If I Knew Then What I Know Now

So sorry to have been gone so long.  In the last post, I said I had been "under the weather."  Well, that's about like saying the Wicked Witch of the East was 'under the weather' when Dorothy's house fell on her!  While I bear no resemblance to any witch of any compass point, I could consider the name change of "Pitiful Planter of the South" or "Maven of Malaise."  Hmmm...whining is not attractive.  Let's move on...

The title of today's post is...If I Knew Then What I Know Now...

There were a few things I got right from the get-go.  There are plenty more that have been tweaked or outright abandoned.  That's the joy of this hobby / job / lifestyle.  There is always something new to learn or imagine.

  So here are some Things I Would Not Change.....

1.  I would set up my garden in permanent beds and aisles.  If it is at all possible, I recommend the same to you. Even though weeds have gotten away from me once or twice in seasons past, having the permanent area allowed me to prioritize what to clear and gave me access all through the garden.  Having 100 square foot beds allowed me to plan easily for crop rotation and the number of transplants needed.  Including irrigation as we made the beds has been a huge advantage as the garden has grown.  Watering the garden consists of turning on the water - selecting a zone - and setting a timer.  I have 3 zones, so the entire garden is watered in an hour and a half.
2. I would still choose to start my garden small - but mostly smart!  Year one I sacrificed one of my 100 square foot beds and planted asparagus crowns (along with some parsley).  I knew I wasn't really going to get asparagus for a few years - each year the beautiful ferns come back, but the shoots are not fat or plentiful enough for harvest. But boy! The wait is worth it!  This year all of us enjoyed full servings of fresh, flavorful, yummy asparagus.  It takes 2 bunches purchased just to give each of the Mavens a few spears - that's $7 in veggies alone!  Not going to happen too often, right? This year was celebrated as week after week we savored this special spring treat. Now, with a little fertilizer and weeding, I can expect decades of spring yumminess. Here's the other first year crop I would recommend:.....Peppers!  Green peppers. Hot peppers. Poblano peppers. Banana peppers. Any kind of pepper you like.  Pepper plants are not terribly bothered by pests - each plant gives you more than a dozen peppers and they save you a boat load of money! 

          Regular green peppers are a dollar each - and that's in season!  Red and yellow can be $2 each!  Ouch!  Here's the real joy - peppers can be frozen with almost no prep! Just slice, freeze on a tray to make sure it doesn't make a solid blob and then throw it in a freezer bag!  The next time you need pepper for fajitas ( or about a zillion other dishes ), you simply pull out the right amount and saute away!  I honestly can't tell the difference between fresh and frozen, but ohh, those months with fresh!  Here's a sampling of a batch that became beef kabobs last summer.  Yum, yum!  Okay - if you don't have a garden yet - how 'bout some pepper plants in a pot or in straw bales?

 Goodness, this is going long.  I have a whole lot more that I would keep the same, and a whole, whole lot more I would change!  I'll work on crawling out from under this house, and you work on getting excited about next year's garden!

STRAW BALE GARDENING

I know - you think everything goes perfectly in The Maven's garden.  Bugs never enter,weeds never take over and the yield is out of this world!  Ha! Fooled you!  I write because I have had all of that go wrong and more!  So here is the confession...
                                 I stink - I fail - I'm pathetic - at growing tomatoes.

I have put in 2 beds (100 square feet each!) of tomatoes and not had enough tomatoes to put any up!  Not enough for a single pot of spaghetti sauce!  I have watched my plants die from blight.  I have have seen all of the various fungi, leaf spots, molds and other tomato afflictions up close and personal.  Most disheartening is when I watch precious little green tomatoes sit on the vine for weeks, not ripening.  Finally, they commit vegetable suicide and fall to the ground to be eaten by the bugs.  Failure, failure, failure.

So why can I talk to you today about tomato growing?  Einstein said the definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  I think everyone should get to the end of each gardening season and be able to say - Well, that didn't work so well.  It means you tried something new.  You tried to solve last year's problem.

I had some new ideas this year that ended in epic failure.  But I had one new idea that has me excited. I had one new idea that will be a part of my garden for years to come.  I had one idea that gave me tomatoes!  Not just a few, mind you.  The picture shows only part of one day's harvest!  I have a handy dandy kitchen scale and weighed out 10 pounds of tomatoes in just one day!

For you science nerds out there - it is even a controlled experiment.  The messy result you see here is the straw bale bed.  I have another bed with tomatoes planted in the ground.  I added a tablespoon of Borax to each planting hole on both beds because I had decided that a boron deficiency was the reason for my sickly plants.  I did have a better yield in the standard bed than in years past.  But on the day I took this photo, I was unable to pick a single tomato from the standard bed!

That's the why - now the how - then we'll talk about who and when:

• Place straw (not hay) bales in a line, square or whatever configuration you want.  
• Sprinkle with fertilizer (organic all purpose is fine)
• Cover with 3" of bagged compost - I used mushroom compost
• Water heavily daily.
• On about day 4, you should notice the bales heating up. This is from the active composting occurring. Last year, I stuck a meat thermometer in the bales and saw it go well over 100 degrees!
• Continue to water.  About day 10, the bales should be cooled down.
• Pull apart the straw and place in transplants.
• Fertilize every other week with foliar fertilizer (more on that later)
• Water generously through the season. Every other day during hot, dry times.  

