Summer Gardening (or lack there of...)

This summer was not ideal for my garden in general, but especially our vegetables. The weather in the Bay Area has been particularly cold with only a handful of days I’d even consider calling summer. Due to my work and vacation schedule this summer I was also away for a solid month, so while my brother graciously kept everything watered, no weeding or other yard work and very little harvesting happened. Once back from my time away I was able to wrangle parts of the yard, but there is always more weeding to do. And of course now that it’s started raining again the weeds are all coming back again!

Luckily the pole beans seemed relatively unfazed by the temperatures and produced a hearty crop for most of the summer. Unfortunately no one was harvesting them so most were left on the vines to mature and then collect for seeds for next year. Who would have thought the yellow ones had purple beans and the purple ones had pink beans when they dry.


Because of the weather instead of feasting on tomatoes like we did last summer and early fall, the plants never reached maturity and produced maybe 5-6 edible tomatoes. The squash in general, both summer and winter, have also struggled a bit this season. They did fare better than last season and produced some edible fruit but still succumbed to both slugs and powdery mildew. Below are the only winter squashes the plants produced, one tiny butternut squash and wee little pumpkin.


Hopefully the winter veggies will fare better. The plan is to put in more peas, lettuce and kale when the time is right and maybe even some brussel sprouts!

Beans!

So it appears that my bean plants are faring much better this season instead of being completely devoured by slugs. I've been fighting the slugs with as many methods as I can and so far (knock on wood!) I'm winning! The beer traps were working ok, but they were still multiplying too fast and some seemed to be avoiding the traps. Since I was not willing to lose another crop of beans to them I decided to use a non-organic method and sprinkled some Snail and Slug Death powder over the bed to try to control them. But of course even that didn't work...So I turned to copper finally.

I knew that copper tape around the frame of raised beds is a great way to protect the contents of your bed from both snails and slugs, but since I don't have raised beds it never really seemed like an option. Then at the Edible Schoolyard (ESY) Plant Sale I noticed that they use copper collars on some of their plants so I decided to give it a try. Brendan found some inexpensive copper tape (the adhesive side is used to stick the copper to raised beds) at a home improvement store and I created collars for each of my groupings of bean seedlings. So far they are working well, although I’m interested in getting some copper sheets to make more secure collars that can be used from year to year. The sheeting can also be buried slightly in the ground since the key is creating a solid barrier to prevent the slugs from reaching the plants. Since the tape is much more flimsy and only about an inch wide it’s not something that can be buried or easy reused unfortunately, but was a cheap way to experiment with this prevention method.


From the mixed bush bean seeds I started (half the package) only five seedlings actually sprouted. Of those five, one was completely devoured by slugs and another turned out to be a pole bean. The pole beans I purchased from the ESY Plant Sale are also doing well, so I’ve got three bush bean plants and about 11 pole bean plants. The bush beans are still pretty small, but they have already started to flower and put on bean pods. The largest of the pods are lovely light green purple spotted pods, some almost as tall as the plants themselves!

Peas

This spring we had both very successful and incredible pitiful pea varieties. I decided to plant a bush and pole variety in the bed where we planted tomatoes and peppers last summer. I picked out Mammoth Melting Peas (pole) and Sugar Ann Snap Peas (bush) from BHN and planted both in December. The Sugar Anns were almost immediately attacked by the slugs and no amount of beer traps, evening and morning slug hunting could save them. I think we got maybe a dozen peas off 10-12 plants, although the plants kept fighting (futilely) to beat out the slugs.

The Mammoth Melting peas were an entirely different story. The information said they were high-yielding 4-5' tall plants, however apparently our plants didn't get that memo. High-yielding doesn't even begin to describe the prolific and constant harvests once the plants reached maturity. We were easily harvesting 10-15 peas every other day, and they were each about 5-7" long.



The plants themselves also outgrew the tomato cages and if they had more support would have easily been 8-10' tall if they had grown straight up. Without support however they grew into dense bush-like mounds at the top of the tomato cages making it often difficult to harvest the ripe pods. With our odd rain this past month they even fell over and required additional creative supports.





Unfortunately the odd weather brought powdery mildew with it. This fungus appears at first as discrete, usually circular, powdery white spots, but then grows to become a dusty covering on the plants. The heat we had recently activated the fungus causing it to take over the plants. Plants affected by various diseases or pests often then attract new diseases or pests, so aphids also joined the party unfortunately.

