Organic Gardening

[Guest guest]

Howdy Kathleen,

 

> Hey Butch

> You have a major flaw in your garden. I really hate to point it out

> to you, but as no one else has had the gumption, I'll do it for

> them. You are seriously lacking in WEEDS!!! Where the heck are the

> WEEDS???

 

They are in there along with a lotta Kentucky Fescue and White Clover

and I say the more the merrier. We just don't like'em being in there

alive .. need'em to be dead.

 

> Mine always had a ton of them. That's the one part of gardening I

> hated.

 

All plants are gonna grow and they don't care if we like to eat them

or not. ;-)

 

> Tilling (used an roto tiller), planting and harvesting, not a

> problem, but I loath weeding and I was seriously miffed not to see

> any in your garden.

 

Tilling is what kicks my tail .. gotta rear tine tiller that does a

great job but it will wear a young man out. Just yesterday I went to

the doc to get the results of the MRI on my left ankle and right knee

and got a brace for the ankle and an appointment for fitting for a

knee brace .. in time gonna have to replace that knee but not now.

Not taking anything for pain ceptin' for a beer or three nights.

Anyway .. he told me to stop playing tennis and basketball and no more

pole vaulting or sky diving .. seeing as I ain't doing none of them

now its not a problem .. but he also told me to leave the danged

tiller alone. Lucky I am that Tanya can use it. ;-)

 

> So what's your secret?

 

Ain't no secrets to Organic gardening .. same as there ain't none to

Aromatherapy .. difference is there is a lot more credible info out on

Organic gardening than there is on AT. Many AT teachers fly by the

seat of their pants when they teach students .. I am also flying by

mine while learning Organic gardening .. difference is I am learning

many GOOD new things and many of them have one year of BAD experience

10 or 12 times and they don't want to learn new things cause the truth

will make their job more difficult and less interesting. ;-)

 

The land we planted had never been tilled before so when I began

tilling we raked the grass root balls out each time I tilled .. which

was many times. Piled them all up in our compost pile and they'll go

back into the garden this Fall.

 

I planted rows of most things a bit wider than normal .. like 40

inches .. so I could run through them 3-4 times with the tiller afore

they got too big .. and the last time I tilled Tanya was walking ahead

of me pulling back some plants so the tiller would not chop'em up.

 

When the plants get large enough to shadow the space twixt the rows

they will keep a fair amount of grass from growing .. but not all of

it. Then we put the grass and weeds in the garden .. you just can't

see'em now. ;-)

 

Once a week Alexander and I cut grass on our grounds .. the tractor

won't cut right unless he is on my lap .. says he. We wait 3-4 days

after cutting and then run over it with our Lawn Sweeper .. wait till

it dies and dries a bit .. that picks up 40 or 50 cubic feet of dead

grass each time. While Alexander and I are sweeping, Tanya is laying

down newspaper twixt the rows .. we avoid the color pages .. just use

the black and white. When I come aside the garden and dump a load of

dead grass she starts laying it over the news print. After the deed

is done we wet it down as bit. This operation keeps grass from

sprouting, holds moisture in the ground, and eventually it becomes

compost .. feeds the soil and enriches it.

 

> I know some people use plastic between the rows, other will make

> raised garden beds to make everything easier and more accessible...

> I didn't see that in that one picture. So how do you do it?

 

Like above. I decided to avoid raised beds ceptin't for one that is

for herbs only .. its surrounded by large rocks .. around 12 inches

high. Use of plastic is OK ceptin' it can allow molds and fungus to

grow .. as well as some bacteria that don't need light or oxygen. I

don't use plastic for the reasons stated but some folks who are into

Organic growing avoid it cause its made from petrol. That's a bit over

the edge but we have extremists in every field.

 

> Also... Don't forget parsnips, they're not harvested until

> February/March.

 

My ground is not ready for them this year .. will probably be next

year. They like a sandy or loamy soil .. mine is Tennessee clay but

its getting better all the time. When I started it took a pick ax to

dig 6 inches .. now I can dig 6 inches with my bare hand. It does

not take long to condition ANY soil if you stick to it .. even desert

soil.

 

We have a compost pile that probably has 3-4 tons of organic material

in it .. leaves, grass clippings, root balls and organic garbage from

the kitchen. All raw vegetable matter from the kitchen goes in there

and coffee grounds go into the soil around our Blueberries. When we

chewed up the stumps from some trees I cut down (they were the wrong

trees and in dangerous locations) I used that material on Azaleas and

Blueberries cause they like acidic soil. Matter of fact .. dumping a

bit of vinegar around them from time to time is good for them.

 

The idealists say you gotta turn that compost over from time to time

but they are talking about little bins folks keep when they have a

small garden .. ain't no way I can turn our compost pile over so I

just wet it down once a week and let it sit and do its own thing best

as it can. Stuff is gonna rot .. matters not if you baby it or not.

 

Another thing is .. don't pull up things that are growing after they

have done their thing. We had our first boiled corn last night ..

today and tomorrow we are freezing corn and in the next couple of days

I'll cut those stalks off with a machete and pile them up where the

corn stood .. and leave the roots in the ground. Did the same for

the first batches of radishes and lettuce after they bolted .. which

they will do in all cases.

 

Back to corn .. I planted 4 crops .. the one that is in now got up to

8 feet or so and has 12 inch + ears .. I reckon there are 200 ears or

so in that little patch .. the other three crops were planted later

and in different areas so as to not cross pollinate .. they are like

chest high now.

