How To Nature

Category: vegetables

  • Drip Irrigation For The Vegetable Garden: I’m Getting The Gear

    Tomato plant in raised bed
    Drip irrigation – I’ll do what it takes to keep my tomatoes happy.

    One of my garden goals for 2017 is to switch over to drip irrigation for my vegetable garden raised beds. Last year, I used a tripod sprinkler, which wasted a lot of water and left me with some disease problems.

    I’ve been pretty intimidated at the thought of drip tubes. You basically buy all the parts to make a custom hose and put it together yourself. Where’s my welding torch? Oh yeah, I don’t have one.

    So you need to make sure you have the right lengths and types of tubing. The parts have names that are extremely not self-explanatory. What’s the difference between soaker dripline and microtubing? And let’s not get started on fittings and couplings. I’m sure I’m going to punch a hole in the tubing where I don’t want a hole.

    Where Do I Start?

    I’ve started listening to and loving the Encyclopedia Botanica podcast by the Seattle Urban Farm Company, so I searched for drip irrigation on their blog to see if they had anything to say about it. I found this post on drip irrigation, in which Seattle Urban Farm Company’s Hilary Dahl recommends the Dripworks Garden Bed Irrigation Kit. Everything I need in one box? No more deciphering? Sounds good to me.

    On the product page for the kit, Dripworks has (smartly) included a how-to video, which I will be studying diligently and taking notes on. And bonus — it looks like a welding torch is not required.

    This stuff is just not second nature to me. While the video is great, there are still a few things I’m confused about.

    Backflow prevention. I hear they might be important. No idea if I need it. Websites suggest you check with your local city code to see if they’re required. Ppfftt. I don’t know who to ask — I don’t even know what to Google. I just want to grow some tomatoes! I’m not adding an addition onto my house! I skipped it for now.

    Timer weight worries. The Dripworks website recommends a high-pressure hose extension if you plan to use a timer. I’ll definitely be using a timer, but it doesn’t seem like it will be heavy enough to mess up my spigot. Anyone have experience with this?

    Distance to the beds. Another issue is that the spigot and the raised beds aren’t exactly close to each other. Does anyone bury the hose that runs from the spigot to the beds? Is that a good idea?

    Dripworks offers one of those real-time chats on its website, so that’s a good card to have in my back pocket if something doesn’t work out.

    Well, my kit should arrive next week. Another thing checked off my to-do list.

  • 5 Things I’ll Do Differently In My Vegetable Garden Next Year

    Irrigation hoseI’m in the process of finishing up my first summer of vegetable gardening and I’m looking back on quite a few successes. I started in April with seeds and I grew and harvested tomatoes, peppers and zucchini in July through September. I stopped an outbreak of blossom end rot.

    Other things I tried were pure learning experiences. I didn’t get any acorn squash or pumpkins because of a powdery mildew problem. My onions didn’t germinate. My peppers were largely crowded out by tomatoes. And my corn grew tiny little ears but not many kernels. I’m going to learn from these challenges.

    This summer has been about eating tomatoes, bell peppers and zucchini, but also about patience and observation. And about learning from things that go wrong. Mainly this:

    Now I’m onto planning for next year and thinking about what I need to research and learn. Here are the top five things that I’ll do differently in my vegetable garden 2.0 next year, most mission critical first.

    1. Drip irrigation. The overhead sprinkler I used this year got the job done, with some unwanted side effects — that powdery mildew problem. There was just too much moisture on the leaves. This method also wasted a lot of water. Next year, drip irrigation. I’m starting my research with this article on DIY irrigation systems from Home For The Harvest. We used soaker hoses once before and I think they became clogged, so I’ll be studying this a lot more.

    2. Attract pollinators to the garden. Now I get what everybody is talking about. The reason I didn’t have more zucchini this year is because they weren’t getting pollinated. And I probably also had a pollination problem with my corn. Bees, get thee to my vegetable garden.

    I have no in-ground garden beds near the raised bed vegetable garden, so this is going to take some planning. I might have some room in the raised beds for some low-growing flowers, but that space is limited. I’d rather have strong, tough perennials in the ground for pollinators to enjoy year after year.

