Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Diary entry: August 1, 2010

We went to our Fermilab garden last Sunday to clean up, weed, pick.

It seems that we had 7 inches of rain last Friday! Many of the plants in the corner of the garden almost died--but it looks like everything recovered except for one pepper plant.

The tomatoes have grown profusely! J says that we need to space the tomato rows twice as far apart as they are this year. This is a good idea. We spaced the two tomato rows by about 4 feet, and now the plants from the two rows meet in the middle--you cannot get through the row in a white shirt! So, maybe next year, the spacing between rows of tomatoes should be 6 feet.

Also, the plants are too close together. We recalled that Bill Robertson from graduate school at Duke had only 4 plants per year and always had more tomatoes than he could handle, because he had them spaced by 4 feet in each direction (and planted them in 2 feet of leaf mulch). So, we should increase the spacing between plant to about 3 feet or so.

We tilled under the beans that had grown old and J planted turnips on top. We also planted a row of collards.

The okra looks good, but there is evidence of deer damage (some leaves have been eaten).

Vine crops (pumpkins, cantaloupe, cucumbers) look healthy.

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