Because as the peas grow they become the most concentrated and dense at the top I was able to actually plant my tomato plants in the cages below the peas in April. I also planted pepper seedlings in front of the cages in mid-May since it's the hottest spot in the yard. Unfortunately the combination of powdery mildew, aphids and massive pea plants blocking out the sun started to threaten my other seedlings. So on Sunday I had to take out the peas even though they were still producing so that we don't risk losing our tomato and pepper cops this summer. We also extended the tomato cages up about 3-4' giving the tall tomatoes varieties more support, and in preparation for more peas this winter.

Seedlings!

Clearly the atrium works well as a greenhouse since we have happy and fast-growing seedlings!


Clockwise starting from about 10/11 o'clock: peppers, butternut squash, bush beans, greens, chard, calendulas (flowering plant for the yard), more peppers, tatume squash, pumpkins and more butternut squash

Annual Birthday Gardening

Last year I decided help would be nice to tackle a larger garden project so for my birthday I enlisted my parents and a friend who was visiting from out of town to help us create a nice raised bed for vegetable planting and rest a path. That worked out so nicely for us that I decide it would be a great birthday present again this year. There was one area of the path in the garden that always had problems draining and became a swamp every time it rained or I watered plants in the plots above the path. At the other end of the main path was section of path that was poorly paved, so we decided to fix both areas. Lastly there was a brick edging that had sunk into the bed and was no longer acting as much of an edge anymore so that had to be replaced as well. Here are the before photos:





With help from dad and DIY Network we put together a plan for solving our issues. Pea-sized gravel is key to helping with drainage issues by allowing space for water to flow and be slowly absorbed into the surrounding soil. Sand on top of the gravel then creates an even and sturdy base of the pavers and also facilitates drainage. I pulled up all the old pavers and cleaned them up since they had been sitting in the swamp for a while. Because the yard is on a hill the areas above us drain directly into our yard. This particular part of the yard could almost be a working well so after I pulled up the pavers I had to find a resourceful way to drain off some of the extra water before we started digging up the soil.



I got to work on the sinking brick edging while my wonderful brother did most of the digging so we could create about a 1-foot deep trench and fill it with gravel to help the water drain. Sand on top of the gravel and then with some careful placement we had a new path! While we were working we learned from the landlord that they were planning on adding some supports to the deck so one edge of the path isn't finished, but we moved some of the cinder blocks we use as path edgers and planters to line the edge of the path and then some pieces of broken pavers and gravel to fill in the edges where we couldn't fit whole pavers. Once the deck supports are in we'll finish the other edge of the path with some more pavers and stones to edge the path and planter bed to protect the plants from the hose as we drag it around the yard.



For the other end of the path we used a random combination of pieces of broken pavers I found throughout the yard to create a more complete path and then used gravel to fill in the spaces between the pavers.



Another garden infrastructure project done, thanks to my family who will apparently move lots of heavy things and help with very muddy projects for my birthday! Wonder what I'll rope them into doing next year...

2010 Tomatoes!!

One of the many perks of working from home full-time is that I have the luxury to go play in the yard on the days when I also have the luxury to take a lunch break. Earlier this week we purchased four tomato seedlings form BHN and I received another seedling as an early birthday present from my parents. After checking the weather forecast to make sure we were clear of freezing night I decided today would be a great day to plant them all. The four varieties we’ve chosen for this year are:

Sweet Million F1: exceptionally sweet taste, prolific yielder sets clusters of 20-30 deep red 1" fruit, easy to grow, large indeterminate vines need support, maturity: 70 days

Amish Gold: cross between Amish Paste and Sungold, thumb-sized golden fruit, very sweet and productive, indeterminate vines, maturity: 80 days

Kiwi: medium-sized, delicious green-when-ripe tomato, maturity: 75 days, my parents purchased this rare variety at the SF Flower and Garden Show last month

Sungold Cherry: heavy yielding English hybrid, clusters of golden cherry tomatoes, large vines, maturity: 50 days. We were so happy with this variety last year we decided to plant two plants!

Tip for keeping track of which plant is where: punch a hole in the marker that comes with the seedling and using a twist-tie secure it to the cage next to the plant. You can also put the marker in the ground, but I have a tendency to knock them around during weeding and harvesting.

All five plants went into the cages we put in last year, even though they are still occupied by my voracious Mammoth Melting peas that are now more than 7’ tall and continue to put on flowers and fruit. Since I planted the peas along the outside ring of the cages I can sneak in and plant the tomatoes in the centers of the cages to provide proper support for all their branches. The peas will help shelter the seedlings and once the peas are done for the season I can simply pull them out leaving plenty of room for the tomatoes. Both last year’s tomatoes and the peas have done so well in our yard that they grew 3-4’ taller than the existing cages. Once the peas are done I will also need to add some additional cage to the top of the existing cages to provide better support for all the tall things we’re planting year-round in this part of the yard.

