Our Early girl tomatoes are all being eaten and messed up by these shield-shaped stink bugs. Does anyone have any advice other than hand-picking them off? I have read that I need to try to attract parasitic wasps, but I'm worried its a bit late in the season to start planting flowers right next to the tomatoes.
How do you manage pests?
Friday, June 19, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Sacramento Community Garden
Lovely hot day in Sacramento today. As promised, this is a post with pictures of our community garden plot. This first shows Maddy nipping out a few basil buds. That's not her drink, and we don't know where it came from...
In the background, you can see the community compost heaps, the rules for which Maddy has resolved to make a nice display of. What to put in, what not to put in etc. In this shot, you can see (near right) a sunflower volunteer, a few eggplants of different varieties (foreground), a tomatillo volunteer (mid left), and the plants on our frame.
This is our 7-8 year old grape vine which we hear doesn't produce. Maddy gave it some fertilizer and we have been pruning it, but advice about how to make it produce grapes would be well appreciated.
This is a picture of one of our black zebra tomatoes that is yet to ripen. Lovely!
In the background, you can see the community compost heaps, the rules for which Maddy has resolved to make a nice display of. What to put in, what not to put in etc. In this shot, you can see (near right) a sunflower volunteer, a few eggplants of different varieties (foreground), a tomatillo volunteer (mid left), and the plants on our frame.
This is our 7-8 year old grape vine which we hear doesn't produce. Maddy gave it some fertilizer and we have been pruning it, but advice about how to make it produce grapes would be well appreciated.
This is a picture of one of our black zebra tomatoes that is yet to ripen. Lovely!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Progress Report Mid-June Sacramento
Here in Sacramento, cool weather and a European holiday mean that us urban farmers have plenty of energy in the garden. So yesterday, we drove out into the county and bought a couple of bales of clover straw to use in our garden. They were $3 a piece from a farm we found on Craiglist.org. Apparently, clover straw is not that valuable when it comes to feeding animals; luckily, I hate animals so much, I won't even eat them. So it is cheaper than the fancy straws they were selling at the farm. Clover straw may help us with nitrogen in our soil (in the long term), and an organic mulch is supposed to:
Here you can see the straw mulch under the zucchinis and yellow squashes. We also spread mulch over at our community garden spot, but we haven't remembered to take the camera over there yet, so you'll have to wait for pictures.
In other news, things are exploding into bloom and fruit all over the show in our backyard. We've eaten two of our Early Girl tomatoes now (just had one for lunch), and we've also had plenty of basil and various squashes. We had our first chili pepper, an Anaheim, the other day, and the chili plants are getting bigger and bigger.
Here are some Early Girl toms lurking in the undergrowth. In the next photo, you can see our corn going great guns and also the chili plants and a bale of clover straw. It smells nice...
The corn are against the fence and the chilis are closer. Our neighbours over that fence have recently changed, and the new ones have removed the amazing weed jungle that was developing over there, which is probably good for our not having to do as much weeding. They are planting some trees, so future gardeners in our spot will have even more shade to contend with.
The corn looks funny. I don't know what else to say about that fact.
Here is a cornflower flower.
And a tomatillo has volunteered and is flowering its little heart out.
And that's all she wrote.
- help reduce the amount of water needed for plants, by reducing evaporation;
- increase the biological activity in our soil, by adding organic matter;
- reduce weeds, by blocking out the sun.
Here you can see the straw mulch under the zucchinis and yellow squashes. We also spread mulch over at our community garden spot, but we haven't remembered to take the camera over there yet, so you'll have to wait for pictures.In other news, things are exploding into bloom and fruit all over the show in our backyard. We've eaten two of our Early Girl tomatoes now (just had one for lunch), and we've also had plenty of basil and various squashes. We had our first chili pepper, an Anaheim, the other day, and the chili plants are getting bigger and bigger.
Here are some Early Girl toms lurking in the undergrowth. In the next photo, you can see our corn going great guns and also the chili plants and a bale of clover straw. It smells nice...
