Pumpkin Planting Tips

We're also looking to plant a few pumpkins this year, so here's an aggregated list of tips for pumpkins:

• Pumpkins love sunny spots - the more the better
• Plant in mounds:  Pumpkins seeds typically are planted in the middle of small hills or mounds that are about three feet in diameter. Surround each hill with a moat (about 4 inches wide and 4 inches deep) to help contain water around the roots. Plant 4 to 5 seeds in a circle in the middle of the hill, and space the seeds about 6 to 8 inches apart.
• Pumpkin plants are vigorous vines and love to sprawl
• The vine can be pruned, trained, and redirected to live harmoniously with other plants
•  The huge leaves of the pumpkin plant serve as a floating mulch that holds down weeds and keeps the soil moist.
• Pumpkins are considered "heavy feeders" and do well with a little extra nourishment. One nutrient source that works well and is reasonably priced has the dismaying name "fish emulsion"
• If pumpkins could speak, their first words would probably be: "Gimme a drink." Between 80 to 90% of every pumpkin is water; and water is an essential medium for bringing nourishment to the entire plant.
• Pumpkin vines withstand pruning quite well. Properly done, it strengthens the plant and helps it thrive. In most cases, the plants require some cutting if only to keep them from growing into your kitchen. Every pumpkin plant has a main and a secondary vine that usually grow in opposite directions. Each of these two vines produce shoots (or tertiary vines) which can be selectively pruned as the plant develops. It is best to clip when these new side shoots begin to develop. The plant will leak or bleed a little when it is clipped, but it seals over quickly. The amount of pruning usually depends on how much garden space is available. Trimming the plant is definitely necessary to train the vine to run in a long narrow line along the edge of a garden and to keep the plants from crawling over each other and their neighbors. 

Source:
http://www.informeddemocracy.com/pumpkin/growing.html

Spring Planting Plan - rough

Did a session together today to outline a plan for our spring planting this year.

The rough outline below is what we came up with.  i'd like to better draw this out as well as maybe do something that includes a Summer Planting, a Fall Planting, and a Winter Planting (x4)

But that'll come when I can get to it.

Incidnetally, the below plan resulted in us outlining the below plants to seed.  Which was a good idea cos we need to seed those asap in order to have them ready for a spring planting which could be in a few weeks.

Tomatoes - Companion Plants

We're aiming to plant loads of tomatoes this season and so I wanted to provide some research of the companion plants we were hoping to plant along with the tomatoes.  

i"ll heavily mulch the tomatoes but was hoping to plant scattered lettuce in between to provide more shade and retain moisture.  Was also thinking of plating cucumbers and pumpkins in the corners of this bed again to provide more shade to the bed overall.

Carrots:

Carrots work well with tomatoes because they share space well. The carrots can be planted when the tomatoes are still quite small, and can be happily growing and ready to harvest by the time the tomato plants start to take over the space.

Chives, Onions, and Garlic:

Members of the onion family are beneficial to plant with many types of crops due to the pungent odor they emit. This helps deter many insect pests.

Borage:

Borage helps deter tomato hornworm.

Asparagus:

Asparagus and tomatoes are good neighbors. Asparagus puts on growth very early in the season, and the tomato plants fill in after asparagus has been harvested. Also, tomatoes help repel asparagus beetle.

Marigold:

Marigolds help deter harmful nematodes from attacking tomatoes. The pungent odor can also help confuse other insect pests. To deter nematodes, the best practice is to grow the marigolds, then chop and till them into the soil at the end of the season.

Nasturtium:

Nasturtiums help deter whitefly and aphids.

Basil:

Growing tomatoes and basil together increases the vigor and flavor of both crops.

Spinach, Lettuce, Arugula:

These are also "good neighbor" crops for tomatoes. They stay fairly small, and will grow better in the heat of summer when shaded by the growing tomato plants.

What Not to Plant with Tomatoes:

The following crops should not be planted with tomatoes:

• Brassicas: Tomatoes and all members of the brassicas family repel each other and will exhibit poor growth when planted together.
• Corn: Tomato fruit worm and corn ear worm are nearly identical, and planting these two crops together increases the possibility that you will attract one (or both) of these pests.
• Fennel: Fennel inhibits the growth of tomatoes.
• Kohlrabi: Kohlrabi inhibits the growth of tomatoes.
• Potatoes: Planting tomatoes and potatoes together makes potatoes more susceptible to potato blight.

