In this era of wild weather, the time for late planting of gardens in Logan & Beyond is upon us. We’ve been through the drought of July-October,
the ceaseless cold and drizzle of November through April, and now the hottest Memorial Day Week on record.
The soil, however, is finally warm and dry, ready to accept seeds and plants that will lead to delicious, healthy vegetables.
To assist relatively new gardeners or enhance the performance of those who have tilled the garden soil with lackluster results,The Logan Journal
is pleased to offer expert advice from one of Logan County’s best-known gardeners and environmentalists. Marie Turner’s The Natural Garden is
now available digitally from The LoJo.
Mrs. Turner was known as “Mother Nature” to hundreds of students at Russellville High School where she taught environmental science and biology. A
greenhouse was added for the use and education of her students before her retirement in 1978. She also wrote an “Environmental Corner” column for the Logan Leader and won the award as the state’s best twice-weekly columnist, regardless of subject matter. She continued to raise a large
garden after her retirement from public life.
Her 72-page paperback book was published in 1986 but still remains the consummate guide to gardening today, especially for those who prefer to limit
the use of insecticides and pesticides. Throughout it are illustrations by her friend, talented artist and art teacher Brenda Brown.
Her grandson, Trey Turner, who is publisher of The LoJo, has retyped the entire book and made it available for downloading as an ebook or on
iPad, iPhone, pdf, Kindle, Nook, and also compatible with most tables and android based phone. To order, send an email to webmaster@loganandbeyond.com
and be sure to include the format you prefer. The price for the book is $5.
The 11 chapters are as follows: Site and Soil, Size, Studying the Seed Catalogs, Starting Seeds and Seedlings, Companion Plants, Choosing the Better
Type of Row. Popular Vegetables and How to Grow Them, Herbs, Gardening in Containers, Drought Gardening and Organic Pest Control.
About weeds and their usefulness, she wrote:
“There is a controversy about the wisdom of allowing weeds to grow is the garden. It is the argument of some companion-planting advocates that weeds
attract specific insects, thereby drawing destructive pests away from garden plants.
“Although I personally appreciate the benefits of using some plants as companions, I disagree with those people who allow weeds to dominate a food
plant. Weeds rob cultivated plants of water, nutrients and light. Some weeds harbor diseases and nematodes that reinfect the garden in succeeding
years. Add to those disadvantages the problems involved with harvesting the desired plants, and any small compensation of insect-control becomes
minimal. Weeds collect minerals and are used to best advantage in the compost heap.”
About
transplanting:
“I prefer to use Styrofoam cups. They are inexpensive, hold their shape, and do not become soggy. Holes punched in the bottoms of the cups allow
drainage. When they are moved outside, they withstand the transition and retain water longer than the peat pots.
“When transplanting time comes, the seedlings in the Styrofoam cups can go directly into the soil. If one-half to one inch of the cup is left to extend
above the ground, it becomes a collar to guard against damage from cutworms. The bottoms of the cups should be cut out when they go into the ground to
allow the roots to continue to develop.”
About
companion planting:
“There are plants that are incompatible. As examples, sunflowers and pole beans have the
same root levels and the sunflowers interfere with the light requirements of the beans. Sunflowers
and potatoes fight chemically. Planted near sunflowers, potatoes will produce poor vines and no
or very few small potatoes.”
Bush beans
do well with potatoes, cucumbers, beets, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, corn,
strawberries. Marigolds, planted in the row with the beans, repel the Mexican bean beetle.
(Be sure they have a strong odor. The little French marigolds are not so effective.) Do not plant near onion, garlic, shallots and leek.
Corn
does well with peas, beans, potatoes, melons, squash, pumpkins, cucumber, soybeans. Peas and beans replace nitrogen. Soybeans deter chinch bugs. The
melon family, which includes squash and pumpkins, deters raccoons which do not like to become entangled in the vines.
Cucumbers
do well with corn, early potatoes, cabbage, sunflower, beans, radish. Late potatoes should not be planted with cucumbers.
