As the summer progresses so is my vegetable garden…
While I was away last week in Panama for vacation with my girlfriend, my mother (Sue Smalley @ www.suesmalley.com) helped keep track of the vegetable garden. Basically I needed her to water my plants on my balcony everyday and just keep an eye on the vegetables as they usually are pretty good at maintaining themselves. When I got back I went to see my garden and oh was it flourishing. Two of my tomato plants are topping 6ft!!! That’s my height and to think they are growing right over our grass lawn is so amazing. I can honestly say I think these are the biggest tomato plants I have ever seen. Plus they have almost no damage whatsoever (except for a few yellow leaves toward the center). While none of the tomatoes are ready to eat yet there is one that is turning a beautiful red color and will be ready to harvest hopefully within the week. Upon my arrival home, I looked at the two zucchini bushes that I have been having problems with in terms of powdery mildew. They both look heavily infected again and I think it is time to spray them again with a 10% milk spray. Other than that the plants look huge and they are starting to pop out a lot of little zucchini flowers telling me that they are ready to start making zucchinis.
Before I left for Panama I decided to get as much work on the garden done as possible. First I removed all of the flowers in the back row as they weren’t working and I planted two watermelon plants on either side. After that my parents wanted to plant some flowers (that can be cut for decoration) within the back row so they did that and I hope to be able to weave the watermelon throughout these flowers and, depending on how large they become, train them to grow up the trellis that currently houses the soybeans.
The soybeans are all producing fruit although they are very measly and do not look that healthy. I am leaving them in the soil at least until the watermelons reach the trellis or the weather starts to cool down so I can begin planting peas in their place.
Also last week I decided to uproot the arugula that had become bolted due to mid summer heat. That I replaced with edible marigold flowers which I had been growing on my balcony (the ones that had a pest infestation though no longer do.)
Currently most of my plants are flowering, which is pretty although takes away from their work in the garden; when herbs flower their culinary use is no longer as good. The dill and fennel are flowering (this is nice because their flowers are not only pretty but they attract many beneficial insects) and so is the amaranth.
It is time I do a huge harvest once again: the plants that need to be harvested are the basil (both thai and regular), the chives, sage, lavender, and everything else that is looking very big.
Upon reflection, it is truly amazing that this garden is a reality when only two months ago the land was nothing but grass. This project has truly showed me something and allowed me to understand no-dig gardening as well as allow my friends and family to see ‘the magic’ take place. With no more than a foot of topsoil every plant I planted has been doing phenomenally and there are tomato plants that are taller than me!! I find this astonishing. And now I know that no matter what people say or what books I read I KNOW than A MASSIVE vegetable garden can be planted on top of a grass lawn without even removing the sod.
The pest infestation that I experienced last week is completely gone. The best solution to solving it was to take all of the plants off my balcony and to spray them vigorously with the garden hose. Then instead of putting them all back clumped tightly together on my balcony I allowed them to be spaced out and recover. The result was no pests by the time I returned from a 5 day vacation. The main reason the pests got so bad was because I had clumped them too closely together that when one plant got infested so did all of them. Even with the proper companion plants, planting too close in a sense created a sort of monoculture that was very easy to be infected.
Another note from my balcony: The pumpkin plant is getting huge and I currently have a pumpkin about a half a foot large. I trained it to wrap around my balcony and that is just what it did (although I was away during this crucial period and for that my mother gets credit). The peaches on my balcony are huge and ripe and yesterday I picked the ripest one and ate it. I did this mid-day and I have never tasted any peach so good. Although it was not as sweet as some peaches it was all warmed up from the midday sun and I could taste the warmth and freshness which contributed to the best peach eating experience in my life. Now I have two more that need to be picked but I want to pick these in the afternoon sometime.
Another plant to note is my blueberry bush. When I came home from Panama it looked completely burned all over and was probably 50-60% dead!! AGHH… This was no ones fault as the heat of the summer got so intense while I was gone that it burned the delicate blueberry bush leaves (even though it is a full sun plant). I moved the bush to a shady location underneath a huge jacaranda tree in my backyard and am planning on leaving it there until it hopefully returns back to life.
The banana tree I have is also getting pretty big as a new leaf emerged last week. This leaf is now full sized and the plant is looking very healthy. I have so many plants in my house and in my garden right now that if I even tried to write about them all I would end up writing a book.
