The Day God Protected My Gardens From Catching on Fire or The Benefits of Using Wood Ashes in the Garden

   I was going to be making soap tonight, but today was a little hectic, so I will do something more relaxing, like writing on my blogs.
   There are benefits to adding wood ashes in the garden. Here is a link to an article by Washington Post on using wood ashes in the garden. http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home-garden/the-benefits-of-wood-ash-in-the-garden/2012/03/18/gIQAVBSEgS_story.html
  Many years ago, when we used pure wood in the fire place, I would take the ashes and put them in the garden area. The day after we had the fire in the fire place, I took the ashes out from the fire place and put them in a paper bag. Later on that day, I spread the ashes in the garden.
   The next morning, when I was looking at the gardens from my window, I saw smoke coming from them! The gardens were on fire! Actually, it was the wood that surrounded the garden beds that were on fire. A couple of the logs were charred.
   So, when using wood ashes in the garden, make positively sure there is no fire in the ashes. Use only pure wood in the fire place or place where the wood is to be burned. Do not use charcoal or artificial log ashes in the gardens.
   One benefit of wood ashes is that of getting rid of ants. Another benefit is to add potassium to the soil. There is no nitrogen in the wood ashes, but wood ashes are rich in other ways. Adding wood ashes will make your soil more alkaline, so it is not recommended to use them around blueberries, or other plants that need a more acidic soil.

Healthy Plants Can Fight Off Disease

 I have learned a couple of things recently that can help our plants be healthy. When the plants are healthy, they are less likely to be susceptible to disease.
  Two big problems in gardening; plant diseases and insect damage. You might recall in the olden days, how insects destroy large crops. If you ever read the Little House series, you can learn a lot about farming and gardening in the last century. One time, Pa and Ma had sown a large crop of wheat, I believe. When the crop would be finished, the money they would have made from that crop was going to pay for a loan. Unfortunately, a horde of grasshoppers came and polished off all the wheat. It happened on every farm in that area. I don't know how this disaster could have been prevented, but maybe if we know it is coming, ahead of time, we could figure out something to do to avert the inevitable grasshoppers, or whatever they were.
  Plants become weak when insects nibble on them. I found that out first hand when I inspected my tomato and pepper plants, only to find them disappearing! I found the culprit, which were fruit worms, and used DE and BT on them. But I still check a couple of times a day to see if there is anything on the plants.
   The key to having healthy plants is to have healthy soil. Every soil needs microbes. As the plant grows, the roots grow as well, and the roots take in the nourishment from the soil. It is harder for insects and diseases to attack healthy plants.
  I lost a melon plant last week due to a fruit worm, probably. I went out in the morning, and the leaves were all gone. I replaced it with a Minnesota Midget melon plant. Now my melon plants get dusted with DE and poofed with BT as well.
  Here two things I have learned that can help our plants be healthy. One of them is specific to tomato plants. You can take an aspirin which is 325 mg, and dissolve it in a gallon of water, then spray it on the tomato plants. You only need to do this once a month according to the article. The other idea is to use Epsom salts in the soil, or on the plants. It is supposed to make the plants healthy. No more need for Miracle Gro! Now we can make our own.
  Here is a url leading to a page on the article describing Epsom salts on plants.
http://www.garden.org/articles/articles.php?q=show&id=68

Happy Gardening!

Amarillo Carrot

Amarillo carrot pick from garden tonight

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, And More Colorful Tomatoes!

   I'm stepping out in faith here, trusting that all my different tomato plants will grow and bear fruit. If that does happen, we will have a wide variety of vegetables, especially tomatoes and peppers. Wouldn't it be cool to make a salad from vegetables in the garden including black tomatoes (dark purple in color), red tomatoes, pink tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, and striped tomatoes? What will I do with all these tomatoes if they grow?
   I was looking on the Internet for recipes and found a few. Sun dried tomatoes make a very pretty filled jar. Have you ever had tomato soup cake? It tastes really good! How about tomato sauce for pizza or spaghetti? How about yellow tomato sauce? That would be interesting! I can make salsa, sauce, ketchup, barbecue sauce, and several other things with tomatoes. Plus, tomatoes are good for you!
  On the side of the page, you can go to the tomato recipes board on Pinterest. I will be collecting tomato recipes on there and you can browse through them as well.
  In my research for recipes, I even found a tomato recipe for tomato cobbler, tomato jam, and filled, fried tomatoes. Tomatoes can also be dried and used in other recipes.

Update on my Balcony Garden

  I am writing and recording the events of my gardening on the balcony. My latest dilemma has been the battle with the fruit worms. Fruit worms look like caterpillars, and they literally eat the plant. The smaller the plant, the easier it is for the fruit worm to destroy it.
  I have a big tomato plant which has been attacked by the fruit worm. I don't know if it is just one fruit worm or several, and I don't know where they come from. Are they in the potting soil, or do they find their way up the plant?
  For a long time, I had been wondering what was happening to my plants. I never saw anything on them, yet, the leaves would disappear, sometimes overnight. My big tomato plant was severely attacked and one night I went out there and found the culprit. Oh no! Would I actually have to pull this thing off the plant? Yuk!
  I found some tweezers and put some peroxide in a bottle, then went out there and pulled the thing off. My, he had a good grip on the plant! I would be checking periodically and did find more of them. Then I started dusting the tomato and pepper plants with Diatomaceous Earth and also BT. I found some fruit worms on other plants and pulled them off. Unfortunately, one night, I lost 3 plants due to the fruit worms. I replanted them and continually check over them.
  There are less fruit worms now. My wounded big tomato plant is growing again, and the little pepper plants are getting bigger too. But another disappointment happened. One morning, when I was checking over the plants, the banana melon plant disappeared! It too, must have been attacked by the fruit worm. Now everything gets dusted with DE and BT, not that by dusting them, it will prevent the fruit worm from attacking again. It will kill the fruit worms, but they can still do a lot of damage before they ingest those ingredients.
  One more thing for me to research; I remember vaguely about learning to use tanglefoot, or angel hair on plants to prevent cutworms from chewing up the plants. I'll look into it again and see if my memory can serve me right.
  I hope what I write on my blogs will help other gardeners with their dilemmas. Feel free to post your gardening victories or struggles in the comment box.