Cutting my loses

Yesterday I reduced my tomato crop by 1/4 (I only have 8 plants so I took 2 out.)  They hadn't produced any fruit yet (not even the green kind.)  I figured they couldn't produce fruit in what remains of the season and were only sucking up precious resources from the containers they were planted in.  Hopefully the existing green tomatoes will ripen soon.

Today I hope to thin out my squashes for the same reason -- better to get some crop with fewer than no crop with many. 

My garden has been largely overlooked lately.  It has lost the fight against young kids, camps, camping, and houseguests.  But as little as I have been able to put into it (or harvest from it), it still offers some great rewards.  Like whenever I look out my kitchen window and "catch" the kids snacking on strawberries.  Although I got very ambitious about my garden for a bit and later disheartened that I didn't come close to reaching my vision, getting to watch my kids forage is a pretty great reward in itself.

Making sad tomatoes happy again

It has been a tough few weeks in my garden.  Mostly I haven't found a lot of time to be there.  It's funny how gardening has become like exercise -- you forget how much you enjoy it until get a chance to do it again....

Lately my garden has me worried because everything seems to be growing behind schedule (and what else can you expect in a cool summer.)  I was particularly worried about my tomatoes above.  I thought they caugh tomato blight because the leaves were drooping and yellowing.  I started removing damaged leaves and contacted the hotline at Seattle Tilth for confirmation.  They surprised me by writing back that they thought it might be an iron deficiency due to an inability to take up water.  (The darkened veins and the yellowing from the edge inward led to the diagnosis.)  Well, it sounds like a more optimistic prognosis to me!

So today I finally got back into the garden.  As they recommended, I added an inch of compost to my pot (mushroom compost was what I had handy.)  I sprayed the leaves with kelp water to fertilize.  And I added coffee to the soil.  Seattle Tilth recommended adding coffee grounds -- but all I had was some unused, unwanted ground coffee.  Hopefully, the plants will make a great turn around and I will see no more yellow leaves while the fruit ripens.

Good bugs

And thank goodness, because I left these two alone....  These soldier beetles eat soft-bodied insects including aphids, catapillars, and slugs -- all known to frequent my garden.  I am glad to see some soldier beetles consider my raised bed home.

Wet and dry gardening

I have been harvesting cabbage since my return -- and it finally dawned on me that I was seeing something pretty special.  I bought a six-pack of cabbage starts at Seattle Tilth's spring sale.  The ones that didn't fit in my raised bed I added to my ornamental bed in the front yard.

The difference between my raised bed and my ornamental bed is water.  The ornamentals get none -- I designed it to be drought tolerant and haven't watered it since the first year it was planted.  The difference between the cabbages is visually clear.  The well-watered raised bed cabbage is smooth.

The un-watered ornamental bed cabbage is heavily "savoyed." 

If you click the savoyed cabbage image to get the larger one, you can see why.  The wrinkles and crinkles catch water and hold it (sometimes all day.)  The watered cabbage doesn't need wrinkles because it gets what it needs from the soil.

scaredy cat farmer returns

I am back after a two week vacation in AZ.  Sorry to disappear with out warning, but it seemed wrong to announce I was abandoning my home on the web. 

Predictably I returned to a bunch of bolted produce.

I have managed to clean out the beds and am hoping to get some winter starts in this weekend. 

who stole the apples?

I found two of my makeshift applesox in the grass this week -- and the apples were gone.  I have lost half my crop.  I am thinking whoever left these tracks on the kids' picnic table is the answer....

Could it be a racoon?  If it is, I am sure this garden predator won't have a chance of taking him out.

self-watering containers

Today I made self-watering containers, from scratch.  I put them out on my deck next to my EarthBox Ready-to-Grow kit -- which I put together at the start of June (blame the cool weather -- we still haven't reached 80 -- and my fear of fertilizer for the limited growth of my plants.)

