Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘gardening mistakes’

It’s still August.  It’s still hotter than the Devil’s natural habitat and we are way short on rain in Georgia right now, but it’s still called a Fall garden.  I didn’t name it, don’t shoot the messenger.  Harvest, presumably there will be one, will be in the Fall (presumably there will be one of those, too).

Planting is well under way and some kale, corn, beans and squash have sprouted.  I’m very excited about that.  I’m a bit disappointed in the percentage of germination so far, but maybe it’s still early.  I’ll give it another week before I get too whiny.

This week will see beets, turnips, cucumbers and collards go into the earth.  I have been trying to get some onion sets, but no luck.  Finally, someone at Pike Nursery told me that it will be another couple weeks to a month before they even arrive.  I guess I just need to chill.  Chill.  Right.  It’s 96% humidity right now and over 75 degrees.  I know, I was out working in it at 5:30.  Fortunately, there wasn’t much to do this a.m except sweat.

In the, “Oh, crap, it’s a disaster” department; Saturday afternoon, the dogs managed to get into the garden.  That never ends well.  They found my seed boxes full of sprouted cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage and shredded them.  It was not a fair fight.  It was a massacre.  I was not, and am not…happy.  Brittan says, “They’re just dogs.”  I’m wondering if they taste like chicken.  Oh, well, the damage is done.  Tonight I must replant and see what happens.  This time I will surround the seed trays with land mines and razor wire.  Watch, though, it won’t stop the dogs, but I’ll lose a limb.

 

Read Full Post »

Sometimes, not so well.

This has been a tough year here in the burb.  I’m already working on next year’s plan, because this one is all but shot.

Our broccoli, cabbage and brussels sprouts bolted.  That was our fault.  We waited too long to transplant them.  Our winter squash got hit by boreres and our first batch of summer squash did not get pollinated.

Now I find that something has ruined our crop of Roma tomatoes.  This is especially bad, because Roma’s are our most important crop.  We can and freeze gallons and gallons of it.  Brittan makes ketchup and pasta sauce.  I make barbecue sauce.  All of a sudden we have a problem.  And I don’t know what it is.

At first I thought it was birds, but no longer believe so, because our slicing tomatoes are pretty much untouched.  I then considered rabbits, but now believe it is an insect of some kind.  The tomatoes are all half eaten and now the plants are drying up.  I am absolutely devastated this morning.  I refuse to take a ‘nuclear’ option with chemical pesticides.  That violates everything we’re trying to do.

I think my plan is to get, or make, some insecticidal soap.  I will enlist the assistance of my Bride and pick all the partially eaten fruit, then spray with the soap.  I will also take cuttings from healthy plants and start some earthboxes to see if I can get at least a small harvest from that.

Folks, these are the consequences of natural farming.  We don’t rely on pharmaceuticals to keep our crops productive, so occasionally we have problems.  On the other side, we also don’t ingest or sell toxic residue into the human population who consume our products.  On the whole, the trade is worth it.  Today it doesn’t feel like it.

There have been successes, too.  Our potatoes are looking great.  Our asparagus bed is coming along nicely and we would have some nice produce from that next spring.  We’ve enjoyed some nice squash and had an early abundance of bell and jalapeno peppers.  Our experiment with beets went well enough that they will be our primary fall crop.  We did great with green beans and so far, our slicing tomatoes look like they will be fine.  Oh, and we did great with cherry tomatoes.

The biggest success has been our herb bed.  The basil, oregano, thyme and parsley are phenomenal.  We have had fair luck with rosemary, too, though most of it is in the sun room.

The fight goes on.  We feel good about our choices and wins outnumber losses.  It’s just that with these Roma tomatoes, it’s a heartbreaking loss.  It’s like Kentucky losing to Duke.  Totally unacceptable.  Stay tuned, we may yet snatch victory from the jaws of…. whatever is eating my stupid tomatoes!

 

Read Full Post »

From January we have fought an uphill battle to have a decent tomato harvest this year.  Everything that could go wrong has.  If you’re not a regular reader, check the archives.  On Wednesday evening, nature reached deep for a knockout punch.

After supper we drove out to the farm to move the sheep and chickens.  While there, the sky turned black and the lightening flashed, so we hurried through our chores to avoid getting caught in it.  We mostly succeeded.  The heavens opened just in time for me to put the freshly filled feeders into the chicken tractor.  No big deal.  Wrong!

The rain pounded down like hammers.  It was like a monsoon on steroids.  “At least I won’t have to water the veggies,” I remarked as we unloaded the truck back at the house.