Cucumbers are said to repel raccoons. For that reason, some people
plant cucumbers at the end of the corn rows.
Tomatoes
are good companions to asparagus, protecting them against the asparagus beetle. Tomatoes and all members of the cabbage family grow well together, the
tomatoes repelling the white cabbage butterfly. Tomatoes should not be planted near corn, since the tomato fruitworm is identical with the corn
earworm. Tomatoes make potatoes more susceptible to potato blight. (Use tomato juice to remove the odor from skunks that is on clothing.) Allow no
smoking in the tomato patch.
The chapter Popular Vegetables and How to Grow Them deals with green beans, lima beans, beets, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower,
carrots, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, kale, leeks, lettuce, melons, okra, onions, parsnips, peas, potatoes, pumpkins, radishes, rhubarb, salsify,
spinach, squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, turnips and zucchini. Excerpts follow:
Watermelons require long, hot growing seasons. The vines must have at least six feet in each direction. Because watermelons require much moisture, a
heavy mulch is helpful after the sun has warmed the soil.
Seeds are planted in hills that have been enriched with a considerable amount of compost or rotted manure. Water-holding humus (compost)
is more important than using a chemical fertilizer, which tends to draw the moisture from the plant.
It is difficult for beginning growers to tell when the fruit is ripe. The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening quotes Mark Twain, who said a green
melon, when “thumped” says “pink” or “pank”; a ripe melon says “punk.” A ripe melon’s rind on the underside is white and the tendrils near the fruit
are dry and shriveled.
Pepper is a very tender vegetable and requires a long growing season. It is native to tropical America. To get the most from a plant, it should be
started on a plant bed (hot bed) or indoors about 8 to 10 weeks before the last spring frost. The soil should be kept evenly moist, but never
over-watered. Disease is promoted by standing water.
Serious pepper growers practice liquid feeding, once a fruit begins to form. Peppers show thirst by drooping, especially at midday. Watering and
feeding can be done simultaneously. A week manure tea would suffice for both purposes.
Squash seeds are planted in hills, about six seeds to a hill, with the hills spaced four feet apart. Planting should not be done until danger of frost
is past and the ground has warmed. To get the young plants started well, the soil should be enriched with humus, compost or well-rotted manure.
Two precautions to discourage insects are simple and easy to take. Planting radish seeds at the time the squash seeds are planted and allowing them to
remain throughout the summer protects against squash borers. Dusting with wood ashes discourages insect pests and when the material washes down to the
roots, it benefits the plants.
About herb gardening:
If you want to put a little fun into vegetable gardening, if history is interesting to you, if you like to become a gourmet cook, or if you would like
to experiment with the medicines used by your ancestors, add some herbs to your vegetable garden.
Botanically, herbs are any non-woody plants, that may be either annual, biennial or perennial. Traditionally, herbs are plants that can be used for
their aroma, to enhance the flavor of food, to improve health.
If I were starting a herb garden, I would select a few most commonly-used perennials. Among them would be a mint, a clump of sage, horehound, thyme,
chives.
About container gardening:
For diverse reasons, container gardening becomes the answer to one’s urge to grow his food.
The reason most often given is that of limited space for outdoors gardening. Another situation that calls for gardening in containers is the poor
health or handicap of the gardener. A third circumstance may be a prolonged drought with insufficient water to maintain a regular garden.
The time for drought gardening may be rapidly approaching:
When irrigation is needed, the water should be applied slowly, deeply and uniformly. The water should reach to a depth of five to six inches. Apply
water when the air is still, so that the water goes into the soil and is not blown away.
Water in the morning when temperature is at the lowest. Do not use an overhead sprinkler because most of the water will soon evaporate.
If water is very scarce, the gardeners may need to keep and use his “gray water.” That is a term used to describe any household waste water that does
not include toilet water.
Paperback copies of The Natural Garden can also be purchased for $5 at Turner Valley Produce, 2575 Bowling Green Road, Russellville 42276.