My Way This Year

Last year we did things the way that the Grow Box folks wanted their boxes planted. This year we did it my way. We planted seeds and have some of the thickest stems on our tomatoes, Japanese eggplants, and peppers.

Our eggplant looks like purple hands with long purple fingers, and I have never seen so many in such a small place. We have two boxes of eggplant and I am sure it will be more than enough.

We have four boxes of spices and we have quite an array.  We have several types of basil, tarragon, dill, thyme, sage, oregano and bee balm. We have had  some basil that volunteered itself in one of the boxes and two tomato plants that did too.

One thing that will never be left out again is Root Blast. I discovered this stuff about ten years ago and it is incredible. The thick stems of our peppers, tomatoes and eggplants are because of Root Blast. We have beautiful red okra and we really like what we planted this year. Such beauty in nature.

I have a client that swears by the stuff and grew a rose the size of a dinner plate. I pointed out to him this year that the roses are sweetest on the plants with the biggest thorns.

Even though I was late planting every thing, I found the joy of growing things from seed was very satisfying. I bought some planters from Parks Seeds called biodomes. What a sensational way to grow. The sponges create such a perfect medium and leave nothing behind to hinder planting next year. I will use some of the larger domes so that the transplants will be bigger, but you can not beat these things.

My eggplant transplants were so small and now they are so big. I know I want to try grafting tomatoes next summer because I remember why I used hybrids. They can fight disease better.

Stockings and sticky paper

I needed a way to fight squash borers and found that you can use stockings to keep them from boring into the stem.  They leave this nasty stuff called frass and if you see it you might as well pull the offending plant. The one thing I learned from getting the squash plants to try on their stockings, it would be best to plant the stocking and leave it folded over newly seeded areas.

The stocking can be pulled up along the stem and held with these nifty clips I bought at the Home Depot last year. The clips have been very useful to hold a broken squash stem end together.

The other thing we have used this year is sticky yellow paper with pheromone sacks that attract detrimental bugs away from the plants.  They really work and you should see what is stuck to them. We have flies, moths, small squash bugs and house flies stuck to those sticky devils.

I love growing organically and I have beautiful heirloom tomatoes, heavy hybrid vines think with tomatoes and some of the wickest marigolds anywhere. The marigolds went wild and I have had to weed them back. Next year I will grow them from seeds and only put one plant per grow box.

Every year we try new things, some work, some don't.  Every year is a science project.