Dug some of the potatoes. Mostly just 2 or 3 small potatoes per plant, and mostly on the soil surface under the mulch. If there were potatoes down deeper, I didn’t find them.
Those planted in the clay did a little better. I suspect there are some down deeper which will either rot down and fix the soil or resprout in the spring.
The best producer was the 3rd year potato that I just left alone.
The last set of potatoes seems determined to go to seed, which is fine with me. They were planted a couple months after the others.
At this point I’m thinking the best option for potatoes may be a perennial bed that I just dig through when I need potatoes to eat.
Again, no resources. I didn’t water, weed, or fertilize.
I was trying to find the dry beans yesterday, in among the weeds. The soil in there is still squishy wet and the beans are only a few inches tall. It usually rains in March and April, and by May everything is drying out. The only things that are thriving are in the greenhouse.
I don’t know whether to plant things that need more water for my winter garden, or plant as usual.
I just went out to feed the chickens and the run is ankle deep in water. I discover that the drainage for the second coop is wholly inadequate. Some friends dug the ephemeral pond deeper just yesterday, and it has overflowed back into the run.
I have two birds in the main run, checking to see if they’re laying (one is) but they were in deep water and refused to go to high ground.
I have never seen the water pool this deep. I think we’ve gotten at least two inches in the last hour, and it’s still coming down.
Balancing seasonal drought and shifting patterns is tricky. I need to work on the drainage for the coops, that’s for sure. I’ll have to think about the rest.
I just planted some of everything. Popcorn, green beans, melons, watermelons, rice. With the heat they should germinate pretty quickly, and the soil is still wet from all this unseasonable rain.
I’m building a series of garden boxes for exceptionally wet years, while the rest of the garden will remain in-ground. In dry years I’ll cover crop them.
Squash and winter cover crops will go in this week. The squash is primarily for winter chicken feed, so as long as it ripens I’m fine with it.
I have a couple of volunteer tomatoes in the greenhouse that haven’t started blooming yet.
Emergence! One cucumber so far, but the beans, corn and melons are amazing! I think I’ll keep the old green beans for seed, and harvest from this new batch if they survive the next few weeks of brutal temperatures.
Plants that grow low to the ground such as melons, sweet potatoes, and sprawling squashes seem to do the best, since they don’t get blown around as easily. But the squashes get squash vine borer before they even put on their first blossoms. I need plants that easily root at nodes.
The bush type fruit trees also seem mostly unaffected by the wind.
Yeah, but I need to get at least one survivor. And I did, the first year when I planted in grass, in unamended soil. Planting the seeds from those survivors the following year resulted in 0 survivors and no seeds. I planted maximas, moschatas, and pepos, and either the squash bugs or SVB killed every one even before they started to sprawl.
The first year the bugs found my garden late–my garden is probably the only one within at least a mile. 2nd year they were already here so I’m starting from square 1. I’ll get there eventually, but since I’m primarilly growing the squash for chicken food it’s low priority at the moment.
I’ve done the same, given up on all the squash plants because squash bugs or SVB have destroyed everything even if I do what we try to get away from and soak the seedlings full of neonicitinoids and use all the topical pesticides. There is no conversation with the pests other than we take it all and you get nothing.
I’ve gone on to other family cousins that are successful even with the intense pest pressure. The watermelon, melons in general and the vine luffas and other familys. They can get attacked by squash bugs but not a taste they seek so nothing like the immediate explosive population growth in week or two they seem to do on all the major divisions of squash out there.
Right now it’s true survival gardening. I’m away from it due to work commitments so can spend no time out there. Everything is volunteer starts only and my okras from my two breeding projects and watermelon and luffas are the primary ones coming back in force with hands off no water no care true grow or die. A few of the radishes came back but most did not. The basil and the cilantro keep coming back. My walking onions and multipliers are slowly dying off so we will see if they stabilize or turn around. The fruit trees are doing their own thing. The random one off tomato is out there, that will have to be the one to prove it had the genetic strength to start the spread of a new line. Lots of tobacco starts but I’ve pulled all this year for the first time and that’s what used to grow tall and shade the walking onions which thrive in their own before do maybe there’s the link, shading force from the tobacco. I don’t use the tobacco so it’s just doing it down thing and in the way so I tried pulling it since I knew work was taking me away from the garden this year. Ground cherry is just starting to pop up. And one sunflower started early and I let it even though they are for the birds and ants as I don’t use it. The Chinese yard long beans are coming back on their own but other than collecting seeds I didn’t eat my seed stock for the first grow do I hope they taste good to let them keep going on their own every year.
Next up next year is a very weedy introduction I’ll make, epazote starts, Chenopodium ambrosioides it is most notably related to lamb’s quarters, quinoa, and huauzontle and is the natural gas chemical that prevents the bean farts when cooking bean dishes with it. It has a distinct scent and flavor like cilantro has its own unique flavor and scent. It’s most notably the flavor and scent of traditional bean dishes in Mexico and is hard to find fresh locally. I should have the weather for it but I’m far north of its native area so we will see if it will be weedy in one area at least in the garden.
I’m not giving up on the squash entirely. I have done a fall planting and we’ll see if anything produces from that. I planted some into little pockets in high grass, which might offer them some protection.
I’m not expecting anything from the squash at this point, but if I get enough to replace the seeds I used and some chicken feed, I’ll be satisfied.
This man Scott on Permies made this topic about going through nine years of struggle against squash bugs, has found the solution, read on page 4! Shared it with friends and family, their squash is thriving. Everybody else’s is dying.
So somehow he’s managed to adapt his crops to get squash bugs resistance. Quite interesting i would say. I would expect more interest from the breeders community than just a shrug of the shoulders, if i can speak so frankly.
We do not have squash bugs here (France) yet, they probably will come one day, as globalization forces fruits to be distributed all the time. Seeds cannot according to the fools reigning over us, that would be reckless.. Endangering our local flora, spreading diseases etc. Importing diseased fruits flown in ( CO2 anybody?) from over half the planet no problem. So they will come.
I keep reading about squash bugs and then i send this link. Crickets…
He has the solution, go and obtain those seeds people. Write him, personal messaging is called purple moosages, he is still active on Permies. Write answers in the topic, keep it alive. We have to spread squash bugs resistance and not keep it localized in Scott Stillers suroundings.
The topic is called : ’’ I thought permaculture insect control had failed me, but land racing saved the day.’’
Ok i’ll make a topic about it, instead of ranting on your garden notes, ruffle some feathers.
Chenopodium ambrosioide got dropped off at my place by the birds this year and i had no idea what it was but I’m definitely letting it grow for it’s deworming properties since i don’t have a black walnut. I read that it is native to tropical areas but it’s apparently growing wild in NW Ohio.
Watermelons report. 3rd season here, in clay soil, winter planted, adapting to clay soil, heat, and no culinary water. The woodchip mulch is thinning as the soil underneath improves.
I went to the farmers market and did a presentation. Gave away all my fliers and had some interesting conversations. Amazing how many different directions the same topic can take.
