Beneficial Bug Flower Bed

I have problems with pests in my garden.  Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only one that is in a constant, ongoing battle with bugs.  I’ve tried all kinds of techniques- row covers, natural sprays, handpicking.  My latest tactic is to lure in the good guys, the beneficial bugs that can help me fight the battle.  Last year we built a raised bed with rocks from our property, filled it with dirt and then planted a beneficial bug seed mix from American Meadows.  It is advertised to attract “lacewings, lady bugs, hover flies and parasitic wasps, which help to destroy harmful pests such as aphids, thrips and mites.”

This is what it looked like last May:

Then we had a drought.  I watered regularly until we went out of town for two weeks.  I assumed that the flowers were not going to make it.  A few things grew, but it looked sad.

Fast forward to April of this year:

The flower bed came to life with Baby Blue Eyes:

Siberian Wallflower

and poppies.

The show continued in May with more and more blooms:

including cilantro with a dragonfly

Lance-leaf Coreopsis

and Globe Gila

Now in June there is an explosion of Black-eyed Susans:

I found this butterfly enjoying the blooms:

She was so distracted by the nectar that I got a nice close-up:

Among the sea of Black-eyed Susans I found some Yarrow:

and one Purple Coneflower shaded by the Black-eyed Susans:

It is fun to watch what appears in the flower bed.  I can not say whether these flowers have brought in an army of beneficial bugs yet.  Although I did spot this hoverfly on one of the blooms:

Maybe, just maybe I will get some help with the war against pests that goes on in my garden, but if not the flowers are still beautiful and make me happy.

Planting the Home Orchard: Pears

One of my goals this year is to plant more fruit trees.  We currently have three apple tress, so it was time to expand.  J is a fan of pears and I'm in the pears are alright category.  However, I've never had a ripe-off-the-tree pear, so perhaps my opinion of pears will improve.

In researching pears for my area, the biggest problem is fire blight, which is caused by the bacterium Erwinia amylovora.  From what I've read fire blight can be very destructive and kill apple and pear trees.  According to Clemson University, the best strategies to reduce fire blight are to select resistant varieties, use sanitary measures and avoid excess nitrogen. My search began for resistant pear varieties.

Warren kept coming up when I searched for fire blight resistant pears.  It appears that this variety was developed in Mississippi and any hot and humid climate has a greater risk of fire blight.  It is considered the best pear tree for southern states.  The descriptions I read also makes it sound delicious and a good keeper.  Of course I was going to need another tree for pollination, so my research continued for pears that can handle the humid south.

I ended up back at Century Farm Orchards, where I had ordered my southern heirloom apple trees.  They also sale some pear trees and there was one I found especially intriguing, the Plumblee pear.  It is described as a sweet and juicy pear with disease resistance.  What intrigued me was that it is a local pear and was grown by their friend’s father for decades.  This orchard is only about two hours from here, so the climate, diseases and pests should be very similar.  That was pretty much all the information that was available for this pear, except that the guy that grows all these southern heirloom apple trees likes this pear better than most apples!  Well, I was sold.

I kept reading about these varieties and found that some people were having problems with Warren not setting fruit.  It seems that it is not a good pollinator.  It would be sad to wait several years for pear trees to mature and then not get any fruit, so I thought I should get one other pear just to make sure there will be some pollination going on.  I wanted to order everything from Century Farm Orchards to avoid paying more shipping costs.  Of the other varieties they had available it seemed that Keiffer and Seckle were my best bets for fire blight resistance.  Keiffer, however, has a reputation for being hard and gritty, so even though it has high disease resistance, it was voted off the pear tree list.  The third pear variety will be Seckle.  It is described to have moderate resistance to fire blight, so hopefully that will be adequate.  It is a small dessert pear that is very sweet and good for canning.

Our three pear trees arrived at the beginning of January and we planted them the first weekend of the month.  Now we have three apple trees and three pears in our growing little home orchard.  Our next step is to mulch and put up a fence barrier for the deer and beavers and then we just have to wait.

Gardening has increased my patience.  I remember the first time I planted asparagus I was appalled that it was going to take three years for harvest.  Now I have pecan trees that will take ten or more years to mature, so five to seven years for pears and apples doesn't seem too long.

Tomato Weaving

The garden has been pricey this year..a tiller attachment for the tractor (hooray for Craigslist and a used one!), the deer fence and I've lost count of how many bales of straw I've bought.  When it came to supports for my tomatoes I didn't want to spend a fortune.  My plan was to have twenty tomato plants.  Somehow I only started 18 from seed and then one had an unfortunate mishap with the garden hose, so I have 17 tomato plants.  Getting even the cheapest tomato cages was still going to be expensive, plus the frustration of them not working well.

