bare foot gardener

Zucchini and cuke probs! HELP!

2010-07-10T09:53:00.002-04:00

My summer crookneck squash is not doing too bad, I'm still having some mildew problems, but that happens when I get lazy about spraying the milk mixture on it.

From a distance my garden looks fine, green, big, busy....

But upon closer inspection it's clear that there are a few problems I need help dealing with. First is the cucumber. I get nice healthy great tasting fruits from it, but almost daily I have to cut off an entire vine that has wilted and died.

The big problem is my zucchini. I found this yellowy rot at the roots. It's everywhere! I threw away a whole plant this morning. I've been getting mammoth sized fruits from this plant daily, if I lose it I will cry!

My cantaloupe are doing fine, no problems there!

My peppers are also starting to spruce up a bit and flower.

I watched a TV cooking show where they went to pick the tomatoes from an organic gardener's place. I got the idea to tie up my tomatoes from it. The people on TV had a hot house and tied the plants up to support rods running across the ceiling. I put up a couple of fencing posts and ran some of Bill's kevlar framing wire across and use old t0shirts to tie them up.

It allows the branches of the plant to act as a natural cage.

Loving the rain!

2010-06-14T08:47:00.001-04:00

This picture was taken on May 24th. I remember clearly going out that evening to check on my garden and seeing this mildew on my squash plants and wanting to cry. I was this close (If you could see my hand it is showing about an inch from my pointer to my thumb) to just calling it quits and not doing a garden.I went inside and did some research on the mildew. Last year I tried to combat it with a water/baking soda mixture. I wasn't real happy with the results. I found a couple of people used a milk mixture and then I thought...duh! When my kids look like they have pink eye coming on I put a couple of drops in their eye, it's never progressed! - This is real milk by he way, not that watered down skim or 2% crap! So I made a milk water solution (1 part milk to 9 parts water) and sprayed them down right at dusk before the water starts condensating on the plants. It worked like a dream! Look at them now: I did notice a few spots this morning, it's been very rainy lately, so I'll have to spray again tonight. I sprayed about five times last time to get it gone.I just walked around snapping pictures of my grapes, raspberries, and blackberries. I love the fruit! Although all I'm eating right now are the straberries, you can look at the Inmanclan blog if you want to know why.I love my raised beds. weeding is easier, watering is easier, and I think they look cool.

Frost free!

2010-04-28T08:29:00.000-04:00

Last night we experienced temps as low as 32 (freezing) for the first time since March. I did some research and found that beans are suseptable to mild freezes (oops! And that's an early plant?) and squash is at mild to moderate freezes. I don't want to take chances, we will be living off this food soon! So I covered them with some sheets. I also covered Bill's roses because buds are forming.
But what I wanted to share was what I did with my strawberries:
I don't remember where I learned this, I wish I did so I could give proper credit (or yell at them if it doesn't work:) but when the water freezes on the plants it actually formss a skin and the harm is not done. It's when the sun first shines on them and the plant automitacally opens it's cells and then the ice gets in and causes damage. I was told to get up before the sun and water them. So I did. The water washes off the ice crystals and then - an hour or so later when the sun hits the plants water will go into the cells instead of ice.
This will probably work on all plants, and if we do have another dip in temps I might try it on all of them. Upon inspection this morning all plants have seemed to weather it out well. Although the sheet on the squash becamse heavy with the dew and they looked a little squooshed, but nothing broken.
What do you do to keep your plants alive through freezes?

Spring has sprung...

2010-04-22T15:26:00.001-04:00

...at least I'm hoping it has. I feel like I'm behind already! I decided to raize my garden for raised beds (I know, cute play on words! I'm developing my next youtube video around them!) So there's been some work involved and I'm trying to plan and pant at the same time. I got my lettuce, peas, & beans in a couple of weeks ago, they're coming up nicely now.

I thought I had bought some strawberries through the company I ordered seeds through, but They didn't come in and I didn't see them on the receipt. So I went to Lowes and bought a bucket of strawberry plants, then a couple of days later my other starts came in. So my strawberry patch has a few plants that are larger than the other starts. I'll be interested to see which strawberries produce better and taste better....

