2018 NMLarson Community Garden GLOG

[nmlarson]

Yep. While the neighbor is still a jerk, they used Roundup Complete, not 2, 4-D. After the neighbor told me what he used, I went a'lookin because it totally wasn't damage from Roundup. It appears hubby may be the culprit. He sprayed the weeds around his shop, then brought the leftovers home to use up.

 

[nmlarson]

Yikes! Right next door to my plots.
WAS thirty feet of potatoes!

 

[nmlarson]

After being away for a week, along with 4 inches of rain in under 1-1/2 hours, I'm ashamed to post pictures of the garden!  The weeds got together and decided they were taking over.  I certainly have my work cut out for me in the next few days.
 
A few crops are beginning to mature!  While the tomatoes are probably not going to produce much of anything, as soon as I realized what had happened, I started some replacements.  It's breaking my heart, especially for the Paul Robeson, which is,  hands down, my favorite fresh eating tomato and I don't have any more seed, and the Pozzano F1, which can't be topped for paste production.  Each has a couple of fruit on it and I haven't decided if I want to eat them, or not, given the 2,4-D history.  What do you think?
 
Our growing season usually lasts through the middle of October, so I will see tomatoes this year.  Last year, in addition to the community garden, I grew two plants, a Monomakh'ts Hat and a Garden Gem, in pots on the deck that produced into December, using micromesh and frost blankets for protection from insects and cool weather.  The local nursery had a clearance sale recently and I was able to pick up a couple of "Big Beef" plants.  It's a variety I haven't grown before, but seemed to be the best of what was left.  When I get to the garden today, I'll get some photos of the damaged tomato plants.  They continue to die off from the bottom, but somehow are still trying to produce fruit, while the suckers I left seem to be pretty healthy.  Here are the replacements:  Garden Gem, Verona F1 and Lucky Tiger, in the coach on our way back from Battle Creek for the Fourth.

 
Other vegetables, now showing some fruit, are:
 
Elephant Ear pepper.  Seed from Uprising Seeds.  Looking good, with the exception of some sun scald on the lower right fruit.

 
Gypsy Hybrid.  From Jung Seeds.  This sweet pepper is especially good blistered and peeled, then processed with an white wine vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice and Aleppo pepper flake liquid.  I never seem to can enough of them.  Can be picked anywhere from ivory, to yellow, to orange, to red.

 
Mad Hatter F1, from Jung Seeds.  A less hot bishop's crown baccatum.  Red when ripe.

 
Amadeo Eggplant, from Park Seeds.  I've grown this variety for a few years, and it never disappoints.  The plants are hearty, but still need to be staked because of the heavy yield of 8x5" fruit.  This one is about 4" and is a bit tough to see through the micromesh.  It's growing right next to the potatoes being stripped by potato beetles in the next plot.  Show in the previous post.  I haven't seen any inside the enclosure (fingers crossed).

 
Partenon F1 Zucchini.  This is a new variety for me this year.  As a parthenocarpic variety, it doesn't require pollination, so has few seeds.  It can be grown under mesh (in a high tunnel or greenhouse) or in the field.  I'll pick two 8" fruits today, and several more are showing.  However, it's only a matter of time until the squash beetles get there.  I've never been able to grow bug-free squash at the community gardens, so have resorted to several plants, planted a couple of weeks apart.  This variety interested me, as it's supposed to be a less bitter variety.  The chemical that is responsible for a zucchini's bitterness is also what is supposed to attract the beetles.  We'll see.  Seed from Johnny's.

 
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd, look who decided to show up to the party!  Peach Biquinho peppers!  My first round of germination was unsuccessful, so when I started a second round of germination to replace the tomatoes, I decided throw some peach biqs in, too.  Now, I have red, yellow and peach biqs! Seed from Justin White.

 
This is how they will end up (before they hit my belly, that is):

 

[Walchit]

Looking good! Hope your tomatoes do good. I never caged mine so they are about 5-6 feet wide instead of tall lol.

 

[skullbiker]

Look’s like you have some good stuff coming along. Good luck with your weeds, they always outpace me.

 

[nmlarson]

Yesterday, I picked a few Elephant Ear peppers that had been damaged by sun scald while I was on vacation.
 

 
After I attacked the weeds in the paths with a weed wacker, I started in on what's creeping in from the perimeter.  Here's a shot of the pepper half of the garden.  The shell peas were toast when we returned, so I pulled them.  There are still a few Super Sugar Snaps left, which I'll pick and pull today.  The onions are doing well, along with the parsley and dill.
 

