What ’s a garden season without a few experiments ? Gardeners are infamous for their adventurous spirit , trying all variety of new contraptions and plant varieties in hunting of the next magnanimous thing .
Each twelvemonth , we try out a few new different varieties and develop method in our garden as well . All in an attempt to observe a new vegetable or crop we might like – or a skilful way of life to develop existing ones .
The beautiful colors of just pick gentlewoman finger and strawberry popcorn
The beautiful colors of just picked lady finger and strawberry popcorn
A few year back – we grew our first harvest of strawberry popcorn – having no clue how it would wrench out – and it was a huge achiever ! In fact , so much that we now grow three different kinds of popcorn and have enough to last us the yr around .
Of of course – they do n’t always form out , like our infamous folio stack away silo projection that lasted until the first steer squander it over , or the attempt to transplant a immense decorative pot in the summertime – only to ascertain it wither away .
But it is the successes that keep you go – like the Stake - A - coop love apple stakes we created that have become a garden staple fibre for us.(see : The Inexpensive DIY Tomato Stake - A - Cage ) . And of course , if you do n’t keep trying – you never acquire !
Red Plastic “mulch” is reported to make for larger tomato harvests. (Photo courtesy of Gardeners Supply Company)
So we thought for today ’s Sunday Update we would deal what ’s cooking for this year ’s experiments in the OW Garden :
Red Plastic “ mulch ” is reported to make for bigger tomato harvests . ( Photo good manners of Gardeners Supply Company )
We have toyed with idea of using credit card before in our growing rows to help insure weeds and warm the early spring dirt – but truth be told – our raised wrangle have kept both of those job in check . But over the last few years , we have carry on to scan about the welfare of cherry-red plastic for tomatoes and it ’s promise of a higher yielding love apple crop .
Our potatoes growing early last summer in our crates
According to research at Penn State University – the reddened charge card film can warm up the soil 4 to 6 degrees and will reflect far - red wavelengths into the works ’s canopy , triggering photosynthesis and stimulating rapid growth and ontogeny . It also is said to work the same for strawberries as well – all the while help to suppress weed .
So we are drop dead to put it to the test this year ! We will plant one of our Amish Paste Lycopersicon esculentum rows using the red charge plate , and leave the quarrel beside it in our traditional raised row method acting for a side by side comparability . We will also trial it with some of our Roma tomatoes , and a discussion section of newfangled hemangioma simplex planting .
This is really a prolongation and elaboration of an experimentation last year.(See : The Great Potato Crate Experiment )
We hope crops like these green onions will be easier to maintain in true raised beds
Our potatoes arise early last summertime in our crates
In addition to turn our potatoes in our traditional row last class , we trialed rise them vertically in a few crates above ground . We plant them in a loose mixture of chaff , compost and crap – filling up the crate with more ground mix as the Irish potato continued to grow . The results amazed us – a half a bushel of spud came rolling out at harvest time in a single 30″ x 24″ crateful . In gain – the potatoes on average were much big than any that we had grown in our rows .
Add to that the clip it took to harvest – about 3 minutes – and it was fairly easy to see that the crate potatoes were a hit !
This year we have created some young longer and stackable crates to use for get all of our white potato . In fact – build the crates will be our DIY billet for this coming Thursday .
We have it away the simplicity and effectuality of our raised row bed and would never think of garden without them.(See : Gardening Simple With Raised Rows )
But we are adding a raw crinkle to the garden bed this season . For the first time – we will use a few simple 6″ high-pitched wooden raised beds in 2 of our growing rows for our smaller seed harvest like lolly , carrot , kale and spring onions .
We desire crops like these green onions will be soft to maintain in truthful raised beds
We are building ( 4 ) 6″ high , 8′ long x 18″ wide raised wooden bed for the experimentation – using cheap untreated pine lumber to create them for about $ 20 .
Our raised rows work utterly for our tomatoes , peppers , potato , bean and more – but it can be a little intriguing sometimes to execute early weed on the smaller crop . We think a few enhance beds in the garden might help make those crops even easier to grow .
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Happy Gardening – Jim and Mary !
