gardening – Page 2 – Random Thoughts

Fending Off Garden Pests

If you are like me, there are two main battles that I fight in growing a vegetable garden: weather and pests.

Weather, we cannot do much about. We take our best guess as to when that last frost will sneak in, and have empty containers and straw on hand to use as protection in case we’re wrong. We can water when it’s dry, use raised beds if it’s too wet, have sulfur, milk and Neem oil on hand to ward off blight and fungus. But other than growing in the controlled environment of a greenhouse, we cannot control the weather: we just deal with it.

fence boxes Pests, we have a little more control over. How much control depends on how far we are willing to go. If we’re willing to saturate our food in poisons, we can achieve a high degree of efficiency against insects. I, for one, prefer to avoid poisons that can have a deleterious effect on my family and me. Fortunately, there are other ways.

Here are a few of the things I do in my garden to help ward off insects and other pests. Read More…

Planting Time: Creating Environments

Spring has sprung, the rains have come, and now it’s time to get seed in the ground. But before planting those precious seeds into the warming earth, we want to be sure we have prepared for them a safe and healthy home.

One of the advantages of using a raised bed garden is that you can individually tailor the soil in each box to the needs of the plants you will put there. A pH meter or test kit is a handy tool to have. Sulfur and lime can be used to adjust pH up or down as needed. Compost adds organic matter and nutrients. Sand increases drainage; vermiculite retains the water. Straw, wood chips, newspaper, cardboard, and grass clippings can all be used as a mulch to retain moisture and deter weeds.

In addition to the soil they grow in, some plants do better with some structure to their lives.

Here I’ve put a trellis panel in the center of a garden box. In the far front is the last of my winter spinach; a new crop has been seeded and will soon be taking the place of the current plants as they lose their vitality. Just in front of the trellis I’m planting cucumbers. Behind the trellis is lettuce. Right now the sun shines through the trellis to encourage the lettuce to grow in our cool spring days. As spring turns to the heat of summer, cucumber vines will climb up the trellis and provide shade for the lettuce and extend its growing season into the summer.

Setting Up the Garden for Spring

March is here. My buddy, Mike, who lives in Alabama, is already planting in his garden. Here in Tennessee, I’ve been spending time (now that the snow has melted off) digging out weeds and inventorying my supplies in preparation of setting up the garden for another summer.

Normally, at this time of year, I’d be closing down last year’s winter garden so I’d have space to get the early crops in for spring. But the last couple of years have been particularly cold and snowy and little has survived in my winter gardens.

setting up the garden

This year I have a row of spinach that went dormant but is now perking up, and I see a few spikes of garlic leaves poking up through the straw at long last. My rosemary, oregano and thyme look to have survived as well. Everything else was killed. I’ll look to the bright side and say, “Setting up for spring will be easier.”

Let me tell you about the things I do in setting up the garden, as far as soil preparation, seed and equipment inventory, and lay-out planning. Read more…

Fine as Frog Hair

Here in the South, we have a saying that can be used in response to the small-talk prompt of “How are you?” when you are feeling especially good (or don’t really want to engage in small talk); it goes, “Fine as frog hair .” It’s kind of cute and makes you think a little. Just how fine IS frog hair I wonder?

frog hair I was in the garden watering. When I got to the strawberry bed, there was considerable movement in the leaves in one corner. I was not surprised by that: I often flush a toad from these beds. They are welcomed visitors because they eat the bugs and slugs that crawl around in the boxes. Usually they are pretty small: the size of a golf ball, or so. This was a much bigger toad. I could see flashes of the brown color through the leaves.

Then those flashes started moving in different directions. Several, much bigger toads.

Then one of them hopped out of the box and into the path through the berry house. It was HAIRY! Several big, hairy toads! Nah … can’t BE! I looked again. Continue reading “Fine as Frog Hair”

Gone Mater Hunting

Blondie n me got up early and went mater hunting this morning. We knowed of a spot where they hang out. We got where we figured they’d be and sure enough: a whole bunch of ‘em just baskin’ in the sun an bein’ lazy.

We crept into the place real quiet like. It was still cool enough they weren’t stirring yet. Maters can be mean, sos ya gotta sneak up on em from down-wind. We’d creep up and reach out slow and easy, then – SNATCH! We’d whip one away quick, break its neck and stuff it in the bag.

Most never knew what hit ‘em, a few though; they put up a tussle. An’ one: I thought that one had me, but Blondie grabbed hold of my pant leg and pulled me back safe.

When we got a bag full we totted ‘em on home. There I fixed up a big pot of boilin water to dunk ‘em in for a short spell: that loosens their hide ya know, so yas don’t waste so much meat gittin it off’n em. We dunked ‘em in the boilin’ water then into cold water, then we could skin ‘em out easy.

Then we cut out their heart: tain’t no good to no one anyhow. An’ split open their belly to scoop out their goopy guts. They ain’t no good neither.

