Some Garden Thoughts
Although I have been gardening for almost 45 years, I don't consider myself anything more than an amateur when it comes to getting some nice vegetables out of my garden. I read lots of books with The Victory Garden and the New Victory Garden being my favorites. Bob Thomson's ideas on getting an early start on tomatoes helped me have fruit set by June 5 of this year, a first here in Mansfield, MA.
Our weather this year has been less than ideal with a short hot spell followed by lots and lots of cloudy and cool days and more rain than is really necessary. Despite the weather I have had some nice lettuce production and the peas have done very well, with my last pickings taking place this weekend.
My potatoes are also doing very nicely as I have harvested some early "Red Bliss" that I actually got from BJ's for eating. However, after a week in the closet, I found that many of the potatoes were developing "eyes" so I thought I would experiment and plant some. The result has been very nice, as we had our first garden only meal of red bliss potatoes, peas and boston lettuce. My tomatoes, started indoors and transplanted at least 3 times into larger receptacles prior to putting them out into the garden are at least 4 feet tall and have lots of fruit and flowers growing. I planted my first 4th of July tomatoes in the garden on April 17 and used the wall of water and plastic covers around some 5 foot high wire fencing that is 2 feet in diameter. Bob Thomposon suggests using concrete reinforcing mesh, but I found that to be too much trouble and also a bit dirty with rust. Instead I bought a 50 foot roll by 5 feet tall 12 gauge fencing wire that has 2 inch by 4 inch openings. I cut the fencing at 79 inch length to make my tomato cage. That has
worked really well in both holding up the tomatoes and in protecting them from the wind and cold in late April and May, as I put 4ml plastic covering around each cage. I also bought 10 foot electric conduit pipe that I cut in half and use as stakes. These stakes work quite well at both holding up tomatoes and keeping the cages from tipping over from heavy winds that come along once in a while.
I have relied on cow manure (last year), horse manure (picked up free this year) and compost from our town compost area for a lot of my nutrients. The cow manure was excellent, having lots and lots of worms in it. Those worms have multiplied a great deal over the last year. I can still remember 9 years ago when I first started the garden and could not find one worm in any of the ground I turned over. The horse manure was a bit fresh, so I think that it may have had somewhat of an adverse affect on some of my vegetables. The town compost is ok, but the stuff is not turned over or kept clean, so I have to do some work to get that ready for the garden. I go over to the town recycle center once a week, load up a 5 gallon can of compost after I get rid of the weeds that grow on top, loosen up the compost and get rid of plastic bags, plastic bottles and lots of rocks. I then put that into a large plastic container in the back of my wife's Forrester and add 6-7 more cans before taking it home. I do about three trips (2 miles round trip) to get enough compost to cover one bed for me.
I also have an area in the back where I compost all the left over garden debris, old leaves from the maple and oak trees and kitchen vegetable leftovers. That area grows quite large as the summer moves along. I have used the compost created from that pile quite a bit this year and my plants have been very happy.
Our weather this year has been less than ideal with a short hot spell followed by lots and lots of cloudy and cool days and more rain than is really necessary. Despite the weather I have had some nice lettuce production and the peas have done very well, with my last pickings taking place this weekend.
My potatoes are also doing very nicely as I have harvested some early "Red Bliss" that I actually got from BJ's for eating. However, after a week in the closet, I found that many of the potatoes were developing "eyes" so I thought I would experiment and plant some. The result has been very nice, as we had our first garden only meal of red bliss potatoes, peas and boston lettuce. My tomatoes, started indoors and transplanted at least 3 times into larger receptacles prior to putting them out into the garden are at least 4 feet tall and have lots of fruit and flowers growing. I planted my first 4th of July tomatoes in the garden on April 17 and used the wall of water and plastic covers around some 5 foot high wire fencing that is 2 feet in diameter. Bob Thomposon suggests using concrete reinforcing mesh, but I found that to be too much trouble and also a bit dirty with rust. Instead I bought a 50 foot roll by 5 feet tall 12 gauge fencing wire that has 2 inch by 4 inch openings. I cut the fencing at 79 inch length to make my tomato cage. That has
worked really well in both holding up the tomatoes and in protecting them from the wind and cold in late April and May, as I put 4ml plastic covering around each cage. I also bought 10 foot electric conduit pipe that I cut in half and use as stakes. These stakes work quite well at both holding up tomatoes and keeping the cages from tipping over from heavy winds that come along once in a while.I have relied on cow manure (last year), horse manure (picked up free this year) and compost from our town compost area for a lot of my nutrients. The cow manure was excellent, having lots and lots of worms in it. Those worms have multiplied a great deal over the last year. I can still remember 9 years ago when I first started the garden and could not find one worm in any of the ground I turned over. The horse manure was a bit fresh, so I think that it may have had somewhat of an adverse affect on some of my vegetables. The town compost is ok, but the stuff is not turned over or kept clean, so I have to do some work to get that ready for the garden. I go over to the town recycle center once a week, load up a 5 gallon can of compost after I get rid of the weeds that grow on top, loosen up the compost and get rid of plastic bags, plastic bottles and lots of rocks. I then put that into a large plastic container in the back of my wife's Forrester and add 6-7 more cans before taking it home. I do about three trips (2 miles round trip) to get enough compost to cover one bed for me.
I also have an area in the back where I compost all the left over garden debris, old leaves from the maple and oak trees and kitchen vegetable leftovers. That area grows quite large as the summer moves along. I have used the compost created from that pile quite a bit this year and my plants have been very happy.
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