Weekly update

Again, the beans and squash are taking over the world! The beans (on the left of the picture) have mad it up and over the fence. Lots of little peach and white flowers, and LOTS of green beans. I cooked 1/2 a pound or so last night, and there is still about a pound in the fridge. I also had another zucchini. Last night I had it shredded and made into zucchini pancake/latka things. Tomorrow night I think I am going to chop some mushrooms, onions, garlic and the middle of the zucchini, put it in the hollowed out halves and bake it. I'll let you know how it turns out!
Still plenty of flowers hanging around. I have a vase of nasturtiums and a vase of rudbeckias on the counter. We'll see how long it is before the cats find them!
I think I'll go pick some mint and have a mojito!

crop update

Well despite the ground hog (who is eating the grape tomatoes, the summer squash and for some reason didn't eat but did kill the winter squash) I'm still getting quite a haul. And before you get mad remember I have (friendly) compulsorily share going to the landlord.
So what is doing well?
Basil: bring a machete
Tomatoes: also bring a machete and a compass
Cucumbers: I made fridge pickles!

ick/ yay

So, summer has finally arrived, the city really is in the picture, somewhere. A week worth of temperatures above 80 all day and well into the evening. It has even been staying in the mid to high 70s at night. Perfect weather to ripen tomatoes. Unfortunately it is not great weather to gaze at a twinkling city, or see the meteor shower that we are supposed to be having this week.

I had to zoom a little, but there it is...

Roof Top Gardening

So, I may have over done it a bit with the copper spray. I don't see any more of the diseased leaves, but I got lots of yellow leaves in their places. The peppers were not affected and still look great. Looking back to the older posts, the plants have all really filled out. It still amazes me how fast plants grow in the right conditions (even if their caretakers occasionally take too good of care of them!) Summer has finally arrived, in full force. The up side is that there were a few red tomatoes FINALLY hanging amongst all of the green ones. YAY!!!
Apparently I didn't get all of the blossom end rot under control though = (

I am going to let the few that I picked that weren't affected ripen for one more day, on the counter so they get no chance of developing rot!

Tomorrow, I eat tomatoes = )

welcome visitor

After all of Amy and my's rants about the critters who are eating our gardens, I would like to introduce you to a friendly visitor.

Can you find him? Look hard, I promise there is a critter in the picture...

Alright, I'll pull in for the close up...

Still a little tricky to see, but there he (she?) is, a praying mantis hanging out on top of one of the paprika peppers. I think it might be a baby since the wings didn't seem fully developed. I say that this is a friendly visitor because some people actually PAY to have praying mantis eggs sent to them so they can release the critters into their garden, especially organic gardeners. No, this is not because organic gardeners are hippie nutcases who want bugs for pets (though in Asia and Africa apparently people do keep them as pets) it is because they are what are known as beneficial insects. Beneficial insects are things like lady bugs, praying mantises and dragon flies that enjoy eating garden pests such as aphids, white flies, mosquitoes and spider mites. Some beneficial insects are not terribly discerning and may eat non-pests and pests alike, but a lack of bugs is a risk I am willing to take. I would rather have to hand pollinate some of the plants than have them all die because a bug ate all the leaves!

Roof Top Gardening

Another week has past. Another week without ripe tomatoes = (

I have had a good number of peppers. We have had at least 2 of each type (4 types) and of the long yellow peppers we have had many more. They make excellent fajita filling when jullianed and sauteed up with some onions and garlic. The plants themselves are doing well. I have a bit of a disease problem, but few treatments with copper spray and some pruning should take care of it. No more blossom end rot that I could see. The handful of slow release fertilizer and more careful watering seem to be keeping it at bay. As added protection, I crushed up several dry egg shells and added them to the base of each of the tomato plants. The calcium that dissolves into the soil when the shells get rained on is supposed to help strengthen the plants as well.

Nothing much else exciting going on up on the roof. Though with summer's heat fully set in, I now more fully understand the allure of being "Up on the Roof" and every time I go up in the evening to check the plants and watch the setting sun reflect off the city, I get the Drifter's song stuck in my head.

evil green sausages with beady yellow eyes...

and big teeth!

While I have conceded the fact that there is wildlife, and it will continue to try to use my yard as its territory, I didn't figure on caterpillars on the roof! After all, how would they get up there?! Bees may not even be able to find my garden oasis and pollinate the lovely little yellow tomato flowers.

However, this year I had the distinct pleasure of meeting a tomato worm, or more precisely, 5 tomato worms.

I remember when I first saw one. A harmless looking little green caterpillar, hanging amongst the leaves on one of the tomato plants. I thought to myself, 'how bad could it be? how much could such a little thing eat? its the only one and maybe it will turn into a beautiful butterfly' Wow was I wrong! The book is called "Hungry Hungry Caterpillar" for a reason!

A few nights later I was on the phone to Amy, sitting on the roof, enjoying the setting sun reflecting against the city, watching all the tomato plants grow, when I noticed that one of them seemed to be missing a lot of leaves. I peered around, trying to figure out what could be causing such a strange phenomenon. Then I saw it. The seemingly innocent caterpillar I had seen a few day previously, only now it was 10 times larger, and munching its way through my tomato plants!

My shock and surprise had to sound through the phone as I described this strange creature using my tomato plant as its dinner. Amy said, 'oh, that's a tomato worm, I haven't seen one of those in ages, they look like big green sausages' Sausages with teeth! I'm glad I found the things when I did, apparently they go from breakfast links to bratwursts quickly, taking your tomato crop with them.

I pried them 3 of them off one by one and threw them in a bucket. I figured, I can put them out in the grass down the block. As I surveyed the damage though, my resolve not to kill things lessened, and by the time I got down the ladder, the evil tomato worms ended up in a bag in the trash. Nothing gets between me and my fresh tomatoes!

The next evening I went up to see if the tomatoes had made any progress in recovering from the evil green sausages with teeth and to show Amy what needed done up there while I was away, only to find more leaves missing. We poked around amongst the leaves, and found 2 more gnawing their way through my salad. This time I didn't carefully pry them away, I reached in and yanked them off the tomato stems. Its amazing how they can cling! And wow do they feel funny, kind of like the texture of a partially ripe peach. I kind of wanted to squeeze to see what would happen, but then realized that I really didn't want to know if they are filled with green goo like I think they are. This time they didn't even get put in the trash can with a few pieces of greens to munch their way through while waiting to perish, these two got flung across the roof tops, from where they either had a long journey to other tomato plants, or they ended up being dinner for a hungry bird....

ah the circle of life.