The Gardener's Pledge

Some of my earliest memories are of the gardens of my family.  I can remember traipsing through my grandfather's garden on the heels of my mother and sister with corn grown up so high I would get lost just a foot or two behind them.  I remember all of us eating baby ears of corn just picked, fresh and raw, and what a sweet taste that was.

I remember my great grandfather's garden in east Texas and how proud my great grandmother was when she showed us the towering metal cages they used to support his green pepper plants.  Plants that I now realize were amazingly tall and robust, the likes of which I have not seen since.  I remember that same trip playing in the sand near the rows of vegetables and somewhat vexing my great grandfather with my antics.  As I recall, the smoothness of the sand inspired me to pretend I was a mermaid and thus I was 'swimming' on my belly and basically getting in his way as he was tending to his garden.

My parents also garden.  Not the big vegetable gardens of my grandparents and great grandparents, but blooming plants and fruit trees and fragrant bushes and also the occasional small vegetable garden.  Many of these family gardens have been successful and many have also yielded disappointment, much like my own gardening endeavors.

What I wish is that I had been the kind of child that would have been absorbed in my great grandfather's incredible garden and have more than just minor glimpses into how he was so successful.  I wish that when I had the opportunity to observe my step-grandfather's incredible garden I had been more questioning about the why and how of it all.  I wish for more of their knowledge to bolster my own gardening progress.  I especially wish that I had found out how my great grandfather grew those enormous bell pepper plants, so robust, dark green and tall (mind you, four year old children generally don't question their elders about compost, caging and care of vegetable plants.  Not when there is such excellent sand to swim in...).

So here I am with some memories and a few insights gleaned from my family history of gardening, mostly learning from my own 25 years of mistakes and successes in organic gardening while I plan and implement this years grand organic vegetable heaven. Last year was a good year and many, if not most of the things I attempted to do in the spring garden worked well.

For example, last year with just six tomato plants I harvested 50 pounds of tomatoes in one month. That was just one months worth. The total amount of tomatoes harvested was... (looking back at last years calendar.... adding totals....) a whopping 90 pounds from just the spring/summer garden. I didn't even record the tomatoes I harvested from the fall garden.

And tomatoes were only a small part of the yield. There were cucumbers ( 65 pounds ) peppers ( 7.5 pounds from just 2 plants ) green beans ( 13 pounds ) squash ( 12 pounds ) okra ( 10 pounds ) figs ( 29 pounds ) and sweet potatoes (63 pounds). There were also lesser amounts of things like onions, cabbage, turnips, basil and lettuce.

Most of the harvest was done throughout April, May and June and then a smaller amount of things in the fall October and November. So basically I am saying that last years garden was a success in many things and could have been better in other things. I am planning for this years garden to be even better.
 
There is just one small troubling thing.  My current activities are forecasting my future activities. For this to all work out I have to make a commitment to the garden. A pledge if you would that will guide me and possibly others into the potential success of organic gardening.

The Organic Gardener's Pledge

1. I solemnly swear that I will plant only the things I will eat. 
(Unless of course it is something my dogs will eat, then I can also plant that. Or maybe something I think I will eat because it sounds like it would be good. Or maybe I have eaten something like it or it sounds like something I should eat.)

2. I pledge to not over-plant my garden with too many plants in too small of an area. 
(Unless of course it looks like it will fit right now when all the plants are so small and the garden area looks so empty. And of course since the plants came with three or four to a cell and what am I expected to do with the extras? Just kill them? Those poor baby plants who didn't do a thing wrong in this world except sprout? And do the instructions really mean that you have to have 36 inches between the rows? I mean, that is three whole feet and my garden beds are just seven feet long. Do they really expect me to only put in two of these in a seven foot bed? And after all there is this thing called square foot gardening which if I recall slightly, was about putting a whole bunch of plants together in a square foot area and they all do just fine and even the weeds can't grow because they are so densely packed. And after all, I don't want to limit the harvest just because I haven't planted enough. And wasn't I just skimming the Rodale's Organic Gardening book for the seven thousandth's time and dimly recalling how many plants it takes to feed a family.)

