2010 Retrospective: Diva Cucumbers

You might remember the crazy rowcover structure I stuck to the fence with velcro, described back in this post. It resulted in decent protection. Above you can how the diva cucumber plants looked as of August 4, 2010. That's pretty good considering my cucumbers were a yellow spotted, shriveling up, powdery mildewed mess by Aug. 9th in 2009. There were just two major problems: 1) the Agribon didn't stick to the velcro very well, so even after I tried stapling it, it was tough to peel the cover off for harvest without ripping the velcro from the fabric and 2) I think some especially intrepid cucumber beetles were able to get to the plants through cracks in the fence. Still, it was good enough protection that the plants stayed healthy for a longer time. I was a bit disappointed with the Diva's production though - I probably picked less than 10 cucumbers, even with 4 plants. This year I'm going to try sewing the velcro to the Agribon with a wide zig zag stich, and plant Cool Breeze cucumbers. We'll see if they're any better.

Here is one of the cucumbers I harvested, along with some other garden veggies & berries picked that day. When they did grow, they were great! Really smooth and not bitter at all.

I made it into one of my favorite summer dishes - cold peanut soba noodles. I also shredded the carrots and turnips from the garden in it too. Turnips are suprisingly sweet when shredded raw!

Calendulas Reseeded All Over

Last year I planted a new bed of Calendulas (a mix of Oktoberfest and Flashback). Unfortunately, as detailed in this post, they ended up with some kind of disease. Over the winter I discovered that it probably was insect damage from the aphids, as well as thrips - because the markings on the leaves looked exactly like the ones in slide 31 of this pdf.

So I had no idea what was going to happen to them this year - but it turns out they rampantly self-seeded! I took this picture of the bed on April 5th. All of the little green things are Calendula seedlings.

Yesterday I finally thinned them. I'm sorry that I didn't take a picture before I did that, because I knew I had this one. But I didn't realize until afterwards how much they'd grown in the past month! There were at least 3 times as many seedlings yesterday before I thinned them than the April picture. Below you can see a picture of the result - with the huge pile of thinned plants in the background:
I really hope they stay healthy this year. I found some information online about beneficial nematodes that should help. These are microscopic creatures that naturally live in the soil. The type I bought are considered an organic method and don't harm anything except insects that are bad for the garden, including thrips. So I applied them as directed a couple weeks ago.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until after I placed the order I realized it probably technically isn't veganic, since they do eat the unwanted insects. Granted, this is a pretty small thing to worry about considering insects are harmed in one way or another no matter what you do. Also, I rationalize that they're normally in the soil anyway, and there was probably an imbalance in my soil because the previous owners applied pesticides, which kill beneficials as well as unwanted insects. So hopefully I just restored these creatures to their natural habitat, and it will work to improve the balance of insects in my yard. I hope that's what happens anyway, so I don't have to apply them again. Guess we'll see.

Calendula Bed Looking Beautiful

The calendulas really exploded this week. The flowering ones in the front are a mixture of Flashback and Oktoberfest that I planted inside under the growlight setup back in April. Towards the back are some smaller plants that I direct seeded in May. I'm really glad I started the earlier ones inside! You can see it made a huge difference.

The amazing thing is I took this picture on Tuesday, and by Thursday I went outside after work to find twice as many flowers! I love how they are all different shades of cream, yellow and orange. And they will keep flowering into the fall. What a great edible plant. There will be plenty to go around for bath salt presents this holiday season, that's for sure. I'm also hoping with this many plants in one bed, they'll self sow so next year Ill have early volunteers outside.















UPDATE 7/15/09: Darnit! I spoke too soon. Just noticed the calendulas have a terrible black aphid infestation! Going to try shooting them off with the hose. If that doesn't work, next step will be to use a canola oil/liquid soap solution. Would be nice to get some ladybugs, but the only place I know to get them is over the internet and I'm not quite there yet.

