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How much is Enough?
Jul. 14th, 2025 08:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ursulas_alcoveI've been gardening for over 45 years. I still don't know. How much do you plant? How much will you eat? How much land do you really need to plant to provide for your needs? How much time will the garden take up? What's the best way to grow on a hill? I still haven't figured out all the answers. The weather is different each year. Last year was horribly dry. This year is wet. Bug pressure is different each year. (Why are Colorado potato beetles in my squash?)
I know that flea beetles decimate eggplant in my area, each and every year. Spotted Lantern Flies destroyed the rose leaves. Some years are different. This year, the rose leaves are looking good. (I harvest them for dyeing on cottons). Deer pressure is lower this year but it is not zero. Two of my sweet potatoes lost all their leaves due to the deer. Somebody keeps feeding the squirrels peanuts, which they don't eat, judging by the huge number in my potato grow bags. My new patch for watermelon was just dug up by a squirrel. Only a squirrel could have gotten in. The fences holes are too small for other critters.
Little by little I work to improve the garden each year. As I age, more perennials are getting planted. This year, Cherry Brandy Black-Eyed-Susans and some Flame-colored Rudbeckia. Lupines and foxglove fill a section that will eventually be covered by fruit trees. The trees are still young.
Fencing and water collection are the next projects, though they have been on my list for many years. Money has always been an issue.
How is my random goal of 325 lbs. of produce going? First, let me say that early crops like lettuce and spinach do not weigh a whole lot. Over time with succession planting, they can add up. The varieties of lettuce seed that I have are winter varieties. They didn't do well in the heat. Fall harvested crops are the heavy hitters. Tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, those are the weightier crops. Right now, I am at 30 pounds out of the 325. I'm still planting. We have 90 days until that first frost. I planted a row of small watermelon. More cucumbers and beans got planted. Still to plant: fall spinach, carrots, and snow peas. So far, despite the heat and the smoke from Canadian fires, things are looking good. Here's a video about this past week's projects:
https://youtu.be/yCZvQnXvKRk?si=rt_vokr1VbnlKPEf
Work on the very neglected backyard needs to start. The potential there is huge now that the tree is gone. However, the ground hog and skunks gotta go. Someone suggested I use cat litter poo to combat the skunks. I don't own a cat to try it. Anyone have any experience with this?
Meanwhile, I'm waiting for it to dry out a bit and start up a burn barrel to rid myself of any mulberry regrowth in the far backyard. The logs sitting on concrete are already growing branches. Can't be having with that. I paid too much to be rid of that tree. The lateness of the tree service cost me a lot of growing season time. Nothing was planted back there. I've no regrets. Instead I gained some insight via YouTube and worldwide gardeners as to what potential I can unlock back there. There is a lot of planning underway.
I know that flea beetles decimate eggplant in my area, each and every year. Spotted Lantern Flies destroyed the rose leaves. Some years are different. This year, the rose leaves are looking good. (I harvest them for dyeing on cottons). Deer pressure is lower this year but it is not zero. Two of my sweet potatoes lost all their leaves due to the deer. Somebody keeps feeding the squirrels peanuts, which they don't eat, judging by the huge number in my potato grow bags. My new patch for watermelon was just dug up by a squirrel. Only a squirrel could have gotten in. The fences holes are too small for other critters.
Little by little I work to improve the garden each year. As I age, more perennials are getting planted. This year, Cherry Brandy Black-Eyed-Susans and some Flame-colored Rudbeckia. Lupines and foxglove fill a section that will eventually be covered by fruit trees. The trees are still young.
Fencing and water collection are the next projects, though they have been on my list for many years. Money has always been an issue.
How is my random goal of 325 lbs. of produce going? First, let me say that early crops like lettuce and spinach do not weigh a whole lot. Over time with succession planting, they can add up. The varieties of lettuce seed that I have are winter varieties. They didn't do well in the heat. Fall harvested crops are the heavy hitters. Tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, those are the weightier crops. Right now, I am at 30 pounds out of the 325. I'm still planting. We have 90 days until that first frost. I planted a row of small watermelon. More cucumbers and beans got planted. Still to plant: fall spinach, carrots, and snow peas. So far, despite the heat and the smoke from Canadian fires, things are looking good. Here's a video about this past week's projects:
https://youtu.be/yCZvQnXvKRk?si=rt_vokr1VbnlKPEf
Work on the very neglected backyard needs to start. The potential there is huge now that the tree is gone. However, the ground hog and skunks gotta go. Someone suggested I use cat litter poo to combat the skunks. I don't own a cat to try it. Anyone have any experience with this?
Meanwhile, I'm waiting for it to dry out a bit and start up a burn barrel to rid myself of any mulberry regrowth in the far backyard. The logs sitting on concrete are already growing branches. Can't be having with that. I paid too much to be rid of that tree. The lateness of the tree service cost me a lot of growing season time. Nothing was planted back there. I've no regrets. Instead I gained some insight via YouTube and worldwide gardeners as to what potential I can unlock back there. There is a lot of planning underway.
