Mumsy's Romantic Garden Advice

[armorfirelady]

Quote: Guess I need to go dig that one up then since I buried it in the garden after I dug it up. I also found one that looked mashed in the ground but it was smaller. I will try & find that one as well. I assume by you saying not to plant them where I had tomatoes this year that the tomato blight affects the potatoes as well?

Well it might be from it being to dry. I water the veggie garden but the last couple weeks its been hard to get under the pumpkin leaves. And we havent had rain in probably 6 weeks. We have had short rain showers but not enough to water the plants. I was wondering if the giant earthworms were working their ways thru the potatoes?

I am going to have a hard time planting potatoes where there were no tomatoes this year. The self seed tomatoes came up next to the potatoes. and the new part of the garden has the tomatoes. Maybe if I stick with growing them in baskets I will have some luck since they wont be directly in the ground

Several years ago I had this also. I haven't planted potato's since, until this year. I'll see how it goes. It certainly is discouraging.

I hope you have better luck than me.

 

[midnightroo]

Welcome punk! Lots of great information here.

I guess I will be hunting for the same type of potato that also replanted thinking it was just one that got eaten by an insect. Never realized blight did that to the potatoes. I do have a hard time also trying to find a spot where tomatoes and potaoes weren't planted the previous year.

Mumsy. Sorry about your insect bit. I used to think L got bad reactions to bug bites until I started hearing stories similar to yours. Glad the Epsom salts helped. I have this http://www.amazon.com/Aztec-Secret-Indian-Healing-Cleansing/dp/B0014P8L9W. And it might help you in the future if you wish to try it. I really do think it helps. In fact when I was thinking about it for you I thought I might give it a try tonight on hens bumble foot. She's getting around fine, but I would love to see it finally go away. Anyhow, it comes in a dry form and I just mix a small amount and it makes a lot so it lasts a long time.

L has a play date all day today so I will be out and in with them all day getting on the computer when I can. I was really hoping the weather would be nicer so I could do more gardening. I hate to complain, but high 60's in August is really rare for us and doesn't help the already hobbling tomatoes ripen very well.

 

[MumsyII]

Wonderful thread! This is my favorite type of planting. I like it wild yet cared for, dreamed not planned, and you have done a stunning job doing just that. There is so much here to soak up and learn from. I loved learning about cuttings and rooting hormones.

I'm trying to do something similar on a newly purchased two acres, but with mostly edible plants. There is a soldier line of crepe myrtles lining the drive. I know people in these parts think I'm a monster for wanting them dispersed, but I can't stand that look when it is on my own land. I think it looks nice elsewhere, but definitely is not for me!

Hello punk-a-doodle.

Welcome to the conversation! Yep. You get it! 'Dreamed not planned." What a wonderful description.

I had to look up Crepe Myrtle.

Wow! I want one. There are not many trees that color that bloom in summer here. I would think it would be stunning as a center piece or mixed into a shrubbery. It is a knock out specimen tree but I can totally understand why you would object to a soldier planting of them. People often do that with brilliant Rhododendrons here. Mass plantings of all the same color. Blows you away when it's all in bloom at the same time and then a boring mass of sameness the rest of the year. When I say boring I mean what's to understand about a planting of sameness? Where is the diversity for interest the rest of the year or wildlife habitat? You could say that plantings like this are sterile.

If you want to change it up, do it in winter when the trees are dormant. Take out a few here and there. Plant the bare spots with something else. In time it will fill in and folks won't notice what's missing.

 

[MumsyII]

Guess I need to go dig that one up then since I buried it in the garden after I dug it up. I also found one that looked mashed in the ground but it was smaller. I will try & find that one as well. I assume by you saying not to plant them where I had tomatoes this year that the tomato blight affects the potatoes as well?


Yes. It is a fungus like organism. Some literature suggests waiting four years to plant in the same place as another has grown before.

It is suggested that diseased vines and tubers be buried deeply or burned.

Well it might be from it being to dry. I water the veggie garden but the last couple weeks its been hard to get under the pumpkin leaves. And we havent had rain in probably 6 weeks. We have had short rain showers but not enough to water the plants. I was wondering if the giant earthworms were working their ways thru the potatoes?


It's likely a small spot of decay has allowed the Potato bug to eat into the flesh. Did you see any when you dug them up? Slugs also will chew on them if they are soft.

I am going to have a hard time planting potatoes where there were no tomatoes this year. The self seed tomatoes came up next to the potatoes. and the new part of the garden has the tomatoes. Maybe if I stick with growing them in baskets I will have some luck since they wont be directly in the ground


You can try growing early developing varieties and hill them up. Harvest them while small. Blight tends to attack in later summer.

I hope you have better luck than me.

 

[Sally8]

Last night I did some research on those split potatoes and read a lot about fungus, a few articles mentioned the soil being poor then enriched suddenly another mentioned rapid growing. I tried to stick with Cornell's article here in New York. Wish my grandparents were still alive. Going to the hospital to spend the day with Mom. Maybe she's seen this and can remember.

Made the decision last night to sell 4 of my turkeys and a doz or so of the chickens (unless I can butcher them first). Chicken math got out of hand this year and I have little time, it seems. Other than watching my grand daughters, I haven't worked in over 2 weeks. You know, priorities. sue

 

[BlueMouse]

Love your girls costumes! My mother is a seamstress, and Igrew up sewing things. Fell in love with costuming and still love it. That's the best thing about having a little girl is all the historical knock off dresses I can make for her She'll be too old to dress like that all the time soon, but then old enough to play dress up so it will be a fine trade off.

