Garden Tragedy Averted

In my last post, I mentioned a bit of concern over my tomato plants, which had some spotting on the leaves in recent weeks.  I hypothesized that the condition was from too much rain . . . but luckily I asked for a second opinion!  Tomato expert and Edgefield Pottery guru Phil Wingard informed me that the situation was quite dire!  My plants had contracted a leaf canker -- which is highly contagious!

Phil advised me to remove the infected leaves immediately to prevent further spreading.  He told me to either burn the leaves or put in the trash and haul far far away . . . Don't put them in your compost or simply drop them in the garden!

Phil told me that yellowing leaves are a sign of nitrogen deficiency, but when dark brown spots, surrounded by lighter brown inside the yellow appear, that is a sign of something much more sinister.  After trimming all of the infected leaves off of my plants, I had quite a pile of debris:

 
Into the trash it went, and hopefully my plants are healthier and happier today.  I suppose I need to be more vigilant on checking for irregularities.  After all, tomatoes are at stake!

(Get it?  Tomato stake?)  Okay, so maybe I'll concentrate my efforts on botany instead . . .

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Making the Most of Compost

I don't know if my title is appropriate, but it rhymed, so I'm going with it. I paid a visit to the Tomato Man (Phil Wingard) a couple of weeks ago, and he showed me this summer's crop, in its infancy stage in his greenhouse. Future BLT's growing all over the place, what a sight!

I've been working on a website for Phil, not for his prized heirloom tomatoes, but for another one of his passions, Edgefield Pottery. It has been fun learning about vintage Southern potters like Dave the Slave, Thomas Chandler, and others. Phil showed me some fascinating pieces of pottery in his gallery, including a "ring jug" that field hands used to carry into the cotton fields while they worked. These jugs fit over their shoulders, like a sling, and were filled with water to parch their thirst.

Anyway, back to the tomatoes. Phil asked me what I had done for my soil lately. I proudly told him how I'd saved vegetable scraps and coffee grounds, then dumped them into my garden during the winter. "That's not so good," Phil told me.

Composting, he explained, is a little more involved than simply dumping kitchen scraps into the garden. Proper compost needs a mixture of dry and green, nitrogen and carbon. Phil showed me his 2-compartment compost bin. He dumps vegetable scraps (nitrogen, green) into one side, along with dry leaves (carbon). He then turns the bin every couple of days or so. When one side of the bin is full (leaving room to turn and mix), he begins filling the second compartment. After a few weeks, the first compartment mixture had transformed into lush compost. He empties compartment one, stops adding to compartment two, and repeats the process.

Inspired, I went to Lowes and purchased a compost bin. Mine is just one compartment, so I'll need to fill it, then leave it for about three weeks (turning regularly but not adding any additional material.)

We'll see how it goes! Stay tuned . . .

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Month-by-Month Guide to Lawn & Garden

Great article in The Charlotte Observer this week, written by Nancy Brachey, providing a month-by-month list of lawn and garden activities for our area & climate. I'll summarize for a quick "to-do" list:

January

• Check flower beds to make sure no perennials have dislodged.
• As daffodil tips emerge, fertilize ground with 10-10-10.

February

• Prune evergreens (laurel, holly, boxwoods, etc. to improve shape & size.
• Cut back monkey grass w/ shears or lawn mower.
• Fertilize fescue grass.
• Prep garden area with organic fertilizer.

March

• Set out broccoli, cabbage, and sow seeds of cool weather peas.
  
• Cover young plants on very cool nights with a sheet or milk jug (bottom cut out)

April

• Sow seeds of green beans, melons, corn, cukes, and squash.
• Set out tomatoes and peppers mid-month. (Later if chilly)

May

• Plant flowers and vegetables in beds and containers.
  
• Okra, lima beans should be planted now.
• Plant grits.
• Just kidding about the grits. Wanted to see if you were paying attention.

June

• Pick ripe vegetables to keep plants productive. Keep careful watch!
• Deadhead annuals and perennials after first big flush of bloom.
• Plant summer annuals to fill in.

July

• Water regularly through hot dry weeks. (Avoid heat of the day for watering).

