Update, pics in lightening ground strikes, taken out transformers near my brother's house, half the town, so gee, I got a few pics (a damn few as the flash wasn't necessary this morning since could just wait on a lightening strike!) More to come later when I can walk in garden without fear of electrifying ez-perience.
Nons and some quick shots of peppers/garden:
Cukes in inverted old tom cages. Couldn't do much about lighting as it was doubled by flash and lightening!
Almost the entire garden--standing between couple rows tomatoes: 4 those. 2 of sweet peppers, 5? hots, 2 rows/beds summer and winter squash. Summer and winter got put in yesterday in rain: had to get it done. Rows/beds are 43 feet. Yes: I measured to see how many plants could get per row/bed. No mulch down yet, got truckload of it well composted pine bark coming, soon as it dries, as much soil conditioner as mulch, and to use in container mix, and then, straw goes down. Cages go in, probably caging everything except summer squash, will stake those, have room for more cukes in uppper left . . . ugh. Whew. lol
Standing near edge, not wanting to walk on wet garden: Jals: giant, cracked, some other kind, Jal M, Cayenne, Serrano Tampequino, annuums in this row/bed.
Couple Ramon's/Walkgood's JA Habs, Scotch bonnets from some seed co., Carib Reds, Choc habs: this is one of the "Hab"/Carib beds.
Pretty boy! One of the Ramonitos! In bed/row with:
Bonda Ma Jacques! Thanks Kevin/Wayright for these seeds. Been wanting to try this pepper for long time. Am concerned how fast they shot up in that gentle rain, underneath supersoil charge. Don't know why concerned as Jamie/Romy6's 7 Pod Brown x Naga and 7 Pod Browns did same thing since Thurs.:
See? Sucker turned into jolly green giant bean stalk overNIGHT. This is in a 7 pod bed/row. No pics of the other Trini's. Lightening hitting closer. Headed back got some of the pub/bed/row:
Yellow manzano--3 of these, 3 reds, 3 Mexican Orange more in direct sun, as I think they like sun better than the yellows/reds. Pretty flowers!!!
Fav tomato to eat, just to eat, as in cut, salt, pepper, eat, in entire
WORLD! Pink Berkley Tie-Dye!
Tomatillos in the midst--one on other side of blanket flower: got dianthus, nasturtium, zinnias that survived my digging, onions, rosemary bush/tree I keep cutting back, black-eyed susans, lilies, money plant, and to left not seen, shasta daisies, divided, given away, never minding it as they continue to multiply, dang it. Not mulched this bed either yet. Also have basils, dill, chives, parsley, thyme, other herbs in this bed to the far, far left. Cilantro is in pots, so can move them to shade later, entire 4 x 8 bed of onions, big containers of onion, another 4 x 4 bed of onion with salad greens, mixes, arugula, etc.
Would have taken more pics, but if ya see that big shot of in-ground, ya get the "picture." Everything from seed. Except onions, as bought transplants from Dixondale. The perennials in flower/tomatillo are older . . . have other beds in front, whew.
Am gonna explain the process, so I can come back and pick it up next year. Kinda like posting hot sauce recipes, then tasting sauce after it's "set." Know what to tweak.
Dug holes, some DEEP and WIDE holes for tomatoes on Tues. after opening up beds, after the 6 inch flood couple weeks ago, after big till. Ground was super-dry on Wed. when put in tomatoes. Then sprayed holes with Actinovate/Biotamax, slapped straight worm castings in with mycorrizhae and sprayed again. Sprayed surrounding ground, saturated. Let sit overnight.
Then, the fert mix: vermicompost, composts, mine (horse, cow, goat, heated early last summer)--not baked--baked is reserved for containers, some Black Kow, some perlite for drainage, a little Happy Frog 5-5-5, some blood meal, alfalfa meal--3 cups because it has triaconatol, micronutes; steamed bone meal 6 cups, some fish bone meal 3 cups, collodial soft rock phosphate from FL--basins in Tennessee too, which 5th Season carries, 10 cups. High phosphorous bat guano, 4 cups--but saved a bunch for later; kelp meal 6 cups, greensand--just doused it; Azomite, lots and lots of Azomite for micronutes, minerals; 5 lbs. cornmeal, regular, couple boxes powdered milk, 10 lbs. Epsom salts, dolomite lime--big rain had pH a little low, so not heavy with it. Also, soil is not that low in calcium but is in mag, and without mag, plants can't uptake calcium.
Brewed compost tea 4 five gal buckets, from pond water, with 4 more 5 gal buckets straight pond water for cutting it, on it's 24th hour of bubble--bacterial based (worm castings in paint strainers) with some oatmeal/straw fungi grown in vermicompost over past week--Neptune's Harvest tossed in with molasses. Brewed, cut, toted.
Then in hole between the organic ferts, compost, sprayed again with Actinovate/Biotamax in off-gassed de-clorinated water, of course. Then the compost tea, let settle, then the plants, more compost to cover, then more Actinovate/B-max, then little more dilluted tea. Sprayed again with Actinovate/B-max.
Over the top? Just from the LITTLE bit of this I did last year, plus the wheat straw and manures atop that, tilled in last fall, wood ashes over the winter, I couldn't dig a hole in DRY, super DRY soil, without pulling up gazillion earth worms! I had some fungal issues last year: septoria on toms, angular on cukes, wiped out cuke crop almost, and just because peppers
resist fungal diseases, doesn't mean they are immune to the effects, regardless of crop. Moreover, that land used to have chicken coops and some hogs penned in it--just trying to get it back to how it was in 1940's. "Mistakes were made" by in-laws not knowing any better, well, thinking chemicals were just miraculous, buncha 10-10-10, or 20-20-20 really messed up that beautiful soil.
Just a restoration project! Peace, thanks for looking: will post more pics when I can walk without compacting soil, although to this point, we've really not had that much rain and it's been relatively gentle. Also, more pics when I've fully recovered from . . . work?!