Ugh to potato blight. I will have to remember to put my potatoes NOT where my tomatoes were this year. Everything is growing so poorly this year. It's been in the high sixties and low seventies for weeks, lows in the 40's at night, and everything except the Kale and lettuces has just stalled. My cucumber vines are only five inches tall. Potatoes look good, and so does the Kale. beans are flowering like crazy but not setting any fruit yet. I have blossom end rot in my zucchini so I'm out to spray with water soluable calcium today. Next year I will have eggshells saved up to plant under squashes and tomatoes. Just a bad year for the garden all together. Kind of depressing since I had high hopes.

 

[MumsyII]

I often have family and friends remark to me how hard it must be to grow a vegetable garden where I live. We have no control over the weather or what Mother nature throws our way in way of disease and pests. Add to that the cost of seeds and starts. The time involved to get it started and then the never ending up keep. I have learned over my life time that it's not ever truly easy to grow your own. But then raising poultry or livestock for the table has it's many challenges as well.

I do not have a large space to work with as you that have followed this thread have learned. I'm also not a young woman. I don't grow for fun. The garden must produce something to eat, freeze, can, dry, or give away to my children and neighbors.

I've shared my secrets here. Raised soil warms up faster in Spring and drains perfectly. Raised beds do not compact if they are kept full of decomposing litter, compost, and other organic matter. No gas powered machinery is needed to cultivate raised beds. A simple garden fork will work. Raised beds allow easy crop rotation. Raised beds allow you to intensively use the same space to rotate crops in the same growing season.

I live in the Pacific North West. My growing season is very short. More rain here than many parts of the country. I've learned how to stretch my season and outsmart many pests and diseases by using methods that thwart them. Some years I win. Some years the pests win.

I do not fertilize. I do not spray anything. I use the above mentioned tricks and methods.

I took these images an hour ago. This is not boasting. It's meant to educate and drive home how organic gardening using my methods works with very little hard effort.



The garden in August seen standing under the pear tree.

Heritage sweet green peppers.


Sweet Banana peppers.


I never thought pumpkins would turn out to be a weed but I planted three little starts in three places in back of the tomato tent. They are everywhere. Set fruit on every blossum!

There is no where to step without tripping on pumpkins!


A vine went over the top of the tomato hoop tent.


I can see two pumpkins growing on top of the tent up near the sunflower!


The pumpkin vine in the foreground of this image originated from a plant behind the hoop tent! You can't see my raspberry patch any more. Pumpkins pumpkins, pumpkins. I only planted one variety. Cinderella is my favorite. It's a heritage and has been grown for centuries. Now I now why!

 

[MumsyII]

The 'bones' of the Potager garden. These were the first beds. My husband used cheap cedar fence boards and 2"x4". He drove the stakes into the soil the first few beds. Then we decided to just build them ontop of the soil so we could easily move them if we so chose.


The first year. Picture taken early summer 2012. My husband mixing the magic formula in the orchard. We haven't fenced the Potager garden yet.


Mixing the soil for the boxes is the hardest work. We don't fill them with this. We top dress the compost and DL that we fill 2/3 full first.


One of those first boxes we built now filled with three varieties of heritage pole beans. Garlic and onions are tucked in between the Marigolds and Zinnias. I love flowers and usually sneak them in when I can. The beans are growing over a bent hog panel. The same ones I use for my hoop coop and tomato tent. I can't keep up with the beans. I pick them for dinner and freeze them. They are growing out of my reach. I need a ladder.

Gold of Bacau snap bean is a heritage variety.

 

[MumsyII]

The pumpkin makes it nearly impossible to get inside the tomato hoop house. Husband was kind enough to blaze a trail from behind to pick cherry tomatoes. Brandywine heritage is in there somewhere and I could see lots of green ones developing. No blight on my tomatoes this year under plastic. They could still get it but last year at this time all my plants died. I grow Scarlet Starlet marigolds from seed. Love that red.


Sweet as candy when ripe. There has been a lot of hype about red plastic over the roots and soil of tomatoes. A scientific study proves it produces heavier tomato crops. I don't know about that but I saved all the red bags that my steer manure came in and weighed it down over my plants. Didn't hurt anything and kept weeds out.


I love cucumbers fresh from the garden. Grew many varieties this year. A nice one for slicing is called Suyo.


Little critters are munching the cabbage. These heads are huge. Half of one gives us slaw for a week. Enough for the little critters and more than enough for us. I pick off the holey leaves and toss them to the chickens. They love them.

I've shared a lot of the vegetable garden on this thread today. Time I got off my bum and went out to pick beans. *sheesh* After I scramble over some pumpkins!

 

[Jessica Lynn]

Mass, I will have to try adding the chickens, though they are scared of the hose. Maybe they can come over after I have throughly watered the spot. This week is rainy, but I plan on spraying neem on everything this weekend to try and get a handle on a few gardening issues, one being the stink bug.

My neighbor gave me a hydrangea that the branch got too long and rooted itself since it touched the ground.

Mumsy is there anything you can't do? Gardener, chicken keeper, seamstress, wasp killer, just a jack of all trades.




A couple of photos that I thought might work for a tall border from the hotel we stayed at this past weekend. Don't know the name of them though the heart shaped tree and the evergreen I would like to know if anyone can Id them.

The middle one looks like a lot like a hedge my mother had. She ordered it many years ago from Michigan Bulb or Gurneys if I recall. They called it a "chinese evergreen hedge". Very fast growing shrub which can be cut back to make a hedge. I'm not sure if this is the same plant. But it looks very much like the ones she had.