Segregation isn't good, so it's integration for us

We have now replanted four of the Grow Boxes with two tomatoes and two marigold plants in each box. We are the proud parents of eight tomatoes that are ready to grow until frost in November. We should be able to get a lot more tomatoes, cukes, squash, beans and peppers for the next three and a half months.

I have also started a new variety of very light green, almost white, zucchini squash that originates from Israel. This is one of the seeds that came from Parks and it should do well in our extremely hot summer. The other Patty Pan type squash I planted tonight is from Scotland and what makes it so unusual is that it forms squash fruit on the plant like Brussel Sprouts do on the main stalk.

I have Nasturtium seeds that will be planted in the squash boxes along with the new transplants, once the seedlings have gotten big enough for the garden. This should make things go better for the squash and the dogs in the fall. They can not wait to get more cooked squash regularly.

The garden has reached a lull and maybe that is good. I think I need to rest for a little while and picking in the smoggy heat is just not for me.

Where is the machete when you need it?

My garden is in a state of flux. We have vines hanging above the seven foot tall tepees with their Blue Lake pole beans and cucumber vines on the other side of the garden growing more than seven feet high. It is an amazing sight.

We walk and work very carefully in the garden now because we don't want to disturb the growing process. We are considering removing the plants that are starting to reach their end and deciding what to replace them with.

We have mercifully put the Pink Brandywines out of their misery without one edible tomato and we have cut one box of squash plants out. However, the roots are magnificent and exceptionally large.

When I tried to pull the roots out of the box, all I could think of is where is a machete when you need one? If you are uninformed of what a machete (think of the name with a Spanish accent) is, it is the kind of knife that is used to cut sugar cane. It is a large, sharp blade and it can be as long as about three feet.

I have seen sugar cane cut and I have seen Agave plants cut and the process is similar. The outer leaves are cut off and either the large cane or main bulb are removed from the root system.

Both of these fine plants give some of the great booze of the world. Agave (Blue is preferred) juice becomes Tequila and sugar cane becomes Rum. Sugar cane helped develop the Caribbean islands, and some of the hot, muggy south like Louisiana. Sugar cane can be made into molasses and later refining gives us sugar and Rum.

It makes you understand how the Southern portion of the United States played such an important part in the growth of the country. We provide a great deal of fun with our beautiful beaches and majestic mountains, food from the vast farming that the region provides, and various kinds of great alcoholic beverages that come from Southern liquors (Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, and Rum-just to mention a few).

I am a Southerner through and through. Get my Pawleys Island hammock ready and mix me that exquisite drink called a rum and Coke. Southerner by birth and the grace of G-d.

Ants go home

I have started to transition the garden for the last three to four months of growing season. Two of the boxes have been cleared and I don't think I have ever pulled such extreme root systems.

I am used to seeing one main tap root, these plants had a minimum of two or three tap roots. A machete would have made a good tool for the replanting of the boxes. Then to add to the struggle of clearing the boxes, I was fighting the ants who decided to take up residence in my boxes.

Do not run for the Amdro. The best method for handling ants in the garden is diatomaceous earth and it is easily purchased at your local home improvement or pool store.

What makes diatomaceous earth or DE filter powder such a wonderful organic method to waylay the ants is that the ants can never get used to it. DE is the equivalent of climbing across glass shards for the ants and feels like powder to us. I know that diatomaceous earth is safe for humans because it is an ingredient in one of my face washes.

The newest modification that is being made to the boxes is adding two cups of lime, one cup of DE powder and a couple of teaspoons of epsom salts (not really salt) to help the tomatoes use the calcium in the lime better. That way the new tomato plants will be able to avoid blossom end rot and be productive through the fall until the first frost.

Once the boxes were prepped, I planted a marigold plant and two tomatoes in each box. The other new addition was Garden Patch's Tomato Trigger, a red plastic planting mat for tomatoes, strawberries and any other plants that prefer the red part of the color spectrum.

The red plastic was an FDA experiment about twenty years ago and tomatoes produced about 20 to 25 percent more tomatoes with the red plastic mulch. I don't have to look for the specialty plastic now that I can buy the Tomato Triggers.

It will be interesting to see if the experiment will work for the tomatoes and the ants. I hate throwing out my tenants but it is my garden and I don't like to be bit.

Planting differences or how does the garden grow

My first garden was pretty much like everybody else grows or doesn't grow. In my early gardening, I was damn stupid. I had a 6 foot by 10 foot area planted with 20 different vegetables. The result was a waste of time and energy and we got nothing from the garden.

This led to studying the art of vegetable gardening. You may not think it is an art, but let me tell you it is. Gardening takes time,patience and the love of watching something growing.

Everybody has a new and better method. French intensive, Japanese ring method, grow bags, container growing, lasagna method, raised beds, and Topsy Turvy to mention a few. Some of the most productive methods are the old ways of growing.

However, my gardening is now restricted to the method that allows me to garden without stressing my back. I have to be able to sit and garden and a regular garden is out of the question. The only answer was the grow boxes from Garden Patch.

