Squash

I've blogged 'em to death, I was trying to cook 'em yesterday and yet no pics.  I'm sorry.  Aren't they pretty?  There are 3 more just like them too!  Of all the plants, the squash have impressed me the most.  This is exciting because I have not had decent squash in 3 years.  Mmm, is that lemon pepper I smell?

After yesterdays pepper disaster I was expecting to reuse the bucket but it looks like the pepper has some spice left yet.  It looks as bad a yesterday but no worse.  Now if I could post-pone the rain scheduled for today! 

It's A Gonner

Well it was wasn't Godzilla or a natural disaster but a disaster non the less.  This is why most people drill holes in buckets, to eliminate the chance of over watering.  Since rain comes so irregular, I knew chances were slim of this occurring.  What I was not factoring into equation was man (child actually).  There was so much water in the pepper bucket (of course the peppers!) that when it was POURED out it filled a 32oz cup.  Soup City!!!  

The other plants seem to be responding quite well to the increase in water allotment, especially the strawberries.  The toms fruit are still green with no hint of turning red/yellow, the cucs are holding their own and the squash is looking great.  Baby squash is sounding very tempting.  Works for baby carrots, why not squash too?  Saute 'em whole with butter, lemon pepper, salt.  Yum Bo!  Hmm, might have to try that...

Oh the Shame!

Yup that's exactly what you think it is, the herb planter!  Wind picked up yesterday PM and this horrendous sighting was my good morning greeting.  Just shoot me now!  I mean I know they were not the best but I was trying.  Gonna try a different method for planting.  Sand, finer soil, something cause the kinder baggies let me down too.  Jesh!  As the saying goes, third times a charm.  On a happier note there are 3 teeny, tiny squashes and the cucs were splendid with dinner.  Yum! 

Good, Bad & Ugly

Had the first cutting from the cuc plants today.  Awhh they're so tiny you say!  Just as they should be, they are pickling cucs, less seeds that way.  After much debating, all the strawberry flowers and some fruits were clipped (I could hear them cry!) in efforts of producing better fruits.  Bigger plants, bigger berries, so they say.  Hate to have had tears for no reason!  Grape toms have BER (blossom end rot) probably due to watering issues.  An ugly sight due to my bad management.  Ugh!  Yup, as you guessed that is whats left of the 18 egg planter of herbs: 2 thyme sprigs.  Doesn't get worse than that.

The Chicken or the Egg

Was pondering reason for sudden flower loss on squash when out of the corner of my eye I caught this hidden beauty.  Funny thing is that the discarded flower I was pondering was never this big and beautiful.  Maybe that's the reason it fell off, jealousy!  As for the dropped flower, I'm beginning to think that maybe plants aren't getting enough water daily so lets see what an 50% increase does.  Ahhh the age old question: to be or not be, better to have too much water or not enough???  Hmm....

Beeless

Remember having to use a dictionary to spell a difficult/tricky word in grade school?  If you don't know how to spell it (ie: opossum, faux pas), how can you find it?  The internet can be the same.  Determining berry problems is endless: too hot, too cold, lack of water, lygus bug infestation, root fungus, etc...  The one I like the most through process of elimination: NO bees.  Lack of bees is nationwide problem (too many chemicals).  Now I have to find ways to bring in pollinators.  Of the 6 berry fruits, currently 4 are nubbins.  I did discover that the variety of berry being sold in all the local garden stores is NOT conducive to our heat.  Great! Its 92F outside.  Ugh.

First Fruit

Yeah the first fruit!  It is tiny, bright red, smells fantastic and ready to taste.  I say taste because do you see the size? How is that one fruit supposed to be tasted by 3 people?  Good thing the other 3 will be ready by the end of the week.  I know strawberries have been grown buckets.  Why so itty bitty?  Good thing there's the ever growing knowledge (be it good or bad) of the Internet!

Ugh Peppers

Another glorious day: sunny, cool, breezy.  What more could anybody ask for?  Peppers, that's what!!!  Nothing but pepper problems.  The plants took a beating in the wind, the flowers bloom vibrantly full with no fruit production, and the mini peppers' leaves are still yellow tinted, not crunchy nor do they fall off.  Everything read said they're watered too much.  Umm I think NOT!

On the flip-side: cucs have half dozen fruits in various lengths with the biggest the size of a sweet midget pickle.  Toms are coming in strong, especially the grape with close to 20 fruits.  Yellow toms have 8 or so fruits, all very tiny, none bigger than a peanut M&M (mmm yummy M&M's).  Strawberries are up to 5 fruits with first tasting in a day or so.  Squash had dead leaves trimmed (left in bucket for mulch) and notice 5 flowers.  Should have planted lettuces to complete a salad! 

