Category Archives: Tools for the Organic Gardener

Grow So Easy Organic: How To Grow Potatoes…Sort of

Posted on January 26, 2013 | 6 comments

You can learn a lot about life just by planting a garden.  It doesn’t matter whether you grow flowers or vegetables, the lessons are the same.  For one thing, you learn that everything you do is not always going to be successful no matter how hard you work at it or how well you research it.

I learned that lesson the hard way, the first year I planted potatoes.

I read magazines, books and pamphlets about planting, growing and harvesting potatoes.  I wrote down everything — potatoes don’t like heavy soil, trench them but don’t bury them.  Try using pine needles instead of dirt as the growing medium.  Plant them eye side up.  Potatoes don’t like heat so plant in the fall to harvest early in the spring.  Plant them in the spring, as soon as you can work the soil, but early enough so you can harvest when it’s still cool.

Once the research was done, I ventured out to talk to some people I thought would know.

I drove to the local feed store and talked to the man behind the counter. He’s lived in the country all his life and spends 6 days a week selling tools, ointments, salves and seeds to the people who make up our small town.   He said, “It’s all in the seed potato you pick.  Gotta’ make sure you get one that has been grown just to be planted again.”

I walked across the road and trudged up the long, steep driveway to my neighbor’s house.  He’s a farmer and he harvests acres of potatoes every year.   “It’s in the soil,” he said, “If you’ve got the right mix of nutrients, you can’t miss.  Till in some cow manure in the fall and your potatoes will grow themselves.”

I talked to my Mom.  She’d had a garden for as long as I can remember.  The last year she was alive, her garden was 5 times the size of mine.  (The fact that she was 82 at the time and couldn’t wait for spring thaw so she can get out there and grow again is another lesson for another time.) 

Mom said, “Plant them at the top of the garden, on the slope.  Cover them with mulch until they flower.  Then leave them alone till the tops fall over.”

I added this advice to all the other tips I had written in my gardening journal.  Then, because old habits die hard, I organized it like I was going to deliver a presentation then wrote my executive summary for the best approach to growing potatoes:

  1. Till cow manure into the soil at least one season before you want to plant.
  2. Buy seed potatoes grown just for planting.
  3. Time the planting so you can harvest before it gets too hot.
  4. Plant where the soil is well-drained – potatoes don’t like wet feet.
  5. Trench potatoes, don’t bury them.
  6. Use pine needles or mulch to cover them, not soil.
  7. Plant them eye side up so they see the sun and grow up.
  8. Wait for the tops to fall and then harvest.

This seemed pretty easy.  Only 8 steps and a few seed potatoes and I would have 50 pounds of homegrown potatoes.  I had the plan now all I had to do was execute it.  Cow manure had been spread and tilled in last fall.   That meant I could plant in March and harvest in June.  There was only one thing missing — pine needles.

My husband joined me in a clandestine raid on a large stand of pine trees at a nearby church.  We bagged eight 20 gallon sacks of needles to toss under and over the potato seeds and made a successful getaway.  I was ready and so was my garden.

The big day came.  It was time to pick the seed.  My friendly hardware man was

1 and a half russet potato with sprouts. Slice...

Untreated potatoes with eyes open…all ready for the ground.

there to help me.  We picked Pontiac Red Bliss and Yukon Gold.  I drove home with my treasures and jumped out of the car and headed for the back yard, ready to plant.

Two trenches cut across the top of my garden.  I made them about 14 inches deep, mounding the dirt from each trench in the space between the rows.  A bed of pine needles, 3 inches deep, was waiting for my potato seeds.

Taking out my husband’s 25 foot tape measure, I pulled the tab and laid it alongside the first trench.  Every 6 inches, one potato seed was carefully placed in the trench, eye up.  When I finished with the Red Bliss, I moved to the second trench to measure, mark and place the Yukon Gold potato seeds.

When the last seed went into the trench, I stood up to admire my work.  Perfect, all the eyes up, all in a row.  All that was left was to cover both rows with a bit of dirt and a blob of pine needles and wait for the seeds to sprout.

When Potatoes Go Awry
If you’ve ever tasted home-grown potatoes, fresh out of the garden, you know that there aren’t many other taste sensations that come close to that of a freshly steamed baby potato drowning in real butter.

Potatoes are so flavorful and seem so easy to grow.  And they really are easy to grow.  But, there are one or two things you have to know to prevent the disaster I experienced in my first foray into raising spuds.

Yes, all of my seed potatoes sprouted.  Yes, the greenery shot up and I kept covering it, rejoicing in how easy it was going to be to get organically grown potatoes for so little effort.  Then the leaves started getting lacy and going brown and dropping to the ground.  An old friend was in the house!

Next week…bugs that bug potatoes or how my hatred for the Colorado Potato Beetles just keeps growing and growing.

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Grow So Easy Organic – Bugs That Bug Summer Squash

Posted on January 19, 2013 | 2 comments

I should just make a “most-wanted” poster for the beetles that invade my garden (and probably yours).  When it comes to squash, you just need to look for the usual suspects — squash bugs, squash vine borers and cucumber beetles.

The easiest way to protect your squash from these marauders is to put row covers over the transplants as soon as you put them in the ground and keep them there until the plants begin to flower.  The bigger and healthier you can make your plants, the better the chance they will survive being attacked. 

If these marauders do show up in your garden, I use all the other organic methods you use for other garden residents including, picking, drowning and squashing!

As with other insect pests, the first line of defense is to find the eggs and squash them.  It is much, much easier to limit the invasion.  Limit is the right word because no matter how hard I try, by the end of the growing season, there are always a lot more of them than there are of me. 

But because my garden is weedless, I can spend all the time normally spent dueling with weeds to find and kill insect pests!  So every morning and every afternoon, I spend about 30 minutes in the garden…just hunting bugs.

Undersides of leaves are prime egg-laying real estate.  Squash leaves are broad and numerous so I systematically turn over each leaf, check it, crush what I find and move to the next.  Some might think this is tedious but I actually find it relaxing. 

By the way, if you see frass around the base of your vines — yellow, moist, piles of chewed stem – you’ve got squash vine borers.

july09 008

Squash vine borers dig into the stems of your plants and kill them from the inside out.

Try to get the eggs of these pests, too.  But if you miss them, you can slit open the stem, near the frass, and find the little worm that is boring into your plant.

Once you find and kill the worm, just pile soil on top of the slit in the stem of the plant.  The squash plant should make a full recovery and you will keep other insect pests from invading the stem of the injured plant.

Now, some people might be thinking, “Who wants to go to all the work of finding, squashing, smashing these pests?  Why bother?”

I will answer with a question or two of my own.

