First year gardener. How am I doing?

derekj

hi! Ive been a "lurker" on the forums for several months although I have been aware of PO for since I was a little kid. I researched it more about a year ago and began to get concerned when I realized how immediate and huge our problem is. I am 17 and a homeschool student (im kind of a loner I guess). As oil prices have shot up my concerns have grown and I knew It would be wise to learn how to grow food. Ive always loved organic foods and wont even consider inorganic gardening techniques.

This year before the last frost Mad

I decided to plant tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cilantro, and a bunch of other items which i cannot remember. Almost all died but many slowly came back. the only peppers to survive were the bell and jalepeno. about half the tomatoes survived as did the cilantro. Brocolli I found has excellent resistance to frost and was hardly fazed even after a solid week of frost (amazing anything survived at all). I replanted with a vengeance two weeks after the last frost and now have broccoli, tomatoes (almost every plant is a different hybrid and a few are heirloom), peppers of all sorts, herbs, onions, artichokes, squash, lemon cucumber, cucumber (slice master?) pumpkin, carrots, honeydew melons and cantaloupe.

As for the corn my first plot was silver queen which is currently producing (Ive eaten it 3 nights in a row because its freakin amazing), the second was something called "early sunglow hybrid" and is maturing faster than I expected and will unfortunately cross pollinate with the remaining silver queen (did I mention my silver queen has stalks with 2-4 piece of corn on it? With corn growing out of the same spots?). In the second I threw in some cantaloupe seeds since I had them laying around. Just a few here and there. In the third plot, which was planted 2 weeks after the second, I have the same sunglow hybrid with lots of cucumber and cantaloupes mixed in. I also there in some legumes for nitrogen fixation. On the silver queen the soil was rock hard and I had to dig trenches and I filled them with 50% potting soil and 50% normal dirt (which is what I did in the main garden because I don't have a compost pile yet). When I went to do the same with the other corn I realized that the previous occupants of the house had a garden there and it was a nice sandy soft soil and I even found cucumber tags in the soil. I did not use potting soil there as I ran out of funds. Instead Ive been using an organic fertilizer in all the corn almost weekly. As I was taking pictures today I realized really how beautiful the corn is.

Pictures:

And heres one with the dog in it. Picked to show the tomatoes. I have two dogs and the other one eats my brocolli Laughing

so I had to caution tape it like the corn.

That purple lines on the following image is from the camera not corn. Its in all the pictures.

Also whats this? This thing was growing from a silver queen stalk of mine. it has 3 corn cobs and pollinator tassles built in. The top half did not have a husk covering it

killJOY · Fission Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 2361 Location: ^NNE^

Young man, as long as you love what you're doing it will be better every year.

I recommend The Four Season Harvest as a handbook for organic gardening.

You live in California, ya spoiled brat. Try doing it in Maine!
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derekj

Yep I think Im in a zone 10 or 11. Lucky me!

CarlosFerreira

It's looking great, derekj. Has made me want to take that step.

Just make sure you're not trying to go for greater-than-possible yields, please do not contribute to soil erosion, OK?

Even if PO isn't as dramatic as doomers predict, there's no reason why you being able to grow your vegetables isn't good for you, your family and your community. Try to bring others to help, that will raise their awareness to the problems at hand.

And do give the dog some brocoli! Very Happy

BTW, thanks for the book suggestion.

kjmclark · Heavy Crude Joined: Dec 09, 2005 Posts: 305

Nice!

So what the heck is in picture cimg4594am9.jpg? It's in the one before that too, with the onions and sunflower on the right. I was thinking kale, but it looks a bit more like a fern or something.

First time gardener and you're drip irrigating? I see why you ran out of funds Wink

Corn does weird stuff sometimes. It just happens. Just be happy you don't have a lot of corn smut!

setag · Tar Sands Joined: Mar 23, 2007 Posts: 59

derekj, I am a lurker myself, but i had to log in and tell you how good I thought your garden looks. kjmclark is correct, "corn does some weird stuff" and yours looks good, man. One suggestion on your tomato plants. cut some of the leaves off. You have a garden to be proud of. For a real treat, boil some water, pick a couple ears of corn, shuck it, and drop right into your water immediately!

