November 2007

Starting my winter reading early...

Just read "How to Grow World Record Tomatoes" by Charles H. Wilbur, and found it quite informative. Seems he got his inspiration from the redwood trees, and perfected the idea in his home state of Alabama. With 220+ days as it's average growing season, he's got quite a bit of time to grow tomatoes, as opposed to zone 5, where I reside, but his ideas are transferable to anywhere. With the Japanese Tomato Ring, the roots grow up and into the bin, all the way around it, with four plants (confirmed, as I had to break up a lot of clumps that were held well with thick and thin roots from my tomatoes on the biggest tomato ring). With Charles Wilber's method, the roots are growing laterally and wide around a single plant, and the plant is pruned specifically to yield the maximum amount of tomatoes for "Better Boy" variety. As his method has been "proved out" not only with tomatoes, but with watermelon, radish, corn and other crops, I think it will be worth a try on two plants, and a container (one of my manure buckets split, and has become the candidate for experimenting with Mr Wilber's container method). I can hardly wait for spring!

o/`o/`Clean up, Clean up, everybody do your share o/`o/`

Time to clean up the garden, so how do you do this with no time? There are several ways to speed it up and also to avoid some of the rows altogether.

1) Cut it down, plant out a green manure.
Green manures aren't (just) from organic livestock, they're actually plants you will either till under, or let jack frost do your dirty work. The benefits are numerous, allowing you to grow something instead of hauling in manure (and other perhaps unwanted plants) so it's lighter. It crowds out weeds, so you don't have to use any herbicides or be plucking out weeds in your warm coat, therefore saving time and chiropractor bills. It adds beneficial nutrients to the soil, so you don't have to go and buy fertilizer, saving you money in the short and long run. And finally, it'll hold your soil, so you don't have to worry about erosion and replacing soils, saving you money, your back, and allowing the benificial insects to continue to thrive.

2) Sweep it under the (row) covers
Many plants can overwinter, though not the true summer crops like tomatoes, cukes and watermelon. Lettuces, other greens and root crops can do well in a sheltered area. In zone 5 where I reside, I'm able to grow or "let rest" lettuces and root crops, especially carrots through most if not all of the season. A double row cover does the best, the inner being a "floating row cover" material (Johnnyseeds.com), then a plastic over the top. This time, I'm reinforcing the upper row cover as the last two seasons the snow has caved them in. Into the winter, I can harvest a lot of greens, then when the real cold weather hits, I lament as I'm raking the snow off the roof. Along about february when we get a "warm snap", I'm able to go in and pull carrots who's starches have turned to sugars, making them a welcome treat. This year, I harvested most of the carrots, but there are a few bits of "garden candy" left and heartily covered.

3) Cover it with a "killing mulch".
Killing mulches do just that - they kill anything that wants to emerge. A quick way to do this is to use newspapers (4 layers) or corrugated cardboard, then piling manure and/or hay on top, then just letting it sit. This saves time next year, holds your soil, adds nutrients to the soil, and saves you a lot of time.

Great tomato sauce that takes less than an hour:
Found this while I was looking around and noticing some of my tomatoes that I didn't freeze were getting a little too soft. One of the nicest things about this is you don't have to peel the tomatoes! I leave the seeds in too, as they taste just as good, and there's a lot of flavor in the "jelly" around them. Tomato Sauce Hack