In a previous article on this site I described the process for growing gourmet mushrooms on hardwood logs in the home garden. Hardwood log inoculation is a simple and easy way to cultivate loads of shiitake, oyster, maitake, chicken of the woods, reishi, lion’s mane, and other delicious edible or medicinal fungi right in your own backyard.
Yes, there’s a change in the air surrounding my vegetable garden but unfortunately it has nothing to do with the heat wave that we have been experiencing. High temperatures and drought continue to dog the garden but at least there have been no more groundhog sightings. Despite the sweltering conditions my garden is beginning the transition from summer into fall veggie gardening.
Here’s the deal… Being the self respecting intensive veggie gardener that I am, I’m always looking for more space to grow another edible plant. There were tomatoes and eggplants in containers, cucumbers and beans up a trellis, and an assortment of herbs growing in a planter or strawberry jar.
Nothing tops pure, clean, rainwater for irrigating the vegetable garden, and I’ve had one of those fancy rain barrels used for collecting runoff water from rooftops on my wish list for a while now. I always thought they would be great for conserving water and to collect a handy supply of fresh distilled water to use in my bog garden, but Kevin just sent an email which raised an issue with collecting runoff in rain barrels that I hadn’t considered:
Tired of that same old, same old, when it comes to growing summer squash in the backyard vegetable garden? If so then one of the gourmet Italian or Mediterranean squash varieties may be just what you’re looking for. These summer squashes offer the familiar zucchini shapes and sizes in different shades and subtle, new flavors.
Well maybe “blight” isn’t at the top of your list of soup ingredients, but Jo raised an interesting question regarding using produce that may be tainted with disease or isn’t in the best condition; and whether or not such produce is suitable for human consumption:
I received the following question this week from Richard inquiring into ways to control and eliminate smut on his sweet corn: “About half of my sweet corn patch is heavily infected with smut. I have been reading about solarizing to kill weeds. Would it work against smut?”
Well, I guess all it took was a little talking it up to finally get a decent deluge of rainfall on the garden’s raised vegetable beds. Water has been a major topic of conversation on this website over the past few days; with the recent Fountain Review and the Newsletter’s focus on irrigating the garden.
The latest issue of the Gardening Secrets Newsletter has been delivered to all of the gardeners on the e-mail list. Just in time for summer, the theme of this month’s gardening newsletter focuses on the process of irrigating the garden to prevent drought stress during those hot and dry summer months.
Gardening is a wonderful gift that I’ve developed the hard way… through trial and error! I hope to share the incredible lessons learned and make things a lot easier for you out in the organic vegetable garden.
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