There are many aspects to maintaining your garden. Here are some important ones:
- Weed control
- Watering
- Trellising
- Sharpening tools
- Mulch
- Cover Crops
- Pest and Disease Control
Which parts of garden maintenance have you been good at keeping up with, and which do you wish you were better at?
Weed control is easier and less labor intensive when you keep up with it. When the weeds are tiny and you can barely see them, you can quickly cover a lot of ground with an ergonomic weeding tool like the scuffle or stirrup hoe. If you wait until they’re bigger, it will take much more time and effort. Hold the tool with both thumbs pointing up, keep the blade flat against the ground and just slice the weeds off where they’re attached to their roots. You are not trying to move the dirt, and shallower is better, you don’t want to bring up new weed seeds to the surface. Make sure you keep those tool sharp! (Sharpening Your Garden Hoes) If you are trying to cover an entire garden in one go, you might keep your sharpening stone in your pocket and check the blade’s sharpness after every row. And please, never leave your tools outside when you’re not using them! Always put them away to keep them out of the rain and sun. They will last much longer.
Watering is best done thoroughly, with time between waterings for the soil to dry again. This allows the roots to grow deeper. If you water shallowly every day, the roots will stay near the surface where the water is, and if you never let it dry out, there may not be enough air in the soil for them. Aim for at least 1 inch of water per week, check your rain gauge to see how much it has rained in the past week. If it is very hot and dry, you may need to water more than once a week.
Trellising is beneficial for some crops such as tomatoes and pole beans. It helps to keep the plants out of the paths so you can walk among them to harvest. It helps to provide air flow to the plants. It helps to keep the leaves farther away from the soil so that it will not splash onto them when it rains. Some diseases can be transmitted by soil getting on the leaves. See page 32 in the Technical Gardening Manual for instructions to trellis tomatoes using the Florida Weave method.
Mulch can help prevent weeds, preserve moisture, and add organic matter. It also helps to protect the foliage from soil-borne disease. Silage plastic and old rotten hay are two popular mulches that are often able to be found for free.
Cover Crops — Look for a six week long open space in your garden. Buckwheat is good for summer. You can plant a fall cover crop in August to give it time to mature before winter. Cover crops provide organic matter.
Pest Control — The first step in controlling pests is doing everything you can to grow healthy plants that are pest resistant. This means providing appropriate amounts of water, air (pruning, weeding, thinning), and nutrients (healthy soil). Crop rotation helps because different pests like different crops, so by rotating your crops you avoid letting their populations continue to grow through multiple seasons. The next step is Scouting. Walk through your garden and look for pests. Learn which pests typically damage which crops. Do you see cabbage worms, potato bugs, squash bugs, or flea beetles? Pesticides should always be a last resort. Be sure that any product you use is OMRI listed for safety. You should see OMRI clearly printed on the label. Some organic pesticides include copper for light blight on tomatoes, spinosad for potato beetles, and bt for cabbage worms. Follow the directions carefully. Some of these products can harm beneficial insects, which you want in your garden.
Which of these garden maintenance strategies would you like to learn more about?
I learned some awesome new things that I would Hve never before now, even gatdening for years!!!
I will continue to water, trellis, weed and mulch my garden. Thank you for this program.
I did not realize that I should let the garden dry out a little between watering. I will start this practice right away!
Also, I need to learn how to sharpen my stirrup hoe. Should I follow the same advice as for the chopping hoe?
We will be planting a cover crop for this winter again. Last year we used turnip, mustard and cress, but the turnips were the most noticeable and thrived. The deer liked it, and it was good to know all that food was out there during the mild winter we had. However, we are open to trying a different cover crop. We need one that we can plant in October-November and be plowed under in March.
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Could we have a socially distant, masks on, tool sharpening demonstration. What type of rasp do you use to sharpen shovels and hoes? I don’t know what a Mill file is.
