Amending the Soil: Winter Wheat

Two informative articles from Mother Earth News:

Cover Crops: Tips and Advantages
Restoring Soil Nutrients: Organic Gardening

I plan on getting to the garden soon to clean out my bed and plant some winter wheat.  From bread making, I had some soft winter wheat (that grows well in a warm winter climate like ours).  I'm sure you could buy some at Whole Foods in the bulk bins.  Or just ask me, I'll give you a cup - our beds are so small you don't need much.

Below are pictures from LAST December of the raised bed near my house...and my cute garden helpers.

 She thought the soft soil was chocolate.  And soon learned it wasn't.

At the farmers' market, I scored some rice hulls to act as compost as well as camouflage for the wheat kernels (so the birds wouldn't peck the wheat before they germinated.)

We also added wheat to flower pots that didn't have annuals.  Actually, I think I planted tulips in this pot (below the wheat) and it looked pretty for a day or so until it was too hot and my tulips wilted.

 Springtime...just before I turned the soil.

Neighborhood Improvements

Cary Cox, our POA president, applied for and received a grant for $1,000 from the city to make some improvements to our neighborhood.  Below you will see that most of the efforts were in the park.  Of course pictures don't do justice so please go take a look for yourself!!  Several volunteer crews have been busy (thank you!).  If you've missed out, there will be more work days. :)

The handrails on Old Forge near Clapboard Hill were given a fresh coat of paint.

Receiving landscaping attention was the traffic island also near Old Forge and Clapboard Hill.

In the picnic area of the park, a much needed giant load of mulch was dumped and spread.

Earlier in the summer these Knock Out Roses were planted and amazingly survived the dreaded drought. 

A path was built with railroad ties then filled in with mulch from the park's parking lot to the garden area.

The gazebo is getting a facelift! The old (rotting) cedar shake shingles are being replaced with new ones.

Jim and Margaret Ault were in their garden today, cleaning up and planting seeds because "the almanac says today is the day to plant."

 Someone has had success already with radishes.

 The Garden of Weedin' is now the Garden of Eatin'!  The green beans look yum!

Debbie Poirot has been working hard in her garden and it shows!  There were so many butterflies on the zinnias in the garden today when I was there.  It was beautiful to watch them.

 Debbie added pine straw around the bottom of her box.  It looks very neat and pretty.

Hey!  If anyone has hay left over after Halloween, please bring it to the garden.  We can use it as mulch or compost it.  The same goes with your bags of leaves.

 Thanks again to all the volunteer workers.

If anyone is interested in obtaining a garden box for the spring, please contact Julie:: luvmyhub AT gmail DOT com

Movie in the Park

The vice-president of our property owner's association had a great idea - to have a "move in the park" night.  A big thank you goes to Jason Bone for spearheading the project and pushing it through!  It was a huge success!

 We had a great turnout of people.

 I think we'll do it again in a few weeks.

Sweet Potatoes from the Garden

On her way to Kroger Friday night, Charlotte caught me in the yard.  She stopped and said with excitement, "You won't believe what I just got from my garden!"

She said as she was watering she noticed something orange in the dirt.  Upon further examination she realized the sweet potatoes were ready for harvest!  (There are more to be harvested.)

So that you will know how large they are, I stuck my hand next to the box.  One of them was as long as my hand!

 Congratulations, Charlotte!

Diversity in Our Garden

Just in case the extreme heat and drought like conditions have you a bit discouraged, take a look at this list of things we grew in the garden this year.

In no particular order:

Eggplant
Broccoli
Brussel Sprouts
Cabbage
Sweet Potatoes
White Potatoes
Cucumbers
Peppers - multi colors of sweet bell
Banana peppers
Jalapeño Peppers
Anaheim Peppers
Tomatoes - all kinds!
Okra
Peas
Carrots
Onions
Green beans
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Squash
Radishes
Turnips
Lettuce
Herbs - basil, parsley, cilantro, dill, rosemary
Flowers - zinnia , marigold, sunflowers

A few weeds. :)

Black Widow Sightings

 Northern Black Widow (source)

Watering in my garden tonight, my eyes were drawn to something moving in the corner.  It was a black widow spider!  I've found several in my yard and this one had a very similar web.  Unfortunately I didn't have anything with me to kill it.

April bone sent me this link about how to handle the spiders.  She killed a black widow last week on a tomato plant.

Be careful when cleaning out your beds.

Pickled Peppers

Have an abundance of peppers? Particularly banana peppers?  Did you know there is a painless preservation method?  It doesn't involve pressure cookers - and you can preserve one pint at a time.  Perfect!

Go here to learn more about pickling banana peppers or here for jalapeno peppers.

Fall Garden

Lots of people have been talking about the possibility of a fall garden.  Here is a chart that I have posted on the inside of my pantry (it was created by an Arkansan extension agent).

The inside of the wheel is the first of the month, the outer would be the end of the month.

Because it is a bit difficult to read, I've listed below what you can plant.

August
basil  (first of the month)
lettuce
mustard greens
kale
carrots
parsnips
chinese cabbage
beets
broccoli
cauliflower
collards
cucumber
cabbage
southern peas
snap beans
spinach (at the end of the month)

September
bok choi (first of the month)
pak choi
parsnips
swiss chard
carrots
spinach
beets
cauliflower
kohlrabi
collards
broccoli
cabbage
turnips
mustard
kale
lettuce
radish (end of the month)

October
cover crops (I planted wheat last year)
winter peas
lettuce
shallots
garlic
leeks
collards
kohlrabi
mustard
spinach
turnips

November
garlic, shallots
lime the soil
(protected because frost is near!)
salad greens
lettuce in cold frame
turnips
collards
turn the soil
cover crops

Sharing

Debbie Poirot would like to share from her abundance of mint, sage and oregano if anyone would like some.