Between the strawberries and Danni are the summer squash. They forced my hand and made me plant them, if I had waited any longer they would have outgrown their containers.

These sad looking seedlings are a mix of tomato and peppers. I'm hoping they hardy up here pretty soon. It's amazing that these little scrawny seedlings can grow into a food producing plant!

The starts here are just Marigolds. I want them edging all the beds.

Today I started cucumbers, broccoli, some herbs, and zucchini. I think thats' why I'm feeling behind.

I have to get the rest of my garden ready for them.We also added some peach trees to the family.

cross polinating squash

2009-07-15T15:44:00.002-04:00

My friend Aunalies from Kansas asked about squash, I'm glad she did because I had wanted to do this video anyway! She suggested I try to make them shorter, I did try....

fruit is growing on most... help with my fruitless plants!!

2009-07-10T12:24:00.015-04:00

Yes I actually have some squash growing now, but not as many as I had hoped for. I continue my cross-pollinating and it seems to be helping (See "what's Bugging Me' - bottom of post) I'm thinking about making an instructional video about it. This is a pumpkin. I had wound the plant through the drift wood and it ended up growing between two pieces of wood. I'm trying to figure out how to pull it out into a more open spot without doing damage to the rest of the vine.

Peppers galore!

The eggplants are doing well in spite of the jumping flea beetle. We have squished so many, maybe they're an endangered species now...The cucumber plant is needing some sort of restraint...any ideas?
I am enjoying the abundance of the plant!
The cantaloupes have been restrained after many lectures about leaving the peppers alone. We should have many of these dotting our fence soon. I will be doing an instructional vid on how to hang them once they get larger.Question #1: How long do I wait until I harvest the cabbage? I know it still has a ways to go. Also, once I remove the head, will another grow or is this a one time plant?Question #2: These Broccoli plants stand nearly 2.5 feet tall, but I don't see any fruit yet. How long before I see it?Question #3: This is actually the same as #2 but for my cauliflower, the two plants seem suspiciously alike....

Pruning tomatoes

2009-07-08T18:39:00.001-04:00

Please comment! I plan on doing many more of these, I need your comments on how to improve them!!

upside down tomato planter

2009-07-01T20:29:00.002-04:00

I also learned a good tip from Dave at the Downtown Farm Stand here in Muncie. He suggested an excellent way of using my compost pile. I put some in a bucket and put water in it. Let it sit overnight or swirl it around really well, then use that water to water the garden with - perfect organic plant food!! Thanks Dave!

what's 'bugging' me

2009-06-25T09:37:00.017-04:00

I had some garden pictures sent to me be a friend who read my garden blog, I thought I would share...

She called this, "The Three Amigos".

She has grapes! I also love the Lillies in the front.

Red leaf lettuce, I wish I had planted some this year.

I'm still trying to deal with the poison ivy. I've tried alcohol (rubbing, I don't drink:-), hydrogen Peroxide, Lanasil, tea tree, hand sanitizer, and I finally found something that kind of stops the itch, it's a natural salve made by Mountain Rose Herbs for hemorrhoids. (left over from child birth!) I went to the web site and found they have something made especially for poison Ivy! I've ordered it, I'll give a report when I get it! Click on the picture to see all the wonderful things they have.

Now to the garden. I have been doing research on how to get pests away naturally. I have read many different suggestions. One was to spray a mixture of ivory (I don't have ivory, does it have to be that?) soap and cayenne pepper diluted in water. It has to sit in the bottle overnight. So I started that yesterday. I also read that if I dusted the plants with flour the bugs who eat will explode from the flour in their system mixing with the liquids, so I did that yesterday too.
I think this little guy is the main culprit.
He is a jumping beetle and I've found him on all the plants that have been chewed on. Some call him a potato beetle. He's as big as a pin head and does hop around. He's not impossible to catch though, so we do a lot of hunting and squishing.

The cabbage may also be suffering from a larva. Although I've only found one so far. It may be through this winged creature. It was described as a small white moth/butterfly.

This morning Bill discovered some welts on our cauliflower plants, I'm wondering if the spray may be causing it. Wouldn't it be nifty if I killed one plant to save another??

