To Mulch, or not to Mulch?
In the spring when we plant the weather is cool with higher humidity. We usually get some rain, even here in So. Cal.
The common wisdom is to put down a layer of mulch at that time.
We don't need it, but we just do it because we're "supposed to."
Our biggest pest problems, slugs, earwigs and pill bugs, love us for our labor and our consideration of their needs. We provide a haven and breeding ground for them. They'll devour our seedlings as they sprout and give us problems throughout the year.
I've had to take almost no pest control measures at all for the past few years. I don't create that breeding ground in the first place. Later, when the weather warms and the humidity drops, mulching is a good idea for holding moisture in the soil--if I can get to the soil. Most of my plants are so spread out and enormous by then that I can't put down mulch without damaging the plants. I put it where I can, but mostly I can't get to the soil.
Where I used to have an ongoing battle with all my obnoxious little friends, it's now rare to see one. I don't use any more water than I did when I was providing a protective haven for my worst enemies.
Keep your bed surfaces clear of debris and mulch in the early growing season. You'll stop most of your pest problems before they start.

Tomato Preparation

I planted these legumes in November. They're a mix of woolypod and purple vetch, Bio Master Peas, Bell Beans, and Cayuse Oat seeds. Just before that, I spread fish bone meal, kelp meal and guano over the bed before turning the soil.

After I turned the soil, I broadcast-ed the seeds, raked them a bit to try to cover most of them, and tried to keep the surface damp for a week or so, until they set down roots. I've ignored them since then.

On 13 March, I chopped them with my hedge trimmer, spread 150 lbs. (about 2 lbs. per square foot of bed surface) of Alfalfa Meal over the top, and dug it all well into the soil.
I left the drip system on for about 5 hours, until the bed was thoroughly saturated, and covered it tightly with 6 mil. plastic sheeting,

Today, 15 Mar., 48 hrs. later, the temp of the soil is 120 F. It will easily reach and exceed 140 F. over the next few days. That will kill any possible diseases that might be in the soil.
Around the end of April, I'll remove the plastic and let the soil cool down to about 80 F. I'll turn the soil once more, and I won't find but a few traces of legumes, or anything else other than incredibly rich soil.

About the 1 of May, or a week before, I'll lay in my Tomatoes and hope for a warmer summer this year, than our record cold last summer!

This Morning’s Haul

I was worried that I’d crowded my Japanese eggplants in the bed. I needn’t have been concerned. The 7 plants are in a bed 30” wide and 5 ft. long. We picked 51 of them on Sat. morn, just before the photo was taken. I could have picked another dozen, but I’ll get them tomorrow and another 30-40 in addition. They grow fast. Each plant produces over 100 of the lovelies over the season.

I’ll use about 200 of them in making 50-60 lbs. of Eggplant Parmesan. I make about 20 lbs. at a time, cut it into 1 lb. squares right in the pan after it’s cooked. I put the whole pan right in freezer, pop it out and wrap the individual one lb. pieces, and it’s totally a comfort food meal throughout the winter. We just heat it up one of the 1 lb. squares, and in January or February, there’s no finer dinner.

The corn is always a problem. I only plant 40 seeds in the 5’ x 8’ bed, which gives us about 100 ears—but it all comes ready over about a 10 day period. We don’t much like frozen or canned corn, so we feast on it every night for those 10-14 days. That leaves about 60 ears for our daughter’s family.

What about all the cucumbers? Melissa has made about 30 quarts of various kinds of pickles—the best!

Yellow zucchini is everybody’s favorite, so I planted 3 seeds early in a bed 5’ by 8’. The 3 plants are so big that it’s hard to walk on the sidewalk around them, and one side is completely cut off. We’ve taken at least 100 lbs. from the 3 plants.

This year I planted about 20 pole bean seeds. We’ve taken about 15 lbs. already, and the plants haven’t yet reached their peak. Pepper, our dog, is a green bean freak! He loves all the vegetables, but picking beans with him nearby—and he’s always nearby, is an ordeal. He fixates on what you’re doing with an intensity it’s almost scary. He dances around, focused, and makes it very clear that he wants nothing more than one of those beans. It’s impossible to not give him 2 or 3 during the course of a bean harvest.

If you aren’t growing a few-or literally tons of vegetables like I, you might be surprised at the enormous array of personal rewards that come with growing your own pure, fresh food.

Kook Fringe

I find it interesting—and hilarious, that organic farming and gardening methods fully developed and used over the last 10,000 years have now been dubbed “unconventional.”

Around 1910, German scientists first learned how to chemically make nitrogen, cheaply, and in quantity. From that point until about the 1950’s, with the help of the boys in the chemistry labs, cheap chemical products—fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, “---cides” (as in sui-“cides”) of all kinds became the order of the day. During those 50 years all the farming and gardening wisdom of the past 10,000 years was tossed aside in favor of fast and cheap. Very slowly over the last 50-60 years we’ve been becoming more and more aware of the destruction we’ve heaped upon ourselves, our plants and animals, our water and air. The chemical and drug companies would have us believe these are “conventional” methods -- and that organic methods are “unconventional.”