Keep up the good work! adora

jlw61

I'm also a first year gardener and I'm playing around with the ideas in The Square Foot Garden, which is another great book. I remember being told to weed the garden in my youth, which is probably why it took me 30 years to get around to starting my own. I spend very little time with my garden because, using the information in the book, it's so low in maintenance. Additionally I grow quite a bit in a fairly small space. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve their garden without a lot of extra work.
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blukatzen · Heavy Crude Joined: Apr 11, 2005 Posts: 465

Good job on your first year gardening, it looks like it went fairly well! You should investigate companion planting, and to up the ante, plant some marigolds, dianthus, pansies, nasturtiums or other edible flowers to attract pollinators for better chance in increased production of your veggies.

Also, to conserve water at the base of the plants where you need them to go, (root system) cover the soil with mulch, like straw or other mulches. It will help keep the weeds down as well, and make it look a lot neater. It will also help against soil compaction when you walk.

Thanks for posting the pictures, as proof that others can take your leap of faith and join in growing their own food.

Blu

Ludi

Looks great! I second the suggestion for mulch.
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darwinsdog · Heavy Crude Joined: Jun 27, 2008 Posts: 170

Good job derekj. A few comments:

Lay our your drip system more systematically. Doing so will save on PE tubing, the price of which is going thru the roof along w/ the price of the oil from which it's made. (Buy more now.) Put the spike into the tube perpendicular to the ground, not sticking up at an angle. It's easy to trip on the 1/4" tube when it sticks up like that, breaking the spike. I can't tell where the emitters are but they should be on the ends of the 1/4" tubes near the base of the plant. Use pressure compensating emitters. They're a little more expensive but worth the extra cost. A filter is absolutely essential with ditch water: 150 mesh for gallon per hour emitters, 200 mesh for .5 gal/hour. If you're irrigating with city water a filter is still a good idea, as is a back-flow preventer & pressure reducer. Don't do biocides but consider modest use of commercial NPK. It won't hurt your soil much if used properly & will greatly boost your yields. And do mulch, as others have recommended.

allenwrench · Intermediate Crude Joined: Apr 23, 2008 Posts: 719

Impressive work at any age! And you are doing much better than myself...also a first year gardener in Z6.

Keep up the great work and keep the posts coming.

catbox

Cheers! Great work!
You are learning everything one needs to know though that garden.
Keep it up, the rewards are great!

catbox
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xerces

It looks great! I would work towards soil improvement. Richer soil would allow you to plant more crops in the same space.
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green_achers

Find some old windows, you can often get them from a window installer after a retrofit, and build yourself a cold frame. That way, next year you can start your plants before the last frost without losing any. Other than that, looks great.
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kpeavey · Expert Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 1100

Derekj:

That is indeed a fine garden. I paid particularly close attention to the leaves in the closeup images. I don't see any indication of insects biting and nibbling, no mosaics, no mildew. Everything I see is the picture of health. I would be proud to have crops that looked like that!

I don't want to bust your bubble, and I am certainly not trying to put you down. I simply want to prepare you for what lies ahead.

Next year, it is probable that you will plant the same things, although in different spots, because they all did so well this year. Furthermore, I would expect you to increase the area you planted, as well as add new crops and different cultivars of the same crops which proved so successful this year. This would be the logical extension of positive results, and is exactly what I would do, have done, and will continue to do. More power to you. I wish you well.

As this is your first year of gardening, you have started with fallow ground. Those healthy plants have no doubt consumed a fair amount of the nutrients which were in the soil. Those nutrients must be replaced or your results will fade rapidly. The fading I speak of will be noticeable before your next crop reaches harvest. I recommend compost, and in no small amount. Making it yourself is a great deal of work to be sure, but the benefits outweigh the sweat. If you have not studied up on compost, now is the time, it is well worth the time investment.

