It’s NOT time to give up now! Lessons learned. Can you relate? (Garden + Life)
On my video that I recorded middle of August you’ll hear the sadness & desperation as I cling to the hope that the garden will be bountiful.
However this year it will something I will have to let go and learn to accept that this year’s garden sucketh. I’m still holding out hope for some kind of redemption story but I”m afraid that it will in next year’s garden.
I’ve been gardening for at least 15 years and I LOVE growing things. I find it so fascinating, rejuvenating, spiritual as I stand in awe at what God has created. How HE has designed everything to grow, to reproduce to NEVER give up. And this my friends include You and I.
So let’s break it down – what lessons have I learned and how to move on with my chin up!
The weather ya’ll was just dumb, and not in my favor at all. It was something like I’ve never experienced before. Let’s talk about it.
Make sure to watch the video 1st!
BLIGHT:
Due to the weather – rain and humidity – really created some issues for me. Such as BLIGHT the dreaded blight- both tomatoes and half of my potatoes really took a hit (they are in the same family Solanaceae, the nightshade family) I have not experienced early blight maybe ever, or only once that I can remember. It always seems to hit later on but it also could be because our daylight hours dwindle very quickly.
Once I discovered it AND it dawned on me what was going on I sprayed the leaves and plants with Copper Bonide Captain Jack’s Copper Fungicide is what I used, several times. I believe about 4 times- one week apart to help slow it down. It seemed to help the actual tomatoes to not turn all black although there has been a couple. The plants however look atrocious! I am still getting tomatoes but there is NO WHERE near the amount I typically do. So I’m evaluating what I can do with the tomatoes, what’s most important, what I have on hand already, what we use most. It’ll be a split between Tomato Sauce & Dragon Farts (a hot salsa).
TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY – AKA GARDEN
We expanded the garden two years ago to a total of about 10,000 sq feet. The “old” side took a hard hit this year. We thought we were doing enough with the chicken poop aka liquid cold and even planted a cover crop last year to help (barley). But it’s looking like it wasn’t enough and we will need to bulk up that side of the garden BIG TIME! We plan on letting the pigs hang out there all winter long which will do a great job of adding in nitrogen, yay! Plus using the pine shavings mixed with chicken poop that we put into our compost and it over winters we’ll use that to top dress all the plants after they are in the garden for a couple of weeks.
WEEDS
Oh my gosh, the weeds!! Seriously I’ve never had such a huge problem with weeds. Was it me? Was it you? Was it the weather? Was it just bad luck? I have NO IDEA, but they kicked my butt this year! Between the rain, all the rain, so much rain then the heat and humidity it was hard to get out to the garden as often as I typically do. Plus I was trying to balance spending time with the kids (they are growing like weeds to) and I don’t want to miss out on their childhood digging weeds. Ya know what I’m saying?
LESSONS FOR ALL
- I will survive
- There will be food
- Next year’s garden will be better
- Plan to tackle whatever weather comes my way
- Keep track of EVERYTHING (weather, rain fall, frost dates, pests, issues) read more about that HERE in my Garden Journal Challenge
PLUS:
I can not stress this enough to have tools on hand to combat whatever may get thrown at you- I have a few favorites that I will end up using if it’s absolutely necessary. Here’s a few that I recommend
Garden-tone Organic Fertilizer
Pest Management
Diatomaceous Earth (DE) Food Grade Only – works great for all kinds of pests & safe – only apply when it’s dry out (no rain or watering in the forecast)
Monterey Spray with Spinosad -is an important one that we use to control potato bugs, worms on any tree, and even slugs eating the brassica’s. It must contain “Spinosad” .
-Neem Oil-useful against fungi, mildews, and rusts
