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.

Herban Renewal on TV

Last night I saw this on cable access or one of the Christian stations, I'm not sure which. Her company's name is Herban Renewal, which is the same as the name I used for this blog. She was reading some kind of conversation about human tapeworms, so I'm in good company for using bad puns.

subscribe via e-mail

If you type in your email address to the right, you will get an update any time I post a new entry to this blog. Don't worry, I seem to be averaging less than 1 entry a week, so your inbox will not be overflowing. This is good for those of you who don't use RSS readers, like my mom (a master gardener & inspiration!)

mid-May photos finally uploaded

We have had a few days in the 80s with lots of sun. The plants are loving it, and drinking up lots of water. Here are a few photos from mid May. The radishes have all been eaten up, and I started some new seeds even though it's a little too warm for them. I've added a Flickr link so you can see more photos from the garden. I do not like posting redundantly to every social media network when I could be spending time actually in the garden.

First salad with lettuce and radish from the garden!

These are plants I picked up at the Kilbourn sale: alyssum (the white flowers), 2 tomatillos, amaranth, husk/ground cherries, nasturtium, horseradish, a baby raspberry, and a couple others I'm forgetting at the moment.

hanging pocket planter fails

Just tried to plant some of the seedlings in a hanging shoe holder, as I saw on my friends' (Temporary Services) blog:

http://halfletterpress.tumblr.com/post/541521314/verticalvegetables
http://halfletterpress.tumblr.com/tagged/vertical_garden

However my shoe holders were not sturdy enough for the weight of the soil. I didn't want to get plastic so I opted for the non-woven fiber, the stuff that reusable shopping bags you get from the grocery store are made from. Maybe I should have splurged for better ones made of canvas. The grommets started sagging and popped out right away. I've cut them into individual rows, but that defeats the verticality. I'm disappointed, but I'm not going to re-pot these poor plants again.

In other news, I did have a great salad with radishes and lettuce from the garden. I'll post photos later when I can get my camera's card reader to communicate to my computer again.

shrubs on the east end

Over the weekend, Lucy and Marvin put up some sun-loving shrubs on the east side of the lot. It's so green there now, it may be hard to tell where they sit in this photo. The dandelions have been up and are going to seed faster than expected. I also spotted these white wildflowers. Does anyone know what they are called?

Radishes and greens are coming up in the boxes, and more to come soon!

growth

Yesterday, Negin and I filled a second box with peat moss + vermiculite + compost. I keep forgetting to add bone meal. The new box is filled about 6 inches from the bottom with empty bottles and cans, about 2 deep. The terra cotta style containers are parsley, spinach, arugula that were started March 31. You can see an early version of the setup from my rooftop in the picture below.

The second box is on the south side, it is covered with one of the orange and brown afghans. We planted new Seed Savers Amish snap peas, an old packet of Burpee spinach, Botanical Interest chives from last year and some lettuce seeds I got in a zine that my pal T. sent me from Pittsburgh. The other box on the north side is also covered in the same kind of afghan. It was planted on April 11 with carrots, chard, radish, and lettuce that I had started inside. I have just started to see the chard sprouting up, but I'm not sure if it has been warm enough for the Chiogga beets, that prefer 40 degrees minimum. We had a couple cold nights, one of which I put newspapers on the box, the other I used one of the available pressed board tops.

The collards from last year have bolted. They are ridiculously tall and have some lovely yellow flowers. I'm waiting so I can collect the seeds which I hope to plant.

The sprouts are coming along ok too, but I'm not sure when and where I will put all of them.

paint question

So the aphids have been eliminated, I hope. I washed the baby leaves with soap water started turning the fan on daily. I potted up some plants last weekend but need to do some more today and tomorrow. On the hunt for a kelp/fish fertilizer. No luck at Menards on North & Kostner, and the hose reel I got there had no directions either. Not looking forward to going back out to the store :(

I started making the sign for the front of the garden. I feel hesitant to put the big boxes out on the lot before the sign is ready. But the free paint I got from the paint store is old and lead-based. I don't see a problem using it for the sign, but do you think it would be ok to stencil a few stars and stripes on the sides of the boxes? I'm a bit torn about this. It would not come into direct contact with the soil, but I don't know if there are other issues I should be concerned about. What do you think?

aphid attack!

Aphids have started up on the seedlings. The coriander seems to have been hit the worst. I am squishing and repotting and going to give them a good bath in soap water. Some people recommend releasing ladybugs indoors?!