So I think I've figured out what's chewing on my sunflowers and tearing their leaves to shreds. I believe I've got a weevil infestation. I noticed some damage to a ripening flowerhead, so I poked around in it a little, and a tiny little beetle-ish thing crawled out. Ugh. Now to figure out how to get rid of them before they ruin all the seeds...
STILL no ripe tomatoes! But at least there aren't any more hornworms, yet. Deer ate all the swiss chard over the weekend while I was gone camping. Oh well, I don't like swiss chard anyway! Onions might be ready to harvest soon.
Next on the agenda: finish double digging the last two beds, and get my fall crop seeds started. I also need to order some cover crop seeds.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Sunflowers
Sunflowers have appeared! And they are gorgeous! I feel like I'm living in Provence. Maybe next year I'll grow poppies and lavender too, just to complete the picture.
Me and my flowers. I had to stand on a stool to take this pic, as they are easily 6+ feet tall.
That huge plant taking up half the lawn is just one pumpkin plant!
Tomatoes and corn. That's a pumpkin vine trailing down the path, I cut it out today though.
Beautiful green tomatoes.
Velvet Red cherry tomatoes.
From left to right: Kentucky Wonder, Hidatsa Shield, and a mystery Chinese bean we got from a friend. Japanese beetles have attacked the Kentucky Wonder, but they'll probably be alright. Hidatsa Shield is the short one in the middle, it started producing beans first. The Chinese bean is outgrowing the pole, but has not even started flowering yet.
Lettuce Leaf basil loves being on the deck. It's delicious, with a slight licorice flavor.
I got lazy and forgot to harvest chamomile for about two weeks, and most of the flowers went past their prime. Also, some driving rain knocked the long plants down. So today I harvested what I could and then cut them back to about 6 inches. Hopefully this will re-invigorate growth, if it doesn't kill them.
Monday, July 19, 2010
summer
This is just a little update to prove that I haven't forgotten about updating this blog! I need to take a new batch of garden pictures, but the weather is not so great for that right now. Everything has grown so much since I last posted pics. My sunflowers are about six feet tall now, and one of the flower heads has finally opened! Very pretty!
I came out to the garden yesterday to find several branches of tomatoes that had been stripped of foliage. Upon close examination, I discovered a huge tomato hornworm, gross!!! I grabbed the scissors and killed it along with several smaller ones. There are lots of green tomatoes now, but no ripe ones yet. They'll probably ripen up when I go out of town this weekend. -_-
Corn is doing well, growing bright green and vigorous. However, I think I planted most of it too late. Next year I'll probably plant an early and late variety at the same time, instead of doing successive plantings.
Lettuce has all bolted. I'll start the fall planting in the beginning of August. I ordered some fall seeds, and those arrived today, including my two favorite varieties from the mixed pack I got in the spring, Forellenschuss and Amish Deer Tongue.
I dug up and ate some baby dragon carrots and beets yesterday. Yum! Too bad they weren't very big. They needed to have been planted earlier.
I've discovered that the "pumpkin" seeds that I saved from last years pumpkins were definitely cross pollinated with zucchini. They are growing some wierd mutated "pumchinis". They are also not very resistant to powdery mildew, and are being attacked very badly by it. My massive "pumpkin" volunteer is also beginning to die from powdery mildew. The mildew has also attacked the young melon plants. Not much I can really do about it without dousing everything in chemicals, which I won't do. Next year I'll grow everything from disease resistant seed.
I came out to the garden yesterday to find several branches of tomatoes that had been stripped of foliage. Upon close examination, I discovered a huge tomato hornworm, gross!!! I grabbed the scissors and killed it along with several smaller ones. There are lots of green tomatoes now, but no ripe ones yet. They'll probably ripen up when I go out of town this weekend. -_-
Corn is doing well, growing bright green and vigorous. However, I think I planted most of it too late. Next year I'll probably plant an early and late variety at the same time, instead of doing successive plantings.
Lettuce has all bolted. I'll start the fall planting in the beginning of August. I ordered some fall seeds, and those arrived today, including my two favorite varieties from the mixed pack I got in the spring, Forellenschuss and Amish Deer Tongue.
I dug up and ate some baby dragon carrots and beets yesterday. Yum! Too bad they weren't very big. They needed to have been planted earlier.
I've discovered that the "pumpkin" seeds that I saved from last years pumpkins were definitely cross pollinated with zucchini. They are growing some wierd mutated "pumchinis". They are also not very resistant to powdery mildew, and are being attacked very badly by it. My massive "pumpkin" volunteer is also beginning to die from powdery mildew. The mildew has also attacked the young melon plants. Not much I can really do about it without dousing everything in chemicals, which I won't do. Next year I'll grow everything from disease resistant seed.