3. I pledge to water and weed my garden daily. 
(Unless of course I don't have time this morning and then I will do it this afternoon. Unless this afternoon it is too hot or I am too tired and then for sure I will water it first thing in the morning. And after all the weeds are really not a problem when they are small and I can do a whole lot in a little time, so why fuss so much every day.)

 4. I pledge to amend the soil and fertilize with fish emulsion as well as bone meal and compost as often as the garden needs it.
(Unless of course I forget to amend the soil prior to planting. And you don't actually have to amend the entire bed. Planting the plants in a deep hole in the bed you have filled with pure compost works fine. Bone meal can be sprinkled around each plant. And fish emulsion has to be made up in two or three gallon batches which then have to be portioned out to each plant - times all the plants - and maybe some of them don't actually need as much. And maybe this fish meal I just got this year will work as well or better than the fish emulsion as long as the opossums don't dig up the plants trying to get to the tasty, tasty fish emulsion.)

5. I pledge to trellis and tie back all the tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers to keep the from blocking pathways or shading other plants. 
(Unless I don't have time for that. And really I can just prop them up a bit for now and tie them up when I find wherever it is I hid the string. And tomatoes really are a vine that can grow along the ground and they produce fruit just fine as long as you don't mind the occasional slug bite. And once they have overgrown you practically have to perform some sort of martial arts round house kick to get them to let go of what they are currently adhered to in order to tie them to what you want them to ride up (I am talking to you cucumbers!).)

6. I pledge to harvest the produce at the peak of ripeness.
(Unless we are talking tomatoes which get pecked by birds once they turn even slightly red. And you can't always find those darn cucumbers and end up with the classic cucumber baseball bat - how did something that big hide there? And what with all the watering and weeding and tying up of things just how am I supposed to find time to harvest the beans? And if we are talking figs, between the five to 9 trees that will produce figs this year who require me to get up at the crack of dawn to beat the birds into the trees - and suffer near heart spasms from the leaping grass hoppers that station themselves in the trees - and practically hurtle myself off the ladder I need to reach the tallest branches - and the fact that figs are fragile and don't pack well so just how are you supposed to process 10 pounds of figs every single day?!!)

7. I pledge to remove spent plants and maintain the beds so that each season's crops are planted and ready to go.
(Unless I just give up around late July through September because honestly, nothing is producing. The plants are just barely hanging on with wilted sun scorched leaves and saying 'Kill me...', but I am too heat sodden to even lift a shovel their direction. Wake me when it is less than 100 degrees in the shade, you know, around November...)

And so I have taken the pledge.  I will once again hurtle headlong into the spring with garden gloves on and an optimistic outlook.  Life is good.

Alright, Alright... Breaktime is Over

Actually it has been over for a couple of weeks, the time being measured by when I planted the three tomato plants and two peppers.  Not that there was nothing going on in the garden during the break.  The sweet potatoes are glorious again this year. 

Let me just extoll the virtues of sweet potatoes for a moment before I start talking about the other, needier plants.  Sweet potato plants are the honey badgers of the plant kingdom.  They don't need anything from you once you have planted them and they just don't care.  Mega-Summer temperatures cooking other plants as they stand?  Sweet potato don't care.  No rain for weeks on end and the resident gardener is too fed up with it all to turn the hose on you?  Sweet potato don't care.  Humidity hovering between 50 - 90% (despite the lack of rain)?  Ho-hum says the sweet potato.  They also like poor soil - so if you don't feel like amending the soil again after your prolific spring/summer harvests - that's right - sweet potato don't care.

Just look at them, all self reliant and happy.

They really are a remarkable plant with lush, abundant heart shaped leaves growing from thick spreading vines.  They fill up all the space left over from the other, weaker plants.  They make it look like your garden has something going on instead of the deserted wasteland you deserve from your weeks of neglect.  I am all about the sweet potato with only one exception.  I do not like to eat them (sweet potato don't care).  Actually neither do I because my husband and both dogs love them, so no waste there.

Just about a six foot by twelve foot patch of sweet potato plants.  And yes, you are seeing holes left by something munching on the sweet potato leaves, but... sweet potato don't care.

