I found this little creature while working on the garden bed. This makes me happy, knowing that my garden has a rich web of life, feeding me, the plants, the creatures, and the soil.
Saturday, October 29, 2022
Preparing Next Year's Tomato Bed. Marigold Treatment. 10.29.22
This raised bed had the following succession. Last year, onions. This year, garlic, then bush beans. I planted a row of French Marigolds at the end, which grew vigorously.
Marigolds contain a substance that is toxic to some harmful herbivorous soil creatures. So, I thpughtbit might be useful to treat the soil with a marigold "green manure".
First, I cut off all of the beans and weeds.
I removed those. I thought about mixing them with the soil, but it seemed like more effort than I could handle. So the bean tops and weeds went to the compost heap. Then I roughly chopped the marigold plants, and spread them over the soil.
Then I used the shovel to turn over the soil, mixing in the marigold choppings.
This bed was the only one not to get a treatment of biochar last winter. Supposedly, biochar will help keep the soil healthy and nutritious. So I spread the remaining biochar onto the soil.
I also found a bag of chicken bone / woodstove ashes, in the garden shed. So I spread those too.
Then I used the hand tiller to roughly mix it all together.
Thursday, October 27, 2022
Apple Graft Results. 10.27.22
These are grafts I did in March or April.
Mutsu on Geneva 222 rootstock. I had left the rootstock dry out last year, and it still survived. Whatever I had grafted on it did not. So this Spring, I repotted it, cut off the top, and grafted it with Mutsu scion. The graft union is kind of ugly, both because I didn't use a fresh razor blade to make the cuts, and because the scion and rootstock sizes were very mismatched. Doesn't matter. In a few years, it will be difficult to locate the graft union, as the trunk enlarges and they meld together. I might replant this one into a container bed this winter.
Covering Peach Tree To Prevent Peach Leaf Curl Disease. 10.27.22
I finally got the genetic dwarf peach trees covered.
I don't know if I did it on time. Covering to prevent rain from getting into the buds, prevents peach leaf curl disease. I has already rained a few inches. However, one year I dug up a peach tree and pitted it this late, and kept it sheltered. It did fine. I also wrapped the branches in garbage bags one year in Novembet. I think that worked too. I'm not sure.
Overwintering Hot Pepper Plants. Method #2.
I don't know if this will work. These didn't ripen all of their peppers, so I wanted to move them into the sunroom to finish ripening. It's similar to the other method, but less pruning.
This is a nice Thai pepper plant. I dug it up and hosed off the roots. No pruning, this time,
Then I potted it in good potting soil and watered it in.
Then I let it drain. Previously, I gave the same treatment to some Tabasco pepper plants, a Serrano pepper plant, and another Thai pepper plant. Here the are in the Sunroom.
Now I'll treat them like houseplants. I don't know if they will survive, or not. The Tabasco and Serrano were already sad looking. I don't think their soil was good.