UPDATE 7/19/09: Well, the aphids were easy enough to control. Most of them were on spent blooms that needed to be deadheaded anyway, and the rest I just blasted off with the hose. Now there are just a couple more I'm going to blast off. However, I thought the light yellow spots on the leaves were normal, but they appear to be getting worse and may actually be a disease. Either leaf spot or white smut: http://vvv.state.ct.us/caes/PlantPestHandbookFiles/pphC/pphcale.htm. I hope it is the latter b/c that is not as serious as leaf spot, which will kill the plant. Guess we'll see how it goes.

Well Sweep Swept Me Away

Even though a Well Sweep is an old-time farming implement that made getting buckets of water out of a well easier, and has nothing to do with a broom, I can definitely still say this herb farm swept me off my feet! They had so many plants, it was completely overwhelming, in a good way of course.

As you can see from the picture, it was herbs as far as the eye could see. They had literally every single kind of herb I had ever heard of, plus many, many more that were completely new to me. I also saw a whole flock of the most adorable lambs, adults and babies - plus lots of pretty chickens in really nice coops. For a New Jersey farm, I have to say they really put the garden in the Garden State!













I spent about 3 hours just looking at all of the plants for sale, but could have easily spent twice that much time, or more. There was so much to learn, especially since their catalog was very well labeled and told a lot about each plant, such as whether or not it was winter hardy in our area, drought tolerant, edible, fragrant, sun needs, etc. It was helpful just to see what plants are supposed to look like too. Now for the seeds I am trying to grow at home, I know what they should look like when they grow. Unfortunately I had to get back home, so I didn't even get to go in their greenhouse with topiaries and rare species, or walk around the formal herb gardens. Guess this means I'll just have to go back soon! It was definitely worth the 1.5 hour drive.

I ended up wanting to buy everything of course, but managed to resist pretty well and only ended up spending a little over budget. I didn't really get anything that exotic, since I'm still new to this and trying to stick with things that are easy to grow. This is what I got, with a * next to the ones I planted last night:
LIST TO BE UPDATED TONIGHT

• *Logee Blue Rosemary
• *D- Rosemary
• *-Lavender
• *Flat leaf Parsely
• *White Borage
• *2 Red Gem Marigold
• *2 Tangerine Gem Marigold
• *- Giant Dill
• *Pink Chives (They had white too! They were a bit expensive since they are so rare, so I didn't buy one. Boy I'm kinda sorry now.)
• 2 Black Hollyhock (since only 6 out of the 15 seeds I planted germinated)
• Jacob Cline Red Bee Balm (since my seeds didn't germinate)
• White Yarrow (since I lost the seeds I ordered somehow!)
• - Shasta Daisy
• Anise Hyssop (since my winter sowing experiment failed miserably)
• Shiso (Perilla) Japanese Mint
• Ostrich Fern
• 2 Astilbe

Unfortunately Well Sweep did not have any compost for sale. We also stopped at a couple places on the way home, but none had anything suitable. I spoke with a knowledgable worker taking care of the plants at a decent nursery - and while they did have bagged organic compost made out of manure and humus, she said it has a tendency to burn plants so she didn't recommend that type. She also said my peppers are probably turning green because we have had so much rain lately. So it may just be too much water. I'm hoping that's it, and they'll recover soon as the weather gets warmer. I also bought some yellow squash from this nursery since I forgot to get them at Brock's when I bought the rest of the summer plants.

Uh oh! Newly Transplanted Pepper Leaves Turning Yellow

Oh no! I noticed last night, the peppers I planted from Brock's last sunday are turning yellowish, definitely not the deep bright green they were when I brought them home. More like light greenish yellow, as you can see from the habanero picture on the right. The soil around them in one bed was looking pretty hard and cracked, too.

I had some problems with peppers last year, so I'm not that surprised. I think it may be nitrogen deficiency in the soil. Although, the one bed I planted the scarlet runner beans in last summer, so it should have nitrogen? I also read it could be from too much chlorine in the water, which I'd say is definitely a possibility around here.