First of all, what could be nicer?  I’m in fresh air, surrounded by life, listening to the song of the birds and enjoying the company of my West Highland terriers and their new buddy, a rescued Jack Russell terrier.  Even killing bugs in the garden gives me moments away from the grind.  With my bare feet planted firmly on the soil, the garden is the place I feel most grounded, literally.

Secondly, why would you trust your health to someone else’s garden?  Growing your own, practicing organic techniques ensures that your family and you will be eating healthy — you will be controlling what they eat!

So you can look at bug control as a chore or you can look at it as an excuse to feel the sun on your face and to experience the sweet song of nature in your hands, your feet and your heart.

An Easy, Organic Cure for Powdery Mildew
Powdery mildew is a scourge of cucurbits of any kind.  But it’s a late summer disease that can be controlled by proper planting and, if your plants do get it, by using an every day, household staple.

The first tip to preventing powdery mildew is to select seed and plants that are resistant.  Next, pay attention to spacing plants properly so they have sufficient air flow and are not draping over each other and getting tangled.  (Spacing helps with bug control, too.)  Planting them where they get lots of sunshine and regular breezes can help prevent powdery mildew, too.  But if you find yourself looking at a white powder on the leaves of your squash plants, you’re probably looking

Powdery mildew of zucchini

You can’t miss powdery mildew when it settles in on your zucchini.

at powdery mildew.  It’s a fast-moving disease but there is an easy, cheap and organic way to get control it and maybe even get rid of it.

Mix 1 part milk – that’s right regular, old whole milk – and 9 parts water.  Spray the affected plants. It’s easy, fast and cheap and backed by science.

This backyard gardening technique was developed specifically for zucchini by a Brazilian scientist named Wagner Bettiol, the brains behind this “solution”.  Bettiol’s research triggered an organic gardener and vintner, David Bruer to try the milk mixture on his vineyards.  And guess what?  It worked there, too!

So, even though this is a very dilute solution made with a very common ingredient, it is effective and it’s non-toxic.  Spraying in full sun works the best.   Spray once a week but don’t spray more often than that because it can cause another kind of mold to grow on your plants. 

Try to start spraying as soon as you even suspect that powdery mildew is invading your space.   And if you want to try to prevent powdery mildew from ever getting started, spray your plants before you see it and keep spraying every week or so.

By the way, most of the advice for growing summer squash applies to its cousin, winter squash.  I just don’t usually raise the winter ones because I don’t have the room for both. 

Harvesting and Storage
Squash are a bit like eggplant in that they are tough to pull off the plant with your hands.  In fact, you’ll damage the plant if you try to pull them off and you’ll open the door for the squash borer to head on into the vine.  So use a knife to harvest your squash and cut about an inch from the top of the fruit. 

If your vines are happy, they should be producing enough squash for you to be harvesting twice a week.  I pick squash small.  Larger squash have more seeds, are stringier and don’t have that lovely, delicate taste that only a baby squash can bring to the frying pan or a salad.

Wash the squash off when you bring them in and either serve them that day or store them in the fridge for a couple of days.  If you are getting too many squash to eat or store, peel them, shred them, toss them in a freezer bag and freeze them for use during the winter. 

Recipes
I love squash and use it fresh in everything from salads to stir fry to grilled vegetables.  I also shred it and freeze it then add it to a whole host of dishes that I serve in the fall and winter.  But one of my favorite ways to serve squash is marinated and grilled to a golden brown.

Here are a couple of my favorite recipes for using fresh and frozen summer squash.

Master Recipe for Garlic & Herb Marinade Ingredients

Marinades are fast and easy and add just a touch of flavor to grilled veggies.  This master marinade and the three variations are courtesy of Cook’s Illustrated Magazine.

Master or Base Marinade
½ c olive oil
6 small minced garlic cloves
¼ c snipped chives, fresh basil, parsley or tarragon
or
2 T minced rosemary or fresh thyme       Salt & pepper to taste

Caribbean Marinade
Make the master marinade using fresh parsley only and adding:
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp allspice
¼ tsp cinnamon

Southwestern Marinade
Make the master marinade using fresh minced cilantro and:
Decrease salt to ½ tsp
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp chili powder
1 tsp turmeric
1 medium chile seeded & minced

Asian Marinade
6 T vegetable oil
2 T Asian sesame oil
¼ c soy sauce
6 small minced garlic cloves
¼ c minced fresh cilantro
1 piece minced ginger root – 1T
2 medium scallions sliced thin

DIRECTIONS for all:  Whisk ingredients together.

Mom’s Gingerbread
Shredded zucchini and summer squash make absolutely wonderful additions to meat loaf, soup and breads.  The squash is a great extender that adds flavor and moisture to all three without adding any calories or carbohydrates like bread crumbs so.  But here’s my favorite way to use shredded, frozen squash – my Mom’s gingerbread. 

Ingredients:
½  C butter or canola oil
½  C sugar
1 Egg, beaten
2 ½ C flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
½ tsp cloves
½ tsp salt
1 C black strap molasses
1 C hot water
1 c shredded, drained zucchini

DIRECTIONS:
Sift dry ingredients together and put in mixer bowl.

Add sugar and shortening or oil and mix then add eggs.

Mix hot water with molasses then pour into mixing bowl. 

Add shredded zucchini or summer squash and mix in thoroughly.

Bake in 8 or 9 inch pan(s) at 350º for about 45 minutes but make sure you check to keep it from over-baking. 

Serve warm or cold with whipped cream or plain.

By the way, I think my second, favorite way to bring a bit of summer to my winter menu is to  add shredded zucchini to your favorite meat loaf recipe.  It extends the amount of meat loaf you make and makes the meat loaf juicier!

Next week….some hard-earned lessons on growing potatoes.

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Grow So Easy Organic – How To Grow Summer Squash

Posted on January 12, 2013 | 3 comments

If you’re new to gardening and want to expand beyond tomatoes and cucumbers, I would take a look at raising some summer squash.  I always have yellow squash and zucchini tucked into opposite corners of my garden and I’m always rewarded with lots of wonderful, sweet, tender veggies.

USDA summer squash

Two favorite summer squash – zucchini & yellow. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Easy to start from seed, easy to transplant, fast growing and very productive, summer squash grow in such a wide range of climates and soils that just about anyone, in any zone can get them to produce. 

In fact, once you know a few basic rules of the road for raising squash, you’ll quickly learn that this vining vegetable plant just seems to be one of those that can take care of itself once you put it in the ground – my kind of plant!