As I contemplated how to hold up my tomatoes, they continued to grow and the beginnings of a tomato formed.  I needed to search for a effective and cheap method.  I thought about making my own cages out of cattle panels.  Here's a great tutorial for how to make these: sturdy tomato cages.  However, making 17 would be a lot of work and then I would have to store 17 cages that don't collapse.

Another option I considered was the Florida weave.  This method involves putting tall stakes in the ground after every two or three tomato plants and then weaving twine between the posts to hold up the tomatoes.  This website has nice illustrations: Florida weave.

I had a couple of fence posts remaining, so I would just need to buy rebar and twine.  I wanted to use rebar instead of wooden stakes because they will not rot or break.  This method was definitely my cheapest option.  I had one concern with the Florida weave technique.  My tomato plants are a mix of determinate and indeterminate varieties.  The indeterminate varieties grow much larger that the determinate ones.  I did not plan ahead and separate the two types in my row of tomatoes, so the variation in height may make it difficult.

J and I took Domino for a walk and I explained my tomato support dilemma (which I'm sure he was completely enthralled by).  He was probably thinking which method was going to be the least amount of work for him!  The cow people (what we call the family that rents the farm at the end of the road for their cows) drove up and coincidentally asked us if we needed some rebar.  Why yes!  He works in construction and had a bunch leftover from a job.  That was how I decided to go with the Florida weave method for my tomatoes!

After our flash flood last week the garden was a soggy mess, which was a perfect time to drive the fence posts and rebar into the ground.  I have to say we did a horrible job making a straight row, so I think I have to call my technique the crooked Florida weave.

Instead of twine, J thought I should use wire because we had a bunch leftover from the fence building.  I have to say that weaving with a heavy spool of wire was not fun.  I may buy twine for future weaving.

Also I'm a bit concerned that if it gets really windy, the tomatoes could get cut by the wire.  The good thing about the wire is that since it is sturdy, I don't have to pull it really tight around the tomatoes.  So far it seems to be working, but of course the tomato plants are not very big yet.  I'll let you know how it is holding up by August.

This post is shared at Green Thumb Thursday at Grow a Good Life.

Quest for Apple Trees

Part of my plan for our 12 acres is to grow an orchard.  When I think about the types of fruit I want to grow, the first that comes to mind are apples!  I eat an apple almost every morning, either cooked with oatmeal on cold mornings or sliced on top of waffles with yogurt for warm weather.  I also love to bake (and eat) apple pies.  Every year we go apple picking and I cook little mini pies that go into the freezer.

Picking apples in the rain in Upstate New York, fall 2013

However, when I started researching what kind of apples to grow I hit a brick wall.  Problem number one is that I don't want to use chemical sprays.  I want organic apples.  Problem number two is that I live in a hot, humid climate.  It appears that problem one and two do not combine well.

On the NPR station I listen to there is a program from Clemson University about gardening.  People call in with their gardening questions and several times I've heard questions about apple trees and the response has always been that they don't grow well in South Carolina, so don't bother trying.

But I really, really want apples!

After much Google searching, I stumbled upon another blog : Growing Days and found that I was not alone.  The blogger (oddly also named Julie) is in South Carolina as well and had heard the same Clemson University advice against apples.  However, she had met the author, Creighton Lee Calhoun, Jr, of a book titled: Old Southern Apples: A Comprehensive History and Description of Varieties for Collectors, Growers, and Fruit Enthusiasts.  She was able to talk to Mr. Calhoun about her quest for an apple variety to plant and his recommendation was a Blacktwig apple.

Now I just needed to find this Blacktwig Apple.  Through more Google searches I stumbled upon Century Farm Orchards in Reidsville, NC.  They specialize in growing old Southern apples and pears that are disease resistant!  They had the Blacktwig apple available and the description makes it sound even better.  "Unparalleled fresh eating quality" and all important, "resistant to several apple diseases."   I ordered two Blacktwig apples and the owner of Century Farm Orchard has been helpful to recommend another variety for pollination, Summer Banana.  This variety also sounds delicious!

I received and planted my apple trees.  I put up a four foot fence around each one.  I learned from my pecan tree planting that deer protection is essential.  The apple trees are also somewhat close to the pond where we have very active beavers.  Hopefully my apple tree enclosures will be deer and beaver proof!

All went well with the baby apple trees until mid-spring.  Small green caterpillars began munching away at the leaves.  I managed to hand pick them off the trees and no new ones reappeared.  They have put on new leaves and will hopefully recover from the attack.  However, I am concerned about how to deal with these caterpillars in the future.  Eventually the trees will be too big for me to hand pick, so I will need another technique.  And today I noticed that the apple tree leaves have reddish orange blotches.