It is basically a great way to grow vegetables because to date we have pulled in just under 119 pounds of vegetables. It has some differences that I have to work out. One being the squash needs to have fewer plants and demands cages. The choice of cultivar (the variety) will be one of the criteria and so will prior production.

Production is foremost on my mind and the dogs' minds. They have been begging for more squash, but the plants have just about died out. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new seeds from Parks.

It is strictly self preservation that I am intent on. If I don't get some squash soon, I may end up assaulted by my own dogs.

It is like bringing an offering to the gods. MAKE IT SQUASH!!!!

Squish Squash

One of the best methods for planting squash family plants(squash, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins) is to dig a hole as deep as you can go. In the greater Atlanta area, with all of the granite that lies beneath the soil, we can go down about 18 inches. That also happens to be the level that footings for buildings must be poured because it is the frost line.

Fill the hole to ground level with half a bag of composted cow manure or mushroom compost and mound the dirt that originally filled the hole. Take black and white newspaper (no colors because they contain lead) and cover the mound to avoid the necessity of weeding. If you are as lazy as I am, put an empty 2 liter bottle with a few holes punched in the bottom of the bottle into the hole before you put the manure in. Then you can water the plant at the root level by merely filling the bottle from a hose.

With the use of the Grow Boxes, we are able to grow beautiful squash plants and get production out of them. Squash is one of those plants that literally grow themselves to death. Ours are no exception and with almost 4 months left in our growing season, we will replant.

The seeds have been ordered from Parks Seeds in Greenwood, South Carolina. I choose Parks this time because my patty pan squash that I grew from Burpee seeds have been less than perfect. They have fought disease and have had a lot of blossom rot. Parks specializes in seeds for the South, the hot and muggy South.

Parks is a well known seed house and I have tried a lot of them over the last thirty plus years. As Bill and I refine, define and replant the Grow Boxes, we are making decisions as to what we want in additional veggies.

Jimmy and Beanie took a vote on what they wanted more of and they came to a 5-0 decision that they definitely wanted more squash. You say 5-0. Who said dogs could count?

Organic or bust

What is really strange to me is the "organic" craze. So many people want organic fruit and vegetables now. Where were they when I went organic 36 years ago? Organic is neither new or innovative, rather it is the way many farmers grew their crops for years.

It absolutely boggles the mind that people actually pay upwards of $10 for a 2 liter bottle of liquid worm poop (Terracycle's liquid worm poop). Worms make the most perfect fertilizer that the world knows and guess who the genius was that thought that one up? It was G-d, not man.

I do not know why so many people think they have a better way to plant then what farmers have known for years. Farmers follow the path of generations past in their planting method.

I am not complaining about the Grow Boxes I used in my garden this year. It is the best method I have seen for people like me who have had to give up regular gardening. Let me change that, the boxes are G R E A T!!!!

The current tally on garden production is 98 1/2 pounds of produce. That is impressive with half the growing season left and starting late. I can not complain and neither can anybody who has had some of the fruits of our labor.

In order to succeed, you have to crawl before you walk, and walk before you run. Changes will abound next year, with transplants grown by me and starting earlier with cold weather crops like sugar snap peas and broccoli.

Sesame Street currently is in their 41st experimental season and I am in my 36th experimental season. One of these days both Sesame Street and I will get it right and stop experimenting.

Cooking the GRITS

I don't know what I would do without my husband. He has diligently watered the plants so that we can continue to have veggies this summer.

With temperatures hovering around 100 degrees, the plants are wilting from the heat, not a lack of water. If I was standing around outside in 100 degree weather, I certainly would be wilting with the drenching back and brow sweat.

I mean sweating not perspiring as Southern women are taught to say. Women who grew up in the South, or as we are known GRITS, had manners drummed into their heads. The English influence in the South gave us the need to have good manners and polite speech.

Girls Raised In The South is one of the best descriptions for me and other women who grew up in the deep South. As a child one of my favorite pastimes in the summer was eating ice cold watermelon and spitting the seeds in the grass. My childhood playmate, Janet,could sit and spit with the best of them and we had spitting contests. We played in the pool we had in the backyard and then snacked on the watermelon, we did anything to stay cool.

Southern women or GRITS were expected to have gardens and they typically tended the gardens themselves or with a gardener, but they did work in the garden. My mother had beautiful flower beds and I did learn about flowers from her. She once remarked that maybe I had a little gardener in me because I just wanted to grow vegetables.

Men were always trying to impress my mother and one man asked what she would like to have. She said she needed compost for the garden and that is not exactly what she got.

I came home from school one fine spring day and there was a huge mound of manure, not compost. My experience as a CPA has taught me that the mound was about five yards of prime manure. I had clients in the sand and stone business and I know what a five yard payload looks like.

Well, a couple of weeks later, that man came into my mother's grocery store and wanted to know how well she liked her present. Since my mother was known for telling it like it is, she had a ready remark.

