Farming

I'm making yet another run at trying vegetables this year. I have been spectacularly unsuccessful for the past few years, but I'm doubling down on my efforts. Last year, I ran out of energy and just went for the hydroponic small eggplants and cherry tomatoes. I found the plants very attractive to look at, and also very attractive to insects. So I got vegetables to eat, but not oodles. I never put any vegetable plants directly in the ground, but let my raised beds and large pots stay fallow.

My flimsy structure in 2022,
covered in netting

The year before last (2022), I tried physical barriers to keep the bugs and larger pests out. I put a pop-up net tent in my side yard, and then I built a (too-flimsy) frame out of PVC pipe and covered it with bird netting. It kept the deer and birds out, but not bugs. Inside the shelter I had pots - with tomatoes, eggplants, and zucchini. I also wrapped the stems of the zucchini in tin foil in an effort to foil the squash vine borer. All of my protection attempts were to no avail. I had aphids, I had spider mites, I had viruses (virusi?) and fungi, and I had squash vine borers. So I got two tomatoes and one feeble zucchini out of it - I think also a couple of smallish eggplants. In my 4x8 garden cage in back of my house, I tried tomatoes and peas and beans. I got some beans, and came to the realization I don't really like just plain green beans, even very beany ones fresh from the garden. And there was a lot of slug damage. My only success that year was with swiss chard - I planted it out early, and it kept going until the hardest frost in December. It was covered in slugs for much of the year, but in the fall it was actually lovely as I guess the slugs were taking their winter naps.

4 tomatoes and a block of corn
totally caged from deer

But hope springs eternal among us gardeners. I've maintained some momentum this spring in order to get things moving on the vegetable front, and I'm trying several new things.  For starters, I've done a lot with soil amendments and fertilizer before planting. I have fertilizer on hand and a basic schedule of when to apply, to be adjusted as I see how things are going.

I started tomatoes and peppers and basil from seeds indoors. In my 4x8 cage, I've got four tomato plants, and a 4x4 block of sweet corn. I grew sweet corn in this spot once before several years ago, but I lost enthusiasm and didn't water it and it turned into light brown husks. My technique, developed from the internet, was to plant 4 seeds in each square foot. Just yesterday, I thinned what had sprouted to two plants per square foot. I read that this dense planting may lead to smaller ears, but corn requires density to pollinate - each plant relies on its neighbors to get the job done. My plan is to plant vining shell beans around the bottom when the plants get to be about a foot high. (Currently they are about 6" only.) I also put basil plants around the tomatoes.

My netted zucchini bed

I bought metal raised garden beds two years ago. Last year, I put together one of them. This year, I finally filled it up and built a crop cover for it. (Why hurry? There's always next year.) Just today, I planted zucchini there. I didn't fill it to capacity with zucchini plants - advice is to do so some succession planting to try to defeat the pests. The cover on the bed is insect netting which is pretty much tulle fabric. Hard to work with, but I think I have it anchored well. We'll see if it defeats the bad bugs!

I bought a vertical planter, a Greenstalk. It has five tiers of six planting spots each, and it spins on a base. After seeing how high it was, I decided I didn't want to garden above shoulder height, so I bought one more tier and split it into two towers of three tiers each. In the greenstalks I have cherry tomatoes (the same variety I grow indoors) and peppers and basils and herbs. I had started all the little plants from seeds and they looked great when I planted them out. But the peppers have been severely munched, so it's time to get out the spray. I'm going to apply Captain Jack's Deadbug Spray first thing tomorrow to everything in the greenstalks, and also to the tomatoes in the ground and in pots.Any innovative thing will have enthusiasts, and the enthusiasts will have internet discussion groups. There is a lot of overlap between the hydroponic enthusiasts and the greenstalk enthusiasts, which is how I learned about them, and also how I learned about Captain Jack's. I haven't yet put up a barrier to keep deer out of the greenstalks. Where they are is kind of a cul de sac for the deer, so far they just haven't come through.

A planted greenstalk

My final experiment year (so far) is potatoes. I bought seed potatoes at the hardware store, and I've got them in grow bags. Per internet advice, I planted them shallowly at the bottom of the bag, and I'm supposed to add dirt as the visible green plants grow. To harvest, I simply empty the bag. My first bag has sprouted and grown up enough to need more dirt. I tried potatoes once years ago, and got nothing despite luxuriant foliage. We'll see this time!

Greenstalks, with my citrus grove in the background

My munched pepper.
It's not dead, but its weakened.