Thanksgiving---still picking!

What have I been doing over the past month? Not so much, except for cleaning up and getting everything ready for next year. All those lovely, huge plants are gone, for the most part, in the direction of our compost bin or in a paper bag for the city to compost. I've pulled a few weeds and put down some black fabric that I had to see if I can keep at least part of the flat area from being overrun with weeds in the spring.

The garlic is coming up, and there is still sage and parsley. Hence the title of this post, since sage is perfect for today's turkey and stuffing, and it's really nice to have lots of it just cut. It's also nice to get something---even so small---to use today.

We do have a few other things from the garden in our thanksgiving meal. Onions, for example. And garlic. And green tomato pickles.

Pickled Green Tomatoes

I put up seven pints of them today. Finally, a use for the tomatoes that will never ripen.

That is all.

Sukkah (A Little Late)

This year's sukkah certainly belongs on the blog. I took pictures when I put it up, but haven't gotten around to posting until now. Better late than never (at least it is before next year's sukkah.

I started with the gourds that I managed to grow by simply leaving last year's gourds around the tree in the back. Sure enough, I got a plant, and quite a number of gourds. (Described here.)

The really cool thing is that it is possible to put these up without cutting them. I left a couple of vines with the gourds on them, and just draped them over the sukkah's roofing. Worked great.

I also put the leftover sunflowers to good use. Even though the birds ate all the seeds, the heads were still impressive, and they are on long and stiff stems. So I draped them over the roof and pushed the sunflowers through the schach.

Here's the sukkah's entrance:

with a sunflower and some gourds by way of greeting. And here's a view inside:

There's one of the sunflowers, and some gourds in the background behind the light.

A view with decorations:

These were provided by our neighbor's preschoolers and toddler. No question but that they make the sukkah. Every sukkah needs decorations made by kids. Really, I need to rent out children to decorate once we become empty nesters next year.

Been Awhile

Between fall holidays, the fact that the garden is winding down, and my desire to include pictures, I've been neglecting the blog. Even though I've got a few interesting things.

First, the garden in fall:


I cut down the sunflowers (and more on their fate in another post). So everything looks short. The tomato plants may look droopy, but they are still producing a few tomatoes. And I'm still losing some of them to fungus. Next year I'll spray! There is still some basil, and lots of parsley. I don't have time to freeze it all (or make and freeze another batch of pesto). I will regret this during the winter.

From another point of view:


I'm not sure there is a "before picture" from this angle earlier in the blog. But there used to be butterfly bushes next to the fence on the right-center. I started to prune them for the sukkah---they need to be heavily pruned---and ended up removing them. Which I have been meaning to do. My plan is to fill in the space with red currants which sound really interesting, easy to grow, would fit in the space...and are not attractive to birds! Anyway, that's the plan.

Meanwhile, I've already started next year's garden! At least one part of it. It was time to plant the garlic, and I've now dedicated a row to it (21 cloves, to be precise). And I used fertilizer. Believe it or not, I've never bothered to fertilize when I planted the garlic. I got smaller than usual bulbs this year, which got me thinking, however. Which is usually pretty dangerous.

Slowing Down

As the weather gets cooler, production slows. But doesn't stop. We're still getting some tomatoes (although about half have black spots that spread and make the fruit inedible.) There's still lots of basil. I used over six cups two weeks ago for a couple of recipes, and it wasn't like I was lacking it today. I'm drying it in the oven--why buy?

I got a zucchini this weekend as well. The plants are hanging on, although the fruit doesn't always grow very big. Still getting raspberries, although not as many as a couple of weeks ago. Other things are beginning to go brown.

My next outdoor project is building a sukkah, and the garden will provide some interesting schach this year. Like the sunflower plants, and maybe the ornamental squash, which got huge---but is now dying. It's only after I take the sukkah down that I will finally (probably in late October) pull up the remaining annuals and finish getting ready for the winter.

It's Still Summer. Isn't It? Isn't It?

I guess it really is fall. The weather has turned colder, still warm but not really warm enough for most of the plants in the garden. I notice that the tomatoes don't turn ripe as quickly, and the beans don't seem to have produced anything in over a week. I am still getting raspberries (not quite as many, but enough). However, I can see the end of the year coming.

The birds ate all the sunflower seeds. The empty heads hang down from the plants, some of which are 6-7 feet high. I will cut these down when it is time to build our sukkah.

I pulled up the cucumber plants, which were mostly dead. So much for "County Fair." Next year I may try planting at different times, so that some of the plants will go in after the beetles are active.

It was a great year for basil. I've made pesto a couple of times, a pesto-infused chicken dish, and I dried some for the winter. There's still plenty more. Also a lot of sage.

I'm still getting tomatoes, however. Also some interesting squash.


