Shading Out

I want to show you something in the garden that made me think about the term "shading out" that we would use on the farm.  First, take a look at the cole crop patch below.  From left to right (two different varieties of cabbage, cauliflower, two varieties of broccoli, and then kohlrabi, kale and bok choy.

They are growing nicely and are healthy.  It is late afternoon and the sun was shining in my face.  I walked around to the west side of the garden to take the following photo.  As you can see, the rows have about grown together so that it is almost hard to differentiate one row from another.  It almost looks like one big swath of green, verdant growth.

That's what reminded me of the term "shading out."  About 45 years ago, give or take we were growing soybeans on the Cottongin Road in Oberlin.  We weren't using a drill to plant at that time.  Instead, we were row cropping.  This required getting in the field with a cultivator to turn the ground over between the rows to stay ahead of weed growth.  You had to REALLY pay close attention or you'd run over the soybeans.  This had to be done until the soybeans "shaded out."

When the young soybean plants grew tall enough that you couldn't see the dirt between the rows, you were very happy!  You didn't have to cultivate anymore because the soybean plants had grown together.  The shade prevented any sunlight from getting to any weeds under the canopy of soybeans and this prohibited any weeds to grow and compete for nutrition.

As I looked at the winter crops in the garden, it made me happy.  Although I don't use a cultivator in my garden, it brought back some nice memories.  We've almost shaded out!

If the cows just over the fence could get in the garden, they would certainly "cultivate" my crop with the quickness!

Summer Garden - Almost Done

This weekend I had ambitious plans in the garden.  I wanted to work up some rows and plant a few more things.  First I moved the electric netting fence 10 feet back. You can notice the grass on that side.  I'll let the goats in there to eat it.  On July 4th I plan to pull up 4 hills in there and plant four types of pumpkins.  You can also see the Louisiana Purple Sugar Cane growing tall.  It is really healthy.  The other day I cut off a section with my pocket knife and ate the can.  Wow!  It was so sweet and delicious!

 Next, I moved the "metal mulch" off of the ground that I wanted to work and placed it on the garden walkway.  The ground under the metal mulch was soft and moist.  I could tell it was going to be easily workable.  So I got my garden spade and got busy.  I finally got it done.

I pulled up two rows and planted one row of white buckwheat on the last row you see on the left.  I'm trying a new experiment with buckwheat as a cover crop/green manure.  I intend on turning it under when it begins to bloom.  Buckwheat is a "miner" that pulls nutrients from deep within the soil so they will be available for future crops.  I like to eat buckwheat, though, and may try to grow some for grain.  We'll wait and see how it goes.

The other row, I planted multicolored zinnias from seeds I saved from last year.  I just thought it would be good to have some color in the garden.  It will be nice to pick flowers for a bouquet for my wife.  The next row is a row of black-eyed peas.  Then the row on the right is a row of okra that contains 3 varieties: Clemson Spineless, Burgundy, and Beck's Big Okra.



On the other side of the garden (the north side), I planted a row of sunflowers.  You can see them popping up below.  These were from some seeds from 2010.  The germination after nine years was about 100%!

And here are some cantaloupes:

Here is another row of sweet corn.  This variety is an heirloom, Stowell's Evergreen.

Here is some Burgundy Okra.  You can see the burgundy veins in the leaves.  They produce a burgundy-colored pod.  I notice something is eating on some of the leaves.

Here is a zoomed in photo of the blackeyed peas.

What I didn't have pictures of are the birdhouse gourds, luffa gourds, and butternut squash that I also planted.  I also planted three varieties of green beans since my early crop didn't do well.  I don't know how they'll handle the heat, but I'm giving it a shot. They are all popping out of the ground now.  As I said, I intend to plant four varieties of pumpkins on July 4th and that will complete my planting until early August when I put in the fall potato crop.

