Early June Garden Update

It's amazing how fast Black Beans come up.  I planted this bed in two sections two days apart.  Sunday we got 2 inches of rain and the next day I had a little army of bean plants.  A row of Cucumbers runs down one edge.  Beans and cukes do well together in this bed.  I have just started a flat of cucumbers which will be planted with bush beans when the lettuce bolts in a couple of weeks.

This bed of Black Beans is a week ahead of the other.  I have a row of Bush Beans down one side.

The peas are beginning to set pods and I love my neat row of Butter Head and Romaine lettuce.
The large bed is for picking.  This row is for admiring.

The vigorous Blue Beauty tomato plant is the first to bloom.  This double bloom will produce fused fruit.

Five Good Reasons Not to Turn Your Soil

I was reading a recent blog about ways to save time in the garden, and one of the points was on not tilling or turning over you soil. 

Turning and tilling the soil:

• Brings weed seeds to the surface which means – yup – more weeding for you later.
• Increases the rate at which nitrogen is lost, which means more fertilizing for you later.
• Screws with the natural capillary action of the soil, which hinders moisture movement up from deep moisture reservoirs and means more watering for you later.
• Disturbs natural sub-soil/top-soil divisions which can actually lower soil tilth in the long-run which means more tilling for you later.
• Makes a whole lot of soil-critters temporarily homeless by destroying the natural tunnels and micro-burrows those animals have created underground. This also lowers soil tilth in the long run which also means more turning and digging and fluffing and tilling for you.

Source: Northwest Edible Life Blog

The thing I love most about raised bed gardening is not disturbing my soil.  I am a Lasagna Gardener.   I even feel bad when I have to dig a hole to place a seedling because no matter how careful I am I always end up with a couple of stunned and injured earth worms who have just had their tunnel system bombed beyond recognition.  And you can't just bury them back in the dirt and expect them to be able to dig themselves out.  I leave them on the surface in a protected spot so they can recover and find a door. Also, if you destroy the earth worm tunnels you remove the capillary system for the transfer of water to your deeper roots and increase water run off.  Not good.  When I water I never get ponding or run off.  The water disappears immediately into the soil, and I'm happy to say, down my earth worm tunnels.

I have also noticed that the less I till, the fewer weeds I have.  Sure, some come in with the compost each year, but by not turning my soil I am not bringing old seeds up to the surface where they can grow.  In the spring I just rake any non-decomposing material (usually chunks of corn cob and peanut shells) off the top of each bed and throw it back in the compost heap.  I don't even worry much about pebbles and rocks.  These chunks of material are what hold the soil together and prevent it from floating away when we get two inches of rain in an hour.

Now this one was a new one to me: Increases the rate of Nitrogen Loss.
"This is because the top 6 inches of soil contains microorganisms that break down the compost and release nitrogen, a valuable plant nutrient important for growth. Additional tilling turns over the top layer of soil, exposing the decaying compost and the beneficial organisms to air and sunlight. This releases the accumulated nitrogen in the soil and kills the beneficial microorganisms breaking down the organic matter, so more fertilizer and other nutrients must be applied."  Whoops.
Source: Negative Effects of Tilling

Well, not tilling sure saves a lot of work both in the short term and long term.

Cabbage Loopers

This morning I found half a dozen of these devouring one of my romaine lettuce plants.

They're supposed to turn into this.

But I turned them into this...

Grow Vol 11

Taunton Press

Yay!  The latest issue of Grow is available.  I wonder if Fine Gardening has ever thought of a supplement called "Kill".  It would really be handy.

Morning Aphid Update

First thing this morning I grabbed a breakfast banana and headed out to the garden.  I distributed the peel throughout the aphid bed, even draping them on the lower rungs of the tomato supports.  In my usual hunt for flea beetles I came across a few aphids but not an alarming number.  It looks like sticking them with tape and repelling them with peels does make headway.  Then I went down to Mike and Shelly's end and make sure I haven't merely driven them down there.  They could have be having breakfast with the stink bugs!