These are all from one plant. I left the ornamental squash we got from the CSA last year near a maple tree, and now I have a huge squash plant producing these things. So I guess our Sukkah theme will be squash! Too bad I can't figure out how to eat them.

Now I have to plan the endgame. Actually, what I have to plan is planting the garlic. Which is really staring to think about next year!

The Perfect Harvest

The raspberries are coming in very nicely, indeed. I seem to get 10 to 12 ounces every few days. I am ignoring the fact that some of the plants are growing in places they shouldn't because I like getting the raspberries so much.

Of course, as I pick raspberries, a few ripe ones fall off into the pachysandra below. I hate this. I hate losing any of the produce I've put so much time and effort into growing. Until this year I was jealous of every tomato (I got enough this year so I don't have to feel that way anymore). Each zucchini and cucumber is like a prized possession. And having something happen to anything I grew just when it is ready to harvest seems almost cruel to me.

It turns out that we just read about this in shul. Last week's Torah reading includes one of the admonitions that we should leave something in the field for others (Deuteronomy 24:19-21). I always found this an interesting idea, since it goes so much against the grain of modern business. The lesson (to business executives, not gardeners) seems very clear---don't try to extract every bit of profit or efficiency out of an enterprise.

Maybe it even makes sense from a gardening point of view. It is at least a reminder that, for all the hard work I put into the garden (or not, as is the case with raspberries), it took more than me to reach the stage where I can pick beautiful black zucchini or ripe tomatoes. Not begrudging the berries that fall before I can pick them is, perhaps, a way to acknowledge that I am a partner with God in this hobby.

Let me just note for the record that I am not a partner with rabbits, and I see nothing in halacha that requires me to share with them.

(More on the laws of Peah here.)

Adventures in Food Processing

It looked like a lot of tomatoes...so I tried canning them. I should have taken before and after picture, as the large amount made 3 pints. And I think it actually should have made less. I notice that the bottom inch of each pint jar is all water, which I assume means that I should have crammed in more tomatoes into each jar. Oh well. At least the jars sealed properly and look like they will keep well.

When The Gardener is Away, the Garden Grows

Another trip, and, although I was able to leave a Deputy for a few days, the garden managed without my care for about a week. Surprisingly, the plants don't really need me at this point. They produced cucumbers (which all got too big, very sad), zucchini, and lots and lots of tomatoes. In fact, I seem to have met my tomato goal. I have so many that I didn't really worry about the dozen or so that had started rotting by the time I got back. I just chucked them in the compost. There are plenty more right now.

And while we were away, the raspberries came in with a bang. Here's the result, along with a little watermelon:


That's 11 ounces of raspberries, which is kind of a record. There are plenty more. Did I mention I like raspberries? Plus they are easy to grow, and the birds don't seem interested in them.

The watermelon is small (was small, I should say, as it was enjoyed by me and my deputy). I have another like it and one more larger one. Why do I get so few watermelons?

The sunflowers have also come out, and, in some cases, already gone to seed. I didn't really get the spectacular set of sunflowers I wanted, maybe because of the type. Also, a couple have toppled over. It looks like the birds have discovered them, so I'm not sure whether I will get any seeds. Two years ago the birds didn't touch the sunflowers. What changed?

I've planted beans where I had the garlic, as much for the beneficial impact on the soil as for the beans themselves---although we've been enjoying them. I think I will also try fall peas. Haven't had a lot of luck with fall crops in the past, but maybe this year will be better.

Recovery?

So, the cucumbers I was about to give up for lost seem to be getting ahead of the cucumber wilt. They started putting out new leaves a week or so ago and are now putting out flowers. And, dare I say it, a few small cucumbers are appearing. Maybe we will have another fall crop. I can't say that I have the solution to the cucumber wilt problem yet, but at least there should be a few more this year.

I may be getting somewhere with the zucchini as well. One plant seems to have more or less recovered and I now see a new little zucchini growing on it. Success! I thought the other was a goner, but it never quite completely collapsed. And now, there is a single healthy leaf at the end of the plant. So it, too, looks like it may yet struggle through. Could be zucchini all fall. Although the plants may well take over the garden at the rate they are going.

I planted a few bush beans because I had the seeds (leftovers from last year) and the room (the space where the garlic had grown. And they have grown very nicely. I wanted to plant more, but it is impossible to find seeds mid-season. Grrr. I've ordered some more, but won't be able to plant them for another week or so.

Meanwhile, lots of tomatoes, especially the Roma variety I planted. These seem to take a long time to fully ripen. In fact, they seem to only fully ripen after I pick them (although maybe that's because I've been impatient?) Fewer of the Early Girls right now, although there are enough.

And the raspberries are starting. Which is good because I love raspberries. I don't really mind that they are going to take over parts of the garden that they were supposed to say out of.