    3. Better staking. Tomatoes and bell peppers could have used sturdier supports this year. And I bet cucumbers and zucchini would have had fewer disease problems if they were raised up away from the soil and supported better. In my square foot garden setup, I think everything would have been a little happier with good staking. Traditional tomato cages are probably out. They just didn’t give tall or sturdy enough support. I added plastic stakes to those plants by late summer.

    Traditional tomato cages are probably out. They just didn’t give tall or sturdy enough support. I added plastic stakes to those plants by late summer. These square cages look good, but require a little DIY and elbow grease.

    In my square foot garden setup, I think everything would have been a little happier with good staking. Traditional tomato cages are probably out. They just didn’t give tall or sturdy enough support. I added plastic stakes to those plants by late summer. These square cages look good but require a little DIY and elbow grease.

    4. Composting. I have all these banana peels and egg shells that I’m just throwing away. How about doing something productive with them? There are quite a few types out there. It seems that a few features I want are a tumbling-type composter with insulation (but not too much insulation) and no metal internal parts to rust. I want to get this in place this fall so I can take advantage of fallen leaves. Any recommendations, internet? Here’s a fun video I watched to get some tips.

    5. Learn about preservation and canning. I was pleasantly surprised by a big tomato harvest this summer. I wasn’t sure I’d harvest any. I grew a middle-of-the-road amount: we weren’t able to use them all in salads and BLTs, but we didn’t have enough to make a big batch of sauce for canning. And it’s a good thing, because I don’t know how to can yet.

    Let’s put it this way: I’d like to grow some fruit next year, but not until I learn how to make jam.

    Do you have advice for me on any of these topics?

    Let’s talk on Twitter @HowToNatureChat, in the comments below or by email at [email protected].

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  • When Do I Plant Fennel, Lettuce And Spinach?

    fennel plants
    This is as close as I got to fennel bulbs this year. Maybe next year!

    Growing vegetables from seed seems like a really easy process.

    Step one: Buy seeds.

    Step two: Plant them.

    Step three: Eat vegetables.

    But watching my seeds progress/not progress to mature plants this summer and now getting ready for a fall vegetable garden has got me twisted up in knots. When I bought a bundle of vegetable seeds this spring, I was wide-eyed, eager and ready to get started. I was prepared like a girl scout to do what I was told and diligently follow the instructions.

    I sat down with my seed tray and started reading how deep to plant the seeds. Then there was all this information about frost date, transplant date and harvest date. I was a little confused, to say the least.

    Almost all packets tell you how many days until harvest and how many weeks before your last frost you should start seeds indoors, but I still had a hard time figuring out which plants would thrive in slightly cool spring temperatures and which were more suited to the hottest summer heat.

    Remember: I’ve never done this before. If they needed to be planted and harvested in early spring before the real heat came, when should they be transplanted outside? It was a mess.

    Yeah, I know tomatoes are for summer, but what about lettuce? People eat it in the summer. It must grow in the summer. And fennel? I’ve never even eaten fennel. What time of the year do you eat fennel?

    I decided to start almost all the seeds at the same time and plant them outside in raised beds at the same time — after our very late last frost date of May 15. (At least that’s when I thought it was. This article says different.) I was so worried about freezing these vegetables in a frost that I wasn’t even thinking of burning them up in the sun.

    Three of the crops were toast just after they got going, it seemed. Spinach, lettuce and fennel did not do well in even a little bit of heat. They all bolted in June.

    The Seed Packet Information Is Not Enough

    There is just not enough room on a 3×4 inch seed packet to give me all the information I need. I need a personal garden coach. Of course, I know the seed packet can’t include the information for all regions, but I still need some way to find out how to grow this romanesco.

    At the time, I was Googling the names of the individual varieties and really didn’t find much more than what’s on the seed packet. Here’s a helpful chart that I needed when I was planning and planting this spring. It shows two planting/harvesting sessions in spring and fall for crops like lettuce, spinach, kale, broccoli, beets and carrots. And it also shows the crops straight down the middle of the summer that can really handle the heat: tomato, eggplant, pepper, zucchini, potato, melons, corn and beans.

