Farm

Figuring Out Gardening on the Cumberland Plateau

On August 2, 2022 by

Many, many hours of this summer have been devoted to gardening. Living on the Cumberland Plateau means dealing with wild summer thunderstorms, and temperatures that differ from the surrounding areas of Tennessee. It’s been interesting to see what grows well here, what does okay, and what was a total bust.

Here’s an update on how our garden is currently faring.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are not a simple plant. Pruning, watering, fertilizing, staking, temperature, pest control… there’s so much to figure out! My biggest issue this year was the pruning- or lack thereof. I got indeterminate cherry and yellow pear varieties, meaning the plant just grows and grows until your garden turns into a scene from Jumanji. I didn’t know that until things got super wild.

We also had (still have) hornworms, beetles, and some kind of fungus. Add all that to intense downpours and high winds during thunderstorms, and you’ve got a pretty rough looking tomato patch. They seem to be pretty hardy, though, because we’re still getting tomatoes out of the wreckage!

Cucumbers

The cucumbers had a rough start, having been chewed by flea beetles as seedlings. They made a decent comeback, but unfortunately we never got around to making trellises. Considering the way they grew in a tangled heap on the ground, we got an awesome number of cucumbers out of them! The plants are pretty much done for the season now, having succumbed to the heat and powdery mildew.

Green Beans

Green beans are a major crop in Cumberland County, so I was hoping they’d do ok! But a deadly combination of improper watering, Japanese beetles and Mexican bean beetles did them in pretty early in the season. Better luck next year, I guess. At least we got to enjoy one dinner with them as a side dish.

Peppers

The peppers are the one thing in the garden that are doing amazingly well at the moment. The plants have stayed healthy and green, and are covered with buds and flowers. The one thing I need to change for next year is simply starting the seeds earlier.

Watermelon & Cantaloupe

Both of these were somewhat experimental, because I’d heard watermelon could be finicky and had no clue about the cantaloupe. A bunch of the watermelons died while very small and still on the vine, so I need to do some research on how to prevent that. But we do have 5 that are doing great, and should be ripe in the next week or two.

The cantaloupes are more prolific and we should have quite a few of them. Overall, it seems like the weather on the plateau is great for growing both types of melon. I’ll definitely be planting them again next year.

Squash

Oh, squash. I followed the spacing on the seed packets, and still ended up with a veritable sea of squash vines.

Due to the unusually high temps and high humidity over the past month, all of the squash is developing powdery mildew and will probably be done for pretty soon. I’ve also been picking squash bugs and their eggs off the leaves. It’s a constant battle with these pests!

I’m going to try to plant some more yellow summer squash and zucchini this week, though, because we should still have 8-10 weeks before the first frost. I really love the south.

Other Garden Duds

The potatoes, corn, peas, Brussels sprouts, beets, cabbage… yikes. The cabbage worms totally destroyed the Brussels sprouts, and only 3 cabbages out of the entire row were salvageable. The beets were terrible. The potatoes got eaten by flea beetles before they even got to the flowering stage. Only about half of the corn grew at all, and produced very tiny ears. I have no clue what happened to the peas.

You win some, you lose some, I guess.

Not Finished Yet!

All in all, our first attempt at gardening on the plateau has been really successful thus far. We have all eaten our weight in tomatoes and squash, shared a lot of veggies with friends, and I’ve been able to can quite a bit as well.

The best part is that we’re nowhere near the end of the growing season here, and have so much more to look forward to. And, of course, so much more to learn.

Remember you can follow along our family’s homesteading journey on Instagram @iveyshireblog!

Have a great day, y’all.

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