Today I managed to recycle two of my larger containers. This involves pulling out the non-productive plants, scraping away the mulch and storing it in a bucket temporarily, and amending the soil in the pot.
First I dig about half the soil out into a wheelbarrow. Then I wheel it over to the compost bins and add in a big bucket of compost. Then a small handful of rock powder...I'm currently using glacial rock dust...a little water...and stir it all up with a hoe until it's evenly mixed and moist.
Then fill another bucket with compost and head back to the container with it all. Add the compost to the soil that's left in the pot, water if needed, stir it all up well. Put the soil in the wheelbarrow back into the pot, plant some seedlings or whatever, and put back the mulch.
Job done.
Crop rotation is important, I keep a spiral notebook for that and number all the containers. If there are a lot of root knots on the previous crop, I plant onions. Root knot nematodes do NOT like onions.
Today I planted a couple of Poblano pepper seedlings in one pot, and trained a sweet-potato vine into the other. It will root on the new pot and make lots of potatoes for me in a few months.
I've been having trouble with unwanted strains of eggplant appearing in my pots. I think they're coming from bad lots of seed, since it's only certain varieties that seem to be replaced by these less desirable strains in the pots. The two I'm having this trouble with are Bangladeshi Long and Masego. I ate just a few bites of a dish I made with one of these unexpected eggplant and got a bitter taste, burning in my throat, and indigestion. I'm putting the rest of that meal into the next batch of compost.
The fruit in each case were green and white striped and ovoid in shape. I think they're an ancestral form showing up in seed that might have come from plants that were pollinated from wild eggplants by bees. The fruit were usable when small and immature, but turned toxic when they enlarged and got seedy. Some were toxic at any size. All of them came from seed packets I bought, I don't save eggplant seed.
So it's not a big deal, I just won't plant those varieties again. Currently the variety that seems to suit my needs best is Long Purple. There's also a variety called Louisiana Green that I like too. I think I'll just grow those two from now on.
The weather is unprecedented...very tropical and way too early for that. I've never seen tropical weather like this in April before. Somehow the chard is holding on, but the pole beans have slowed down. It's time to plant long beans, eggplant, okra, bunching onions, molokhia, roselle, Basella alba, etc. Bayam is already growing all on its own...that's vegetable amaranth.
I'm going to try to keep Poblano peppers growing through the rainy season this year...we'll see if that works. So far they don't seem to mind the heat at all. I like them so much they never make it to the skillet...I just cut them up and eat them like salad.
Somehow I've got to plant some blackeyed peas. I've been busy with a project and haven't done much with the South Garden. The 100 liter containers are producing so much food, I've lost my incentive to go digging things up out there. I'd rather put my time in with the big pots and get the bigger returns and better quality produce.
There are three things that are the most important in a garden...the soil, the soil, and the soil. Get that covered, and the rest always takes care of itself somehow.
