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Post by emmsmommy on Sept 7, 2023 11:43:03 GMT -5
A few more observations: bed #10 in the old garden needs extra attention this fall. While it has grown a bumper crop of catnip and a few peppes, the cutshort bens in that bed performed poorer than the same beans in my impromptu brick bed up against it and on the underneath of the arched trellis. I partly blame the dry conditions after planting as beans on the other side of the arch are much fuller though planted a few weeks later. Jicama seems to be doing well though I believe one has split. Have them planted among beans again so can't really lift them yet. And yes, I do believe they're worth the hassle of starting early and babying until it's warm enough for them to go outside. Already procured my seeds for next year and think I'll move them into the new garden as the soil is much better and it gets more sun, which I think it would enjoy. More potatoes next year! Hoping to section off an area for some of the more rotted wood chips and layer it lasagna style with leaves and composted chicken poo soon in hopes that it will make a prime potato patch.
Editing to add another observation/revelation, the bean trellis in the new garden has to go. It's sturdy, it's functional and it's in the wrong place. If the beds weren't made out of concrete blocks it may not be an issue, but growing beans in those blocks and another crop inside the beds has been challenging. So to the new addition it will go and will expand the distance between the span to make walking under it a bit less claustrophobic.
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Post by emmsmommy on Sept 14, 2023 12:37:39 GMT -5
So I'd pretty much written off the potatoes under grass clippings... until now. Neglect was probably their worst enemy as most of the white fingerlings ended up exposed to the sun, but miraculously I'm averaging about 22 potatoes per plant and that's not counting the really tiny ones. The red fingerlings did much better in terms of not getting sunburned but production is around 12 potatoes per plant. My seed potatoes for this were a one pound package of mixed fingerlings from the grocery store. I've had decent luck in the past with fall planted potatoes and plan to replant all the green potatoes within the next two weeks or as soon as I can get the area prepared. Hubby and I have already talked about planting 50 pounds of kennebec potatoes in the spring and he suggested doing a row under grass clippings and comparing the harvest.
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Post by raphanus on Oct 7, 2023 8:59:06 GMT -5
December 24 2022 was the coldest day I’ve ever seen in my 35 years here, 14 degrees wrecked most of my citrus trees, so this year’s citrus crop is probably only about 10-20% of normal yields.
The spring was unusually long and cool so I had the best tomato crop I think I’ve ever had, but peppers were slow and stunted and didn’t produce as much as normal. The purple bell peppers yielded more than the other bells but a lot of them got sun scald and then rot spots. The jalepenos I accidentally planted outproduced all the other pepper varieties by far.
I double dug about 60 holes in the front yard for tomatoes and peppers but then a ton of zinnias volunteered and outcompeted all the tomatoes and peppers. Many of the tomatoes still made fruit even in while being dominated by zinnias, but the peppers did not.
The summer was unusually dry which was very nice. Excellent yields on cucumbers and sweetpotatoes.
Green beans were a complete failure this year, they got some disease I think. Plenty of cowpeas have volunteered though and they always do well.
I mowed down all the zinnias in the front yard a couple weeks ago and spent a ton of time and sweat effort hoeing and thatch raking and hand tilling up the front yard to prepare for planting winter crops, and then it rained for 3 days straight and now the entire front yard is volunteer zinnias again 🤦♂️
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