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October 12th, 2007
Best.season.ever.
The organic gardening and companion planting truly paid off. I’ve heard others complain about the bugs, and the only real trouble I had were the flea beetles. But I’m certain they were fewer in numbers, and once I learned (thanks to Paul James) that a certain amount of ornamental damage from flea beetles is acceptable and inevitable, I’m okay with it.
I had two Japanese beetles, which are new to me. Considering others had huge infestations, I feel good. One beetle munched on a pepper leaf, no big deal. I squashed him and displayed his corpse in the garden to let other Japanese beetles know it was a danger zone. (This is suggested…it sends out a scent or something.) The other one I dropped into a cup of diat. earth, which was a horrible, razor-sliced way to die and I feel kind of sad. Stepping on him would have been more humane.
I saw ONE – count it, ONE – cucumber beetle on the green beans. That’s glorious. I did daily, detailed inspections, including under leaves and there just weren’t any others. Fabulous!
I did have the squash vine borer that killed the Blue Hubbard squash, but I had put that plant out as a trap plant, and it did its job. I’m still so proud of my Blue Hubbard, giving its life that way so the rest of my garden could thrive.
A moment of silence once again for my Blue Hubbard and its bravery….
My uncle, who lives by Sevin, lost his entire pumpkin crop to vine borers. He would never admit the organic way might have something to it, though. He thinks I’m a moonbat.
This summer’s compost pile turned out BEAUTIFULLY. Wow, it was the perfect compost. It was a smaller batch than my first batch, since I didn’t have bags and bags of fall leaves, but I did good. My neighbor, who really enjoys my gardens a lot because I’m always growing unusual things, came over as I was pitching compost. (I know my grandfather was looking down with a twinkle in his eye and getting a real kick out of me with my pitch fork – I looked like a real farmer in suburbia!)
I explained the concept of composting to her, and she said “That stuff looks just like what you buy in bags at the store.”
Yeah, but it’s so much better.
I spread some out back in a weed patch. I do mostly my own method of lasagna now: newspapers and old cardboard (basement corner is always full of Amazon and other boxes I’ve saved), topped with straw, topped with compost and planted in hairy vetch. Hairy vetch is the new greenery of the gods as far as I’m concerned. (Uncle thinks that’s about the craziest thing he’s ever heard.)
I’ve pulled up the eggplants…they weren’t producing. In fact, they didn’t do that well this year, at least my favorite, lavender eggplants. Usually those are pretty heavy producers, but I think I overplanted, plus I had let my running bamboo make it’s way around the northish side of the vegetable garden. Looked gorgeous, but was too much shade and crowded things out.
Relocating all of that bamboo is my biggest job this fall, along with looking for runners and pulling them out. I love that bamboo! A panda bear could be mighty happy in my back yard.
I’ve also cut back peppers and tomatoes to allow them to focus on the fruits left. They’ll stay until it frosts, then all goes into the compost pile. By mid November, that compost pile should be filled to the top with garden waste and the zillions of leaves. Have I mentioned lately that I do love the Black and Decker Leaf Sucker and Chopper? (I’ve also been happy with Black and Decker’s customer service I must say. Despite my threats, I remain a loyal and happy customer.)
When that first frost comes, I’ve got a LOT of jobs: dig up my huge lantana (that is now about six feet wide), dig up some purple fountain grass, take in the hibiscuses (hibisci?), oxana (clover things), and spider plant. Oh, and a boston fern I got. Those all go to the basement for winter.
After frost, I need to cut back the dahlias, then wait two weeks and dig them up, then store the tubers.
Right now I’m focusing on the lasagna work, planting the vetch and I want to go ahead and plant butterfly weed seeds. I think they need to freeze in order to germinate, so I’m just planting them outdoors for next year. I enjoyed my butterfly garden so very much this year. Wow.
Oh, back to the summer garden…not ONE disease. Nothing. I worked in a half a bag of Aunt Jemima’s cornmeal when I worked up the vegetable garden. I’m sure that controlled any fungal disease, and I had no damping off, nothing. My garden still looks like a beautiful summer garden. There’s no die back, nothing. And a zillion Ananas melons growing, some volunteer gourds, lots of peppers and tomatoes.
I’ve also got a lovely goldenrod plant smack in the middle. I might relocate it next spring or not. It’s supposed to attract the spined soldier bug, but I havent’ seen any yet. I find it hard to distinguish the soldier bug from stink bugs, and I’m not really willing to sniff the stink bug for testing purposes.
Another task: gather seeds from the marigolds for next year.
All in all, this year’s gardens were a huge success. As usual, I learned some things to do differently next year. I’m constantly fine tuning. But I’m really pleased at how well the program worked out. Very few bad bugs and no diseases.
Paul James and Sally Jean Cunningham are the king and queen.
Possibly Related PostsThis entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2007 at 10:25 am and is filed under Organic Gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.