citygarden's posterous

Ready for Winter

The gardening for the year is complete. We've cleared out the beds and laid down a thick straw mulch. Erika's mom gave us a bunch of white raspberry starts and a boysenberry. We'll see how many make it through the winter. We also planted a blueberry bush and a Gala apple tree. Our landlord finally let us cut down the old, decrepit pear trees in the side yard. There was a catch though; we had to plant a new fruit trees to replace them. That's why we got the Gala. The second to last picture is one of the three Nanking cherry trees we planted. They are actually more a shrub than a tree. Supposedly they are very hardy and you can grow them practically anywhere. They give a smaller sized cherry, but produce much earlier than a cherry tree would. So, we'll see how that goes.

We're excited for next season. We've got lots of big plans: a larger corn plot with heightened raccoon security and an expanded strawberry patch in the front yard to name just a couple. 

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Canas and potatoes

The vegetable garden is just about wrapped up. The romas are done. All we have left are potatoes, scallions and some herbs in the front yard. I would like to do a fall crop of peas. We'll see if I get around to it. I'd also like to put down a winter crop to be used as a green mulch. Either a winter wheat or a hairy vetch. I'll have to see what's available.

A neighbor gave us some canadian lilly roots earlier in the summer. They actually did okay. Also pictured here is a snapshot of the front yard and me cooking out with the kids.

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Carrots

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Erika harvested our little carrot crop while I was in Indiana. The one pictured here is about as large as they got. I know it looks small, but this is really good considering the high clay consistency of our soil. Carrots like really loose, sandy soil, which is no where to be found in this portion of the country. If I can grow carrots like this every year, I'll be happy.

Decimated

The accosted corn stalks have been ripped out. So has the wilted cucumber vines (probably the work of a bore) and two of the zucchinis that had vine rot. All that's left in the back yard are the roma tomatoes, potatoes, one green pepper plant and what's left of the zucchinis. I think I've found a solution to the raccoon problem, or at least a way to "thin the herd". Now-a-days they make these high powered air rifles that are almost as powerful as a .22 rifle. They have rifled barrels and even come standard with a scope. I could probably set out food in the top part of the back yard and cap them from the kitchen window. Anyone know a good taxidermist? 

The sunflowers in the front yard are really pretty. They pop up over the top of the front fence are viewable from the street. When ever I pull up in front of the house I feel like they're smiling at me and saying "hi!"

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City Garden on the road...

I spent the last week in Southern Indiana, enjoying the natural beauty there. Rolling green hills, dotted with yellow golden rod and purple iron weed flowers, lush woodlands and stunning wildlife everywhere you look. My kids saw a hummingbird for the first time. My kids also got stung by sweat bees and wasps for the first time. That part wasn't fun.

I got to spend some time in my brother Ron's garden as well. Now I say it's my brother's garden, but his wife and children work in it just as much, if not more than he does. I consider him and his wife, Camille, past the point of home gardener and into the realm of farmer. Their garden is about 15 times the size of ours and that's not including their rows of black berries, raspberries, blue berries and grape vines. The amount of their garden they dedicate to growing corn alone is about two to three times the size of our garden. For all intensive purposes they employee organic gardening techniques. However, they cannot technically call their garden organic because they use some chemical fertilizers as well as organic fertilizers. Overall they are very successful. Ron is usually the first person I call when I have a gardening question.

We picked about two dozen ears of sweet corn the one night. Ron does a variety called bodacious sweet corn. It is delicious. We also had fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupe and red bliss potatoes. Nothing beats fresh vegetables that didn't travel more than fifty yards to get to your dinner table.

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Cherry Tomatoes and the end of the Beans

Our tomatoes are in full swing now. We only did Roma and Cherry tomatoes this year which is just fine because we have more than enough. The raccoons are still eating the bell peppers before they get big enough to pick. I guess we'll just have to keep them up front next year. Erika dug up all the potatoes that spontaneously popped up in the front yard this year. Apparently they were delicious, but I'll just have to take Erika's word for it because she and the kids polished them off Sunday night while I was at work.

The zucchini's are just getting on my nerves now. We really just want to rip two or three of them out. We enough shredded, frozen zucchini to make enough zucchini bread to feed the entire allied forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We have some really pretty flowers in bloom too. I have no idea what some of them are because Erika likes to just through seeds around and see what happens. However, they are pretty. Check out the pictures below.

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Cherry Tomatoes, etc...

We did a little hoeing and watering this morning in the front garden. Our cherry tomatoes, which I started from seed, are looking good. I also got some pictures of our scallions. Erika planted the scallions in between the buttercrunch heads and broccoli. Looks like we'll get enough to make some homemade salsa. Some of the sunflowers are 7 ft now and looking like they're about to bloom. This is the first time we've grown the big head variety, so we're really excited. 

