T : Right . We ’ re not promoting an off-grid lifestyle – not that there ’ s anything wrong with that , but it doesn ’ t fit who we are right now . We both have these full-time jobs , and we ’ re just growing our own food , experimenting with different ways to do it . Seeing what works down here in this extreme climate . B : And we try to do it as organically as possible . That doesn ’ t mean our children don ’ t eat McDonald ’ s sometimes , but it is important for us to know where our food was grown , and to cut out as many toxins as possible from our children ’ s diets , and from our own diets . I ’ m a firm believer that you can heal yourself or hurt yourself with food . T : We ’ re not strictly organic . B : There are some things you just absolutely have to have . Fertilizer and such . It ’ s a bit different . But we ’ re not spraying things with Roundup . T : What a lot of people don ’ t realize who watch our videos is how much harder being in the middle of thousands of acres of cotton and peanuts makes it to grow a backyard garden . Because you don ’ t have a lot of beneficial insects around here , they ’ re all getting wiped out . I mean , we live eight miles from downtown Moultrie . Friends that live downtown can grow these beautiful heirloom tomatoes , for example , that we can ’ t . They don ’ t have the pest pressure like we do .
Happy harvesting - Brooklyn and Titus Key with a basket of Irish Cobbler potatoes .
Which diseases and pests tend to give y ’ all the most trouble ? T : Ah , good question ! I ’ d say the mildews on cucurbits ( squash , pumpkins , cucumbers watermelons , etc .) and the powdery mildew . As far as the insects – the squash bugs . They ’ re not too bad early in the spring , but the warmer it gets , well , we just quit trying to grow squash after July . We pull up the plants . An aside to that – and we put this on the
channel – if you ’ ve got infested squash plants out there and they ’ re starting to look bad , don ’ t hold out for four or five more squash . You ’ re doing your garden much more harm than good . Get them out of there , plant something else , some more squash in another spot … just don ’ t leave those diseased plants there to harbor pests . B : Because then you risk them getting in your soil , getting in other plants … T : So we get the squash bugs , we also get these things called pickle worms on our cucumbers . On the tomatoes , we get leaf-footed bugs , those are pretty nasty . Once you see those full-blown on your tomatoes , you might as well pull them up and call it a day . There ’ s a pest called a pea curculio , it bites the field peas like the Southern cowpeas . It puts these little stings on the peas . And we battle with some worms on the corn from time to time , as everybody does .
JANUARY 2022 MoultrieScene 41