We sprayed anyway, just went easy on the cauliflower. As soon as it dried I dusted them with flour. If hand pecking, spraying and dusting doesn't work I may have to spend $25 and try this: (click on pic to see where to buy). Unless anyone else has any ideas.....?
I found a squash this morning that had both a male and a female flower:
I used my finger and tried to use them to cross pollinate the other squashes. I felt kind of 'dirty' doing it, I've never had to artificially inseminate plants before.

These are some of my 'naked' tomato plants, I got pretty agressive in trimming yesterday.

welcome to my garden

2009-06-22T20:34:00.032-04:00

I decided to branch off my 'inmanclan' blog and focus one entirely on gardening. As the summer progresses I hope to have a large group who will help me along this new road. I once heard someone say about making bread, "Don't tell me to add flour until the dough feels right, I don't know what 'right' dough feels like, just tell me exactly how much flour." That's kind of they way I feel about gardening. I need to know small details that someone more proficient may take for granted.

I tried researching what to do with squash that doesn't produce fruit. I found out that I had the male squash, and somebody suggested I take a q-tip and cross pollinate...what? How do I do that???

My 'Man Squash'

Let me give you a little tour of my garden:

My artist husband collects driftwood like some collect baseball cards.I'm very happy with the way my tomato plants are coming along. I had read that the sucker branches should be trimmed off. I have been doing some guessing, but I think I have it figured out now.The branches that come out below aren't producing fruit, they also have a different sheen to the leaf, they're not as fuzzy, so I cut those off.I keep all branches close to the ground trimmed off and feed them a mix of powdered milk and Epsom salt every other week. On the other weeks I feed them 'Plant Amp' with the rest of my garden. (Plant Amp is a 100% natural - will be able to label organic soon- plant feeder. I love it! I don't think they have a website, but their contact # is 765-528-2168, they're out of New Castle, Indiana)My peppers are also doing well. I had planted these in an old tire and they really thrive in there. How do I know when it's ready to be picked? Should I be staking these because pretty soon there will be a lot of weight in peppers on this little guys.

I had started some peppers from seed (the others were bought in flats) so I recently put them in (they may be flowers...we lost track of the markers, I guess we'll know when thye bloom...). I use newspapers as a weed barrier and it also holds in moisture. They don't last for more than a month, so I have to re-paper a few of my plants now.These cucumbers are also a new addition to our garden. We got them from a nursery because out of the ones I started from seed only one lived... but it's doing wellsee them?

The canta-loupe is taking off, so is the cabbage. I had to place my size 11 foot (9.5 mens) near the cabbage to give perspective. We have many many many cabbages thanks to Bill's amazing deal getting ways. The leaves are getting holes and I'm concerned. I started spraying them with a dish soap water mixture today.

My egg plants are all in blossom now. If you notice, there are tons of holes in the leaves. After some research we found the culprit to be a 'potato jumping flea' it's actually a beadle that's very hard to get rid of (they say), I sprayed them with the soap/water mixture as well. Any ideas for my egg plants?The cauliflower (Left) and broccoli (right) are also doing well, I'm just eagerly awaiting some sign of fruitage....Only one of my pumpkin's survived from seed, but after looking at it today, maybe that's enough!

I planted peas in the front of our home. I was thinking they were doing pretty well, we've eaten a dozen or so already, then I saw a picture of a friend's peas and realized these are nothin'! A friend gave me some chard, I don't know where I'm going to put it, I have some ideas, you can tell me what you think as I mention them... Maybe between the blackberry and raspberry bushes?I planted fennel,
and mint on the side of my house. It gets 1/4 sun, maybe I could plant the chard in the rest of the space there?I could use it as an edging for our front flower garden. See the fuchsia circle, recognize what's in it?

Poison Ivy!

I have basil and parsley in a planter, I've been eating them now, I don't know if they will ever really get to grow up!I have been trying my hand at the hanging tomato baskets. My success rate isn't 100% yet, but I have some good ones done. I plan on doing a step by step video - so stay tuned!

Thanks for visiting my garden, please comment on areas that will help me become a better gardener. I'm excited to read them!