Here is the veggie garden in wintertime - now asleep
Happy Solstice!Yea - the days get longer now - and here it is the closing of the class . As I bet at winter , the first two months of wintertime - November - December are done and only two more month of winter ( January - February ) to endure . Then its other spring and off to the raceway ! But let ’s slow up things down a bit . December is a great month to reflect on the horticulture time of year and expect at what worked and what did n’t work in the garden during the past year and what I might do otherwise .
So what work and what did n’t ?
Here is the veggie garden in winter-now asleep
-I only lost 10 % of my Lycopersicon esculentum craw vs. last year ’s 50 % tomato crop loss to the dreaded beet leafhopper . I covered almost all of my tomato plant with row covering from May 15th until the first workweek of July . The leafhopper leave alone when the showery season comes and this year they hung out till the beginning if July when it started rain . -The downside of this is I really do n’t like NOT SEEING my plant hiding under the wrangle cover - I care watching them grow , but that seems to be a tradeoff . Also I need to endeavor to graft my tomato outside earlier than May 15th to examine to get tomato to begin with .
-Rotating my crops seem to help oneself with diseases . I have everything on a three - yr revolution , which is why I made an additional 1000 sq ft discussion section last year , giving me a total of ( 3 ) 1000 ft sections . I move the crop around so they only fall to the same division every 3 days . The pumpkins apply to have their own additional section in the horse corral but now that I have a cavalry ( Koko ) , I will put them into the rotation in the primary veggie garden since the corral has been reclaimed by Koko .
-Speaking of pumpkins , I need to encounter a mode to keep critter from eating them although it was almost impossibleto keep the rabbits away early in the time of year when food was hard to find for them - even with 2 fences and row covering over the pumpkins , something ate my prized potential pumpkin industrial plant , so I ’ll be thinking on that one a lot more this wintertime . Plus I want to get the plants alfresco earlier too if I ’m to have a opportunity to break the state criminal record again …
-I covered my eggplants with run-in cover for a while this twelvemonth thereby keep off the first hail storm ’s devastating damage . That first hail tempest set back many of my vegetables due to the severe wrong by about a month . The downside was aphids found the eggplants underneath the quarrel cover song and it was a struggle to get rid of them . The aphids also went after the summer squeeze and peppers with all the rain we got . I control them with unattackable sprays of piddle on them and insecticidal soap . Also lady bug appeared and came to the deliverance eating many aphids ( and I did n’t have to buy them ) . I think I want to take the rowing cover earlier .
The almost finished greenhouse was implausibly live last summer-110 ° F . Too hot to farm anything which was fine as it was n’t quick anyway . So after I bring to button it up this winter , I will have to incur ways to cool it down next summer . Still , I have a glasshouse ! I ’ll take the challenge it will represent .
-I have to say I enjoyed all the rain we got after 4 years of an extreme drouth . The fruit tree love all the rain but 2 more hail storm almost wiped out the vegetable crops especially the chard and squash . It was amazing anything survived plus the one week of rainwater that we got - about 3 inches - water down the feeling of the tomatoes for about 2 week but then they bounced back .
Most of the problems come from Mother Nature and there is not much one can do about her - she does what she wants and we necessitate to conform . We always think we have everything in control and then wham ! She does a number on us !
-I will farm more tomato plant plants and other veggies to sell at the Farmer ’s Market as many people seemed delirious to test some of the different varieties I produce . To this impression , I think the greenhouse will be great asset this springiness .
So now I will be going over all the catalogue that are come in and get down to plan the veggie garden for 2014 .
Happy Holidays !
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