August

• Begin planning & planting fall vegetables (lettuce, spinach, beets, broccoli, collards)

September

• Renew your lawn. Rack, aerate, seed and fertilize.

October

• Plant bulbs for spring.
• Plant pansies, snapdragons, hardy perennials.
• Dig, divide and replant crowded daylilies, daisies, other perennials.

November

• Plant new shrubs and trees.
• Fertilize fescue.

December

• Use cuttings of evergreens in wreaths and flower arrangements.

Thanks for reading my blog! Leave comments for other lawn and gardening tasks, and I'll add them to the list. For more blogs about Lake Wylie living, gardening, Lake Wylie real estate, and Southern wisdom, please visit TheLakeWylieMan.com.

Words Cannot Describe . . .

It's time to face facts. Words such as bountiful, prolific, abundant, and thriving simply do not describe my garden. It is a darn good thing that my family doesn't depend on my farming skills to put food on the table each night. If that were so, words like tragic, unfortunate, sorry charlie, and too bad so sad would come in to play.

My plants are scraggly. Puny. I didn't realize how much until I visited Todd Ames this weekend. He had tomato plants six feet tall, industrial sized stakes needed, thank you very much, to hold up the bounty of fruit being produced. I coveted. I know thou shalt not, but I did. If I tried to tell you I did not, I would be lying, which is another thou shalt not, so I'm kinda stuck on this one.

I have harvested a few cherry sized tomatoes, and a couple of ping-pong ball sized ones. If not for the generosity of my neighbors and mama, I might be tomato starved this summer.

I can't understand it. I prepped the soil. I've mulched, not watered, then watered. Slapped on some Miracle-Gro when things got really desperate. (Sorry, oh organic ones. I have fallen short of the glory.) And yet, puny.

I've given you sunshine, I've given you rain, you've given me nothing, but heartache and pain! I'm begging you sweetly, I'm asking you please, please, grow for me!

Who knows how much longer this garden blog will go on this summer, but take heart. You can read my Lake Wylie restaurant reviews, and other blogs on Lake Wylie living and real estate. Thanks for reading!

No Bugs, just Slugs

Whew, it has been hot hot hot this past week. I feel like I'm on the deck of a Carribean cruise ship with the bongo band, "Hot hot hot!"

We've had a sprinkle or two w/ the thunderstorms, but I've had to water the garden about every other day. The plants, in general, are not as robust this year. I do have some fruit on the vine, though, so I can't complain too much!

My pepper plants are TINY, yet they have peppers growing (albeit one at a time!) to maturity. Kind of like babies having babies. Wonder if there's a teenage pregnancy center for garden plants?

I plucked a DingWall Scotty (tomato) today - - about as big as a golf ball, very light red in color. Not sure if it was ripe, but it seemed to want to come inside.

My squash plants are in TROUBLE. I began to suspect late last week that something was gnawing on their roots, as they seemed to be perishing from the roots up. This morning I spotted a SLUG making its way over to the squash. I grabbed a sturdy leaf and hurried over. (HA! Just kidding. I sauntered over and still beat the sorry creature.)

I carefully put the slug on the leaf, then balanced him gently over to the driveway, where I placed him in the soothing shade of the tire of my husband's pick up truck. Right where he'd get squashed. (Seemed appropriate, given the condition of my squash.)

I know, I know, God's little creature, right? Whatev. I'm thinking God created the slug when He was peeved at Eve.

So that's what happening in the garden. Stay cool.

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Is it June already?

Wow, end of the school year festivities, chaperoning the Choralier trip, graduation, etc. have left me little time for the garden. Thank goodness we've had lots of rain. Everything has survived my neglect!

I went out early this morning, and found that while we were involved in graduation festivites, the garden was having a festival of its own. Weeds were rampant, and some of the tomato plants were growing in rather unruly fashion. It was definitely time to cage 'em up - - actually I think it was time about a MONTH ago. It was a bit of a struggle putting the wire cages over the plants to stake them up. Kind of like putting a snow suit on a wiggly toddler. Unfortunately, I broke a couple of fruitful branches trying to set the wire around the plants.

