Gardening on the Homestead

I mentioned to a few of you that I would post some pictures of our garden. Well, I finally remembered to take my camera out today, after spending the entire afternoon out there working. It was hard work, but because the humidity was low, it was the perfect day to be out there.

Here, my oldest son Joshua, is putting away the leftover newspapers that we used to lay out around our vegetable plants to help with weed control. Since it was a little breezy today, it took teamwork to get the job done. I would lay a few papers down, my youngest son, Jared, would spray water on them to keep them in place, and then my daughter laid straw on top of the papers. Lastly, my son would would spray the straw with water one last time to compact it down somewhat, so that the wind won't blow it away.


In this picture you can see some of our green beans. Notice the planks of wood between each row? Those are from on old privacy fence that a friend of ours had torn down. My husband put up a new fence for her and he brought her old panels home. My oldest son cut these apart with a sawzall and placed them in the paths. This not only helps with the weeds but this makes it easier to walk through the garden, especially after it rains. Another purpose for those boards is so that the plants won't become damaged by the (almost daily) trips to check on its progress.


These are our potatoes. See how bushy they are!? We are very pleased with how well they are doing this year. We have been really diligent about getting out there at least every other day to check for Colorado Potato Beetles, their eggs, and larvae. It has taken us a few years, learning by trial and error, how to have a successful crop of potatoes. As a rule, we do not like to use any pesticides on our garden. Last year, however, our potatoes became so overwhelmed with Potato Beetle Larvae that I broke down and asked my father in-law if I could borrow some of his Sevin to sprinkle on my potatoes. This year, I was determined not to let that happen again. Because I have learned what the eggs look like, we have managed to destroy just about all the eggs that were laid, before they hatched. We missed a few, but with a daily walk through, we have also been able to hand pick those nasty little larvae off the plants and destroy them as well. If you have a very large crop of potatoes, you may find that hand picking is just too big a job. In that case, I would recommend a company called Gardens Alive! They sell organic products that will kill those bad bugs and not harm the plant or us.

Another little tip we've learned to use for bug control is companion planting. Can you see that green bean plant growing in-between the potatoes? (Yes, I know-- there are weeds there too.) In a book that my brother in-law introduced me to, called "Great Garden Companions" I have learned that by planting certain plants next to each other, it confuses those bad bugs (such as the Colorado Potato Beetle), and they won't eat up my veggies that I love so much.

At our first planting, some of the beans we sowed didn't germinate because we didn't get enough rain. Therefore, we wound up sowing new beans between those potato plants. Hence the need for hand picking beetle eggs and larvae off of some of our potato plants. The beans weren't big enough to fend off the beetles.


This is one of our potato plants in bloom. It won't be much longer and we'll be able to harvest. Yum!


Here, my daughter Andrea, is removing some thorny grass that has managed to come up from under the straw near the potatoes.

Lastly, I will share some pictures of our tomato plants. We placed newspapers around our tomatoes this year, just like we did with the beans and potatoes. We also added a hardy layer of straw. Like I said, it takes a bit of time to do all of that, but it leaves us blister free from hours of hand pulling and hoeing out weeds. Happy, happy campers are we!

Last year we had several Tomato Horn Worms or sometimes known as Tobacco Worms. I haven't seen any signs of them on or near my tomato plants this year, but I'm keeping my eye out and won't be a bit surprised if they surface. We also hand pick these worms. To kill the Tomato Worm, I grab onto it firmly and just pull it right off the plant. I then place it into a small bucket that I have filled with some water, with a squirt of dish soap added to it. When I'm done checking each tomato plant, and am certain that each worm has completely drowned, I dump them out in an out of the way spot on the property. Unfortunately this is not just a one day fix. Once you see one worm, you can be sure there will be more to follow!
I told Joy (quite possibly not her real name) that I would share a picture of how we secure our tomato cages. It is just an ordinary tent stake and you can find them at just about any department or sports store. We secure each cage with two or three stakes. Where we live, we are surrounded by corn and soybean fields. It's pretty wide open here and until we can plant some trees around our property line, our garden will continue to get some pretty hefty gusts of wind come through it. It works quite nicely!

It won't be long now!

There are still a few things growing in our garden... some cabbage, cucumber, watermelon and marigolds. When they get far enough along, I'll share photos of those too. I have yet to get any pepper plants put out. If I don't hurry, I think it'll be too late. Maybe we can go get some tomorrow.

Happy gardening everyone!