Midway Point Update

The end of July marks what I call the half way point of the main gardening season here in my neck of the woods. It’s far enough along that you can reflect on what you did right will do differently next year, but there is still time to reap some of the lessons learned in the current year!

Last year I posted tomato advice. Oh, the tomatoes! Why didn’t I take my advice from last year?! We needed a better staking/caging system, and needed to trim the tomato plants to keep them within their boundaries. Also, I had been saving eggshells all winter, grinding them up in my mortar & pestleto use with some special tomato fertilizer I purchased to help prevent blossom end rot (nevermind inconsistent watering). When it came time to transplant my fledgling babies outside, I completely forgot about the items I had earmarked for tomato planting. Such is life.

This year, we’ve had a few winners and learned a few things:

*My Nasturtiums finally started mounding and flowering just the other day! They seem to like being in the shaded area of the garden that doesn’t seem to get as much sun as the other parts. We've had but one flower on 6 to 8 plants, but I like their mounding style nonetheless.

*The pumpkins and butternut squash are doing superbly – we planted them in the area we sheet mulched that had been amended with organic soil improvements, and they took off! I counted 30 pumpkins ripening the other day. Lots of pumpkin pie, pumpkin butter, roasted pumpkin, roasted pumpkin seeds, candied pumpkin…

*The “let it be” attitude towards bugs is actually working quite well. While I did take care of a large infestation of harlequin bugs via handheld vacuum earlier this summer, we simply let most bugs exist. We are having a little aphid problem right now – we had to take out the one Okra plant that was doing well because it became overwhelmed with aphids, and the water spraying didn’t take care of them. The gold finches eat the ants that milk the aphids, so I don’t want to use much else on them…

*The waspinator I purchased from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply was worth every penny. Wasps tended to stay out of the garden mostly, and their levels were tolerable.

*I learned what a cicada killer was, and saw them up close. My fear of them isn't 100% gone, but I understand them now, and we coexist.

*We had far fewer bug infestations this year vs. last year. I didn't go out at night at all and pick any caterpillars off plants! I consider that a good thing in that the garden is starting to tend to itself.

Advice for my future self:

*Compost compost compost. Add it to everything. Well, almost everything. Oh, and mulch everything too!

*Start some seeds outside, and earlier. Hope late frosts are something that happen in 2008 and not 2009.

*Use ¼" soaker hose for the drip system rather than the other types of drips – the tiny soaker hoses are more effective and deliver water deeper. In the case of the tomatoes, this would have certainly helped with the blossom end rot.

*Onions don't like wind, and would likely have done better in amended soil. Plant more closely together in the raised beds next year.

*Succession planting. Please succession plant next year! Better yet, start this weekend! I beg myself to do this every year and tend to forget, leading me to the next item:

*Use the calendar more effectively. I need to utilize my calendar to remember when I started certain seeds, when I planted things outside, when I mowed, I like the small leather bound calendar I purchased, but just need to use it more. It’s been fun to go back to January/February and see what I was writing (when I was using it).

*Plant more stuff. Our yard still seems really barren. With the Fair Oaks Harvest Day coming up on Saturday, that is definitely something I can improve upon. (Some vedors will be there, I'm sure). Part 2: Plant more stuff in pots.

*August is the "second spring" here in Northern California. Many seeds germinate well in warm temperatures and will last through the heat of our Fall.

*Don't let harvests go to waste. If all else fails, freeze the bounty.

*Half-strength fish emulsion works wonders. Continue this practice every other week for all plants that benefit.

*3 words - Floating row covers.

*Water the strawberries more when they are putting out flowers. You might actually get fruit that way.

I will add to this list over the next few months as is turns colder. I can't wait to see how far we can "season extend" our garden this year!