Yucky Worms

So last night I went out and followed some Internet instructions about the squash borers. Some people claim you can actually remove them. So I tried it and did, surprisingly, get rid of a white worm about an inch long from the stems of each of the plants. I then buried the stems in soil since, apparently, the squash plants root easily from the stem. I'm watering the soil. One plant actually seems to have partially perked up, so maybe there is something to it. Stay tuned.

Yet More Garden Tsoris?!?!

I went out to the garden today and found the zucchini plants collapsed---both of them exactly the same way, with leaves wilting suddenly. Yesterday they seemed healthy and tough, but now they look like they've had it. I'm afraid this may be the end of the zucchini for this season, and I am a bit sad.

A quick Internet search suggests that the culprit is the squash vine borer. (What did people do before the Internet, anyway.) Bad news---the larvae will stay in the soil, so I've now got two curcubit diseases to deal with. One possibility, I suppose, is to not plant curcubits for a couple of years. Or maybe plant them very late, as the vine borer, like the cucumber beetle, apparently is only active through early July.

I had thought that the rabbits might have gotten to the plants somehow, but there doesn't seem to be any sign of that. (Why would they chew on the base of the stem when they could eat the zucchini, which they don't seem to have done.) There were a couple of tomatoes that looked chewed, however. At this point, it doesn't worry me, I have plenty. But I would prefer to stop it now, before whatever might be getting at the tomatoes decides to have more of them.

On the pleasant side, the first sunflower opened up. Some of the sunflower plants are seven feet tall, and very majestic. It should be a great show when they all open up.

Some crops, and a pest

Ever wonder what happens if you don't pick cucumbers before they ripen? Here's the picture:


They are causalities of the vacation. Unfortunately, cucumber production may be shutting down. It looks like the plants are suffering from cucumber wilt, although they held on longer than in the past. The zucchini, on the other hand, are going great. So I guess I will have to think of another strategy for the cucumbers next year.

Meanwhile, my surprise crop hsa succeeded. Here's a picture:


These are spoon tomatoes. As you can see, they are tiny versions of the usual type. And I am getting lots (from two plants), although that doesn't translate into volume. I'm thinking you could put them into soup instead of soup nuts.

But I saw something I didn't want to see in the garden. A nasty, annoying, ugly, evil thing. Yes, a rabbit got into the garden. I chased it away---it got in through a hole in the fencing that I should be able to fix. And, as it happens, there is nothing a rabbit would like in the garden right now--I think.

If there is no gardener, is there a garden?

Vacations unfortunately interrupt the sense of the garden gradually developing over the course of the summer. I'm not just referring to the practical problems of watering the plants, weeding, and picking ripe vegetables. It's more a question of losing some of the sense of gradual change.

We went away for a week and a half. Fortunately, I was able to deputize somebody for part of the time we were away. When we left, the tomatoes were just beginning to ripen. We came back to a couple dozen ripe tomatoes, with more on the way. Not to mention the cherry tomatoes. There were a couple of perfect zucchini, and some cucumbers had been picked while I was gone. Some of the sunflower plants are now considerably taller than I am, and are starting to flower. And the raspberries look like they are going to be ripe soon.

So now it is tomato season, and it looks like (so far) my goal of having lots of tomatoes is being met. I even gave some away to the neighbors.

From a quick look at the garden tonight, I will have some work to do. The onions are now ready to be dug up and there are tons of weeds, of course. Some of the tomato cages have fallen over from the weight of the fruit on the plants. I never know how to manage this. It happens every year, and, short of getting (or making) super-heavy tomato cages, I suppose I will have to put up with it. The tomatoes keep coming even when the cage is on its side, so I suppose it is mainly a cosmetic problem.

And the birds seem to be leaving the tomatoes alone. Maybe they found somebody else to bother.

Blight?!?

Guess what? I just discovered that there is a reason the lower leaves of my tomato plants turn brown every year. It's called early blight. Perhaps it is a reason why I don't get as many tomatoes as I expect.

Of course, reading about these things is like falling down a rabbit hole. You go from one thing to another. Control by fungicide! No, cut off offending leaves! Watch how you water! Honestly, it makes one wonder how any tomato plants actually manage to grow enough to produce tomatoes.

So add another problem. The birds are still pecking at some of the tomatoes, so I'm picking them before they turn completely red. Should be OK, but I always love picking right before eating---it seems like that should be one of the rewards of gardening.

I'm now getting one or two cucumbers a day. This morning I went out and found two that I didn't expect. The fruit does have a habit of finding ways to hide from me until they get too big. Fortunately, that wasn't the case this morning.

Are you doing better at tomatoes than me? Try this pasta sauce: cut up a tomato and some mozzarella into pieces, and chop up a few basil leaves (doesn't have to be very fine). Add some olive oil, mix and let sit for an hour (to blend the flavors). Then toss with your favorite pasta. This has long been very popular around our house. I think it tastes even better when you use tomatoes and basil you've grown yourself. In fact, it would taste best with home-grown olives and mozzarella. Unfortunately olives don't grow in Rockville, and I'm not yet ready to make my own cheese.