    When to plant and harvest vegetable crops in Zone 6
    Screen cap from VeggieHarvest.com. Shows the spring/fall crops vs. the strictly summer crops for my Zone 6. Click to go to the site.

    The frost free zone seems really short and sad in this chart (shaded in light green above), but knowing how to handle it helps a lot in growing vegetables successfully.

    So What Are Fall Vegetables Anyway?

    So now I’ve started five vegetables for a fall harvest. I’m not sure how this will end up. It’s all a big experiment:

    Basil. I can’t seem to grow this inside, so let’s see how this does in the fall. Last year, it was warm enough that we were still gardening on Christmas day, so I hope we have a little more time before a hard frost.

    Romanesco. A cauliflower/broccoli. I can’t even figure out which one this is! I’m pretty sure this would be considered a traditional fall crop, so let’s do this.

    Lettuce. Yes, this should work for sure.

    Spinach. Another spring/fall crop. Thumbs up.

    Fennel. Now that I’ve seen the chart in the link above, I think this is probably not the right time for fennel. But again, if it’s a long time till a hard frost, it might work.

    So the experiment continues. Do you have any advice on how to do this better? Leave a comment below or subscribe to see how these fall vegetables turn out.

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  • Pollinators Are Super Important If You Want To Eat Zucchini

    female zucchini flower fertilized
    The lucky one. The first female zucchini flower that was fertilized in my garden this year.
    The movement to bring pollinators back to the garden is big. I’ve heard about it mainly through the concern over colony collapse disorder and the disappearance of bees from some parts of the United States. I think people generally support this movement. No one likes to hear about species in trouble, but do we really understand what pollinator decline means to us?

    I’ve planted pollinator-attracting plants like lavender and coneflowers, but honestly, that was more because I like those flowers. But planting something specifically to attract bees to our garden? That sting? And that my husband is allergic to? I would say it wasn’t a burning priority. Everything in my garden seemed to be doing just fine with the number of pollinators we had.

    And then I planted zucchini. The plants grew to be huge and lush. Leaves way bigger than my head. Beautiful green. And into August, I’d still only harvested one zucchini from four plants.

    Google: Why aren’t my zucchini producing? Was it a fertilizer problem? Not enough water? Um, no. They’re not getting pollinated. As someone who’s only ever eaten zucchini from a grocery store, this part of the zucchini lifecycle story had missed me.

    In my garden, I’d seen female flower after female flower shoot up and then die back because no bees were around to pollinate them. The moral of this story: Pollinators don’t just need us. We need them. I am embarrassed that I didn’t even think of this as a reason I wasn’t harvesting more zucchini. I’ve failed to realize how important pollinators are to us in practical, concrete terms. Another symptom of being disconnected with nature.

    There is hand pollination, of course, but there’s a lot of pretty careful timing and vigilant watching required to catch a female flower when it’s open. How about we let nature do its job? Save the pollinators! Plant zinnia, lavender, monarda, butterfly bush, sunflower, scabiosa and coneflowers in your garden, along with your zucchini. Bonus: these plants are beautiful!

    Check out Bee Better for information on what you can do to bring more pollinators (birds, bees and butterflies) to your garden. I’ll be planting some pollinator-friendly flowers closer to my raised gardens next year.

  • Instagrammers Know How To Take A Coffee Break — In The Garden

    You know things are going well in someone’s garden when they sit down for a coffee break there. I think of these gardeners looking in on their tomato and zucchini plants early in the morning, before the sun and heat make coffee unappetizing. They’re relaxing and reflecting on what it takes to put together a successful garden. And sitting back and enjoying what comes from the difficult labor it takes to get there. Enjoy it, gardeners!

    And the mugs make me laugh sometimes, too.

