Long time regular readers will remember that the guy who wrote the Food Grower series of articles sent me a box of seeds that he had collected and organized from his own garden.
I got a very late start with my garden, at least a month late but I would like to show you what I have going and to show you a drastic difference between the results of the neglected natural soil here and the dirt in my raised bed garden.
I have used zero fertilizer or any pesticides of any kind.
I have also watered them deeply and equally at the same times.
All of these tomato plants were started and transplanted at the exact same time. I pulled a yard debris can up so you can get a sense of scale.
This is the dirt and the resulting tomato plant where I had an extra and stuck it in an old flower bed close to the raised bed garden.
Notice the stem isn’t very big, the entire plant is stunted and the plant looks wilted because the soil doesn’t retain any moisture.
It has only a few pea sized fruit on it.
Rotating to the South and literally five feet away, this is the difference.
It’s difficult to judge the scale but I am almost six feet tall and those tomato plants are at least six inches over the top of my head.
Even though I watered them all at the same time, the soil here is still moist.
And although still not quite ripe yet because I planted them late, there are scads of Cherry type tomatoes, scads of flowers and several of the Heirloom Beef Steak type tomatoes ripening.
Literally the only difference between the two examples being the soil and a five foot set off.
I have some onions on the other side of these tomatoes and as soon as we get a killing frost that finishes the tomatoes I am going to pull everything out for the Winter.
It would be nice if that held off until late October so I can bring any that aren’t quite ripe yet inside to finish off.
I am also going to be dumping my grass clippings and small yard debris in that flower bed and letting it compost until next Spring at least. Then I am going to start more of these Tomatoes a couple months earlier inside and transplant them to where the onions are now.
They can obviously do phenomenal with the right conditions.
They will actually get more Sun if there is any also.
Crazy freaking weather the way it has been lately, it’s hard to say.
Either way, after seeing what a difference soil condition makes, I am going to be building a monster compost pile right next to the garden and just let it go to town.
The flower beds obviously need some serious help and I will be yanking flower bulbs out and getting the dirt built up for next year.
I’d like to thank Food Grower for helping me out with this, it wouldn’t have happened without him.
Dude, you rock!
I have several raised beds. Mostly tomatoes and cukes, wife does squash, snow peas and peppers. Also have a 10×10 asparagus bed. I use mushroom dirt in mine. Refresh it every other year. I use weedblock fabric and some no chemical mulch to hold in moisture and keep the weeds down
one thing I have found that’s works for me is to chop up the plants and turn them in the soil to rot over winter. now. I tend to chop mine up into really small chunks
before turning the soil over. and at this time I also add coffee grounds as well.
another thing I do is to run the lawn mower over the leaves a few times
to chop the shit out of them. and they also go on the garden beds
straw bales chopped up fine are also good to add if you can get them.
my neighbor likes to fish. so when he lent me his wood splitter. I started saving the bigger worms for him. he got close to a gallon worth of them all over 6-8 inches long. he said the worms where bigger than the ones he buys at the bait shop. soil prep is a must if you want to grow food. and I don’t have the money to buy bags of the stuff, so. I make my own compost and work into the soil.
try it, I think you plants will be a lot better next year.
I read somewhere the heirloom strain don’t do so well in the heat. Mine are not doing well. You done good Phil. Moving so gonna lose my garden and the cantaloupe have been going gangbusters.
Maybe not heirloom Beefsteak, but there are plenty of heirloom varieties that will, and thrive. In Tennessee, even the folks who don’t have time for a garden will put out a couple or a few tomato plants. Nothing like going out & picking a fresh one for supper, or breakfast–big thick slices of tomato with your eggs, biscuits, & meat.
“Ain’t but two things money can’t buy, and that’s true love and home-gown tomatoes.”
–Tennessee Budd
Production so low this year I eat them off the vine when harvesting cantaloupe.
Find someone who raises rabbits and get a bucket of bunny poop to go with those grass clippings. When we had the rabbit the tomatoe plants wer nine fet tall.
I have rabbits and yes. Also, I still get a pickup bed full of the sheep shavings from my local FFA chapter.
One of the mistakes I made when transplanting my tomato plants was planting them too shallow. I now transplant when I have 4 levels of leaves and I tear the bottom two layers off. The remaining two layers quickly add additional layers where I take the bottom layer off and add soil to just above where the leaves were coming out. The result is a much deeper root ball and all of that stem also produces roots. All this extra root mass provides extra nutrients where I give them plenty of fertilizer. I only have 3 plants. A Better Boy, Early Girl Roma, and a Grape tomato plant. So far I have put up 3 quarts of seasoned gravy, 4 quarts of sauce, and 4 quarts of stewed tomatoes. I expect another 4 to 6 quarts to be put up before the first freeze. My goal was 12 quarts but this has been a better than normal year.
Looks good! So what all did you add to the raised bed? How long have you been building it up?
Hey, Phil, did you chop those gangbangers up with a woodchipper first, before working them into the soil? Do they stink any less that way?