Part 4 a: More Dirt On Dirt

My timing is perpetually off on this tomato series, as I should have put up this post back in November or December.  But there is still time if you act quickly and don't plan to put in your vegetable garden until mid-April or early-May.

It's called sheet composting, and it's a great way to add organic material to your garden beds if you don't have a compost pile or bin in your back yard.

Being we're already nearing February, you'll want materials that will decompose quickly, such as soft kitchen scraps and lawn trimmings.  Simply chop them up and take them out to your garden beds and spread them around.

Once spread out, cover the material with a layer of steer or chicken manure (costs about $1 a bag at Lowes or Home Depot).  Mix a bag of worm castings and a good quality compost, such as SuperSoil then spread that on top.  It's important to put a good two inches or more over this to avoid rodents digging up your material for food.  I personally think the steer manure creates a good "scent mask" to keep the rats and mice from smelling something tasty underneath.

Make sure this stays watered through the spring.  Decomposition will halt if this all dries out.  But if you do this over the next few weeks, you'll have a great base of rich soil to plant in come May.

As I mentioned, this is really ideal for Fall.  That's when you'll have a lot of organic material from your spent vegetable plants and fall leaves.  Do this at the end of season, cover it with your manure, castings and soil, and you will be good to go next summer.  You'll also have more options available as to what you can throw in.  This being February, and with only 60-75 days to go before summer plantings, you'll want to be sure whatever you add is chopped well and you leave out heavy materials such as corn cobs, branches, or heavy melon rinds, etc.  But if you're doing this in the fall, all those things can be added.

As to what NOT to add:  This is cold composting which means your compost doesn't heat up enough to kill the bad things you don't want in your garden.  So avoid adding any of the following:

• Seeds, especially weed, tomato and pepper seeds.
• Weeds, especially crabgrass, clover (actually Oxails which looks like clover but is a weed in these parts).
• Plants that show signs of disease, especially rust and fungus.
• Anything processed, such as store-bought bread or plant-based "meat".  You really want to stick to whole, unprocessed materials.  An exception would be coffee grounds, shredded newspaper or cut up, unbleached cardboard.
• Anything animal based, such as meats.  The only exception being crushed egg shells, which are fantastic for your garden and will add calcium to the soil.

Here is a great link on items you should avoid composting, especially if you are using this sheet composting technique:  Things To Avoid Composting (And Why)

You also don't have to do this all at once.  As soon as you are done planting for the season, you can take your kitchen waste out to your empty garden beds and bury it in holes as you collect it.  I've done this successfully over the years and found it's a nice way to add that organic material without needing to maintain a compost bin.

Part 4: The Dirt on Dirt

I can't express how important soil is to a vegetable garden.  I've said before, you can't fertilize bad soil into good soil.  You've got to start out with a healthy base, and now is the time to do it!

Here in the Bay Area valleys, where we rarely get more than a light frost, we can amend our beds just about any time between seasons.  My favorite is January or February, and right before a good rain storm.  Ideally, you want to let your soil "meld" for a month or more before you plant, and I like the help from Mother Nature to get it soaked in and wet.

But what exactly do I mean when I say "soil"?

I'm a big proponent of composting, but I know not everyone has the means to make their own dirt.  In fact, for the first few years I had my current garden, I bought all my soil, and experimented with a lot.  Here's what I learned:

    The worst place to get vegetable garden soil is at the big box stores.  You absolutely will NOT find anything of quality at Home Depot, Lowes, and certainly not Walmart.  The only thing I buy at Lowes is steer and chicken manure, which I mostly use as an additive to my compost pile.

    I'm also not a fan of the MiracleGro brand (and stay miles away from Kellogg.  It's nothing but barely ground-up wood chips, IMO).  I also don't like soil that has added fertilizer in it, like MiracleGro touts.  That may be nice if you've got a large pot and just want to plant one tomato, but for larger-scale gardens, it's my preference to stay as organic as possible.

    Your soil should look like this:  Moist, rich, dark, almost black, with no chunky pieces of wood or bark.  If it's light, dry and woody, you'll only end up trying to throw good money after bad when it's mid-summer and your tomatoes are fighting blight.

