September 3, 2015

Good morning, yes it is that time of year again when I start to plan my next years garden. I like looking back at the last year first. This does give me a chance to correct short comings and improve my gardening skills.

There are exceptions but usually most of my problems are operator error. Operator error is much easier to correct. The exceptions, like severe heat and drought, I have no control over but I must learn to adapt. Adapting is mandatory.

Last fall was a protracted warm one and this did catch me by surprise. I did most of the my usual fall plantings and since we did not have the mid November cool down, a lot of fall veggies got a bit large going into winter. This past winter, once it did arrive, was rather chilly and damp with most of the moisture coming as ice and snow. This had a immense chilling affect on the soil and garden. This also rendered the fabric with little to no frost protection. Where the fabric gets its frost protection capabilities is from soil warmth. For a good portion of the winter until the middle of March, the soil surface temp was near or below 32 degrees, so there was no soil warmth for the fabric to hold in. Growth was slow due to the cold conditions and the over cast skies.

These are conditions that are unchangeable, but delaying planting if these conditions were to prevail again this winter would be an adaption. Long term weather forecasts has this coming winter to be a repeat of last. I hope that it is snow instead of ice. It just doesn't bring things down like ice can. Snow can be moved.

All of last winters moisture made for a very buggy year that even started in the dead of winter. It wasn't until I harvested some boc choi that Deb pointed out a critter I knew nothing about. But this critter wreaked havoc in the garden until I discovered it. I had put the boc choi on the stove for Deb to use for supper. When she went to clean up the “dirt” that had fallen off of the roots, she discovered that the “dirt” was moving.

Latter with close examination, I noticed the soil surface in the covered beds was crawling with them. They were caterpillars, maybe 1/16th of an inch in size and soil colored, apparently were eating the organic matter on the bed surface. Once this was gone they started munching on plants. They had little affect on mature plants but they devastated emerging seedlings. I thought I had cut worms and could not find any. I didn't see the real culprit until the boc choi. The use of Bt eliminated the problem. I feel that I have always had these bugs in the garden but with all the winter precip their population exploded. This would be a recurring theme through out the year. From one bug to the next.

Most all of the bugs would be controlled with either Bt or cold pressed neem. That is until the cucumber beetles arrived. I ended up using a pyrethrin based spray to get them under control. Sadly they infected my summer squash with mosaic virus before I got them under control.

The problem with the use of most sprays is that bugs can build up a resistance to them, that is all except for cold pressed neem. Neem does not kill the bugs directly like most other pesticides. If the cucumbers come back again next year, I will need another spray to rotate the pyrethrin spray with to help prevent this potential problem. A lady at market used a different spray that brought her cucumber beetles into control. This sounds like it would be a good rotation spray to help prevent their immunity potential.

This was the first complete year with a watering system. My body very much appreciated having it.

When I planted the garden there was ample moisture and all the plants responded accordingly. Once it became apparent that we were going to have a hot dry summer (rainstorms that flooded elsewhere only left my garden marginally dampened), the drip system was my only water supply. It wasn't until I noticed water stress in the okra (a very drought tolerant plant) That I discovered that I was derelict of duties. Some of these operator errors was flushing the drip filter and changing the well filter more frequently. I added more time to the drip run times too. This has helped with the water stress.

Back in the spring I had left four beds fallow to solarize for nematodes. By the time that I realized that my normal solarizing season had moved into summer I really was over it. I did lay film over these beds, I did not bury the edge. I am hoping that by eliminating any vegetation in these beds that some of the nematode population starved. We can hope.

Even with having four beds fallow, I still way surpassed any previous years veggie harvest. I was thinking of further reducing my production, but with all the surplus we managed to put a lot of canned food by for winter veggie sales. Putting all that food by was a real challenge especially as hot as the summer turned out to be. I guess I will be a martyr and keep the plantings the same. It is nice to have the production and still have 4 fallow beds. This will allow me to do some different fertility practices with cover crops and green manures.

It is an amazing thing, every year the garden has been in production the following year has always exceeded the previous year. I feel that I have peeked the production, but I do have 4 fallow beds. It is nice to have the capacity to do a little more growth when the market needs more production.

Yes like all years there are “those” moments but it has been a good year.

Due to age and heat the garden is slowing. This should change as the days cool down. There is a prediction of a cool moist fall. Well when it arrives I'll bank on it. This has been a real weird weather year.

The first planted okra has bee clipped back because the tops got barren. Some of the new growth is already blooming and starting to produce. My first planting of toms had some water issues but are now making a come back and are blooming nicely. I did not have this problem in my second or third bed and they will be maturing soon. It looks like it will coincide with the forth bed finishing. The long keepers are blooming and setting fruit so I am ever hopeful that we will have toms into January or February. They will be harvested just before freezing and ripen slowly through the winter. My new planting of summer squash is producing and I hope to soon list it.

Fall sowing will start soon. The soil was too warm for some seeds in test beds and germination reflected this. It would be nice if the day time highs got into the 80's and this would help immensely.

Patience!!