Small Garden

zap, have you tried blanching and freezing beans?
Bush beans will be going in tomorrow.
Just built a new raised bed and finally got the topsoil in.
Wife put a couple tomato plants out in big buckets.
The plan is to stay pretty small this year, as the weed situation is tough for us to control with a bigger one.

 

Last year we had six tomato plants with eight feet of pole beans, this year we have 15 tomato plants in five gallon bucks (food grade) and we have sixteen feet of pole beans, Kentucky Wonder Brown.

Next year we'll be looking to add another 15 or so more tomato plants in five gallon buckets so we can plan on canning some sauce.

Next year we'll look to change some of our tomato plants from big boy to a better canning tomato.

 

The Big Boys are great for mater sammiches.
I put in 48' of bush beans yesterday. I'd take a pic, but all you'd see is dirt.
I'm hoping for 90% germination, but I'll take what I get.

 

I tired a yellow pear tomato in a 10 gallon planter a few years back. I couldn't keep up with watering it and the wind kept blowing the whole thing over. Looked kind of ridiculous by September with all these guy wires attached to big screws in the ground all around it.
Last year I tried tomatillos in 10 or 15 gallon pots and had to attach struts from the house to the tomato cage I tried.
The tomatillo did so well in pots I have them ready to go again this year, just gotta figure out what I'm gonna use for cages.
The "pot" on the right is the bucket from a shop vac.


I'm trying potatoes in pots for the first time. The "pot" on the left is a rubbermaid action packer that was on the side of the road. The top was missing but I didn't need the top for a plant tub.

 

I thought about doing a staggered planting, but in the end, I guess I'm just crazy. When they start producing, you'll probably be able to hear me cursing all the way ovah there in KC.
I usually get about 3 good pickings, so we'll have a couple GBs to pick in a couple months.

 

Wife wants to do a cinder block bed. I'll be hauling home 18 blocks next trip to the HD.

 

Who'll be sleeping on the cinder block bed, the wife?

 

Some of the pole beans came up yesterday, what does everyone use for spray when the beetles get after them?

 

Dad and I would used the beetle traps. 2 pieces of yellow plastic with a plastic bag hanging inder it wit some sort of lure attacted.
Used to work well.
No garden in years so dont know if they still make them.

 

I've used pyrethrin on the little yellow ones

 

The big box store with orange shelves says they have them.
I am guessing the blue shelve place hax them also.

Spectracide Bag A Bug Japanese beetle traps.

 

I found the Rescue brand caught far more than the Bag-a-bug ones.
Could be a local phenomenon.
I put the Rescue ones away in the Fall in the garden shed and the next Spring the lures were still potent attracting horny beetles .
Only fault I could find with them was the zip lock bags often didn't zip shut once opened.

 

I do the 5 gallon bucket thing. here is one in the green house:

1. 

 

This is good and safe for organic gardening. I think it works as good as the chemicals.

 

I just mixed up some of this for the beetles.
Canola Oil

• One of the most effective home-based pest controls for Japanese beetles is canola oil. This common kitchen ingredient can be used to effectively kill Japanese beetles in no time. Take 1 tbsp. canola oil and mix it into a quart of water. Add a few drops of liquid dish soap to add a slight poison to the mix. The soap won't kill your leaves, but will affect the beetles. Put the mixture in a spray bottle and spray your plants from the top, making sure to get it on as many leaves as you can. Make sure to spray the roots and underside of each plant, too. The canola oil will stick to the outside of the Japanese beetle and will cause it to suffocate. The dish soap also will poison them slightly and cause confusion.
  

 

I'll pick some of this up, thanks.

 

They want you to spray the roots ?