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Did you buy your tomato plants from Wal-mart, K-mart, Home Depot, or
Lowes? Or even from a local nursery which doesn't grow their own
plants and instead buys them from Bonnie? Across the
eastern U.S., these stores have
pulled all tomato plants from their shelves due to a late blight
epidemic. It won't hurt you, but your plants will go kaput.
Some people even speculate that commercial growers might be
affected. That would mean few fresh tomatoes and potatoes in the
grocery stores this summer. To read about the symptoms of late
blight and more, visit
this Boston Globe article.
Of course, if you grow your own heirloom tomatoes from seed every year,
like we do, you're probably okay. Still, if your neighbors'
plants are infected, yours might be too. If you see symptoms,
you're best off yanking the plants out and burning them or putting them
somewhere far from the compost pile.
The rain has been good to us lately, but this
week it came up a little short.
We had to make a small change to the creek
pumping system by adding a separate line from the pump.
This provides a more direct path to the sprinklers and has increased
the pressure by a noticeable degree.
The picture shows one of those large plastic storage units at the
bottom of the creek that provides a nice place for the pump to rest. It
also keeps the pump in place. The intake is towards the middle, so it
helps to prop the hose end up on a brick.
You'll
want to keep crop rotation in mind as you plant your fall garden.
This can be a bit tricky since many of your fall vegetables are in very
popular families:
- Crucifers: broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower,
collards, kale, kohlrabi
- Legumes: beans, peas
- Umbellifers: carrots, parsnips
- Nightshades: tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant
So, don't plant your
peas after your summer beans, your kale after your
spring cabbage. Instead, plant crucifers after beans, fall peas
after your spring potatoes.
Good luck with your fall
garden! If you've got any additional
pointers to share, I'd love to hear them --- I'm still working on
perfecting my fall garden.
One of the major benefits of gardening organically is the
wildlife. Our garden is so full of life that sometimes I have to
literally watch my step to make sure that I don't tread on a
toad. During our lunch breaks, we watch hummingbirds fight over
the bee balm, and gnatcatchers, buntings, and bluebirds hunt bugs among
the vegetables. Then there are the butterflies, dozens of species
with colors spanning the rainbow. Without poisons around, the
forest ecosystem creeps right into our yard.
The deer have stayed away from the garden
since the nightly
banging has begun.
I discovered that making a curve out of the tin at the bottom helps it
roll off the stick and prevents a situation where it gets stuck.
Adding a couple of timers was Anna's good idea.
Now we don't have to worry about forgetting to switch the things on
before bedtime.
View a
listing of previous entries in the archives.
Check out Mark's POOP-free chicken waterer invention (great in chicken tractors and backyard coops).
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