Change in Gardening Tactics

When I started pulling summer plants out of the Pond, I found root knot nematode damage.  And forgot to take a photo.  It looks like little knobby nodes all over the roots, and comes from microscopic nematodes boring into them.  I've only become aware of the existence of this pest this summer, so it may have been damaging my plants for years.  The infestation isn't severe, but might explain why I've had more above-ground pests this year.  If it's a new problem, maybe it came in with a new bag of dirt or mulch.

There are amendments you can add to soil and beneficial nematodes that kill the bad ones.  I opted to "poison" my dirt to the baddies with flowers in the marigold family.  It's the most organic method I found and only $3 for a pack of seeds.  It's too late for warm-weather marigolds, so the lady at the garden center recommended calendula.  I also have to refrain from planting anything that the nematodes eat for at least a year.  Good thing I like beets.

I know I under-plant flowers, and pollinators in general.  I only want to water things I can eat.  Well, calendula petals are edible.  I'm in the early stages of research.  I won't have flowers for a couple of months.  They can be used in teas for a variety of medicinal purposes.  Calendula oil is a thing for eczema.  They even serve as a substitute for saffron.  Guess I'll have to start drying flower petals now.

As for the pots in the garden, they were disease-free as far as I could tell.  So was the lettuce patch out front.  I'll have to put my chard and leek starts in those.  My volunteer cilantro is already coming up on its own, as well as some carrots I must have forgotten about.  I knew I was dropping seeds when I harvested them, but there is no such thing as too many cilantro plants in my world.

We had a lovely rain last week to deep-water everything, and it looks like there won't be any more 80º+ days this year.  The next day, I seeded the lettuces, root veggies, and herbs.  I reluctantly gave up and bought parsley and celery starts.  The home-grown starts still need more time inside.

One quick note about the calendulas.  Props to Botannical Interests, I had a 100% germination rate.  That one empty cell in the photo was slow to break through, but had already germinated when I took it.  I rarely have that happen on the first try.  It took three seedings to get all the leeks, and the chard was about a 50% germ rate for year-old seeds.

We'll see how much of the winter garden is ready to use in December, but at least I finally got it started.