 
Here's a shot of Sprinter F1, a hybrid from Johnny's Seeds.  Look at the yield, so far!  Here's what Johnny's says about this variety:
"Blocky, red bell pepper for heated tunnel production. Sprinter has a vegetative plant that keeps it strong through adverse weather conditions, whether too hot or too cold. Benefits from at least some heat, but will produce high yields of beautiful, large, dark-red fruits through a variety of conditions."  I'm certainly not growing in a heated tunnel, but it seems pretty happy, nonetheless.  I'm loving the tons of foliage protecting the fruit.
 

 
The final photo today is of a surprise I found when we returned from vacation.  I'd pushed all the plants on the deck together, hiding the orchids I'd brought home in March under the canopy of the Persian Lime I'd brought home a few years earlier.  This is my first time growing orchids, and I was able to get it to rebloom!  It was such a nice surpise after finding all the devastation at the Community Gardens.
 

 

[nmlarson]

The sun wasn't too brutal today.  There was a really nice breeze blowing, but I still enjoyed taking some breaks in the shade of my umbrella.  First eggplant harvested!  Yay!  This beauty's from the Amadao plant, a Park Seed offering.  They usually get a bit larger (this one was 7"), but it was the only mostly mature fruit on the plant, so I'll give the babies on it a better chance at survival if I pick it.  Plus, I get to eat it for dinner!  Sliced about 3/4" thick, flour, then egg wash, then panko, spray with Pam, then oven roast until just barely tender.  Eat with a dollop of ricotta and some of the oven-roasted tomato sauce from the freezer, top with shredded mozz, then hit it with the Searz-All 'til bubbly and brown.  Yum.  Photos later.
 

 
Originally, I'd planned on picking, then pulling, the Super Sugar Snap peas, but there are just way too many that haven't filled out yet.  Despite the recent hot spell, they're holding their sugar, so I'll give them another couple of days and hope for some rain to plump them up.
 

 
I picked another gallon of them and should get as much when they're ready to give up the ghost. That's three gallons from about 5' of plants.  Not too shabby.  And, I get to eat them fresh or steamed, however I like, as hubby doesn't eat peas. 
 
After the obligatory weeding, I put in some Red Ace beets, fed the eggplants, zucchini, cukes, peppers and onions, then mulched the beets and onions with some straw.  Tomorrow, I should be able to get the Touchstone Gold and Cylindra beets in, along with some Bright Lights chard.
 
I just saw some movement out of the corner of my eye....Edmick, you have rats, I have their first cousins.  Stupid things are trying to chew their way through the grate, when they could reach in with their paws and get as much as they want.  They'll only use their paws to hang on and eat, not reach to get food.  However, they are getting smarter.  I used to be able to put any hot pepper I had too much of in the bird seed and they'd take one bite, and that was it.  Now they come away from the feeders with their little paws and muzzles red with hot pepper powder.  I guess they can't be all bad.  
 

 
 

 

[skullbiker]

Looks like you got some good things going on there. I grew some eggplant a couple years ago but never really learned how to cook or use it. I have done those cylindra beets and they were really good pickled with hard boiled eggs.

 

[nmlarson]

Looks like you got some good things going on there. I grew some eggplant a couple years ago but never really learned how to cook or use it. I have done those cylindra beets and they were really good pickled with hard boiled eggs.

 
That's why they're there!  Pickled beet eggs!  Just pickled eggs in PA Dutch vernacular.  And eggplant, I love it any way.  Sliced & grilled, caponata, parma, baba ganoush, stuffed, ratatouille...it's ALL good!

 

[nmlarson]

It was not a nice day to work in the garden today.  87F, dew points in the 60s, and a Code Orange Air Quality Alert.  I made it about two hours and called it quits.
 
Today, I bit the bullet and pulled all the tomatoes in my tomato bed.  They've all been replaced with different varieties, except for three I started at the beginning of last month when I suspected the worst.  The youngest, Garden Gem, is only about a month old, as I'd misfiled the seeds in my "filing system."      It sure looks bare in there!  Not for long, I hope, as all were tucked in with a scoop of worm castings, some extended release fertilizer, and watered in the some Dyna-Gro.
 

 
Here's a mystery.  When I pulled the old plants, I also pulled the painted garden labels for each plant.  Check out the three labels for the plants that were on the east side of the bed!  All the plants were originally put in the same day, in the same way, with the same amendments.  Whatever it is, is coating the stake.  It's white, white, sort of chalky and, when scraped off, which it does easily, the paint underneath looks fine.  Any ideas on what's going on here?
 