I wish my compost pile had worked out better. That's totally what these peppers need.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any vegan compost around here. I was thinking I might have to settle for something non-vegan but as harmless as possible. maybe vericomposted tea, even if the worms were fed non-vegan ingredients.

But they didn't have any compost tea at brock farms. I even asked the staff and they were like "nope, never heard of it - but it sounds cool". If it gets more desperate I might settle for animal poop, like bat guano or chicken manure? I mean, poop happens, and I don't think it would be un-vegan to use it, as long as the animals were not harmed in the process.

I have resisted buying it though, because i assume the stuff they sell at home depot probably is collected from harmed animals, since it most likely comes from factory farms.

Maybe I will find something tomorrow. I'm going to Well Sweep. I've never been there before but, according to the 80+ page catalog they have over 50 kinds of lavender and rosemary, and like every other herb known to humankind!! It looks awesome, and you can walk around their gardens, so we are making a day trip of it. I'm so excited!

I'm sure we'll pass many farm markets and gardening centers on the way too, since it is in west-central jersey. So there is hope we could find a good farm with compost.

Here's the main pepper bed. Three habaneros in the front, and three jalapenos in the back. Behind it on the trellis I planted zuchinni rampinato, or climbing squash. The four plants in the front are 2 red and 2 tangerine gem edible marigolds.

Actually, all this just made me remember I bought kelp at the end of last fall from a place on the west coast over the internet! But I just went and looked for it, and can't find it! Darn. Well, I better get off this computer. I gotta go look for it and put on the epsom salts.

edit: I just found this post about how to grow great peppers: http://theherbgardener.blogspot.com/2009/06/pepper-tips-and-tricks.html
It says
Pepper Growing Tips

Give peppers at least eight hours of light a day.

Peppers like rich soil that is high in phosphorous.

Make sure your peppers have good drainage.

Provide them with a soil pH between 6 and 8.
I need to follow up and make sure my peppers have enough phosphorous and a good pH.

Pea Update

It's been just about 32 days since I planted all those peas. I thought they were all doing pretty well. They look healthy and some are now about 3-4 inches tall.

But then I just looked at this post about the same dark-seeded early perfection peas I planted last fall. At 33 days old, last year they were WAY bigger than the ones I have now. I have them now on the same trellis, but they haven't even reached the bottom rung yet (see above), whereas the ones in the pic from last year are above the second rung and already have a few flowers!

As you can see on the right I have the sugar snaps on a bigger 6 foot tall trellis, but they haven't reached the bottom rung yet either.

I think they must just grow really slowly in the cold weather we've been having. It even snowed again yesterday morning. Just flurries, but overall this spring has been the coldest I remember in a long time. Bummer.

I planted them early because it gets so hot and humid here pretty quickly in June, and everything I read says that will kill peas. And if it takes 60 days for them to mature, that doesn't seem to leave enough time if I didn't plant them until April.

Darn! I was really looking forward to tasty peas! I really hope they grow faster once the weather warms up.

This is proving to me that I really need that Abgribon. I wanted to try a little wire hoop house type row cover setup. But the stuff is still on backorder. On March 26th they said it won't be mailed until April 10th or later. :-(

Here's a close up of the sugar snaps:

I didn't know they were supposed to be baby carrots!

That's all folks. Yep, this is pretty much the extent of 2008's carrot crop. I planted the Scarlet Nantes heirloom carrots from seed, thinking I made a good choice because the description said they were a relatively short growing time to harvest. Guess not. I planted them way back in May, and picked this one on November 22nd. They did get overshadowed by the peppers I planted around them, so I suppose they didn't get enough sun, but it still seems like a really poor yield.

Yet, amazingly enough- almost everything else in my garden now is brown, but the carrot tops are still green. Maybe I'll get a normal size carrot next spring? haha I think I'll try a different variety in 2009, probably not heirloom. My friend who is a Master Gardener said my garden really is too small to do much good for heirloom gardening anyway, as they usually take more room to grow and there is the danger of cross-pollination if you plant different types. I'll have to research some more to figure out what to grow next year, because one thing is for sure- as little as these were they tasted great! I definitely want more.