This experience (while still in progress) has taught me such a great deal about gardening. My mother is so excited everyday to see what is producing in the garden and this has been a great way to help teach her how to garden. And while this is just the first season for my (hopefully lifelong career in gardening) I know that while everything is not perfect (far from actually) it is perfect in the sense of what I am learning. I feel as though I am reaching an understanding of certain plants and gardening in general that is not possible to learn through books and is something that only I - with the help of nature - can understand; this journey is one that is guided by a light within all things.
Peace out July 21st A TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUNTHE SUN
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Weeks of July 7th-20th
Found out that the blueberry bush was definitely suffering. It was in direct sunlight on the center of my balcony and so (while blueberry bushes are supposed to be in full sun) there was too much sun because we live in southern California (zone 10) and my balcony is all white creating a burning effect on the plants leaf edges. I first tilled in some Alazea food into the first few inches of the blueberry bush pot (this is highly acidic which is necessary for the roots of the bush to absorb nutrients). The reason the bush’s leaves were coming out light lime-colored looking sick with chlorosis was because the soil was too alkaline. So in a few days the problem should be fixed. To fix the issue of sun I decided to put the bush in the corner of my balcony which offers (partial) sun. I will keep this issue updated as next year I hope to have a multitude of blueberries.
And now to talk about some issues.
1.Aphids, Black Mites, other pests on balcony
The other day I was looking at the general feel of most of the plants on my balcony as I noticed they all looked a little under the weather. It started with the marigolds looking twisted and curly with leaves turning brown and dying. The other plants didn’t look as bad although a lot of them (mainly the bell peppers) looked like they hadn’t grown in a week and knowing the conditions I was giving them I expected them to be getting huge. So I got in closer to take a look and at first what I saw (on the peppers, watermelon, and on some tomatoes) was that they were infested with green aphids!!! This took me by surprise as the problem was already in a pretty hectic stage. At first, after this discovery, I went to each and every plant on my balcony and checked them entirely squishing all the little buggers I could find. I went about the pest problem in this way for a few hours until I felt like I had done a good job; then I decided to brew up some natural pesticide in my kitchen. For the first pesticide I blended garlic cloves, extremely hot peppers (the colorful ones) from my garden, lemon rind, and any other thing I thought would make a smelly burning cocktail. After brewing this I tested it out on one of my cilantro plants (that was fully infested) and gave it a day to rest. The next day the plant looked fine but this concoction I had made I think may have been too strong. I didn’t want to spray it all over my plants. I decided to brew up a simple pesticidal soap using one tablespoon of Dr. Bronner’s Eucalyptus soap to about a quart of water (to this I mixed a little amount of my earlier cocktail) and made a stinky soapy natural spray. I used this all over the marigolds (which were infested with hundreds of black spider mites I believe and also these slithery insects that were pretty big). The next day It looked like the potion had worked pretty well as a large majority of the pests were dead. The aphids turned a yellow dried-up looking color and the little spider mites just looked dead. I decided this spray was probably pretty safe and effective so I began spraying it on all of my plants. Now two days later it looks like the pest problem is getting in check as the plants are just beginning to come back to life looking a little healthier (at least a few of the bell peppers have already grown dramatically).
Along with the three pests already mentioned there were also tiny red ‘spider mite’ looking creatures (though less in numbers) that I found on some of my plants. I think the main thing is these plants were ready to be transplanted probably 2 wks ago and since there were just sitting in such a crowded environment for too long a pest problem broke out. Now I have the plants spaced all over the balcony as I do not trust putting them so close together.
2. Finishing the Arugula (harvesting it all as it begins to bolt)
Last weekend we harvested about a thousand grams of arugula from the garden that was used to make endless salads over the weedend and throughout the week. It was the best arugula as I like it spicy and this stuff was just at the perfect spice. Perfect timing too, as now the arugula is bolting and beginning to flower (making it not good for consumption any more); this happens due to the fact that we live in zone 10 and it gets very hot mid-day causing plants to mature early and bolt (this was expected). Now there are arugula plants bolting and I have yet to take them out of the garden. I think I will be replacing them with spinach that is highly resistant to bolting. I want to plant lettuce but this spot during this time of the year it would never work. I am contemplating attempting to grow some butter lettuce in the shade of my tomato plants as I think they keep the temperatures under them at a cooler degree and it may be possible to grow them is their shade. This would be an excellent example of interplanting/companion planting.