Here are the benefits of straw bale culture:

1. No tilling! No digging!  This would even work for renters - nothing but compost is left later!
2. Solves weed problems without you losing your back muscles, commitment to organic practices or your religion!  I had an area at the back of the garden that was overrun with Bermuda grass. (Say grrr with me...)  I placed a thick layer of black plastic with 6 bales on top.  That area has now given me cantaloupes, stevia, thyme and a weed-free zone that will be my strawberry tower next year!  
3. Solves reoccurring problems - like my pitiful tomatoes - that may be due to imbalances of minerals in the soil. The bales take your soil totally out of the picture.  (There will be more about how The Maven evaluates her soil problem)
4. Very versatile!  You can grow tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, cantaloupe, basil, radishes, carrots, broccoli - pretty much anything but corn or potatoes.  
5. Can be used to rebuild an old bed.  I placed the tomatoes in one of my oldest beds.  The soil got a rest and will be replenished as the bales break down
6. Can be used to start a new bed.  2 weeks to start and a beautifully amended bed at the end of the season is a pretty good way to go.  
7. Earthworms love it!  I spiked mine with standard fishing worms and some of my composting worms.  Anyone familiar with our Alabama or Georgia red clay is excited about lots of earthworms.  I'm pretty sure baby earthworms are issued hardhats before they venture out into our native soil!

So - if you are on the fence about starting a garden...maybe you could consider putting down 6 bales of straw next year and enjoy vine ripened tomatoes, gourmet baby squash, fresh basil and cantaloupes right from your own back yard!  I kind of think you'll never want to go back.  

Expect a lot more as I experiment with my own straw bales.  I plan to put one of everything in the back bed to see how it does until heavy frost.  I also expect to continue picking tomatoes until frost.  Happy sigh.  The Maven is truly happy.

  

Getting a Garden Started

A CLEARED BED READY FOR FALL PLANTING

Okay. So we talked about gardening in the south and the problems of the 'old-school' way.  Don't sit paralyzed in the "oh, no!" mode.  There are just some new concepts to understand along with a not-so-huge investment of work and materials.  Getting started right leads to much less work in the future.  Intrigued?
Here we go!

• Think small and ultra productive - We are not going to till up a half and acre. I recommend beds (or boxes or containers) that are 3 to 4 feet wide with aisles on either side. We'll talk about how much in a minute.
• Amend, amend, amend - This is the single most important thing! If you have clayey or sandy soil as much of the south does, you will need to change the composition of your soil.  Here are the hows and whys:
• Clay soil packs so tightly that oxygen cannot get to the roots of your plants.  It become waterlogged when wet and immovable when dry. Usually clay soil has plenty of minerals, but they are not available to the plants because no little to no organic breakdown is happening. Sandy soil allows water to flow through and has plenty of oxygen, but is sadly lacking in important minerals and organic matter.  Fortunately, the same remedy works for both extremes!
• That's the 'why' in a nutshell.  Here's the 'how':
• Pick a spot - you want at least 8 hours of sunlight a day, a place convenient to your house and devoid of tree or bush roots.
• Remove current vegetation - no tilling under future weeds!  You can scoop the grass and weeds up, or smother them with your amendments for the winter and start in the spring.
• Lay out amendments on top of your new area - they are easy to get at a garden center.  For each (approximately) 100 square foot bed (for example, 3 feet wide by 32 feet long) you'll need 2 sq ft of peat moss, 2 bags of compost, and 2-3 bags of 'soil conditioner' (this is decomposed wood chips usually). 
• Till or manually work that in. Ask around to try to borrow a tiller. Rent a tiller. Do-Not-Buy a tiller!  This will be the last time you use it! You want to work down at least 12 inches.  That's a real challenge in rock hard clay! Till on a day when the soil is not saturated, but you can moisten it a little if you are in the 'brick mode' with red clay.
• Form your edges and a barrier for your aisles. My edges are made from landscaping timbers.  Since 1993 arsenic has not been used to preserve the wood (so they are safe) and I have had timbers last over 10 years even though they are in contact with the soil (so they are cost effective).   My aisles are 24" with landscape cloth and pea gravel, but you don't have to go to that extreme. Plastic edging and wood chips would look nice, thick layers of straw would work, even old carpeting would work...just something to keep the weeds from leaping with reckless abandon into your new, fertile zone!
• Let it rest a little - give all that organic matter a few weeks to start decomposing. Get a soil test a week into your new adventure to determine your soil pH.  Pretty much everyone in the southeast of the U.S. will have acid soil, but take a sample of soil to your county extension agent. They will send your soil sample off for testing which will let you know how much lime to add.
• Check for newly germinated weeds.  All of that tilling and the fresh addition of nutrients will encourage dormant weed seeds in the soil to pop up.  Yank them to the sound of "Ha! Die, weed! Die!"  (Okay, that last step can be done quietly, but I don't think it will be as much fun.)
• How many boxes?  That is mostly up to you. Just 2 beds could provide produce year round and supplement your table.  You can always add more later.  The maximum I would recommend for a newbie to this way of gardening would be 5 beds.  We'll talk later about planting intensively and making the most about those square feet.   
• There's lots more!  See you later!