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: