I made a mistake in my last post...the eggplant I'm growing is White Beauty, not White Egg. It's easy to lose track of things like this, varietal names are often very similar. I think White Egg is a variety of turnip.
Got some kale and broccoli seed today at a local nursery. I'm growing the same varieties I always grow, they do well for me...Vates kale and DeCiccio broccoli. My garden soil is alkaline, so the cole crops like kale and broccoli are the best choices. But they only grow well in the cooler months here. Beans, turnips, potatoes, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes do OK too.
First step is making lots of compost, the more the better. I get the best results when mixing in compost at about a one to one ratio with the soil. This seems to reduce the pH to a more reasonable level. It takes a lot of brush and a lot of shredding to make that much compost. But organic gardeners are never satisfied no matter how much compost they have. It's like an addiction with us because the results are just so outstanding when you use a lot of it. Some compost is good, more is better...but the best is just piles and piles of it.
Most addictions are bad, but making compost and regular exercise...those are good ones to have.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
I'm Back
I've been away from this blog for a long time, I see. Things get really difficult for me in the hot weather, and this has been a hot year.
But the garden keeps going...I need it to feed myself.
The molokhia was a huge success...two large containers of it supplied all I needed. It's very soothing to my stomach, so I've been eating a lot of it in my soups. But now it's got seed pods, so it's time to move on. The okra grew like weeds this year, that liquid feeding seemed to make a big difference...and the larger containers helped too. The pods were definitely much larger and the plants kept going longer too. Fallowing the soil for at least a month helped too. I used to have big problems with root knot nematodes.
The Hannah sweet potatoes did very well too. I like them because they're less sweet and starchier. The flavor is milder, so they blend in well in soups. I got lots of large potatoes and they kept on growing for months and months. They set the potatoes near the surface so I can pull them off the vines and lift them out of the soil without uprooting the vines. I used to harvest sweet potatoes by dumping the pot out and sifting through the soil in a wheelbarrow...about half the potatoes were in the bottom of the pot. But with Hannah potatoes I can just pull the potatoes and let the vines continue making more.
The long beans did well as always, and the eggplant were a big success too. This year I tried White Egg, which is a nice mild-flavored variety. I don't get along well with varieties that burn my throat when I eat them. The bushes are still growing and making more fruit, including some Long Purple that have been out there since the cool weather. The Long Purple quit growing and I thought they were done, but now they're growing again.
The Malabar spinach did well too, I had all I wanted of them. As the vines slowed down, I just took growing tips of vines and put them in a small glass of water. Inside of a week they grow roots and then I plant them in small pots until I need them. They never fail to set roots in the water. I even tried a scrap of vine with no growing tip and it rooted too. They are so very easy to propagate.
I kept going with my hot peppers this rainy season. Varieties like Cayenne don't do well in our hot weather, but I've found that Jwala from India, Baklouti from Tunisa, and Tabasco all grow fine in the heat. Serrano plants stayed alive but didn't produce much until the weather cooled a bit. The Baklouti in particular grew to large size and produced an endless supply of large peppers for soups and stir fries.
The gardening gurus say that Capsicum annuum, the common pepper, will not set fruit under tropical conditions, but that's actually not true at all. Both Jwala and Baklouti set lots of fruit and they're definitely Capsicum annuum. Country of origin is what counts...pepper plants adapt to the local conditions.
I know, pictures...I'll get to it. It's been hard to keep up with things.
But the garden keeps going...I need it to feed myself.
The molokhia was a huge success...two large containers of it supplied all I needed. It's very soothing to my stomach, so I've been eating a lot of it in my soups. But now it's got seed pods, so it's time to move on. The okra grew like weeds this year, that liquid feeding seemed to make a big difference...and the larger containers helped too. The pods were definitely much larger and the plants kept going longer too. Fallowing the soil for at least a month helped too. I used to have big problems with root knot nematodes.
The Hannah sweet potatoes did very well too. I like them because they're less sweet and starchier. The flavor is milder, so they blend in well in soups. I got lots of large potatoes and they kept on growing for months and months. They set the potatoes near the surface so I can pull them off the vines and lift them out of the soil without uprooting the vines. I used to harvest sweet potatoes by dumping the pot out and sifting through the soil in a wheelbarrow...about half the potatoes were in the bottom of the pot. But with Hannah potatoes I can just pull the potatoes and let the vines continue making more.
The long beans did well as always, and the eggplant were a big success too. This year I tried White Egg, which is a nice mild-flavored variety. I don't get along well with varieties that burn my throat when I eat them. The bushes are still growing and making more fruit, including some Long Purple that have been out there since the cool weather. The Long Purple quit growing and I thought they were done, but now they're growing again.
The Malabar spinach did well too, I had all I wanted of them. As the vines slowed down, I just took growing tips of vines and put them in a small glass of water. Inside of a week they grow roots and then I plant them in small pots until I need them. They never fail to set roots in the water. I even tried a scrap of vine with no growing tip and it rooted too. They are so very easy to propagate.
I kept going with my hot peppers this rainy season. Varieties like Cayenne don't do well in our hot weather, but I've found that Jwala from India, Baklouti from Tunisa, and Tabasco all grow fine in the heat. Serrano plants stayed alive but didn't produce much until the weather cooled a bit. The Baklouti in particular grew to large size and produced an endless supply of large peppers for soups and stir fries.
The gardening gurus say that Capsicum annuum, the common pepper, will not set fruit under tropical conditions, but that's actually not true at all. Both Jwala and Baklouti set lots of fruit and they're definitely Capsicum annuum. Country of origin is what counts...pepper plants adapt to the local conditions.
I know, pictures...I'll get to it. It's been hard to keep up with things.
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