Since my family is largely vegetarians (or mainly eat vegetables) we eat many salads and the arugula salad as been so much fun for us all this whole past month. The best salad we made had an arugula base, it was covered in strawberries, mango’s, and peaches with walnuts and pine nuts and only the lightest lemon and olive oil dressing. It was godlike eating it outside on a hot summer day under the canopy looking at my garden. Everyone (my family and friends who were there) could not believe how good the salad was!!
3. I went out to the garden today to check on the vegetables. There are a few items that concern me. One is the fennel and dill. The dill is flowering which is just fine as the flower should start attracting beneficial insects to my garden (ones that eat the pests). But the fennel next to the dill is hurting. It looks very sick and out of all six fennel plants only one has really taken to full foliage; all of the others look sick. I’m ok with having the dill flower and not using it for culinary purposes as much but it would be nice if the fennel starts to take hold as I would like to use it for cooking. I think what I am going to do is make a concoction of the fish emulsion and feed it to my garden early tomorrow morning. It says to feed the plants every three weeks and it has been about that time.
I was looking at the zucchini plants and I have a few zucchini coming in. One is already pretty big. The powdery mildew completely went away with the application of the milk-fungicide. Although taking a closer look it looks like it might be coming back in the bottom of one of the plants. So today I am going to make another magic milk potion and spray the plants again. I also noticed a little powdery mildew coming on one of my tomato plants which I will put to rest ASAP!!
4. Start planting seeds in garden for next season.
5. Take a closer look at the watermelon and found out it was a pumpkin. Haha that was pretty funny. I though it was a watermelon because that was the row I took it from but than as it got huge I wanted to look up what the major pests for watermelons are and as I was looking it up I noticed that the plants I thought were watermelons were actually pumpkins and vice-a-versa. So now I have a huge pumpkin plant on my balcony one which I had thought was going to produce watermelons. ~~~~Ridiculousness
6. Ripening of the peaches
The peach tree is booming. The three peach cluster is really ripening; they are all looking a dark ruby red. While I only have three I think they will be the best peaches ever. I should probably prune but for some reason I just don’t like messing with things like that. I feel that the tree can maintain itself and like my no-dig garden, I will allow nature to do the process. There have been no signs of pests on it although I am worried as it is located on the same balcony experiencing heavy pest issues.
7. Back row failure --planning for Fall
So the back row of my garden is truly being wasted. I planted these bootleg flowers that I don’t even like and the soybean plant is producing the weakest fruits I have ever seen. I decided to turn the back plot into a place for pumpkins and watermelons to grow, while trellising some pea plants on the trellis. It still needs to be developed but basically where it is right now is not sufficient.
Besides the back row there are a lot of other things I am planning for the fall garden. First my parents love cut flowers like zinnias and have asked me if I could grow some for them. I am going to try to grow these flowers and we will see what happens. Hopefully I can figure out some companion plants to mix in with them, maybe some sort of food hopefully or another flower that is attractive and attracts beneficial insects.
8. Worm bin at second level!!! First ingredients pulp from new juicer
My worms have finally eaten most of the newspaper I gave them a month ago and turned it into a fine dark rich compost. So it is time to put the second worm bin on and begin adding food to it. After buying a new juicer and juicing some crazy concoctions I am using all of the pulp and feeding it to the worms. After one day they are already at work eating the pulp. Also there are none of those awful vinegar flies I experienced last time I put food in (which was too much food for the worms). So finally it is working properly and I can’t wait to begin recycling all of my food waste. A funny story related to this is last week my friend Ben and I took a basic knife skills cooking class and without knowing who my knife cutting partner was I ended up having full and deep conversations with her. I later discovered she was a pretty famous actress and her pretty famous husband singer, writer, comedian. Anyways at the end of the class her husband was collecting all of the vegetable scraps in a large trash bag and I asked him what it was for when he told me he feeds it to the worms. I was shocked, they have a worm bin too! I explained to him my issue with my worm bin and he said give it time and a tip is to blend all of the food scraps so it is easier to break down for the worms. That was great advice that I have taken with me and am sure it will help for the future.
