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Mother Earth News garden planner and questions
It seems pretty cool and I am enjoying trying it out for 30 days but wondering if anyone has experience with using it?
I am really trying to have some success this year since last year was awful. The only thing I really had success with was my lettuce. I used the topsy turvy for tomoates and got 2 tomatoes. My tomato plants from the previous summer came back in late July and choked out my pepper plants. The hornworms got the tomato plants. Nothing ever happened with my squash plants, guessing they were choked out by the return of the tomato plants as well. I had great success with lettuce in the fall after we put in a 4x4 raised bed plot but my broccoli got eaten alive by cabbageworms. My strawberry plants gave off 2 strawberries and this was the second year my blueberry bushes didn't do anything.
I'm hoping this planner will help me be more organized in my planting. I am planning on starting the spring off with lettuce, spinach and peas in my raised plot, not sure what else (if anything) I'll put in there. I'm thinking for the summer, I'll put peppers where the lettuce was b/c it will be too hot for lettuce and see if the peas last, from what I've read, they should. I'm planning on herbs in containers on the deck and thinking of a strawberry pot on the deck for strawberries.
I'm in North Georgia, Zone 7A I believe.
Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Heather
Re: Mother Earth News garden planner and questions
Last year we had terrible luck in the garden too! I was talking to some of the farmers at the market today and they said that for us, the plants likely got too hot. They said that once it reaches 95 outside, the plants have a hard time fruiting.
This year we have compost ready and our seedlings have started to sprout. I think I may try more shade this year and we started the seeds earlier.
I'd love any advice as well!
I'm debating between using the Mother Earth News version and Kitchen Garden Planner from Gardeners.com that we used last year. We had a great success in our garden last year, I think in part to being more organized. I laid out both our beds with the garden planner, and kept that printout in my copy of Square Foot Gardening. I wrote on the printout the date of when we direct-seeded or transplanted, and now I have a nice reference point for planting this year. I also wrote on the printout what variety I planted. For example, the garden planner says "tomatoes", to which I added "celebrity." So I have a record of which crops did well (like the celebrity tomatoes) and which were fussy (like the San Marzano tomatoes). I also know what crops I planted in which bed, so I can plan crop rotations this year. For example, you're not supposed to follow tomatoes with peppers, because they take the same nutrients from the soil. From the printout I also know which crops did well together (like carrots love tomatoes) so I can plant them together again this year.
This year I'm starting a gardening journal. It prompts you for information, like weather, activities in the garden, and bugs/animals. So in later years I can look back and see when I transplanted tomatoes (after Mother's Day, when the nightly temperatures were consistantly in the 40-50s) or when the aphids came out and what they ate (leafy greens, and I controlled them with insecticidal soap). I remember this stuff now because I'm trying hard, but I'm sure there's a ton of stuff from last season that I've forgotten.
Yup 95 degrees is pretty hot, it gets that hot here in VA too. I watered daily in the morning so the plants were cooled down for the heat of the day. You never want to water at night, wet leaves leads to disease. We mulched thickly too, that helps hold the water in. If you post the specific problems you had, maybe I could help. I'm no expert, as we've only have a few succesful seasons, but I have read a whole ton. I'm more than happy to help if I can.