The small garden boxes did well this year. There is still asparagus growing in the back planter, but the front two are cleared out for next year. I raked into the front two planter boxes some compost crop mix seed from Bountiful Gardens. It is a mix of wheat, vetch, rye and fava beans. It is supposed to fix nitrogen into the soil.
The large planter box did poorly. This is the second year in a row. I pulled up the plants and, again, there is a grub infestation. It seems the Japanese beetles will reproduce here every year. However, I cannot blame the grubs for the poor spring, because they were not there until August this year, because I manually picked them all out before doing the spring transplant.
I suspect the soil is diseased (blight?), because of the black spots on my tomato leaves. But just to make sure it is not lack of nutrition, I tested the soil today. The pH test reports the soil is still 6.5 (slightly acid). That is the same pH I measured in 2005, which was one of my best years.My plan is to bring in new dirt and rebuild the planter box this spring. No sense in putting compost seed into this dirt.