How To Grow Summer Squash
Some people like to direct sow their squash.  I tend to start seeds indoors to give my plants a jump-start on the growing season.  However, because squash germinate so easily and grow so fast, I don’t start these seeds until 4 weeks before my last frost.  In Zone 6a, that means I start them in early to mid-April.

My squash seeds are started in 4 inch peat pots, not in cells and not in smaller peat pots.  Again, if you give the seeds the right conditions, water, heat and light, they are going to crack right open and start growing in just a few days.

If you put them in cells or 2 inch peat pots, they will outgrow the space so quickly that you won’t be able to keep them going until it’s time to transplant them outside.  So start with large peat pots that will give the squash plants plenty of room to set roots in and grow.

A week before transplanting the squash, make sure you start to harden them off.  It’s the same process for all transplants started in doors – a couple of hours outside the first day.  A couple more hours the next day and so on until, by day 5, the plants have been out all day long.  Day 5 or 6, your transplants should stay out all night.

NOTE:  Use common sense about hardening off.  If it’s been raining for 4 days, definitely don’t leave the plants out to drown.  If the wind is very high or it’s going to be down in the high 40s or low 50s, don’t leave these warm weather babies out overnight, either. 

The objective of hardening off plants is to prepare them for living outdoors, 24 hours a day.  But if the conditions are not conducive to keeping the plants healthy, don’t stick to your schedule.  You’ll kill the plants or slow production down so much that you won’t get a lot of squash for a while or even at all.

When & Where to Plant Summer Squash
Figuring out when to transplant squash isn’t rocket science.

As I’ve mentioned, summer squash are warm weather babies.  Bring your transplants out, harden them off and put them in the ground after all danger of frost is gone.  If you prefer direct seeding, you can sow summer squash seeds in prepared beds or hills at the same time. 

And if you want to have squash all season long, plan on a bit of succession planting 2 to 3 weeks after you put your seedlings in the ground.

Putting squash plants into the ground isn’t rocket science, either.  Dig a hole, pop the plant and peat pot in and press the dirt around the base.  But….and it’s a big but…there are a couple of things you really need to know before you plant them.

Where you plant your squash depends on three factors — space, proximity and wind direction. 

I learned about these three the hard way…by killing or crossing various types of squash.

Space:  Unless you buy squash that was bred to be bushy, make sure you give each plant enough real estate to roam.  Zucchini and Summer squash need about a 4 foot square to grow in.  That’s why I don’t grow a ton of squash in my garden. 

It’s also why I say I tuck them into the corners.  I have been very successful with squash when I plant them near the fence line in the blueberry patch.  One or two of the same type go into the 3 areas that are not packed with blueberries. 

Space is one thing squash need.  Their own area in the garden is another.  This is the proximity factor.  Never plant two different types of squash near each other.  Never plant squash near cucumbers.  Bees will pollinate and cross-pollinate and you could end up with cuchinni or zuchsumbers.  I have raised crosses of all three.   They look beautiful but they tasted terrible.

So I use odd and unused corners in my yard for squash.  I even put one variety in one of my compost bins.  And I make sure my squash plants are not sheltered from wind.  Why not?

I’ve found that the nice gentle breeze that comes up the hill and crosses our backyard helps to keep my squash from getting powdery mildew which can kill vines almost as fast as squash beetles.

Next week…bugs and diseases that can attack your zucchini and yellow squash.

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Grow So Easy Organic – Eggplant

Posted on January 5, 2013 | Leave a comment

When you think of the most popular vegetables to grow in the back yard, you probably don’t come up with eggplant.  In fact, when Mother Earth News did a survey of who was planting what, the most popular homegrown vegetable was the tomato followed by peppers, green beans, cucumbers, onions, lettuce, summer squash, carrots, radishes, and sweet corn.  Eggplant didn’t even make the list!

Eggplant

The bigger the eggplant, the bigger the bitter.   (Photo credit: Asian Lifestyle Design)

Okay, so eggplant is not a favorite with a lot of gardeners but the reason just may be that most gardeners have never had young, sweet flavorful eggplants plucked off their own plants.   Instead they’ve tried those large, purple cylinders they buy in the grocery store.  I was the same way until I grew a few plants and discovered there is no comparison.

There are three tricks to getting full-flavored fruit from an eggplant; buy the right seeds, start the plants early and harvest the eggplant when they’re small.

My favorite eggplant is the round, striated one called Bianca Rosa from High Mowing Organic Seeds.   This is a Sicilian eggplant with light pink fruits that are streaked with white and violet. The flavor is mild and creamy with no bitterness and a low number of seeds.

How To Grow Eggplant
Growing eggplant is a bit like growing peppers – both like warm summer days.  In fact, I think eggplant is even more cold-sensitive.  To get eggplant to flower and set fruit, you need warm soil and a long, warm growing season – from 100 to 140 days with temperatures consistently between 70° and 90°.

I always start eggplant from seed.  And I always start them early – at least 10 weeks before my last frost date.  Like all my seeds, I start them in cells.  I don’t soak them overnight before putting them in the cell but you can to shorten the time to sprouting.

Once the eggplant seedlings get their second set of leaves, I transplant them into 2 inch peat pots, raise the tray up off the heating mat (I use two bricks – not high-tech but cheap and easy) but keep them there so they can have the warmth they need to thrive.  When they get to between 4 and 5 inches high, I transplant them again, this time into 4 inch peat pots.

Why not go directly from cell to the 4 inch peat pot?  Remember, eggplant like warm soil.  Take them from warm, moist soil and stick them in cold dirt and they get shocky – I know, I tried.  All my eggplant were stunted and fruit came late in the season.

So unless I plan far enough ahead to prepare the 4 inch pots and put them over the heat map to warm the soil (that’s unlikely), I just go from cell to 2 inch then 4 inch peat pot.

Once they have settled into the new pots and are thriving, I move the trays off the heat mats and onto my lighted plant stand (which I bought used almost 20 years ago and am still using).

When To Transplant Eggplant
Eggplant have the same needs as those of bell peppers.  Transplants should only be set in the garden after all danger of frost is past.  Remember, warm soil, warm air and warm days, lots and lots of all three are what eggplant need to thrive.

If your eggplant are happy, they will need more space than you might anticipate.  Eggplant should be spaced about 2 feet apart.  I don’t plant them in rows, I zigzag them.  Like pepper plants, eggplant can be pulled over by the size and weight of their own fruit so I use tomato cages for support.  I have also planted them along a fence line so I can tie the plants up once they reach maturity.

Space plants 18 to 24 inches apart in the row and stagger them so you can get 6 to 8 plants in less space.   Make sure you leave about 2 to 2/12 feet between rows, especially if you are planting in raised beds so you can get to the plants and the fruit, easily.