Whirlwind Weather

First on Friday (after posting) some long over due rain.  Yeah!!!  It didn't last long (7-10 mins) nor did it leave much (less than 1/4 inch).  Beggars can't be choosy and that did not stop me from running crazy looking for more water collectors (good 'ol Tupperware!).  Once it stopped plants were heavily watered, buckets were refilled and the rest was run-off (ugh).
Then forecasted wind.  Winds were coming from the opposite direction as last weekend yet with all the same vengeance.  They measured 10-15mph with gusts up to 25pmh.  And blow it did too till yesterday afternoon.  Did you see the uncovered strawberry?
Finally the sun.  Directly after the rain stopped the clouds cleared.  For two and half glorious days the clear blue skies have be powder puff free.  Now the plants (and 1st squash flowers!) need more rain.  What a delicate balance a 5gal bucket life can be!

Sweet Basil

Its been 1 month since original herb seed planting and these 4 plants are all that are left after damping off.  Notice how the stem is weak just below the leaves?  What the pic does not show is the massive amount of roots.  I replanted the damaged seedling.  Seconds chances right?  See that tiny plant in the back left?  Yup, that's it, lots smaller but growing and smells great!  The second transplanting of herbs (chives/parsley/oregano/thyme) are barely coming along with only thyme having emerged through soil where as the two later herbs (basil/cilantro) in window have not germinated.  Is it the lack of kinder fascination affecting their growth?  Don't know but highly frustrating.  Have lots to learn about herb seeding, growing, transplanting!

Beauty and the Beast

After yesterday's post I decided a pic of the squash would be lovely in the fresh morning sun.  The sun is bright, the squash is a beaut, the grape tom is beastly.   Stem cracks!  First the terror of Tom(okyo), then the wind.  Whats worse is more 30+ mph wind is on the way for the rest of the week.  Yikes!  A few twist ties later and I wished it good luck.  The cucs leaves are dying from the burn but the new leaves coming in look great.  Lets see what another day of full sun does.  Below is last night's sunset!!!

Deliciosas Fresas

The front one is a perfect specimen.  Don't know what happened to the second, it's all kinds of deformed and crazy looking.  Aah, the beauty of homegrown, where looks come second to taste!  Flowers are everywhere especially on cucs, they exploded overnight it seems.  Both toms have tons of flowers and have not lost anymore since pinching incident.  Guess Godzilla didn't like 'em green!  Red/yellow peppers have flowers but no fruit yet, where as the mini red pepper is fairing the worst with yellowish leaves and small growth.  That only leaves the squash flowerless, but not to worry, it is still growing.  

Good Morning Urban America!!!

Urban life: haze, traffic, power outages!  It was not even hot yesterday.  In fact we are experiencing a cool front (58 F last night) and the city can't keep up with demands.  Gonna be a long summer at this rate, its the third outage this year.  What's weird is that they occur late in evening hours (affecting my postings).

Anyhoo.... This is what I opened the door to this morning: Glorious!  No haze, gentle breeze, and very cool (I say brrr).  Even the city is beautiful on days like this.  Yesterday started out with patchy clouds, giving way to full cloud cover, fairly breezy and still no RAIN.  But this mornings weather is a wonderful spring day.  There was lots of dew and by 7am the bucket was full.  Plants are still recuperating and today is exactly what the doctor ordered.  Bet we are singing the same song "it's great day to be alive, the sun's still shining...."

The first pic is at 7am and the second is at 7:20am.

The Aftermath

Oh what a difference a day can make.  The clouds are gone, the haze returns, the wind is a gentle breeze!  All that is left from two days of wind are some very roughed up plants, a few broken leaves and this beauty.  The first cuc flower.  Below is a second smaller flower just outta the pic.  When viewing pic on comp (#3 in a series of 5), look what appears: a dreaded cuc beetle.  Sneaky bugger is not there in pic #2 or #4.  Of all the plants the cucs look the worst.  The leaves look burnt and crunchy.  Don't know if there is such a thing as wind burnt leaves but how else does one describe it.  Hopefully time and rain (still none) will revive plants to a better state.