Scary Belated Halloween Post

Boo! Its an army of ugly angry tomatoes coming to get us a little after Halloween! Scaaaary. Actually, these were some of the last red tomatoes I picked back on October 4th. But I'm posting them now because I just learned something new about ugly tomatoes- something called "catfacing" and "growth cracks". I think the tomatoes above are afflicted by growth cracks, though I had a couple with catfaces too. I just want to post the links I found here so I don't forget next summer.

http://www.organicgardening.com/featureprint/1,7759,s-2-28-1121,00.html
http://wihort.uwex.edu/fruitveggies/TomatoDisorders.htm

Here's something positive for this post: I still picked 6 italian frying peppers like the ones above from my garden tonight, Nov. 9th! Amazing. They were delicious in this soyrizo polenta bake with some garden fresh oregano and a garden cayenne: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=13183.0

Nasturtium: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

They were pretty for a minute. Tasted good too, spicy yet floral. Unfortunately, this picture captured them at their very best 5 inch tall glory. A few weeks later they died. I'm not really sure what happened. The only thing I can think of is that they were in a hanging planter on the porch, and I wasn't very good at watering them. They only got partial sun up there too. I'm determined to give them another try next year, this time in the ground and full sun.

Poooor Kale

I was so excited to have fresh heirloom lacinato kale growing into November. Sigh. Unfortunately this is what they looked like on September 3rd.


I have about 6 plants now, and although they are a little bigger they still are all eaten up just like in the picture. It is the darn imported cabbage worms. I guess they like kale as much as I do. I've been pulling them off the kale at a rate of around 6 or more every other day.

As mentioned in my last post about these evil catepillars, I went out and bought BT- the organic pesticide that is supposed to stop them. But after buying it I read some stuff that really made me worry about using pesticides, even if they are organic. So I'm just chalking it up to experience this year, and trying to pick off as many as I can by hand.

Next year I'm going to using row covers. I found this great site with lots of information on it's products: http://groworganic.com/default.html?welcome=T&theses=3550316 From what I have read, it seems the Agribon is the way to go. It is expensive, but since my garden is small I can get the smallest quantity they have which will be about $50 and last for hopefully at least 3 seasons. In that case, it seems pretty cost effective if it keeps these darn worms off my whole crop.

Attack of the Killer Cabbage Worms

I woke up this fine Saturday morning, took the dog out and had a look at my garden. To my surprise I saw tons of tiny little greenish-black poop-looking things all over the lettuce.

After a bit of research and help from Kittee at theppk.com, I discovered that my fall crop was infested with the lowly imported cabbage worm. And all that time I spent catching the pretty white butterfly with my net when I was little, who knew they were pure evil to lettuce, kale, beets and turnips?


Luckily I caught them in time and not much damage was done. I combed the bed, looking at every leaf, and found about 6 - 10 of them lurking. The worst part was killing the poor things. As a vegan I hate to kill anything, but of course anytime you cut down a plant there are insects making their home in it that will die. There is only so much you can do. So I drowned them, but there has to be a quicker way. Maybe next time I'll try cutting them in half. Awww, ewww, terrible- poor worms. Or could I just throw them over the fence? Guess it depends on how mobile they are...
Funny enough, as I held one on my garden-gloved finger it pooped right in front of me! It was so weird, I wasn't sure which end of the worm was the head but I sure found out quickly enough. The backside opened up and the poop that came out was as wide as the worm. Gross! Its a good thing for those telltale signs of poop though, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to find them all and save my crop.

I also put some organic pesticide on but I think it was the wrong kind. BT is what works for catepillars. Although in the future I don't think I'll use either. Thinking about it, even though it is organic I still really don't know it's effects on the environment and who knows what is really affecting the bees. I decided just to keep looking for the poop, manually finding the offending worms, and at worst get some row covers.

