Do any of you have gardens? I am struggling to keep mine afloat. I tried to do simple pumpkin patch and it was going great, despite a late planting, like early July. I have a single 8x4 raised bed. I made a few hills, popped seeds into the hills, and watered. In a few weeks, it was lush and green, stretching into the yard on every side. Yellow flowers and big green balls of fruit appeared.
Toward the end of July I started to see an occasional yellow leaf. By early August those yellow leaves had multiplied and the middle started to thin out like a middle aged man’s hair. Now the whole middle part is brown and dead, but the tendrils are still greenish. It still has fruit, a little bigger now but still green. It still has a few of the yellow flowers.
What happened? Google says it could be pests, disease or not enough water.
It’s not water. I don’t see any pests, but even if I did I probably wouldn’t use any chemicals because I’m raising chickens nearby and want to keep eating the eggs. I’m finding it’s a real challenge to grow anything if you don’t use some sort of pesticide. It’s this pumpkin patch, but also the ornamental stuff I have growing around the house. Something is attacking the Rhodies out front, and we did go to the local nursery and get advice and a spray but it didn’t do much good. Have any of you had any luck with growing a pesticide free garden? What crops did you grow? I’m not much of a farmer, but I like to see the stuff grow and get a crop, especially if it’s something my family will eat or we can use for baking.
I’m sure that the manure is great, but does it have any calcium in it? I would think that it doesn’t. Chickens use calcium for their eggs, I’m guessing they wouldn’t excrete much at all. Calcium helps stop blossom rot and fruit skin cracking. Just a thought.
It’s probably a good idea to compost or bury coffee grounds. There is some evidence uncomposted coffee grounds inhibit germination of seedlings.
If you start plants from a tray, or toss the grounds on matured plants, I don’t see it being a problem.
My main two problems are diseases and thieves. Fungi you can manage by clearing debris each winter (I recompost it) and avoiding watering the foilage.
My thieves come in squirrel, slug, beetle/wasp/bug variety. I have learned if you grow something delicious, something will come eat it. Often I’ll find a weird new bug, and google to find it’s some beetle that specializes in eating asparagus or something. Who the hell is growing asparagus in NYC? Where did this beetle come from? I don’t know, but it gets there somehow.
After struggling a lot against slugs on my strawberries my friend gave me a great piece of advice. “What you need is not fewer slugs, but more strawberries.” I have come to peace and decided they can have their share, and I have a small share left. If I’m not using pesticides its’ the price I pay. I just wish they’d eat the entire berry instead of munching little holes on each one.
As to what I grow, herbs are probably the least problematic - basil. Some like mint and oregano overwinter easily in my 8a zone. You only need a bit to flavor your food, specially since you have limited space.
Tomatoes are my favorite, and I really should stop growing them every year. Invariably I’ll get some fungus or other but they are just too tasty fresh. I like spring peas. Eggplants are pretty productive, as are many squashes. Squashes will also cover up the entire surface which makes weed management a bit easier.
You can try ground cherries. They are an interesting fruit I discovered recently. You can get them from seedsavers.org Very low disease, easy to manage. Interesting taste.
I bought my house and it was fairly well manicured when i moved in. I have not maintained it. I didn’t really know what was supposed to be growing and what was a weed. I’ve slowly been recovering and figuring it out.
In terms of actually growing stuff intentionally, I’ve planted pretty much exclusively food plants.
I planted 3 blueberry bushes, and they were doing OK, but a really hard winter hurt them. Also, the soil acidity fell too low, and they suffered from that. I’m currently in the process of helping them recover.
I built a purgola over the blueberry bushes, and planted some hearty kiwis on the side, to climb up it. The kiwi vines are doing very well, but despite there supposedly being two males in the 4 original vines, they have not shown the normal varigation which would be expected in male plants, and i have not seen any flowers. So, not sure what is going on with them. The vines still seem healthy.
My big achievement is that one day two years ago I noticed a tiny plant growing at the end of my rain gutter downspout. I recognized it as a black raspberry bush, and transplanted it up to the front of my property where it gets full southern exposure. It has turned into a huge black raspberry patch, which i have been maintaining by removing the old canes after they produce each season. So now, in June, the bushes produce about a quart of black raspberries every day, and they are good.
You said chicken manure. I don’t suppose you’re using it straight, uncomposted? I have read chicken manure is the highest nitrogen of all manures, and thus can burn plants.
This is very true, but I don’t think that’s what’s causing the blight. I compost the manure (along with the wood shavings in the pen) and it takes a long time to break down (because of the wood chips). Even then, I wondered if it might be too much nitrogen. I think there are little soil test kits you can buy, which I might try after I yank this crop. I think the last time I put soil from the compost pile into this bed it was the spring before last, so a good long time to let it sink in.
It’s so sad and depressing looking I may just rip it up. The middle is all gone brown and wilted. Oddly it still gets new shoots on some of the big tendrils, and these new shoots look green and healthy. The other clue is that the leaves get a white dotted appearance before they turn yellow. The fruit still seems to be growing, which is the only reason I don’t pull it up right now. I can’t imagine it will get orange.
I think it must be a disease? I don’t see any bugs. I have no idea what to do except test the soil and try again, maybe with a different crop.
I have no garden. I have a mushroom farm. We’re talking Terraria-level biome craziness. Across my front yard. Not by choice. I hate wishing for winter just so the damn things stop re-growing overnight.
I’ve been thinking about growing stuff in boxes on my balcony, which is the only area I currently have. Anyone have any experience with window box veggies? I know it will be mostly herbs and peppers… Who else does apartment gardening?
If you’re doing a BALCONY as opposed to a window sill I’d suggest something self-watering with casters. That way you only have to water once a week or so, as opposed to every 1-2 days. Small containers as opposed to dirt tends to try out very quickly. YMMV, don’t know your weather.
They are kinda expensive in Amazon thought, Home depot seems to have similar stuff for $20 as opposed to $60 a pop.
Window sills aren’t going to have enough sunlight for peppers I think. Herbs, sure.
