Busy Busy

The sun was shining and a nice cool breeze was blowing... the perfect day for some heavy duty yard work.  I didn't get as far I'd hoped, but I got farther than I expected thanks to the assistance of my kids.  Turns out little boys like to dig in the dirt! Who'da thunk?

We got started edging the lawn (and ripping out the bermuda grass that had spread beyond the confines of the lawn), we didn't get it finished though, because back-breaking labor has its limits.  But things are starting to look better out there, and it's a chore I've been putting off for years.  A few tons of bark out front and things will be looking great!

We also got rid of some old furniture that was starting to cramp our style, and our house.  Then my daughter and I made a run to Home Depot to get more bark for the garden side of the house.  Everything back there is still a huge mess but with the bark in hand it won't take much to get it back into shape. 

Now it's time for a good long soak, a hearty dinner, and maybe a handful of painkillers.  It is supposed to be fairly nice the rest of the week and if my back will cooperate we'll be digging up another bed and mixing some Mel's Mix soil soon.

Spring is FINALLY here!
Happy Easter/Ostara everyone!

Mother Nature's Got Me Singin' the Blues

I'm singin the pouring down rain blues.  It was supposed to be sunny next Monday and Tuesday, but after checking the forecast this morning I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for the sun.  My garden beds are so wet there are puddles on top of them, luckily they drain well and one good warm day will leave them workable. 

Meanwhile, I ordered some beneficial nematodes that should arrive soon.  I figured the nematodes couldn't hurt, and I have some concerns regarding the spotted cucumber beetles I saw last summer.  If they laid eggs in my soil I'd better have some defenses in place; I don't really have enough room for good crop rotation so have to use other options to control problems.

I also took some advice on my seedlings and spritzed them with 1/2 strength fish emulsion to give them a boost, one week later it seems to be paying off since they are working on putting out new leaves and aren't showing signs of nutrient shortage.  I ran a quick soil test too, to see where things are in this third year of gardening in the same soil.  I usually add some compost during the growing season to keep the plants happy, but this is the first time I've actually tested the soil to see how it's holding up.  Turns out that my soil is low on Nitrogen and Phosphorus, but a little high in Potassium. 

Nitrogen is essential to good stem and leaf growth; phosphorus is for root, seed, flower, fruit growth; and potassium is for root growth and overall plant health.  So my soil is all set to keep plants alive, but they may not grow well, or fruit/flower/seed well.  From what I can find, it looks as though my best bets for keeping things growing well are a starter of fish emulsion to get them growing followed by compost added to the beds, and fish and/or kelp meal to add micronutrients and more phosphorus.  I really aught to just dish out the cash for a professional soil test to find out what levels of micronutrients and microbes my garden has.  I know it has more than its fair share of slugs, and it's no wonder with all of this rain.

Whatever the case, I am getting more and more disappointed by the weather and feel like I'm falling way behind on things.  Luckily I do have seedlings that are doing great and can stay inside longer if needed, it's worth the late start to protect them against powdery mildew (the scourge of too early plantings).  I just need them out of the house before they get too big!

Cherry Tree Achieved, And Other News

With two whole rain-free days over 50 degrees, I have made the most of the nice weather.  Yesterday my daughter and I finished up weeding the beds, cleaned out the strawberry bed, laid down another bag of bark mulch, and trimmed the candytuft and dead daylily leaves from last summer.

Cleaned up strawberry bed, only the strong were left behind. Still looks pretty messy.

One of the reasons I didn't join in the garden frenzy of getting things planted this weekend, like so many other gardeners, was that my beds are still completely shaded by the fence.

A few more weeks and the front edge of the beds will finally see some sun.

More importantly, my dwarf Bing cherry tree finally got put in the ground.  My husband was kind enough to do all the hard work of raking off the top layer of lava rock and digging the hole.  Then we poured in a small pile of compost, spread the roots around the pile, and held the tree in place while filling the hole in around it.  My fingers are crossed and I'm hoping it will do well. 

View of the cherry from the road.  Not much of a view yet.

Cherry tree, between the new sprouts of the daylilies.

The next thing on my list of garden to-do items is planting the camellia.  If I don't collapse in agony after that, it's back to work on the blackberries.  I might just be able to get ahead of them before they really start growing. 

Tools are all ready for the camellia.

Camellia all ready to be planted. Only one not ready is me!

Hope everyone's out there enjoying some sunshine!

Potato Culture

There is a wealth of information out there about potatoes, the Wikipedia entry alone is full of potato facts.  In fact, reading up on them has given me a whole new appreciation of french fries.  It's kind of amazing to think that the potato we eat today is the descendant of potatoes first cultivated between 7 and 10 thousand years ago in Peru and Bolivia.  Even more amazing is that there are over 5000 varieties of potato today 99% of which were developed from a subspecies that grew in south central Chile.  That's quite a history.  The Spanish brought the potato home with them after their conquest of South America.  From Spain and other ports of Europe the potato spread across the world and today it is eaten in nearly every nation on the planet. 