I really believe in mulch. I have straw around my tomatoes and they are looking good. Unfortunately I don’t have access to water at the garden so I am hauling water to some of the crops like tomatoes, beans and potatoes. I am looking forward to getting a watering system in.
Mulch helps keep the plants from drying out too soon. I used grass clipping for my corn, experimenting with rows munched and some not. It is a lot of work because I don’t have a bagging system for the mower so we rake. I am trying to grow potatoes in straw. . If anyone has grown them in straw before, can you give me any hints as to how long we keep putting on the straw mulch? I hope your garden are growing well!
Hi Sharon! Im a little late in the game responding, but I read you were trying to grow potatoes in straw! I have done this before and it worked really well. I used the straw to “hill” the potatoes, so all in all, I think I added extra straw 3 times over the course of the season, about the same as what you would do with dirt. Hope that helps! Maybe for next season at least!
I would like to know more about drip system types for watering.
Watering 🙂 we have many raised beds so watering becomes a serious challenge going into July (not to mention we use a square foot gardening method in the raised beds so MANY MANY crops in ONE bed.) About an INCH of water every other day keep things good in the raised bed. Trying to figure out drip irrigation for the beds as right now we are watering in the very late/early evenings giving everything enough time to dry off before it starts to cool off at night. Our LARGE in ground we have deployed soaker hoses for half of the garden (its what we had on hand early in the season!) easy to use, turn on walk away for 1/2 hr then switch to the next few rows. We check soil moisture before using. Other half is still by sprayer hose 🙁 very time consuming, but using the sprayer hose in both the in ground and raised beds gives me a chance to look for pests, keep an eye of developing produce (which we harvest as needed during watering. Flea beetles are a challenge still. But…the spraying down knocks them off of the raised bed plants minimizing damage. But we have noticed less damage that I believe is due to intercropping the potatoes (which is what they are after this year) with onions. That might have to do with interrupting the life cycle (the onions) since the larva come from the ground. The other pest issue this year is the wood rats in the tomato in ground garden. We have had to deploy traps and poison to control this issue (unfortunately) as in past years ‘natural’ methods only allowed for population growth (these things are SUPER smart) and I am not risking my entire season as 2 years ago we LOST about 50 plants over night due to rats chewing them down. So far I have only seen a couple of potato beetles (again, I believe this due to intercropping) and a handful of cabbage moths. I planted cabbage with onions AND horseradish. We tried the Florida weave with the tomatoes this year. Found to be time consuming! so we modified to running straight lines and then tying knots in between plants. Same effect but less effort (for us) . We did use old 4 x4 fencing to trellis pickling cucumbers this year to maximize in ground garden footage Still have to hunt for them! We are planning on putting down wasted straw this coming week to help with weed control.
Hello,
I’m really enjoying my gardening and this class! I’m learning and having challenges, but all in all a huge insights and growth on my end.
Watering:
I have been good at watering – I put 2 new systems in place after watching a passive watering video on youtube it has enlightened my view on how simple things can be. -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgmUNi4Jark
This really helped me understand the options I have with equipment I already had on hand- or could make without buying anything- and has reduced my WORK and MANY trips with the watering can. Mothr nature has also helped with this topic putting down a lot of rain for me….I am not in the habit of checking weather and the rain gauge daily.
Trellising:
I have made a few trellises and found ways to use odd items I had on hand to supplement support. I have also found out that some of the “staking” has not been very strong- several of the tomato cages have fallen over with the weight of my tomatoes. This is forcing me to get creative and plan for the future- both good things.
Weeding: I could definitely get better at this! I try to do it a few times a week, but these weeds grow so fast! I have been companion planting and that helps reduce a few weeds for sure. I also know that when the bigger crops like tomatoes and squash get going they will shade several weeds. When I water- I try to not water them, but mother nature does a good job of helping them out.