(How much tomato, cheese, olive oil, basil? As much as you like! Just about any reasonable proportions will work.)

Harvest Starting

The garden harvest always seems to start slowly. Maybe that's because I'm impatient (well, it must be). Still, things do seem to be shaping up.

I picked the first large zucchini of the season. For some reason, I've been getting little zucchini that don't grow, so I harvest them when they are about 2" long. They are quite edible, but I was getting worried. he plants look very healthy.

Here's a zucchini plant. The plant looks great, even if the fruit is small:

I'm also starting to get cucumbers. These are small, and I'm not sure how large this variety is supposed to grow. They also seem to grow a bit more slowly than I remember from the past, but that may be one of the compromises necessary to avoid cucumber wilt. (I think it's still a bit too early to declare victory, even if I see no signs of any problems yet.)

Some tomatoes are starting to turn red as well. There are lots of green tomatoes on the vines.

Here's a view of one side of the garden.

Those are the paste tomatoes on the right, cucumbers in the middle, and sunflowers on the left. You can see an ABD in the back--not that it did much good this year. I've had to give up the rest of the blueberries. Some raspberries are coming in, however, and the birds don't seem to care for them. Maybe I should pull out the blueberries and let the raspberries take over.

Update

Argh! A few days ago I saw two birds in the blueberry bushes. I chased them away, but a few minutes later I saw a bird perched almost upside down in a bush, and I think that that's all for the blueberries this year. I'm guessing that I've lost about 1/3 to 1/2 the possible berries, since I know I won't get any more. The birds are amazing at swooping down on the berries just as they ripen.

However, I dug up 20 heads of garlic on Sunday. They seem a little smaller than usual, and I wonder if I need to fertilize before planting. Or maybe it's just the genetics. This garlic is decended from a prize-winning head that was quite large, but maybe the heads revert to the mean size over time.

I also dug up an onion. The tops are starting to fall over, which is the sign that they are ready. Well, a few tops have fallen over. I figure I can wait to harvest most of them, although I'll dig up onions on an as-needed basis for a while.

Some things are beginning to show up. One small cucumber (but more on the way), a couple of tiny zucchini since they didn't seem likely to grow. There should be lots of both cucumbers and zucchini in a couple of weeks.

I have an interesting volunteer from last year's CSA. I left the fall hard squash that we used to decorate our Succah out by a tree. Sure enough, there is a squash plant growing there. No flowers, though. Whether I can get an ornamental squash will remain mystery for a while.

Food Gardens in Downtown DC

For the most part, you don't expect to see serious food gardening in a downtown area. Such gardens as you might find are ornamental. Just getting people some natural settings is important enough. Besides, it would be difficult to prevent people from harvesting the crop, I suppose.

But DC is different. This spring, I started thinking about gardens near where I work in downtown DC. And, so far, I've identified no less than four food gardens within easy walk of my office.

Start with the most famous one. Here's a picture of the new garden at the White House from E street. Yes, it is visible (although a bit distant) from the street.

I'll bet Sasha and Malia do weeding when their father asks!

The National Museum of American History has a "victory garden" just outside the cafeteria.

The garden is quite large, but you can only see it through the glass. I guess they are worried about having too many people wander through it.

Here's a picture that gives a feel for the size of the garden. It's actually pretty large.


It makes sense that the Department of Agriculture would sponsor a garden. This one is very elaborate garden, with 3-foot high raised beds.


This is to allow handicapped people to garden, according to one of the guides hanging around the garden. Guides? The garden is located near the parking lot that houses the USDA farmers' market on Fridays, and they had a tent with all kinds of gardening information and seeds when I went last week. I pointed out that it was a little late for the seeds, and the staffer admitted that was so.

Here's another view, with the tent in the background.


Despite being the Department of Agriculture and everything, their cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes were no further along than mine.

Finally, the National Museum of the American Indian includes some demonstration food plantings as part of its landscaping. Here's an example of "waffle gardening." These are pepper plants. I assume the waffling helps to direct moisture to the plants, as this is a Southwest technique.

There's also a classic "three sisters" planting of corn, beans, and squash. Either it is still early or it isn't doing too well this year.


Those are tobacco plants near the wall of the museum, by the way.

That's pretty impressive for a downtown area. Of course, it is mainly because we're in Washington, DC, where symbols account for a lot. But it's still fun to see so much working gardening in such an unusual setting.

Update

Tiny cucumbers! Little Zucchini! And lots and lots of green tomatoes. Naturally, I am impatient to start the harvest, but I guess it will still take some time.

The blueberries continue to ripen, and, so far, the ABD's seem to be working. It'll be time for another round of picking soon.

