Reaching new heights and harvesting

Until this week, we were experiencing heavy drought conditions at the garden,.  Rainfall was nearly 8" below normal.  The dry conditions created rapid weed growth in the row areas.  The barrier/mulch used in these pictures was about 3 inches of silica sand.  Breakthrough was rapid and difficult to control.  We have used several control strategies.  First we tried conventional weeding.  Because of the drought creating hard pack conditions and fear of additional mixing of the sand and soil, this was abandoned.  We have use a propane flame thrower to fry the weeds.  This produced moderate initial success.  To really kill the weeds would have taken 2 or 3 additional treatments.  The third method we tried was the use of black plastic mulch over a row area.  The combination of high heat and lack of water quickly controlled the weeds in this area. 

The final method tried was to cover the row areas with several layers of newspapers, wet the papers to prevent them from blowing away and finally cover all with flattened corrugated cardboard boxes.  This method also effectively controls weeds, but becomes very slippery if the cardboard is wet. 

This picture shows the vertical nature of the raised beds.  Expanded production is produced by going up, not out.  We used several types  of cages and staking methods.  You can see the wire circles surrounding the tomato plants.

Here are some of the other methods we used.  There is 4' plastic wire stretched between wooden stakes.  We also used recycled tobacco sticks to support one bed of tomato plants. 

We had some tilled ground that we could not incorporate into the raised beds this year.  We did some conventional row planting for some sweet corn, potatoes, sunflowers, and half runner beans.  We are hoeing the rows in this area for weed control.

One of the goals of the garden is educational.  Our Master Gardener is pointing out some of the insects that have also been part of the garden.  We had a heavy infestation of harlequin beetles, some flea beetles, and are now seeing Japanese Beetles.  The harlequin beetles attacked all the cole crops.  The plants were removed from the garden and disposed in the garbage to prevent additional infestation.  Flea beetles were fairly well controlled with soapy water.  They only attacked the eggplants.  The Japanese Beetles were hand picked and dropped in soapy water.

This shows the first products harvested from the garden site.  We have weighed all items harvested using the kitchen scale shown in the picture.  Each daily picking is recorded on a Excel spreadsheet.  We have picked and distributed 109.5 pounds of produce through July 13, 2010.  The items have been equally shared by the Community Clothes Closet and the Church Hill Senior Citizens Center.  With the rain we have had in the last two days, we should continue to harvest items for at least two more months.  We have planted some items for Fall harvest.  Could we reach the 500 pound level by the end of the growing season??  Stay tuned.