Wind Blown

The weather forecast, since the middle of the week, has said that it would be warm and moist this weekend.  Does this look like WET???  If by wet they meant blown with a fury then they speak the truth.  The mild wind (10mph) started early yesterday but increased today (20-25mph) with gusts into the low 30's.  The herbs took refuge out of the wind.  Hardening to the elements is great as long as they don't end up 3 counties over!  The buckets, well lets say I've seen hurricanes do less damage.  And at least they bring rain!  Forecast for tomorrow: the same, warm and moist (HA HA HA) with cloud cover and lots of wind .
On a happier note the dew collector works fantastic.  With a scarce amount of drizzle yesterday, the small yellow bucket was filled again.  Of course its empty already.  Nothing dries out moisture like the wind.

Dew Drops

Have I mentioned how great it is to live behind an industrial park.  Still in need of a way to collect dew, a spark occurred during an observation of local work.  A plastic sheeting is used to protect electrical lines from engine heat and is scrapped in a box for later usage.  Its thick yet bendable and comes in various lengths.  Within seconds after installation, drops were forming.  Function (and free) over form!  Perfect since it was dark clouds again with no rain but wind.  Guessing plants will need watering again tomorrow.

Rain Rain, Come My Way

Rain Rain, Come my way, The plants are starting to fade away.  It has not rained in 2 weeks.  The collection buckets are bone dry and have had 2 days of sun to kill any algae forming on sides.  Yesterday, I started scrounging around for ways to collect morning dew run off.  I need something to place around the base that reaches into the smaller yellow bucket.  Too bad 2L bottles are too small to enclose spout.  Lo and behold first thing this morning; a full bucket!!!  Aaah the advantages of living next to a 11000sf building.  It had drizzled just enough to collect. Yeah a days worth of water for each plant.  If only there was a bucket under each of the other SEVEN spouts!  Guess I need to work on that??  Dark clouds all day, not a drop over that drizzle.  Notice the ground away from the down spout is still DRY. 

Flowering

Noticed red bell pepper plant budding the other day and today it fully opened.  What a beauty!  Past pepper plants were poor to pitiful so here's hoping to something edible and pretty.  Vanity is not becoming I know.  The yellow toms also blossomed today.  Lets see if Godzilla attacks them too!  Only pest spotted was a cuc beetle (on the squash) headed away fast as his legs would carry.  Guess he's not photogenic.

Pests

 

These are the pests (expected, normal) that I have found thus far.

This last one has not been seen in a week (yeah), but was the third in as many weeks and the smallest, only a foot or so (yikes).  Keep your eyes peeled bananas!!!

 

Tom Troubles

Argh! First thing this morning on visual check was a discarded tom, pinched clean off.  That is NOT okay!  Two others were pinched off and missing.  Name the pest: rabbit, horn worm caterpillars, natural defense.  Consensus round here says no to horn worm and rabbits due to lack of other signage.  Natural reasons, likely, but where are the other toms?  Toms usually shed fruit due to water stresses and this plant looks great.  Here's what I think: Godzilla!!!  Save Tom(okyo)!

Inspections

After yesterdays discovery of damping off, I decided a thorough inspection was due.  Buckets are thriving with strawberry having 4 flowers in various stages and grape toms having 1 bunch of 3 and 2 bunches of 2 tiny green toms.  Oh the shame, herbs are down to 3 basil seedlings (more on that tomorrow). Plants were adjusted for lighting, herb seeds (chives/parsley/oregano/thyme) were transplanted using (free) inventive jiffy pots, cucs were caged and toms were staked (creative usage of found junk-discarded brake lines and washers).  Herbs aside, all is pretty as a pic.  Lets eat!

How this Started

In reading the posts you see that the first few entries take place over the last month.  Upon deciding to start an urban garden, the debate for blogging was still in the air.  Blogging is new to me and reading and posting are NOT one in the same.  With both feet forward, I jumped in last Friday (3.30) and have attempted to catch up the veggies and herbs to their current state.  Postings from today forward will be current, day-to-day events or findings that are relevant to urban growing.  Enjoy!

During the past week it was noticed that the herbs were dying for reasons unknown. Damping off has destroyed the herbs.  Poor herbies!  If it had been discovered sooner there are natural remedies to help aide.  Basil and cilantro are the only remaining herbs, though not unaffected.  They too had new seeds cotton balled in a baggie in the window.  Millions of kinder kids and pinto beans can't be wrong.

Ones Mans Junk...

Was scrounging around the other morning and discovered the 1st (pallet racking) laying against a scraped table and the 2nd (concrete wire) in the junk pile.  Junk says you, useful says I (and free).  Drug em over, cleaned em up, and watched their inner beauty unfold.  All they need is a little green. Now what to use em for: cuc/squash runner, tom stakes, herb hanger?  The herbs seem to be doing fine under current situation so I will sleep on it for a couple of days.  There's plenty of time.