So where was I before getting all up in the sweet potato business - ah yes, the fall garden starting.  I did not have much of a choice when it came to the tomatoes.  I had to settle for a Better Boy, an Early Girl and a Rutgers? or something else rather mundane.  I really wanted to find a Creole, but maybe those are better as a spring garden candidate.  Most likely they are just scarce since fall is not considered to be when you plant 'those' kinds of plants.  I got my starts from the local feed store.  The Home Depot and Lowe's garden centers are oblivious to fall vegetable gardening.  Maybe I will find more options later, but I wanted to get some plants in the ground because I fear with this milder than normal summer we are due for an early and colder... well I was about to say winter, but most places don't consider temperatures barely below 50 to be 'winter'... let's just say non-summer.

Better boy, Early Girl and the Rutgers.

My pepper choices were a sweet banana and a mild tam jalapeno.  I also planted some sort of cucumber (again poor selection) and just this weekend planted some red and yellow onion starts.  I am on the lookout for butternut squash but I think I am going to have to plant seeds since it doesn't look like I will find any starts.  Once again if I were a little more patient I am sure there will be some to be found.  I just have a hunch that getting things in earlier will be better this fall.  Hey, no problem if I am wrong because that just means more growing season.

The Mild Tam Jalapeno, unless it has been mislabeled and this is a full strength, hot Jalapeno.

The ?? cucumber plants.  Now I know I swore that my only true love in the cucumber kingdom was the burpless hybrid.  When your options are limited you take what you can get.  These will probably do incredibly well and I will be kicking myself for losing the tag that defined what kind these are.

I really have not thought beyond the tomato/pepper/onion/butternut scenario.  Most of the beds are only partially reclaimed from the weeds that have taken over in my hiatus.  I have not really given much thought to what I want to try for the winter this year.  I need to stick my head inside the Rodales and make a plan.

But at least it's a start.

Garden Check In

April has been bringing showers this year, which is a very welcome thing considering how badly nature treated us last year.  In fact it has been raining so much it really has made it difficult for me to install the rest of my watering system.  In the meantime of course my garden has been growing by leaps and bounds which made it a virtual flora wrestling match to install the last few soaker hoses.  Finally though the last one went in with a bunch of huffing and puffing and sweating on my part.  All that rain makes the low 80 degree weather seem like a sauna. 

I finally got the camera out this evening and decided to take you on a tour of the garden as I saw it today.

First stop is my newest bit of yard art.  I present to you Garden Koi.  He is lurking in the Herbie bed right now, but I will probably move him to a shadier spot to prevent him fading out from the sun.

Now here we are in the second of the ceder fence beds in what I am calling the Leeky-Creole bed.  Here are three of about a dozen Creole tomatoes growing on this plant.  This is my first year with this variety which is touted as being able to set fruit in hot humid weather.  I have only love for this plant - these tomatoes are huge!

Next door to Leeky-Creole is the Big Boy tomato who has some sort of tomato unhappiness going on.  Some of its leaves have died back and the stems look a little purplish as if there is a nutritional issue.  It has plenty of fruit but they are much smaller than the Creole.  Might just be a variety thing, but I swear if this plant pulls a late blight swan dive on me I will yank it from the garden faster than the Border Collie can tear up a new stuffed toy (30 seconds is her new record).  I am already removing the dead leaves as if they are a potential contaminate to my other plants and I use surgical gloves when I handle it in order not to spread any potential gunk. 

It's Bunny!  Lovely BN444 is neck and neck with the Creoles for humongous fruit.  But on a sadder note, Bunny's first fruit went boots up for some unknown reason.  I found it all withered like a tomato raisin on the vine.  No other problems though.  The fruit was so advanced in decay I could not tell what befell it, but I think it must have been some sort of fruit injury.

Here is the other Creole in the Corny-Creole bed.  It also is adorned with bunches of these clusters and barring the descent of tomato poaching insects we should have a great tomato harvest beginning soon.

Here is a representative of the pepper clan from the six plants in the first four beds.  This is a Gypsy variety and all of the peppers are already loaded with fruit.  One more day and we will pick these and many others.  That is one thing for sure about the peppers.  Harvest often or they will get to thinking that their work is done.  We are already in a race against the night time temperatures.  As soon as they climb into the high 70s our peppers will no longer be able to set fruit.

Here are the leeks from the Leeky-Creole bed.  They are a lovely blue-green color which contrasts nicely with the other greens.  Nobody is big enough to harvest yet, but with the rain and warm weather there should be some big stalks coming.