 

> Garlic does well being planted in the autumn. If you don't have a

> cold winter,

 

Garlic will do well in extremely cold winters depending on variety.

Russians plant Garlic in early Fall afore the ground freezes .. and it

does FREEZE! Winter 2006, I was in the Southern Ural Mountain region

(Magnitogorsk) for 2 months .. the warmest it got was -26 Centigrade.

Tanya's parents live there and they planted Garlic that year.

 

> then peas, lettice etc are good autumn plants. Which you probably

> already know...

 

There are about as many veggies you can plant as Fall crops as there

are Summer crops. We'll plant a bunch of them this year .. like more

Lettuce (mixed kinds), Green Peas, Radishes, Spinach, Turnip Greens

and Carrots. There are dozens more but we just don't need more now ..

fact is .. we need less. I don't feel bad when I find a bad tomato

now .. its one less we don't have to deal with. ;-)

 

If someone is real serious about putting up fruits and veggies and

they have a large supply then they gotta count on making it a full

time job for a month or so .. maybe more. We have veggies now that

we are eating but ignoring putting them up because they will taste

better after the first frost .. like Red Kale and Collards .. and even

Brussels Sprouts, though we are eating and putting up a lotta Brussels

Sprouts now.

 

Now, we're freezing Okra, Green Beans, Corn, Sweet Peppers, Brussels

Sprouts and other goodies .. to include some aromatics like Parsley

and Basil .. drying is not the best or only way to preserve aromatics

like this .. you lose a lotta flavor from these two when they're dried

but you lose little when they're frozen in ice cube trays.

 

We're just starting to pressure can .. like I said yesterday, it took

me 2 hours to figure out how to put the danged contraption together

cause I screwed up by reading the instructions.

 

We've finished freezing Peaches, Strawberries and Blueberries .. we

are getting only a pint or so of Blueberries each day now and we're

eating them .. already have 60 + pints frozen. Got a lotta Granny

Smith Apples to be dealt with soon.

 

Considering what we have frozen already and what is left to freeze and

can .. plus 80 or so quarts of pickled Sweet Peppers, Cucumbers and

Green Tomatoes and even more yet to pickle .. I can't see why we need

to spend much on veggies twixt now and next year .. ceptin' lettuce

and a couple of other veggies this Winter. And we still have Red

Potatoes to dig .. we planted 50 lbs of certified and will get a

minimum of 350 pounds from that .. maybe more. Ours are doing

extremely well so a yield of 7 or 8 X that which was planted is not

unusual.

 

Next year we will plant a bit less of this and more of that but we are

locked in on Strawberries .. I planted 8 rows of 8 each .. 64 plants,

and they have doubled from runners to like 3 X that many already plus

they are Full Season producers .. not the kind that produce only in

early Summer. Variety is important with all plants and there are many

Strawberry varieties. Even with the short Summers in Russia they get

great yields and the plants Winter over well.

 

Right now my biggest problems I am experiencing is from three critters:

Imported Cabbage Worms

http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/Graphics/cabbageins/import.htm

Harlequin Bugs

http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/Graphics/cabbageins/harle.htm

Cabbage Loopers

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/Vegetables/veg040e/img_damg.htm

 

They are making my Brussels Sprouts look like the skeleton of an

umbrella. I tried soap with Oregano and Sage EO and it worked

somewhat but not well enough. I've been killing the critters by hand

but there are too many of them and they are very small. Today I am

going to get something that is non-toxic to humans, friendly insects

or anything else except leaf chewing pests .. Thuricide .. or Bacillus

thuringensis. It is considered acceptable for use by small Organic

growers but it would not work well for commercial growers because you

have to get it under the leaves so overhead spraying would not work.

It is not really an insecticide but rather a natural bacteria that

affects them so they don't eat .. and then they die. Humans can eat

produce even hours after spraying it on the plant .. though we won't

do that because I'll harvest all the Brussels Sprouts first and it

will be 10 days or so before I have more.

http://www.agorganics.com/products/Thuricide/12/94.html

 

I talked with the County Agriculture Extension Agent and he agrees

with use of this and says it is totally harmless .. and he said if I

don't do something now I will lose the Brussels Sprouts in a week or

so because they eat the center growth too .. if they ate only the

leaves then the plant could continue to produce leaves but when they

nip the bud then the plant will die.

 

We're lucky that we have no other pests now .. no Potato Beetles and

such .. and our Watermelons are over 24 inches long now .. Cantaloupes

the size of a Coconut .. getting a bushel or so of Cucumbers a day and

a half bushel of Green Beans every 4-5 days from a short row .. maybe

40 feet total.

 

> any who... correct that flaw so some of us don't feel so

> inadequate.

 

Done. ;-)

 

> K

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-)

 

Butch .. http://www.AV-AT.com

[Guest guest]

Butch, you make me want to move to Tennessee!

Congratulations, Your garden sounds terrific.

You may think clay is bad, wait till you try the glorified gravel I have to

work with. It is fine with lots of composted manure, but within 2 years of not

getting fresh nourishment it reverts right back to a sandy waste.

 

And then there was the weather. Not as bad as Northern Alberta, and things are

catching up fast.

But we are a good three weeks behind normal.

Not whining, just reporting, and gratefully freezing a bumpercrop of

raspberries.

 

Coming soon: thoughts on the coyote spirit of herbs.

 

Ien in the Kootenays

http://freegreenliving.com (blog)