basil blight! what’s that?
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NPR ran this story yesterday: Basil Blight Threatens Pesto Lovers. I haven’t noticed any signs here yet, but now I will watch for it.
cabbage spots
Any ideas about whats causing these spots? I’m thinking it doesn’t look like insects. Maybe sunburn, because we’ve gone so fast from cool and cloudy weather to hot sunny weather? Comments appreciated.
garden thieves
Last weekend my community plot neighbor told me that some critter had been eating his sunflower seeds as he planted them. Since I planted sunflowers a couple weeks ago, I immediately went to look for my sprouts. No sprouts! Some critter has eaten mine too! While walked through the gardens I see that other gardeners have nice sunflowers growing, so its just our location. We must be in the territory of a very hungry little sunflower-eating chipmunk! On top of this I am finding evidence of a pea-thief! I pulled…
fences: what works best for garden plots?
I like the looks of all the different fences in our community garden, though many are worse for the wear after the winter. Since we will be adding a bunch of new plots, the question comes up of how to fence these. – Leave it to each gardener – Town fences the plots with standard fencing – Town provides fence materials to gardeners A fence to surround a 20 x 20 ft plot gets to be expensive. Five ft tall fencing costs at least $50 for a 50 ft roll…
book review: What’s Wrong With My Plant? (And How Do I Fix It?) by D. Deardorff and K. Wadsworth
Another very nice book that Timber Press sent me for review. What’s Wrong With My Plant? (And How Do I Fix It?) by David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth, is a brand new gardening book. Lots of step-by-step drawings of how to figure out what’s wrong with your plants. First thing I did was to check on all the vegetable problems I’ve had recently. This kept my busy for a long time. Corn ear worms, apple maggots, late blight, Septoria leaf spot, slugs, … This book is a wealth of very…
not my year for apples
Last year I carefully covered all 5 of the apples on my little Fugi tree with stockings. They ripened perfectly and were delicious. But, not being convinced that this was necessary, I left them uncovered this year. Hmmm. All four apples this look terrible. I don’t know what caused this. But I think I’ll cover them next year.
Gretta’s late blight advice
At the Seed Swap last weekend, Gretta (a local farmer, Shared Harvest CSA) talked with us about Late Blight. Her advice is to compost or dig in the tomatoes but make sure you remove all potatoes. The potatoes are the potential for spreading spores next year. Late Blight can overwinter in live plants (i.e. the potato tubers). – DON’T let ANY undug potatoes sprout next year.– Plant low crops in your old potato bed, so you can see and remove any sprouts.– Try to dig ALL your potatoes this fall.…
late blight again – the topic that just won’t go away
As I clean up for next year, the Late Blight topic is coming up again. To bag and dispose or to compost? There are two different camps out there: Composters: HortBlogGardener’s Corner (Interesting last comment here where they recommend leaving the tomato plants to overwinter in the field as is so they will self-sow.) Disposers:Maryland Cooperative ExtensionDave’s GardenCornell University Extension I hate the idea of bagging and disposing, but I am in this camp. It is impossible to predict what our winter weather will be and harder yet to predict…
This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy thinks the garden is his, even though I do all the work. We're located near Boston, in USDA zone 6. I have bees, chickens, fruit trees and berry bushes, too. I use all sustainable organic methods and strive to grow all of my family's vegetables myself. -Kathy
weeks and counting until my last spring frost
My garden this week
Skippy’s vegetable of the month – Egyptian walking onions!