   

    The photo above is of my homemade compost, but you can buy an equivalent.  If you need a lot I recommend going to a landscape supply store such as Sonomarin Landscape Supply in Petaluma, or Wheeler Zamaroni in Santa Rosa.  My personal go-to was the Wheeler Zamaroni "Veggie Mix".

    If you don't need that much, you can buy bagged, and the wonderful thing about Sonoma County is there's no shortage of places to buy quality soil.  My favorites here on the southern end are Harmony Farms Supply (now also in Petaluma!), Cottage Gardens, Friedman Brothers, and Wheeler Zamaroni offers their Veggie Mix in bags as well.  All of these stores have quality soil and amendments that range in price from super expensive (over $30 a cu ft!) to reasonable, about $6-7 a cu ft.  Friedman Brothers has a brand called SuperSoil which I've used often.  It's very adequate as the base to my personal recipe for a soil cocktail:

• 2 Parts SuperSoil, WZ Veggie Mix, or other good quality raised bed soil mix.
• 1 Part Steer or Chicken Manure
• 1 Part Worm Castings

    Even if you go with a higher quality soil mix like you'll find at Harmony Farms or Cottage Gardens, I still like to add worm castings and some steer manure, as I think you have a better chance making sure your soil has all the trace minerals vegetables need when you mix a few things together.  

And lastly:  To Dig Or Not To Dig, That Is The Question!

    For the first several years I was gardning, I used to shovel amendments into my beds every spring then go through the arduous and back-breaking task of turning it all in to the existing soil.  I've since learned that not only is it a waste of time, it's actually better if you don't!  

    Here's a good blog post that talks about the 7 reasons why you don't want to turn over your soil:  7 Reasons Not To Till but the short of it is, soil builds its own ecosystem, and digging it all up and turning it over only messes with nature.  It's best to simply top your beds with a good couple inches of your compost cocktail, water it down good, and let mother nature do the rest.

Part 3: Organic Pest Control

I'm trying to think of a pest or disease I haven't contended with.  Okay, that's a little dramatic given this is California.  Our weather is ideal, and when compared to other states, we're practically considered pest-free.  But we do have our share.  

The ones I hate the most are the tomato horn worms, which come at me like this in my dreams:

Well, not seriously.  But that's how they seem when I unexpectedly find one in my tomato vines or pole beans.  They'll do devastation if you don't control them, and they are only one of many things that can ruin a good garden.

I'm a big believer in organic gardening.  Not only for the environment, but because I have more success when I work with nature instead of fighting against it.  But understand that organic gardening is all about prevention.  You'll have a hard time fighting back pests and diseases if you do nothing before the pests arrive.  So the best offense is a good defense, and that starts with:

• Rich, fertile soil
• Healthy, quality plants
• Varieties suitable to the area
• Varieties suitable to the season
• Plenty of sun

You can't plant shitty Walmart greenhouse plants in a pot of last year's dirt and think you can fertilize and pesticide your way to prosperity.  But even the healthiest starts can use a little boost.

Here's my arsenal:

Slugs, Snails and Earwigs:

Sunflowers, artichokes and anything leafy (lettuce, chard, bok choi, etc.) regularly get decimated by tiny slugs in my garden.  New plantings will often get chowed down in one night if I don't sprinkle with Sluggo the moment they go in.  In fact, I've found it's best to start sprinkling the ground with Sluggo a few days before I plant.  That keeps slugs from having a choice between the bait and my plants.

Fungus:

Southern Sonoma County is one big fog belt, and I'm often fighting rust, mildew, late blight and black spot.  And once it's taken up shop, it's almost impossible to eradicate.  There are a few things I do to keep fungus at bay:

