Leaving the Garden @ Home

I tested my garden's love for me and I am merely mildly loved. Sigh. Each year my in-laws spend a week in the same beach house on the same beach and do nothing but eat lobster and bake in the sun. Not a bad situation and a tradition I have joined since Chris and I were engaged. However, this year came with new anxiety: being away from my garden. Five days is the longest I have ever left my garden and it is the first time I haven't also left Chris at home to water them. I imagine leaving your garden for the first time is like the first time you leave your child with a babysitter. (This is in no way a reflection of my current expectant status. Keep that imagination alive, Mother.)

To help with maintaining proper hydration I asked my landlord, a master of uselessness, if he would be willing to water my plants each morning. Both my husband and my mother were skeptical about the answer I would receive. But I had faith in good ol' Good-fer-Nuthin'. And my faith was rewarded with 3 out of 5 days hydration. Good-fer-Nuthin' and his wife, Hilga (also an alias, but it fits. In a somewhat-related note, she also reminds me of Madam Mim) were going away for the weekend. Not bad, all in all. May he be newly dubbed Almost-Good-fer-Nuthin'.

I could have gone with one of those water hydration systems that you leave in your plants and they supposedly water automatically, as needed. Although very intriguing and an item now on the Christmas list (hello families?? are you out there? Amazon.com if you please!), it feels exorbitant to spend money on all the little watering bulbs I would need so 3 out of 5 days from Good-fer-Nuthin' will have to suffice.

After a severe weather failure (check out this link for a quick taste of that), we came back from the beach whiter than when we left but nonetheless relaxed and having spent good quality time with the family.

But, of course, I was nervous about how my plants had done without me. Would they seek their revenge for my having left them with a crazy Russian? Or would they feel even more neglected by me having now been cared for by someone who clearly knows how to grow things (Never mind that they're weeds; they're strong, healthy weeds).

As I said before, I am mildly loved. Photos will come as soon as I figure out how to transfer PC files to my shiny new Mac. (It's sooo preeettttyyy.)

Here's the verbal rundown:

• Chives - check. 
• Basil - a little wilted, but check, they'll spring back in no time. 
• Tomatoes - check, no harm seems to have been done and 1 more cherry tomato is definitely reddening up.  I don't even see any more black spots! Hoorah for small victories! (knock on wood)
• Peppers - check-ish. I have a couple of small black spots on the ends of a couple of them. Is that my fault, is it Almost-Good-fer-Nuthin's fault, or the pepper revenge? Why are things turning black in my garden? I've been fairly regular about my watering habits now - maybe Almost-Good-fer-Nuthin' was not as religious?
• Strawberries - NO check. They are wilting at a scary pace. Several are just black and rotted. Could this also be blossom end rot or a disease? What is happening??? 

The few small strawberries that haven't turned black are eaten almost immediately because we'd rather eat small strawberries than none at all. They definitely need to be left on the plant longer. I choose to think of this as them being mad at me for leaving them and not because I did something wrong. After all, plants are living things. They have feelings and mine are clearly the sensitive kind. More are still growing in so maybe now that I'm back they'll be okay.

Anyone have any ideas why this could have happened? When I post pictures I would love any opinions on whether this is a disease spreading throughout my containers or blossom end rot which is user error and completely fixable. I need help!!

Garden of Eden Recipes!

Many people don't seem to realize that I have been posting recipes on my website. So take a look at the link on the left, which, cleverly enough is called 'Garden of Eden Recipes'.  Ingenious isn't it?

Bon Appetit!

Disease Unease? Nay, Positive Potential!

Oh dear. Oh my. Oh gosh. What I thought was B.E.R. might be a disease. A bacterial disease no less. Not just something that I can fix by watering appropriately or consistently. But something that could have been part of the plant when I bought it and can't be cured. Holy geez. I might have to get rid of 1 or more plants in its/their entirety, forsaking all yummy-looking, pride inducing fruits. The level of garden related stress is at an all time high.  I will come back to the diagnosis results at a later date when I have confirmed my mater malfunction. For now, I will forego the diseased photos. Let's focus on the positive. 


Woosah.


