Kay-Jay-Bee

I'm not an expert gardener by any means; but I did practiacally grow up on a small Huntingdon Co. farm & spent much of my childhood working in gramma's garden. I tried to grow soome heirloom tomoatoes (old-fashioned Romas, not the GE Romas we have now) last summer. They did really well until they matured, but then the plants died. Some friends of mine say it was because there was a walnut tree near my patch (Apparently, walnut trees tend to be very "territorial", and sometimes "hostile"--- who knew?!?). Personally, I think it had a lot to do with screwy weather.

Did you start your plants this season by planting your seeds directly in your garden, or by first germinating them & planting them in small peat pots, then transplanting? I've always had better luck germinating most types of seeds first.

I started quite a few seedlings under lights this spring;  peppers, roma and brandywine tomatoes, eggplants, collards, and various herbs. Buying the bedding plants is much more expensive. Here's a picture of one of the brandywines just starting to take off.

Timing in gardening is so important, and I felt that I messed up on the best possible timing this year. I got things out too late - which is a pretty typical mistake, especially with modern life, where time just seems to rocket by.

I have lettuce, spinach, and more collard seedlings started in flats right now, to plant in the shady areas for harvest when it starts to cool a bit.

The thing I'm the most pleased with this year is planting about 20 shrubs and dwarf trees for fruit - gooseberries, currants, elderberries, cherries, plums, and more.

It's a bit intimidating how much skill and knowledge I have to learn and relearn. My land is rocky, clayey, and sometimes steep - that makes it even more difficult. I have to nurse each garden bed into health by conditioning and improving the soil.

i came across this website recently, from a post at boingboing - it's actually pretty good. This isn't the people who have been on the corporate news, this is a different house.

http://www.homegrownevolution.com/

Above, proof of the adage that you grow the soil not the plants. On the left a vigorous eggplant growing in high-end potting soil in a self-watering container. On the right a spindly, nitrogen starved specimen of the same variety of eggplant, planted at the same time, in our parkway garden. The container eggplant on the left is larger, has greener leaves and is obviously more healthy. The stunted eggplant on the right is the victim of depleted soil.

There's some irony here. With our book release and press folks coming around to see things we've been doing too much planting and not paying enough attention to soil quality. Here's two options we should have taken to help out that sickly eggplant in the raised bed (other than the expensive route of new potting soil):

1. Sheet Mulch

A concept from the permacultural toolbox, sheet mulching involves making a soil boosting lasagna consisting of a layer of compost or manure, newspaper to hold in moisture, and a thick application of mulch consisting of hay, stable bedding, or other bulk materials. Full instructions here via Agroforestry.net. See Toby Hemenway's introductory permaculture guide Gaia's Garden for a similar sheet mulching technique.

2. Cover Crop

An alternate soil building method would have been to simply give the beds a rest for a season and plant a nutrient-building and soil-busting mix of clovers and legumes. Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply has a nice selection of annual cover crops here. We used their dryland mix to deal with the bad soil in our front yard and we'll re-sow it again this fall. Cover crops send down roots that break up soil, with the legumes used to fix nitrogen--it's a great way to amend a large area with almost no work involved.

Here at Homegrown Evolution we don't believe in tilling soil. Tilling soil disrupts the natural balance of soil microbes and minerals and requires hard physical labor, thus interfering with other important activities such as cocktail hours and general laying about. It's better to let nature do the work for you. Both sheet mulching and cover crops mimic the way forests and chaparral ecosystems take care of themselves. In natural settings, leaves fall and stay in place (no 'mow and blow' guys in the forest!) and weeds do the tilling.

http://www.homegrownevolution.com/2008/06/grow-soil.html

I'm very limited in my gardening skills, so when I finally plant something it really irritates me that it becomes lunch for the local wildlife - but I found rabbit and deer repellent - sold at College Ave Nursery - to be particularly effective (though really stinky to use). Is this the best out there or do others have ideas? It's pretty pricey stuff...

Those pesky deer ravaged my new plantings of jerusalem artichokes - even with fencing around - obviously I need to install better fencing.

Whats in that deer repellent? Ultimately I don't have faith in repellents - but it might be worth a try. Fences are expensive and a lot of work.

I wasn't all that happy with the brandywine tomatoes - back to a good hybrid next year, and maybe try another heirloom brand.

The slugs have been bad this year. Still, gardening was great fun, and very satisfying, and good exercise. Much valuable knowledge learned, and next year I have a ton of new ideas and improvements planned.

some farmer developed it. i swear it's deer and rabbit pee mixed with something else awful like hydrogen sulfide...I'll see if he lists any ingredients when i get a chance to look and let you know

We enjoy growing bamboo because every day you can see the difference but we know it'll be a nightmare for the neighbors if and when the folks who own the acres next door sell them off to some developer... well, as long as they keep it mowed...;)

They did really well until they matured, but then the plants died. Some friends of mine say it was because there was a walnut tree near my patch (Apparently, walnut trees tend to be very "territorial", and sometimes "hostile"--- who knew?!?).

My romas did terribly this year too - and I also suspect a problem with a walnut tree. My place is littered with walnut trees, which is okay, they are nice trees tho the squirrels and the falling walnuts can be a nuisance.

But, I was redeveloping an old plot to plant tomatoes in, and it had a ten year old walnut standing beside it. I had cut that tree down, but the roots were still alive and running under the plot. I think the chemical the walnut uses for self defense did a number on my poor little romas. At a certain point they just started to falter, and dropped much of their fruit. So sad to see.

I'm going to plant a differnet crop there this year, not tomatoes, and give those walnut roots another year to decay underground.

I'm waiting for my crocuses.

peace,

lucretia

"I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends." - Abraham Lincoln