Mulching: This has been hit and miss for me. I have a lot of rain and the slugs have been ridiculous – so I have removed several mulches I had in place after they decimated my beans and cucumber seedlings. I have gotten a hold of some wood mulches that seem to do better near my tomatoes and peppers though. I hope to add leaves and wood chips this fall once the growing season is over to better prepare next years garden.
Cover Crops: I have not used this before and had some questions about it- I hope to add this into my rotation. When you grow the cover crop when do you “cut” it down? How do you know when is the right time? do you just leave it in place when you cut it down and does it come back next spring or regrow again that year?
Pest Control: I have done pretty well so far with pests- although the Japanese battle have just arrived this week! I have been hand picking them and putting them in soapy water. I have done the same with slugs and cabbage worms. So far so good. I am noticing other bugs in the garden- I with there was a way to take a picture and get info if it is a good or bad bug….anyone have tips for this?
Sharpening Tools: I have not needed this before, but do see the value in it. Is there video or resource on which tools, how, and how often to do this?
Our main means of weed control is hay mulch that we put down when planting. There are a few spots where some weeds are growing through that I should probably get to soon.
I learned about deep watering and letting the soil dry out a bit last year and it has been working great. We have soaker hose running through the whole garden so all we have to do it hook it up once a week or so when it hasn’t rained.
As for our trellis system, we companion planted so that some plants can climb up our corn and we also built some trellises with wood and wire for other plants to climb on. The Florida weave method for tomatoes would not work well for us because our tomatoes are not in rows.. We have a neighbor with some bamboo and are going over there later to cut some for tomato stakes.
I have never used cover crops but have always been very interested in doing so and would love to learn more about them.
So far we have not had to do any pest or disease control, except for our chickens and ducks getting into the garden every once in a while. We have them in a run that goes along 3 sides of our garden so I think that they are helping with insects that could harm our crops. We have also found a few praying mantis. And, this is the first time our plot has had a garden in over 10 years so I have a theory that the pests and diseases just don’t know that we are here yet.
Weeds. After the first complete weeding of garden ,which did take me longer than it should have, because I kept putting it off, have noticed fewer weeds returning . Possibly due to dry weather? Next time will get on it sooner. yes we have always kept our tools inside also , have had them for years. Hopefully will get several more years of use out of them. Trellises
We used old bedspring for cucumbers. None of our cucumbers have did well , think to dry ,even with watering. Staked some tomatoes, doing well. Tied some to cattle panels , prefer this method, adequate air flow . After this last rain , pole beans are finally growing, climbing old fence we used for trellis.
Pest Control
Very few potato beetles this year. So far no squash bugs . But have noticed several cucumber beetles. Wish we had a few praying mantises . I walk down rows, carrying small container of soapy Dawn water and remove any pests that I see. Kills them immediately when dropped in .
Hello all! learning so much in this group. Have to be totally Honest, I have been slacking on the garden. The weeds have taken over…luckily most are edible for us and the menagerie. Harvest of beets and carrots was great in spite of that. We haven’t had need to trellis, as the veg in the dedicated 200 sq ft is root and leaf veg. We are also getting ready to sow the next rotation of Beets, Carrots, Spinach, Kale, etc…
PEST CONTROl: something has invaded the potato plants and they are dying. It literally happened over night. we have not dug any potatoes so I don’t know if we will get miniature potatoes or nothing. We are using diatomateous earth to control pests on all the other crops.
WEED CONTROl:
It has been difficult keeping the clover out of the strawberry plants. I harvested about 2 quarts of strawberries and wish they had produced more. Because there are so many runners from the plants, I find it difficult to weed the area with tools. Bending over is the only way and I can only do it in short spurts.
The tomato plants do have a certain number of weeds, however, the walkways are fairly weed free. I use the hoes to get in between the plants. I enjoy knocking those weeds down and getting them out of the garden.
The spinach and lettuce seeds did not grow well. the weeds took over and I it was difficult to determine which was which.
