Category Archives: In the Garden

Hot compost anyone? Read it and weep

November 30, 2008 by The Manic Gardener

Here’s a photograph, taken on Friday, Nov. 28:

That, folks, is a thermometer. It’s the thermometer in my compost. It reads (in case you can’t see it) a hundred and twenty-three degrees Fahrenheit. (123°F.)

Others may be grateful for family, friends, turkey, jobs, whatever; I’m grateful for the compost heap (which I mis-typed as “heat,” a serendipitous error).

I built this heap on Tuesday the 18th, the day before surgery, and in the days just after, husband Steve brought me progress reports: 120° on Thursday, 140° on Friday. On Saturday I hobbled out to see for myself: 140°.

Continue reading →

→ 11 Comments

Posted in Composting, Organic Gardening, Soil & Amendments

Compost to control plant diseases (revised)

November 23, 2008 by The Manic Gardener

Field tomatoes stricken with P. nicotianae Breda de Haan
USDA Forestry image fr. Division of Plant Industry Archive
Florida Dept. of Ag. and Consumer Services

So a day or two ago I was innocently researching away about compost and just for fun, hit the Google ‘scholar’ option to see what came up under the wide-open search term “compost.” (Toe surgery confines me for the moment to whatever I can find on the Internet; even the University library six blocks away is too far).

Lo and behold, I found myself looking at a number of articles dating back to the eighties and continuing right up to the present day about managing diseases with compost. Slap my ass and call me Judy, but I never heard of such a thing. Like a good metaphor, however, it makes sense as soon as I hear it: so many plant diseases are soil-borne that changing the soil balance would reasonably affect disease contraction, severity, and so on.

Continue reading →

→ 10 Comments

Posted in Composting, Research Spin-off

Down the garden path: Last summer’s major project

November 2, 2008 by The Manic Gardener

I’ve been eyeing the strip by our path along the south side of the house for years, and this summer, so suddenly I took even by myself by surprise, I tackled it. This strip was one of the later ones to be rehabilitated; two years ago when I first said I was going after it, #1 Son hooted, "You really think you can get all that clover and stuff out?"

To which I respond, O ye of little faith!

Here’s what it looked like in June, facing west:

Nothing fantastic, but a lot better than clover and stuff. That's the edge of our patio at the top of the photo, and you can just see the bottom of the water butt on the right.

I never amended the earth, composted or anything, though I did lay a tiny soaker hose. But really, in a sun-starved yard, this is prime real-estate, and after thinning the strawberries next door, I need a place to put the extras, and here's this strip that gets all that sun. One load came over in the wheelbarrow where it stayed while I tried to figure out where to put them. It was maybe a week later that I decided not to put them anywhere:

Continue reading →

→ 7 Comments

Posted in Landscaping

Hail Damage: Potato double reprise

September 21, 2008 by The Manic Gardener

Several days ago I left you hanging, or tried to, but perhaps a more aggressive approach would have worked better, viz:

So now I knew that, thank goodness, I didn’t need to dig up my damaged potatoes. Or did I? (scary music)

To recap: My last post contained the research results I’d found after a hail storm devastated my potatoes in July. According to several experts who’d conducted several studies, potatoes damaged earlier in the season recovered more completely, and had better yields, than those that were damaged later. This was a major relief to me, as it meant I could leave my potatoes, all of them fairly young, in the ground, and they’d continue to grow, albeit slowly.

Dee of Red Dirt Ramblings had suggested, quite reasonably, that I might want to get those potatoes out of the ground forthwith, but since this research indicated otherwise, I proceeded to a gleeful celebration, declaring that she was “wrong, wrong, wrong.” Now, that’s the sort of categorical declaration that in any tragedy would be recognized as hubris, and like pride, it goes before a fall.

Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Vegetables, Weather

Bare-Naked Potato Stems: advice needed–

July 26, 2008 by The Manic Gardener

Here’s my potato patch, the morning after the hail storm:

You’ll have to take my word for it that two days ago it looked quite bright and bushy-tailed in a potato-patchy sort of way. Looking at that patch last week, one could believe that some potatoes, even in this age of slippery values, retained a strong sense of purpose in their potato-hood. Proud to be potatoes, they seemed enthusiastic about this business of producing little potatoes.

But now look at it.

Anyone got any idea what to do with a potato patch that looks like this? They were just about to flower. I’ve mulched the bed heavily to protect any potatoes from heat (once the ice melts, that is.) (Maybe a course of lecures on the work-ethic of potatoes? I’ll ask Bush for his post-Katrina action plan; that should help.)

There were plenty of small pine bits about for mulching, so that part was easy. I thought I’d wait and see if there’s any sign of life from these stems. I’m inclined to leave the plants that sprout new leaves and yank any that just keel over and give up the ghost, to keep them from rotting in the ground. There are potatoes; I checked.

Does anyone have any actual information or experience that bears on this denuded potato-stem situation? Relevant moral or work-ethic lectures also welcome.

→ 7 Comments

Posted in Organic Gardening, Vegetables, Weather