9. Take More Photos
And now to talk about some issues.
1.Aphids, Black Mites, other pests on balcony
The other day I was looking at the general feel of most of the plants on my balcony as I noticed they all looked a little under the weather. It started with the marigolds looking twisted and curly with leaves turning brown and dying. The other plants didn’t look as bad although a lot of them (mainly the bell peppers) looked like they hadn’t grown in a week and knowing the conditions I was giving them I expected them to be getting huge. So I got in closer to take a look and at first what I saw (on the peppers, watermelon, and on some tomatoes) was that they were infested with green aphids!!! This took me by surprise as the problem was already in a pretty hectic stage. At first, after this discovery, I went to each and every plant on my balcony and checked them entirely squishing all the little buggers I could find. I went about the pest problem in this way for a few hours until I felt like I had done a good job; then I decided to brew up some natural pesticide in my kitchen. For the first pesticide I blended garlic cloves, extremely hot peppers (the colorful ones) from my garden, lemon rind, and any other thing I thought would make a smelly burning cocktail. After brewing this I tested it out on one of my cilantro plants (that was fully infested) and gave it a day to rest. The next day the plant looked fine but this concoction I had made I think may have been too strong. I didn’t want to spray it all over my plants. I decided to brew up a simple pesticidal soap using one tablespoon of Dr. Bronner’s Eucalyptus soap to about a quart of water (to this I mixed a little amount of my earlier cocktail) and made a stinky soapy natural spray. I used this all over the marigolds (which were infested with hundreds of black spider mites I believe and also these slithery insects that were pretty big). The next day It looked like the potion had worked pretty well as a large majority of the pests were dead. The aphids turned a yellow dried-up looking color and the little spider mites just looked dead. I decided this spray was probably pretty safe and effective so I began spraying it on all of my plants. Now two days later it looks like the pest problem is getting in check as the plants are just beginning to come back to life looking a little healthier (at least a few of the bell peppers have already grown dramatically).
Along with the three pests already mentioned there were also tiny red ‘spider mite’ looking creatures (though less in numbers) that I found on some of my plants. I think the main thing is these plants were ready to be transplanted probably 2 wks ago and since there were just sitting in such a crowded environment for too long a pest problem broke out. Now I have the plants spaced all over the balcony as I do not trust putting them so close together.
2. Finishing the Arugula (harvesting it all as it begins to bolt)
Last weekend we harvested about a thousand grams of arugula from the garden that was used to make endless salads over the weedend and throughout the week. It was the best arugula as I like it spicy and this stuff was just at the perfect spice. Perfect timing too, as now the arugula is bolting and beginning to flower (making it not good for consumption any more); this happens due to the fact that we live in zone 10 and it gets very hot mid-day causing plants to mature early and bolt (this was expected). Now there are arugula plants bolting and I have yet to take them out of the garden. I think I will be replacing them with spinach that is highly resistant to bolting. I want to plant lettuce but this spot during this time of the year it would never work. I am contemplating attempting to grow some butter lettuce in the shade of my tomato plants as I think they keep the temperatures under them at a cooler degree and it may be possible to grow them is their shade. This would be an excellent example of interplanting/companion planting.
Since my family is largely vegetarians (or mainly eat vegetables) we eat many salads and the arugula salad as been so much fun for us all this whole past month. The best salad we made had an arugula base, it was covered in strawberries, mango’s, and peaches with walnuts and pine nuts and only the lightest lemon and olive oil dressing. It was godlike eating it outside on a hot summer day under the canopy looking at my garden. Everyone (my family and friends who were there) could not believe how good the salad was!!
3. I went out to the garden today to check on the vegetables. There are a few items that concern me. One is the fennel and dill. The dill is flowering which is just fine as the flower should start attracting beneficial insects to my garden (ones that eat the pests). But the fennel next to the dill is hurting. It looks very sick and out of all six fennel plants only one has really taken to full foliage; all of the others look sick. I’m ok with having the dill flower and not using it for culinary purposes as much but it would be nice if the fennel starts to take hold as I would like to use it for cooking. I think what I am going to do is make a concoction of the fish emulsion and feed it to my garden early tomorrow morning. It says to feed the plants every three weeks and it has been about that time.