Coat a yellow cup with Vaseline or other sticky substance.  The yellow attracts bugs, and the Vaseline traps them.  But this will also trap non-target species that are good pollinators.

So this year it's Aphids

This evening as I was making the rounds with Duct Tape removing Flea Beetles from the eggplants and checking for stink bugs (I've seen two and killed one)...  I noticed aphids.  Hmmm.. quite a few aphids.  No... make that LOTS of aphids.  Ggggrrrrrr....  it's always something.  Like most pests, you see a few now and then for a year or two and then Hey Presto... they take over your garden by the millions.

Duct Tape is quite effective.  It made short work of the Asparagus Beetle Population Explosion of 2014.  Duct Tape is managing the Flea Beetles quite nicely the second year in a row.  There is a roll ready and waiting for the arrival of the Cucumber Beetles and Stick Bugs.  But.  How many leaves are there in my garden?  If I have to clean the underside of each leaf with Duct Tape once or twice a day...  Sigh.

Banana Peels repel aphids.  I dug two banana peels out of the counter composter and put a strip of peel under each eggplant and tomato plant.  Lemon Juice is a great repellent.  We'll do that tomorrow.  They are also supposed to be attracted to yellow.  So this week I will be looking for cheap yellow bowls plates or cups to hold soapy water or to be smeared with Vaseline.  This whole War on Bugs just never ends.

Gardening Goals

I was thinking the other day about my gardening goals for this year.  And then I began to wonder if it is even worthwhile to have gardening goals.  So much depends on circumstances beyond our control.  But I guess I do make goals each year.  Of course there is the obvious one:  To Do Better.  And then the universal goal of vegetable gardening: To Feed Ourselves.  But that second one is pretty basic and easy.  I don't remember the last time I bought a bean, pea, pepper,asparagus, potato, onion, garlic, cucumber or pickle but I do know it is a matter of years, not weeks or months.  And there are a lot of other things I buy only as a treat out of season like lettuce, apples and strawberries and a few things I have to supplement because we eat more than we grow such as black beans and horse radish.  But then there are the odd ball things that I have yet to master. I guess my basic goal is to learn more and expand my production in both quality and quantity.

This year my gardening goal is to grow a melon.  It can be either a watermelon or a cantaloupe.  I have plenty of plants started and they're doing well.  But this will be my first serious attempt.  Last year I made a half-hearted attempt with two or three plants of each.  This year I have planted sixteen cantaloupe plants and almost two dozen Moon and Stars watermelon plants

Moon and Stars Watermelon

I think more than goals, gardeners have hopes.  I hope this year is a good tomato year and that the stink bugs don't kill all my squash plants.  I hope the powdery mildew doesn't get out of hand.  Same goes for blight.  I hope the Okra plants produce something this year.  Anything.  Even a flower.  I hope the rainfall pattern is such that I don't have to spend four weeks straight getting up half an hour early to water seven days a week.  I hope I don't tire of the sport of exterminating Japanese Beetles, Asparagus Beetles, Flea Beetles, Cucumber Beetles ...and Slugs.

Burgundy Okra

As I have read back through several years of blog entries I have noticed a few things.  #1 we are happily not under siege by dozens of destructive raccoons.  #2 the deer are keeping a respectful distance.  #3 the slugs are virtually non-existent. #4 we have not yet had a full force invasion of any particular beetle.  This is an amazing luxury.  I have not had to go out each morning to repair damage and deal with trapped/dead vermin.

Another thing is that I've had pretty good year for germination on everything from Eggplants to Zinnias.  The direct sow plants are doing as well as the pampered and coddled indoor starts.  Extra plants have been distributed and delivered.  I have a flat of cucumbers to transplant after the second black bean bed is planted (they go along one side) and then we're done until we start picking peas.

Romaine and Butter Crunch Lettuce beside the peas

Potatoes