Archive for Need To Garden & Eat Organically
In The World Of Garden Abundance-Zucchini Is The King!
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Zucchini is kind of a miracle plant. It is sure the king in the world of garden abundance. It seems like one of them could feed a village, or at least a small apartment building.
I’ve only ever need to plant one of them and still end up taking a bunch of them to work to give to people who live in the city. I’ve tried them in a couple of different gardens and the zucchinis always grow like they were trying to take over the garden if not the neighborhood.
Every summer the following joke circulates in Seattle: Why do Seattlers lock their cars in August? So people won’t dump zucchinis in the back seat!
Zucchini is an easy and bountiful crop to grow. In fact, tasty slender zooks turn into oversized baseball bats almost overnight if you are not vigilant.
Check your squash as soon as you notice it blooming. Once it starts producing, it continues steadily throughout the growing season. They normally begin to produce about 50 days after germination.
The more you pick, the more it will produce. For this reason, you may want to consider having only a few plants of each variety, unless you intend to feed the whole neighborhood. Read More→
Butternut Squash: Save Space In Your Garden With Trellis!
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Your little butternut squash seedling can grow into a 15-foot long vine and produce loads of fruit in just a few months. This fact always astonishes me.
The only problem with squash is they are total space hogs. Leave them to their own devices and they will quickly take over your entire garden and smother every vegetable in their path.
But there is a solution. It can be grown upward on a fence or trellis. Considering my lack of sprawling space, I grow everything upwards. The pyramid-shaped trellis for squash is really easy and inexpensive to build It is just two triangular ladders propped against each other.
To build each ladder, hook two 8-foot long 2×2 cedar boards together with a carriage bolt, spread the legs out into a triangle shape, and then screw 1×3 cedar rungs at regular intervals onto the legs. The base of our trellis is about 4-feet wide. I added an extra layer of stability by pounding wooden stakes next to each leg and then tying the legs to the stakes with twine.
Since growing space is at a premium in our garden, I grew spinach underneath the trellis and lettuce and arugula around the sides By mid-summer the squash completely covers the trellis—and shades out the greens—and it looks like a big, leafy pyramid in the garden.
For plants growing on a trellis, you will have to take care to protect the squash as they get larger. The plant won’t be able to support them up in the air on its own. You can use various slings or nets. Pantyhose, old t-shirts, mesh produce bags can all be of help to make a squash hammock. Just tie them to the trellis, not the vines.
If you have beautiful squash plants with plenty of blooms, yet no fruit, you may have a problem with pollination. So many people still use pesticides with no regard to the destruction of beneficial insects that it has reduced the number of honeybees, bumblebees, and other beneficial insects in our gardens.
We had that problem for the first few years. Just terrific butternut squash plants and little or no production. After we brought a couple of hives of honeybees in, the problem ceased. Read More→
Tomato Growing Special: Q & A
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1.Q. Tomato growing is very satisfying especially when you see tomatoes ripen and turn red. But I lose at least half my crop to bird damage. What can prevent this?
A. Bird damage is common in all areas. One control method which works quite well is to take old nylon stockings and cut them into pieces 10 to 12 inches long. Tie a knot in one end of the stocking and slip the open end over the entire cluster of tomatoes.
Secure the end above the tomato cluster with a rubber band or twist-tie. Birds will not be able to peck through the nylon. Slip the stocking off the cluster and harvest the ripe fruit and replace it to protect later-ripening fruit. Also, birds damage fully mature fruit more readily than breaker or pink fruit.
Harvest in breaker or green-wrap stage. Gardeners have tried many ways to reduce bird damage. Scarecrows, aluminum strips, tin foil plates and noisemakers will work until the local birds become accustomed to seeing or hearing them. Fabric covering materials such as Grow-Web and Reemay can also be used as a barrier mechanism.
2.Q. What causes tomato leaves to curl?
