Posted on 09/19/2020 6:51:29 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Looks yummy thanks!!
Double yikes!
Due to a cousin of mine having a bad MRSA situation that threatened a leg (he ended up ok), whenever I get scratched, cut, etc. while working outside, I drop what I’m doing, go in & clean up the “wound”. You can have staph on your skin & not be sick from it & evidently he did - he scraped his leg hiking on some rocks & that break in the skin got it going in the actual flesh of his leg. It was to the bone, but not in it or the leg would have had to come off. Very scary.
Yes, raised beds are wonderful. Personally, I appreciate the psychology of them: a limited space with a clear border to be fussed over. (As a child, I had only contempt for kids who couldn’t or wouldn’t color within the lines.) If you’re setting up raised beds, be sure to take into account any nearby trees. In their neverending search for water, they’ll eagerly extend a mass of tiny roots into your beds. It’s quite dry where I live, and the mesquite trees yards away on the other side of a thick courtyard wall have sent legions of roots under the wall’s deep footing and up into my raised beds. Yikes! To stop nearby trees’ roots from invading, consider placing an actual sturdy, non-decomposing physical barrier in the soil beneath your beds and even up the sides. Or so I’ve learned on the internet . . . Wish I’d known beforehand.
I think the gardener had other problems that allowed him to be attacked by said amoeba.
The soil has Anthrax in it but it is dormant.... for now..
I’m thinking of putting my krim and black cherry tomatoes on a triangular trellis next year cuz they get so huge. Let them grow and then just flop them over the bar.
I have always encouraged garden experimentation for myself, and all those experiments have not necessarily turned out well.
My experience is that I learn more from my failures, than I have from my successes.
A 3 mm. plastic or 6 mm. plastic sheeting at the bottom of a raised bed & up the sides, provides a semi-permeable membrane
to prevent moisture leakage into the surrounding soil, thus not encouraging invasive mesquite roots.
Sheeting will retain moisture, but don't ignore a few drain holes in case of raised bed flooding / downpour.
Depending on plant height and soil fertility, would you consider an arbor, or a shade producing pergola ?
Just allow sufficient head room for harvest, and let gravity provide the hanging fruit.
I wanted to try that for my sugar snap peas, but never got around to it.
I’m on the hunt for them with various fruits and veggies. I’ll add them, seasonally, as I find them. :)
I had a row of a dozen Black Walnut trees lining one side of the driveway at my other farm. They’ll kill just about anything near them with a toxin in their roots. I used raised beds across the driveway, hoping to stem that tide - and it did for me - not sure what the new owners are going to do in the future, but they’re taking really good care of the place.
The wood is going to be worth a fortune in the future, though even if they cut them now (they’re about 25 years old, now) the toxin stays in the soil for years afterward.
Amoeba found in soil kills gardener, turns his brain into mushy liquid
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3887098/posts?page=1
Yikes!
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Well, at age 73, I’ve lived longer than many of my classmates. I would prefer to last a while longer and die silently in my sleep. But what will be will be—ain’t gonna quit gardening.
I put my krim, old German, and actually all of my tomatoes in raised bed rows. I put 8 foot high bamboo poles at each end of the bed and another in the middle and ran twine back and forth up and down the rows around each plant.
I had to cut the tops off of my plants when they got to 7 foot high.
I had to zip tie branches and stalks to poles and twine but it has held up even in some strong winds...even the 25 foot long 4 foot wide raised bed.
If interested, you can go to this link to enlarge the Heirloom Apples chart to be easily readable. Click on the picture, once you’re there.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/15/93/bd/1593bd1583fd3278fe629a968c3c6b5c.jpg
Made a trellis for my peas and cucumbers and it worked out great.
I have decided to try the no dig, no weed gardening method on a few square feet of ground where only grass has grown. Sort of a modified Ruth Stout method. I haven’t had more than a few tomato plants in pots for several years, because our soil is poor, and except for a fair amount of cucumbers, all I got from my last garden was mosquito bites.
So, I’m going to carpet a small area with cardboard, cover it with the dirt from the tomatoes I tried to grow this summer, add in composting material, and if I’m able, get a hold of some old hay or straw. Grass clipping and leaves, to. Our county building has 4H activities, and they alway leave a big pile of straw and manure on the ground outside the building, after farm animal events. I’m going to get as much of it as I can, and throw that on top to rot over winter. Wish me luck!
My youngest son is in his first garden, and a raised bed at that !
His cukes weren't all that productive because they weren't getting enough direct sunshine, because of shade from the zucchini leaves,
but he wouldn't consider a trellis.
Yeah, no spare cukes for me, but I did get a zucchini out it ! LMAO !
I started my raised beds this year doing a somewhat Hugelkultur method.
I had my son dig a trench a couple feet deep, then mr. mm and I went around the property and picked up all the old rotted logs we could find and tossed them in the trench as compactly as possible. We filled it plus some.
I also threw in some veggie scraps and dead weeds that have started to rot, those actually went in first, in the bottom. Then I shoveled some of the dirt back on top of it. I’m going to place cinder blocks around the edge and then fill it with enough dirt to make it level.
Fall is a good time for your efforts. Lots of people rake their leaves and place them in bags by the curb. Makes it very easy to pick up and scavenge.
Good luck with what you’re doing.
Let me know how it works out.
Just as an aside, as I’ve been repotting my houseplants, I’ve been saving the dirt and using it for my garlic bed. Our soil is unforgiving when it’s dry.
I grow pickling cucumbers. They are crazy productive...and you don’t have to peel them....Wash & Slice!! Got 100’s from a few plants. It was like....”God...Make them stop!!”
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