Even the weeds aren't too bad, despite all the rain. Maybe the straw does help.

Flowers, Flowers

How I like seeing yellow flowers in the late spring. I don't know why cucumbers, squash, tomatoes and watermelon all have the same color flowers, but it sure is good to see lots of them on the plants. Those little flowers tell me that the harvest is that much closer---and that I've done something right (at least, right enough to get to this stage).

Some of the plants are already beyond the flower stage. I see tomatoes beginning to set on both the regular and paste tomato plants. Also very small cucumbers behind the cucumber flowers. The zucchini are being stubborn, however. They've only shown the male flowers so far, although I think I see a couple of female flowers showing up. (Only the female flowers produce fruit.) This has been going on for a couple of weeks.

The blueberries are good news. First picking (done by somebody who promised to help weed, I might add) yielded over two pounds of fruit. ABD's are working so far, kenahora. Or better, ken-zipporah, which means "no birds."

I suppose I'll be harvesting garlic soon. Funny to think I planted it last fall, which seems so long ago, in gardening time.

Critters II (ABD's Deployed)

I like blueberries. So do other people in the family, which is why I planted eight blueberry bushes after we moved here. Blueberry bushes are actually well worth it, as they are good looking and don't really seem to require a lot of care. Except...

It seems that birds like blueberries too. They are amazingly able to see exactly when the berries are ripe, and are able to make sure that humans never get to them.

I discovered this fact the year after planting the blueberry bushes. What to do? For some years, I tried netting. This worked at first, although it was annoying to work with. It tangles and is hard to spread over the bushes, especially if you are trying to avoid disturbing blueberry flowers and unripe fruit. But what made me give up on the netting was when the birds figured out how to get underneath it. Seeing a happy bird ignoring all my work putting up the netting was pretty frustrating.

My latest idea, which worked for most of last year, is a set of Anti Bird Devices (ABD's). I have three:

1. Poles with glittery ribbon attached---this is special mylar ribbon which is supposed to scare birds.

2. Large ballons with eye-like stickers that make the birds feel watched, which they don't like.

3. A plastic owl.

This worked until the very end of the season. Then I discovered a bird happily munching the last of the berries. It might be because I stopped moving the ABD's frequently, which is supposed to be an important part of the plan.

Well, a few berries are beginning to turn blue, so I started the program. Here's a picture:



















Only one balloon so far. And it's a little hard to see the mylar, but you can see it in the foreground if you look carefully, and there's another green pole with mylar next the the bushes on the left.

We'll see who gets to eat the berries this year.

Garden Update

Went away for a few days. When I came back there was serious rain, which is good. I didn't have to worry about the garden not getting watered.

But where did all the weeds come from?

A picture after I spent some time weeding:

Critters 1 (Fred)

As long as I'm waiting for good things to happen in the garden, I'll tell some gardening stories, starting with Fred.

Some years ago, just as the tomato plants were really starting to bear fruit, something would come in the garden at night. Whatever it was, it pretty much destroyed anything that was ripening. In particular, I found ripe tomatoes on the ground and melons ruined because something had bitten into them. Naturally I was a little upset. Not to mention annoyed that whatever was doing this was purely destructive, since it didn't seem to actually want to eat the tomatoes.

One evening, I happened to turn the corner into the garden just in time to see a large groundhog duck under the deck. Armed with the knowledge, I returned to the house and announced that I now knew the species of the culprit. That's when I discovered that this particular animal wasn't unknown to others in the family.

"That's Fred," I was told. "Fred lives under the deck. We see him all the time."

"Fred!" I said. "I'm going to take a shotgun to Fred!" (There's a convenient gun store on Rockville Pike, after all.)

This idea wasn't very popular, and I had to admit that it wasn't practical. For one thing, discharging firearms in the City of Rockville is probably illegal. For another thing, my experience with guns has been limited to a couple of times on the target range at Boy Scout camp and Israeli Civil Guard training in 1980. This seemed unlikely to qualify me to actually use a shotgun to any effect.

As it happens, Fred went away the next year, and so I didn't have to worry about critters for a couple of years. Until the rabbits came...but I'll tell that story another time.

Watching plants grow doesn't seem very exciting. And that's what's mostly happening. I'm seeing tomato flowers, and a couple of flowers on the zucchini plants. The cucumbers and peppers seem very small. I planted sunflowers around the edge of the garden, which should be pretty spectacular if it works.

We had 3 inches of rain this week (nothing the week before). Rain is good, although I think we could use some hotter weather.

I'm going away for a few days. It's not long enough to worry about watering the plants, but I will miss seeing the garden slowly change.

Waiting

This is a strange time of the year. There really isn't much left to do, since I've attacked all the weeds recently, and they haven't had time to grow back. (Don't worry, they will). The plants are all small but clearly getting established, and there isn't much to do but wait for the summer to come and the plants to grow.