I also got some pics of our flower beds. Right now they are pretty randomly planted. It's gonna take a few years to get them looking the way we want. We have decided to move the echinacea and black eyed susans over to the side bed where they will get more sunlight. Right now they're under the yew tree in the terraced bed, and that's just not getting them the amount of light they need. Hostas will probably replace them. Some bleeding hearts too, if I get my way. Erika doesn't like bleeding hearts. 

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Zucchini Monster

Next year I'm just growing some zucchinis from seed and when I thin them, I'm only keeping two. When you buy zucchini starts from Home Depot, they give you a little six pack for like $3. I feel wasteful not planting all of them. Unfortunately five of them survived and now we have ridiculous amounts of the green squash. Erika, with the help of our neighbor, Egypt, shredded two gallon sized freezer bags worth today and seeing that I just picked three more today, there is no end in sight.

The carrots were pretty crowded, so I thinned them. This was a job that should have been done a week or two ago judging by the size of the carrots I thinned out. Erika roasted them and we had enough for everybody for dinner. Check out the photo below.

The cucumbers have been doing well, but the vines are starting to wilt and I have no idea why. Maybe they've just run their course? Not enough water? I don't know. We have been getting enough though that I'm going to have to make cucumber salad to use them all up. A side note: I really don't like the type we are growing this year. I think that next year we'll grow a type more suitable to pickling. The cukes we grow now are good, but oddly shaped. Picture below of cukes and wilted vine.

The tomatoes are promising. They have a lot of green fruit on them, but I know from past experiences that that doesn't mean anything. The cherry tomatoes out front are doing really good too.

Ears are coming on the sweet corn. I'm afraid of what the raccoons will do to them when they get closer to harvesting, but I'll just be content watching them grow for now. 

That's all I have for now. About an hour ago I was talking on the phone with my Mom and I heard something out back. I look out the window above the alley and what do I see? Two big, fat raccoons scurrying down the alley. One of them ducked under the fence and ran into the back yard. I'm going to have to get some pictures of them up here.

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Beans and Other Things

So far our wax beans have been our biggest success this year. Wax beans grow in bushes which eliminates the need for a trellis or some other structure for the plants to grow on. However, it also means you get your harvest all at once. This is great if you're into canning or freezing. However, if your goal is to have fresh beans over a long period of time, then pole beans are more desirable. Last year we only planted six or seven plants. This year I planted two rows. I think two rows meets our needs, and then some.

After a conversation with Ron, my older brother and long time home gardener, I think our corn damage may have been caused by the large amount of rain we were getting earlier in the season. Raccoons generally don't go after corn until the ears are just about ripe. So either it was weather damage, or just a really clumsy, fat raccoon.

I think this week sometime I will dig up one of the potato plants in the front garden that came up on their own. The potatoes that I planted out back are getting to be about six to ten inches high. I should probably start mounding them this week sometime.

The pictures below are 1) the bean patch, 2) beans up close - you can see how many grow on one plant, 3) sweet corn - note the damaged stalks, 4) green bell peppers and 5) zucchini, wax beans and the last of the broccoli. Note the big zucchs in the back. That is what happens when you let them get too big. The smaller zucchs in front are the ideal size, about 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" diameter and about 6" long. If they get too big, they get seedy and the skin turns bitter. If you let them get way to big, the plant will stop producing and wither away.

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Catching Up

The pictures above are 1) our entire pea harvest (I think we need to plant more next year), 2) sweet corn, 3) coreopsis in the side flower bed next to the butterfly bush 4) a tiny little cucumber start and 5) a tiny little green summer squash (zucchini). 

This was the garden a few weeks ago. Everything is much farther along now. We just started harvesting the wax beans, which have done fantastic so far. We have also been picking green squash and cucumbers for the last week or two. We would be picking green bell peppers, but I'm afraid the raccoons are getting to them first. 

I pulled out all the radishes weeks ago and just pulled out the broccoli today. I was going to leave the broccoli in and keep on harvesting the little florets the continue to grow after the first big head is picked. However, my brother, Ron, informed me that the amount of broccoli that you can collect this way isn't worth the greater number of cabbage moths that will continue to reproduce if you don't remove the plants right away. Apparently the best thing to do is harvest the first big heads and then the second sprouts. Everything after that is just to small to make it worth it.

Next time I'll have pictures of our bean harvest as well as the progress of our roma and cherry tomatoes as well as the rest of the garden. 

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