First draft of lessons learned for 2022...
This is a good year for learning! We did have a decent harvest of cucumbers, squash, and peppers this week even though we decided to take out the crop of tomatoes. I posted the harvest totals at the very bottom of this message.
I am learning what it means to be a good steward of our soil. And this supports our mission to get fresh, nutritious vegetables to our neighbors at the St. Joseph’s food pantry.
The ideas that we have for 2023:
Grow at least two or three varieties of tomatoes.
24” spacing was too close for double rows. We may be able to do 24” spacing on a single row.
If we go for a single row, we might go ahead and use the old cages rather than the Florida weave.
We may incorporate ground cover for weed management. We are discussing whether we should use ground cover in the rows or in the pathways. This decision will be deferred to a future planning meeting.
Very seriously discuss taking a year off of summer squash to see if we can reduce the borers.
Gardeners seem to like the kana hoe. Maybe we can order a few more of those in different shapes and sizes.
Get ready for season extension supplies.
Get ready cover crop seed.
Do all composting and crop and weed debris management off site. Keep the site more tidy.
It’s time to test the soil in several places to see what’s going on with our nutrients.
Upcoming work day tasks for Monday, 8/8/22, ~6PM:
Continue weeding and clean-up
Decide what to plant in the vacant tomato bed: fall greens or cover crop.
Wherever we plant the fall greens, we need to try out Tom’s row cover supplies for season extension. We may need to order additional supplies.
Before Monday: It might be hard to tell in the picture. The trellis did not support the vines as well as I hoped. The tomatoes fell to the ground. Many of them rotted especially after heavy rains. This resulted in a lot of damaged tomatoes. The mess was so bad that we decided it would be better to remove the plants.
We had a good crew and favorable weather on Monday, so we removed the tomatoes. Jason is steadily incorporating the vines and tomatoes into his compost piles at home. We also removed summer squash vines that had damage due to squash vine borers.
Tomatoes from 2021 compared to 2022: I promise that I will get better at presenting this data someday.
The harvest for this week was about $86 worth of produce of peppers, squash, and cucumbers. We should exceed $3000 in the next few weeks especially if the beans start to produce. We will get a boost of production when we get the fall greens to come along. More production means we get more nutritious food to our neighbors.
