The Garden Report

Man, has this ever been a summer!

I did a one-month project in Chicago, and then took another project here in Kansas City after that. But this garden, let me tell you...

• We have seven-foot-tall tomato plants
• We have five-foot-tall pepper plants
• We get about 40-50 jalapenos a week, some of the jalapeno plants are 2 1/2 feet tall
• We get about two bushels of tomatos a week
• We get at least a bushel of squash and zuchini each week.
• We've had yellow squash fruit double in size overnight from 3" to 6"

It's just crazy! I was talking to a neighbor last night who is a serious gardener and he said that some people garden their entire lives and never get results like we have. I told him that all we do is watch HGTV and do what the county extension office says to do. But here's some things that I think have really made the difference for us:

1. We have a raised bed. We had a retaining wall built to house the garden. It is rectangular, about 20' x 40' and 2 1/2 ' high. This raised bed has made it easier to work, contain, and has led to the next step that worked well for us.
2. We used "magic dirt" to get started. Our soil is awful. Full of rocks and clay and rocks and nails and rocks and ... did I mention rocks? But the coolest neighbors of all time have a son-in-law with a farm near us, and they brought in (for free I might add) enough dirt to fill our retiaining wall. Were'd the dirt come from? Right in front of the cattle feeder! It's the best, most fertle ground I've ever seen.
3. We placed a soaker hose on the ground near each plant and watered daily. We got a long soaker hose and "snaked" it around the garden near to each plant and held the hose in place with "yard staples" which are really just large "U-shaped" peices of wire. We placed the end at the edge of the garden and watered the garden daily for 15-20 minutes.
4. We mulched with newspaper and chipped mulch. Above the soaker hose we placed two layers of newspaper and left room for the plants to come through (not touching the plants with the newspaper). We then placed a 1 inch layer of fine chipped mulch that we can till into the ground to help prepare the soil for next year. This has kept the roots cool during our hot summer and we've only had to pull about four weeds the entire summer--all of the nutrients in the soil have gone to support our garden plant growth.
5. We sprayed fine mist on the plants early in hot days. This simple tip took only a few seconds--just enough to get the outside of the plants wet. It helped to cool the plants down so that they can do their "biology" better.

That's the source of our good luck! We just read some books, watched a little TV, and did what the experts said.