(Intro from Jim Brewer) Well, fellow backyard gardeners, it’s time to plant! This week I asked a veteran gardener, Sherman Shifflett, to share a few suggestions from his many years working the soil. Sherman kindly relayed some tips his father gave him, and one involves using the Farmer’s Almanac. Maybe there’s some real truth in that old handbook. Below are Sherman’s tips.
By Sherman Shifflett
Do you plant by the Farmers’ Almanac? Dad used to plant by the “signs”, but I never did. I planted when I was ready and the ground was ready. But, there must be something to it, because there have been times when I planted seeds and the seeds didn’t come up. One year I planted green beans three times with no success. I figured it was due to the rainy weather and the phase of the moon. But maybe not?
Dad didn’t have much formal education and he did not know about things like the PH in soil, but he knew how to have a productive garden. With 11 children, that was a good thing. He told me not to put much fertilizer on beans because they would be mostly vines/leaves and have fewer beans. He also said you could plant cukes in almost pure horse manure.
I don’t plant potatoes anymore. Dad used to tell me, “Go gravel a few potatoes.” That meant to dig under the vines with my hands and get some small potatoes, without destroying the vines.
Dad also used to plant pole beans around corn stalks when the corn was knee-high. I tried that, but the beans always got shaded out and did not do much.
A friend of mine grows potatoes in old tires. As the potato vines grow, he adds another tire and more soil, and continues to do that. He said it saves space and potatoes produce at each level. I’ve never tried that, but it sounds interesting.