I will try again to plant spinach and lettuce. I had the same problem with beets and carrots. when the carrot plants finally emerged from the ground, the weeds had overtaken the rows. I am weeding and thinning at the same time. Beets did not grow.
WATERING: Our garden slopes down and the plants at the top do not do as well as those in the middle and lower middle. Plants at the bottom seem to get too much water. Those at the top, not enough. I think that I need to enrich my soil over the next few years and mulch to keep the soil moist. The soil gets so dry that it is as hard as rocks. I have to loosen it up prior to watering so the water actually gets to the root system. We are working on getting the irrigation system set up to help with watering.
TRELLISING; We used plastic fencing to trellis the sweet peas. They have done very well. We eat as many as we pick and I have put some in the freezer already. I’d like to do another planting for late summer picking.
We caged our tomato plants and just this past weekend, we had to add some stakes to keep the cages upright, to stake the tall tomatoes, and to keep the lower tomatoes off the ground. Just seeing a bit of color on a few of the tomatoes. The harvest will be bountiful.
MULCH: I need to read more about mulch.. We do have a compost pile and it would be better if we had it under control – it is just an area that we throw all our kitchen compost. we have not officially put any extra soil or turned it. I think I will work on that this fall. I am ready to make our soil richer with compost or manure or other additives. I don’t like that it looks like dirt and not rich soil.
COVER CROP: We are considering a cover crop for Fall after the fall harvest is in. Again, anything to enrich the soil.
I know I haven;t been in the garden much lately, but from what I’ve seen and heard, we haven’t had any pests!
As for weeding, I know I enjoy the scuffle hoe 🙂 and I can sharpen them well now.
Only weeding I did was run tiller through it until plants got to big. Did use hoe some. Have sharpened it maybe once a year, no problem. Put my garden tools away at winter, but usually leave them out during season. Used no mulch. Staked tomato plants with wooden stakes I had made at mill. Not many tomatoes on plants yet, but plants look good. Hot peppers are loaded , can’t wait. Have canned several canners of beans. Providers are wonderful , high yield. Been sharing my cucumbers , very good crop. This is the best garden I have had in years , even with it being dry.
I would have to say one of my biggest challenges in garden has been weeding. Been thinking that I am going to tarp the half of my garden so that next year I would hopefully have less weeds.
I never sharpened my garden tools until Karline showed us at the high rocks last year, it has made a huge difference.
I was reading an article in the paper was about eight years in diatomaceous earth to combat cucumber beetles. Their concern is that it would kill some of the bees as well though. I also read that if you grind up your egg shells that it can be used the same way I plan on trying this later.
Sorry for the delay. Our internet has been poor and the garden is keeping us busy! We planted just before leaving for a long weekend and have struggled to keep up with weeds since. We used cardboard to keep paths cleared. We invested in weed blocking fabric that has helped but grass is still managing to grow underneath! Surprisingly one of the biggest issues has been finding enough supplies for our large space. More people are gardening and some staples for maintenance have been harder to come by with our late start.
The rain has worked out well for us. Our tomatoes could use more shade and sometimes require extra watering. Our containers get the watering can every evening. Pumpkins and watermelons were planted down the retaining walls so they benefit from the natural drainage and straw mulching.
We recycled election sign holders for pickling cucumber trellises and invested in heavy duty tomato cages that are working especially well this year to keep pear tomatoes from taking over.
I use a lot of garden tonics concocted in the kitchen to ward off pests. The deer fencing has kept out the foragers. The border was left with plenty of tasty weeds they munch, but the barrier is quite efficient. Many thanks! I do think leaving lots of plants undisturbed on the border has attracted pests away from crops. Encouraging beneficial insects has been helpful.
We have not used cover crops. This is our first large garden in years, but I would like to give it a try. Thanks for the great info! Enjoy the fruits of your labor everyone!