Raised Beds - Ten Tips

http://organicgardening.about.com/od/organicgardenmaintenance/a/raisedbedtips.htm

Ten Tips for Raised Bed Gardening

1. Don't ever -- ever! -- walk on the soil.
   The biggest advantage of raised bed gardening is the light, fluffy, absolutely perfect soil you're able to work with as a result. When you build your raised beds, build them so that you're able to reach every part of the bed without having to stand in it. If you already have a raised bed, and find that you have to walk on parts of it, consider installing strategically-placed patio pavers or boards, and only step on that rather than on the soil.
2. Mulch after planting.
   Mulch with straw, grass clippings, leaves, or wood chips after planting your garden. This will reduce the amount of weeding you'll have to do and keep the soil moist.
3. Plan your irrigation system.
   Two of the best ways to irrigate a raised bed are by soaker hose and drip irrigation. If you plant it ahead of time, and install your irrigation system before planting, you can save yourself a lot of work and standing around with a hose later on.
4. Install a barrier to roots and weeds.
   If you have large trees in the area, or just want to ensure that you won't have to deal with weeds growing up through your perfect soil, consider installing a barrier at the bottom of the bed. This could be a commercial weed barrier, a piece of old carpet, or a thick piece of corrugated cardboard. If you have an existing raised bed and find that you're battling tree roots every year, you may have to excavate the soil, install the barrier, and refill with the soil. It's a bit of work, but it will save you tons of work later on.
5. Topdress annually with compost.
   Gardening in a raised bed is, essentially, like gardening in a really, really large container. As with any container garden, the soil will settle and get depleted as time goes on. You can mitigate this by adding a one to two inch layer of compost or composted manure each spring before you start planting.
6. Fluff the soil with a garden fork as needed.
   To lighten compacted soil in your raised bed, simply stick a garden fork as deeply into the soil as possible, and wiggle it back and forth. Do that at eight to twelve inch intervals all over the bed, and your soil will be nicely loosened without a lot of backbreaking work.
7. Cover up your soil, even when you're not gardening.
   Add a layer of organic mulch or plant a cover crop (read more about that below) at the end of your growing season. Soil that is exposed to harsh winter weather breaks down and compacts much faster than protected soil.
8. Plant annual cover crops.
   Annual cover crops, such as annual rye grass, crimson clover, and hairy vetch, planted at the end of the growing season, will provide many benefits to your raised bed garden. They provide nutrients to the soil (especially if you dig them into the bed in spring), reduce erosion, and (in the cas of vetch and clover) fix nitrogen in your soil.
9. Think ahead to extend the season.
   A little planning up front can enable you to grow earlier in the season or extend your growing season well into the fall. Consider installing supports for a simple low tunnel or cold frame, and you'll have minimal work when you need to protect your crops from frost!
10. Consider composting directly in your raised bed garden.

Lasagna Gardening

I came across another gardening methodology today - Lasagna Gardening.  Simply put, it seems that this is largely a methodology for composting in raised garden beds whilst growing crops on top of the compost.  Also know as layered gardening, or sheet compositing, it's supposed to very good for soil composition and can be another good way to get rid of a variety of waste material - including paper and carboard. 

It seems similar in philosophy to HugelKulture.  Will have to try this one in fall (the best time to set it up for the next year).

hugelkulture test bed

It was a lot of work, digging the hole, but got it done over the weekend.

We dug down because we didn't have a lot of soil to fill with, so we figured we'd digg it up. We put a lot of wood in the hole and also threw in some twigs and leaves.

Will be interesting to see how it goes.

Phase 2 Seeding (Feb 17th)

I planted some more today.  I don't really have much of a plan except that the snow is starting to go and so I wanted to seed some more plants with perhaps the aim of bedding the first phase by early March.

Phase 1 - 1st Feb, 2012	Phase	qty	sprouted	notes
Cucumber	2	2
Pumpkin	2	2
Pois Nain Provencal	2	6
Red Salad	2	12
Tomates - Pépite Hyb F1	2	3		seeded 2 in each pot JIC

I decided to plant a couple more of the ones that seemed to be working - pumpkin and cucumber - and figured that I'd wait another week to see how the tomatoes seedlings progress over the next week.

I planted some new types of tomatoes which if they all sprout will bring our total to 10.  I think we could probably still do with another 6 plants as contingency.

The peas have gone in and another type of salad just to see how that one goes.

Now that we've finalized some kind of decisions on how many potagers we want to plant, we could perhaps start giving some thought to how many plants in total we want to have in the ground for spring (and where they're going to go)

TOTAL	P1	P2	TOTAL
Cucumber	3	2	5
Pumpkin	3	2	5
Batavia Lettuce	12		12
Poivron	2		2
Chilli	2		2
Tomates Noire de Cremée	4		4
Tomates Saint Piere	6		6
Pois Nain Provencal		6	6
Red Salad		12	12
Tomates - Pépite Hyb F1		3	3

Phase 1 Seeding (1st Feb) Results

The results of the first seeding are below.  It started off pretty slow  but definitely picked up fairly well.  We've got some decent seedlings, particularly the pumpkin, and the cucumber.

Important to note that over this period it was bloody freezing outside, -10 over night and we had little water.

Seedings indoors
Phase 1 - 1st Feb, 2012	Phase	qty	sprouted	notes
Soya	1	2	all	discarded due to mold - got too wet
Cucumber	1	4	3	re-potted Feb 17
Pumpkin	1	3	2	re-potted Feb 17
Batavia Lettuce	1	12	all	didn't seem like they needed re-potting
Poivron	1	2	2	just came through
Chilli	1	2	2	just came through
Tomates Noire de Cremée	1	8	4	re-potted 1 to test
Tomates Saint Piere	1	8	6	waiting for second leaves to re-pot

The tomates Saint Piere.  Still small but coming along


The lettuce.  definitely looking rather feeble.  But checked and they didn't seem like they needed re-potting


The two pumpkins going really strong


The 3 cucumbers coming along ok

Germination tests

The plants that we have got to sprout so far don't seem to be in great condition. A little thin.