For Your Eyes Only

Last week we talked about purchasing and prepping seed potatoes for this year's crop.  We cut them up and set them aside to let them 'scab' over.  By Saturday morning, they were ready to be put in the ground.  First, however, I had to get the soil ready.  I want to show you a little something new I'm trying this year with the rows.

I staked out a 30 inch row with an 18 inch walkway between rows.  I dug out the 18 inch walkway.  18 inches is the width of two shovels side-by-side, so one shovel-ful goes to the row on the right and the other goes to the row on the left.  When you get to the end of the row, you have enough dirt on the row to hoe up and plant.  The photo below shows the staked out rows and walkways, along with a bucket of seed potatoes.

A long row to hoe

I told my uncle that I was planting potatoes and he reminded me of some advice that my old Science Teacher, Stuart Buck, would give us about planting potatoes. He'd say, "Be sure to plant your seed potatoes with newspaper and green onions." When we'd ask why, he'd say, "So they can read the newspaper when they get bored and onions for drought as the onions would make their eyes water." Mr. Stuart passed away in March 2016.  Mr. Stuart, I took your advice.  This photo is for you!:

Planting potatoes is easy.  Simply dig a four inch hole, drop a potato in with the eye facing up and cover.  Potatoes should be planted 12 inches apart.

While potato planting is indeed easy, it is back-breaking labor.  I am finding that, even though I don't consider myself old, I just don't have the stamina or energy level that I had previously.  But you've got to keep going.  Those potatoes aren't going to plant themselves.  No sir.  On the last row, the sun was quickly sinking in the sky... and I was tired.

I called out to my bride and she came to the garden and helped me get the rest of the crop in the ground. As we finished the job, the sun ducked under the horizon. The potato crop is in.  Hallelujah!

A Groundbreaking event - Literally

Last weekend, even though I ordinarily get this done a couple months earlier, I set out to begin breaking ground for the fall garden.  Normally, I would be doing this in mid to late August, but the torrential rains that fell throughout the month of August changed my plans!  Finally, the ground dried out and I circled October 8th to do the work.

I checked my Louisiana Vegetable Garden Planting Guide and to my delight, I discovered that I was still within range of planting dates for many of the fall crops that I like to plant.  Most of the crops had a cut-off date of October 15th for planting fall seeds.  My goal was to work up the entire garden on Saturday, plant what I could and continuing to plant each afternoon after work until the work was done. Some items like mustard greens, radishes and turnips don't have an October 15th cut-off date, so I can afford to wait on those.

I have 24 foot rows that are roughly 42 inches wide.  With my garden shovel, I can turn over the soil four shovel widths, chop up the dirt and then step back and repeat until I'm at the end of the row. Then I start on the next row.

Hey look, I found a SHOVEL-READY JOB!

Since during the spring and summer, I don't have a big hay inventory, the huge tarpaulin that is actually an outdoor billboard sign, got used in an experiment.  I draped it over a big portion of the garden.

Late summer ground covering

The experiment was to see if the tarp would suppress weed growth that normally appears.  I was hoping that the tarp would block the sunlight and eliminate weeds. The result?  Well, look below. You can see the area that was once covered by the tarp.  There were much fewer weeds under the tarpaulin than on the untarped garden area.  Also keep in mind that the difference in weeds between the tarped and un-tarped area would probably be much more pronounced if not for chickens.  If you recall, you'll know that my other experiment was allowing chickens to graze in the garden area and cut the grass.  Had the chickens not been there, I think you would see taller grass in the bottom of the photo, amplifying the good work that the tarpaulin did in covering the ground.

Rolling away the tarp (top half of photo)

The other noticeable difference in the tarped and untarped soil was that the soil that had been under the tarp was soft and easy to turn with the shovel.  The soil exposed to the weather was more compacted and hard to turn.  The tarp made my shovel-work easier.  There is a slight downside to the area covered by the tarpaulin, though.  The chickens that roamed the garden for over a month put down fertilizer everywhere except the area covered by the tarp.