What do we have to talk about that's positive? Setting aside potential ugly, horrible, disappointing and evil bacterial diseases, I do have a reddening tomato!  The cherry tomato plant, the least likely to be diseased and the most productive plant of anything in the garden, has 1 definitely blushing beauty. What a sight! Let's bask in this fact over 2 photos. It's so satisfying to see!

Another point of pride is strawberries! Of the 26 fruits that I counted recently, several are looking mighty juicy and full of uber deliciousness. They still need to grow, but their bright red color is a beautiful thing. Look at them glisten!

I also have my fantastic basil and chive plants. The basil I will soon use to make a fresh pesto sauce using Mom's recipe. That will get posted soon too.  The peppers are doing just fine. Nothing turning red yet but they do look healthy, as long as they aren't getting chopped off by stupid chipmunks or other pesky rodents. 


So my largest and most common crop (I realize I'm not on a farm or even a yard, or, well, land. However, I like the sound of the word crop, so just go with it.) is causing the biggest problems and may not produce what would have been the most prized epicurean delight. I will readjust my expectations and focus on what I CAN produce. It's all about staying positive, right?  


Nevertheless, I would appreciate all crossed fingers and well wishes for my darling crop. The garden production potential is still high, it's just different than what it was. 


Despite all of the challenges I have had in what should have been an easy summer of container gardening, I am having a great time doing it, learning about it and seeing the results. So much so that I am planning for a fall/winter garden and next summer's yield. The blog continues!

B.E.R.

One of my tomato plants is named Brer. You will notice the 2, count 'em TWO letter r's in this word. Like Brer Rabbit. If you take away one of the r's, you are left with what? BER. Which, as I have come to learn in gardening, stands for Blossom End Rot. As in black dot from hell. As in trials and tribulations of a new gardener. As in ruining my tomatoes and not appreciating this one bit!!! As in, totally my fault. Oops.


Yesterday, I came upon this disturbing scene:

An unsightly mess in my precious garden.

Today, I spent some time doing a thorough inspection of my plants. First, I very sadly cut off the one rotten tomato - let me remind you it was my only beefsteak heirloom tomato that has grown so far. There are several new blossoms on that plant which is hopeful, but it's already August and I don't know how much time the plant needs to make the other tomatoes fully develop. Which means there is a chance that I won't taste an heirloom tomato this season. That's just so wrong!

Looks like 2 tomatoes were growing into 1.
It would have been an awesome Monster-Mater! Ack!

Next, I discovered this less gruesome but still totally depressing situation on Shaq, the tall Big Boy hybrid. 

Black dot from hell. (While we mourn Shaq's otherwise beautiful child, please do take note of my cool purple gloves. Jealous much?)

So, of my 3 tomato plants (Shaq, Brer, and TBD), only Brer was untouched (so far). Maybe having that extra R in the name really is key. Having 2 specimens with black dots made me think that some horrible disease was quickly spreading and would take all of my plants away, next moving onto humans in the form of a flesh eating disease, causing mass Queens/Manhattan exodus. The truth, while clearly not as dramatic, is no less sad because it turns out I am the culprit. And any harm caused by me and that could have been avoided is almost on the same scale. You see that, right?


BER is usually caused by 1 or 2 things: calcium deficiency (I put crushed up egg shells in the soil several weeks ago, but maybe not enough?) and uneven watering. Ah. Okay. Effect noted, cause found. Me. I have been a bit lax in my watering lately. Did I mention I'm not a morning person? But when I have a day when I didn't water in the morning, I made up for it by either watering in the evening or, if it was a weekend, watering whenever I got up, say around noon-ish.  Guess when they said that you should water in the morning, what they meant was: "You should water in the morning, idiot!"


Heard the message. Loud and clear. Lesson learned. 


And so I plead with the Big Gardener in the Sky, "Save my plants and I promise to water in the mornings when I'm supposed to, even if I head straight back to bed afterwards and complain the whole time about having to get up to water these stupid things!" There. That should do it.

