Yesterday was a sad day. We ate the last fresh tomato from our garden. For the next 6 months or so we will be eating plastic, tasteless tomatoes from the grocery store. If there is one reason to have a garden – even a little garden, it’s fresh tomatoes. My tomatoes didn’t fare as well this year as it did the year before. The early drought and heat wave slowed thingsdown, and many of my tomatoes … [Read more...]

Surely everyone is eager to hear about how my little lettuce garden is progressing? Even if they’re not, here goes. I am super delighted with my miniature lettuce farm. On a lark, I scattered some Black Simpson leaf lettuce in one of Nancy’s empty raised garden beds about 6 weeks ago. I did this because of my frustration with the cost of the shriveled and expensive heads of lettuce at the … [Read more...]

It’s been a sub-par year for Farmer Jim. My spring onions and early lettuce crops fared well, but my cucumber vines got caught in the heat and early drought as did my squash plants. I overfertilized and my lima bean plants produced massive bushes but few beans. My tomatoes are finally producing firm, unblemished fruits but they took their sweet time. However. About 3 weeks ago, I spread some … [Read more...]

I think I used too much fertilizer last winter. I knew the plow guy was coming to till my garden, and I wasn’t sure if I needed to scatter more nutrients, but I did anyway. If some is good, more is better. Right? This summer I have lima bean bushes that are waist high and nary a bean. Not even one, I think there’s enough nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium in my garden to build a decent … [Read more...]

Earlier this summer, you couldn’t afford to buy a head of lettuce. Adverse growing conditions caused the early shortage and the resulting sticker shock at the sky-high prices of the shriveled heads of lettuce. But now, we’re all afraid to buy lettuce because of the Cyclospora outbreak, which sent many on emergency trips to their toilets. Today, the lettuce situation in grocery stores across the … [Read more...]

A yard full of trees is a blessing – and a curse. In the early spring, trees are among the first to spring to life, first with tiny buds, then leaves. As summer approaches the leaves create a blanket of welcomed shade and the branches of the trees become homes for birds and highways for squirrels. So, what’s not to like about trees? For one, they get old and begin to die and that’s the … [Read more...]

This spring, I planted a couple hills of squash. The plants blossomed and thrived, growing to tropical sized vines. But no squash.I kept looking for the tell-tale hint of yellow beneath the vines. I would get blossoms, but no squash. Last week, I was in the garden to pick a few tomatoes and happened to see a long green object beneath the squash vines. It was a huge zucchini squash – a foot and a … [Read more...]

This spring, Nancy bought two large bags of garden soil and 2 red seed potatoes at the Crossroads Nursery. “This should be interesting,” I thought. Beside our carport, she placed one bag on top of the other after cutting the top from the lower bag and the bottom from the upper bag. Then, she cut 4 small holes in the top bag and put a couple slices of her seed potatoes – each with eyes – in … [Read more...]

Last summer, my small garden overwhelmed us with tomatoes, and almost every one was perfect. This year? Not so much. All but a few tomatoes I have picked this year have had black-end rot where the blossom end of the tomato turns black and leathery. According to the Garden Gnomes, this is caused by a lack of calcium, but in my case, it’s not a lack of calcium in the soil, it’s a lack of water … [Read more...]

Many backyard gardeners have simply given up. Why go to all the expense and trouble to plant a garden only to have a few deer wipe out and entire planting in one night. All deer repellants ultimately fail as the deer do what they do best - eat stuff. There are two ways to overcome the deer invasions. One involves a 30.06 cartridge, which is frowned upon in most subdivisions and the other is a … [Read more...]