Turning the soil over

Even though September and definitely October have been drier months than August, the ground was still moist, with big clods of dirt sticking together that had to be broken with a shovel to work into a finer consistency.

Then I put on my work gloves and hand-scattered pelletized agricultural lime over the rows and worked the dirt with my trusty hoe.

I hand pulled any weeds remaining, trying hard to pull them up by the roots and throwing them over the garden fence.  Then I got out my seed inventory and the Louisiana Vegetable Garden Planning Guide and began sowing both purchased and saved seed.  I may go into that in a little more detail tomorrow.  I was very tired after turning all the soil, but I felt good and energized and I slept deeply and peacefully, happy to have the garden soil worked and anxious to start planting.

Putting the Fall Garden In

It is hard to imagine as I looked at the thermometer on our car showing an outside temperature of 105 degrees in the church parking lot on Sunday, but it is indeed time to start getting the Fall garden planted.  This weekend I made a good start by weeding the areas that I want to plant and then sprinkling some organic fertilizer over the top.

Then, trying something new this year that I learned from Herrick Kimball's Deliberate Agrarian Blog, I'm planting on 30" rows this year.  I think they'll give the plants more room to grow than the 18" - 20" rows that I normally pull up.  As I look at the seed spacing recommendations, the wider rows will give me the ability to plant two furrows on top of each row, giving me a side by side spacing that makes better use of the space I have in the garden.

Using baling twine that I salvaged off of the round hay bales, I measured and marked off the 30" row width and shoveled out the dirt between the rows, allowing the width of the shovel for the walkway between rows.  I may widen the walkway in further years to the two shovel-row width that Mr. Kimball suggests, depending on how this works.  I used a hoe to lightly work the soil and then used a flat rock rake to smooth out and shape the row.  I was pleased with the way the new rows turned out.

One bed ready

It was hot and humid, though, and I completely soaked two shirts before noon just working up the two rows you see below.  I grabbed a stake that I used to stake up some pepper plants a few years ago.  Amazingly, it hasn't rotted yet.  It is the perfect tool to make small trenches in the top of the row measuring exactly 12" apart. Perfectly priced, too!  You can see those indentations in the row on the left below:

The Second Bed is ready with trenches for seed planting

The first plants that I need to get planted before it is too late include some of the cole crops:

• Broccoli
• Brussels Sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower

I plant several different types of each of the above.  For example, I like to plant 'regular' broccoli' and Romanesco broccoli, 'regular cauliflower,' green cauliflower and purple cauliflower.  For starters, I wanted to first plant some bok choy.  Bok Choy is a chinese cabbage that is delicious stir fried.

Chinese Cabbage (Bok Choy)

Because they are in the same family, you must be careful with your record-keeping and labeling your rows as all of the seeds look exactly the same:

Bok Choy Seeds

The seeding instructions are pretty much the same and require the seeds to be planted at a seed depth of 1/8 inch and 12 - 18 inches apart, but I plant them only 4 inches apart to ensure that germination is good.  Once the plants are thriving, I'll thin them out.  I can never bring myself to destroy a perfectly good plant, so I always dig the ones out that I need to thin and move to another location to grow.

I'll continue to plant other fall crops as the days go by, including beets, kale, Swiss chard, turnips, radishes, lettuces, mustard greens, sweet peas, parsley, cilantro, and spinach.  Last night we had a terrific storm that blew through, depositing 2 inches of rain on the garden.  That should have all the seeds swollen and sprouting soon. Unfortunately, it knocked out our power last night for a few hours and I wasn't able to post the blog post on Breaking Clarabelle until the next morning.  

Who knows?  With a local economy hurting due to oil & gas prices and a wildly fluctuating stock market, perhaps seeds and a garden full of fresh vegetables is the smartest investment in my portfolio!  We're optimistic about things.  Cooler weather, lower humidity, and a thriving Fall Garden (hopefully) are on the way...