A. The exact cause of tomato leaf roll is not fully known. Tomato leaf roll appears about the time of fruit setting. The leaflets of the older leaves on the lower half of the tomato plant roll upward. This gives the leaflets a cupped appearance with sometimes even the margins touching or overlapping.
The overall growth of the tomato plant does not seem to be greatly affected and yields are normal. This condition appears to be most common on staked and pruned plants.
It occurs when excessive rainfall or overwatering keeps the soil too wet for too long. It is also related to intensive sunlight which causes carbohydrates to accumulate in the leaves. Some varieties of tomatoes are characteristically curled.
3.Q. My tomatoes were healthy during the spring and early summer, yet after a recent rain, they wilted and died very rapidly. That put all my tomato growing efforts to zero. Besides, I found a white fungal growth at the base of the plant.
New Potatoes: The New Delicious Treat!
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The earliest or new potatoes of the season are a treat not to be missed. They’re small, round, smooth and delicious. These new potatoes can be harvested now and are absolutely delicious roasted in the oven or on the grill.
They are sweeter and lower in starch than their full grown counterparts, giving them a mild flavor and creamy texture that is a real treat.These potatoes are immature and far from fully developed. Their surface skin is thin and tender. If peeled, this is normally done most easily after boiling.
New potatoes do not store well, and should be harvested close to the time when they will be used. New young potatoes are harvested when peas are ripe or as the potato plants begin to flower.Their thin skin loses moisture faster than that of mature potatoes.
The formation of tubers in potatoes normally begins when plants are six to eight inches tall. Potatoes are a cool weather crop, and best tuber development occurs before weather becomes continuously hot.
New potatoes don’t store, so eat them right away. If you tried the idea of growing potatoes in a garbage can, it’s easy to harvest. Simply reach in for the best-sized spuds and ease them out.
You can harvest a few of your potatoes all summer after they flower.The trick is to make sure the soil is wet, then gently dig under and around your plant.( I use my hands as my soil is very loose when wet.) Read More→
Strawberry Plants-Garden Delicious Treasure. Care After The Harvest Is Over
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The sweet taste of strawberries makes growing strawberry plants very alluring. Eaten fresh off the plant or turned into baked goods and jams, the strawberry fruit has so many uses.
The strawberry harvest may be over, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to forget the strawberry plants. Strawberry plants should be renewed every three years or so, as there production rate slows down.
Strawberries are poor competitors, not only against invading weeds, but neighboring strawberry plants as well.Once fruiting has finished give your strawberry plants a haircut! Post-harvest care is an important part of keeping your patch healthy and productive.
The strawberry plant begins forming the buds that will turn into next year’s flowers within the crown after the harvest has completed. These buds begin forming in late summer and continue forming until early fall.
For strawberries, it is very important to renew the strawberry bed after harvest. This includes cutting all the leaves, narrowing the rows, adding a fertilizer, preferably a 5-10-10, thinning the plants and leaving only the strongest ones, allowing only the strongest two runners from each plant.
Old leaves are of little use to the plants, and may be diseased. Trim off the leaves with a pair of shears, aiming to leave just a few leaves around the crown. Remove old foliage, unwanted runners and spent flower stalks from plants, allowing light and air into the centre of the plant.
New foliage will develop within a few weeks. Remove the straw mulch (if used) and weeds and clear away all debris from the crown. Put old leaves and straw on the compost heap.
Within the row, thin plants to one every 6 to 8 inches, removing the older plants and leaving the younger, more vigorous ones. Giving the strawberry plants a little room to grow reduces the competition for water, light, and nutrients and also improves air circulation.
As a strawberry row becomes dense with new daughter plants or the row width increases to more than 24 inches, fruit quantity and quality begin to suffer.When preparing to narrow the row, choose one side of the row to keep, rather than the center. The following year, choose the opposite side, then alternate back and forth in succeeding years.
This method requires a small amount of extra space on each side of the strawberry row, but provides an annual supply of newer, more productive plants. Read More→
