23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Whoever said that you need to wait two years to use compost isn't making it properly. Four or five months is more like it if you follow the proceedure taught by Alan Chadwick, the famous organic horticulturist who build a demonstration garden at the Univerisity of California in 1967. You can read all about his method for making compost at the following link. Click on "Techniques" and then on "Compost". No need to store in freezer or blend up. It's a much more natural process than that.
Here is a link that might be useful: Alan Chadwick
In a warm climate, yes, just a few months is all you need. My compostables go into a small bucket I keep in the kitchen. I empty about half a pound every day from that bucket into the pile outside. That includes coffee grounds and filter, which add plenty of moisture. I hardly ever put water on my compost. There is certainly no need to store the stuff over winter, unless, I guess, the snow is deep enough that you can't get to your compost patch.
Actually, I have more of a "pit" than a "pile". A pit gives better temperature control than a pile. I don't "turn" the contents (the lifting of which is pretty effort-intensive), but rather push a spade into the periphery of the pit every day, and dump the daily leavings into the wedge it makes. That pushes up the center, and aerates it. Aeration is what "turning" is for. I do it clockwise, so one day I push the spade in at 12 o'clock, next day at 2 o'clock, etc. etc. So in a week or so, I've gone all the way around. The material is slowly pushed toward the center as it composts, and I take my finished compost out of the center.
I wouldn't bother with a blender, but it is best to chop big chunks (like the remains of a celery stem or a rogue potato) into smaller pieces. I sometimes put in citrus peel, but not usually. Rarely banana peel. That's all pretty leathery stuff.
Available as "book" or online is Johnny's Selected Seeds general catalog. At the beginning of each crop section is a growing guide with great info. Helpful charts are also included summarizing a variety of information. Online resources help with planting dates, succession planting, etc. It's great, perhaps no better than others listed, but a free catalog is easy to keep in the garden area and can be replaced each year if necessary.Call or email to request a catalog.
Alan Chadwick was the famous English horticulturist that was instrumental in bring organic gardening to the USA in the late sixties. He build a demonstration garden at the Univeristy of California in Santa Cruz, which has probably never been surpassed. A website all about his methods and philosophy can be found at the link below. For basic information about gardenings, click on "Techniques" and start reading from the top. Also provides great photos.
Here is a link that might be useful: Alan Chadwick
Been there, done that - the leveling part. You can either dig down on the high end until it is level with the low end and build a small retaining wall at the head of the bed. Then construct the bed in any fashion of the level portion. Use string for leveling as eyeball won't cut it.
Or you can build up the low end of the bed. The problem with that approach is most cost - more wood or whatever materials you use to frame it in and MUCH more fill dirt.
If the incline is not too severe you can run the bed parallel to the incline rather than perpendicular to it. Still has greater cost associated with it for material and soil to level it but it will give you better consistency for watering - less pooling and run off.
A third alternative is to build terraced beds - stepped beds down the incline. At the top maybe only 12" wide, the next down 2' wide, 3' for the next etc. Makes access to them a bit more difficult but is attractive and needs less digging.
Pics linked below.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Terraced garden bed
I find six hours of sun per day can be adequate if the sun is very bright where you live. If, on the other hand, you get clouds or moisture in the air, it could be a little deficient. Give it a try.
Regarding slopes, the famous demonstration garden created by Alan Chadwick at the University of California at Santa Cruz was entirely build on a slope. Of course it needs to be a south slope or else you're in trouble. A video of that garden can be found at the link below.
Here is a link that might be useful: Alan Chadwick
Take the first paragraph from prariemoon2,s post and that is exactly the problem I had last year except it was mostly my bean cuc and a few annual flower seedlings that were being chewed by earwigs.
YES earwigs damage and kill seedlings sorry to those who disagree but I watched.
This year I again had a plentiful population of earwigs but used Bonide bug slug killer along with DE, IT WORKED all seedlings survived and grew to maturity. We had a very wet june but my earwigs were rapidly diminishing in numbers and only a few slugs. Not sure which eliminated the earwigs or if it was a combination of both but you can bet I will be doing the same each year that they are around.
Just thought you might like to look over text and photos all about growing lettuce. It's a great presentation and very informative. From the link below, click on "Techniques" then on "Lettuce". EVerything there is based on the organic methods of the great horticulturist, Alan Chadwick. If you follow the techniques closely, you'll have much less bolting to deal with. One of the most important things to remember is that when you transplant seedlings into the final beds, never get water on their leaves for three days or so. Just water around the roots after planting out, and that should hold them until you can water overhead later. The reason is that water on leaves stimulates leaf growth, but what you want is for the plants to get their roots well established first.