One of the reasons for its popularity is that the potato is well-adapted to most climates; it can also be grown in a backyard garden in quantities adequate to provide for a family's sustenance; it grows easily; and is much less expensive than grain crops.  The potato has been a crop to grow at home for centuries, since potatoes have particular storage requirements they didn't keep as well as cereal grains and therefore were less market-worthy and more likely to be found in individual gardens.  This is part of what led to the Irish Potato Famine, the poor Irish tenant farmers fed their families on milk and the potatoes they grew on their small allocated plots.  Nearly all of the potatoes grown in Ireland at that time were a variety known for large harvests, which made sense when you were short on growing space and had a family to feed, but not at all resistant to late blight.  A particularly nasty year led to rampant infections of late blight taking out nearly one half of the potato crop in Ireland; and leading to the deaths of nearly a million Irish, and the emigration of more than a million others, effectively reducing the population by 20-25%.

Potato plants

Why mention the Irish Potato Famine in a blog post about potato gardening? Yeah, it is a little morbid.  But it's an important example of the folly of dependance on a single cultivar, or a single staple crop even.  Genetic diversity in food crops is something to be coveted, having a multitude of available cultivars offers people protection in the event of another devastating loss like the Potato Famine.  With that in mind, if you plan to grow potatoes, make an effort to try some lesser known varieties and get familiar with potatoes all over again.  One of the major reasons Russet potatoes are so common in grocery stores is not their flavor, or nutrition, or ease of production.  Can you guess why the Russet is found everywhere?  Because it can be shipped everywhere.  Russet potatoes are one of the longest-storing varieties, they can be bounced around, stored for months, and are none the worse for wear.  I am looking forward to getting familiar with my German Butterball potatoes, and learning what traits they have to offer other than shipping stability.

I recommend doing further reading on Wikipedia to learn more about the history of this plant, but I think I should move on to growing information at this point.

Potato plant in planting bag

Potatoes are grown from "seed potato" which is not a seed at all, it's a potato.  The "eyes" on a potato sprout and grow into a new plant.  You don't even need whole potatoes for this, just chop them into chunks with at least one eye on each.  Bury them in rich soil about 6-8" deep.  Keep them well-watered, with good drainage to avoid overwatering. 

Potato growth happens in 5 phases: first sprouts grow from the seed potatoes and roots begin to grow as well.  The second phase involves photosynthesis as the plant's leaves grow.  Phase 3: stolons develop from lower leaf axils on the stem and grow downwards into the ground and on these stolons new tubers develop.  Often, this phase is also when flowering occurs.  Tubers will stop forming when the temperature hits 80 degrees, this is why potatoes are considered cool weather crops.  The next phase involves the tubers growing larger.  The final phase involves the leaves and stems dying back, the skins of the tubers hardening, and the tuber sugars converting to starches.  You can harvest at this time, or during the fourth phase you can hand-harvest "new" potatoes while leaving the plant to continue growing more.

An important thing to remember about potatoes is that they are from the nightshade family and do contain small amounts of the toxin solanine.  To ensure that you don't become sick from your potatoes, never eat green potatoes.  Tubers will turn green when exposed to light; in the garden you can prevent this by keeping tubers that show above ground covered with dirt or a heavy mulch; once harvested store potatoes in a brown paper bag to reduce light exposure.  Also, after flowering the potato plant may develop fruits on it, these are toxic and should not be eaten.  For the home garden it may be best to pick all of the potato flowers when they fade to prevent accidental ingestion of the fruits by children or visitors.  Potatoes are generally cured in order to allow for skin-set, and increase storage capability.  Similar to winter squashes curing is done by setting them out in a warm, almost hot! place for several days.

Potato flowers

Potatoes make a very pretty flower and could be interplanted with annual or perennial flowers easily, without it being obvious that they are food plants.

I hope this has been as helpful to you as it has to me, and look forward to getting my potatoes started and seeing how well they do. 

Save Your Soil!

One of the great things about organic gardening is that it costs so much less.  You don't need to buy expensive pesticides, herbicides, and soil amendments.  But that doesn't mean you don't need to amend your soil!

My own garden is managed pretty intensively, I try to keep it growing something as often as possible when there is sun available.  Because of this I have to be very careful about rotation, adding nutrients, and managing pests.  Here are some tips to help keep your soil healthy.

Follow with Fallow: If you have the space to let beds lay fallow for a year or two, by all means do so.  Since I'm working with so few square feet I don't have the luxury of letting it lie fallow.  Instead I make a point of rotating my veggies from bed to bed each year.  Certain ones have to stay in place, such as the pumpkins, but I can skip a year of pumpkin growing if needed to manage pest problems.

