2007 Garden

As I looked through the garden photos from 2007, I found some winners and some losers and a few that were a little of both.

Losers

The pot of Double Flowering Tuberose (Polianthea tuberosa) did not bloom (again). I promised myself if there were no blooms in 2007, they would be compost. But, I've the pot away for the winter (again). (see December 29, 2006 post). We’ll see. I get plenty of green leaves and lots of new bulbs each year, but no blooms. I don't know if I'm ready to give up the challenge.

Lobelia 'Crystal Palace' started with a few pretty, bright blue flowers in a pot with zinnias. They never developed into much. I’m not sure if it was the competition from the zinnias or the shade from the zinnias or the hot, dry summer. I've tried nasturtiums and petunias in the bottom of this patio pot. Neither one worked very well. I’ll be looking for a different cascading plant this spring. I may try some of the bright sweet potato vines.

In the middle

Container Vegetables. The cucumber (Bush Champion) plants produced a normal amount of cukes before they were overcome with mildew. I may try a mildew resistant variety this year. The beans (Kentucky Wonder) were a success producing beans into fall. But, keeping the containers watered was a problem in the hot, dry summer. I will be researching watering methods and gadgets this winter.

Making aerobic compost tea was easy enough to do. (see July 7, 2007 and August 8, 2007 posts) I think I got some good results on the roses. I’m not sure how valuable it is as a soil amendment. I’ll be trying it on a portion of the lawn next spring. At the very least, I got to stretch my valuable compost a little further.

Sweet Pea (Sweet Dreams & Streamers Mix) took a long time to germinate. Half of them turned brown and withered. The other half produced a fair amount of flowers. The flowers were almost exclusively lilac colored with few exceptions. There was no noticeable fragrance.

I’ll get to the winners next time.

Roses and Compost Tea

My roses usually look a little sad at this time of year. I’ve used fungicides; kept the bushes picked, plucked and pruned; cleaned up all the leaves that fell on the ground; deadheaded; watered; fertilized; and generally fussed over the roses. By the middle of summer the roses still resembled green sticks.

This year I used a fungicide once in spring and watered during the dry summer. I used a systemic fertilizer my usual 3 times this year and generally ignored them. Except -- I used compost tea every two weeks. (see July 7 post) There is no way to prove that the compost tea made a difference but the bushes look healthier than ever. There is very little blackspot and some nice little blooms.

Now if I could only conquer the Japanese beetles.

Compost Tea

I continue to make compost tea. Here's a picture of the compost sack which looks like a floating turd. It will sink when it get's thoroughly saturated.

One difficulty is deciding how much tea to sprinkle on each plant. I get the leaves thoroughly wet and wet the ground around the plant. I can't find any information on the amount of compost tea to use on each plant. So, I'm using my judgement. Maybe my judgement will improve with experience.

Compost Tea

I’ve started making compost tea. It’s a simple process, really. I purchased an Aquatic Gardens Single Outlet Aquarium Air Pump Hi-tech 800 and 8 ft Clear Air Line Tubing for $11.64. I loosely tied a hex-nut to the end of the tubing to keep the hose at the bottom of the bucket. Then, I followed the recipe and instructions from Doug Green’s http://www.beginner-gardening.com/compost-tea.html

After filling the 5 gallon bucket, I ran the pump for 24 hours to remove the chlorine from the tap water. Then I put 3 or 4 handfuls of compost in a knee-hi ladies stocking and hung it over the side of the bucket. I added a little molasses and lemon juice and let the pump run for another 24 hours. I used a sprinkling can to water vegetables and flowering plants. It’s too early to tell if this process is worth the effort. I’ll be making compost tea all summer to see if I can notice a difference in areas where I’ve applied the compost tea. There are a lot of variables so I don't know if I'll be able to tell if the compost tea makes difference.

Anyway, it can’t hurt, right? Well, not according to some writers. See “The Great Compost Tea Debate” in Garden Rant blog by the Jeffs and comments – 6/21/07 http://www.gardenrant.com/ Jeff Gillman: Benefits? Maybe. Problems? Likely - and - Jeff Lowenfels: AACT (and only AACT) is the real deal

Compost Tea. I am determined to make compost tea this season. A simple (?) method appears on Doug Green's Simple Gifts website http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/compost-tea.html . Other websites also offer "how to" articles for making compost tea including HGTV http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_soil_water_mulch/article/0,,HGTV_3634_1369956,00.html and PA Dept. of Environmental Protection https://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/wm/recycle/Tea/tea1.htm .

I'll try to keep this blog up to date with my success or failure (never say failure. Change that to progress or delay.)

Any hints or tricks to making this happen would be most welcomed!