Organic gardeners reap healthy harvest

It has been a year of bumper crops for organic gardeners in Olney this year, with plentiful rains and heat to bring veggies to giant sizes.

The Piegat family - dad Justin, mom Kathryn, and kids Isabel and Ethan - have been gardening in five raised beds for the past five years, planting green beans, lettuce, spinach, arugula as well as peppers, tomatoes and zucchini this year.

Justin Piegat said the mild spring and the decision to plant early boosted their yield.

“We planted at the very beginning of April and because we didn’t have a late freeze, the crops took off,” he said.

The family plants pungent marigolds around the circular beds to ward off most pests.”They’re pretty good at keeping the bugs away,” Isabel said. They check the beds daily for infestations of hornworms, which must be picked off by hand.

At the start of each year, the Piegats reconstitute each bed, placing cardboard, sticks and other organic matter that will disintegrate in the bottom of each.

They then stir up a concontion of topsoil, Miracle-Gro and compost. “That allows water to filter through the soil so it doesn’t get all tight and claylike,” Justin said.

They also practice crop rotation after each harvest.

“The best thing to do is switch [the crops] around to keep alternating it each year,” Isabel said. “It actually helps them do better.”

Some of this year’s tomato and pepper crop will go into Kathryn’s homemade marinara sauce, Isabel said.