Grow Your Own – A Season of Change and Challenge
by John Weckerle
It’s September, and autumn is fast approaching at New Mexico Central headquarters. Summer has been a time of adjustment in the garden, with unusual weather and the presence of the greenhouse presenting us with opportunities to learn. Early heat caused the broccoli and cauliflower to bolt; neither provided us with a single meal, although the second planting of cauliflower may provide us with a head or two. Tomatoes have been more productive, although less so than last year, and we are awash in cucumbers. Surprisingly the zucchini and yellow squash have yielded little until recently, and even now are not providing much; this will likely be the first time in years that we’ll have no frozen squash at the end of the season. The first two attempts at string and wax beans were a failure, and we have now found that such beans should not be mulched until they have come up. The third attempt appears to be working – fortunately, with the greenhouse, we should be able to extend the season long enough for some decent production. The leeks and shallots are very healthy, although not ready to harvest yet, and peppers of all varieties have been very productive. The mild green chiles we planted have more heat than expected, though, and the jalapenos thus far have been complete duds; no heat at all thus far, despite the fact that they were labeled as hot.We anticipate a good yield on cabbage, and enjoyed a good bit of lettuce earlier in the season. Yield for the eggplant has been minimal, but there are still flowers and fruit on the plants.
Special challenges, to which we found special solutions, have included weeds and caterpillars, in the garden and elsewhere. We were fortunate enough to read a reader-submitted recipe for a non-toxic herbicide in Consumer Reports Magazine: 1 gallon of vinegar, 2 cups of Epsom salt, and 1/4 cup of dish soap. Sprayed liberally on the weeds in the driveway and the paths in the garden, this worked extremely well. For caterpillars, we ordered Safer Caterpillar Killer Concentrate II, an organic preparation which kills only caterpillars. It contains the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, and the results have been fairly impressive; just two tablespoons in two gallons of water was enough to treat the garden and most of the other trees and shrubs that were being attacked. The trees and shrubs are doing much better, and today’s visit to the vegetable zone resulted in only one caterpillar learning to fly early as it was ejected from the garden.