Vegetable Gardening West of the Cascades

[botias]

I got an Amazon box the other day, always a happy thing. Inside were the novel Howl's Moving Castle was based on, two books on gardening on the West Coast, and a box of ink jet-printable business cards. So far the first gardening book has explained a lot, like why I have had success with lettuce, carrots and radishes and that's about it. An early sub-heading: Our Soil Is Poor. :| Another: Our Manures and Composts Are Low-Grade Too. Yay! Guess who has been fertilizing (or attempting to) with compost? The veggies I've had success with don't require a lot of soil fertility. The book has a scientific approach to fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides not always found in organic gardening circles. No, the chemical fertilizers don't result in less healthful produce BUT farmers who use it can and often do ignore soil health which does affect the food, and the powerful and quick release fertilizers must be wielded with a care and precision that doesn't always happen, resulting in environmental damage. Also, another denunciation of wood mulch, or indeed any mulch at all. In other climates this sort of thing works out, but not here where it only breeds huge populations of slugs, pillbugs and earwigs, and keeps things unnecessarily soggy.

Comments

[gillo]

the novel Howl's Moving Castle was based on,

I love Diana Wynne Jones's books with a passion. Myazaki was good, but for me thr book was better. There are sequels too!

[louise39.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, compost is a soil amendment and adds organic nutrients and make the soil lighter etc. If your soil is poor, you probably need a lot of compost and/or fertilizer [either organic or chemical] to produce heavier need veggies. Can you grow tomatoes? Or squash?
We use wood mulch for ornamental plants and black plastic to keep down weeeds in the vegetables.
I know you use raised beds. Is your soil clay-y? How are you fruit trees doing?

[botias.livejournal.com]

yay! Now I'm really looking forward to the book.

[botias.livejournal.com]

I didn't have much luck with squash. According to the book, all Pacific Northwest soils are poor to start with due to having all the nutrients washed out every winter for centuries. Maybe that's why the natives were hunter/gatherers. The compost made with organic materials grown on the same soils is going to have the same deficiencies. I don't know what to think about my raised beds because a significant portion of the dirt in them came from bags. :) It sounds like I just need to use fertilizer other than run-of-the-mill compost. Not a big deal.

My fruit trees seem to be doing well. All but two have sprouted leaves and those two look like they are strongly considering it.

What sort of veggies do you grow?

[louise39.livejournal.com]

We live on Long Island now, so our soil was sand and then potato fields until the 50's. We use 5/10/5 fertilizer, blood meal, and bone meal. We grow tomatoes, eggplant, squash, peppers every year, and have grown carrots and corn and strawberries but not any more. We also have a rosemary bush that is huge. In pots, we have spring salad and patio tomatoes, parsley, lemon verbena and flowers.
I am in a wheelchair, so my husband does all the garden heaving, bending and weeding work and I oversee [and critique]. I handle the potted plants that I can reach [mostly flowers]. I love the spring when I can get outdoors more.

[botias.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you get more summer heat than I do, maybe. You grow all heat loving things. :) I need to get me some of those fertilizers. Compost just wasn't doing the trick. Lemon verbena, yum. Good that it's in a pot, though.

[louise39.livejournal.com]

Lemon Verbena is indeed in a pot. It is lovely just to crush between your fingers and sniff. I like to stir it in hot water for the scent or as a tea. I always grow lavender and make potporri using that and rose petals.

Summers here have some very hot days with high humidity. We need soaker hoses to water. Tomatoes love it! More than the people!