This is the best looking of all six cabbage.  We have had some issues with I guess cabbage worms.  I have found those little guys down in the leaves of the other plants and when I find them I evict them into the dog area.  The resident Border Collie makes quick work of them and then the Westie rolls on them.  A hardy one/two punch in pest control.

Not only is this picture showing you the fence trellis I finally erected today for these burpless hybrid cucumbers, it also is showing you the pathway that I finally finished between the beds.  Okay, I lie, I have only finished five of the between bed pathways and have another four to go.  Okay, another lie - they are not actually finished until I get the ceder mulch for between the stones and the black plastic to put down over the dirt so the damn weeds will stop making my life a constant weed pulling mess.  But other than all of that backbreaking labor to come - I am finished.

Why is it the onion bed always seems to need some sort of makeover.  It did have a hard start with the whole being dug up by opossums in its first few hours as a bed and I also disturbed it by putting in the hay mulch and just recently again by putting in the soaker hose - but still does it have to look so apathetic?  Lift up your fronds (stalks?). Have some pride or something.  Ahh well - as long as it continues to onion it does not have to look pretty.

Collard greens are sort of the emperors among greens.  Unlike turnip or mustard greens, collards have to have a lot of space between each plant.  They are robust and I am sure if they were not tied down by their roots they would be setting off on all sorts of vegetable adventures involving mountains and grizzly bears. 

This started out as just a photo of a sun blasted squash blossom but on further review it revealed one of the bug friends of the garden.  This is an assassin bug and he or she is on the lookout for other bugs.  What you don't see in this photo is the long saber like snout on this thing that it gleefully stabs into other bugs in order to suck out the sweet, sweet bug nectar.  I am very glad they are only about a half an inch long because I shudder to think of having to live in a world if these were Border Collie sized.

Here is a female bloom of the butternut squash.  It will be a couple of days before we know if this fruit set or not.  Meanwhile the rest of the plant is plotting the eventual take over of the entire garden.  I put in six of these into this bed and they are now moving into both beds next to them, the pathways and also eyeing the dog proof fence.  I think butternut squash may be the Kudzu of the squash kingdom.  I will let you know when it has covered our house.

Okay so these pickling cucumbers are looking a little upset and I must admit it is my fault.  They were perfectly happy and beautiful before I went and put in their soaker hose.  This involved me whipping the vines back and forth like some sort of slow vegetable monster rock dance.  I also put in their trellis fence and insisted they use it.  They haven't gotten over it yet.

Stepping out of the ceder fence garden we are met with the promise of things yet to come.  Here is the fig tree displaying three of what will be about a billion figs this year.  The abundant rain is making the fig growth lush and since we didn't trim the tree last year it means I will be doing advanced gymnastics atop the ladder this year in my quest to get my share of the figs from the birds and squirrels.  Stay tuned.

Another up and comer is the Meyer lemon.  This tree is the one I call Lazarus because we found it languishing in a pot that got buried within an enormous hedge of shrimp plant for about two years and was never watered.  Somehow even though it never grew through the pot it managed to survive.  We now have it in a place of honor in the garden and it has shown its thanks by tripling in size.  I always admire the plants I can't kill. 

It is a slow year in okra land, mostly because I decided to start them from saved seeds from last year.  This is Clemson Spinless and it is doing just fine although most are somewhat worm bitten.   No worries they will shake it off and in a couple of weeks they will put out their adult leaves and grow about six inches a day for a while.  This will soon be an okra forest.  On another note, next to this bed I put in about a half dozen Emerald Velvet okra which are supposed to be great.  I now have three of those plants remaining because something was biting the tops off the plants.  Now due to last years okra problems I vowed to blame the dogs for any okra problems this year.  I have done that officially, but just between you and me, it would be a little hard to get a doggie snout past my okra barriers.  I am almost certain this was the work of some little whiskered pest.  Specifically I am talking rodent especially because next to this bed I sprouted some cantaloupe seeds and each morning their tops had been eaten clean off.  I put the seed tray up on a table and yet again the tops were mowed off.  It seems some little critter was ecstatic that I was providing it with an abundant source of fresh sprouts.