Rotate Plantings:  To keep your garden soil healthy and productive you should always move plant families from one space to another each year.  Not just individual plants, but plant families!  If you grew broccoli in a space one year, don't follow it with cabbage the next, instead try to follow it with a plant from a completely different family such as onions, carrots, or tomatoes.  Soil dwelling pests that were attracted to the broccoli initially may have laid their eggs in the soil, when they hatch they will be sorely disappointed to find there is no broccoli (or anything similar) there anymore. Similarly molds and diseases that developed around tomatoes will have no nearby victims if that space is followed with a planting of garlic, and your garden won't be as likely to suffer from them.  In addition, following fruit-bearing plants like peppers and tomatoes with root- or leaf- crops can keep your soil going longer without amendment.  Fruit crops use up a lot of nutrition, it requires much more effort to grow a plant, flower it, and ripen the fruits than it does to grow just the leaves, or the leaves and roots.  This can give your soil the break it needs between fruit crop plantings.

I Plead the 5th:  There are 5 primary organic practices to amend your soil, all of which add organic matter and nutrition to it.  Bio mulch of some type; fallen leaves, hay, etc.  Use these to mulch your summer garden to keep the ground moist.  After the crops are gone leave the mulch on the beds to rot then dig it into the soil in late winter or early spring.  Breaking down this mulch will use a lot of the nitrogen from your soil, but once it is decomposed the nitrogen levels will return to normal, so be sure to give the soil bacteria a couple months between digging it in and planting new veggies.  Hay costs between $3 and $6 per bale from farms, and can generally be found by checking Craigslist or asking at a local farm in the spring.  Growing a cover crop over the winter season such as oats or winter wheat also keeps your soil protected from erosion over the winter and then is turned over into the soil just like a mulch would be.  Adding compost is amendment number three.  The very best compost is made of a blend of leaves, grasses (lawn cuttings or hay), fruits or veggies that were not eaten, and plant waste from the kitchen.  For some people composting is an art form, I am not one of them.  My compost pile is not likely the most nutritious in the area, but it does the job.  Jack-o-lanterns, pulled out plants, peels, stems, cores, rotting hay bales, raked up leaves, all of these things go into my compost pile.  Why bother with a compost pile?  Because nature has a cycle.  Things grow from nutrients in the soil, they feed us, they die, they are decomposed and the nutrients are returned to the soil.  Why would you want to screw that up?  It's a perfect cycle in which you can dispose of all the kitchen waste from your harvests, then use it a few months later to feed your new plants.  We'll go in depth on composting at another time though.  The last two items on the organic 5 amendment list are tea and nutrient specifics.  Tea, or compost tea in this case, is nothing more than water that has had a "tea bag" of compost sitting in it for a short time.  The nutrients in the compost are leached out into the water making a muddy brown "tea" that can be spritzed directly onto plants or poured into the soil to add a boost of nutrition.  If a plant is struggling to survive an insect infestation, or you are transplanting a new plant a splash of tea can really give them a boost.  Nutrient specifics are a little more challenging, these are particular items that add a specific nutrient to your soil or compost.  Before worrying about these you should do soil testing to see if your soil is already in good shape.  Some examples of nutrient specific amendments are listed below.

N-P-K, often listed on fertilizer bags stands for Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium; each of which aids different types of plant growth.
The macro nutrients NPK; generally a well balanced compost will supply all of these without any additions.

Nitrogen (N) - legumes (beans, peas), cow and poultry manures well-rotted only.
Phosphorus (P) - banana peels, crab shells, shrimp peelings, most grains and nuts, and guano
Potassium (potash, K) - fruit skins, esp. banana peels.

 Micro nutrients, these can be more challenging to get in compost and commercial fertilizers don't generally contain them, which means an organic garden is more likely to be healthier!

Calcium (Ca) - eggshells, dolomitic lime
Magnesium (Mg) - manures, compost, dolomitic lime, and epsom salts.
Iron, Manganese, Zinc, Copper and Cobalt (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Co) - kelp in its many forms; meal, powder, liquid.


pH amendments are used to adjust the soil acidity, they either sweeten or acidify soils.  Generally a good organic matter rich soil will not need these but certain plants prefer acidic soils, and some areas naturally have more acid soils and need to be sweetened.

Sweeteners - dolomitic lime, wood ashes.
Acidifiers - coffee grounds, vinegar, compost and manure.

While all of these things work to improve soils you may choose between them based on your own preferences; for example I prefer not to buy soil improvements if possible so would be more likely to use wood ash to sweeten soil rather than buying dolomitic lime.  Also some soil amendments sold at stores like blood meal, bone meal, and fish emulsion are by-products from other industries.  Personally I have no problem with using by-products in my soil; but I don't trust that the animals used to make the by-products were in good health and don't contain chemicals that could leach into my soil, so I stick with plant by-products as much as possible.  I also try to make sure they come from varied sources, using one plant's compost (i.e. mushroom compost) could leave your soil short on nutrients that particular plant doesn't use as much.

Remember to test your soil before adding amendments to it, except maybe for compost.  Compost is just all around good, and won't throw your soil out of balance.