If you look online, you will find a lot of advice on how to make self-watering containers using 5-gallon food buckets or 15-gallon plastic storage bins.  I took that advice and tricked out a Home Depot plastic pot because I wanted something a little prettier for my deck.  I wound up with the kit for expediency's sake.  I had tomatoes that needed planting and all my supplies last month -- but no will to move forward with my project.  The EarthBox kit was very easy.  The hardest part was pulling the sticker off the perforated base that separates the soil from the water.

I think the EarthBox kit was also less expensive than my home-made version was for the same growing space.  But I stand by my project.  My self-watering pots are cuter....

So here is what it took to make them:

• 2 plastic containers
• 2 Ups-A-Daisy planter inserts
• length of PVC pipe
• a power drill with router and drill bits
• cotton string to use as a wick for the water
• 2 cubic foot bag of potting soil
• dowel and styrofoam balls to make water indicator

This is how my helper and I put the pots together.  After enlarging one of the holes (so the PVC could fit), we put the Ups-A-Daisy insert in place and ran 4 strings from top to bottom.  We added a length of PVC (cut at angle at the bottom -- you could also just drill some holes in it so the water can get from the top to the bottom.)  Next I drilled some small overflow holes into my container so I wouldn't have to worry about flooding.  Then we filled our pot with water up to the insert (the EarthBox kit suggested this -- my guess is it helps keep the soil from falling through the holes.)

Then we added potting soil and plants, moved the wicks toward the center, clipped the wicks, and finally covered the wicks with additional soil so they wouldn't dry out.  (Please send happy thoughts to the poor pepper plant below....)

Finally, we made our water-level indicator by putting a stryofoam ball on the end of dowel and clipping it until it fit just inside the PVC pipe.   

Now I know if the dowel does't float to the top, I need to fill the container. I also will put a little landscape fabric cap on my pipe to keep water-breeding bugs out of my pot -- I don't want to have dinner with them on the deck.

I am hoping these fancy pots will give my container garden a fighting chance with my chaotic life.  Now I just need to figure out how to fertilize appropriately....

wireworm trap

This picture shows my wireworm trap in action.  I stuck a number of full-grown carrots throughout my raised bed.  I pull them up and check for takers.  Wireworms are not very fast.  In fact, they often "play stick" when pulled up in the trap.  I usually take my time and cut them in half with an old plant description stick. 

I felt silly using good carrots as bait -- but they have lasted a couple of weeks already and don't show much sign of decay.  I hear you can bury potatoes too but I haven't tried it yet.

using my new pest knowlege

I took a class last weekend on pest management in the garden through Seattle Tilth.  Walked away with a better appreciation of Integrated Pest Management -- and a curiousity about my weeds and flowers.

In IPM, prevention is the first strategy.  And a gardener must realize that there is no such thing as perfect.  A few holes or bad bugs doesn't mean failure -- it means you are part of something alive.  A gardener using IPM must be patient.  Live with the 'bad things' and make sure they are bad before acting.  This keeps you from applying a solution that is worse than the problem. 

I found these leaves in my raised bed -- but I don't know what is causing the problem, so my strategy is to OBSERVE until I do.  See, I am not too late.  I need time to understand (or to learn so I can understand.)  If the damage spreads quickly to other leaves, then I will act fast.  If not, I am free to dawdle. 

In the meantime, I can pick on the things I do understand.  Practicing IPM means spending more time looking at your garden closely.  The big things are obvious when they arrive.  

But the little things are there too.  This catapillar I found on on a piece of bark that made it into the raised bed.  Its color was so unusual (to me) that I took a picture of it before I squashed it (too close to my cabbage.) 

By looking closely I also found this guy.  Turns out it is a stink- or a shield-bug (it took a lot of internet research to figure that out.)  How did I make it out of childhood and not know that?!   I wasn't sure what to do about it since I kept seeing online that it likes to eat hawthorn leaves until I found this page that said it was happy eating any broadleaf plant.  Since I found it on the trellising above my struggling (hole-y) bean plants, I got rid of him.

The first 'aggressive' IPM strategy is physical control -- which includes making barriers and handpicking offenders.  I found the four slugs below under the wrapper leaves of my cabbage.  Clearly garden pests, they did not survive the shoe test.

