When to cut Brambles and Grapes

Originally this post was going to be all about my first attempt at planning a Fall garden, however as I went out to assess the damage to our summer garden from Tropical Storm Hanna I realized there were a few issues I had to deal with first.

The first challenge, was that somehow (it seems like overnight but I am sure it was not!) my raspberries, blackberries (known collectively as brambles) and grapes have taken on a life of their own. This was the second year for the blackberries and grapes and the third for the raspberries and also we didn't get much production from them this year (we didn't expect too, all of those plants take 3ish years to produce a lot of fruit) they all certainly grew to what seems like giant proportions.

Jason has been asking me for over a month when we should cut back all three of those plants, and my "I'll research it and get back to you" is really no longer good enough. So instead of fall garden planning I grabbed my favorite gardening tool, Rodale's Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening and started reading. I highly recommend this book to gardeners at any level.

What I discovered was quite interesting. There are two types of raspberries, summer and fall bearing, and three types of blackberries, erect, semi-erect and trailing. So my first order of business having thrown away all the information on the plants after I purchased them, was figuring out what type of berries I had. Luckily Rodale's had clear descriptions and sketches and I was quickly able to determine I had summer-bearing (OK this one was not hard as my few raspberries that we ate this year all came in the middle of the summer) and erect blackberries (which was basically determined since they can hold themselves up without needing support).

Upon determining that I also learned that I should have pruned both plants as soon as they flowered and had the tiny bit of fruit they did. Oppps! Well it's good knowledge to have and you can figure out what I will be doing tomorrow night. Jason and I also solidified our plan to reign in the brambles by building a trellis for them to grow up next year, instead of letting them overtake a good portion of our herbs and a few tomato plants.

Turning to the grape portion of the book, I learned that there are four main types of grapes grown in North America (European (kind of ironic!) or wine grapes, American (duh!), hybrids between European and American and muscadine. Luckily as long as I purchased them from a reputable place, which I did, it didn't matter what type I had all of them were to be pruned in the same way.

There are three common ways to "train" and prune grapes - cane, spur and head training - all depending on what you actually want to do with your grapes and where you want them to live. Unfortunatly for us, we didn't completely think through the placement of our grapes when we planed them early Spring 2007 and so the two plants we have live on opposite ends of our tomato garden. We had already decided to build or buy a big trellis next spring that spans the garden and allow each of the grapes to grow up their respective end, meeting someplace in the middle.

Rodale's goes into detail about each planting season and pruning season for the first four years - we sit squarely in season two. Luckily, we are not to late for pruning on our grapes (pvew!). They are to be pruned mid-winter by either tieing two of the main canes to a training wire and shortening the rest leaving only ten buds on each (cane or spur method) or selecting five canes at the high you want to plant to be at and prune them back to just two buds each (head-trained method). We are not sure which one we are going to go with since we honestly can't even figure out where the tomatoes end and the grapes begin right now. Thankfully we have some time! I'll update everyone on that process once we get to it.

Get out and enjoy your gardening while the gardening is still good!

Tomorrow: When is a Bug not a Beetle and a Beetle not a Bug

Creating a Fall Garden, Zones and Frost Dates

Each year during late August / early September, the same sadness comes over me as I realize it is time to take down our summer garden. I have heard that there are folks out there that are harvesting late in October and even some who harvest year round -- so this year it's my turn to try.

Starting out modest, I am going to just work with one of the five planting areas that we have in our backyard - the middle bed closest to the house. Right now that bed contains some very healthy beans and some pretty ready to die cucumbers. Once the cucumbers are removed it should provide enough space for experimenting, but also not overwhelm us with too much to take care of.

The first thing, when trying to figure out what to plant in any season is to see what growing Zone you live in. Zones is referenced on many seed packets and in many catalogues is based on the average annual minimal temperature of the area in which you live. I live in Zone 7A, but if you want to check your Zone go to the U.S. National Arboretum page to find out. I would recommend re-checking your zones every few years, they don't change often, but you will want to know if they do.

Knowing that I live in Zone 7A (which makes my average annual minimal temperature 0-5F in case you were wondering) my next step was finding out when our projected first frost would be for Fall 2008. First and last frost dates are also very important when putting plants or seed into the ground. I found in my research for fall gardening that many veggies were identified as "plant xxxx weeks before frost date". To find your aprox. first and last frost date you can go to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration where they will give you a range of dates and the percentage chance of a frost on that date. For my area there is a 50% chance of frost by October 29th, so I feel comfortable going with that (10% chance by Oct 17 and 90% chance by Nov 11th in case you were wondering - I'm betting on the average)

So with all of that information in hand, I have been researching what will grow best in this area this fall. My next post will cover that as well as what our first steps in preparing our garden for fall planting (and taking down the summer garden) will be.

Good weather to all! (especially those of us expecting a tropical storm tomorrow).

Welcome to the Mighty Organic Earth!

Welcome to the Mighty Organic Earth gardening blog. For over a year now I have been writing a blog about my 11 month old daughter, Lilah, at http://mightybabyboig.blogspot.com/ and for the past few months some of the readers of that, and just some folks/friends in general, have asked that I start a blog about my organic garden. So...this is it!

You might be wondering why I have chosen to start this blog as summer (the time when most people are entrenched in their gardens) is drawing to a close. Right now, and over the next few months, is when I spend quite a bit of time reviewing successes and failures, doing research and planning for next years garden - so I think it is the perfect time to share and document what I find and learn.

These photos are what my garden looks like today, taken this morning off of my deck. The first two are the heavy veggies and fruit - you can see some tomatoes, grapes, horseradish and beans pretty clearly. The third is a rogue flower garden that Jason and I have been trying to tame for years. This year might be the one where we finally mow it down and start over!

I have many ideas and thoughts for next year already, but the first thing I am researching, and want to share, is experimenting with a fall veggie garden. I have never done a fall garden - veggie or otherwise - and I am very interested in learning how to extend my growing season. So look for a kick off of that project later this week.
I hope that you enjoy reading about my gardening fun and please feel free to ask questions, provide feedback and generally share your thoughts in the comments section of this blog.




Good night and happy gardening dreams to all!