I did give the plants a shot of watering yesterday, since they had gone a week without any rain. Of course, we got rain this evening. It's expected to continue through tomorrow, so that should solve the water problems for now.

And I see a set of flowers on one tomato plant. That's always welcome.

Almost Finished

Usually I buy most of my plants and then plant them in one burst. This year is different. I've been gradually adding plants over the past month (and preparing for longer). Today I put in the cucumbers, peppers, and watermelon. All that is left are the sunflowers. I want to wait until they get a bit larger since something eats the small plants. That's the reason I don't plant the seeds directly.

Here is a picture of the garden all planted:



I'm using straw to keep the weeds down. Don't know if it will work, and it is a poor substitute for daughters.

Here is a picture from another angle. I put in the supports for the tomatoes and cucumbers already. I own a wide variety of different types of cages, none of which really work properly.





























The garden at this stage always seems so controlled and perfect. If only it would stay this way, all hope and neatness, little plants still to prove their potential or lack of potential. It seems very exciting. Not long from now I know that the plants will be running wild, the weeds will be taking over, and I'll wonder how the critters can figure out how to find the good stuff to eat, what little seems to actually grow. But, for now, I can dream of this level or order and control in the garden all summer.

Sunday Update (Herbs, Today)

The Farmers' Market yielded the expected basil, and also some parsley and rosemary. Thank you, DB and HB! The rosemary is a "tender perennial" which in my experience means that it will last two or three years, but what do I know. I planted the herbs today, but held off on the cucumbers, watermelon and peppers since it is still kind of chilly at night. I'll probably get everything planted on Friday.

And I picked a bowlful of dill. Here I had thought it hadn't reseeded, but it just took a little while. Now I have lots of plants about 6" tall, many growing together. So I thinned them a bit and put the results in a freezer bag labeled "baby dill." I seem to remember that dill is really only available in the spring/early summer, and by July the leaves go away and it blossoms. Last year I didn't realize the schedule and so missed out on freezing dill for future use.

I also got a small head of lettuce that decided to wait a year to grow.

Plans

I realized that I never really explained this year's garden plan. Of course, that old military saying,"no plan survives contact with the enemy" applies here. (You might reasonably ask who the enemy might be? Let's see--we have cucumber wilt, rabbits, birds, not enough rain, too much rain, weeds...)

Last year, my successful efforts to grow lettuce and radishes were overshadowed by the CSA. So I decided to abandon those crops, and stick to a few things that interested me, were requested by my SO, or were likely to be usable in bulk. Thus I now have:

1. One big project is lots of tomato plants, including early girl, a paste tomato called "agro hybrid," cherry tomatoes, and one surprise (if it works, I'll post a picture). The total is 12 plants. I'm looking for volume here, since I never seem to grow tomatoes in the quantities some people manage. I figure I can always make sauce and freeze it.

2. I have great hope for cucumbers, because I am determined to defeat cucumber wilt this year. I finally figured out my problem a couple of years ago (so that's why the cucumbers died...). Last year I tried the floating row cover solution. You cover the plants in the spring (when the beetles are active) then uncover them once danger of infection is past. Didn't work. Either the beetles got in anyway, or I uncovered the plants too early. So this year I got county fair seeds, since that variety is supposed to be resistant to cucumber wilt. That's really the reason I wanted to start plants from seed in the first place.

3. I haven't had much success with Zucchini here in Rockville, but I'm hoping this year is different. (I'm the only gardener that doesn't get a disgustingly huge amount of summer squash, it seems). It may be the same problem as the cucumbers.

4. We liked the few onions we got from the CSA last year, so I planted a bunch this year. Since I grow garlic, this should not be too difficult. But I might have planted too many.

5. I try to put sunflowers around the border of the garden every year. I can't plant the seeds directly, however---something eats them as soon as they come up, but ignores them if they have true leaves. So I have to start them in pots.

6. Cooking with fresh chile peppers was a revelation a few years ago. Unfortunately, hot pepper plants available tend to be too hot or not exactly what I want. So I bought some seeds and have hopes for a few (mildly) hot pepper plants, which will provide more than enough peppers.

7. I also have a corner of the garden for herbs, including oregano, sage, chives (which all look good), dill (finally came up in great amounts, and I will freeze some this year), and basil (not yet planted).

8. There is nothing like watermelon in the late summer right from the garden. I hope to have two plants. (But the seeds I bought don't seem to have sprouted, so I guess I'll head to the garden store.)

And of course, the blueberries and raspberries. They've done pretty well in the past few years.

That's the plan. We'll see how much of it has survived by the fall.

More Planting

A little more, anyway. I put in the zucchini. I also put the cages around the tomatoes and the soaker hoses down. When everything is planted I will post some pictures of my system. (That's a fancy word for it.) Some more cool weather expected this week, so I thought I would wait until next weekend to plant the rest.