I've picked a couple of yellow cherry tomatoes so far (from the Lowe's hybrid plant . . . ) Several of the heirlooms have fruit growing now, while others are pretty bare. I'm going to take inventory tomorrow morning. Stay tuned!

And It Begins - Garden 2010

I got a call from The Tomato Man on Saturday, and the word was: It's time to plant! I headed over to his half acre farm - - it's a town farm - - and found him and a teen aged helper digging in the dirt. By the end of the day, he'd have a couple hundred tomatoes in the ground.




My aspirations were much more modest - - I asked for twelve plants, well behaved and prolific, if you please. I don't want a repeat of '08, when I had the most beautiful plants of all time, and like, three tomatoes the entire season.

We stepped into Phil's 4'x8' greenhouse, filled to the rafters with eighty (80!!) varieties of heirloom and specialty hybrid plants. Phil raises these youngsters first in his kitchen, then moves to the greenhouse once weather permits. He rotates them religiously, up and down the shelves, to the front, to the back, checking their progress several times a day.

Phil carefully selected a dozen plants for me, explaining the characteristics of each as he placed them in a box. "This one dates back to Thomas Jefferson," he'd say. Not sure what that means to me and my BLT, except I might be eating the same salad as a signer of the Declaration of Independence, which is pretty darn cool in my book.

At the end of my visit, I went home with a Great White (big & white, just like the name), a Brandy Glick (some sort of Bradywine variety), an "Earl of Edgecomb" (a particularly flavorful orange heirloom), a "Ferris Wheel" (looks like a ferris wheel when you cut into it!), a "Marizold Red" (Phil had never tried, but said you couldn't go wrong with a Marizold family heirloom), a "Ding Wall Scotty" (a mid-sized red that grows in clusters), a "Pineapple Fog" (hybrid mixing a Pineapple yellow tomato and a San Francisco Fog), a "Mule Team" (like a work horse, keeps on producing and producing!!), and a Limmony (light yellow in color).

Twenty-four hours later, after my sweet husband plowed up my garden, I had the tomatoes plus a few assorted peppers buried up to their little necks in my garden, wondering what happened to the Holiday Greenhouse Spa and Resort. I planted them just as the Tomato Man Phil instructed me last year - - deep hole, a shovel full of organic compost, about a gallon of water, then plant the tomato up to its neck, burying a good 2/3 of the vine and leaves. I won't have to water for about a week.

I've checked on my garden each evening after working all day with the Lake Wylie real estate man, David Coone. With this warm weather, we're staying quite busy! Check on my other blogs about Lake Wylie waterfront and living in Lake Wylie on TheLakeWylieMan.com. Have a glorious day!

Bountiful Harvest

Labor Day weekend, and the garden has ceased its labors. I took advantage of the recent rains and damp ground to pull up tomato vines, pepper plants, and other garden fauna that has stopped producing.

I did enjoy what little tomato crop I had this year (I think a total of 10 full sized tomatoes.) While I was disappointed in the amount of fruit produced by my 8, count 'em 8, heirloom tomato plants, I fully enjoyed the tomatoes that I did harvest!

The Kellogg's Breakfast (orange in color) were by far my favorite. Sweet, low acidity, and absolutely delicious! I think I had one Paul Robeson - - a purplish, black tomato with a rich flavor. The Giant Delicious were a Giant Disappointment with zero tomatoes produced. The plant looked gorgeous, however! Omar's Lebanese was also a no-show.

I did have about a gazillion little yellow cherry tomatoes from a plant I never identified (its name was illegible). They were lots of fun, and I even had enough to share a few. Next year, I've been told to add phosphorous to the soil. I'll give it a whirl, but I think I'm going to throw in a few "Better Boys" for good measure. Maybe they won't be as tempermental!

Happy Harvest!

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Malfunctioning Pollinator?

Some of my tomato plants are up to 5 feet tall, and it would be nice if I were looking eye to eye with ripening tomatoes. While I have lots and lots of blooms, however, the emergence of fruit is not forthcoming! I'm getting a little concerned, quite frankly.