She also wrote to tell me that:

Made roast chicken and fresh from the garden roasted cherry tomatoes and sage for dinner last night. The cherry tomatoes are incredibly good when they are cooked!

In the News

The Democrat Gazette ran a piece on neighborhood community gardens in Saturday's paper - highlighting our garden.  I would link to it, but you have to subscribe to the paper to read the article.  

The most exciting part (at least in my opinion) is the fact that my number one son's mug was on paper.  :)

We love our garden in so many ways.

Democrat Gazette

A photographer for the Dem. Gazette came by our garden this week.  Apparently in Saturday's paper there will be a piece by Janet Carson on community gardens.  If you're a paper reader, be sure to look for the article.

Plant markers

Very cute plant marker idea - details here.

Thanks to the post about squash borers, we were able to extract them from our plants.  Since half of our box is squash and zucchini, we set out to tackle them this past Saturday.  We cut open all of the stems and found 2 to 4 borers in each of them.  In some cases, the borer would be found in the stem exactly where it was "rotting", but in other cases, they would be high up in the stem where it was still green.  In most of the plants, we also found little black beetles that are more than likely pollen beetles.  We then covered the cuts we made with soil and watered.  We checked on them yesterday and only found one more borer in one of the plants.  We hope the stems will heal!  It may just be my imagination, but the plants looked healthier after 24 hours with no borers!!

Thanks again!

Daniel White

Gloating

If you were at the pool tonight, you probably heard me gloating.  Here's a portion of tonight's harvest.  A few tomatoes were eaten and I gave away a few banana peppers.

Send pictures of your harvest and I'll post them.  Let's gloat together.

Curled Leaves on Tomato Plants

Hi Julie,
I may also have an answer as to why Jim Ault's tomato leaves are curling.  My friend in Judsonia had 60 tomato plants that had leaves that were curling.  She thought she had blight and took a sample to her extension office.  They ran some tests and it turns out her problem was that she had put down bagged manure and it was more than the plant could tolerate.  Now that the potency is getting less the plants are returning to normal.  I know Jim Ault put a bunch of bagged manure on his plants.  He added it not too long ago.  He was talking about how it smelled his car up before he could get it to the garden.

Charlotte


{Comment from Julie:  I'm so thankful for Charlotte's input.  Please feel free to email me with any thoughts or tips you have.  My address is luvmyhub AT gmail DOT com}

Attack of the Squash Borer

Julie,
I have found some squash borers. I noticed some of my squash that was looking limp looking and got to checking it and found a white worm in the stem. I didn't check everyones but the box that is labeled Want a Be Gardener has them really bad.  Jim Ault was down there and he has them also. Randy came by and we checked his and he also has them. You might want to notify everyone. Here is a link to some information I found. You might also have some information.
Charlotte 

The below pictures are from this site, which also has helpful information.

source

source

Veggie Thief?!

Last week my son picked our first purple pepper.  It was an exciting event.  There was another we left on the plant, to pick later.

When we came back a few days later - it was gone!  A friend of mine said a squirrel could have picked it, or maybe even a raccoon.

Charlotte and I discussed this traumatic turn of events and later she emailed me to say:

I went down to the garden this afternoon and I was missing a little small eggplant that had just started to form.  I forgot that I did have a squash go missing while I was gone to Natchez.  I had a patty pan squash that was pretty big and was expecting it to be almost big enough to pick when I got back.  However it was gone when I got back.  That's why I put the wire cages around them.  Don't know why something would choose a small undeveloped eggplant over several big peppers right in the same area.  Guess it's just one of those things we're going to have happen from time to time!  I may look for some more netting like I have over my strawberries.  I've had it for a long time but I'm thinking I probably bought it somewhere like Home Depot.


Anyone else had veggies missing?

More Pretties

I love watching the creativity and personality bloom in our garden!

 Rebecca Walker painted their family's sign, as well as the Veggie Tale character rocks.

 Jim Ault added a different airplane recently.

Very Hungry Caterpillars

Some of you may be endeared to Eric Carle's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  I'm in that stage of life where I probably have it memorized.

Nonetheless I do not think real caterpillars are cute.  I squish them at every chance.

For caterpillars will eat my veggies, herbs or flowers if given the chance.  I'd rather they eat a cupcake (like in the book and get a tummy ache.)

Recently I've squished two caterpillars in my garden.

The first one looked like the dreaded tomato horn worm in miniature form.  If you squint just right you can see it on the tip of my finger.  I picked it from my tomato plant and it appears to have a horn growing from its head.  However, I've never seen one quite this small.  I squished it anyway.  No caterpillar is a good caterpillar in my book.

source

FYI - tomato horn worms can do a LOT of damage to your tomatoes in a little bit of time.  A friend of mine suggests going to the garden at night with a flashlight to find and squish them.  They like to hide in the day and munch at night.

According to this site, the below caterpillar is a kind of moth (scroll to the bottom of the page.)  I found it on a pepper plant.

Decorations for the Garden

According to the Ripley's rain gauge, we got about 1/2 inch of rain on Saturday.   Wahoo!

Other additions for this weekend - garden flags. 

I cut triangles from an old sheet with pinking shears then let my children color the cloth with fabric crayons.  Idea came from The Artful Parent.

 I also found a tree monkey in the garden.

No Nonsense: Staking Tomatoes

Just when you thought the world could live without knee highs...I've got the perfect use for them...staking tomatoes!  I learned this trick from my grandmother: cut strips from pantyhose to use to tie up tomatoes.  This bag of knee highs came from a garage sale last summer.

Nylon is perfect for tying up your plants because it is stretchy and forgiving.  It won't harm your plants.

If you would like a pair of knee highs, I have extra.  Just promise you won't wear them!