tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post2842295752669996410..comments2024-03-11T02:25:25.123-05:00Comments on Living Low in the Lou: What my garden told me: results of the 2013 garden dialogueSLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-81217836271145485322014-02-20T19:23:26.459-06:002014-02-20T19:23:26.459-06:00Thanks so much for taking the time to share your g...Thanks so much for taking the time to share your garden data! I'm amazed by how detailed it is. This will be my second growing season in St. Louis city, so I'm still trying to figure out the best times to start seeds and get plants in the ground!Rachelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09263322694578212375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-75888661802500003952013-12-30T11:21:01.700-06:002013-12-30T11:21:01.700-06:00I had to break up my reply due to Blogger's ch...I had to break up my reply due to Blogger's character limit. Here's the rest.<br /><br />I had to look at our globe to figure out what you meant about the sun being too strong where you are. I see you must not be too far off 30 degrees south while I am at 39 degrees north, thus you get stronger sunlight than I do, plus you have more problem with loss of the ozone layer than I experience. We are supposed to put vegetable gardens where they will get at least 6 hours, preferably 8 or more hours, of full sun during the growing season. Perhaps that will change as warming continues. Maybe I won't mind the neighbor having planted that oak tree to the east of my veggie gardens after all ...<br /><br />Like you, I think garlic doesn't need that much fertility. My biggest problem with it and the potato onions is getting them through the winter without having them heave out of the ground due to freeze/thaw cycles. Mulching works for that, but I have found it is critical to remove the mulch in early March, else the developing leaves perish. And I have to be careful to weed them well and not over-water them, and remember to harvest the potato onions right when the leaves dry up.<br /><br />I see it is way too hot where you are; my sympathies, and I hope it cools off soon! Do you normally get rains during the summer or is that a dry season for you? Around here winter is drier but the growing season averages enough rain except during the hottest spells. However, the way the jet stream has been getting itself stuck in loops the last few years, unpredictability has been worse than it normally is. The loop it is stuck in now has brought us colder and drier than normal weather so far this winter.SLClairehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-6333576938251882032013-12-30T11:19:02.280-06:002013-12-30T11:19:02.280-06:00Hi Chris,
Thanks for your comment! I admire your ...Hi Chris,<br /><br />Thanks for your comment! I admire your work with your garden so I am grateful for the thoughtfulness you put into your comment and the encouragement you gave me.<br /><br />Yes, I do notice our seasons are warming overall, though that can be masked by the wide variations from one year to the next that are typical of locations in the middle of large continents. I have lived here since 1984 and it is very clear to me, at least, that winter lows are considerably milder than during the first 15 years I lived here. The coldest lows in winter used to drop below 0F/-18C several times every winter and most winters the coldest low would dip to -10F/-23C or less. However, the official winter low hasn't dropped below 0F since 1999 and hasn't gotten as low as 5F in the past three winters, nor so far this winter. Spring-flowering trees like dogwood and redbud are blooming about two to three weeks earlier on average than they did when I first moved here. The average yearly total of heating degree days, a rough measure of how much heating fuel is needed, has dropped and that of cooling degree days has increased. The growing season seems to be somewhat longer as well.<br /><br />I make my own compost from garden and kitchen wastes because of the concern you mentioned. Some people in different parts of the U.S., though not here that I know of, have had gardens destroyed from purchased compost that included plants treated with a systemic herbicide that did not get broken down in the composting process. I use autumn leaves from the huge oak trees in our neighbors' yards for mulching because I know they aren't using any treatment on their lawns. I also have a pile of wood-chip mulch, used on the perennial beds, that came from one of our trees and whatever else was in the truck bed before grinding up our tree. It has proven itself good by use and was free besides.<br /><br />Up to now I have dug in the minerals up to a foot/30cm deep on the annual vegetable beds. But now I am not sure that is the best way to re-mineralize the soil. Right now I am leaning toward scratching in the minerals to only a few inches at most, perhaps just scattering them on the surface if that seems best or if I am lazy. The cottonseedmeal and compost I will just toss on the surface. I want to avoid digging even in most of the annual beds this year and move toward more cover-cropping and scattering of any amendments and compost. Certain beds, like potatoes and onions, will be dug of necessity. With rotation moving those beds each year, that may be enough digging. I hope so; I'd like to avoid as much of that work as possible.<br /><br />I do save the easy seeds and have a goal to learn to save the more-difficult or more space-consuming seeds over time. It would be fun some year to compare crops grown from seeds that I've saved to those grown from seeds of the same variety that are commercially available, to see what if any differences exist. I suspect you are right about that improving yield.SLClairehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-81743929090683253042013-12-21T23:05:30.596-06:002013-12-21T23:05:30.596-06:00Hello. Fantastic work. Really interesting stuff.
...Hello. Fantastic work. Really interesting stuff.<br /><br />The weather can have a large impact on your yields too. It varies here quite markedly from season to season. I noticed you mentioned the impact of your warm autumn on yields. Out of interest are your seasons getting warmer? They seem to be here.<br /><br />The other thing you may want to consider is that as the years progress, you'll have a higher number and diversity of bacteria and fungi in your vegetable beds and this will assist your yields, as well as the overall pest and disease resilience. Do you purchase your compost or mulches from the same place? You never know what you'll bring onto your property. I assume you threw the minerals onto the surface of the soil, or did you dig them in?<br /><br />The other thing that comes to mind is that you may be building up larger and more diverse colonies of propagating insects and predator insects. Mineralizing the soil does make plants less attractive to pests too, which will also increase your yields through lower losses.<br /><br />You have a huge variety of vegetables. Do you save the seeds? This may improve your yields as the years go on too. I let many plants follow their own cycles and they become really hardy, plus they tell me when they are ready to grow and fruit etc.<br /><br />Crop spacing is less of an issue here as the sun is too strong. As an alternative perspective, the UV rays from the sun sterilise the top layers of soil so I try to leave no soil without plant material shading it. Shading doesn't seem to be as much of an issue here. Dunno.<br /><br />It was interesting what you were writing about the garlic. I suspect that it has lower fertility requirements than other plants. I'm part of a growing trial here (35 varieties out of a possible 80) and some of the local growers who have better soils than here are reporting problems and we are theorizing that excess fertility may be a problem. Again, dunno, the commercial growers are having problems this year too.<br /><br />Well done.<br /><br />ChrisFernglade Farmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06950962122594709186noreply@blogger.com