    Good morning sunshine. .. .. .. .. .. #theseismybeans #gardenlove #gardencoffee #dewymorning #midwestsummer

    A photo posted by Victoria Jean (@mrs.toria.pierce) on

    Garden coffee☕️✨

    A photo posted by Ellen (@___e_l_l_e_n___) on

    Singalong Junk – McCartney .. .. .. .. .. #singalongjunk #midwestsummer #gardencoffee #dewymorning #gardenlove

    A photo posted by Victoria Jean (@mrs.toria.pierce) on

  • How To Grow Tomatoes: What I’ve Learned

    tomato plantWhenever I think about growing tomatoes, I can’t help but remember that scene from Steel Magnolias. Ouiser tells the ladies at Truvy’s beauty parlor that she grows them only because that’s what old Southern ladies are supposed to do. She doesn’t even like them, but seems to be able to grow them with no problem.

    So what have I been doing wrong all these years? Well, here’s what I did right this year (and wrong in the past) to grow some strong and productive tomato plants.

    Plant them deep. I wrote previously about a post from Deb that gave some advice on planting tomatoes — deep enough that even the lowest branches are buried. This gives more surface area for roots to form. I’ve never done this before, but I did this year. I can’t wait for the end of the season to see what kind of root system I built this time.

    tomato sucker
    Tomato sucker — pull that sucker!

    Give tomatoes food, especially calcium. I did not fertilize at planting and I should have, because nutrients prevent problems before they start. Blossom end rot in tomatoes develops from a calcium deficiency. You can get calcium by applying gypsym (thanks to jakemississipping on Instagram) or in fertilizer. A little before mid-season, I applied a synthetic formulation for tomatoes and vegetables, which includes an extra punch of calcium. Growth really took off and I haven’t seen anything that looks like blossom end rot yet.

    Pull the suckers. Easily put, suckers are little shoots that grow out of the armpits of tomato plants — between the strong, main stem and its branches. Pinch them off. They take away energy that should be used for making tomatoes.

    Water those tomatoes consistently. I think I already knew they say you need consistent watering on tomatoes, but this year I really committed to it. The solution: a timer! I’m watering with a sprinkler at 6:00 am for a half hour every day. It’s working! These plants are so lush, it’s ridiculous.

    Staking tomatoes. If you do all the things above right, you’re going to have some tall tomato plants. I bought the regular three-ringed tomato cages from Lowe’s, but the plants are already lapping over the top. I saw several gardeners’ home-made versions like the ones in this post on DIY beefy tomato cages from The Real Farmhouse. A lot taller and a lot more support.

    Tomato growth stalled? Wait for the heat. I had been dreading the really hot temperatures, thinking they would evaporate water and wilt my plants. Just the opposite has happened. When the temperatures finally reached the 90s, that’s when growth really took off. Patience, patience, patience. Theresa of Tending My Garden reminded me to be patient.

    Prune lower tomato branches to avoid pests and disease. When plants reach two feet tall, prune away the lower branches. Leaves dragging in wet soil are a hotspot for pests and diseases.

    Don’t fertilize to ripen. All my tomatoes look like the photo above — green and not ready to harvest. Am I supposed to do something? Fertilize? No, says Growing A Greener World garden guru Joe Lamp’l.

    “…adding extra fertilizer seems like a logical thing to do, to give those tomatoes a little extra boost. But don’t do it. The environmental changes that result in this ripening slowdown are nature’s way of dealing with and resolving the challenge. It’s not a nutritional deficiency. In fact, adding fertilizer now could exacerbate the problem by forcing the plants into a growth mode at an inappropriate time.”

    I have about 30 flowers blooming, so many more to come. Let’s see if I can bring these tomatoes down the homestretch and into my salads.

  • Propagating Wonderful Basil From Leaves Is Super Easy

    I snipped some branches off my basil plant to get the whole thing branching and bushier, so I plucked these basil leaves and left them in water for later use. It’s been a few days and I’m ready to use them, so today I looked to make sure they weren’t doing anything funny in the water. Yep, they were. Nature finds a way.

    But I feel like if I’d tried to do this on purpose, it wouldn’t have worked. Haha.

  • What I Googled This Week To Become A Better Gardener

    are my potatoes ready to harvest…and the takeaways I’ve gleaned from the internet.