When I went out to the garden yesterday morning (Thursday), my heart sank as I saw the destruction wreaked by the previous evening’s storm.  Tomatoes lay all over the ground.  The plants were smashed and broken.  In some cases, the bamboo tripod stakes were snapped in two.  The devastation was awesome! (just not in a good way).

Last night, I took some twine and rescued what I could.  But overall, the crop is done.  Oh, we’ll have enough for our own summer use, but there won’t be anything for a farm stand, that’s for sure.

Over the weekend, we’ll take some cuttings from a few of the plants and try to create a late season crop, but my expectations are not high.  Stuff happens.

As Job said in the Bible, “The Lord gives.  The Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

We lost a big battle.  But we will win the war.  I so vow! :-)

Read Full Post »

We had a flash storm last night.  It brought blessed relief to the ground and to the air temps.  But this morning I discovered the storm had a sting in it’s tail.  When I went out to the garden, I discovered my already feeble tomato plants had been savaged.  I have broken limbs and stems everywhere.  What a mess.  After work this evening I will salvage what I can.  Praise God for beans, sweet potatoes and squash.  They are difficult to damage.

Read Full Post »

Call them learning opportunities, errors in judgment, user error or just plain bad luck.  But we’ve had one heck of a spring. I hardly know where to begin.  If you’ve followed this space, you are no doubt aware of some of our trials, but for the sake of the drive bys, let’s review.

We decided this year we were going all natural.  I prefer that to ‘organic’.  IMO, ‘organic’ has lost its meaning.  I use the term ‘post organic’.  But as usual, I digress.

In early December, we placed our order for seeds.  We went with all open pollinated, heirloom varieties in anticipation of saving non hybrid seeds.  Unfortunately, heirloom varieties are not always strong producers.

In late December we started our seedlings.  The germination rates were terrible (with the exception of the Naga Jolokia Ghost Peppers), and the plants were not vigorous.  To offset this, we planted a whole second set of tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc.  The second set germinated a bit better, but I forgot to unplug the heat mat and they dried out and died.

We nursed the living and transplanted them from their seed trays to grow cups.  We were excited when the day came to start hardening them off and we rolled the racks outside.  We would open the plastic covers in the day and close them at night to prevent frost bite.  One morning, either we forgot to open the cover or it fell back down.  Normally not a problem in March, but we had a sudden heat wave and the seedlings cooked.  We salvaged what we could.  Since we usually over sow, we would still be ok.

Then came the wind.  It was a beautiful March Saturday.  The sun was out, a few clouds dotted the sky and Spring was in the air.  With the onset of early Spring, we also deal with the March winds.  But this day, while gusty, the wind didn’t seem overly worrisome. How naïve.  We returned from a shopping trip to find one of our racks of seedlings blown over with plants, soil and planting cups snarled and scattered everywhere.  We lost quite a bit of stuff that day, but salvaged some.  Our visions of abundance were rapidly becoming hopes for enough.

It’s June now and the garden is in full swing.  Our beans and squash have been prolific.  The cucumbers, melons, peppers and tomatoes are…. Sporadic.  Some plants are doing well and producing well, like our Roma tomatoes.  But our Beefsteak heirlooms are one step short of non existent.  The plants are big enough, in some cases, stunning, but they have very few tomatoes.  One bush has one giant tomato, one.  Another has zero.  The plant is over 5 feet tall, full of blossoms and never a tomato.  A few of the other plants fortunately have a good handful. But they have been vulnerable to Blossom End Rot.  I have fought rot harder this season than ever.

Our ‘early varieties’ look to be producing well enough. Like the Roma’s they appear strong and have not had tendencies to rot.  Small blessings are appreciated.

Until this year, I thought peppers were bullet proof.  With the exception of occasional Blossom End Rot in a bell pepper, we have always been successful growing both hot and sweet peppers.  This year, except for our Ghost Peppers, they look awful.  They are spindly and stumpy and the few fruit are small.  I am truly disappointed in my heirloom adventure. This winter it’s back to the drawing board.

At least those mistakes and accidents weren’t expensive, just disappointing.  Some of the others have been more costly learning experiences.  Take for instance, the dog kennel we bought for extra shelter for the sheep, and the “Poultry Tractor” kit I bought off the internet.  Those cost a pretty penny and are less than state of the art.

