During a recent trip to the Azores, I learned that San Jorge Island grows the same lineup of summer vegetables as are grown in Central Missouri. Their most common garden veggies are potatoes (red, russet and sweet), tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow and zucchini squash, white and red onions, garlic, bush beans (4 or 5 types), herbs (rosemary, oregano and dill) and peppers.

Before I go any further, allow me to mention that the Azores are a chain of nine islands and are ruled by Portugal. These islands are about 800 miles off the coast of Portugal.

I guess I expected some exotic veggies to show up on display, but this didn’t happen. I, of course, wanted to speak with local growers however this opportunity didn’t present itself.

Oh well, there’s a list of reasons to visit the Azores which, of course, don’t relate to veggie production. It’s a great place to see, enjoy the ocean, meet another culture, be surrounded by friendly people and delight in their culinary fare.

Remember, take time to enjoy life as there are a lot of interesting and good people to meet.

If your seed didn’t pop through the ground, as anticipated, or if your transplants didn’t survive the transition from pot to soil, don’t give up! In many cases, the best thing to do is replant. Get past the frustration and the feeling of failure and try, try again.

I’ve been gardening for a long time, and there hasn’t been a season without some type of mishap in the garden. There are many reasons why these failures happen and perhaps too lengthy to address in a single post. Hence, I won’t bore you to death.

The most important point is, don’t give up. I recently attended a lecture by a local botanical garden expert and one of his remarks has stuck with me. He stated that much of their success results from a lot of plant failures. Yep, even the experts make mistakes! So, without perseverance, their gardens would never have evolved to their present state.

By the way, and not too long ago, I lost a 25’ row of snow peas, a handful of red loose-leaf lettuce plants and a few crowns of asparagus. To correct these mishaps, I replaced the snow peas with a 25′ row of pole beans and transplanted a few lettuce plants and asparagus crowns to resolve the aforementioned poor stands. Today, all is well, and all three areas are looking great.

I do not claim being the most patient person, but I do encourage folks not to give up in the garden due to a few failures. Also, don’t be afraid to try new approaches to gardening. You just never know when an idea of yours will pay off. Of course, we’ll want to learn of all discoveries and new methods.

Have a great time growing veggies and thanks for reading our posts.

Not every gardener is fortunate enough to have a great piece of property without a few limiting factors. Some of us have good ground and exposure, but no water is insight while others have an excellent supply of water as well as herds of deer to deal with. At St. Joseph Street Community Garden, Columbia, MO, we have excellent soil, plenty of water, while 1/3 of our garden receives about 4 hours of good sunlight and dappled light for the remainder of the day. To be more specific, morning light doesn’t reach this part of the garden until about 10:30 am. At this point, we have good sunshine for the next 4 hours. After this burst of sunlight, we then receive dappled light for the remainder of the day. Regardless, we still have an opportunity to grow a number of veggies and herbs that are able to produce a decent crop.

Potatoes

Last season, we grew early red potatoes as well as russets. The reds performed well however the russets appeared not to reach their anticipated production level. We decided that the russets languished due to insufficient solar radiation. The yield and quality of the red potatoes was more than acceptable, and their taste was great.

Note: During the vegetative stage of development both varieties appeared extremely healthy, however, their production of spuds was notably different.

Probably, one of the most common occurrences in the garden is the lack of practicing succession planting (IMHO). Succession planting (SP) is the periodic replanting of a particular veggie in order to have a continual harvest throughout the growing season. Sounds great, right?

Of, course, not every garden plot can support this activity and not every gardener has enough time to pull off SP. However, knowing about succession planting and considering how it may apply to your situation, could enhance how you grow certain of your favorite crops.

One of the veggies that I have a lot of success with are bush beans. As a general rule, I’ll plant bush beans every 15 – 20 days following each previous planting. In central MO, 5 to 7 plantings are possible.

If you love fresh basil, like I do, I recommend SP in order to have a fresh and high-quality supply of leaves all season long. Unlike bush beans, you will most likely need 2 to 3 plants for your early spring crop and a similar second planting in mid to late summer to insure a good crop through the Fall months.

Two additional favorites for SP are green onions (aka, scallions or spring onions) and radish. Both are easy to cultivate and don’t require a lot of garden space to satisfy the appetite of for 1 to 3 individuals. Radish can be resown every two weeks whereas bunching onions may do best with sowings every three to 4 weeks.

Other crops that lend themselves to SP are lettuce, spinach and bok choy (aka, pak choi). These favorites can also be planted each 2 to 3 weeks throughout the summer. However, if you are in a hot climate, with a lot of sun light exposure, these plants may begin to bolt rapidly. Some modern hybrids have been developed to tolerate such climate conditions and are less apt to bolt. Unfortunately, my experience has been hit and miss with these newer plant materials, so I’m unable to make a recommendation for their use.

