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Re: Blight in Tory's rain-soaked PNW garden

I'm having somewhat the same problem in  my rain-soaked RI garden. One
of the things I do to try to prevent soil-borne pathogens from splashing
up on the plants is a Jerry Baker trick.  When I put in the seedlings, I
spread a layer of newspaper over the exposed soil and throw a layer of
grass clippings on top.  Throughout the summer, as I cut my grass, I
strew it first onto the paths, and after it dries, onto the beds.  This
gives a good thick protection from the splash-back.

Eventually, however, as we all know, if the disease is in there, it will
get to the plants, but this seems to slow it down a bit.  A word of
caution, however, is to make certain that the newspaper is printed with
water-base ink as ours is here; do not use a paper printed with oil-base
ink!  The nice aspect of this method is that I have a layer of organic
material to turn into the soil at the end of the season. The grass
clippings add nitrogen to the soil and the paper completely decomposes
in one season.

Linda
in RI where I haven't watered my garden since mid-July

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