I was looking at the zucchini plants and I have a few zucchini coming in. One is already pretty big. The powdery mildew completely went away with the application of the milk-fungicide. Although taking a closer look it looks like it might be coming back in the bottom of one of the plants. So today I am going to make another magic milk potion and spray the plants again. I also noticed a little powdery mildew coming on one of my tomato plants which I will put to rest ASAP!!
4. Start planting seeds in garden for next season.
5. Take a closer look at the watermelon and found out it was a pumpkin. Haha that was pretty funny. I though it was a watermelon because that was the row I took it from but than as it got huge I wanted to look up what the major pests for watermelons are and as I was looking it up I noticed that the plants I thought were watermelons were actually pumpkins and vice-a-versa. So now I have a huge pumpkin plant on my balcony one which I had thought was going to produce watermelons. ~~~~Ridiculousness
6. Ripening of the peaches
The peach tree is booming. The three peach cluster is really ripening; they are all looking a dark ruby red. While I only have three I think they will be the best peaches ever. I should probably prune but for some reason I just don’t like messing with things like that. I feel that the tree can maintain itself and like my no-dig garden, I will allow nature to do the process. There have been no signs of pests on it although I am worried as it is located on the same balcony experiencing heavy pest issues.
7. Back row failure --planning for Fall
So the back row of my garden is truly being wasted. I planted these bootleg flowers that I don’t even like and the soybean plant is producing the weakest fruits I have ever seen. I decided to turn the back plot into a place for pumpkins and watermelons to grow, while trellising some pea plants on the trellis. It still needs to be developed but basically where it is right now is not sufficient.
Besides the back row there are a lot of other things I am planning for the fall garden. First my parents love cut flowers like zinnias and have asked me if I could grow some for them. I am going to try to grow these flowers and we will see what happens. Hopefully I can figure out some companion plants to mix in with them, maybe some sort of food hopefully or another flower that is attractive and attracts beneficial insects.
8. Worm bin at second level!!! First ingredients pulp from new juicer
My worms have finally eaten most of the newspaper I gave them a month ago and turned it into a fine dark rich compost. So it is time to put the second worm bin on and begin adding food to it. After buying a new juicer and juicing some crazy concoctions I am using all of the pulp and feeding it to the worms. After one day they are already at work eating the pulp. Also there are none of those awful vinegar flies I experienced last time I put food in (which was too much food for the worms). So finally it is working properly and I can’t wait to begin recycling all of my food waste. A funny story related to this is last week my friend Ben and I took a basic knife skills cooking class and without knowing who my knife cutting partner was I ended up having full and deep conversations with her. I later discovered she was a pretty famous actress and her pretty famous husband singer, writer, comedian. Anyways at the end of the class her husband was collecting all of the vegetable scraps in a large trash bag and I asked him what it was for when he told me he feeds it to the worms. I was shocked, they have a worm bin too! I explained to him my issue with my worm bin and he said give it time and a tip is to blend all of the food scraps so it is easier to break down for the worms. That was great advice that I have taken with me and am sure it will help for the future.
9. Take More Photos
Week Of June 29th
The powdery mildew was still on the squash and I do not believe the garlic spray was working. So last night I tried a new spray that is supposed to eradicate up to 90% of the powdery mildew on contact. This spray is 1 part milk to 9 parts water. It was discovered in the 1990’s by a New Zealander and supposedly works just as good as commercial sprays. Last night I sprayed the two plants and this morning when I checked it looks as though the powdery mildew is going away (ie. the fungus looked less healthy today than yesterday). This application is repeated once a week and I will repeat next week.
On another note I harvested both of my cilantro plants for the first time today by cutting off the top third of each plant. Along with this I also harvested some swiss chard. Both of these plants I used to make a tofu scramble. The ingredients were, Thai Basil, Cilantro, Swiss Chard, Onion, Bell pepper, Ginger, Garlic, Tumeric, Coriander, Cumin, AMY’s Mild Salsa, and crumbled hard Tofu. My sister and I ate it with tortillas and it was excellent. She was amazed at what kinds of dishes can be inspired through a single harvest in the garden.
Furthermore my peaches are ripening everyday; I have 4 in total. And my wathermelon plant is getting huge. I am training it to grow upwards and out so that I am able to grow some Bunching Red Onions in the front of it. Another sight is my blueberry bush that looked slightly haggard this morning; it is beginning to appear that it may have some chlorosis of the veins (maybe iron).
