I recorded all of this on July 1st, 2024 – my first chance right after solstice! An update full of DETAILED COMMENTS on a very WIDE VARIETY of different COMPANION PLANTING GROUPINGS and on what is going on in the garden 11 days after the solstice, in our ZONE 5b-6a Garden! Spring planting and transplanting often lasts right up to the solstice and even a few days after! There is just so much to do and so much to present, I’d have to do videos every day, all year! So much material! I thought I’d put out a video uncut! So here is some truly beautiful footage and I explain as we go along. Please let me know what you think! No editing! Completely uncut!
Let me know if you think putting some nice quiet music in the background of a video like this would be a good idea. 😊
Time Stamp Chapters:
0:00 Peppers and Malabar Spinach
2:05 Potatoes
2:57 Potato fruit blooms
3:15 Vertical perching elements for the birds
3:43 The THREE SISTERS: Beans, corn and squash helping each other out, each providing something to the group: protection from pests, growth structure, shade for the soil and roots, food for all three plants, attracting pollinators, and more!
5:00 Some of the useful ‘weeds’ that I begin to let grow at this time of year: plantain, oxalis, curly dock, dandelion, wild lettuce and even creeping charlie (it helps mask plants in the same way mint does).
5:59 Luffa, beans and birdhouse gourd on the CATTLE PANEL (hog panel, actually – a little smaller than a cattle panel).
7:20 Tomato companion planting group: Tomatoes, carrots, calendula, basil, lettuce and broomcorn sorghum
7:36 Hybrid tomato experiment update – going well. Some history to why I embarked on this experiment.
8:30 The blight in 2023 and why I think it affected my tomatoes particularly badly that year, and why some tomatoes resisted that year.
12:10 Calendula, asparagus and rhubarb and dealing with companion plants that sometimes grow too fast for their companions
12:45 Dino kale
12:59 Broccoli, cauliflower and basil companion group and their growth habbits. (I say cabbage, but there’s no cabbage there).
13:40 Crowded plants
14:34 Watermelon, basil, pepper, and okra companion plant grouping.
15:11 The burgundy-red stalks of the Seneca Red-Stalked corn
15:48 The rhubarb, and it’s seed stalk, not long after a big harvest
16:22 View of the Rain Garden from the Sun Garden
16:44 The wild grapes we eventually harvest, growing as part of our living barrier against foraging, planted by the birds!
18:12 Cabbage, pepper and beets companion grouping
18:30 Direct sowed sorghum – just getting started!
19:16 One of the onion areas
19:50 Direct sown carrots
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13 Comments
Will you be including information on gardening by the cycles of the moon?
I'm looking forward to watching the premiere of our latest video with all of you, tonight at 5:30 pm EST! I'll be here to answer any of your questions and respond to your comments! Anyone missing summer in the middle of winter? Come join me and see how many different companion planting groupings and designs look at the beginning of July! And for those of you in the southern hemisphere, it may just look much like what your garden is looking like around now! I hope to see you there!
I have never heard of Malabar spinach, going to try this year!
So nice to see all that green growth in the middle of winter. I can't wait until my garden gets going! I started some flower seeds under grow lights on Saturday and some are popping up already! Calendula, cosmos and zinnia.
OMG – those onions look fabulous – do you remember what variety they were and planting/transplanting dates?
About tomato hybrids – Charles Dowding propagates one – as a house plant in winter – for about 10 years, due to it no longer being available for sale.
I tried rooting tomato suckers once, and it was like magic (or willow) 🙂 But there was only time enough for flowers…
A warm hello from Germany.
You have a wonderfully beautiful garden. The mixed cultures in particular inspire me and make me want to try out more.
I also had bad luck with the tomatoes last year, but only in the greenhouse! I have been testing wild tomatoes and special outdoor tomatoes for two years. They are thriving without any damage.
I also sowed rhubarb last year and got nice little plants. I think the harvest can only take place in the third year. We only rhubarb until June 24th. harvested so that it has enough time to regenerate. In addition, as the plant ages, the levels of oxalic acid, which is not as digestible for us, increase.
I grow also wild plants for healthy nutrition and medicinal purposes.
I don't speak English and worked with a translator. This isn't always entirely true, but I hope it's somewhat accurate.
Best regards 💛
This was incredibly relaxing to watch! So nurturing.
Adding music would over-write the birds I can hear in the background.
Do you have a water regimen you follow?
How do you keep track of all these experiments and what you've planted … some spreadsheet or chalkboard?
Such a wonderful garden … thank you for the tour!!!
Here we are praying for rain, to come and clean the air. Due to the fires, I haven’t been able to go out for the last two days. Instead I have started planning our crops for 2025. One of the things I want to do, is three sisters. I harvested all of our Boc and pac choy, since they bolted on me. We are also getting ready for our first beet harvest of the year, our tangerines are ready and my Chinese cabbages are also ready for harvest. Once the air is more clear, I am planting rams, wild garlic, wild leeks and walking onions in the forest garden, and spreading out a mix of clover, herbs and wildflowers.
I have set up new trellis for Malabar spinach, beans, peas and melons. I also finally got my crawling roses trellised and under control. My cauliflower and broccoli are a little behind where they should be, but it’s probably due to the weather. Other than that I am working on a tipi design to use for my more sensitive plants. Plants like coffee, tea and cardamom, don’t like temperatures under 40F and temperatures over 90F, plus when my bananas flower, they can’t handle low temperatures either. It kills the flower. So my idea is to make tipis, and use a warm cover at night during the cold season, and a shade cover during the hot season. We will see if it works out.
As for the blight, I only have 2 things that might help. I have been successful with watering/washing all of my tomatoes with vinegar. Fungus doesn’t like acid. Also, if you have blight and one or two plants do better than the others, save those for seeds. After a few years, you will have seeds resistant to blight.
Do you think that herbs and carrots will work as a companion for sorghum?
Anyway. We also have a lot of birds, and it’s kind of interesting, that since I started meditating in the forest garden, they have stopped being afraid of me. Even the squirrels will come right up to me when I meditate.
Love your videos. good luck. I showed your farm video to my permaculture students as a successful model.
I also struggle with plant spacing dysmorphia. I swear it's 18" when I plant it, but somehow they move themselves closer!