 
While I was taking a break in the shelter of my sun umbrella, a visitor came to enjoy the pool!
 

 
And, after I'd taken that photo, it occurred to me I hadn't shared the cucumber house yet, so here it is.  There are four plants in an 8 foot enclosure.  All are gynoecious or parthenocarpic, or both and all are from Johnny's Seeds.  No sign of cucumber beetles yet!  Fingers crossed!
 

 
Corinto F1, their earliest, most productive slicer, at 48 days, also the most vigorous plant of the four.  "This hybrid produces very dark green, uniform, 7-8" slicing cucumbers despite cool weather or heat. Small seed cavity. Skin is thick enough to endure harvesting and handling, but thinner than the average slicing cucumber. Remarkable vigor in both the field and greenhouse. Gynoecious and parthenocarpic. Intermediate resistance to cucumber mosaic virus, cucumber vein yellowing virus, and powdery mildew." 
 
Diva, is "Especially flavorful when harvested small.  Diva produces distinctly tender, crisp, sweet, bitter-free, and seedless cukes. Adapted to open-field production and protected cropping. Harvest at 5-7". Gynoecious and parthenocarpic. High resistance to scab; and intermediate resistance to cucumber vein yellow virus, downy mildew and powdery mildew."
 
Iznik. The only one of the group I've grown in the past, and one of my favorites!  "Mini cocktail cukes for the field or hoophouse. Iznik produces good yields of 3 1/2-4" spineless, seedless, dark green snack cucumbers. Multiple fruits per node. Excellent flavor. Pick daily for best quality. Gynoecious and parthenocarpic. High resistance to powdery mildew and scab."  Perfect size for a Hendrick's, tonic and cucumber.  
 
Finally, comes Tasty Jade, the only one not gynoecious, so I'll have to help it along with some manual pollination.  "Delicious long Asian cucumbers.  Vigorous, high-yielding plants produce glossy, thin-skinned, 11-12" long fruit with small seed cavities and bitter-free fruit. No peeling required. Sweeter and more crisp than any other long Japanese cucumbers we have trialed. Also, Tasty Jade is among the few parthenocarpic varieties of this type available today. Suitable for outdoor or greenhouse culture. Trellis for straight fruit. Parthenocarpic. Intermediate resistance to downy mildew and powdery mildew."
 
Phew!  That's it for today.  No rain in sight for the next 4 or 5 days, so that water tank will get a workout.
 
 

 

[nmlarson]

Here's the evidence.  Oven fried eggplant parm.  Fresh basil and eggplant from this year's garden, red sauce from last year's.
 

 
Yum!
 

 

[nmlarson]

Having picked up a summer cold over the Fourth, I hadn't spent much time in the garden the past week, only enough to keep things watered.  My airways have been so inflamed, it's been hard to do any real work without getting winded.  When I woke this morning, it was the first time in 8 days my throat wasn't on fire and I didn't feel like crap, so I just got back!  Thunderstorms moved through yesterday afternoon, dropping an inch of rain, the first in 10 days, many of which were >90.  Since it's heavy on clay, I didn't want to do a lot of compacting of the soil, so I kept my visit as short as possible, doing my inspections and harvesting what was needed to be picked. 
 
The Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly caterpillars have hatched, so I spent some time picking them off the parsley and dill.  The birds were feasting on them before I had a chance to grab a pic, so here's some photos snagged from the internet of what they look like as adults, as juveniles and as a butterfly.
 

  

  

 
One variety of beans, Algarve, a French heirloom climbing bean, is just coming in.  Since I'm only feeding my husband and myself,  I planted just 4 feet of these beans, and from the looks of it, that will be more than enough for fresh eating, freezing and pickling.  They're already topping the 7' trellis I put in, and they aren't finished with their climb.  The plants are loaded with blossoms from top to bottom.  These beans have fantastic flavor and will grow stringless, up to 10 inches, but I usually pick them anywhere between 6 and 8 inches.
 

 
The cocktail cucumber, Iznik, has begun to bear.  I grabbed the largest couple fruits.
 

 
Corinto and Diva are both holding fruit, just way too immature to pick.  Tasty Jade is showing tons of blossoms, so I spent a few minutes getting sexy with them, because they can't   themselves.   
 
I'm so happy I didn't cave and ask for antibiotics, like someone I know.  I'm having cocktails tonight.
 

 
[EDIT]  Here's a little guy I missed, all of 1/4" long, and just noticed when I went to wash up some dill.