The kennel came in pieces with a big roll of chain link, rather than in panels.  Not good.  Once together, it appeared flimsy and ungainly.  In this case, appearances were not deceiving.  It is difficult to move around the pasture.  It was useful at first, because we could shut the sheep in at night and with a tarp over one end and part of the top, it provided shade and shelter from rain.  But earlier this week, when I had to pull it about a hundred yards with the lawn tractor, it pretty much fell apart.  It is now a dinosaur standing in the middle of the pasture with no useful purpose.

To make matters worse, our Friesian ewe was following the move and tried to dart into the kennel while it was moving.  She got her leg tangled and was being partly dragged and crushed.  I was oblivious.  Brittan managed to get my attention.  She was traumatized, I was mortified, but the ewe just jumped up and went to grazing.  Luckily, her leg bent with the joint rather than against it.  Disaster averted.  I went the next day and bought a big shade umbrella to move around with the sheep.  It can be carried by hand, has a sturdy base and won’t risk the animal.

The poultry tractor looked like a good idea.  The reviews of it are good.  The reality is less than we had hoped.  It came as hundreds of pieces of pvc with a roll of chicken wire, a tarp and some hardware.  The instructions were skeletal.  Brittan went to work putting it together while I disked and planted a pasture.  She was not happy.  It was a stressful, time consuming project that produced a monstrous chicken coop that may or may not actually be mobile.  We have our doubts.

One last disaster, planting the pasture.  The project itself went well enough.  I took my lawn tractor, loaded the aerator/spreader with seed and fertilizer and went to work.  I got a couple acres done and was quite satisfied.  The pasture I sowed starts fairly flat and high, then slopes down to a valley and climbs a hill to a large flat area.  The hillsides needed grass in a bad way.

All went well.  The planting, fertilizing followed by a gentle rain.  That was Saturday.  On Sunday and Monday we had old fashioned ‘gulley washers” that washed all the seed off the hillsides and now I’ll have to do it over.  Another hundred dollars quite literally washed away.  I suspect the valley will be quite lush later this summer.

Our experiences have taught us much, cost us more and taught us a few valuable lessons.  They have also made us appreciate what large farmers go through year after year.  We won’t make the same mistakes again.  Why do that when there are thousands of new ones out there we haven’t made yet.

Read Full Post »

Last evening did not go as outlined.  So much for expectations.

On the way home from ‘the day job’, I stopped to pick up some Organic Planting Soil and a couple other items at Lowes.  My intent was to make some planting mix for our new Square Foot Beds.  Then Saturday would be devoted to planting young trees and various berries, with enough energy left over to put in the proposed Rosa Rugosa Hedge (must tell that story another day).

When I got home and went down to light the grill for burger time, Brittan showed me a horror that she had discovered earlier.  Our seedlings were scorched.  It looked like a vegetable killing field.

We bought some 4 shelf plant stands with plastic ‘greenhouse’ covers a while back to make handling our seedlings easier.  Up until yesterday it was.  They take up less space than the folding tables and are easy to roll in and out of the house.  We can zip the cover down so that frost doesn’t get the plants during the hardening off period.  So far, so good.

Then spring came….

Yesterday, it hit 70 degrees here in the burb.  The greenhouses are on a south facing wall.  I didn’t open them before going to work.  Result?  Ovens.

Several plants, especially tomatoes, were gone, as were all our cabbage and cauliflower.  I mean, gone, dead, cooked.  A couple of my beloved Ghost Peppers were ghosts now, too.  But there were others that looked like they might be saved with some intensive care, so B and I went to work carefully repotting tomato plants.  Time will tell whether or not we were successful.  We gave all the plants a good soaking and will probably bring them into the basement this afternoon before the sun gets too high in the sky.

This year, we went to only open pollinated ‘heirloom’ seeds.  That fits our philosophy, but I must admit that we have found all plants to be less hardy than the ‘hybrids’.  We will have to be more diligent in their care.

Today is catch up day.  Much planting and digging in the future.  Feel free to grab a shovel and come on over.

Read Full Post »

Hey, that kind of rhymes.  Lyrical or not, it has been frustrating to watch our dwarf orange tree lose leaves by the bucket full.  So, I did a little research.  The good news, ‘leaf drop’ (what an original name) is rather common.  The bad news, it’s my fault.  I have done everything wrong since we got this little tree.

First, I let it get too dry.  Then, apparently I over watered it.  I also let it get to cold then warmed the roots too fast and too high.

It would appear that so far I have done nothing right by this poor plant.  What a knuckle head.  I think I can save it.  The tree is not dead, so there is still hope.

Read Full Post »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 102 other followers