Care
Once in the ground, give the transplants a good watering to settle them into the ground.  I always mulch eggplant but before I do, I put a ring of composted soil around each plant to feed it.  Then I mulch with straw or grass clippings or both to keep the weeds down.

You can also use a nitrogen fertilizer if you don’t have any composted soil, feeding the plants when they are half-grown and right after you harvest the first fruits. But being a lazy gardener, I prefer using composted soil.

Once the plants are established, eggplant love the heat of the summer.  You only have to water if you are in a persistent dry period then wait for those lovely, sweet eggplant to start emerging from each lavender flower.

Oh, and keep an eye out for one pest that just loves eggplant – the Colorado Potato Beetle.

Bugs That Bug Eggplant
When you read up on eggplant pests, the one you will read about the most is the flea beetle.   Flea beetles chew tons of tiny holes in leaves.  If plants are older and stronger, the flea beetles will be more of an annoyance than a true threat to your eggplant.  And you can hand-pick and crush these little devils easily.

But if your plants are younger and tender, flea beetles can actually cause real problems.  To avoid this problem, keep plants indoors until early summer, as advised and once you transplant them, cover outdoor plants with floating row covers to keep the flea beetles at bay until the plants get older and tougher.

Some gardeners think flea beets are an eggplant’s worst pest.  I save that title for the Colorado Potato Beetle…on my Top 10 Bugs list for a reason.

This image was selected as a picture of the we...

The Colorado Potato Beetle will eat anything, even eggplant.   (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The good news is that the eggs, larvae and the adult beetles are easy to spot and even easier to crush.

The eggs, orange-yellow in color, can be found in clusters of about 20 on the undersides of leaves.  Finding and killing them before they hatch helps decrease the odds of an infestation.

Just crush them gently (sounds like an oxymoron but necessary advice) with your fingers, trying not to damage the leaf they are laid on.

If the eggs hatch, the larvae are red to orange soft grubs about 1/2 inch long when mature. Larvae have black heads, little black legs and, as they grow, will have two rows of black spots on each side of the body. If you see holes in the leaves, check the underside for these babies.

When they reach maturity, the beetle phase, you will be able to recognize the adult Colorado Beetle easily.  The body is domed with distinctive yellow and black stripes running along the length of the wing covers.

These beetles are easy to hand-pick and crush.  I keep two small, flat stones in the garden by the eggplant to do just that.

The most common eggplant disease is Verticillium wilt which causes yellowing, wilting and death of the plants.  If you plant resistant cultivars and rotate crops – never planting eggplant where tomatoes or potatoes have grown the year before, you should be able to avoid this disease.

Harvesting Eggplant
Eggplant is one vegetable where size does matter – and it should be small.

If you harvest eggplant when they are young, you will be sure to get sweet flesh with none of the bitterness that larger eggplant bring to the table.

To find out if an eggplant is ready to be picked, hold the eggplant in your palm and gently press it with your thumb. If the flesh presses in but bounces back, it is ready for harvesting. If the flesh is hard and does not give, the eggplant is immature and too young to harvest.

Eggplant bruise easily so harvest gently. Don’t try to pull eggplant off the plant.  You will damage the plant and probably not win the tug of war with the stem.

You might even get stabbed by one of the spines on the stem.  So carry a sharp knife with you and cut the stem of the eggplant about an inch away from the top or cap of the fruit.  That method protects you, the plant and the fruit from damage.

I harvest all season long.  I love eggplant marinated and grilled.  And when I get too many or get just a bit tired of marinating them, I simply slice them, grill them dry (no oil) on the Foreman Grill and freeze them.  During the cold days of winter, I use the frozen slices to make wonderful Eggplant Parmigiana.

Eggplants don’t store well but you don’t want to leave them on the plants too long, either. Either harvest and use immediately for the best flavor or process them for the freezer.

No recipes for eggplant (other than marinated or in parmigiana) but a tip a chef shared with me.  When making Eggplant Parmigiana, mix the ricotta cheese, eggs, cooked and crumbled ground beef and tomato sauce together.

This way, you only have to layer once.  All 4 fillings are more evenly distributed and the finished dish has a creamier, richer flavor.  This tip works for lasagna, too!

Next week, zucchini and summer squash and everything you need to know to enjoy both, all summer long.

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Happy Holidays from Grow So Easy Organic

Posted on December 22, 2012 | 2 comments

No post on veggies today, no new tales of woe, just my sincere wish that you, your loved ones, your families and friends have a wonderful holiday.  And a wish that you have a wonderful and very happy new year…in 2013.

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Grow So Easy Organic: Recipes for Using The Sweetest Peppers

Posted on December 15, 2012 | 1 comment

Bugs That Bug Peppers
Apparently, there are quite a few insects that can do damage to peppers.  In my zone, I haven’t had any problems with insect damage on my peppers until this year.

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Halyomorpha halys ...

Stink bugs come in a lot of flavors but this is the one I battle – the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stal) (Photo credit: Armed Forces Pest Management Board)

Because stink bugs have become so prolific, I have started having damage on all my vegetable plants, including peppers.  As with all insect pests, I use as many organic methods as possible to control them.

Tachinid wasps help.  Hand picking and crushing work, too.  But the key to controlling insects on peppers is the same as it is on most other garden pests.  You have to get ahead of the bug population by spotting and crushing the eggs before they hatch into nymphs.

One tip if you’re working with stink bugs (or any beetles) – go out early in the morning to catch and kill. Spread a white pillow case or piece of fabric under the each plant and shake the pepper plant.  The stink bugs will drop onto the fabric and you can crush them or scoop them up and drop them into soapy dishwater.

Stink bugs aren’t the only bugs that bug peppers.  Other pests include the European corn borer, pepper maggot, aphids, thrips, spider mites and even the cucumber beetle.

The University of Florida provides a comprehensive list of pepper pests including illustrations.  Although this list is specific to Florida, the same bugs have been slowly wending their way up the East coast so they are probably either  in your garden already or going to make an appearance, soon.

Pepper Diseases
I also haven’t had many problems with diseases in my peppers.  But there are a handful of diseases that can affect these sun-loving plants.  Many of them are common to tomatoes, which is not surprising because peppers and tomatoes are related – both are members of the Solanaceae family.

Diseases include bacterial leaf spot, phytophthora blight, anthracnose and viruses. It helps to try to choose resistant varieties of peppers, which agricultural experts say is the most effective management strategy for controlling diseases.

Like tomatoes, blossom end rot is a common affliction in sweet peppers and it’s directly correlated to a calcium deficiency. This disease can be made even more deadly if your pepper plants experience long dry periods because calcium uptake only occurs via osmosis.