She drawled "I have received many presents over my life and I can truly tell you that this is the first time I have gotten a pile of shit for a present." Like I said, she always had a ready retort.

Great for the date

As of tonight, I have pulled an assortment of almost 65 pounds of tomatoes, cucumbers, Japanese eggplants, zucchini, patty pans, and peppers. That is an impressive haul for so early in the season. You also have to take into account that I did not start my garden until late April and I was a full two weeks to a month behind my fellow gardeners.

I have battled some of the same problems that regular gardeners have faced, such as blossom end rot and some fungi on the squash. I lost the dill because I hate it and I think it instinctively knew I was not supposed to grow it.

I believe that with so much season left and a little careful planning, as to the timing of starting the seeds for transplants, I can have a garden that produces well into the 200 lb range of vegetables. That my not seem like a lot but there are only two people eating all of these jewels and whatever we share with friends and neighbors.

When organic gardeners were asked if they were religious, all of us responded that only some power greater than ourselves can give us such great gifts. We can grow 'em, but we cannot make 'em.

It is time for a change

The time has come for changes to be made to the garden. The three new boxes I ordered (bringing the total to 27) have arrived along with new planting patches that the Garden Patch company make. We have four more months to grow veggies until our annual first fall frost, which is November 10th.

I have debated for a long time on whether or not to cut my losses and I have made my decision. The pink Brandywines have yet to produce an edible tomato. The Genoviese have only produced one or two edible tomatoes. I have had enough of the heirlooms except for the purple Cherokees.

I bought 4 new tomato plants yesterday and some Italian flat leaf parsley. My deceased mother has sent me a sign I do not need dill because I do not like it very much. This is another one of those mother versus daughter things. It was her favorite spice and I hate it in everything except for good old fashioned chicken soup. It is the only thing in my herb box that is dying and it will be replaced.

The parsley is a great replacement and next year will take its place in my herb boxes. I love to make Garlic blue crabs and that recipe calls for 8 to 10 heads of garlic. Parsley should be mixed with recipes requiring garlic because the real purpose of the parsley is to remove the garlic odor from our mouths.

I have decided to make my annual "science project" a rotation of crops. I am starting the seeds in peat pellets and then replanting the vegetable plants in some of the non-producing planters. Squash is definitely on the agenda to replant and also cucumbers. This time I will add Nasturiums to the boxes to fight the bugs and I will also need to add Marigolds to the tomato plant boxes. Companion planting is a good thing.

The plan is to add the cages at the beginning and not disturb the plants once they are already growing. I wonder if the cucumbers will grow to the sky or just continue to try to hang on to every other plant in the garden.

I have often said that Centipede grass (the kind they use on South Florida lawns) will crawl up your legs if you don't keep moving. Beware of the cucumbers in my garden because they will not only crawl up your leg but they are somewhat like Frankenstein when he walks, they have their tendrils out and they will get you!!!!

Produce or die

In my garden it is produce or die. I am so disappointed in the heirlooms that I purchased this year. No amount of lime has been able to thwart the blossom end rot that has been plaguing the heirlooms this summer.

The rain and the heat have played havoc with the plants. I have already made my mind up that it is time to take decisive action. I have ordered new patches for the boxes and I intend to put the Genoviese and the Pink Brandywines to an end. As I said before, in my garden it is produce or die.

Neither of these tomatoes are anything to write home about and I can still get some transplants from the stores. I will chose hybrids, which have certainly produced more tomatoes and are more heat resistant.

I am also going to plant some more squash, cucumbers, and okra. I want veggies from my garden until the first frost, which is my husband's birthday, November 10th. There is a lot of growing time left and my children, neighbors and friends have all had some of the goodies. We even took some of the veggies as a gift to our fourth of July dinner host. He got eggplant, cukes, and tomatoes.

This garden has definitely been an experiment and I am the mad scientist.

The dogs have a new food

We had no idea that our two Dachshunds would also enjoy the garden this year. My husband and I were enjoying our first of the season zucchini and the dogs started begging for a taste. An exchange of glances and we decided to let the dogs see if they liked squash.

We were amazed that both dogs continued to beg for bites of the delicious squash and we laughed so hard at their antics to get more. They would only stop when we showed the dogs that there was nothing left.

The Purple Cherokee tomatoes have finally yielded their first taste as have all of the other heirlooms, and my decision is that the Purples are the only ones that will get a place in my garden next year. I had a typical southern sandwich yesterday and it was spectacular.

For the uninformed, a typical redneck, or southern sandwich, is two pieces of fresh white bread, Hellman's mayonnaise, and a thick slab of tomato. A little salt and pepper finishes the delicacy.

Now, I know it might not sound like a lot, but it is a summer specialty. Summer in the south is hot and light food is always the order. Even some of our all time favorites, like fried chicken, does not always sit right on your tummy. One of the tomato sandwiches is always good.

It appears that Jimmy and Beanie are not the only ones who have a new favorite. I do too.