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[Beekissed]

I'm using the nursery containers where fruit trees come in. I think they may be 15 gal. They are a good size.

Mary

Then I'd be looking for a spud that will give you a higher yield than that one...that's not many taters for a container of that size. Unless, of course, you like the flavor of that particular potato over a more high yield variety, but it seems like a waste of space to only get that many potatoes in the end.

 

[ninnymary]

Then I'd be looking for a spud that will give you a higher yield than that one...that's not many taters for a container of that size. Unless, of course, you like the flavor of that particular potato over a more high yield variety, but it seems like a waste of space to only get that many potatoes in the end.

This was my first and last time growing Yukons. I like them a lot but want more potatoes. I even grew them in more compost than before. We still have 3 more containers to harvest but I'm not expecting many. Good thing it's more about the process for my preschoolers. They get excited just finding one! Going back to the red ones next year.

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

Went away for the weekend and , as usual, the garden looks like it's grown exponentially while I was gone. Sort of like a watched pot never boils concept. It rained all weekend and supposed to rain all week long too.

My garden looks the best it's looked in the past 4 yrs or so. Without having to side dress with chicken compost at all, my tomatoes are thick, deep green and growing well...usually with this much rain I'm seeing a lot of discoloration of lower leaves, some paleness in the green of the leaves due to nutrient wash, etc.

Nothing like that is happening in this hay mulch. Everything is green, lush, growing well thus far. The only pests I'm seeing, and they are few, are tiny slugs....well...and that cut worm, which seems to have gone. I need to put out more slug bait...it actually works where I put it down, just need to put it in more places...found a slug on a cuke this evening.

This time last year all my vines had been killed by squash borers and squash bugs. This year there isn't a single one in evidence yet and all my vines are growing sturdy and well. My butternut vine is climbing the trellis and has several little squash on it, the pumpkins are growing well and have huge blossoms everywhere, the beans are finally growing well and almost ready to climb the trellises, as are the cukes. A whole different garden than I had last year at this time.

My potatoes are STILL growing...I hope that doesn't mean all tops and no bottoms. They have not been bothered by Jap beetles or even flea beetles this year....maybe that cold snap this winter helped keep pest numbers down? I didn't over feed them....each bed got a thin layer of chicken compost way down in the layers somewhere but not overly much.

The peppers are not looking ill like they did last year...I had to replace all the peppers twice last year and they STILL died. They had some kind of blight or something that caused all the leaves to fall off. Not this year...all look good, are blooming and producing little peppers that I'm pinching off to force more root development.

The stuff under the low tunnel took a leap in growth, so I have to get another tunnel up and going, need to reseed some trays of greens for the next wave of planting there, and I planted my table top romaine stumps out under the low tunnel this evening...they have great tops and good roots started, so we'll see if they actually make a lettuce head.

My rhubarb is just so so compared to everyone elses out there in the world...don't know why, but I just can't seem to grow good rhubarb here. It could be the placement, as that part of the garden has a lot of moisture and heavy clay soil. Could be if I moved them into the middle of the garden they may do better. I may do that here soon and see what happens.

So far I'm pretty tickled about the garden. The pests have not arrived yet, so that may change, but for now everything looks GREAT.

 

[ninnymary]

So happy for you Bee. I know you're giving credit to the hay mulch but do you think it could also be due to all the stuff you've added for the last 3 years decomposing? You've only started using the hay this year and I was just wondering if it could work that fast?

It sure would be nice if the pests didn't arrive at all.

Mary

 

[flowerbug]

...
My rhubarb is just so so compared to everyone elses out there in the world...don't know why, but I just can't seem to grow good rhubarb here. It could be the placement, as that part of the garden has a lot of moisture and heavy clay soil. Could be if I moved them into the middle of the garden they may do better. I may do that here soon and see what happens.

So far I'm pretty tickled about the garden. The pests have not arrived yet, so that may change, but for now everything looks GREAT.

rhubarb here is in mostly clay, but it is perched at the edge of a large ditch so it is well drained (perhaps too well drains sometimes as it gets too dry back there during some of the longer dry spells we have). in full sun. grows like gangbusters. we have bugs that get after it (they poke holes in the stems), but i don't usually harvest it once it gets to that stage anyways. i told my friend who likes to pick it that it was ready the next few weeks but she hasn't made it over to pick so there's a good chance it will be left this season with just the one picking of a week ago. i picked a few stalks that were about six inches around and the person i gave them to made a comment that she had never seen rhubarb that big before. i'd hate to tell her that i could have given her about 50lbs more...

i've gradually extended the row along that line of the fence/ditch because it helps shade the ditchgrass which is a very vigorous grower and almost impossible to dig up. the good thing about it is that it has very large roots that can run a long ways but they are tough so when you do actually dig it up you can at least see the roots and they don't fall apart so easily compared to some other weeds we deal with here... between the seeds it drops and the roots it takes two or three rounds of weeding to remove it completely.

always glad to hear about a garden doing well.

 

[Beekissed]

rhubarb here is in mostly clay, but it is perched at the edge of a large ditch so it is well drained (perhaps too well drains sometimes as it gets too dry back there during some of the longer dry spells we have). in full sun. grows like gangbusters. we have bugs that get after it (they poke holes in the stems), but i don't usually harvest it once it gets to that stage anyways. i told my friend who likes to pick it that it was ready the next few weeks but she hasn't made it over to pick so there's a good chance it will be left this season with just the one picking of a week ago. i picked a few stalks that were about six inches around and the person i gave them to made a comment that she had never seen rhubarb that big before. i'd hate to tell her that i could have given her about 50lbs more...

i've gradually extended the row along that line of the fence/ditch because it helps shade the ditchgrass which is a very vigorous grower and almost impossible to dig up. the good thing about it is that it has very large roots that can run a long ways but they are tough so when you do actually dig it up you can at least see the roots and they don't fall apart so easily compared to some other weeds we deal with here... between the seeds it drops and the roots it takes two or three rounds of weeding to remove it completely.

always glad to hear about a garden doing well.