That left us with a good carcass of meat that we chunked up an’ put on ice. We’ll cook all that up tomorrow. We’ll make some mater soup, then can up the rest to use fer soup or stew, or it can be cooked down and used in lots of different ways.

Yessir, mater meat is good eatin’ – an thar ain’t much more fun than a day mater hunting.

Battling the Evil Flea Beetle

The adult flea beetle is a tiny (1/10 inch long) black, brown or bronze beetle that can jump like a flea when you disturb it. You’ll know it’s around when you see the small, round “pinholes” they chew through leaves. They will attack most vegetables, flowers and weeds but are particularly fond of brassicas (cabbage family), potatoes, spinach, radishes and eggplant.

Flea Beetle

Flea Beetle Life Cycle

Flea beetles are found throughout North America. The larvae live in the soil and are thin, white, legless grubs with brown heads that feed on plant roots. Adult Flea Beetles emerge from the soil in spring to feed and lay eggs on the roots of plants. The adults die out by early July. Their eggs hatch in about a week. The larvae feed for 2 to 3 weeks then pupate in the soil. The next generation of adults emerges in 2 to 3 weeks. These voracious pests produce two to four generations per year before the final generation of adults settles down for overwintering.

These beetles are most damaging in early spring when an infestation can kill seedlings. As plants mature they are better able to survive and outgrow the damage, unless the beetles carried a plant virus.

Battling the Enemy

Prevention is often the best defense. The larvae overwinter in soil and can be destroyed with regular hoeing and cultivating. Be sure to remove all debris from previous crops and keep the area weed free. Weeds are an important early season food for flea beetle larvae. Without cover and food, the larva will starve.

Fences and Hasenpfeffer

Today’s adventure deals with the garden project once again. Helpful hints received from many of you (thank you very much) included advice for dealing with produce munching vermin. I am collecting hair from our weekly haircuts for use in nylon stocking bags that will be hung on corner posts of the garden to ward off rabbits. We don’t have as many rabbits as we did a few years ago because Dolly Dawg developed a taste for hasenpfeffer on the hoof… or paw… and while it was heart rending to know she was devouring those cute little bunnies, the damage being done to our flower beds has been dramatically reduced. Perhaps fear of the “horrible, bunny eating beast of 1198” has spread for I have not seen hide nor hare of one for quite some time. But, just to be safe, I plan to hang enough hair bags to drive them out of this end of the county!

Maybe human hair bags will also help ward off raccoons, possums, and squirrels.

Oddly enough, the dogs don’t seem the least bit interested in squirrels. Personally, I think the squirrels bought them off by telling them where the road kill is before any other neighborhood dogs can get to it. They love possum though, live or flat. And they like coon as well, but rarely get any except when one get s hit by a car. They’re pretty ferocious when cornered, and not as stupid as possums. Possums will fall for anything! Continue reading “Fences and Hasenpfeffer”

April Fooling

In the 12 years I have lived here in East Tennessee, the latest snow or frost that we have had was April 2. That was the year we were trying to put in a house for my mom on the lower end of our property, and the snow and mud stopped construction for a few days. April Fool!

2014 sets a new record (at least in my personal experience) with snow and a frost on Tuesday night, April 15. Much of my garden is in, the fruit trees have blossomed, most of Marie’s flowers are up … this was not a welcomed gag.

It rained Monday night, but the temperatures had been up in the 60s and 70s for the past week. So the soil was warm and the rain started out warm. The rain continued on Tuesday, but the temperature was falling off, Monday’s low temperature of 52° F would be Tuesday’s high, heading for a predicted overnight low of 26° F. Rain turned to sleet then to snow, but with no accumulation.

Early in the evening the precipitation stopped. Temps were in the mid 30s now. We scrambled around to cover as much of what we could cover to protect it from the coming frost.

Winding Down Winter

Chipping Brush 140308 Over the weekend I harvested more of our winter turnips and some green onions. These bunching onions don’t produce bulbs, just the greens which I snip off for use in cooking as we need them. They survived the winter well. My turnips and spinach did well also. Most everything else did not survive the bitter cold snap (temps down to minus 1°).

Marie used the turnips and some of the onions this evening in a stir-fry dish that used cubed ham, diced turnips (pre boiled), some coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage, and carrots) and sliced apple all cooked together. Then the chopped green onion was sprinkled over the top at serving time. She served that with cheddar cheese biscuits. It was quite delicious!

We’ve enjoyed warm days (high 60s) for the past several days so I’ve gotten out into the yard and garden to get started preparing for planting the summer garden.

I use raised bed garden boxes because of the steep slope of our yard. Crop rotation requires some reconfiguring these boxes as I move crops around. Potatoes need deep soil, so I add a riser for added depth. Planting potatoes in a different box each year means removing a lot of the soil from last year’s box and moving the riser to the potato box for this year. I can’t use the soil I removed (that would defeat rotation) so I must move the soil from a non-nightshade box last year to the potato box and put the excess potato soil from last year into the now empty non-nightshade box. It’s sort of like a big slider puzzle. Fortunately I’ve always been really good at slider puzzles!