Obviously, there are several additional species which can be considered for SP, however, our objective is to get you excited about utilizing succession planting for some of your favorite veggies while determining what works best in your garden’s location. If you enjoyed this post, or not, please give us your feedback (see below).

Hi! Johnny L. Dose here with another contribution to The Garden Dreamer.
Just a few words on artificial lighting. We all have plants that we would like to keep over the
winter. You may have some investment in perennials. On the other hand, you might like to get a jump on seedlings and transplants to have ready for the spring, instead of buying them from the garden center. For this goal, you will need artificial lighting (fuh-duh). There are a lot of options out there, and LED is a term to become familiar with [LED = Light Emitting Diode = energy efficient].
So, I’m going to advance the ball on two products this winter that I think will do the job.
Btw: I’m not paid to plug any particular brand. These two units are just where I have come to on this topic. You don’t have to adopt my choices to have success.

1: Bloomspect 2000W LED Glow Light, Full Spectrum LED plant growing lamps for indoor plants Veg and Flower Hydroponics. This unit has two independent on/off switches that allow you to choose between blue light (short waves) and red light (long waves). Short waves (blue light) are good for vegetative growth. Long waves (red light) are good for inducing flowering.

This unit, I think, gives you some range on what you can grow. 2000W for an hour is 2 KWH. At $0.16/ KWH, that’s 26 cents an hour to grow something. Sixteen (16) hours per day is $4.16/day and for 45 days is $187.20 in lighting cost alone. The cost could be less than that, if only using one spectrum at a time, or if you go with the 1000W model. The cost could be more than that depending on the cost of electricity in your area. Or free, if you install solar panels. I digress.

2: Craftersmark LED full spectrum grow light with tripod stand, timer, auto on/off and 9 dimmable levels. This unit has four lamps on a stand, which I think will be good for the
garage or spare room where you can group all your potted plants together around the tripod. The box says 40W, which I assume to mean 10W per head. It’s not a lot of power. Heads can be used individually. The light puts a pink glow everywhere, which might be annoying to some. I did go to Amazon to get these units, where you will find more detail.

There are many more products out there to try depending on your goals and space. You certainly can get smaller, simpler, tabletop units to start seeds. You can also integrate some lighting in your cold frame or greenhouse. In the 70’s and 80’s, my dad would just use florescent glow bulbs in his shop lights. He was a big fan of geraniums. I don’t know the power requirements off-hand of these lamps. I also don’t know if the special grow bulbs are easy to find. I will investigate this option and report back.

I will also be starting some basil and spinach seeds this weekend. I think these plants will grow well now. They’re easy to start. Well, the basil is. They should pay for themselves with satisfaction and bragging rights with your in-laws/ friends/ neighbors, but not the cat. He’s seen it all before.

Anyway, feel free to ask me any questions about my experiences with grow lights. I’ll stop now and save some material for my next post as well as gather some data to report back.

All the Best,
Johnny L. Dose

Getting carried away at planting time may result in disaster. Plant only what you believe is manageable and enjoy your time in the garden.

Each season is an opportunity to learn how to best manage your garden while expanding your garden’s footprint at a comfortable pace.

• Let Us Hear From You!
• Companion Planting
• Controlling Squash Bug and Squash Vine Borer
• A Simple DIY Cold Frame
• Missouri versus the Azores

The Garden Dreamer

There are hundreds of scientific articles on the effects of plant population on yield for every crop plant you can imagine. The investigator is interested to learn where maximum yield is obtained at a specific number of equally spaced plants per acre. Keep in mind, however, that the ideal plant population for corn will be different than for soybean.

For the gardener, we are also concerned with maximizing yield and strive to give each plant an opportunity to produce a bountiful crop of high-quality fruit. Unfortunately, and especially for the novice gardener, there is a tendency to over-seed which inadvertently allows young seedlings to crowd one another.

Seedlings that are crowded by neighboring plants have to compete for sunlight, soil nutrients and soil moisture. As well, their roots become entangled thus complicating the task of thinning. If the thinning process doesn’t take place promptly, you run the risk of damaging young roots while pulling plants from the ground. The early stages of plant development are critical to future plant development and fruit production, hence, giving each plant an opportunity to thrive, soon after emerging from the soil, is important.

My approach to seeding most vegetables is to plant a number of seed equal to the final number of plants desired in the garden. To be clear, if the final recommended number of bush bean plants is 4 plant per foot of row, I’ll plant 8 – 10 seed per foot of row. Of course, this assumes good quality seed with a germination rate of at least 80%. This approach requires minimal thinning without disturbing the roots of neighboring plants. Remember, the objective is to establish an optimum and vigorous plant stand which is typically a precursor to good yield results.

There is a lot more which can be said about this topic however I feel that this can wait for another day.