Blossom end rot starts as a water-soaked lesion on the bottom (blossom end) or side of the pepper fruit wall. Eventually the lesion becomes discolored and papery dry, making the fruit vulnerable to insects and inedible.

Recipes
Stuffed peppers never made my list of favorites and I hadn’t really thought of any way to cook and serve peppers until I married into an Italian family.  Over the last 30 years I have been perfecting my pepper recipes and want to share a two of my favorites.

RECIPE:  Scalloppine Sauce
No need to crack open a cook book or worry about how hard it will be to make this dish.  This is the easiest, fastest and tastiest way I know to let the flavor of your vegetables speak for you (and use up the last of the tomatoes and sweet peppers hanging out in your kitchen).  If this Irish woman married to an Italian man can do it, so can you.

INGREDIENTS
Chop about 30 peppers into large pieces.  NOTE:  I do not peel my peppers but you can if you don’t want strands of pepper skin in your Scalloppine.
Cut 6 to 8 cups of onions into rough pieces.
Dice up 30 to 40 tomatoes.
Mince 4 big cloves of garlic.

DIRECTIONS:
Dump all the ingredients into a large pot.
Add a dollop (make that a cup) of olive oil.
Put the whole concoction on the stove to simmer on a very low flame.
Let this brew/cook down for 14 to 16 hours.

The vegetables should reduce by about 1/3 rd while cooking down.  If your batch is still a little loose, just let it cook for another 4 to 6 hours. When the sauce is as thick as you’d like it to be, you can start canning.
Ladle it into quart jars.
Use a non reactive tool to remove any air bubbles.
Process quarts for 25 minutes.
Turn off heat, remove canner lid and let jars rest in water for 5 minutes.
Remove, cool for 24 hours.  Remove rims, label and store.

I usually get about 8 quarts of fabulous sauce.  You can fry up sausage and add the sauce to it for a fast and fabulous Italian dinner.

RECIPE:  Hot & Sweet Italian Pepper Relish
I created this recipe myself and have to say it is really tasty – great flavors from all the veggies and just the right kick of heat from the peppers.

INGREDIENTS:
13 or 14 Italian sweet peppers
3 to 4 large sweet onions
1 c cider vinegar
1 c olive oil
½ c sugar
1 T mustard seed
1 tsp salt
2 tsp celery seed
1 T oregano
2 clove garlic – minced
1 T basil
1 tsp red pepper flakes

DIRECTIONS:
Core and seed peppers.
Chop onions and peppers into ¼ to ½ inch pieces – use a food processor to make this easier and faster.
Put onions and peppers into large, non reactive pot.
Pour in vinegar and oil and bring mixture to a simmer.
Slowly stir in sugar, mustard and celery seed, oregano, basil, salt and red pepper flakes.
Continue to cook on a very low flame for 1 ½ to 2 hours stirring every 15 or 20 minutes.
When the relish is thick, ladle into jars.  Use a non reactive tool to remove any air bubbles.
Process pints for 20 minutes.
Turn off heat, remove canner lid and let jars rest in water for 5 minutes.
Remove, cool for 24 hours.  Remove rims, label and store.

Both of these recipes beat Stuffed Peppers by a mile in the taste department and you can use them all winter long to spice up your sauces, soups and stews.

If you like your peppers hot…check out Jovina Cooks Italian for some great information and some more recipes!

Next week, another perennial garden favorite — Zucchini and other summer squash!

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Grow So Easy Organic: How To Grow The Sweetest Peppers

Posted on December 8, 2012 | 3 comments

The only pepper I saw in my mother’s garden was the green, bell pepper.  And I never liked them.  The taste was too strong, bitter, almost biting.  So I never planted peppers until I found red and yellow bells.

Assorted bell pepper fruits from Mexico

Discovering peppers of color led to what is now my favorite pepper of all time, the Italian sweet pepper.  Italian sweet peppers are at the heart of any great sausage and pepper sandwich you’ve ever had.  And they are the key ingredient in my scallopini.

Italian Sweet peppers have a rich green color that gradually turns brilliant red.  The flesh of the pepper is medium thick and the fruit is slightly curved, tapering to a pointed end.

These peppers can grow as long as 12 inches but are usually between 7 and 8 inches long.  Raw, they are sweet all on their own or as an addition to a salad.  Cook Italian sweet peppers and add a sweetness, richness and flavor to just about any dish.

So, even though I still raise red and yellow bell peppers, I make a lot of space in my garden for the Italian sweet pepper also known as (aka) the frying pepper.

Starting From Seed
Peppers are a warm weather plant so, like tomatoes and eggplant, I always start them from seed.  And I always start peppers 2 to 3 weeks earlier than the date specified on the seed packets.  Why?

In my zone, peppers that are started 8 weeks before my last frost (around May 15th) just aren’t big enough or strong enough to set fruit before the middle to end of July.  As a result, if I started plant when the seed packet said to, I’d only get a few peppers from each one. If I start the plants indoors and early, I get a glorious crop from all my plants!

I use 24-cell APS starter kits from Gardener’s Supply and I highly recommend them.  Funny thing is, I’ve been using cells for seed starting for years and now, recent research revealed that growing peppers in larger tray cell sizes or containers will produce larger transplants.

There are a couple of other reasons I use these kits.

For one thing, I’ve had the same kits for more than 15 years and they still work for me.  For another, the kits ensure that your seeds and seedlings get just the right amount of water while sprouting and growing.  Not too much – not too little — because they use capillary mats in the cell system and take advantage of osmosis.  Because of the system design, I never have to contend with damping off when using these kits.

I fill the cells with Gardener’s Supply germinating mix, place 4 seeds in each cell…two in opposite corners.  Then I cover each cell with a bit of sphagnum moss, put on the plastic top and set the tray on my heat mats. I fill the tray with water and then check in 4 or 5 days to see if the seeds have sprouted.

NOTE:  You have to check your seed trays every day to make sure there is enough water in them.  Because I sit them directly on the heat mat, the water evaporates pretty fast.  If the seeds dry out at any time during the sprouting or early growing stages, the plants will either die, outright, or just malinger – no grow very much at all.

As soon as the seeds sprout, I lift off the clear cover and drop the light to within 2 inches of the cells.  As the plants grow, I keep the trays watered and I keep the light as close to the seedlings as I can without touching them.  If the light touches them, even a fluorescent light, it will burn the baby’s leaves and slow its growth.

When the seedlings have two full sets of leaves, I give the plants a very mild fertilizer called Plant Health Care for Seedlings, also from Gardener’s Supply,

Once the plants are 3 to 4 weeks old, I transplant them into 2 inch peat pots.  NOTE:  If all the seeds sprout, either separate the seedlings and put one in each peat pot or clip the smaller of the seedlings off with nail scissors so the remaining seedling has more room to grow.