Mostly, I pulled up weeds in the parts of the garden I don't usually get to. Also, I tried to get all the raspberries away from the blueberry bushes. At this point, I always start to think I'm not going to get many blueberries, because the blossoms are gone, and the small green berries are hard to see. But I think it might really be the case next year.

One tomato plant didn't survive the transfer and wet weather of the past week. It's been replaced. Otherwise, they are all starting to show new foliage.

By the way, we had 3 inches of rain since last Saturday.

An inch and a half of rain!

Since I planted to tomatoes. They are now upright, despite the lack of sun. I only hope that it will clear up soon and get warm.

Tomato Time

I don't know whether this was a good idea...but the weather was right (yesterday) and the tomato plants were getting way too big. So I planted them. Five early girl, four "agro hybrd" (which are a paste tomato) and two sweet 100's. They all sort of fell over as I handled them, but I see that, today, after being watered yesterday and all the rain today, they are standing up.

Of course, now it is colder, and forecast to be colder for the rest of the week. I'm certainly hoping the Maryland extension service is right about the May 1 planting date.

Oh yes...lots of dill showing up. I guess it was just a question of waiting. I've left a whole area for dill plants on the side.

Frustration

It describes last weekend. Nothing says "let's get those plants in the ground" like such hot weather. It seems a shame to let them sit in the basement (not to mention that they are way too big). But April is still too early.

I've mentioned this to a few people, and heard that the normal planting time is May 1, May 8, Mother's Day, and May 15. Not exactly agreement (although there is an early May theme going on.) But then I found this which is pretty much official. Assuming I am in Central Maryland (given the shape of the state, does that even make sense?), May 1 seems just fine for tomatoes and squash. Cucmbers, watermelon, and peppers will have to wait.

Looks like I might get started next weekend. The tomatoes will certainly be happier in the ground.

Important Update on Garden Decorations

Certain parties have insisted that I post a picture of the following item so they can see it. It is an old lampstand (made of cast iron) that I got in grad school. The electrical part broke and couldn't be repaired long ago. So I took off the socket and cord, and painted it a nice, bright yellow. It now holds a small sundial. (Provides the time without reference to the Internet.)

Every garden needs junk like this, after all. But no gnomes, please.

An Interesting Year

I'm going to find out which daughter is my favorite!

Plant problems

My plants were going along very well...but now I've lost a couple of the cucumbers. Since those were the main reason that I wanted to start plants from seeds this year, this is frustrating. I'm starting a new set of cucumber plants since they should have enough time to at least get started.

Meanwhile, the tomatoes are too big! They were already big enough to plant last week, and I won't be able to put them out for another few weeks.

Today I replanted a couple in quart pots. I got the quart pots because I bought a couple of perennials for the hummingbird garden on the front deck, and planted them today. Otherwise, I'm just going to have to hope that the plants don't get too big for 3" pots.

Meanwhile, outside...

I've continued the weeding, and I now have three rows ready for planting. Which won't be in another month, so I guess I'll still be doing more work. But I've got the weeds up (mostly) and I put in compost in the spots where I am going to be putting in plants.

The row with only two white indicators is for melons.



I also put some attention into the raspberries this year. Normally, I just let them grow, but they have been rather sparse where I originally planted them. However, they did somehow jump (or go under) the barrier I put up, and a number of small raspberry plants were growing under the blueberries. Last year I tolerated this, but today I tried transplanting the very small (about 2" tall) plants into bare spots in official raspberry plot. Don't know how well this will work.

Oh yes, the blueberries are starting to show the blossoms. And the onions are starting to show up.

One thing is missing. Two years ago I planted a dill plant. It seeded, and last year I had lots of dill growing all over the south end of the garden. This year--nothing. I may have to buy another dill plant in May because I did like having the fresh dill.

Under the Grow Light

This is a funny time of year. It's definitely spring, with buds and new growth starting to show up. But you can't plant anything yet, at least, nothing that might be damaged by frost. I've been slowly preparing the garden for the plants which are still under the grow light.

First, here's the grow light. Tomatoes on the right (mostly), squash and cucumber on the left.


Here's a couple of close-ups. Can you tell I am proud of the fact that these plants are actually growing? Not that I had much to do with it, since seeds are designed to do this.




Zucchini, cucumber, and some more tomatoes:

Garden Prep I

So I took advantage of a nice Sunday to start preparing the ground. Where did all those weeds come from already? I used a garden weasel to till the soil.

An old hoe came in handy to pull up some of the weeds. As did an old trick I learned in the Boy Scouts---if a tool head is loose on its wooden handle, soak it in water for a while. The wood will swell up, and the head will become fixed, at least until it dries out again. Since we found the hoe under the several feet of mulch that originally covered the garden, it is not exactly new. In fact, it is pretty rusty. I suppose I should get a new one. But it seems so satisfying to keep using an old tool.