Herb Mister

In needing to water the delicate little herb seeds, I tried many approaches.  I poured the water through a napkin (wasteful), through my fingers (lacked control), and then decided that a mister was needed.  The seeds are just barely under the dirt so it should work.  It also has an adjustable nozzle and it was free (note the food stuff label, used for applying apple juice to brisket -YUM!  Yes that is rain H20 in there, only the best for the seedlings too.


Herb Update: as of this posting the basil is coming in strong, cilantro has a few, and the thyme has 1 sprout.  There is none for the chives, parsley, or oregano so more seeds were placed in cotton balls on 4.2.12 along with thyme.

Rain Collection

Living in an urban environment has its limits for plant life, such as amply access to rain water.  Yes they are outside but water collection is limited.  One can supplement water from the hose (uck) but nothing compares to rain water for its cool, refreshing qualities.  Plants perk up immediately looking bright and chipper, wishing they were Gene Kelly "Singing in the rain...", not just surviving on hose water.  For continued plant singing, I set a sand bucket (in a former life that is) under the rain gutter down spout.  Lots of water collected, little rain deposited and is good for a few days before the dogs drink it all or the mosquitoes discover it.  Just out of the pic is another 5g bucket full.  It rained for about 10 minutes on 3.28.12, so I filled that one too!


Buckets List Update: grape toms, yellow toms, yellow/red pepper, mini red pepper, strawberry, cucs, and squash.  I think I'm done buying more varieties.  Have run out of 5g buckets.

Buckets of a Different Sort

Planted some herbs (from seeds that have been in the freezer for 3 years) on 3.20.12 in my homemade buckets (yeah more free stuff!)  All one needs for these reusable, multi-designable buckets are some plastic bottles (with funnel section removed) and coat hangers (if you want to hang outside instead of window).  Using pliers, I unhooked/unbent a coat hanger until it was straight then worked it around the bottle creating a self contained hook system to hang outside in the sun.  Poked bottle bottoms with small holes for drainage, added small pea gravel sized rocks (found in parking lot) for extra drainage, added soil and seeds (cilantro, chives, oregano, parsley, sweet basil, thyme).  Awaiting a transplant of rosemary.  Why grow from seed when a snipping does so well.  Now the waiting game, 3 years is a long time to save seeds.

Play with bottles shapes and sizes to meet your herbal needs and visual senses.  I used 2 liter soda bottles; aesthetics are not that important to me at this time, and because I had lots of them!  Others jars/bottles to consider that are sturdy: peanut butter, mayonnaise,  Planters 35oz nut containers, vegetable oil/milk jugs (not nice and clear but large with a handle), upside down ketchup bottles have built in drainage, shampoo/conditioner, etc...  Get the idea, huh?

Mulch ASAP

Yikes, came home from errands, two weeks after planting, to find the squash wilted and crunchy.  Its not even hot yet!  The thermometer in reading a mere 82 F.  Definitely need to apply mulch to the buckets.  Mulching has many wonderful benefits such as weed reduction, increased soil structure/protection and decreased soil compaction/run-off.  Edible buckets only benefit from mulch is to protect against water evaporation.  There are numerous ways to mulch and it can be organic/non-organic.  I chose the re-usage of composted materials: decomposing hay/horse manure mixture left over from the Yee-Haw Riders on their way to the rodeo a month ago.  It was readily available and cheap.  Did I say cheap, I meant free and that is even better!


(The pic is of squash after mulching and before adding a tad of water.  The soil was still moist but not where it should have been after just watering yesterday.  See how puny it is....)

Potted Plants

Planted two 3 inch plants (grape tom and strawberry) and cucs from seeds (3.11.12) and decided that 3 plants were not enough.  While at local grocery store a week later (3.19.12), I picked up two Bonnie Pepper Plants (red and yellow), a squash, and a Chef Jeff's Yellow Plum tomato 3 inch plants.  Refrained from purchasing more buckets so I scrounged some up and thoroughly scrubbed clean.  Buckets are layered with rocks to avoid drilling holes, filled with soil, and plants positioned according to directions on packaging.  By not drilling holes there is the chance plants could be over watered but that is a risk I am willing to take in order to salvage buckets at the end of the season.  Maybe 6 plants will be enough!

I think the berries have already grown.  Wishful thinking???