On another note I harvested both of my cilantro plants for the first time today by cutting off the top third of each plant. Along with this I also harvested some swiss chard. Both of these plants I used to make a tofu scramble. The ingredients were, Thai Basil, Cilantro, Swiss Chard, Onion, Bell pepper, Ginger, Garlic, Tumeric, Coriander, Cumin, AMY’s Mild Salsa, and crumbled hard Tofu. My sister and I ate it with tortillas and it was excellent. She was amazed at what kinds of dishes can be inspired through a single harvest in the garden.
Furthermore my peaches are ripening everyday; I have 4 in total. And my wathermelon plant is getting huge. I am training it to grow upwards and out so that I am able to grow some Bunching Red Onions in the front of it. Another sight is my blueberry bush that looked slightly haggard this morning; it is beginning to appear that it may have some chlorosis of the veins (maybe iron).
Week of June 23rd
The squash had powdery mildew. I treated this with a garlic spray that I brewed in my house. We’ll see how it takes.
Just ate quinoa pesto pasta with grilled veggies that was unreal. Ate with friend Mgabe and Danielle. The pesto we made using the finest basil tips from the garden. We made a vegan version of the traditional pesto only using basil, 2 packets of pine nuts, garlic, and olive oil. We blended it using the Magic Bullet and it was sooo good. We did that 3 days ago. The garden is looking bigger today. We have a lot of tomatoes that are ripening.
Yesterday we made an arugula salad with my mom that was soo good. In total we harvested just enough for us to eat it all. The soybeans are taking some time. And the past few nights Danielle and I have gone slug hunting. Last night we went out with chopsticks and took down probably around 40-50 slugs. They are living in a symbiotic relationship with the mushrooms that are growing in the area (which also only come out at night) and the slugs eat the mushrooms. The problem (we think) is that when the slugs are finished eating their mushrooms they go onto the plants (as noted last week when I caught some on my soybean plants at 3AM).
Anyway got to go finish eating my grilled veggies.
Just ate quinoa pesto pasta with grilled veggies that was unreal. Ate with friend Mgabe and Danielle. The pesto we made using the finest basil tips from the garden. We made a vegan version of the traditional pesto only using basil, 2 packets of pine nuts, garlic, and olive oil. We blended it using the Magic Bullet and it was sooo good. We did that 3 days ago. The garden is looking bigger today. We have a lot of tomatoes that are ripening.
Yesterday we made an arugula salad with my mom that was soo good. In total we harvested just enough for us to eat it all. The soybeans are taking some time. And the past few nights Danielle and I have gone slug hunting. Last night we went out with chopsticks and took down probably around 40-50 slugs. They are living in a symbiotic relationship with the mushrooms that are growing in the area (which also only come out at night) and the slugs eat the mushrooms. The problem (we think) is that when the slugs are finished eating their mushrooms they go onto the plants (as noted last week when I caught some on my soybean plants at 3AM).
Anyway got to go finish eating my grilled veggies.
Week of June 18th
Put in three more dill plants and three more fennel plants to act as background foliage in the second two garden beds. Not only will these plants provide delightful feathery foliage but they will also grow tall and provide more shade for the plants I’ve planted in the back garden bed (which prefer shade yet are currently getting too much sun. Also dill and fennel (being great culinary herbs) attract beneficial insect predators such as the lacewig, ladybugs (THERE WE GO!!), hoverflies, and parasitic mini wasps. Not only do these plants attract beneficial insects but so does all of the sweet alyssum planted as a border to the garden. These tiny insects are good at eating aphids, mealybugs, and other such pests to the garden.
Another sort of biocontrol I initiated is using beer to attract slugs. I noticed one night (I went out with a flashlight to look at the soybean plants) that they were being eaten by slugs. To prevent this, I dug three holes in the background of the garden and dug in a three solo red beer cups. These I filled 80% with beer (the yeast attracts the slugs and they fall in and drown). I checked the next day and oh boy I caught a whole bunch of these slugs. I also noticed that my soybeans look less ruined.
So finally the first season garden is finished and people seem to love it. My mom’s meditation group (they come every Friday morning) won’t stop complementing me on how great the garden looks.