More seeds

I was so excited to see my butternut squash and pepper seeds do so well that I decided to start some more seeds for this spring/summer. My dad also had some seeds he purchased and since the atrium is functioning like a greenhouse we decided we start all our seeds at our house. Here is the list of additional seeds I started today:

Gourmet Bush Bean Blend (Heirloom): includes Royalty Purple Pod, Golden Wax and Dragon Tongue, 60 days to maturity, pick before sides bulge, Irish Eyes Garden Seeds

Chocolate Beauty Pepper: dark, shiny green fruits ripen to a rich chocolate brown, sweet flavor, maturity: 70-75 days from transplant; Seed Savers Exchange seed

Italian Marconi Golden Sweet Pepper (Heirloom): traditional Italian sweet pepper, turns green to yellow (both very tasty), maturity: 90days; Botanical Interests seeds

Small Sugar Pumpkin: preferred baking pumpkin, sweet flesh, stores well, 6-8” diameter fruit, maturity: 100 days; Olds Seeds

Rhubarb Chard (organic): abundant producer, dark green leaves with brilliant red venation, easy to grow, maturity: 50-60 days; Seeds of Change seeds

Tatume Summer Squash (Heirloom from Mexico): tough drought tolerant vines bear multiple baseball sized fruit, long vigorous vines can be clipped back, plant will send out shorter shoots and keep bearing, resistant to squash vine borer and mildew; Nichols Garden Nursery seeds

Squash!

Less than 1 week after I started my butternut squash seeds they are already coming to life! So far 7 or the 12 seeds I planted are pushing through the soil. Looks like it's going to be a fall full of squash--provided the pests don't get to them!

Spring Seedlings

Somehow winter and early spring seem to always fly by and last year by the time March came around I hadn't even begun to think about planning for spring plantings. This year I've attempted to start earlier and I decided a couple weeks ago that I want to make more of an effort to try to start my own seedlings. Since the slugs and other pests have been devouring my veggies lately I’ve decided I need to be planting more plants if I want to actually eat anything we’re growing and seeds are much more cost effective than purchasing seedlings. I have also been saving seeds from some organic peppers and squashes we’ve eaten over the last couple of years, so this first round of seeds aren’t costing me anything. I’ve also been saving seedling six packs from previous purchases which make perfect pots for starting your won seedlings.

So far I’ve started some butternut squash seeds, small sweet peppers, gypsy peppers and red and purple lipstick peppers. Last year the gypsy and lipstick peppers didn’t sprout at all, but I’m giving them another shot. I’m a little worried that they are hybrid varieties that don’t reproduce from most seeds. Since I saved them from peppers we ate, I don’t know anything about their origin. So if they don’t sprout this year I’m going to toss the seeds and look for new ones next year. I’m hoping to plant pumpkins and beans this spring as well, so those are next on my list.

Signs of life to come...

Kale prepares to bloom


Tiny geranium blossoms


Succulents exploding


Majestic Calla lilies


Peas start to bloom

SLUGS!!

It seems that since brought the yard back to life we have also "invited" hundreds of slugs to dine on my lovely plants. They essentially devoured my little Radbot Kale seedlings, only 2 of the 6 look like they have any hope of surviving. The Toscano Kale is having a slightly easier time, but is still not particularly happy. And of course they have discovered all my other lovely tender-leafed veggies. To top it all off, the one non-organic pest control I decide I'm willing to try--Slug and Snail Death--is not very partly named since it does not result in the death of my slugs!! So I have resorted to other, much less satisfying and efficient methods:

Hand-destroying them: early morning and dusk visits to the yard are perfect times for slug hunting. Grab them and squash them, and look closely for the babies, they are tiny easy to miss. Supposedly this is one of the best ways to organically control the population, especially if you can get the little ones. Unfortunately this means lots of visits to the yard hunting slugs. I've discovered that placing larger kale leaves from my plants from last year on the ground around the seedlings is an easy way to "catch" them since they go for the easy food first.

Beer Traps: lots of gardeners are skeptical about this method, but I found it at least kills some of them. You take a receptacle of some sort (half a plastic up works great) and dig it into the ground so the top of it is level with the ground and fill with beer. The beer attracts the slugs, slugs get drunk and drown. And it seems like the cheaper the beer the better, Simpler Times (Trader Joe's) seems to work particularly well.

I'm still hoping Riley will develop a taste for slugs...I'm also considering getting a duck...although it might not be too pleased with Riley...