Hoarding Chipmunks

A couple of baby peppers are down again. It's on the same damn green pepper plant that's been continuously attacked from the start. But the peppers aren't touched, they don't even have any bite marks. Mom thinks it might be chipmunks. What is wrong with these chipmunks that they just bring down the pepper but don't eat it? Aaaand, if little Alvin is ignoring the fox pee and getting under my netting, how am I supposed to stop him?? I sprinkled more Shake Away in the area and added an extra layer of netting to that plant to see what happens. What else can I do?

But I can't think about this too much right now. I just watched an episode of Hoarding: Buried Alive on the TLC channel which of course makes me want to clean my entire apartment. Tonight. A Sunday at 9:30 pm. I might starting hoarding chipmunks to stop them from getting to my plants. Think that'll work??

Garden Tally

As of today, my garden tally is as follows:

• 26 Strawberries
• 20 peppers (green and red)
• 24 tomatoes (20 cherry red, 3 big boy, 1 beefsteak)
• plenty of basil
• plenty of chives
• dead flowers

I don't think I'll be bringing the flowers back next year. They're just too fragile and I am not a delicate gardener. And it's too frustrating to see dead leaves so quickly. The only thing I might save is the lily plant to see if it comes back next year because it really was beautiful for those 3 days(!).

Dead, dead and more dead.

I have used a bunch of the basil and chives for cooking. The basil I've cut back so it doesn't flower, which apparently makes the leaves start to taste bitter. And it just keeps growing back on different shoots - deliciousness abounds. The chives also just keep growing. They're getting so long now I feel like they need a cut as bad as my hair. 

Healthy herbs.

The strawberries are a delightful surprise. I wasn't sure if we'd get any strawberries this year. After cutting off the initial berries (Strawberry Whine), I was convinced that tasting a fresh strawberry would have to wait until next year. So to see 26 berries coming in is a superb development! 

Bonus about strawberries - they have beautiful blooms, too!

Bunches of berries - I am starting to salivate!

My peppers have had their critter issues this summer but they're really doing quite well. Wilbur the pepper plant just keeps giving and giving. I have yet to harvest a pepper (doesn't that sound so professional gardener of me?? Harvesting!), but they look fabulous. Just a couple more weeks, I think, before I pick one. 

Wilbur

The most troubled plant of the season, will likely provide the first harvested veggie.

As for my tomatoes - they are the most exciting and frustrating part of the garden. The tomatoes are doing just fine, particularly the cherry tomato plant which I have named Brer. The tomatoes just keep coming, the plant is producing like rabbits - Brer Rabbit? The beefsteak plant is much slower to develop, only 1 small tomato so far. Others are clearly coming but it will probably be well into September before I enjoy one of those. As for my Big Boy plant, it's shooting up like there's no tomorrow! In a small experiment on whether or not to prune, I have pruned the Big Boy plant the most. Now he's focused on shooting up tall! Therefore, he shall be dubbed Shaq the tomato plant.  But all of my tomatoes are still stubbornly green. None show even a little bit of red. I think I'm being a bit impatient, and realize I got a late start to the season, but when I see others enjoying the fruits of their labor, I become insanely jealous! I want to taste a juicy tomato, marry it with my own basil and a little mozzarella and olive oil. Mmmmmm.

Shaq on the left, Brer in the middle, Beefsteak plant (still unnamed) on the right.

The lonely beefsteak.

Shaq's 3 children

An abundance of still green cherry tomatoes

A truly good start to my gardening adventures; I am quite pleased and am already looking into fall and year-round gardening. Bring it on!

Fox Pee

I literally yelped shortly after waking up this morning. It was not a good start to the day, and was clearly an omen for how today was going to go. I woke up, went to check my garden and came upon chaos. Hence the yelp. 1 tomato pot on its side, 1 tomato victim, 2 peppers down for the count, netting around 4 of the pots was pulled partially down, and the stakes were pulled up. There is a critter in our midst and it is not friendly. Suggestions of what our unwelcome guest could be are chipmunks, squirrels, or a raccoon. Yikes. Does Queens have raccoons??

I've been having troubles lately with something eating my peppers as you will recall, of course, from having been thoroughly engrossed by my Sneak Attack post. For several days, leaves have been torn down and baby peppers' cute little lives have been cut short. The destruction I found this morning took it to the next level. 

