The Veggie Files

Here you'll find documents and articles that you might find helpful with your gardening adventures.

Some helpful resources can be found on these web sites:

For Insect Identification:
www.enature.com           
www.bugguide.net

When to harvest and organic gardening help:
www.organicgardening.about.com
www.savvygarener.com

Supplies and seeds:
www.farmtek.com
www.johnnyseed.com
www.ttomatogrowerssupply.com
www.parksseed.com

Local nurseries

Country Gardens Farm & Nursery....3728 Lower Fayetteville Rd, Newnan Ga   770-251-2673
​Millpond Gardens Nurseries...105 Highway 85 connector, Brooks, Ga  770- 719-1764
Ashley's Garden Nursery  .....152 Morgan St.  Senoia, Ga  678-378-1489​

Plant Varieties

Planting Guide

A list of vegetables with specific plant varieties that work in our area.

plant_varieties.doc
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The Georgia Organics Planting Calendar.

ga_planting_guide.pdf
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Some Companion Vegetables
Beans are companions with carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, spinach and beets.
Carrots do well and encourage the growth of onions, lettuce, radishes and peas, but they don’t care for dill.
Corn will grow taller and produce larger ears if you grow it along with beans, melons, peas, cucumbers and all types of squash. Don’t grow corn near celery and tomatoes.
Eggplant favors spinach and beans as its neighbors, but doesn’t care for fennel.
Tomatoes thrive when you grow them near basil, asparagus, beans, cucumbers, asparagus, onions and lettuce. Avoid planting tomatoes near corn, dill cabbage and potatoes.
Turnips and peas are compatible plants, but plant your turnips far from your mustard.

Compost 101 - Basic Composting
Compost is a rich and crumbly blend of partially decomposed organic material that does wonderful things for your garden.  Why compost?
Compost improves soil structure.
Most gardeners don't start with great soil. Whether yours is hard and compacted, sandy, stony, heavy, or wet, adding compost will improve its texture, water-holding capacity, and fertility. Your soil will gradually become fluffy and brown—the ideal home for healthy plants.
Compost provides a balanced source of plant nutrients.
Even if you are lucky enough to have great soil, you can't expect that soil to remain rich and productive without replenishing the nutrients that are consumed each growing season. No commercial fertilizer, even one that is totally organic, provides the full spectrum of nutrients that you get with compost. The nutrients are available gradually, as your plants need them, over a period of months or years. The microorganisms in the compost will also help your plants absorb nutrients from fertilizers more efficiently.
Compost stimulates beneficial organisms.
Compost is teeming with all kinds of microorganisms and soil fauna that help convert soil nutrients into a form that can be readily absorbed by your plants. The microorganisms, enzymes, vitamins and natural antibiotics that are present in compost actually help prevent many soil pathogens from harming your plants. Earthworms, millipedes, and other critters tunnel through your soil, opening up passageways for air and water to reach your plants' roots.
Compost is garden insurance.
Unlike organic or inorganic fertilizers, which may need to be applied at the right time and in the right amount, compost can be applied at any time and in any amount. You can't really over-apply it. Plants use exactly what they need, when they need it.
Can a gardener ever have enough compost? It's doubtful. Compost is the perfect thing to spread around when you are creating a new garden, seeding a new lawn area, or planting a new tree. Compost can be sprinkled around plants during the growing season or used as a mulch in your perennial gardens.
Composts Builds Healthy Soil Across Your Garden and Landscape
Show all your gardens some love by treating them to regular doses of compost. In spring, compost gets plants off to a strong start. In fall, even as air temperatures drop, the soil stays warm so the compost feeds the still-active beneficial organisms.
 