1. Plant rotation:  Unless it's a perennial like artichokes and strawberries, I never plant the same thing in the same spot two years in a row.  Many fungus varieties are soil borne and will stay in the soil long after you've pulled the plant.  Fungus also tends to like certain vegetables, so if it's hanging out over the winter waiting for you to plant those yummy tomatoes again, dupe it by planting green beans there instead.  It'll die off for lack of a host.  (This is also a good idea to keep your soil from being depleted of the same nutrients every year, since different plants take different nutrients out of the soil).
2. Drip watering:  As mentioned, many fungus varieties come from soil, and they will harmlessly stay in the soil as long as you aren't splashing them up onto the leaves of your plants.  Aphid defense aside (which I'll talk about below), you never want to water your veggies from above, leaving your plants dripping and dotted with splashed-up dirt.  A simple soaker hose or drip is best, and you can buy inexpensive hose attachments (many with timers!) that can be used for even the smallest in-ground or container gardens.
3. Thinning:  Tomatoes especially can get dense and bushy, making them susceptible to trapping our foggy morning moisture.  When my plants get dense, I occasionally thin them out as they grow, removing some leaves from the center of the plants so they maintain air flow.  Though be careful!  Those leaves will also shade your tomatoes on hot days, preventing sun scald, so you want to focus on only thinning out the center, without removing the outer branches that are shading your fruit.  I also thin out squash plants and vines when they get too unruly, and you definitely want to cut and discard older zucchini leaves if they're starting to turn yellow and moldy.
4. Neem and Copper Fungicide:  Every spring I take a gallon pump sprayer and mix a potion of Neem & Copper Fungicide.  These are both considered organic and won't harm you or the good bugs in your garden. (Though if I do see friendlies out there while I'm spraying, I try to shoo them away.)  I typically wait until my plants are established and beginning to grow (maybe a foot or so) before I start spraying, and I usually concentrate on tomatoes and squash, which are most susceptible to fungus and pests.  I'll do this once every 4-6 weeks during the growing season from about May through July, so we are only talking about a few applications a season.  Fungus, in general, is a classic situation where prevention matters, as once it sets in, this mixture may slow it down a bit, but will rarely cure it.  

Caterpillars and Hornworms:

These are about the only pests where I'll wait for signs before I spray.  They start as eggs laid by those pretty white butterflies (moths, actually) that float around and land on your plants.  And spraying the eggs does nothing.  You really have to wait for them to hatch into caterpillars, and when they do, I find Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt) extremely effective in killing them off before they do much damage.  You find Bt in the stores under the label "Caterpillar Killer" and I've had a container of Safer brand in my shed for years.  Mix it in a pump or hand sprayer and spray at the first sign of trouble.  Because it only kills pests that actually eat the plants, this won't harm any bugs that are just hanging out enjoying the sun.  Again, though, I typically try to avoid spraying things like bees, so when I do spray, it's in the morning before they're active.

Cucumber Beetles:

Do you ever see ladybugs in your garden but they're green?  That's because they're cucumber beetles, and they especially love my pole beans.  To a certain extent, I simply let them share.  They eat holes in the leaves and suck spots in some of my beans, and as long as they don't get greedy, I let them be.  When they do get out of hand, I've found the only way to get rid of them organically is to just pick them off the plant and squash them.  And it's surprisingly effective.  You'll find them more often when it's cool--in the morning or evening--as they tend to hide in the shadows when it gets hot.  They are slow and quite trusting.  I can often catch them in my hand or carefully pluck the leaf they're sitting on, set it on the ground and then step on it.  I was surprised how well this works in keeping them at bay, because in my yard, they don't show up in large numbers.  I only need to squash 2-3 cucumber beetles a couple times a season to stay ahead of them.

Aphids:

I have a rainbow of aphids in my garden, from the classic green to gray to black and even some red.  They are the bane of my existence, and because of them, there are some plants, such as chives, that I've almost given up on.  I find aphids extremely difficult to eradicate entirely, but I have found some things that help:

• Petunias - for some reason, when I started planting petunias I stopped having aphids on my squash.  At first I thought it was a fluke, but I'm now into about Year 5 of petunias and it's still working.
• Water - when aphids do show up, the best way to rid them is to spray them off your plants.  Most get stuck in the mud and die.  This is something you'll have to do often, though, as they come right back every few days.
• Timing - I find aphids are more prevalent in the warm summer months.  So if your short-season veggies like lettuces and chard get eaten alive in June, try an earlier spring or later fall planting instead.
• Explore alternate varieties - I had no idea there was such a thing as aphid-resistant lettuce until I stumbled on it in a seed catalog.  Apparently, Chinese Garlic Chives are also supposed to be resistant to aphids, so I intend to try those next year.