I got about half the garden weeded. I also started digging up the areas where I intend to put plants and filling the holes with compost (a mixture of mine and leafgro which I purchased from Rockville High School, which is part of my plan to gradually improve the soil.

This is a lot more than I have done in the past. My main strategy for cleaning up in the past involved Roundup, which worked pretty well as long as there was a warm day before I wanted to put in the plants. Roundup seems pretty benign, but I am trying to reduce chemicals this year.

A few onion shoots are starting to peak up. I stepped in the onion row by accident, of course. Nothing seems damaged.

Uh Oh

I see a couple of holes around where I planted the onions. Something has been digging there, and that cannot be good.

Although I see to remember seeing similar holes last fall after I planted the garlic. I was convinced that I'd lost the crop, but they all sprouted (all but one). And it's been a few days without any more holes appearing. Can I hope no critters are after me?

Other news: more peppers and tomato plants coming up. I planted the squash and cucumber seeds last weekend. Nothing showing up yet.

Grow Light Now Active

Yes, I put the tomatoes under the grow light last week. They seem to be getting on, so maybe I'm doing something right. Sometime soon, I am going to have to cull the seedlings so there is only one growing in each pot. I always put this kind of thing off, somehow it seems wrong to kill the plants that way. Plus it is making a commitment to one seedling. Can I make that commitment?

A couple of peppers have now shown up, too. Tomorrow my planner says it is time to start cucumbers and squash.

Meanwhile, I hope all this rain is good for the onions and garlic.

Onions

I planted 45 onion sets today. What will we do with so many onions (assuming they grow)? I don't know.

As it happened, I have many more sets than I needed. (White's sold me a quart, looks like I only needed a pint. Anybody need onion sets?) I planted a few in another corner of the garden for green onions. So it will be another experiment.

Germination and Faith

Somehow, it came as a shock when I looked at the pots with the tomato seeds and saw some little plants growing on Friday. There are more today, and they will go under the grow light soon. My surprise made me think about whether, at some level, I didn't really believe that those seeds would become plants.

Many years ago, a Torah discussion at our chavurah centered on faith. Several people said that they were sad because they lacked the faith that, say, true believers like Habad Chasidim have. I thought then that we liberal Jews do have faith, but that we have to learn to draw on it. Many of the things that we do every day are really expressions of faith in other human beings. (Think of this the next time you drive. Or maybe don't think of it, it might be kind of disturbing to realize how much even the most defensive driver depends on the behavior of other drivers.)

Of course, having children is the ultimate act of faith, since it indicates that we believe that the world will be a good place to live in many years from now.

Planting seeds is an act of faith, too. We know the science, of course. But it still seems amazing at some very basic level that those little tomato seeds would actually grow into plants.

I'm sure this isn't original. But it's nice to think that there is some kind of optimistic lesson for us in the fact that we can put seeds in the earth and plants will grow.

Here's the garden in March. Not much growing but some weeds and the garlic.































Garlic in the winter. I planted it in the fall. Guess I need to work on the focus of this camera.

It's time for onions...not yet, I guess. I went to White's to buy onion sets, for my first attempt at growing onions. I now have a quart of tiny onions (yes, they are sold by volume) in a paper bag and firm instructions not to plant them before March 16. I guess they will go in next weekend.

I also started tomatoes and hot peppers. At least, I put the seeds in pots with a growing medium. We'll see if anything actually grows.

Ah, weeds even in March...it's a warm day and I just spent a little while cleaning up unwanted plants around the garlic.

Book Review of Sorts

Another thing to do when the garden is covered with snow (or not, this being the DC area) is to read. I just finished "The Ominvore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. There is lots of interesting stuff in it about our food supply. Strongly recommended for people interested in what they eat.

This, about why people choose hobbies, is pretty good:

"You can probably tell a lot about a person by his choice of atavism: whether he's drawn to the patient and solitary attenditveness of fishing, the strict mathematical syntax of building, the emotional drama of the hunt, or the mostly comic dialog with other species that unfolds in the garden."

"Mostly comic." Sounds a lot like my garden. And the joke is usually on me.

The perfect time to start a garden blog, I guess, is in winter. There's not much to do but watch the compost do its thing (or not, in my case---I seem to have perfectly preserved leaves from last year).

Gardeners are supposed to be busy looking at seed catalogs this time of year. In the past, I ignored this, and bought my plants in May. This year, I decided to do the whole growing from seed thing. The main reason is to try to grow cucumbers that don't succumb to cucumber wilt, but I'm going to try doing other plants as well. I have a grow light, pots and other stuff (what would a hobby be without equipment?) In the next few weeks, I'll discover if I can make anything grow inside.

Of course, I would not be surprised if my supposedly sterile growing medium sprouted a fine crop of weeds.