The corn are against the fence and the chilis are closer. Our neighbours over that fence have recently changed, and the new ones have removed the amazing weed jungle that was developing over there, which is probably good for our not having to do as much weeding. They are planting some trees, so future gardeners in our spot will have even more shade to contend with.
The corn looks funny. I don't know what else to say about that fact.Here is a cornflower flower.
And a tomatillo has volunteered and is flowering its little heart out.
And that's all she wrote.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Howdy Hoo
Check out this guy in Pasadena if you haven't alredy seen it. My tomatoes have begun and I am having pumpkin flower appetizers at Grannys tommorow.
http://www.greenwala.com/community/videos/all/392-The-Dervaes-Family-Turning
http://www.greenwala.com/community/videos/all/392-The-Dervaes-Family-Turning
Friday, June 5, 2009
Garden Progress Early June
Maddie and Peter et al: Here are a few recent photos of the Redding garden with boxes all grided off and planted per Mel. (We have been carrying that book around for the past 20 years and finally decided to follow your example and give his method a try!) As you can see, we are just finishing the planting mode. So far: 3 types of corn, 6 types of peppers, eggplant, a LOT of tomatoes!, lots of basil, green and yellow beans, summer squash (zuchini, crooked neck, and patty pan), winter squash (butternut and pumpkin), and cantaloupe! I have to find a place for the indian corn away from the rest as it cross pollinates the sweet corn. And I want to put in some ornamental gourds for fun. I hope that is it. He promises that it is less labor intensive than the old fashioned open row method of vegetable gardening but we shall see. Hope to see pictures of your garden's progress soon! Aunt Sally P.S. loved the "dancing lesson" on facebook!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Northern CA photos
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Community Garden!!
Hello Family,
Peter and I just got a new plot at a community garden a few blocks away from our house. It is very exciting and full of interesting characters. At one end of our plot is a 7 year old grape vine that I've heard has never produced fruit (or maybe just not very much). Does anyone have any insight into how to make a grape vine produce? If you gave us the right advice, maybe someday we could supply you with our amazing home-made wine that we will make with the grapes that will be amazing.
Let us know what's happening in your gardens!
Peter and I just got a new plot at a community garden a few blocks away from our house. It is very exciting and full of interesting characters. At one end of our plot is a 7 year old grape vine that I've heard has never produced fruit (or maybe just not very much). Does anyone have any insight into how to make a grape vine produce? If you gave us the right advice, maybe someday we could supply you with our amazing home-made wine that we will make with the grapes that will be amazing.
Let us know what's happening in your gardens!
Friday, April 17, 2009
9 square feet of garden
In this post, I will show you our new garden, which is built along the guidelines laid down by Mel Bartholomew in Square Foot Gardening . This book was introduced to me by one of my colleagues at the Tower Theatre, who is also building his first box this weekend. Good luck, James!
We decided to follow Mel's technique for intensive gardening as closely as we could, in order to give it the best chance of succeeding as intended. There are a few idiosyncratic recommendations in Square Foot Gardening - such as the soil mix and planting methods. Other recommendations follow more traditional lines, such as raised beds and watering by hand. I used money given to me by my parents, Judy and Steve, and my grandparents, Maw-maw and George, for my birthday to finance this project. Thanks!
In this picture, Maddy poses with the bags of various delicious (for plants) goodies that we bought to fill the 9 square feet box that we made from lumber that we bought from the Habitat for Humanity store in south Sacramento. The lumber cost us $2.18, and is about as good as that price might suggest, but we aren't looking to be gardening in this box in 10 years' time. The box was built with tools that Tim gave us when we asked to borrow a screwdriver. Thanks Tim!
The soil mix recommended by our Mr. Bartholomew is 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 composts, 1/3 peat moss, but I like bogs, so we went for a non-peat moss containing soil amendment. I think the end result would please Mel. Mel also recommends blending your own composts, and using homemade compost where possible. Our compost pile is just weeds and bits of asparagus so far, so we bought 2 cubic feet of composted steer manure and 1 cubic feet of worm castings. Our vermiculite is not from Libby, but vermiculite can still irritate your lungs, so we covered our noses and mouths with bandannas.