I have a feeling my quest for apples is just beginning!.

This post is shared at Green Thumb Thursday at Grow a Good Life.

Installing a Deer Fence

One of the projects that kept me busy this spring was getting a deer fence installed around the garden.  Last year I lost most of my produce to the deer, so a fence was a priority for this year.

The fence is 61 ft x 76 ft, which gives me a 5 ft perimeter inside the garden.  The corner posts are wood:  4"x4" and 8 ft tall.  We set the corner posts in cement.  (I suggest you really pay attention and respect the time the cement says it takes to set.  We didn't and the posts definitely moved with the pressure of the fencing.)

The remaining posts are 8 ft metal T- posts that were spaced about 7 - 10 ft apart.  J attempted to use the bucket of the tractor to drive these into the ground, which worked if there were no rocks.  This is what happened if we hit a rock:

Also, I got to be the lucky one to try and hold the post straight underneath the tractor bucket.  All I could think about was getting crushed by the bucket, so I do not recommend this technique!  After we destroyed three posts, we switched to a ladder and the backside of a hatchet.  This was a lot more work, but not as scary.

After all the posts were in the ground we stretched the fencing out.  To keep costs down, I only used 4 ft fencing on the bottom and then three rows of wire cable on the top.  We used clips that came with the T-posts to attach the fencing and then hammered staples into the wooden posts.  We did the same thing for the three cables at the top.

Next was building a gate.  J built me a frame and I stapled chicken wire to it.  We then attached the hinges, handle and latch.  For hanging the gate it is helpful to put bricks on the ground to hold it to the correct height.  Finally we added two boards at the top to prevent the posts from moving and to keep the gate aligned.

Everything came from Tractor Supply or Lowe's and cost about $500.  Hopefully it will be worth it and allow me to get veggies from the garden instead of the deer!

Spring Garden Plans: Wide Row Gardening

The garden has grown to monstrous proportions this year.  I have nine rows that are 65 ft long.  I am using a wide row method in the garden.  I have plenty of space to do traditional, single rows, but it seems to leave way too much space for weeds to grow.  And did I mention that the garden is large?  The less space for weeds, the better!

I used string and flags to mark the beds.  I have been in the process of digging and smoothing out the paths and building up the beds.  The rows are three feet wide with paths also three feet wide.  The beds are not very high, but in future years I will continue to build them up with more compost.

So what to plant in all this space?  Well, this is my current plan:

I couldn't get the image of my spreadsheet large enough to be readable, so here's a list:

Row 1: Corn, sunflowers, and amaranth
Row 2: Tomatoes, marigolds, basil
Row 3: Cucumbers, sweet potatoes, pumpkin
Row 4: Melons, carrots, chard, beets, onions, spinach
Row 5: Summer and winter squash
Row 6: Potatoes, eggplant, peppers, herbs
Row 7: Pole beans, bush beans, peas, peanuts
Row 8: Broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, turnip, kale, radish, Asian greens
Row 9: Cut flowers!

I am trying to keep veggies in the same plant families in the same row, such as Solanaceae in row 6, Fagaceae in row 7, and Brassicaceae in row 8.  This will allow me to rotate crops in future years to keep plant family specific diseases and pests under control.

I am devoting a whole row to growing cut flowers, which is something I'm excited about.  I usually don't cut flowers because they are so pretty outside.  I'm hoping with so many flowers I won't have this problem anymore.  Hopefully the bees and butterflies will also enjoy them.

I have a feeling it is going to be a busy gardening season.  I just hope I can keep up with it all!

Starting Over, Farming Style

Last year's garden was not a success.  I wouldn't call it a complete failure because it did provide food for the deer!  But let's not dwell on the past, there's a new spring just around the corner and I have hopes for a productive year (and plans for a deer fence!).

I've always been a small space gardener, so I feel that I'm now a newbie when it comes to gardening outside raised beds and square foot spacing.  Since we already had a tractor, I decided we might as well use it for gardening.  Thanks to Craigslist we found a used plow and rotary tiller.  Last weekend we broke ground on the garden.

I'm not sure where gardening ends and farming begins, but I have a feeling we are getting very close to crossing this line.  J was having a bit too much fun on the tractor.  My plan was an area of 50' x 50'.  However, it turned out to be 61' x 73'!  Now I'm trying to figure out what to plant in all this space and how to keep it manageable.  Luckily I've had some planning time because we got buried in snow this past week, which is not a common occurrence in South Carolina!

Here is Domino exploring the snow covered garden.  I did start my first seeds last weekend: cabbage, peppers, and tomatoes.  Now that the snow is melting, I'm very excited for spring to arrive!

