Here at Top Comments we strive to recognize and promote the talent of this community by highlighting outstanding comments found throughout the day by the diarist, and more importantly through nominations sent to Top Comments at gmail dot com by your fellow Kossacks. When you send in your picks, please include your username and a word or two about why you nominated the comment, and send them in by 6:30 pm Pacific/9:30 pm Eastern to ensure they make the final diary.
Here at Casa boran we try to grow a few of our own vegetables each summer. Out on our small deck, I've got a couple of good-sized planters. Each summer I've planted vegetables in these but tomatoes are the usual occupants.
The last couple of years have produced less than spectacular results. In fact, this year's batch shriveled and died after producing only a few sweet grape tomatoes. Needless to say, I was disappointed.
It was while watching P. Allen Smith's Garden Home on PBS one recent day that I learned what the problem might be. It seems that crop rotation serves (at least) 2 purposes, only one of which I was aware.
In an attempt to replenish nutrients lost to monoculture, I had made various soil amendments. These included our own compost. But monoculture also gives rise to plant pathogens and pests, a subject covered well in this Wikipedia article.
Crop rotation is a type of cultural control that is also used to control pests and diseases that can become established in the soil over time. The changing of crops in a sequence tends to decrease the population level of pests. Plants within the same taxonomic family tend to have similar pests and pathogens. By regularly changing the planting location, the pest cycles can be broken or limited. ...
Sadly, I learned this only too late for this year's crop. In an attempt to avoid looking at vacant planters all summer, I put scallions in one (seen below) and a perennial in the other. The scallions are pretty much indestructible and are doing nicely at this time.
Here is a chart for possible rotation of vegetables.
As for next year, I've got a new plan. Knowing that I'll have difficulty keeping up with the demands of proper crop rotation, I'll be using smaller pots with fresh soil. At the end of each season or two, I'll simply dump the old soil back into the garden. That ought to keep the pathogens and pests at bay.
And on to the nominations:
From Expatjourno:
Here is jm214's definitive description of war as "a smokescreen for a much more complicated and expensive and extensive racket."
From belinda ridgewood:
In triciawyse's pootie diary, ursoklevar got started penning the lyrics to the "Meteor Blades Blues, Pootie Style", but got stuck. It was left to Horsefeathers' bad, bad cat Andy to write verse 3 in his own way.
From me, boran2:
This comment by fwdpost made me chuckle.
Top Mojo for 08/11/11:
1) Hardees, Red Burrito and Green Burrito by doug1204 — 210
2) It gave me MB, Granny Doc, the Mojo Friday Family, by Onomastic — 132
3) Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Outback ... by whyvee — 119
4) The zombie commission by joanneleon — 118
5) Obama is not weak by gulfgal98 — 104
6) You're so nice, Ono. by Floja Roja — 99
7) I'm reading- Keys to the Kingdom by Sen. by roseeriter — 96
8) Obama will get his Catfood Commission's by rbrockelmann — 95
9) Suddenly, the filibuster can be jettisoned. by Jim P — 84
10) Thanks for this history lesson that all should by gerrilea — 84
11) Letter by Magnifico — 82
12) This "Super Congress" is by it's very definition by MinistryOfTruth — 81
13) "the president doesn't really believe in Keynesian by Paleo — 81
14) As former Chair of Senate Intel, Graham knows of by Timothy J — 81
15) Excellent suggestions! As MB's sigline said, show by Wee Mama — 80
16) I appreciate your position... by JeffW — 75
17) That's what I've been saying for some time... by Uberbah — 74
18) Krugman, Reich & Stieglitz are plants too, right? by FishOutofWater — 73
19) It's Only Stupid If You Imagine They Oppose It. nt by Gooserock — 73
20) They've been trying for decades by joanneleon — 72
21) If wages had not stagnated for 30 years... by expatjourno — 71
22) I Was Thinking of Writing a Diary by JekyllnHyde — 71
23) Really? by Adept2u — 70
24) Matt Damon is making a small mistake. by Montreal Progressive — 70
25) Do you think it possible by raptavio — 69
26) Christ by gchaucer2 — 67
27) Not to mention by shaharazade — 63
28) "When does the greed stop?" by ezdidit — 62
29) How dare you. by Onomastic — 60
30) Rec'd And Tipped by rebel ga — 59