How Compost Happens
Organic matter is transformed into compost through the work of microorganisms, soil fauna, enzymes and fungi. When making compost, your job is to provide the best possible environment for these beneficial organisms to do their work. If you do so, the decomposition process works very rapidly—sometimes in as little as two weeks. If you don't provide the optimum environment, decomposition will still happen, but it may take from several months to several years.
The trick to making an abundance of compost in a short time is to balance the following four things:
Carbon. Carbon-rich materials are the energy food for microorganisms. You can identify high-carbon plant materials because they are dry, or fibrous, and tan or brown in color. Examples are dry leaves, chopped straw, rotted hay, sawdust, shredded paper (ink free is best), and decomposed wood chips.
Nitrogen. High-nitrogen materials provide the protein-rich components that microorganisms require to grow and multiply. Fresh grass clippings, over-ripe fruits and vegetables, and other moist green matter are the sorts of nitrogen-rich materials you'll probably have on hand. Other high-protein organic matter includes kelp meal, seaweed, manure and animal by-products like blood or bone meal.
Water. Moisture is very important for the composting process. But too much moisture will drown the microorganisms, and too little will dehydrate them. A general rule of thumb is to keep the material in your compost pile as moist as a well-wrung sponge.
Oxygen. To do their work most efficiently, microorganisms require a lot of oxygen. When your pile is first assembled, there will probably be plenty of air between the layers of materials. But as the microorganisms begin to work, they will start consuming oxygen. Unless you turn or in some way aerate your compost pile, they will run out of oxygen and become sluggish.
Common Compost Ingredients
Brown
High-carbon materials
Shredded paper
Pine needles
Sawdust or wood shavings (not pressure treated)
Chopped straw
Dry leaves
Green
High-nitrogen materials
Coffee grounds
Eggshells
Fruit wastes
Grass clippings
Feathers or hair
Fresh leaves
Seaweed
Rotted manure
Alfalfa meal
Do I Need a Compost Recipe?
Microorganisms and other soil fauna work most efficiently with a precise ratio of carbon-rich to nitrogen-rich materials but most people find three-parts brown and one-part green works quite well. In practical terms, if you want to have an active compost pile, you should include lots of high-carbon "brown" materials (such as shredded wood chips, or shredded dry leaves) and a lesser amount of high-nitrogen "green" materials (such as grass clippings, freshly pulled weeds, or kitchen scraps).
If you have an excess of carbon-rich materials and not enough nitrogen-rich materials, your pile may take years to decompose (there is not enough protein for those microbes!). If your pile has too much nitrogen and not enough carbon, your pile will also decompose very slowly (not enough for the microbes to eat!), and it will probably be soggy and smelly along the way.
But don't worry about determining the exact carbon content of a material or achieving a precise ratio. Composting doesn't need to be a competitive, goal-oriented task. All organic matter breaks down eventually, no matter what you do. If you simply use about 3 times as much "brown" materials as "green" materials, you'll be off to a great start.
Compost Gets Hot
Heat is a by-product of intense microbial activity. It indicates that the microorganisms are munching on organic matter and converting it into finished compost. The temperature of your compost pile does not in itself affect the speed or efficiency of the decomposition process. But temperature does determine what types of microbes are active.
There are primarily three types of microbes that work to digest the materials in a compost pile. They each work best in a particular temperature range:
The psychrophiles work in cool temperatures—even as low as 28 degrees F. As they begin to digest some of the carbon-rich materials, they give off heat, which causes the temperature in the pile to rise. When the pile warms to 60 to 70 degrees F, mesophilic bacteria take over. They are responsible for the majority of the decomposition work. If the mesophiles have enough carbon, nitrogen, air, and water, they work so hard that they raise the temperature in the pile to about 100 degrees F. At this point, thermophilic bacteria kick in. It is these bacteria that can raise the temperature high enough to sterilize the compost and kill disease-causing organisms and weed seeds. Three to five days of 155 degrees F. is enough for the thermophiles to do their best work.
Getting your compost pile "hot" (140 to 160 degrees F.) is not critical, but it does mean that your compost will be finished and usable within a month or so. These high temperatures also kill most weed seeds, as well as harmful pathogens that can cause disease problems. Most people don't bother charting the temperature curve in their compost pile. They just try to get a good ratio of carbon to nitrogen, keep the pile moist and well aerated, and wait until everything looks pretty well broken down.
To Turn or Not to Turn
Unless speed is a priority, frequent turning is not necessary. Many people never turn their compost piles. The purpose of turning is to increase oxygen flow for the microorganisms, and to blend undecomposed materials into the center of the pile. If you are managing a hot pile, you'll probably want to turn your compost every 3 to 5 days, or when the interior temperature dips below about 110 degrees F.
Simply put, a compost system is a means to create nutrients for your garden.  Although there are some very specific scientific models for compost, experience has shown that when a 3 to 1 carbon matter to nitrogen matter is used, a compost system will do its job well.
Multi-Bay Bin. Having several bins allows you to use one section for storing materials, one for active composting, and one for curing or storing finished compost. Each bin should be approximately 4 x 4 x 4 feet. Be sure to allow air spaces between the sidewall slats, and make the front walls removable (lift out slats) for easy access.