Perfection or reality – what do you think our readers want?  This is the question I posed to the Buchheit’s team during a recent planning meeting.  Did they want me to “cook the books” and show nothing but the perfect garden or should I be more realistic and show what really happens to my gardens this year?

They all went for reality.  I agreed!  I often learn more from my mistakes than from a picture-perfect garden that’s staged and Photoshop’ed.   You can join me in my gardening journey this year and come what may, you will be privy to both my successes and my failures. It’s humbling to share my foibles but if it will cause you to not make the same mistakes, it will be advantageous.

It’s been a tough spring.  I lost one whole planting of ground crops like green beans and zucchini and okra to the constant rains but the colder temperatures have helped the broccoli and cabbage.   I covered the cole crops with a light weight ground cover to prevent the dreaded white cabbage moth but nothing protects any vegetation from the sharp beaks of my guineas.

The color of the broccoli is slightly off as it is usually a darker green so I am going to wait until the cool of the evening to do a foliar spray.  This is an excellent gardening tip I was given by Judy, my friend who runs a small Mennonite store and hoop house.  The formula is one gallon of water mix in a tablespoon or two of a good quality seaweed liquid fertilizer and one tablespoon of white sugar.  Yes, I’m serious, white sugar.  I use this every year with great results for a quick way to both feed and fend off bugs.  A great tip that organic gardeners know is that bugs do not like sweet tasting leaves, so they will not eat the leaves.  It works!

Here is how they responded. See how deep green the broccoli heads are that I’ve just harvested?  The trick is to not remove the broccoli plant after you carefully cut off the major head of broccoli.  The side shoots that will grow along the stems are actually more tender and succulent than the whole head.  I love coming out and gathering just enough shoots to add to that evening’s stir-fry.

This broccoli was cut washed and into the refrigerator in less than 10 minutes, which allows for maximum freshness with less loss of nutrients. 

Something that did not go as well as the cole crop harvests is planting more sweet potato slips.  Buchheit carried Bonnie slips that were already in soilless mix but I started slips from an organic sweet potato in January also.  The Bonnie slips were much better but since I had some started, I was filling in space in extra containers.  The yellow leaves here are from a bad habit I have been trying to break for years.  If a little fertilizer is good, more must be better.  It’s not.  I keep burning plants when I get in a hurry and do not measure out the proper amount of liquid sea weed or Miracle Grow fertilizers in the solution. I will do well for a season and then it’s back to yellow curling leaves on plants struggling to survive my best intentions.  If this happens to you, try flushing with water and don’t give up on the plant for at least a week.  I will share more adventures from my gardens with you soon.  Hope this was helpful. Be Blessed! Anne May