Yes, I find that very hilarious. Sickening, but hilarious. You can be sure that the more the petro-chemical industry feels the loss of sales of their poisons, the more ridicule will be heaped upon those of us who grow, buy and demand pure food. They can campaign against organics with funds that would be the envy of any political candidate. There's big money in poison. The media are not going to want to offend their biggest advertisers. We'll be more and more the butt of criticism, false data and false reporting.

I'm seeing more of that nonsense and lies every day. I don't mind being in this "kook fringe" that doesn't want poison on my dinner table. In fact, I take a lot of pride in it!

Potatoes and Zucchini

Zucchini's are sometimes eaten raw, although they have a very mild flavor-my take on that is, 'why bother?'

Sometimes I'll grate part of one, raw, or slice off thin strips with a potato peeler and add them to a salad. You can't much taste it, but it really adds a beautiful color to a salad.

Sometimes we just slice and steam them until soft in a steamer basket, add butter, salt and pepper--really excellent. Mostly I slice them and quartered slices of my Walla Walla onions-any onion will do, put them in a frying pan, add some olive oil, a little salt and pepper, turn the burner on high and toss them a bit, letting some of them get browned on one side, then cover the pan, turn it down to medium or low, and let them soften. Wonderful stuff! We usually have it every night for a week or two when it first starts coming in.

I think one could steam it for a few minutes, plunge in salted ice water and then pack them in zip lock bags for the freezer. I've never done that, but it should work okay. Mostly we have so many from 2 or 3 plants that we give away far more than we use. My daughter's family will take all they can get, but even sometimes she cries, "No mas!" I usually try to keep a couple of plants going into the late fall, and I've just started some more seeds to take over when the current plants have run out their life-span. Everybody raves about how good they are--and everyone is amazed at how fast they grow.

I started growing potatoes many years ago. We've always kept our potatoes in a cupboard, along with onions. Onions, bananas or apples will all give off a gas that makes potatoes sprout much faster than they might. I didn't know that back then. I simply buried them in the garden--found fresh dug potatoes to be about the best food on earth, and I've been growing them ever since.

When I'm doing potatoes on purpose, I put them on the shaded patio for a week or two, to let the skins turn green. Then I put a couple bananas, apples or onions along with them in a brown paper bag. In a week or two, they sprout. I sometimes plant them whole, but if I'm going to cut one into 2 or more, I dip the cut end in wood ashes and let them dry for at least a day. Dig a hole about a foot deep, put one in the bottom, put about an inch of dirt over it. When it comes up 2-3 inches, I push dirt up to just under the leaves, and keep filling in the hole as the plant grows. By the time the hole is filled back up, the potato is growing very rapidly. I sometimes dig them right after they blossom, but usually I wait until the plant is dying or dead, at which time they're as big and fully developed as they'll ever be. Baked or boiled, if you've never had a freshly dug potato, you're in for a very nice surprise.

Weed Killer

"Roundup" is the big seller, at around $25 a gallon. The label says it does the job in about 12 hours.

The effective ingredient is glyphosate, which has been found to…”cause reproductive harm, including damaged DNA in mice and abnormal chromosomes in human blood. Evidence from epidemiological studies has also linked exposure to the herbicide with increased risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and laboratory studies have now begun to hone in on the mechanism by which the chemical acts on cell division to cause cancer. A Canadian study has linked glyphosate exposure in the three months before conception with increased risk for miscarriage…” http://www.panna.org/node/466

(Monsanto, the maker of glyphosate, doesn’t bother you by putting all that technical stuff on the label.)

I killed a variety of weeds this morning. They were on their way to dead immediately, and a few hours later were dried up and ready to be swept away.

It cost me about 80 cents make a one-quart spray bottle of it. If I had needed a gallon, it would have cost me about $3.50.

Recipe:

¼ cup salt

1-teaspoon liquid detergent

1-quart cheap white vinegar

Pour the salt, liquid detergent and vinegar in the spray bottle, shake it up, and you’ve done yourself, your family and your environment a big favor—even your weeds. They’ll die a faster, easier death.

The liquid detergent can be any kind of liquid soap. It's only purpose is to make the solution adhere better to the plant leaves.

You can omit using salt if you're going to be using a great deal of it, especially if you're going to be spraying over garden soil. Most of the salt should remain on the plants your going to kill, but of course you don't want salt on your garden soil.

And be careful of over-spray around plants you don't want dead! I only use it to kill weeds that grow up between my patio bricks, through cracks in the concrete, etc. Weeds in the garden beds should be pulled up by their roots.

Hi Lee -

Thank you for all your help with Betty! It has been so fun! I remember when she arrived at the office and today I picked the first squash. Thanks again for all your help. ~ Karen