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George Shirley[_3_]

On 10/2/2014 10:40 AM, wrote:
> Hi Ross,
> We also got hit with 2 blights on the tomatoes this year. It cut down on
> the amount of tomatoes but what I got tasted pretty good. Last year I put
> 24 Qts. of San Marzano Tomato sauce in the freezer but this year only 4
> 1/2 Qts. went in. Also the San Marzanos were about 1/3 of the size of
> last year. I did spray with copper fungicide & the plants are still
> producing new tomatoes as we speak. My Rose tomatoes are about 6 1/2 ft
> high but are done producing. I already pulled the Defiants. They did well,
> they are very resistant to blights.I also had good luck with beans this
> year. I planted 8 different types of Heirloom beans. I canned 36 pints, 5
> quarts og green snap beans. I canned 13 pints, 4 -1/2 pints of Dilly
> beans. I put about 5 lbs. in the freezer, about 6 llbs in my belly. I also
> abou 11-12 lbs. of dry beans. Not a bad haul. I also did well on the
> Zucchini this year. My raspberry bushes produced another 22 lbs. this
> year. I'll have to step up my Polish Raspberry Cordial production :-) And
> I am an old geezer. I'll be 71 in January. John
>
How much land are you gardening on John? On this small property we have
256 square feet of vegetable garden in raised beds 4X8. In addition we
have about ten running feet of two foot wide bed along the back fence
where we grow tomatoes, and a six foot by six foot herb garden in
another bed in a fence corner. We're so short on land that I grow Swiss
Chard, brightly colored, as a background in a front flower bed. We've
been harvesting that chard since August of 2013. It is well shaded in
the afternoon.

I don't want ten acres anymore but about 10,000 square feet would be
nice. In Louisiana our city lot was about 14,000 square feet but a good
bit of it was taken up by a nine foot diameter cherry bark oak, plus a
12X12 garden shed and several fruit trees. Not to mention a big house
with lots of driveway. <G>

The beauty of the raised beds is that old people can sit on a scooter
and just push yourself around the beds to work in them. No stooping or
squatting anymore for this old man. Plus we don't have dirt in them, we
use Mel's Mix from Square Foot Gardening and it works well but we have
to amend it with compost regularly to keep things growing well. Have a
friend who gardens in a wheel chair and has raised beds that are on
stilts. Works for her and keeps her outside a good bit.

George