Friday, July 9, 2010
"Survival Gardening" rant
Recently, my internet wanderings directed me to infowars.com, where I noticed a prominent add on the side of the page, stating "New Survival Seed Bank Lets You Plant a Full Acre Crisis Garden!" Take a look at the page here. Being a budding gardener, I of course had to check it out. As I was reading the page, I became more and more amazed. I would almost think the whole thing a big joke, if they weren't really charging you for it. They are doing their best to prey on the fears of the paranoid. Anyone who actually buys their "seed bank" probably wouldn't even know the first thing about gardening. And they think they're just going to throw some seeds in the ground in the event of an emergency and suddenly have enough produce to sustain themselves?
Let's say some big national food crisis happened, even during a prime planting time like mid-spring. The grocery store shelves empty out within days. So you pull your seed bank out of the ground where you buried it (the add states: "Indestructible Survival Seed Bank Can Be Buried To Avoid Confiscation."), and toss those seeds in the acre of ground that you somehow have access to in this catasrophe. You probably don't have any compost prepared and don't have access to a rototiller. Maybe you have a pitchfork. You think you're going to cultivate that entire acre with your pitchfork? During a national crisis? Then, even if you get your seeds in the ground, AND they grow sucessfully with no disease/insects/critters destroying them first, it'll be another 2-4 months before you get any produce out of it! Since the grocery stores are no longer functioning, what are you going to eat in the meantime? What if this food crisis happens in mid-winter?
Complete self sustainability is NOT something that can be learned within a few days during an emergency. Most of us were brought up with no real survival skills. We can't function without our cars and electricity. We can't feed ourselves without grocery stores and restaurants. How many people can just go out into the wilderness, and using a few hand tools, build their own house and cultivate a sustainable farm? I'd guess not too many. Learning to survive with minimal reliance on the rest of the world would take most of us years of learning and baby steps.
What really got me going was this paragraph:
"So here's the deal: I'm trying to get the word out before the food crisis becomes too apparent to the general public and there is a run on these seed banks. I've decided to sell the Survival Seed Bank at a discounted price to our customers who use this website to order. For the general public, the price will be a fat $297.00 - no discounts... even to FEMA or military personnel. Take it or leave it. But for existing Solutions From Science customers, as long as you buy online from this site, I will send you everything for just...
$149 Until We Run Out!"
Even taking into consideration their special "indestructable" packaging (and who knows if seeds packaged in such a way can really remain viable for 20 years, as they claim?), I thought that price was a little steep. So I did some research to confirm my suspicions. I thought most of the seeds they were offering looked very familiar, because of the amount of time I've spent browsing the Seed Savers Exchange catalogue. So I looked them up, one by one, on the Seed Savers website. Nearly all the seed varieties they offer are straight from Seed Savers Exchange, even the pictures and some of the descriptions are identical.
I compared the prices for seeds from Seed Savers versus this Seed Bank. I won't bore you with all the details. Here were my totals, for nearly the same plant varieties:
Seed Savers Exchange: 28,037 seeds for $131.60 (not including shipping)
Emergency Seed Bank: 10,055 seeds for $149 "until we run out", then it will be $297. (not including shipping)
The verdict is pretty clear from these numbers. And yet, some people must be duped into to be buying these "seed banks", or else they wouldn't still have their add online.
It's really just makes me laugh.
Let's say some big national food crisis happened, even during a prime planting time like mid-spring. The grocery store shelves empty out within days. So you pull your seed bank out of the ground where you buried it (the add states: "Indestructible Survival Seed Bank Can Be Buried To Avoid Confiscation."), and toss those seeds in the acre of ground that you somehow have access to in this catasrophe. You probably don't have any compost prepared and don't have access to a rototiller. Maybe you have a pitchfork. You think you're going to cultivate that entire acre with your pitchfork? During a national crisis? Then, even if you get your seeds in the ground, AND they grow sucessfully with no disease/insects/critters destroying them first, it'll be another 2-4 months before you get any produce out of it! Since the grocery stores are no longer functioning, what are you going to eat in the meantime? What if this food crisis happens in mid-winter?
Complete self sustainability is NOT something that can be learned within a few days during an emergency. Most of us were brought up with no real survival skills. We can't function without our cars and electricity. We can't feed ourselves without grocery stores and restaurants. How many people can just go out into the wilderness, and using a few hand tools, build their own house and cultivate a sustainable farm? I'd guess not too many. Learning to survive with minimal reliance on the rest of the world would take most of us years of learning and baby steps.
What really got me going was this paragraph:
"So here's the deal: I'm trying to get the word out before the food crisis becomes too apparent to the general public and there is a run on these seed banks. I've decided to sell the Survival Seed Bank at a discounted price to our customers who use this website to order. For the general public, the price will be a fat $297.00 - no discounts... even to FEMA or military personnel. Take it or leave it. But for existing Solutions From Science customers, as long as you buy online from this site, I will send you everything for just...
