Garden Changes For 2014

Garden Changes For Next Year                                                   December 6, 2013

“A gardener’s work is never done.” ~anonymous 

 It is said that all gardening is experiments. This time of year (mid-December)  I am planning changes and improvements for next year’s garden. This year is no exception. Four seed catalogs have already come in and are well thumbed and lists and dreams are being made. Mimi’s pom-a-poo Belle sits in my lap in the recliner and helps.

We have one more harvest from the Victory Garden this year the week before Christmas, which is the last day the local Food Pantry is open this year. We will have, Lord willing, have cabbages, turnips, rutabagas, and collards, assuming they survive the predicted below freezing temps this next week. We grew and donated to charity 4,430 pounds so far this year.

The two long rows of Nantes and Chardonnay carrots will be left till next spring as will the garlic. We planted thirteen thirty-two foot rows with the cloves spaced ten inches apart in each row. I haven’t totaled that up yet. We have six varieties: elephant garlic, one softneck Kettle River Giant, and four hard neck varieties.

We volunteers plan to make some changes in the Victory garden in 2014. Goals are to find ways to increase our education outreach and production while lessening the impacts on both Mother Earth and our backs.

-       Add four more trellises made of cow panels ($20 at Halls’ Feed Store) and grow pole beans, cucumbers, decorative gourds, and small cantaloupes on them.

-       Create cinder block raised beds instead of wood in two more of the six plots. We have two of the six plots built already. This saves a lot of labor needed for bending over and for hilling up new rows at the end of each season.

-       Try a new way  to grow tons of tomatoes. Our production varieties will be Bonnie Hybrid, Better Boy, BNH602, and BHN640. http://deltafarmpress.com/print/management/how-get-major-tomato-yields-small-plots-few-plants

-       Be more organic. Use soapy water and witch hazel instead of bug spray. Use anything to mask the smell of the plants so the bad bugs cannot find the plants. We also plant marigolds and basil around the garden for the same reason.

-       Keep my garden tools cleaned up and sharp at all times. I say this every year.

-       Don’t over fertilize or plant too thick. We had big beautiful pea vines which grew into an impenetrable mass with too few blooms. The soil is a rich loose humus and only needs a little nitrogen when the plants start growing.

-       Don’t wait for honey bees which are scarce in Collierville. Buy mason bee houses to attract them to get better pollination. http://www.gardeners.com/Mason-Bee-House/37-481,default,pd.html

-       Move the four year old chest high compost pile into the garden.

-       Be more proactive in weed management with more mulch to cover all bare ground and smother the weeds.

-       Plant fewer peas and more beans as we have too many peas and not many beans.

-       Continue to solicit more volunteer angels to work and learn with us.

-       Work more with children groups in the garden, such as the Crosswinds Elementary Roots and Shoots Club and all of Collierville Elementary School.

Ain't God good!

Carl Wayne