Wednesday, August 26, 2009

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:

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

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.





Wednesday, August 12, 2009

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.