Pecans

Growing up my great grandmother had a big pecan tree in her backyard.  In the fall when the pecans would fall to the ground she would send me out with a gallon milk jug with the top cut off and I would spend way too much time picking pecans off the ground.  I'd inspect them for the little holes that weevils or worms would make and only fill the jug with the biggest and most perfect pecans.  She would send us home with this jug of pecans and we would crack and eat them until we were stuffed and content.  Although you had to be careful where you walked because a stray pecan shell shard would always end up underfoot! 

I hope that old pecan tree is still standing and littering the ground with pecans, but that property is no longer in the family.   I've always wanted my own pecan tree.  The problem is that they get very large (100 ft +) and you should plant two to ensure pollination.  I never had the space to plant two pecan trees, until now!  With 12 acres, the first thing we planted was two pecan trees.

I ordered the trees from Stark Bro's: the Surecrop and the Hardy Giant.  When we got them planted they were pathetic little sticks barely a foot tall. 

However, they have finally put out leaves!  Now just stay tuned for 8 - 10 years for when I get my first harvest! 

Project: Watering Can Fountain

I made a watering can fountain back in September.  It was a simple DIY project that added a nice, calming sound to the garden.  Here's how I did it:

I wanted to add a water feature to my garden, but I didn't want to deal with having to plug in a fountain.  The nearest electrical outlet would require the cord to either go over or under a sidewalk.  Going under sounds difficult and going over wouldn't be pretty.  Instead I decided to get a solar water pump. 

The affordable solar pumps don't have as much power as the electrical ones, but I didn't need a lot of power.

The only other things I needed was a watering can and a metal tub.  I also got a couple of paving squares and leveled them to place the tub on.

I then used a combination of drilling (which was not too effective) and hammering a large nail into the bottom of the watering can to run the tubing through.

I ran the tubing to the watering can spout.

This is what the inside of the watering can looked like:

I nailed the handle of the watering can to the fence, added rocks and water to the tub along with a decorative frog.  I put the solar panel on the top of the fence, facing south.  Then I just had to wait for the solar panel to charge and I had a lovely little fountain. 

Most days the pump runs all day and continues for a couple of hours after the sun sets.  I had to adjust the position of the tub because the pump was more powerful during the midday and the water was shooting out past the tub.

It was a simple project that adds a relaxing addition to the garden.

Project: Chalkboard Plant Labels

I've been needing a way to label my veggies in the garden.  I have been using little plastic labels, but the writing always fades away.  I wanted a label that wouldn't fade, but that was reusable.  Searching online led me to decide on Cakies chalkboard labels.  These are perfect because they are cute, easy, cheap, and reusable! 

I got cedar shims and cut them into thirds.  I was very proud for using the table saw all by myself instead of making J do it for me!

Then I got some chalkboard paint and painted away.  I highly recommend painting them on something plastic.  I first tried newspaper and it stuck to the paint.  Then I tried cardboard and it was no better.  Let them dry for at least 30 minutes before painting the other side. 

The chalkboard paint said to let dry for 72 hours before using.  I only waited 48 hours.. oops!

You may be thinking how in the world is chalk going to stay on a label in the rain?  The trick is to use a white china marker to write on them.  I found one at Hobby Lobby in the drawing supplies section.

When you do want to remove the writing, you can use baby oil and reuse the label.

Now I have labels in my garden:

 

Project: Planting Templates

In my raised beds I use square foot garden spacing.  This allows me to maximize the amount of veggies I can squeeze into my garden and minimize the space that weeds have to grow.  My problem is that I am lazy about actually measuring the distance between seeds or seedlings, so I guess and my guessing is not always so accurate.  Then I saw a blog post about making planting templates and knew this was something I needed. 

I decided to use vinyl tiles (without the adhesive on the back) so that they would be water proof without any extra steps.  The ones I got were $0.73 each.

I then made the measurements:

• 4 plants per square
• 9 plants per square
• 16 plants per square

Next is the drilling.  You need core drill bits that make circles.  Jeff had a 2" one and a 3 1/2" one, so that's the sizes I used.  I used the 2" core bit for the 16 and 9 plant templates and the 3 1/2" one for the 4 plant template. 

This is what it looks like when Jeff drilled:

 This is what happened when I tried:

Good thing the tiles are cheap!  I learned that it is important to have the tile secure so it doesn't start spinning and a slight rocking motion helps to prevent from breaking the tile.

Attempt two:

Success!

When I had to get a replacement tile I went ahead and got two, just in case.  I ended up using the spare tile making a one plant template.  Here's the complete collection:

I've already tried them out planting radish and spinach and it makes planting easy and fast.  No more guessing for plant spacing!