An Agricultural Testament, by Sir Albert Howard.

This is the instruction manual. Download it, print it, memorize it, tattoo it on your wife's back. Do whatever you have to do to learn this. Let it wash over you. It shall become a fiber of your existence and your reason for being. All I can do is offer it to you. It is up to you to take it and run.

SEE the compost

LIVE the compost

BE the compost

That's my compost speach. what's next? **looks at the list**
Oh Yeah: BUGS! you gonna love this.

There was a debate some years ago that when ET comes to visit the Earth they will seek out a highly developed organism living in a highly organized culture, and which are as adaptable as they are specialized, which exists in high numbers over a wide and extreme biosphere. A cartoon finally evolved whereby the aliens were seen offering hand signals to ants and bees.

where is my wine?

here it is..back to work...

The first year of a new garden is promoted by the fact that the crop targeting insects have not had the time required to infest the crops in numbers which would affect production or result in measurably decreased production. This is due to the fact that you, by cultivating an area, have disrupted the natural ecosystem of that area to an extent that the previously established population has not had time to adapt and repopulate in numbers which are in balance with the carrying capacity of that environment. While it is true that you disrupted the population of the malicious bugs, you have also disrupted the population of the predatory insects.

Take a trip down memory lane to Food Chain 101. The food species at the bottom is more populous than the next level up. Add in a time lag for reproduction, higher species take longer to reproduce than lower species, you end up with the fact that the plant targeting species will populate faster than their predators, especially in an environment where you have unintentionally removed their predators, and you end up with a population explosion of a menace which has nothing better to do than munch on your tomatoes (they don't watch Oprah)

Let's put it into perspective. Smaller bugs have an easier time, bigger bugs take longer, what's in it for you? You should expect the smallest insect pests to present first. Leaf miners are a good example. Be on the lookout for small white lines on your leaves next season. When you find one, tear it off and burn it. If you fail in your mission (good luck keeping up with 30 gazillion bugs you can't see), I'd say that within 3-4 months of active crop production you will have those little white lines all over your plants, from the back fence to the mailbox. Left unchecked, you are looking at the loss of, easily, half the leaves on your plants. Combine the loss of leaves (read: energy gain) with reduced health from soil depletion from the first year (especially the hard to measure minor nutrients) and you can project half of your crop to be stunted, withered, retarded or otherwise disturbed in such a manner that they probably won't want to talk to you, even if you bring them flowers.

From a statistical standpoint, you should experience about a 30% drop in production. Do you plant 50% more area to offset the reduced production? This would result in the ancillary loss of predatory species population, making it more difficult to recover from an infestation, which is as sure to come as the day is long.

Its all bad news, you'll no doubt think you are as big of a loser as I convinced myself I was. There is no keeping up. The power and ability of a human in the realm of mother nature is as a shadow in a dark alley. How we actually survived coming out of the trees I'll never know. Nonetheless, there is Hope. I use it all the time. It, combined with just plain old good luck, is the only reason I'm here today.

It takes 3-5 years for a small scale ecosystem to reestablish itself in a manner which balances predatory and prey insects. This is inclusive of those pests which chomp on your squash, bite the back of your knee without mercy, and pollinate your Hydrangeas. In an organic crop system, it also takes 3-5 years for the soil microbes to establish themselves in a manner that is beneficial for your crops. Experience has hown that after 3-5 years in an organic production system, workload declines, soil fertility and biodiversity increases-as well as production, and malicious insect infestation damage declines to background levels.

If time and production is of the essence, you can follow your local extension office guidelines. This usually involves the use of petroleum based chemicals and intensive application procedures, but they can offer a solution for short term problems and a maximization of marketable yields. All you have to do is relocate every few years and start over.
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-George Orwell, 1984

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