Another thing that happened to me is my mom wants lettuce in the garden. She said all her other friends have it. But I know if I plant lettuce now it will be bolting by mid July and also we have no more space in the garden. I decided this wasn’t a feasible idea.
Today I tied up the two basil plants in the back corners because they kept flopping over. I put in two stakes (fallen off branches from nearby trees) and tied up the basil so it now looks more presentable.
Other things that happened recently in the garden are : I planted two sets of three edible Nasturtium flowers next to the squash plants. These I grew from seed and am pleased to know that they made there way finally into the garden. This can also be said about two amaranth plants I just planted in the sides of each garden.
Another sort of biocontrol I initiated is using beer to attract slugs. I noticed one night (I went out with a flashlight to look at the soybean plants) that they were being eaten by slugs. To prevent this, I dug three holes in the background of the garden and dug in a three solo red beer cups. These I filled 80% with beer (the yeast attracts the slugs and they fall in and drown). I checked the next day and oh boy I caught a whole bunch of these slugs. I also noticed that my soybeans look less ruined.
So finally the first season garden is finished and people seem to love it. My mom’s meditation group (they come every Friday morning) won’t stop complementing me on how great the garden looks.
Another thing that happened to me is my mom wants lettuce in the garden. She said all her other friends have it. But I know if I plant lettuce now it will be bolting by mid July and also we have no more space in the garden. I decided this wasn’t a feasible idea.
Today I tied up the two basil plants in the back corners because they kept flopping over. I put in two stakes (fallen off branches from nearby trees) and tied up the basil so it now looks more presentable.
Other things that happened recently in the garden are : I planted two sets of three edible Nasturtium flowers next to the squash plants. These I grew from seed and am pleased to know that they made there way finally into the garden. This can also be said about two amaranth plants I just planted in the sides of each garden.
June 4th-5th
Today, Danielle (my girlfriend) and I went to the Dervaes homestead (the same day we went to the Huntington Botanical Garden). It was cool and we took some pamphlets. For more info on this Google Dervae's Family Homestead...Basically it is an urban mini-farm project located in Pasadena. It's pretty inspirational and it was a little sad that we couldnt take a tour of it; though, nonetheless it is amazing.
After that we went to Chinatown and bought a banana tree for 20$. When I went to transplant it I noticed it was sitting in the hardest clay I have ever seen and it was infested with snails and bugs in the root system. This was very unhealthy plant. It also had a lot of dirt on it. I cleaned the leaves and I transplanted the tree into premium potting soil. After a few days the tree is looking a lot healthier.
Noticed soybean plants being eaten. Don’t know cause yet.
Found out soybeans being eaten by slugs.
At night scattered ladybugs for pest control.
Also made a perameter of coffee grounds around the plants that act as a barrier for slugs and snails.
Next morning realized that most of the ladtbugs I scattered either flew away or were already dead :(...I guess thats what you get for forcing ladybugs to a location rather than promoting a healthy natural habitat that ladybugs will be attracted to. oh well.
Also I decided on planting lavender and chives as a background to the center two beds. These two plants do a great job of complementing each other and provide a good source of flavor and food. Although these plants didn’t fill all the gaps, I decided to put the dill/fennel in the back (done on a later date).
After that we went to Chinatown and bought a banana tree for 20$. When I went to transplant it I noticed it was sitting in the hardest clay I have ever seen and it was infested with snails and bugs in the root system. This was very unhealthy plant. It also had a lot of dirt on it. I cleaned the leaves and I transplanted the tree into premium potting soil. After a few days the tree is looking a lot healthier.
Noticed soybean plants being eaten. Don’t know cause yet.
Found out soybeans being eaten by slugs.
At night scattered ladybugs for pest control.
Also made a perameter of coffee grounds around the plants that act as a barrier for slugs and snails.
Next morning realized that most of the ladtbugs I scattered either flew away or were already dead :(...I guess thats what you get for forcing ladybugs to a location rather than promoting a healthy natural habitat that ladybugs will be attracted to. oh well.
Also I decided on planting lavender and chives as a background to the center two beds. These two plants do a great job of complementing each other and provide a good source of flavor and food. Although these plants didn’t fill all the gaps, I decided to put the dill/fennel in the back (done on a later date).
Monday, June 29, 2009
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