July 02, 2018
I googled "Amish vegetable gardens" to see how they deal with weeds in an enviromentaly friendly way and my first discovery was that all their houses were painted white. I also realized they have home schooled kids that can hoe every day. I found that some use plastic mulch and some use wood chips. I think I should get a regular hoe. They take care of the big and little weeds and you can probably work your way into the monotony of an automaton..
We need a "Rent a kid" summer program. Move 'em around like ants, with garden tools and sunscreen. Clean up your garden in an hour..
July 03, 2018
If your cucumber plants start getting silver leaves they need a dose of Bacillus Thuringiensis. It's an organic insecticide that is called BT. If left untreated the plants can die before the season is over, like mine did last year. My son saw the silver leaves on my cucumber plants and sprayed them two weeks ago. All the leaves since then are dark green and healthy..
They should be sprayed every week. I've noticed some silver leaves on the cantelope plants so I'm going spray them also. It is effective against many different pathogens so you aren't required to identify what's affecting your plants. Spray it on because it can't hurt..
July 04, 2018
Happy 4th of July. Did you get a ripe tomato yet? It's hard to do unless you follow some guidelines. The first important step is to get a plant in a one gallon container that already has blossoms on it. Plant it in full sun and surround it with plastic mulch. Black or clear will work fine but they've come up with an orange color that seems to outperform them. You want to warm up the soil around the roots for maximum growth. Wall-o-Waters are designed to surround the above ground portion of the plant with tubes of water that heat up during the day and release the heat around the plants at night. I've used clear liter bottles of water before with successful results..
Surround the tomato tower with clear plastic to keep the wind from forcing them to respire excessively. One year I even watered them with warm water. I would fill the watering can from the hose that was laying in the sun. Hope for pollinators or you can hand pollinate. Poke a q tip down gently into each flower and you will be transferring pollen. Lastly be sure to click a pic before you pick cause no one will believe you..