Transplanting Peppers
Before you put your pepper plants in the ground, make sure you are NOT planting them in the same area where you had tomatoes, eggplant or potatoes last year.

Peppers are in the Solanaceae plant family and are botanically related to these popular garden vegetables.  Because they are related, peppers can share the same spectrum of pest problems and should not be rotated into soil recently lived in by their kissing cousins.

Also, whether you’re growing from seed or using transplants (unless they were outside when you bought them), you have to “harden off” your plants before you stick them in the garden.

Hardening off does NOT involve tools or torture.  It just means that you have to introduce your transplants to the outdoors, gradually.

Five or six days before you want to put them in the garden, start setting them outside for a couple of hours the first 2 days and keep an eye on them.  Make sure they have water and are not staked out in high sun or high wind.  Then leave them out all day for 2 days then overnight for one night.

NOTE:  also, when hardening off, stop fertilizing.  If the plants have small flowers or fruit on them, pinch both off.  You want to help the transplant direct all of its energy to rooting in the soil before it tries to set flowers or fruit.

Remember, peppers like warm earth and warm air – even warmer than tomatoes.  So the optimal temperature for them to go into the ground is 75 to 85 degrees. Peppers are typically transplanted about two weeks later than tomatoes, for me that’s early June.

Peppers can be planted in single rows or twin (double) rows on a raised bed. Space the pepper plants 12 to 24 inches apart and space rows about 4 feet apart. If you decide to use a double row, make the rows about 18 inches apart on the bed and put the plants in the ground in a zigzag pattern.

By the way, peppers and tomatoes don’t work and play well together so don’t plant tomatoes on one side of your trellis or fence and peppers on the other.  The pepper plants will grow but their growth will be stunted.  And the peppers themselves will be small and prone to rotting.

Feeding The Peppers
If you don’t want to use fertilizer on your transplants, here’s a little trick I learned from a farmer friend.  Crush up eggshells and put about ½ of a cup of them in the bottom of the hole. Toss a bit of soil on top of the crushed shells before you put the pepper plant in so the baby roots (cilia) are not cut.

Crushed egg shells are slow to break down but will feed the plants.  And they are free so I love using them as my fertilizer.  By the way, you can also use crushed egg shells to stop slugs…just by sprinkling them around the base of your plants.

Peppers have shallow roots so water them when they need it and don’t hoe too close.  Also, stake peppers so that when fruit loads are heavy, the plants don’t topple from weight or high winds.  I use old, inverted tomato cages.  That sounds odd but the cages work better than anything else I have tried.

I put the tomato cage over the plant with the wide ring on the ground and fasten the ring down with ground staples.  Then I gather up the tips of the cage and secure them with a wire tie.  The pepper plant stays inside the cage, grows up straight and is supported even in the heaviest wind or thunderstorm.  And I don’t have to tie the pepper plants up.

Next week, bugs that bug peppers….and some fabulous recipes for all those luscious, red peppers you are going to harvest.

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Grow So Easy Organic: Protect Cucumbers from Diseases & Bugs

Posted on November 10, 2012 | Leave a comment

Cucumbers are a favorite in my home garden and I’m sure they are a favorite in other gardens, too.  They produce a lot of tasty product for a very small investment in seed.

But cucumbers are also one of the fastest plants to succumb to infestations from one particular bug and the diseases that bug carries.

So, let’s talk a bit about armed warfare on Cucumber Beetles…another of my top 10 most hated insects.

Bugs That Bug Cucumbers
Diseases that affect cucumbers are transmitted by bugs.  So instead of listing the diseases, I’m going to share the disease name(s) and the critters that carry them throughout your garden.  I’ll also share my unorthodox methods for controlling them.

Bacterial Wilt – Plants infected with bacterial wilt are victims of a cucumber beetle attack. Cuke beetles carry the disease organism in their bodies.  It overwinters with them as the beetles take up residence and hibernate in any vegetation, including weeds that are left in the garden.  Cucumber beetles emerge just in time to feed on tender cucumber seedlings.

Spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpun...

Spotted cucumber beetle (they come with stripes, too). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Even if you can’t see them, plants are frequently infected with the disease-causing bacteria from beetles long before the symptoms show. When the vines wilt and collapse (usually about the same time that the first cucumbers are half-grown), it is too late to prevent the disease.

It’s easy to see why cucumber beetles are on my Top 10 Most Hated list and they deserve to be.  Small — 1/4 inch long, black and yellow spotted or striped beetles, cucumber beetles are voracious and can kill cucumber plants whether they’re young or established.  They even attack seedlings!

They feed on foliage, flowers, and fruit and bore into stems. And they fly from one plant to another and can easily carry bacterial wilt with them.  So, cucumber beetles should be controlled from the time that the young seedlings emerge from the soil.

Your best defenses for these beetles and the bacterial wilt they bring with them are:

  1. Clean up the garden in the fall.
  2. In planting season, cover your baby cucumber plants with a light, spun row cover until just before pollination is required.

If you do these two things, you might just cut down on the number of cucumber beetles and be able to raise a nice crop of these wonderful, crunchy, green delicacies!

Use row covers early in the game but remember, cukes need to be pollinated so you can’t keep them covered forever.  You can also make up a mix of insecticidal soap and spray frequently.

And squash these beetles relentlessly.  I shake the vines and when they fly out, use my thumb and forefinger to crush them.  You can put a dent in the population if you take 15 minutes every evening to find and kill them.  These really are the only organic methods I know of to kill cucumber beetles.

Keep in mind that cucumber beetles are equal opportunity pests so make sure you check any squash or melon that you are trying to grow for these bugs.

Aphids — Watch for buildup of colonies of aphids on the undersides of the leaves.  These tiny bugs come in a whole lot of colors – green, black, brown, red, pink – but if they’re pear-shaped, slow-moving and small — 1/16 to 1/8 inch long – you are looking at an aphid colony.

Colonies are found along stems and on the underside of a leaf. These little munchers like succulent new growth. They suck sap from the plants causing leaves and stems to become distorted and damaging the plant.  Aphids can also transmit other plant diseases so they are not welcome guests in any gardener’s patch.

And aphids reproduce quickly so if you don’t control them, you will have several generations of aphids living in your garden.  The University of Illinois  has  good information on cucumber beetles and a great data bank on a lot of bugs – what they are, what they do and how to handle them.