$149 Until We Run Out!"
Even taking into consideration their special "indestructable" packaging (and who knows if seeds packaged in such a way can really remain viable for 20 years, as they claim?), I thought that price was a little steep. So I did some research to confirm my suspicions. I thought most of the seeds they were offering looked very familiar, because of the amount of time I've spent browsing the Seed Savers Exchange catalogue. So I looked them up, one by one, on the Seed Savers website. Nearly all the seed varieties they offer are straight from Seed Savers Exchange, even the pictures and some of the descriptions are identical.
I compared the prices for seeds from Seed Savers versus this Seed Bank. I won't bore you with all the details. Here were my totals, for nearly the same plant varieties:
Seed Savers Exchange: 28,037 seeds for $131.60 (not including shipping)
Emergency Seed Bank: 10,055 seeds for $149 "until we run out", then it will be $297. (not including shipping)
The verdict is pretty clear from these numbers. And yet, some people must be duped into to be buying these "seed banks", or else they wouldn't still have their add online.
It's really just makes me laugh.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Zucchini
I am munching on a piece of fresh picked, raw baby zucchini as I type! Delicious! I've been taking somewhat of a break in the garden to work on making some new books for a craft fair, but as of tomorrow I'll be back in the garden full steam. Besides a little weeding and pest management, there hasn't been a lot to do in the garden lately anyhow. I have two beds that still need to be double dug, but there's no rush to plant anything in them. With the exception of a new seedbed, I have not watered at all. Rainfall has been adequate, and the soil holds moisture very well.
Dinner! I'm not exactly a great cook, but I try. This is farmer's market peas (why didn't I plant my own?!), delicious white shittake mushrooms, squash blossoms, and parsley, oregano, and chives from the garden. The salad is farmer's market peas and carrots with lettuce and nasturtiums from the garden. Nasturtium flowers are really tasty!
Basil seedlings have found their final homes. They seem to be very happy on the deck, where it's hot and there's lots of sunlight, plus light reflected off the white wall of the house. I also planted the other three seedlings in the garden.
Overexposed pic of daylillies. Well, there was a lot of sunlight!
Sunflower plants, still growing very quickly!
I am very pleased at how quickly and vigorously the tomato plant on the left, a Velvet Red from Seed Savers Exchange, has recovered from its deer attack. It has already outstripped the two plants that weren't attacked by deer. The main stem is gone, but it has four "suckers" that are growing. Although I know you're supposed to trim suckers, I just can't bring myself to do it to this plant. I have trimmed all the suckers from the two undamaged plants, though, and I'm training them up a string.
One of them is producing one whole tomato!! One!! -_-
Lettuce, parsley, and chamomile, growing like crazy. I think we're going to eat the lettuce faster than it can grow, though. It's just so tasty!
Carrots, beets, onions, and some unhappy swiss chard. My broccoli plants used to be in this bed, but this week I harvested whatever I could salvage from them, tore up the plants, and put them in the compost pile. I've reseeded the spot where they were with more beets and carrots.
Full view of the garden as it is currently.
I love this picture! I think pumpkin plants are so beautiful and elegant when they're young and healthy. Just look at those perfect spirals!
Dinner! I'm not exactly a great cook, but I try. This is farmer's market peas (why didn't I plant my own?!), delicious white shittake mushrooms, squash blossoms, and parsley, oregano, and chives from the garden. The salad is farmer's market peas and carrots with lettuce and nasturtiums from the garden. Nasturtium flowers are really tasty!
Basil seedlings have found their final homes. They seem to be very happy on the deck, where it's hot and there's lots of sunlight, plus light reflected off the white wall of the house. I also planted the other three seedlings in the garden.
Overexposed pic of daylillies. Well, there was a lot of sunlight!
Sunflower plants, still growing very quickly!
I am very pleased at how quickly and vigorously the tomato plant on the left, a Velvet Red from Seed Savers Exchange, has recovered from its deer attack. It has already outstripped the two plants that weren't attacked by deer. The main stem is gone, but it has four "suckers" that are growing. Although I know you're supposed to trim suckers, I just can't bring myself to do it to this plant. I have trimmed all the suckers from the two undamaged plants, though, and I'm training them up a string.
One of them is producing one whole tomato!! One!! -_-
Lettuce, parsley, and chamomile, growing like crazy. I think we're going to eat the lettuce faster than it can grow, though. It's just so tasty!
Carrots, beets, onions, and some unhappy swiss chard. My broccoli plants used to be in this bed, but this week I harvested whatever I could salvage from them, tore up the plants, and put them in the compost pile. I've reseeded the spot where they were with more beets and carrots.
Full view of the garden as it is currently.
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