    Can you eat pickling cucumbers? Yes.

    Conventional vs. organic fertilizer. I’m still confused. What is the difference?

    How do I know if my potatoes are ready to harvest? When flowers and stems are starting to die back. But I got this answer on Twitter from Longfield Gardens. Thank you again.

    Hip Hops beer plant. Saw a picture of this hops plant from the Cultivate show coverage. I didn’t find too much information about it online, but it’s from AgriStarts.

    Ron Finley Can You Dig This. RonFinley.com. Gangster gardener. Documentary is out. Limited screenings. Not available on Netflix yet.

    Green mold on tops of plants. Remove it and your plants will be ok?

    Part sun perennials. Astilbe is my favorite, I think. Monarda, hosta, heuchera, butterfly bush, coreopsis, yarrow, peonies (I think) are others.

    Harvesting basil. Prune at the stem, don’t pick off leaves. I love articles that have the sentence, “Turns out, I did everything wrong.” Been there. Thanks, Food Renegade.

  • How Can I Grow More Peppers? Remove Flower Buds

    There’s one method for gardening success that is completely counterintuitive to me: cut to promote growth. In many cases, if you make a cut in a plant’s branch, you promote more growth or flowering in that spot. This applies to a lot of succulents, trees and, as it turns out, vegetables.

    Here’s some advice I found on peppers:

    My instinct tell me to cut when something’s dead or headed that way. And removing buds? The same buds that I’ve been waiting to see since March? Aaaarrgh!

    OK, I did it. Here’s my version of exactly the same shot. We’ll see how it goes.

    Pepper buds
    Pulled those pepper buds!

     

  • Tomato Plant Problems: When Will We Get Tomatoes Already?

    tomato plant, tomato flower
    If you look closely, two tiny flowers on this roma tomato.

    With any gardening project, I always seem to reach a point where I’m not sure if things are going the way they should be. It’s that moment when things have been moving along, growing, and then things start to look a little off. I wonder if I need to be doing something differently to continue successfully.

    Our raised vegetable garden has been planted for a little over a month now. The temperature is rising. I’m wondering if the plants are getting enough water and if they’re growing fast enough in our shortish gardening season. Are they getting enough sun? And the ultimate question: Are they going to start producing some vegetables so I can get my caprese on?

    I think maybe I should make a change, but I’m not sure what. Here’s what going on with tomatoes:

    Yellowing lower leaves on tomatoes. It’s early in the season and we have a few tiny flowers on one of our two varieties. One plant has a lower branch of yellowing leaves. From reading a bit online, it looks like this could be a drought problem. Surprise, surprise for this chronic underwaterer. Or it could be a nutrient deficiency and we need to fertilize. So I fertilize and increase watering. No more yellowing on any other leaves. Did I fix it?

    Stalled growth on tomato plants. When you Google this, it’s pretty disappointing how few articles from actual garden gurus come up. I see mostly questions and comments on forums and message boards. This one is pretty good: What To Do If Tomato Plant Stops Growing. I have been removing suckers, but growth seems to have stalled. This points to nutrient deficiency, too?

    Then I found this post — Vegetable Plants — Not Growing? Stunted? Yellow Leaves? Yes! All of the above. The author Theresa has been organic gardening for 37 years, so I know this is gonna be the good stuff. This quote from the article. I should have known.

    I think the major culprit behind most gardeners obsessing about what is described above is how our society promotes “perfection” and “attaining everything quickly”. In our world today bigger is better and everything (men – women – and vegetables) are pictured as being without blemish. And everything has to be fast. To one degree or the other, we are all influenced by this.  It’s almost impossible not to be.  (Notice I said almost!)

    Theresa of Tending My Garden, I think you’re my new favorite. Will you be my best friend? I don’t see you on Twitter. If you want to be, hit me up. Although comparing my tomato plants to other peoples’ on Instagram got me into this whole worry spiral…

    I’m going to fertilize again in a few weeks, but I’ll also work in a good portion of patience and keeping my eyes on my own paper.