Recipes
I’m only including one actual recipe for cukes because I love them fresh.  So here are a couple of my favorite “fresh” serving suggestions for cukes:

  1. Sliced with mayo on homemade bread is my favorite.
  2. Sliced, mixed with sliced onions and covered with a dressing made of half mayo and half plain yogurt with a dab of sugar and a bit of cider vinegar comes in a close second.
  3. Cukes as a principal ingredient in my favorite cold soup – gazpacho – well it’s a close second, too.

Refrigerator Dill Pickles

INGREDIENTS:
¾ C kosher salt
1 Qt Cider Vinegar
2 Qts Water
Fresh Garlic cloves
Fresh Dill seed heads
Peppercorns
Onion slices optional

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Thoroughly dissolve the salt in the water.
  2. Add the Vinegar
  3. Put layer of dill seed heads and garlic clovers in the bottom of a gallon glass jar.
  4. Place freshly picked cukes on top of dill.
  5. Add another layer of dill seed heads, garlic and more cukes until the jar is ¾ full.
  6. Fill the jar to the top with the vinegar mixture.
  7. Add peppercorns.
  8. Add onions.
  9. Close the jar and refrigerate for 5 to 7 days.

These will stay crunchy and keep in the fridge for up to 4 weeks!  And they are one of my very favorite ways to enjoy my cucumber harvest.

Next week, beans…green and otherwise!

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Grow So Easy Organic: How To Grow Great Green Cucumbers

Posted on November 3, 2012 | 1 comment

One of my favorite, childhood memories is eating cool crisp cucumber slices on homemade bread slathered with mayonnaise.  My mom could raise just about anything but she really got a ton of cucumbers out of the dozen or so plants she put in the ground every spring.

Cucumber Flowers

Cucumber plants early in the growing season

When Mom was gardening (way back in the 50’s and 60’s), there wasn’t a slew of choices when it came to what you put in the ground.  Cucumbers were cucumbers.  Today, there are a whole lot of varieties that you might want to try.

Like tomatoes, cucumbers come in two varieties – hybrid and heirloom.  There are three general categories or types of cucumbers, too, slicing, pickling and  burpless.

I’m an equal opportunity cucumber person.  I grow and eat them all.  But if you’ve got a yen for a certain type of cuke or a bit less space than you’d like, it helps to know just how big the plants will get and what type of cucumber you will harvesting.

Let’s start with the ones that most people buy in the grocery store, the long green slicing cukes.  There are a couple of varieties that have gained popularity in the last few years.

Slicing Cucumbers
Burpless Cucumbers – burpless cukes are, according to researchers in the Department of Horticultural Research at North Carolina State University, actually Oriental Trellis cucumbers.  And they are a little less bitter and a little less prone to cause burping.  Whatever you call them, these sweeter, long hybrids grow well on trellises and are a nice addition to any garden.  But remember, this is a hybrid so seed-saving may not work.

Marketmore 76 & Marketmore 80 – this cuke likes to have a trellis to climb, too.  I use an old box spring for my cukes.  Like the burpless cucumber, Marketmore cukes are dark green and straight (unless they grow through a bit of the bedspring) and quite tasty.  And, they’re disease resistant, too.

Straight 8 –  another dark green, cuke that grows long and straight (hence its name) is a wonderful slicing cucumber.  It’s crisp flesh and mild flavor make it a favorite for cucumber salads and sandwiches.  Straight 8 is an heirloom so you can save its seeds.  Once most of your harvest is in, leave a cucumber on the vine and let it turn yellow.  Pick it, scoop out the seeds, clean them off then dry them, thoroughly.  Refrigerate and use next year.

Cukes for Limited Spaces
If you don’t have a lot of space to garden in or you’re working with container gardening, you can try a couple of the bush cucumbers.  They’ll still give you long, green slicing cukes but they’ll take up much less real estate doing it.

Bush Crop – these plants are ideal for small gardens or containers.  The Bush cucumber produces the same size cukes as it’s bigger brothers – 8 to 12 inch long – but it does it on a dwarf, mound-shaped plant.  There are no runners, either.

Fanfare is a hybrid but oh what a cucumber it is.  It’s got it all, great taste; high yield, extended harvest and disease resistant, the Fanfare produces fruit on compact vines.  It’s a great choice for someone with small gardening space or the container gardener.  The cuke is slim, dark green and grows to 8 to 9 inches long.  And it has a wonderful, sweet cucumber taste.

Salad Bush is another hybrid but it matures in just 57 days.  This tomato plant only grows that are 18 inches long but it still produces beautiful straight, 6 –plus inch long, dark green cukes. The seed is a bit expensive but if you’re garden space is small or your raising cukes in pots, this may be the one you want to try.  Direct seed the Salad Bus and sit back and wait for your beautiful, compact bush to produce beautiful, flavorful cucumbers for your table.

Pickling Cukes
Pickling cucumbers are smaller, have more spines and hold up to brining better than slicing pickles.  But I think of the pickling cuke as a “two fer.”  You can pickle them; you can also slice them and eat them right off the vine!  Here are a couple that you might want to consider but don’t limit yourself to just these varieties.

The Bush Pickle is fast to harvest – producing fruit in just 48 days.  It’s another compact plant so it’s good for container growing – no need for trellises or stakes! The Bush Pickle may be small but it produces a good-sized crop while taking up just 3 to 4 feet of space. The fruit is about 4 inches long, light to mid-green, with a crisp, tender flavor – perfect for pickles!

Carolina (Hybrid  matures just one day after the Bush Pickle, taking 49 days to produce its straight, blocky fruit.  The Carolina has medium-sized vines so you may want to trellis the plants.  Vigorous, with great yields, the Carolina produces medium green fruit that are generally about 3 inches long and a bit blocky.  The Carolina comes with spines, too and makes a great dill pickle.

Tips on Planting
Cucumbers are usually started from seed.  Like their relatives, squash and melons, cucumbers like warm soil so only plant them after all danger of frost is past.  In fact, I don’t plant my cukes until almost the end of May.  They have to have warm soil and planting them early just means the seed may not germinate.  Or if they do, growth will be slow and the plants will be small.

So, wait for the warm soil and warm air before putting cuke seeds in the ground.  The same is true for transplants.  But transplanting cucumbers is a bit tricky.

“Cucumbers resent transplanting.”  I laughed out loud when I read that sentence in Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden: Creative Gardening for the Adventurous Cook.

Then I transplanted some by pulling them out of their little plastic pots and shoving them in the ground.  Needless to say the seeds I planted in the ground on the same day grew a whole lot faster than the transplants.

Apparently, cukes have lots of little tendrils  – small branches off the central root that uptake water and nutrients and feed the plants.  Harsh transplanting damages the branches and the plant may not recover, at all.

Mine didn’t.

