Deepening existing raised beds has to be as high a priority as making new ones. The carrots and horseradish grown in six inch deep beds were happy, but really strange looking. I think it was an issue with the garlic too. Next years garlic is already planted where the sweet potatoes were, the deepest bed we have.
It’s time to start recording what grew where each year. The garden is too big to remember now, and we really need at least a three year rotation. We need to grow a whole lot of other stuff to keep nightshades to only one year in three.
Colorado potato beetles are not turkey resistant. They finally found us this year. Even if we used chemicals, the bugs are resistant to most if not all pesticides. Picking them off manually was not going well because of the number of plants we had. The curious turkeys came over to supervise, and proceeded to show us how the job should be done. For the rest of the season, they cruised the potato patch at 6AM every day. Beetle damage was negligible from then on. They also calmly walked between the rows, so no plant damage, either.
Woven wire on T posts will collapse under a sufficiently exuberant tomato crop. Planting tomatoes 2 feet apart on each side of the trellis is way too close together. I’ll try three feet next year, and go to four if necessary. I’m thinking about running high tensile the way vineyards do, and then tying on the woven wire when there’s something in the bed that needs it. If we didn’t use black plastic as well, the woven wire could be permanent. This one needs more thought.
Do not plant root crops under black plastic. The sweet potatoes and dahlias were very happy, and so were the voles who ate at least half of the tubers. I thought dahlia tubers were poisonous, but it seems no one told the voles.
The pigs have decided that tomatillos are yummy. We may need to plant our own.
We don’t actually like winter squash. Skip it until we have room to grow it as animal food.
The best tomato garden I ever saw was planted in car tires. My boyfriend’s father would add another tire and more soil as the plants grew, to a height of 4 tires. I can’t remember how he tied the vines, it may have been wire fencing. Those were the most prolific tomatoes I have ever seen.