Here is the outlier tomato known as Top gun.  He sounds all tough and stuff and I must admit he is sprouting a lot of fruit and has some rather attractive foliage, but just between you and me he doesn't hold a candle to the Creole twins in the ceder fence garden.  But who knows - this guy is supposed to handle the hot weather too, so he might just win the productivity game yet.

Now this plucky little guy is one of several tomato volunteers that applied to be the tomatoes for the Westie this year.  If it looks like it is behind bars that is because it is.  Although these are for the Westie, we must protect them from Big Foot the Border Collie who can make short work of any plant.

This is a view into the grapefruit garden and this is the single yellow squash plant that decided to come up from seed this year.  I do not have high hopes for it because you can almost hear the rumbling of the squash vine borers as they are about to pounce.  Just as soon as this plant sets fruit and that fruit almost gets ripe they will attack and that will be the end of this plant.  So far other than burying the vines I have found no cost effective organic solution to this pest.

Here we have the garden bed name-sake.  This is the first grapefruit that has set this year.  The tree is covered with fruit so far, but it remains to be seen if it will be able to bring any to ripeness.  The tree is still very young, but it is encouraging to see it trying this year.  Last year I don't even recall if it bloomed.

These are bush beans and they are loving life right now.  This year I gave them circular cages like I made for the okra and they are overjoyed. 

Their joy is my joy as is evidenced by the 15 or so incredible beans in my hand.  I had already picked about a dozen of the bush beans earlier this week which makes this enough for the first bean meal this garden season.  Yum.

Here we are at the strictly ornamental bed with the last of the amaryllis that have bloomed this year.  I am not sure of the type because these bulbs were given to me from someone who forces the blooms each year.  I consider all of the amaryllis to be nomadic because every year I move them thinking that this will be the best place for them.  So that is what I am telling them now -  this will be the best place for them...

This is a scented geranium that I managed to grow from cutting taken from one of the wildly abundant tribe growing in the ornamental garden.  These were the only successful ones I managed to grow from about a dozen clippings.  They probably all would have made it if I had managed to water them more.  They also had to survive a couple of freezes.  You need to be tough if you are going to survive in my potted plant area.

Here is a pink Pintas that managed to survive last years horrific drought.  I really love it when a plant not only survives natural disaster but also my on again, off again desire to water it.

And last but not least, another volunteer, this time a weed.  This is a wild morning glory along with  sorrelvine and snailseed.  What is not to love about April.  Even the weeds try harder.

The garden March-es on...

Just a couple of months ago I was breaking my back getting all my garden beds prepped for Gardening Version 2012 and I am excited to report that now in March – I am still breaking my back getting all my garden beds prepped for this year.

Don't get me wrong. There has been some progress. I went from having a mere four completely redone 3ft by 6ft ceder fence garden beds with their 22 inch pathways on all sides to now ten. I transformed the center garden from three east/west facing rows into two north/south facing rows and additionally created an extensive rock pathway within this bed area. I completely remodeled the grapefruit bed from a single massive horseshoe shaped bed into three manageable beds. I also have planted most of these beds and have harvesting radishes and mustard greens.

Yet even though it seems like I have done a lot there is much, much more that needs to be done. Currently we are installing a watering system that will allow us to have drip hoses in every one of the ceder fence garden beds. Now I know when you just read that it did not have the impact on you that it has on me. Just seeing the words 'watering system' much less 'drip hoses' makes my heart beat faster.

Perhaps I should explain. Last year, what with the relentless drought and 100 plus degree temperatures I would spend somewhere around an hour and a half every morning just watering my garden. An hour an a half I could have been oh, I don't know, maybe sleeping or weeding the garden or harvesting the massive amounts of produce or performing basic hygiene. As it was I spend an hour and a half just watering and then pretended I didn't see the weeds, snatched the fruit and vegetables off the plants and did the bare minimum hygiene stuff necessary to make sure people were not offended by my presence.

I have a dream and it goes like this. I get up at a reasonable hour, saunter out to my garden where I turn on my 'watering system' which starts all my 'drip hoses' and then I leisurely weed the garden, pick the abundant produce from the thriving plants and luxuriate in a long hot shower before I casually look over my water bill and laugh because it is so low. I like the virtual watering system very much. It almost seems a shame that we have to actually install it because that is sure to put some wrench into the works in some annoying way that we can't foresee because you just don't know what you don't know. But I have tonight before we turn it on for the first time, so I am still living the dream.