But since I like to have a jump on the growing season, I have worked out a way to do the least damage to the baby cuke plants while giving them about a 6 week jump on being put out in the ground.

I start seeds indoors in mid-March (Zone 5 ½) and once they get their true second set of leaves I simply place the 2 inch peat pot into a 4 inch peat pot and cover with soil.  No transplant blues, no disruption and by mid-May, when these babies hit the dirt, they are tall, healthy and frequently covered with blooms

NOTE:  when transplanting into the garden, do NOT remove from the peat pot.  Just dig a hole deep enough to accommodate the 4 inch peat pot, place the whole pot in the ground and cover with soil.

Make sure you cover the top of the peat pot with soil or, just tear the first inch or so of the top of the pot.  If you don’t, the wind will blow on the top of the peat pot and wick moisture right off the plant.

If you’re using seeds, you can put a single seed in the soil about every 12 inches and cover them with ½” to 1” of soil.  Or you can create a small “hill” of soil and put 3 or 4 seeds in each hill and cover with 1/2 to 1 inch of soil and water them, gently.  NOTE:  you MUST water these seeds daily.  If they dry out in the act of sprouting, they die.

If using the hill method. Leave 24” to 30” between each hill to give the plants a chance to grow without being crowded.  If you’re using transplants, plant them in warm soil about 12 inches apart.

I usually put transplants on one side of the trellis I use for cukes (actually an antique bed spring I found by the side of the road) and put seeds in on the other side.  This ensures that I have a longer picking season and, if I lose a plant or two to cucumber beetles, I have others to replace it.

By the way, unless you live in Maine or Canada, you can do a second planting for fall harvest by planting seeds in mid- to late summer.

Make sure you water cucumbers frequently.  They have shallow roots and have to have moisture, especially when they are setting and maturing fruit.  Try to use soaker hoses for cukes, too.

Cucumbers also like mulch – something that keeps the soil warm in early spring. And floating row covers can help keep your baby cucumbers warm, too.    Once the cucumber transplants have settled into their new home, you can side-dress with nitrogen fertilizer when the plants begin to vine.

Be careful not to handle cucumber plants when they are wet as you can transmit diseases from plant to plant that way.  I only harvest in the afternoon, after the sun has dried off the leaves, top and bottom.

Next week, how to find and destroy the bugs that bug cukes and my favorite refrigerator pickle recipe

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Grow So Easy Organic – Knowing What YOU Can Grow

Posted on October 13, 2012 | 1 comment

This might seem like putting the cart before the horse….but before you buy seeds and lay out your fantastic garden, you might want to give a bit of thought to what you want to put in the ground.

This isn’t about zone or space, this is about time, money and actually enjoying what you grow instead of doing battle with it.

Plants or Seeds
The most basic question is do you want to put plants in the ground or raise your own plants from seed?  The most basic answer is how much time do you have?

If you’re like me and you’ve been gardening for a while (or you have a friend who is a hard core gardener), you probably do both.  But if you’re new to the gardening game, you may want to start with plants.

Buying plants gives you a chance to see if you really do like this gardening thing before you invest time and a bit of money in raising your own plants from seed.  I tend to do both.  I buy plants from the Amish farmers but I also raise vegetables from seed.

Growing from seed has some advantages, for example, you can plant heirlooms that you just can’t buy anywhere.  And you can condition your seed, by planting and harvesting for a couple of years which makes them even more suited to your soil.

I love growing from seed but there are a couple of things to keep in mind:

  1. It does add a bit of time to your schedule because you have to start them indoors, in February and March (if you live in Zone 6b as I do).
  2. The seeds may not sprout so you would have to buy plants, anyway.
  3. You need a controlled environment – temperature and air movement – when the seeds are sprouting and until they get their second, true set of leaves.
  4. You will have to pay attention to the seeds – keep them moist but don’t drown them.  (Here’s where an osmotic planting system like the one sold by Gardens Alive comes in handy.)

Heirloom or Hybrid
By the way, if you want to save seeds from your plants this coming year and use them in the garden the following year, make sure you don’t buy hybridized seeds.  Why?

The simplest explanation is hybrid seeds are produced through cross-pollination, the mixing of plants of two different types for a specific reason, such as bigger fruit, disease resistance, a different look, etc. But the problem with hybrid seeds is you won’t be able to harvest further seeds from the fruit they produce.

Buy some tomato seeds of a specific variety, grow them and then harvest the fruit. Save the seeds, and you may get the same sort of tomatoes…or you may wind up with a different variety altogether. Or worse still, the seeds may be sterile.

Heirloom seeds, on the other hand, will produce the exact same type of fruit year after year, generation after generation.

Playing With Plants
I’m aces with tomatoes — all heirloom or organic seed — from Grow Italian or Territorial Seeds.  My blueberries yield over 60 quarts every year and my Montmorency cherries are a close second with 50 plus quarts.  Pear trees are just starting to bear fruit and the pluots are eagerly anticipated every summer.

But my fig trees are good one year and not so good the next.  And the peach and apple trees bear really bad fruit – spotty and buggy.  Cantelope grow beautifully in my soil but taste like dirt.  Broccoli Rabe comes up fast and easy but flowers before I can harvest it.

Potatoes love the soil but always fall prey to Colorado Potato Beetles and wire worms.

Knowing what I can’t grow upset me when I was a younger gardener but this old girl understands that knowing what she can’t grow is even more important than knowing what she can.  Why?

I no longer waste time or space on those veggies and fruits that just are not going to produce.  I spend that time honing my skills at growing and harvesting the myriad of foods that like my soil, my weather, my temperatures, wind and rain.

This is where I really experimented and where some of the worst carnage of my early gardening days happened.  But here’s a bit of advice that I got from my mom.

Mom Really Does Know Best
My mother’s garden in Virginia was 5 times the size of mine, literally.  At the age of 82, she was still out there in the early morning mist, hoeing her rows, weeding, watering and talking (yes, talking) to her beans, tomatoes, cabbage and corn.

While visiting one day, after a particularly large potato disaster in my garden – death by Colorado Potato Beetle – I whined that I would never be as good a gardener as she was.  Nothing ever died in her garden.

Mom laughed, leaned on her hoe and said, “Of course things die in my garden: I just turn them under and plant something else.”

Mom had to close my mouth because my jaw dropped about a foot.  It was like an epiphany – Mom killed plants too!  There was hope for me.  And there is hope for you, too.

So let’s dive into what I learned while wiping out whole populations of plants!  Maybe what I share will help decrease the number of “interments” in your fruit and veg plots.

Next week, an organic gardening favorite, tomatoes — how to start them, raise them, feed them, protect them and oh, yes, eat them!

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