In The Garden

When I initially started this blog back in 2008 it was named The Suburban Farmer because we were living in an older neighborhood on a half acre lot. Through some very sound reasoning on my dear sons part we adopted a total of 10 chickens and started our first garden. Now that we're living on 200 acres we haven't taken the time to build a coop, but we do have a small (25X50 foot) garden. Since we no longer live in the suburbs and I like rant about GMO's, systemic pesticides, and recycling I changed the name of my blog and deleted those early post. I am, however, proud to say that we are getting two, four week old, chicks tomorrow from a friend of a friend that made a impulse buy. The garden is another story altogether.


I hate to admit that I let my garden run a muck over the winter months (not that we actually had a winter here in the deep south), but alas it was a hot, hot mess when I last laid eyes upon it. I could have raised Fall veggies all winter long or at least maintained some sort of order, but I did not. I threw my hands up in the air, walked into my air conditioned house in mid-August, closed the door and read a bunch of really good books when I wasn't catching up on my Netflix queue.



You see, last summer we had an organic garden. A garden where we homeschoolers marveled at the aphids and ants symbiotic relationship (I even included a YouTube video I found so you could enjoy watching someones hard work get destroyed by those destructive pest). This is the garden where the deer, that my husband didn't kill, ate my watermelons and pumpkin vines. A garden where the lawn mowers and weed eaters all broke in protest. In other words, a garden where the bugs and the weeds flourished.

By August the temps were near 100 (not to mention the 70% humidity) so I surrendered, and now I'm having to play catch up and get the wilderness under control. If I am to be completely honestly, and I do believe in full disclosure, I've only put in 5 to 6 hours of weeding, tilling, and shopping in on this disastrous endeavor. I'm also sporting a nice bun on my leg from an afternoon of organic weed control (IE., burning the little devils), several bruises, and a nasty blister on my thumb.

With a great deal of my husbands help lighting the torch and manhandling the tiller, our garden is almost ready to embark on another season of growing corn, tomatoes, okra, beans, watermelon, squash, cucumbers, and whatever else we can think of to plant. However, I will not make any promises to having a *100% organic garden this year. Beware Ants, Aphids, earwigs, mealy bugs, slugs, and any other pest that dare eat MY vegetables, I will keeeeeelllllllll you!


*I will not use any unnecessary or systemic pesticides.

Gardening Organically at Home

Last night, Wayne Porter, the Area Horticulture Agent from Mississippi State University Extension Service, presented a workshop on organic gardening. The information was for home gardeners, not for those wanting to sell their produce. If you're local, you might want to attend some of his workshops at the MS State Extension office in Lamar County.
He discussed the three primary concepts in organic gardening. First, he said that the building and maintaining the soil's organic content is important especially in the south. Rainfall and high temperatures break down organic matter much faster than in a cooler climates. Before planting it would be beneficial to have your soil tested so that you know what nutrients your soil needs. The testing should also give you the pH (or alkaline) of the soil. Ideally, the pH should be between 4.7 and 6.5 for vegetables. Here in Mississippi soils are acidic and need something like sulfur to lower the levels. Other adjusters include wood ash, organic matter, crushed shells and limestone. Organic matter is material that was once living.
Secondly, natural materials should be the source of your soil's mineral nutrients. Sources of organic matter include cover crops (like rye or wheat), compost, manure, crop residue and dead organisms. Cover crops are grown to control erosion and can be incorporated into the soil as green manure. Composting is a great way to deal with plant residue and is an essential component of organic gardening.
Using cultural and biologival pest control is the third concept in organic gardening. If necessary, you can purchase organic fertilizer, like blood meal, green sand, fish fertilizer, cottonseed meal, or manure. The advantage of purchasing organic fertilizer is that these fertilizers gradually release nitrogen through out the growing season. Depending on the size of your garden, the cost may make it make it difficult to get the required amount of material. For example, you would need 1,000 lbs of chicken maunre per acre to get the necessary nutrients for your plants. Also know that fresh chicken manure contains large amounts of ammonia and can damage plants. There is no guarantee that the product is organic if it's not labeled certified organic.
The healthier the plants, the less susceptible they will be to disease. Some of the strategies for disease management include crop rotation, proper plant placement, purchasing plants that are disease resistant, proper watering, and weed control. Also, if the seeds are planted at the correct time and in the ideal temperature they will have a better chance of survival. There are products like Neem Oil, Spinosad, sodium bicarbonate, Diatimaceous Earth, lime-sulfur, Rotenone Insecticide, or Bordeaux mix that can protect against predators and disease, but there are other options if you don't feel comfortable using these products. There are beneficial insects like ladybugs and praying mantis that can keep harmful insects in check or you can practice bagging of fruit, shaking, and hand picking. Ideally, planting varieties that are resistant to disease, are rapidly growing, and have a shorter growing season will decrease the chance of insect and disease. An additional problem is weed management. Tilling, flame cultivation, hand pulling, hoeing and mulch are all traditional methods of reducing weeds.
If you are interested in gardening organically, start by identifying your problem areas, gather information on management strategies, develop a list of resources, practice daily scouting, take immediate action, and practice Integrated Pest Management.