That bag hasn't got vermiculite in it, Maddy! But I guess the dust could come off the garden still. Way to be safe! Once the box was filled with lovely smelling (for plants?) rotted stuff, we leveled it off, and made a square foot grid using four strips of wood.
Different plants are planted at different spacings, according of the Gospel of Mel. We planted 3 square feet of corn, at a spacing of 36 square inches per plant (four per square foot). We also transplanted 2 chili plants (intended for Peter's Proprietary Chili Pepper Chutney) - a Fresno and an Anaheim. Go California! The chili plants go one per square foot. Also transplanted was a tomato plant of unknown variety. We planted 16 carrots and 16 beets as seeds in a square foot each. Finally 8 lettuce seeds were planted in half of a square foot, with the remaining 8 to be planted in a week or two, to stagger the harvest. We would have done that with the carrots and beets, but we got too excited in the beginning of planting.
Maddy is pretending to be me in this picture, by wearing my cap. Sneaky.
Well, that's all we did, apart from watering everything in. We'll keep you updated with the progress in the coming weeks, as well as showing the rest of our garden.
We decided to follow Mel's technique for intensive gardening as closely as we could, in order to give it the best chance of succeeding as intended. There are a few idiosyncratic recommendations in Square Foot Gardening - such as the soil mix and planting methods. Other recommendations follow more traditional lines, such as raised beds and watering by hand. I used money given to me by my parents, Judy and Steve, and my grandparents, Maw-maw and George, for my birthday to finance this project. Thanks!
In this picture, Maddy poses with the bags of various delicious (for plants) goodies that we bought to fill the 9 square feet box that we made from lumber that we bought from the Habitat for Humanity store in south Sacramento. The lumber cost us $2.18, and is about as good as that price might suggest, but we aren't looking to be gardening in this box in 10 years' time. The box was built with tools that Tim gave us when we asked to borrow a screwdriver. Thanks Tim!
The soil mix recommended by our Mr. Bartholomew is 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 composts, 1/3 peat moss, but I like bogs, so we went for a non-peat moss containing soil amendment. I think the end result would please Mel. Mel also recommends blending your own composts, and using homemade compost where possible. Our compost pile is just weeds and bits of asparagus so far, so we bought 2 cubic feet of composted steer manure and 1 cubic feet of worm castings. Our vermiculite is not from Libby, but vermiculite can still irritate your lungs, so we covered our noses and mouths with bandannas.
That bag hasn't got vermiculite in it, Maddy! But I guess the dust could come off the garden still. Way to be safe! Once the box was filled with lovely smelling (for plants?) rotted stuff, we leveled it off, and made a square foot grid using four strips of wood.
Different plants are planted at different spacings, according of the Gospel of Mel. We planted 3 square feet of corn, at a spacing of 36 square inches per plant (four per square foot). We also transplanted 2 chili plants (intended for Peter's Proprietary Chili Pepper Chutney) - a Fresno and an Anaheim. Go California! The chili plants go one per square foot. Also transplanted was a tomato plant of unknown variety. We planted 16 carrots and 16 beets as seeds in a square foot each. Finally 8 lettuce seeds were planted in half of a square foot, with the remaining 8 to be planted in a week or two, to stagger the harvest. We would have done that with the carrots and beets, but we got too excited in the beginning of planting.
Maddy is pretending to be me in this picture, by wearing my cap. Sneaky.Well, that's all we did, apart from watering everything in. We'll keep you updated with the progress in the coming weeks, as well as showing the rest of our garden.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Red and Pink
These are some flowers that popped up in our backyard. We pulled them up because we are going to try a raised bed where these flowers were growing. Does anyone have any advise about how to create the 'perfect' vegetable growing soil?
I would love to see some of the things growing in your gardens.
A Garden Blog
Welcome to a garden blog by Maddy and maybe soon more folks that are related to me. My idea is to have a family blog about our gardens so that we can share in the fun of growing food from scratch, trade tips and stories, and possible trade food. Please join my blog!!! It will be fun and easy.
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