Since I've had blooms on the plants for a couple of weeks, I am a bit concerned about pollination. My father told me that tomatoes are self-pollinating, which means they don't need bees. He also told me that commercial growers use little vibrators on the tomato plants to speed up the pollination process. I am not making this up. It sounded very wierd to me, so I went to Google, and sure enough, tomato vibrators.

So, for the past couple of days, I've gone out to the garden and given each of my tomato plants a gentle little shake. I try to do it early in the morning, in a very nonchalant manner. Don't want the neighbors talking.

This morning, I read in the paper that the recent heat wave may have inhibited pollination among tomato plants. Not sure how to remedy that one. If any of y'all have advice, please advise away!

For more of Jan's blogs & insight on Living in Lake Wylie, please visit the blog page on TheLakeWylieMan.com!

Herb it thru the grapevine

I hit the Herb Barn for the third - - no, fourth time this year - - on Saturday. Cathy was having a half price sale, and I couldn't resist. I bought a couple of sage plants, some more lamb's ear, and a little more thyme. You never want to run out of thyme.

This year, I planted some of my most used herbs in a large pot next to my deck, so they're very accessible for cooking. Dill, parsley (both Italian flat leaf & curly), and culantro are growing there. Culantro is a cousin of cilantro - - very similar flavor, but it doesn't go to seed. It lasts all season long and is very hardy. I can't wait to make salsa when my tomatoes ripen!

In the garden, I have basil, stevia and burnet. Burnet is a salad herb with a taste that resembles cucumber. I bought it last year at the Herb Barn, thinking it was an annual. As it turns out, the plant stayed green all winter long! We just tilled around it when turning the garden this spring. I guess it's a keeper!

Stevia is supposed to be a perennial, but I've never been successful in keeping it alive through the winter. Stevia is a natural sweetner, 300 times as sweet. One tablespoon is equivalent to one cup of sugar! No calories, no chemicals. I like to pluck a leaf and eat it right off the plant. Paired with mint, it's like a stick of gum. Paired with my pineapple sage, it has the delightful flavor of a pina colada! Paired with rosemary, it's just weird.

In my landscaping areas, I grow perennials such as rosemary (my plant is 7 years old and HUGE), mint, oregano, sage, thyme, and a few others. Pineapple sage has a wonderful flavor, plus has gorgeous red flowers in late summer that attract butterflies.

This year I added a couple of St. John's Wort plants in my flower bed. It blooms little yellow rose-like buds. I asked Cathy at the Herb Barn if I could eat the leaves and get happy, but she said "We don't promote medicinal uses, just culinary." Oh well. I figure the little yellow flowers will make me happy anyway.

The Herb Barn (York, SC) is closing for the summer this year. Cathy's going on vacation! She'll reopen in the fall, and will host her traditional craft fair on Thanksgiving weekend. If you hurry, you can still pick up some half price plants this year, but only through the end of May.

So herby up!

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Gardening with a Notso Green Thumb

I've had my own garden now for twenty-some-odd years, and I have to admit that I'm not particulaly gifted in this area. However, hope springs eternal. There are not many things on this earth better than a tomato basil omelette made with just-picked home grown tomatoes and fresh grown basil. And a BLT, perfectly toasted, with a touch of Duke's mayo? Heaven on earth, my friends. I'm not alone in this opinion. I remember hearing a country song years ago, "The only two things that money cain't buy are true love and home grown tomatoes!"

So each year, I continue to try. I buy the plants, plant 'em, stake 'em, fertilize 'em, mulch 'em. One year I calculated that I spent about $83 on each tomato that I harvested.

I have had a decent crop or two. Thanks to a mother & a few friends who actually know what they're doing, I've received some sage advice and managed to do things right on occasion.

Speaking of sage, I have found that herbs are perhaps the most forgiving crops. I grow a few in my garden (basil, chives, parsley stevia), and use some in "landscaping areas" (rosemary, oregano, lavendar, thyme, sage, and the ever prolific mint). I use many of the herbs in cooking, and grow some for their visual appeal or novelty. That's a blog of its own.

Back to the main garden patch. This year, I'm excited to be growing several varieties of heirloom tomatoes, several varieties of peppers, some cukes and zuchinni, and a solitary watermelon plant for which I have high hopes.

Stay tuned.

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