garden has been put to bed, but it's 68 degrees out

I've pulled up all the tomato plants and cleaned up most of the garden except for the chives.
Also wanted to note that I planted 20 crocus in my yard, 10 aflatunense allium, and 6 pink pearl hyacinth in the front of the house. Soon after the squirrels dug a few up, I am not sure how many will make it. Someday I will get around to drawing a garden map. Until then, some text notes.

Hyancinth are so nice, I wonder why this isn't a popular name in the U.S.

last harvests

This harvest is from September 13th, almost a month ago! It's been a while since I posted. Soon after that, I had the first major theft from the garden. This was disappointing since the whole summer had gone by without theft, at least not anything so noticeable. Theft is a common problem at community gardens, so I guess I was lucky. For next year I will put a sign up that reminds people to Let it grow! The weather is getting colder now and it's time to put the garden to bed. We haven't had a true frost yet but I can feel that it will be coming soon. I hope to make a hoop over one of the boxes, and I will send reports soon.

tomato love

Tomatoes are coming in fast and furious now. I had to fight off blossom end rot after going away for a couple weeks, but it seems to be eradicated by now. It got really hot after some big storms so probably the tomatoes were not getting the consistent watering they needed.

In other news, I attended my first session of Veggie Bingo with neighbor Tara.

Unfortunately, some folks came by to cut all the wild plants that were growing in the empty lot, which is a shame. Without the flowers, now the bees congregate to my tomatillo and lemon balm plants.

overgrown cuke

I discovered a large cucumber after going out of town for a little over a week. But I didn't even recognize it! If it really was the Parisian pickling variety, it's totally bloated and past its prime. But it was still tasty, so I made a cucumber salad with it.

Check out the Flickr set (linked to the right) for more recent photos!

new Avondale farmers' market is a teen initiative

I'm looking forward to checking out this new farmers' market that has been developed and led by area teens in my neighborhood, Avondale. Here is the schedule and info about location:
http://www.concordiaplace.org/programs/teens/sprouting.html
Come check it out this Wednesday the 23rd from 3-6pm!

wild kingdom

I was gone for 10 days and upon return, it seems like a jungle out there. I tried to plant and repot as many seedlings before my departure, but there are a few left. I was a little worried about soil drainage since it rained so much. It seems everything is doing pretty well, except for the greens in the shoe containers, which have been attacked by some kind of mammal, no doubt.

Here you see the Seed Savers rhubarb chard and Red Russian kale with some broccoli peeking up in the background. Probably I planted this box too close together but I think everyone's doing ok. The Burpee spinach has bolted but the cloudier days this past week have allowed the greens to thrive. Ate a few snap peas and saw the first baby tomato too!

hacked!

this just in from my neighbors, who are the original motivators on the empty lot revival!

"we went out this morning before running in from the rain a few minutes ago and we took down 3 to 4 of the big invasive trees, a bunch of little ones. I got more of the nasty spikey plants taken out - and if we have more time a little later (between rain storms) I'll head back out to get the rest of them.  We poisoned a lot of the stumps and we've got some more to do, but for now we should start seeing the maple trees get bigger and we'll only need to deal with the little ones that pop up."

It's the last day of May and everything is just getting wild and green and full of foliage, especially since we had a spell of warm sunny weather until today. Just yesterday the view of the afghan blankets was obscured, now they are in full view again thanks to the weed whacking.

In other news, I accidentally injured one of the tomato plants I got from Kilbourn by swiping the hose on it. Trying to revive it but not sure if it's worth the effort. Need to finish planting all the rest of the seedlings, as they need more space and composty soil.