People have also used insecticidal soap that you can purchase or make DIY.  And while I won't dismiss that as an option--even have some in my shed--it's never worked well for me, even when applied after a good water spray gets the bulk of them.  But that is an option if all else fails and you're trying to save a plant.

Inviting The Good Bugs:

I always sigh a little when I see people talk about buying a jar of ladybugs to come eat the aphids that have set up shop.  The problem with relying on this method alone is the ladybugs will eat the aphids then leave when most are gone, leaving your garden defenseless when the aphid army rebuilds.  And that happens fast!  Fun Fact:  A newly born aphid becomes a reproducing adult within about a week and then can produce up to 5 offspring per day for up to 30 days!  Do the math and ask how many ladybugs you want to buy every year.

Instead of buying beneficials, I try plant things that will naturally bring them around and--most importantly--keep them with you all year.

I found this great list of plants that attract ladybugs from a site called BalconyGardenWeb.  Many flowers and herbs on the list not only bring around ladybugs, but other beneficial insects that will help you out.  Which is the primary reason you want to keep to an organic garden.  Sprays that kill bugs will kill ALL the bugs, including the ones on your side.  And in my opinion, working against nature is the quickest way to fail at gardening.  

Some of the things I plant include petunias, which I like because they will trail themselves among my squash:

I also add sunflowers and marigolds, artichokes, and sweet alyssum.

Nasturtiums are another staple, as they self-sow everywhere.  And when I say everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE.

So while you're planning out next year's garden, make sure you leave space for flowers.  They'll not only help you be successful, but they're just darned pretty: 

Happy Gardening!

 

 

Part 2: When To Pick Those Tomatoes

There are four reasons I never leave tomatoes to fully ripen on the vine:

1. If you've got critters such as mice, squirrels and birds, they're most likely to steal your wares once the tomatoes are fully ripe and juicy.  And trust me, there's nothing more infuriating than spending weeks watching that "perfect tomato" develop on the vine, deciding that "tomorrow will be the day I bring that baby in", only to find a mouse or squirrel had the same idea just one day earlier.
   
2. I gift a lot of my tomatoes to friends, family, and food banks, and when I do, it's nice to provide a mix of varying ripeness so they'll have several weeks of tomatoes to enjoy.
3. Super hot days and too much sun can sun scald any tomatoes that aren't shaded by leaves.  And tomato ripening season is also when we get some of our hottest days.
   
4. There's nothing to gain from leaving them out there.
   

Many people think that tomatoes need to ripen on the vine in order to have the best flavor.  And that's true.  But "ripe" isn't the red ripe you think it is.

If you're an information junkie like me, this is an excellent blog post about tomato ripening myths.  I don't intend to repeat what's already written there, but I will bottom-line it for you.

Tomatoes are fully ripe when they come to what's called the "breaker point".  That is the stage when the tomato stops pulling nutrients from the vine, and is basically just sitting there exposed to the elements and critters that can ruin your hard work.  Here is a great chart that illustrates:

You'll see that breaker point is when the fruit is still green.  Since it's not always easy to tell from the outside, I pick my tomatoes at the "Pink" stage, or sometimes the "turning" stage when I know I'll be too busy to go out for a few days.

Here's the haul I have on my counter right now:

 

The other bottom-line from the article I linked:  Don't bother with fancy ripening techniques.  They don't need to be put in a bag with a banana, and absolutely don't set them in a sunny window.  I pile these in wide bowls and leave them on my counter.  Room temperature (in the 70's), dry shade out of direct sunlight is ideal.  Today is Wednesday.  Most of the tomatoes above will look like the red ones on the right by the weekend.

So there you have it.  Mythbusting the vine ripened tomato theory!  Protect those babies and bring them in before you lose them, and until next time, Happy Gardening!

Melons!

One of my favorite quotes about vegetable gardening is something like, "It's often easier to learn to love what you can grow than it is to grow what you love".

When I think of this quote, melons come to mind.  I loves me a good, sweet honeydew or deep juicy watermelon.  But being coastal here in the Bay Area--and those melons need lots of inland heat--I've been sticking to melons I have a fighting chance with.  And for us in Southern Sonoma County, that's cantaloupe and Crane Melons.