Additional resources: Sustainable Agriculture and Research and National Substaniable Agriculture Information Service

square foot gardening?

I don't think we can ever know everything that there is about any subject; that is especially true of gardening. While I was at my favorite garden center the other day, I picked up a copy of a book by Mel Bartholomew called All New Square Food Gardening. Not that we have a shortage of space, but I was interested in what he had to say about his gardening system.

I will tell you honestly that I did not sit down and read his book cover to cover. It was repetitive enough that I got the idea fairly quickly and just skimmed the remainder of the book. I tried to keep an open mind and I paid careful attention to what he said about building boxes, using his special, Mel's Mix soil, and staggering the plantings.

According to his method of gardening you should build 4 X 4 foot boxes. The plants will only require 6 inches of soil to grow, but he wants you to avoid using filler dirt since it increases the chances of weeds. After filling the boxes with equal parts of peat moss, vermiculite and blended compost, you should lay out a permanent grid. The end result is a very orderly garden.

I am loaning my copy of Mel's book to a friend, who clearly likes order. I, on the other hand, will will probably keep my raised rows and avoid obsessive compulsive gardening, it's just not my style. How do you like to set up your garden?

our garden

I'd like to say that this year's garden was a sight to behold, because we said that every year we would tweak it, making it more efficient. I think our failures came with excuses like: we moved, and we thought this or that would be a good idea.

I'm not saying our garden was a complete failure. We were drowning in okra and tomatoes, we had corn, squash, watermelons and canalope that were so good I'll never be able to look at another piece of fruit without drooling, but there were a few mistakes made.

The first mistake was choosing not to have raised rows. We've always had raised rows in the past because it is so much easier to pile the prepared soil up 6-8 inches in about 3 foot wide rows. Then all we would have to do is drag our hoe down the row making a ditch for planting our seeds. The ideal thing is to pile mulch up around the sides to help reduce weeds and to hold moisture in the soil. Here in South MS pine straw serves as the best mulch.

The other mistake we made was to put down this black cloth to help with the weeds. It did, but now that we need the change the direction of our rows (because of water flow) we are having to rip up the ground cover.

We were planning on planting lettuces, broccoli and spinach in our Fall garden, but we have entirely too much rearranging to do to get everything done in time.

Next spring I'd like to try companion planting. If you don't know what that is, it's simply means putting plants together in the garden that like each other. An example would be to plant corn with beans, cucumbers, or melons. Keeping in mind that corn does not need to be planted with tomatoes. Planting this way can have an impact on the health and yield of your plants.

So here's to next year!

A cup of tea for your garden

I have heard from every organic gardener I know that I should use compost tea in my garden. Up until three years ago, I had no idea what compost tea was or why I should use it. Well, there are a number of benefits to using it. First, it will improve your soil structure. Second, it enhances the taste of your fruits and vegetables. Third, it is safer for you, for animals and the environment because it is natural/organic. And finally, it helps to fight off disease in your plants by increasing the number of organisms on and around the plant that will compete with disease-causing organisms.



So now that you know the benefits, here is how to make a batch of simple compost tea.

You will need:
5-gallon bucket
mature compost
Water (not tap water)
Cheesecloth
Spray bottle

1) Fill the bucket about 1/3 of the way with mature compost. Then fill the bucket with water, leaving room to stir the mixture without spilling.
2) Leave the bucket out of direct sunlight, stirring at least once per day for 5 to 7 days. Stirring the mixture at least once a day will provide adequate oxygen for the tea making process. Without enough oxygen, anaerobic bacteria can start to grow and make your compost tea useless.
3) Strain the compost tea by pouring the tea through cheesecloth into a separate 5-gallon bucket.

The finished compost tea is concentrated and will need to be diluted before you apply it to your plants. Add approximately 10 parts water (not tap water) to every 1 part of compost tea.

To apply, simply fill a spray bottle with compost tea and use it to spray plant foliage. It's best if you spray the plant's leaves early in the morning or in the evening near dusk. Apply once or twice per month to control garden pests and to attract beneficial insects.