 

I was really worried that all the holes in my cabbage leaves would mean the heads would be teaming with worms -- but they were beautiful once I opened them up.  I am wondering if all the damage was done by slugs and not the offspring of the white moth I saw in the yard.  But the slugs don't explain all the tiny poop I saw.  The next step in IPM strategy is to introduce natural predators to your garden -- maybe I got lucky and some good bugs took care of the (possible) cabbage maggots for me.

The last strategy for eliminating pests using IPM is employing a chemical control.  The tip is to always start with the mildest remedy -- such as soap spray.  And then make sure your soap spray is made out of a mild soap like Doc Bronners if you want to keep you veggies as healthy as can be.

Finally, I figured out that I am going to have to learn a lot more about bugs and plants before I really understand what is going on in my yard.  There is a lot to know about bugs (good and bad) and their lifecycles.  There is a lot to know about plants -- what I want to eat, what good bugs need to thrive, and what a weed's location might say about soil.

seed starting again

My seeds arrived from Territorial and I am back to seed starting again.  I am a bit surprised to be here so soon -- especially given my poor results this spring -- but the seed packet for the brussels sprouts demanded I give it another try.  "Erratic seed germination makes direct sowing difficult?!"**

This time I went with peet pots.  I enjoyed seeding with peat pellets in the spring but I didn't like what I saw at harvest time.

Poor little guy couldn't bust through the pellet (of course, it was probably a bad choice to put a beet in one of these in the first place.)

As for my brussels sprouts, I am going to put some seeds directly into the ground and cross my fingers.  And I am going to do my best to nurture the ones in my peet pots.  But my fingers are crossed for those ones too since I have never gotten a seed start to 4 inches before.  Here's to crossing the 2 inch mark!

**Update**  "A clue, a clue," -- anonymous child on Blues Clues. 
Over at digginfood Willi Galloway explains that warm temperatures during summer make direct seeding iffy because the seeds/sprouts might dry out in a warm spell.

highs and lows in the garden

The kids found some strawberries in the yard.  They were pretty pleased with themselves.  Picked them without asking and then ran inside to show off their treasure.

I also found my own treasures in the yard.  Tonight I made a soup featuring fennel and chard from my raised bed.  It turned out to be rather tasty.  And I was pleased that I made good on my desire to eat more veggies today.

In the harvesting though I ran into one of my arch nemeses: a wireworm (visible on the railing next to the bulb beneath the hole it was creating on the root.)  Wireworms are known to eat roots and stems.  Thank goodness it wasn't interested in the bulb or my dinner would have been blown....   

I wound up bagging it so I can take it to a garden pest talk over the weekend.  I am wondering if the slow growth in my raised beds is due to wireworm damage -- or just a general lack of sun and heat.

drawn in by the winter catalog....

I've been feeling a bit low lately about my gardening prowess.  It is certainly limited.  Something has been foraging for my pea seeds -- and it seems that I have allowed catapillars/cabbage worms/loopers to get the best of my cabbage.  There are now holes that dig into the core of head and plenty of poop to go with it.

According to the Territorial Seed catalog, I should have sprayed with Bacillus thuringienses at the first sighting of a moth near my plants (which I saw weeks ago, but did nothing more than fret about.)  Since I delayed, I can try baiting the cabbage worms with wheat bran soaked in BT solution.  I will probably try that if I can find some time next week -- and see if it makes a difference.  I hate seeing potential food turn to waste but I have a limited tolerance for bugs in my food.

I was griping to my husband about what a failure I am turning out to be as a farmer and he reminded me that I am just starting out and that we would all pay a lot more attention to keeping the crops healthy if we were actually dependent on the food.  Which is true.  And I realized that I got into this adventure because I wanted my family and I to eat more veggies -- and that gardening isn't a great way to eat more veggies.  Eating veggies is a great way to eat more veggies. 