For about 3 years now, I've been growing a variety of cantaloupe the book "Golden Gate Gardening" recommended, which is Sugar Cube.  New to me this year is Crane Melons, which I tried because I live less than 4 miles from the Crane Melon Barn.  So that seemed an obvious choice. 

And these have not disappointed.  As you can see, they're much smaller than what you find in the store.  But they pack a surprising amount of fruit that is juicy and delicious. 

Unlike the store bought, you don't lose the outside inch to heavy skin and flavorless fruit.  I literally pare these like I would an apple.

Cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, and you get a pretty decent amount of fruit. 

And they beat anything you'd buy at the grocery store.

This was my first time growing and eating Crane Melons.  While larger than my Sugar Cube cantaloupe, mine still ended up smaller than the ones I've seen on line.  But oh, are they juicy.  Not quite as sweet as the cantaloupe, they are still tasty and worth the effort.

So who knows?  Maybe now that I've gained a few years of success with melons, I may scour the internet for a good variety of watermelon to try.  I gave Honeydew a try last year, and was not impressed with the sweetness, and I may find the same fate with watermelon.  If so, that's okay.  I'll be happy with my Cranes and Cantaloupes. 

As the saying goes, learn to love what you can grow!

Happy Gardening!

In Search of The Perfect Dill Pickle

Friday was devoted to fast and easy refrigerator beets.  Today, I went full-homestead and processed a batch of cucumber pickle chips.

 

I've only made dill pickles once, and while they turned out perfectly crisp, my husband hated the pre-mixed pickling spice I'd used.  I confess, it wasn't what I'd expected either, and I'm guessing the culprits were cinnamon and possibly star anise.  So I'm coming back this year with a much simpler recipe where I control everything that goes into the mix.

I started with a plain old Hamburger Dills recipe from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving.

Then made the following adjustments (because c'mon--I gotta make it my own!):

• I replaced 1 quart of white vinegar with 3 1/2 C white vinegar and 1/2 C apple cider vinegar.  This wasn't intentional.  I ran out of white and was too lazy to go to the store.  But maybe it will be brilliant!
• I also added red onion slices, as a carry-over from last year's batch.  Not only are they pretty in the jar, pickled onions are delicious in everything you would use pickles for.  So why not combine the two?
• I doubled the peppercorns because two per jar seemed chintzy.
• I added a few dried hot pepper flakes.  Hopefully, not enough to make these "hot" pickles.  But I wanted a little bite.
• Added 1 small dried bay leaf per jar.
  

Another thing I've learned about myself:  I don't have the energy to plant both slicing cucumbers and pickling cucumbers.  

I tried that a couple years ago and never had enough pickling cucumbers to make a batch of pickles.  Mostly because I refuse to give up too much space in my garden for pickles.  So last year I tried just pickling my regular slicing cucumbers, and they turned out fine! 

So that's my plan, at least while I'm experimenting with recipes.  If I get a real winner, maybe I'll play more with the varieties I'm growing, either by growing pickling cucumbers again, or just keeping to my slicing cucumbers but not letting them get so big.  For sure, pickles are harder to pack when the slices are large, not to mention the seeds.  But without a winner-winner pickling recipe, my slicers are doing perfectly fine double-duty.

So we will see how well this recipe turned out.  I like to give them 4 weeks before I open a jar and see what I've got.  So now we wait!

Beets! Beets! Beets!

I pulled in another crop of beets this morning and made what is now my official favorite pickled beet recipe.  Not only does this make delicious slightly sweet-slightly sour, slightly spiced pickled beets, the process doesn't involve canning.  And due to the vinegar content, the batch will last in your fridge for up to 6 weeks.  Though usually they are gone long before then!

I found the recipe on a site called BellyFull.Net and you can find the original version here:  BellyFull.Net Refrigerator Pickled Beets  But because websites often disappear on me, here is my own copy for saving: 

 Refrigerator Pickled Beets

• 4 medium roasted beets, cooled, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground mustard
• 5 whole black peppercorns

Bring the vinegar, water, sugar, salt and mustard to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved.  Simmer for a few minutes, take off the heat and allow to cool a bit.

Add peppercorns and beets to a clean glass jar with a tight fitting lid.  Pour the brine in, covering all the beets.

Cover and set aside for several hours before transferring to the refrigerator.