Here is a link that might be useful: Alan Chadwick
Pine needles work well for me, luckily my neighbor has a lot of pines and he rakes up the needles for me and I give him veggies in return. Grass clipping from my yard also work well, they don't get slimy unless they're over 4"+ deep, will dry out fast in the sun. Also collect neighborhood leaf bags in the fall but these are used mainly for compost mixing. Not sure if I'd ever use pine bark? Pine needles work great for strawberries and placed under ripening cantaloupes too.
You have to use what is locally available, free or at reasonable cost. When I was gardening in GA, there was plenty of pine needle and other tree leaves everywhere. I never paid for mulch.
Wood chips is fine as mulch around the trees and shrubs but not in the garden, for the reasons already mentioned. On the other hand , I personally never liked things like card boards and newspapers as mulch. They seem too foreign plus they get slimy and mushy when wet. Grass clippings I can tolerate. But the best mulch material are: Straw, Hey, Pine needles and tree leaves(Oak, Maple..). All of those will become excellent soil amendments.
what is the production if eaves and pods for a tree? I do not dare try them, but I will visit a friend in Zone 9 for Xmas, and I am bringing him seeds (readily found on Ebay). He has lemons, olives, and fejioa and it does not frost every year. I guess that there they will lose their leaves but survive outside. He also has rabbits and lots of space, so he may plant a dozen.
For the Ca in unavailable form: all one needs is to eat the leaves with a little vinegar and a fraction of the Ca will be absorbed (or lemon juice, or anything acidic).
I mix 1 quart cold strong coffee,a tablespoon dish soap and 2 tablespoons veg.oil
It is best to spray directly on them early in the morn when they are more active
They normally congrigate around tomatoes and other ripping fruit
You have to sneak up on them as they hide at the slightest movement
it also kills the nymps if sprayed under the leaves
it works on squash bugs also
Some growers use boiled tobbaco instead of coffee
Charlie
I sprayed garlic tea all around the bed containing the carrots, the fencing and the wood of the raised bed. We'll see if that has the desired effect. I have seen the (?) bunny in the garden several times just hanging out in the shade, eating some fallen pears, but so far, no more damage to the fencing on the carrot bed.
Maybe in about 7-8 weeks assuming that winter doesn't come on too soon. Be sure to thin them out well as beet seeds are little seed clumps that will send up 2-3 beet sprouts. Carefully thin these clumps down to one seedling without distrubing the remaining root, and then thin these single seedlings out to about 3" apart.
Rat traps 3. dogs 1. But rats were still munching on tomatoes at night.
So we went to second generation poison stations after conferring with a professional. The rats are supposed to feel sick and stay in their burrows and die rather than run around and die outside in the open.
There is nothing we can do about neighborhood rats but maybe we can cut down on them in the yard. time will tell.
Recently we have had good luck getting tomatoes as they reach the breaker stage- before the rats get them.
Cats are definitely the best answer. Before we got ours, the mouse population was destroying our machinery. They ruined a lawn mower, ate the electrical parts of our truck and - they got into our camper and procreated gangbusters! That damage was unbelievable. I was vacuuming up baby mice.
Once we moved out to our farm property full time, we put out a welcome sign to cats. Ours are all neutered and are indoor/outdoor. Mostly outdoor but they come in regularly for 'lap time'. They take care of squirrels, rabbits, moles etc. and are care-free for the most part. (We do feed them but only mornings.)
Carrots are biennials and so should not flower until the second year. If they are flowering now, in the first year, that means that they have been severely stressed, probably from lack of water, and that they are desperate. This causes fear of death, as Alan Chadwick used to explain, which leads to the instinct to procreate for the future. Hence the seed stalks and flowers. A good description of carrot culture can be found at the following website. Click on "Techniques" and then on "carrot culture".
Here is a link that might be useful: Alan Chadwick
Thanks for the replies. I don't t think its a water issue. We are in the garden 2 or 3 times a day, and all I have to do the mulched carrot bed is turn on the soaker hoses I put in place before I planted them. Guess I'll pull them and freeze them. Definitely not a total loss, just trying to free up some space in the freezer!