Six inches around??????? Do you know what that stuff sells for in the store???? VERY expensive. You could harvest yours and sell it at a farmer's market or even market it to your local grocers....not sure if they take locally grown produce or not.

Wish you lived near me, I'd CLEAN you OUT of rhubarb! I've never been able to grow it that nice here. Last year was the first time I had a plant grow anything really nice and then it promptly died....never came back this year.

 

[Beekissed]

So happy for you Bee. I know you're giving credit to the hay mulch but do you think it could also be due to all the stuff you've added for the last 3 years decomposing? You've only started using the hay this year and I was just wondering if it could work that fast?

It sure would be nice if the pests didn't arrive at all.

Mary

Well...the garden sucked hugely for 3 yrs with the wood chip mulch and this last fall I added the hay and in a short time it started helping the perennials there look better~the garlic started looking better, the raspberries took off. I had planted my asparagus three yrs ago...this is the first year it actually sent up spears. Some of the asparagus planted were seeds and some were started 2 yr old plants.

This spring the perennials look even better and the new annuals look even better than those. No, I don't credit the wood chips at all....my flower beds still have wood chips on them and they aren't growing ANYTHING like what's growing in the garden. Everything planted there is kind of just sitting there compared to the same things planted in the hay mulch.

In fact, the only thing that's done well in the wood chips this year was the peonies...all the roses are still puny as all get out still and two of the older roses we've had for years are now dying.

I'm switching all the flower beds over to hay this fall.

Yes, I think the wood chips composting down has added something to the garden, but wood chips as a cover mulch left much to be desired. The hay composted down more quickly than the wood chips ever did over the winter months and I see much more worm action under the hay, which tells me that more of the composted hay is being pulled into the soils and more worm castings are being produced than there ever were with the wood chips.

I haven't had to add any nitrogen at all to my plants to get them to grow this year like I have in the 3 yrs previously. I can't even truly compare my tomatoes this year to last year's....they are so much more superior in girth, height, color and health that there simply is no comparison. Same seed, same potting soil used to grow them from seed...just different mulch in the garden.

My potatoes that were all tops in the wood chips turned to lovely tops and a full harvest when I stopped using the wood chips in my grow rings and just used leaves and hay.

I'm able to keep peppers alive...that's HUGE. Haven't been able to do that since using the wood chip for mulch.

No blight on the tomatoes...another huge thing and we've had rain nearly every day for weeks now. In the wood chips, when we had that much rain I had blight in the tomatoes, the potatoes, the beans and all kinds of wilt in the vines.

No, Miss Mary, I don't think it's merely coincidence that things are doing better in the hay mulch as opposed to the wood chips. I'm sure the wood chips that have decomposed have added a little to the topsoil here but not as quickly as the hay has done.

Even at my son's garden, the things that were barely thriving took off with the application of the hay last fall and the clematis I gave them finally grew this spring, is almost to the roof now and is blooming for the first time. It remained at a foot tall for two seasons in the wood chips...if the wood chips were going to benefit it, they would have.

 

[Nyboy]

Bee I am interested in your pests before and after cats. I know you had a problem with squirrels stealing your fruit. How many cats do you have. As a working animal are they short lived ?

 

[flowerbug]

if where you are planting it the ground stays very soggy through the winter you may need to mound it so that the crowns don't rot. that is all i can think of as critical. i've never been able to kill any of mine. it's been divided and moved several times, i just quartered the clump with a shovel (otherwise i'd not have been able to move it as it was too heavy). i didn't even attempt to inspect it closely as there were plenty of plants in there.

i've never mulched them through the hard winters here and it comes back. i was worried last year that i lost it all during a very extended dry spell, it all died back to nothing, but it came back this spring ok.

i just went out to try to get a good picture of a large stem. the plants are about 4ft tall and the larger leaves are almost 2ft across. so heavy with dew right now i didn't want to get drenched. it takes me a bit to get pictures edited and posted, but i'll put it up eventually.

in the meantime this pic is from years ago when i was first getting that edge of rhubarb going, you can see it in the background (between the white poles on the left and the poles on the right) way back near the edge of the ditch, it's about twice the size now as this pic shows:

 

[Beekissed]

Bee I am interested in your pests before and after cats. I know you had a problem with squirrels stealing your fruit. How many cats do you have. As a working animal are they short lived ?

I don't have as many rabbits, moles are pretty much nonexistent...they used to have a great time under the apple trees and in a few other areas of the lawn, but we haven't seen a mole mound or tunnel for a few years now. Mom is delighted over that...she HATES running her mower over a mole mound.

No voles in my deep garden mulches at all, though toads seem to love living under it.

Squirrels? They are not as well numbered around the meadow, they no longer get the peaches~that's due to the new dog more than the new cats, but they still manage to rob me all the good apples. They leave the late maturing, less flavorful apples alone.

There are three trees that produce now every year and I've yet to taste one of the ripened fruits off them.

We planted the new apple trees further from the woods and they don't seem to bother those much, though we've yet to have a big enough fruiting on those to lure in squirrels.

I could create a dog run down there between the woods and the apple trees and I wouldn't have that problem at all...Ben is death on squirrels and even manages to catch them and eat them instead of merely running them off.

These cats are surprisingly still alive, though they range far in the woods for their hunting and living, they come back every day or every other day to eat, rest, etc. I'm shocked the owls have not picked them off, particularly the male, as he's intact and ranges much further than the female.