- I've also noticed that within the same varieties the ones that get the most sun are looking a bit better.
- in addition I feel we may have overwatered some.

So am Going to run a couple experiments.

1. Am going to put the unsprouted pots under a lamp that should at least provide more heat
2. I'll start trying some bottom watering with a control group.

UPDATE: We were without water for over a week so this test kind of got a little ignored.  However things have grown fairly well.  The light definitely makes a difference and in fact it seems that perhaps we were over watering them.  We ditched the soybeans.

Germination indoors tips

Some tips for early seed germination indoors from http://ourohio.org/home-gardens/gardening-basics/winter/sowing-seeds-indoors/.


I was beginning to think that perhaps we sowed seeds in doors too early as some of them, having sprouted don't seem to be going too well.  So, I figured i'd do some research.  Below are the tips:

• germination rate of most seeds drops dramatically after the first year
• Seed-starting media are usually low in fertility. This means that a regular fertilization program is very important once seedlings emerge.
• The correct timing of seed sowing is an important factor in successful indoor seed starting. In winter months, overanxious gardeners may sow seeds too soon. Seedlings that are held indoors too long perform poorly once transplanted into the garden. Most seeds should be sown 4 to 12 weeks prior to transplanting into the garden. The time it takes for seedlings to be ready for transplanting outdoors will vary.
• An acclimation period before placing seedlings directly into the permanent growing site must be included.
• Once the seeds have germinated, you will see two seed leaves or cotyledons. Eventually, these seed leaves will wither. Next, true leaves will form. These true leaves look like the plant's typical leaves. Transplant the seedlings to individual containers once the first set of true leaves appear.
• Watering can be a cause of seedling failure. Keep soil moist but not wet. Small, tender seedlings dry out rapidly and can die. Remember that roots always must have oxygen, as well as water; therefore, do not keep the soil soaked. Water when the surface of the soil begins to dry out.
• Bottom watering helps prevent damage to the seedlings caused by a hard stream of water. Bottom watering also encourages deep root development and ensures that the entire depth of soil receives moisture. Do not let the pot or flat sit in water longer than it takes for all of the soil to become moist.

Bottom watering struck me as interesting.  This apparently helps grow longer stronger roots.  Shall experiment with this

Early seeding indoors - January 2012

As part of a little experiment to see if the seeds still worked and to see what would sprout we seeded some plants in doors.

 

Phase 1 - 1st Feb, 2012	qty	sprouted
Soya	2	all
Cucumber	4	3
Pumpkin	3
Batavia Lettuce	12	all
Poivron	1
Chilli	1
Tomates Noire de Cremée	8	3
Tomates Saint Piere	8	1

Theaim for this year is to focus on growing some volume on vegetables that we've had success with and then to continue to experiment with other vegies and soil types to see what we can get to prosper.

We've chosen to focus on Letucces, Tomatoes, Radishes and Potatoes.  We'll focus on these and concentrate on learning about how we can use different varieties to extend the harvest season to provide more.  We'll obviously experiment with other vegies on smaller scale to and see what we learn.

Now, we need to get another phase of seeding started

soya sprouts.  Added these for fun in the knowledge at least something would sprout.

cucumbers are sprouting

Lettuce sprouted first.

Both species of tomato have sprouted.

Comparison of different methods for raising chickens

This link has a very informative article about raising chickens and compares the many different methods. Which include:

• Coop and run
• chicken tractor
• free range
• pastured poultry pens
• Paddocks

Most of the information pertains to largish numbers of chickens.  If we were going to look at a small number of chickens (as in 2) then i think the impact of the chickens on the ground may be less.  

I think with only 2 chickens something between the pastured poultry pens and paddocks could be the solution.

I do like the idea of them living largely off what is around.

Simple irrigation - Global Buckets

Irrigation is always a massive issue here.  For that reason i'm always looking for options to make irrigation easier, or at least to find ways to have plants irrigated for a week or so whilst we're away on a holiday.  I came across these fellas in my search.

Some nice ideas using basic physics. 

HugelKulture

 Recently came across this new philosophy for gardening.  It seems very interesting.  The idea is you bury wood etc.. in a ditch / hole and then cover with sod and soil, the idea being that the material under the soil holds considerable amounts of water and composts over time.  Many of the articles I read about this claimed that this is a great way to reduce need for watering claiming that in dry climates, hugelkulture gardens didn't need watering at all in summer!!

The pictures below are from saponaria-wortsandall.blogspot.com .  They represent two rows of cataloupe plantings.   Guess which one is the hugelkulture version.

The row on the right is the hugelkulture version




here it is close up



Here's the traditional planting version.

We're definitely going to give this a go this spring and summmer.