In terms of our biggest challenge in the garden, I remember near the beginning of the summer that we had a plethora of voles running around, and destroying hours of hard work and manual labor, and we had lost all hope. At first glance, it had appeared that the voles had completely eaten all of our green bean seeds, melon seeds, and even some of our cucumber seeds. There were burrows every where around our high tunnel. and we weren’t really sure where to start in terms of getting rid of them. There were mixed feelings about whether or not we should try and relocate them, or exterminate them. We started of with using granulated fox urine. This tactic worked for about a week or so, but then the voles inevitably returned, even after continuing to sprinkle the granulated urine around the high tunnel. After not succeeding, we tried castor oil, since this was safe to use around plants and pet friendly (We have a few dogs running around) we placed small amounts closer to our crops. Like the fox urine, this didn’t last long. We really wanted to just give up, but then our Farm Manager, Casey, brought in some bait station traps, and with a combination of all our of attempts, we had finally controlled all of our vole issues, for the most part. We see some every now and again, but they haven’t really disrupted the growth of our crops.
I have only worked in a garden for a few months, but despite the bugs I have not used any pesticides for the plants and they have not been destroyed! We have put a lot of work into getting rid of weeds and our crops are very impressive for me!
I have loved working in the garden with High Rocks this summer! I’m excited to see how well Ruby Grow takes off!
watering-I did not install irrigation in my garden this year but did have to water twice (after each time it poured the rain!?) from a nearby pond using and hose. Not ideal and time consuming, so perhaps irrigation in the near future. I can see how beneficial it would be giving that we seem to experience a dry period every summer.
Weeds- I feel I did ok keeping up with weeding this season by tilling , hoeing and pulling. No big problems with weeds.
Mulch- I love mulch but so do squash bugs! I did mulch my tomatoes and peppers with straw but it is expensive at 7$ plus a bale. also used a litttle newspaper. This fall, I hope to harvest leaves and stockpile for next year. I find it hard to find enough materials to mulch with.
Cover crops- I have learned more about cover crops thru this program and II’m now a big fan. Have been planting buckwheat as areas of my garden finish producing. also planning a winter cover crop.
Pests- This is one area of gardening that I seem to struggle with and need to learn more about. I don’t want to use chemicals. I do a lot hand picking but find if you miss a day or two the pest can overwhelm your crop. I do use bt for cabbage worms and it is effective. I had a squash bugs last year, also mexican bean beetles. I have had some this year, but still keeping up with them so far. But I think pests and disease are the hardest part of gardening!
The one big disapointment in my garden is the corn, it just didn’t grow. But the tomatoes are yummy! I have enjoyed reading about everyones garden and learned some things from it too.
Sorry for the late response. Thank you for the good info above.
Weeding–it always gets ahead of me in the late summer, but I have had success using lumber wrap along the pathways and also for killing weeds in the beds before you plant. It’s free from the Hot Tub Factory in Renick. (it’s actually a sauna factory but for some reason we call it hot tub hah).
Pest Control– We have had a real problem with chipmunks and maybe some kind of mole/vole, eating our tomatoes and digging tunnels to eat our potatoes. We are going to put Agrid (which are high levels of Vit D) bait stations around, because it seems like its the only option at this point.
I don’t know what happened to our potatoes–they never bloomed and the leaves turned brown and died….fusarium wilt? I dug some up yesterday thinking I would have nothing, but I was pleasantly surprised to get a pretty decent potato harvest!?! They were small-ish but still good size. The rodent got to some of them but I still kept some that had bites in them and figured I could cut that off when we wash and use them. Any good ways to store potatoes??
Tool sharpening—this is my weakest (dullest haha) part of the garden which has never gotten done. Id love a workshop on tool care, repair and sharpening because I have never sharpened anything but knives and machetes.
Although I have been gardening for years, I learned some new tricks! The trellising of tomatoes worked so much better than cages or stakes! And I am now a cover crop convert. I did peas and oats as a cover crop to help improve the nitrogen in my garden soil over the winter. GREAT program with lots of helpful info teaching this old dog new ticks! Thank you!