So it is time to separate the veggie eating goal from the garden.  I can address the veggie eating goal by changing what I buy at the food store (and supplement with the few edible suprises I produce as I gain gardening skills.)  And in the meantime, I should admit that I am enjoying the garden in itself because I like learning how the plants grow and what pests to look for and what works where.  And I hope I will feel a lot more successful if I let the garden be just about gardening, learning about nature, and exploring my relationship with it.

So I decided to go ahead with a winter garden and ordered more things from Territorial Seed.  Turns out I am a sucker for things purple and red.  I have been really curious lately about mixing edibles and ornamentals.  I think most of these things (maybe not the carrots) are great candidates for the front yard.  Four things I will be trying this fall are:

• Dragon carrots
• Falstaff brussel sprouts
• January King cabbage
• Walking onions

welcome guest

After weeks of watching aphids and holes emerge and re-emerge in my raised veggie bed, I finally spotted a good sign: a lady beetle.  Help is on its way!  I hear ladybugs are great eaters of aphids.

Ironically, I also saw my first ant in the garden today too.  Ants are known to protect aphids for their honeydew. 

So let the battle begin....  I know which side I am rooting for!

Culprit?

My kindergartener says this mammoth slug looks like a really dirty chocolate kiss.  It was larger than a bouncy ball from a gumball machine -- but not as big as a kiwi. 

Definitely large enough that I was afraid to smoosh it.  It is the largest slug I have ever seen in my yard.

holes, holes, holes

This week I read Louis Sachar's novel Holes.  It is a great read.  I highly recommend it if you are looking for a quick summer splurge book -- even if you don't fit into the teenage boy demographic the book was created for. 

In the book, there were a lot of holes.  Holes to dig, holes to be dug....  

And it turned out that when I returned to my garden, there were a lot of holes there too.

 

I haven't been a vegetable gardener long enough to know if this is okay -- or if my crops have been doomed to failure just as the weather has finally got warm enough for things to start growing fast.

back from camping ...

... to discover that the melons and squashes I planted have sprouted.  I was afraid I was going to have to replant the entire patch -- but most seem to have some growth going (though one sprout was detached from its root -- how and why I don't know....)

Now the little guys just have to grow to fill in the trellis I made for them.

I wanted them to go up rather than out so I made a structure out of premade cedar trellising and steel fence stakes.  As a young woman I used to make fence for the Forest Service (among other things when we weren't fighting fires.)  It was a real pleasure to get one of those fence pounders back into my hands...

apple socks

Turns out I wasn't too late to sock my apples.  I took a look at the Seattle Tree Fruit Society website on maggot barriers and found out that quarter size is the upper end, but still within reasonable, for protecting one's fruit. 

I thought I was pretty smart buying pantyhose to do the job but when I opened the package I realized that they weren't going to look like I had seen in the picture at the STFS website (see figure 4.)

My nylons were way too loose.  Still short on time I decided to work with what I had (no time to either make a legitimate order of maggot barriers or to snag some peds from a department store shoe department.) 

I decided to just knot the pantyhose on -- until I tried it.  There was no way I was going to make a good knot without knocking off the fruit.  And then I realized there is something I am good at (as a parent of young girls): ponytails. 

So into the house for rubberbands it was.  The resulting socks are not pretty but hopefully they will be effective.  Would hate to lose any of the four fruits we have.... 

 

And before next season (and hopefully a bigger harvest of fruit), I am going to head out to a STFS meeting and pick up barriers and some fruit growing knowlege. 

garden life

Spent some time today in the fruit bed weeding.  Found lots of oxalis.  It's a pretty little weed with its dusky purple cast -- but I have been told it is a dangerous one -- to dig out the entire root or this little guy will multiply fast.  And I am being diligent about it since in another corner of my yard clover and vetch has overrun the existing periwinkle and is threating my nandina too.

In more upbeat garden news -- while weeding the fruit bed my son found 4 apples growing on our columnar tree.  This is the first time it has born fruit (it was planted 2 years ago.)

