Gardening Notes

Here are some ideas I have tried

• Laying the netting directly on the plants, like I show above, didn't work very well. First, the plants grow thru the netting making it hard to get to to the tomatoes under the netting and some of the tomatos grow outside the netting. So I am going to give up on this approach.
• I tried hanging CDs over the plants and it seemed to work pretty well the first year but not the next year.
• I tried using a panty hose footie around the tomato but that didn't seem to work very well either.

Other ideas I have heard about that I want to try

• Go to the Dollar store and got several colorful whirl-a-gigs and put them on the tomato cages.
• Take a small square of newspaper and clothes-pin it over the ripening tomato.

Sweet potatoes are usually grown from slips; small rooted pieces of tuber. You can create your own slips by slicing a sweet potato in half lengthwise and placing it on a bed of damp potting soil. Cover the pieces with a few inches of soil and keep moist and warm. Small roots should develop within a few days, followed by leaves. They are ready to be lifted and planted once they're about 4 - 8 inches tall. (About 6 weeks.)

Plant sweet potato slips as soon as the ground has warmed and all danger of frost has passed. To give them a head start, sweet potatoes are often planted in raised rows, about 8" high. This helps the soil warm faster and keeps them well drained.

Space plants about 12 - 18" apart with 3 - 4' between rows. The vines will spread and fill in, so give them plenty of room. Feeding sweet potatoes tends to produce just foliage. Plant in a soil high in organic matter and then leave them alone. Don't water your sweet potatoes during the final 3-4 weeks prior to harvest, to keep the mature tubers from splitting. Regular watering is the best way to prevent splitting.

Grow your potatoes in soil with a pH between 5.0 and 6.0. Potatoes grown in soils with a higher pH seem prone to a disease called ‘scab', which produces rough spots on the potato. Adding compost or peat will help. Don't plant your potatoes where tomatoes or eggplant were grown the year before. These are in the family as potatoes and can attract similar pests and problems. Unfortunately, after much internet research it is strongly recommended that store bought potatoes NOT be used as seed potatoes. Too bad. For my size garden it won't make any sense to purchase seed potatoes. Best, bet is is to plant the plants when they are available in the garden center. See what Southern States has in February.

Container Method: The container method makes hilling easy and takes up less space. Plant your seed potatoes in the bottom of a tall container, like a clean garbage can or whiskey barrel. Put about 6" of soil in the bottom first, then spread out your seed potatoes. Keep adding soil as the plants get taller. Try using just a bale of peat which works quite well.

Potatoes don't like a particularly rich soil. If you have some organic matter and the pH is good, the potatoes should be happy. What they do rely on is a steady water supply. Water them at least an inch a week.

1. Direct seed into the garden in mid summer
2. Brussel srpouts are heavy feeders - work compost into soil before seeding
3. Cover seeds with 1/4 - ½" soil and keep moist
4. Brussels sprouts like the soil around them to be firm, but not compacted. Pat it down lightly.
5. Space plants about 2' apart with 3' between rows or stagger plants 2' apart in each direction, for a grid.
6. When the Brussels sprout plants are small, you can plant a short season crop between the rows. Bush peas and beans are a good choice, because they provide extra nitrogen to the soil.
7. Fertilizing twice a season (once when the plants are about 12" high and again about a month before harvest) is often recommended, A slow release granular fertilizer that feeds most of the season is preferred.