I thought I would provide an introduction to each of the beds to have as a reference for later in the year. These first group of garden beds are in the ceder fence area that is protected by the dog-proof fence.

Ceder fence garden bed number 1 - "Herbie"

This bed is only partially planted because many the wonderful seeds I lovingly pressed into the soil refused to sprout. Currently it is home to cilantro, a mixture of salad greens, fennel, basil, and curled parsley.

Bed number 2 - "Leeky Creole"

At the north end of this bed is one of the Creole tomatoes we are trying this year. Supposedly this tomato will set fruit in hot humid weather. The rest of this bed is filled with yellow onions, leeks and garlic.

Bed number 3 - "Big Boy"

The north end of this bed has a Big Boy tomato plant. I consider all of the tomatoes in competition with each other, so we will see how this guy stacks up to the other contenders. I should mention that I am trying a new tomato restraint system this year since last years 'lash the tomatoes with string between several bamboo poles' was a horrible, horrible idea. This year I am using a C shaped cage of dog fence which I will increase in height as the tomatoes get larger. Perhaps this will be the year I will find my tomato caging solution. This bed also has a couple of cabbages and two different sweet peppers, a Gypsy and a Sweet Banana. There is also an extra cucumber plant snuggled in next to the tomato cage.  The pots along the side of this bed are several fig trees we sprouted last year.  They are awaiting distribution to their new homes.

Bed number 4 - "Bunny the Quick"

This bed is almost identical to bed three except that is houses the tomato “BN444” – some sort of determinate hybrid. I like this tomato since it has won the 'first to set fruit' award. I like it so much that from now on I am giving it a proper name to replace it uninspiring clone sounding name. I will call it Bunny the Quick from now on. The south side of this bed has cabbages, sweet peppers and another orphan cucumber plant.

Bed number 5 - "Cornie Creole"

Okay, again this is a tomato at the north and cabbages, sweet peppers and orphan cucumber at the south, but this tomato is another Creole and these sweet peppers are a Corno de Toro and a mild Tam Jalepeno.

Bed number 6 - "Burpless"

This bed still needs its trellis to support the hybrid burpless cucumbers it is holding. This type of cucumber is a miraculous beast that just laughs at powdery mildew that kills off all the other cucumber types I have tried. It also is a workhorse in production and soon, very soon I will be asking myself just why I planted so many of these plants. The cucumber orphans are of this variety which means that very soon we will be discovering just how many cucumbers we can consume in a single day without ill effect.

Bed number 7 - "UnYuns"

This was the first bed I planted and if you looked at my earlier gardening post from January you will see the onions have valiantly rebounded from their ravishing by the opposums. The onions to the west of this bed are yellow and the east side are red. The center of this bed are scallions and at the very back are garlic plants.

Bed number 8 - "It's not easy being greens"

This bed is hosting collard greens, turnips, mustard greens and until recently, radishes. It is also being plagued by snails and caterpillars which are making lace of the leaves. Soon though I will find my organic slug and snail bait and my caterpillar BT powder and this bed will feel much better.

Bed number 9 - "Butternut"

These guys are butternut squash and if they do what their family members did during the fall garden then we will have a whole bunch of very large squash on plants that will try to overrun the entire ceder garden area.

Bed number 10 - "Pickles"

Here are some more cucumbers, but these are pickling cucumbers. I actually purchased these before I was able to find my burpless hybrids. They are supposed to be hardier than other types of cucumbers, but they will have to prove themselves.  Regarding as to why this bed looks like it is out of the Flintstones cartoon.  I found myself with an abundance of energy and a lack of correctly cut lumber.  We have a whole bunch of rocks we have collected and I decided to use them as a temporary holding wall to shape the bed. 

The great beyond...

This is a picture of what is yet to come. It may look like a bunch of dirt and rocks, but this is proto-garden. This will become four more beds in the not too distant future, baring early excessive hot weather, my body  giving out, or me actually coming to my senses. The plan is that this area will be for the wildly vining things like cantaloupe and watermelons.

Stay tuned...