On May 24 I added mulch to one of the beds of okra. We use a layer of plain paper laid down directly on the soil followed by a 3-4 inch layer of wheat straw to mulch our plants. This combination smothers any weeds and blocks sunlight which keeps weed seeds from germinating while also stopping evaporation from the surface of the soil. If you keep a garden in the Midlands of South Carolina, using mulch is not optional. Leaving the soil bare on top allows it to dry out too fast. The soil can dry out so fast if left uncovered that you have to water your plants twice a day every day in the heat of the summer. Adding mulch can reduce this chore to the point where you only have to 2-3 times a week! This saves both water and time. Just be sure to soak each plant by running the hose at the base of the plant when you do water so plenty of water can soak in slipping through the seams and openings in the paper where it overlaps or around the base of the plant where you tore slits or holes around the plant’s stem.
The yellow cabbage collard seed pods had matured enough to harvest them, so I cut the stalks off and collected them to bundle and hang to dry. I wasn’t sure if the collards themselves would be worth harvesting to eat, but in the end I did harvest them and cooked as many as I could making 2 large pots of greens.
This is the pile of collard stalks loaded with seed pods that I collected. Seed saving is something any gardener can do to save money and grow more of something in future seasons. If you plan your garden well and separate plants in the same plant family, you can produce seeds that will grow exactly the same vegetables you grew that year. This will only happen if the bees don’t transfer pollen from to the flowers of the plant you want to save seeds from to another plant in same plant family. Collards being in the brassica family, we had to make sure there were no broccoli, mustard, kale, cabbage, kohlrabi, or Brussels sprouts flowering at the same time as these collard plants. In fact, since we wanted to have seeds for yellow cabbage collards, we couldn’t grow any other types of collards at this time of year because if these yellow cabbage collard flowers had gotten pollinated with pollen from another type of collards, the seeds wouldn’t grow into the big, wide heads of collards with the tender, light green leaves that yellow cabbage collards are famous for. In fact, we wouldn’t even have yellow cabbage collards any more! We would have a cross – a plant that had a combination of the traits of yellow cabbage collards and whatever other collard plant the pollen came from!
Traditionally farmers have chosen to grow vegetable plants with different traits that people have grown to prefer, like the large, tender leaves of these cabbage collards. That means that farmers and gardeners have had to keep different varieties of vegetables in the same plant family separated year after year so that these favorite varieties of vegetables could be grown year after year and passed down from one generation of farmer or gardener to the next.
This link in the history of agriculture and traditional foods is part of why I like to save my seeds. It allows me to share seeds with other gardeners and farmers – especially my students – who can then learn about and grow and eat these vegetables themselves. Hopefully they also decide to save seeds from the plants they grow too so these plants continue to be grown in the future.
In the tomato bed we added a Napa Chardonnay yellow cherry tomato plant and a marigold plant. It’s hard to see them under the shade cloth.
Peeking under we can see the Napa Chardonnay cherry tomato. Shade cloth is a useful tool for protecting our transplants from direct sunlight. While we think of bright sun as important and good for our plants, often when we are moving small plants to a new home the plant’s roots get damaged which affects the plant’s ability to absorb water from the soil for a few days. While the roots recover from being pulled out of the flower pot it was growing in, it’s a good idea to block some of the sun from reaching the plant’s leaves. Water escapes from a plant’s leaves through little openings or pores called “stomata”. This is a natural part of photosynthesis – the process by which plants create their own food. Blocking some of the sun slows down photosynthesis in the plant and keeps the bright sunlight from drying out the leaves. This lets the plant hold onto the water in its leaves and other tissues while it’s roots recover and start working well again.
If you transplant a seedling in your home garden, it’s always a good idea to do it during a time when the weather is going to be wet and rainy or at least cloudy and gray. If you have to transplant a seedling during hot, dry, sunny weather, be sure to soak the roots well after you put the plant in the ground with a diluted fertilizer solution (this will help the plant’s roots recover) and set something up to block the harsh direct sunlight for a few days. Don’t cover the plant with a flower pot or plastic sheeting. Just maybe lean a board over the plant to provide shade in the hottest part of the day. Shade cloth it is made of plastic mesh, so it allows air to flow around the plant underneath it. Anything you set up to shade your plants should do the same.
This is what the garden looked like when I went home on May 24. I still had to add mulch to our second bed of okra. The shade netting might not look great, but it only stays in place for 3-4 days and the way it helps the plants get started in their new home means our garden will look amazing in just a few weeks when that strong new Napa Chardonnay cherry tomato plant starts growing!