resistant, but is more tender longer and has a less strong flavor. As soon as the weather turns I'll start making Kale and Keilbasa soup with fresh potatoes and Kale.

I think that the lousy garden year is partially severe weather fail, and partially that my dirt could really use a few years of DL from the chicken house to be good. I layered it with leaves in the beds as I put it in, knowing that it would tie up nitrogen this year, but that the soil was in desperate need of organic materials and it would be beneficial later. all three beds are layered dirt then leaves, then sand, then repeat, like a lasagna. I just dug a big pit behind some bushes where no one could see it and trucked the dirt by wheelbarrow..... Three beds 4x12x10 inches took rather a lot of wheelbarrows of dirt to fill..... I'm building the last bed now, and my clever plan is to dump my compost in there all winter. The chickens can scratch through it but not spread it to the four winds (like they currently are....) then come spring I'll just fill that bed with DL and dirt. I can't wait to have that DL for my garden!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Is it too late to plant a late planting of kale for the fall?