His discovery took me by total surprise.  I heard that stocking covers help prevent apple maggots infestation (which we are prone to in this area.)  I think we were supposed to get the covers on before the fruit reached nickel size and now I have quarters.  Plus I was caught unprepared since we have never had fruit before.  I bought nylons at the foodstore tonight so I can cover up my beauties tomorrow. 

Another surprise in my apple tree was the spiraled dweller below.  With my snail lover nearby, I had to quietly palm him and quickly launch him over the fence into the street.  I didn't go check on his landing...  I can be mean when there are edibles involved.

I also spent some time just enjoying the aesthetics of an abundant garden.  I am so glad I started planting months ago.

the miracle of cabbage

My cabbage has been growing and growing -- dominating more than its alotted square foot in my raised bed -- but it hasn't been looking like cabbage.  I was wondering if maybe I planted a non-heading variety.  And then I happened upon a post over at Modern Victory Garden that said her savoyed cabbage has large exterior whorl leaves that are just turning inward to become heads. 

And I thought two things: "I didn't plant the wrong type of cabbage" and "I have savoyed cabbage."  Well, one out of two isn't bad ... I planted the right cabbage but it isn't savoyed.  Apparently savoyed refers to the crinkled leaves found on winter cabbages.

I looked up my seeds online.  My parel cabbages have blue green wrapper leaves (check) that protect the white-leaved head core (not yet.)  My cabbages are growing slowly -- as I am pretty sure they are getting close to the 50 days advertised on the packet.  Maybe it is the cool weather.

Or maybe it is my spacing.  When I read that they produced 6 inch heads I thought: "I can put 4 in a square foot."  I knew nothing of wrapper leaves or how a cabbage grows.  I think in the future I will give my 6 inch cabbage a full foot to grow in.  Right now three are duking it out for growing rights -- and the nearby marigolds, beets, and spinach are trying not to be overwhelmed.

aphids, again

This tomato leaf is infested with aphids.  I am so tired of aphids.  I had them in my garden window starts.  I had them in my raised bed (and they get worse every time I use the remay cover).  And now I have them on my Topsy Turvy tomato plants.  Not much to do but go out with the hose on this rather rainy day, spray the heck out of the leaves, and hope they don't return. 

returning

I have been missing in action lately.  Buried under a mile long to-do list that included spreading my grandparents' ashes on the ground that used to be my grandmother's garden. 

Now I am hoping I am back, literally and figuratively -- my Grams' garden is in NJ, all the way across the country.  As I settle back in the weather is not cooperating.  We have little sun and no heat.  Today we are socked in with rain and clouds -- and not the variegated ones we are used to.  All in all, not a very inspiring day.

But I spent my morning at a Molbak's lecture on "How to Eat Your Front Yard," by Marianne Binetti (she has a new book, Edible Gardening For Washington and Oregon, that came out this spring.)  She was very engaging -- and apparently hosts European garden tours too.

I went because I was intrigued by the idea of integrating food with ornamentals -- plus I am always a sucker for a lecture that promises information specific to my climate.  She offered four steps: start with a plan, improve the soil with raised beds (or grow herbs instead), grow up, and create edible fences/borders.  The information that I took away that was particularly useful for me was:

• find garden hotspots for warm weather veggies.  Hotspots are located on the south and west sides of the house and are often near concrete (which will increase heat by holding it and releasing it overnight.)
• swiss chard will last for 2 years (while you slowly harvest the outer leaves) if planted in a raised bed that offers good drainage.  Which made me think: why am I reseeding it every 4 weeks??!
• harvest herbs between 10 am (when the leaves dry) and noon (when the essential oils start to burn off.)
• blueberries only need to be protected from birds when they are at their ripest.  She likes "tutu" tulle for the task.
• cover seeds with flat boards or tulle for three days when first planted to keep birds from eating your seeds as treats.
• red mulch has been shown to speed tomato growth (though only by 2-3 days).  You can buy red plastic mulch -- or use red plastic plates to get this effect.
• in the Pacific NW, you shouldn't pinch out the suckers that grow between branches on tomatoes.  The plants need every leaf they can get to absorb our limited sun.