Recovery of the Year Award: Mesclun Greens

As you may remember, rabbits ate my lettuce back in April. Well, now its June and I can't believe how nicely they grew back! This definitely gets the most delicious recovery of the year award!!

Unfortunately they went to seed pretty quickly, but they still tasted great as far as my husband and I were concerned. Here is the bounty:
I made them into a salad that turned out wonderfully, but I just made it up, so this recipe is approximate:


Grilled Beets, Carrots & Fennel on Mesclun Greens with Lingonberry Vinagrette:

meclun greens

3-4 beets

3-4 carrots

1 fennel bulb

1 stalk celery

ligonberry vinegar

olive oil

salt and pepper

Peel and slice carrots and beets into 1/4 inch rounds. Cut bottom and top off of fennel bulb, but save the fennel fronds to the side. Slice fennel bulb lengthwise in 1/4 thicknesses. Coat veggies in olive oil, salt and pepper, then place on grill using a tray with holes in it so they don't fall through. Cook on low until tender, about 10 - 15 minutes.

Meanwhile slice celery in 1/4 pieces and finely chop fennel fronds.

In a separate bowl, combine ligonberry vinegar, olive oil, more salt and pepper. I really like vinegar and am trying to save calories, so I usually do 2 parts vinegar to 1 part oil, though most people do the opposite.

Place mesclun greens and celery on plates. Toss finished grilled veggies with vinagrette and place on bed of greens. Garnish with fennel fronds. Enjoy!

Notes: I actually didn't use fresh beets for this, I just added a half can of beets with the grilled carrots. It still tasted ok though I'm sure it would be better with actual grilled beets. I also would leave the celery out next time. And Ligonberry vinegar is sold at Ikea- but any light, fruity vinegar would do.

Wascally Wabbit Disaster!

Well, the lettuces were growing beautifully. I came home one evening to discover some unidentified animal got in and chomped them all right down to the dirt. I assume it was a rabbit, since I know there are a lot of them in this area. I also found a hole in the fence, which we patched upwith some extra fencing we found behind the shed. Two of the romaines seemed so eaten beyond repair I pulled them out and threw them in the dirt next to the bed. Miraculously, a week or two later the remaining 6 lettuces were growing back, up to about 2-3 inches tall, raising my hopes. I looked at the two thrown in the dirt and thought, hmm, could it be they might possibly grow back? So after a week or so of laying there in the dirt, I replanted them in the bed.

But then again! Disaster. More animals chomped the lettuces back down to the dirt a second time. I found a couple more holes in the fence so we patched those up too. Here is a close up of the poor romaine, chomped to the ground:The good news is, this was two weeks ago or so, and apparently our rabbit control measures have worked. The lettuces are growing like wildfire. Amazingly, one of the plants that sat out in the dirt for a week is even green and starting to grow back too! I'm sure I will be able to update the blog with a nice big picture of them soon.

What "Weed" Am I?

The backyard we bought was filled with weeds. So many of them are adorable- but I don't know what they are. I wish I did- anyone out there have a clue?

Here is one type. This picture was taken on April 17th, and now it is one month later but all of the little blue flowers are gone. I don't know if this is because we mowed it, or if that is the plants natural cycle.


And here is another, whose flowers have also dissappeared over the past month. Not that there aren't still weeds all over, they just don't look quite as cute as this anymore:

And then of course there is the ubiquitous dandelion. If there is any symbol of everything that is crazy about humanity today, it seems to me the common dandelion should be it. From what I understand, the leaves have more vitamins and nutrition than spinach. Sure, its a little bitter, but if you pick it while still young, then saute it with some garlic and sprinkle on some lemon juice, it is quite tasty. I will never understand why people put pesticides into the ground water and waste so much energy trying to kill these things! Sure, I guess they are invasive, yadda yadda, but in a world of skyrocketing food and gas prices with so many people that go hungry, hard to kill edible plants don't seem to be such a bad thing to me. Not to mention the fact, the yellow flowers are so pretty!