Tomatoes

Tomatoes

Wednesday August 26

This year they say was a bad year for tomatoes.

I have to agree, here in New Jersey we got a Tomato blight

on our tomatoes.

This is the crazy part, I did not to bad with my crop.

I did want to share a few things I tried this year.

First, my husband started them from seed, which

we had saved the seed from previous years.

Second, he built the soil using compost from our yard,

bone meal, rock phosphate. We put in 168 tomato

plants, heirloom ugly tomatoes, cherokee purple,

amish paste, san marzano. At the beginning of the

season I put bone meal down, I did this twice.

I read this will build your root system. In past

years I got more leaves than fruit, so I believe

this helped. I also put down a organic fertilizer,

Feed N Grow 4-24, which I got from a Organic

Farmer here in New Jersey. The organic fertilizer

did not go down until after fruit was producing.

Of course, the most important part is I put down compost

along with leaf mulch. I also wanted to share that I do

stake my plants with bamboo. Pruning is another

technique I do every year. This means getting rid of

the sucker leads, which is a perty big task in the beginning.

I also keep leaf branches away from the ground as I feel

this can add to fungul problems.

My creator, My God is my provider!

Psalm 104

He makes grass grow for the cattle, and

plants for a man to cultivate-bringing

forth food from the earth:

Making a new dress

Rachel is getting a new dress

Tuesday August 25

I have been working on this dress for awhile now.

For me the summer is a hard time

to find time to sew.

I am determined to get this done.

We are using some iron materials with this

dress. I am also adding trim to the underside

of the dress at the hem.

Potatoes

Wednesday August 12
Potatoes

We have havested 32 lbs!

These are the cages I built for what

I call no dig potatoes. Last year I lost

to the voles, they ate everything I put

in the ground. This year we came up

with a new plan. We planted 5 potatoes

seeds around the edge and then one in the

middle. We used composted leaf mulch

altrenately with straw. We did this in two

layers and then put more leaf mulch on top.

The straw seemed to help keep the mulch

cool, although the rain probably helped too.

I was very pleased with what we harvested.

I built 19 cages, I did purchase wire to build these.

I feel this was an investment, I will have them for

years to come. I am planning on building more for the

next growing season.