With life there is always death. I am in the anger stage of mourning.
The pepper on the top isn't touched, just cut down!

I am not a morning person and as usual left myself very little time to get ready before work. So finding soil spilled across the deck, lots of clean up to be done, and fewer vegetable products for me and Chris, set the tone for my entire day. At the end of a pretty stressful work day, I decided to stay late. I think because I didn't want to come home and find more downed peppers - I was that depressed by the situation. As if not being here would fix the problem. I have had enough. This is war, folks, and I'm pissed!!

And speaking of being pissed (I totally planned that), when my mother heard about my veggie trials a few days ago, she suggested that I look into a product called Shake Away to help keep the critters away. It was late when we spoke and I was tired so I just said okay and made a mental note, not really asking any questions. The next day, my boss said to me 'This may sound weird but fox urine often helps with small animals. It makes them think that a predator has been there and they get scared away.'  Uh-huh. Okay. Where in the world am I going to find fox urine? It's not like I have a friendly pet fox with good aim. And eeewwww!  Shake Away certainly sounded a lot more appealing so I go home and look it up.  Fox pee! That's what Shake Away is. And you can order fox pee on Amazon. Who knew? It's amazing the things you can buy online and have shipped to your home.

In case you were wondering, and I know you were, fox pee comes in little granules so you can sprinkle it where you need to. And it smells. Not like flowers. I know that's surprising. I don't want to go near that smell either. But I have a problem that needs fixing. So I sprinkled here, sprinkled there. We'll see if it successfully keeps the little rascals from eating my hard-earned, beautiful produce.  If this doesn't work, then my friend Josh, the master gardener (which is so cool to say) suggested a pepper-spray home remedy. And if THAT doesn't work....

Say a prayer, do a dance, keep your fingers crossed. Otherwise, you may want to steer clear of me for awhile. I won't be a happy camper.

South African Getaway

A couple of weeks ago, Chris was in the mood for something exotic. For some reason, he was motivated enough to look for recipes.  He came up with South African Beef Curry.  That was a no brainer. Sounds delish! I was planning out what I needed when Chris came down with a stomach virus (we thought it was food poisoning at the time). Beef Curry is probably not the best food for such a situation. So we waited. A few weeks after that, making sure the stomach coast was clear, we planned it again. Chris even did the grocery shopping.  I'm about to dedicate an entire line of this post to that statement, because it's such a big deal. 


CHRIS DID THE GROCERY SHOPPING. 


Wow. That looks so cool. And that it's a true statement is super  cool.


The curry recipe isn't so different from Indian curries. It does have mustard seed which may be different. The biggest difference is in the toppings. There was banana, coconut, mango chutney, and cucumber yogurt sauce (I used zucchini instead because I had it). Yummy! Chris likes spicy foods and I don't so I left out the jalapenos from the recipe, but he bought a Mongolian Hot Sauce to drip on to his plate. You do need to buy good beef, otherwise it just won't work, no matter how good the topping flavors are. We got an average beef but I would like to try it again with an excellent grade. Where our meal was really good, it could be amazing with better beef. And the truly South African recipe would use lamb, which I would definitely do when I feel like spending the extra moolah.


To accompany our meal, Chris picked up a bottle of South African wine. He really is a thoughtful guy - I suppose he's a keeper! Little did he know that the wine that he bought, a red wine from the Goats Do Roam vineyard, is the same vineyard that I visited when I took a vacation there in 2006. How cool! We've actually had the wine here in the States before but since Chris wasn't with me on the trip, he didn't remember having it (I normally don't remember wines I've had either). It was a nice touch to a nice meal - one we'll be repeating.


Recipe coming soon.

Beef curry over brown rice, zucchini yogurt sauce, mango chutney, coconut and banana toppings and a big ol' glass of wine. Nevermind the walnuts at the top of the picture. That's not dinner related, we just don't know how to put things away in this house.

Goats Do Roam Red Wine

Photos I took from my trip to South Africa in December 2006. Views from the Goats Do Roam vineyard.

Goats Do Roam Vineyard. Paarl, South Africa

View of the Paarl Mountain Nature Reserve from the vineyard's front parking lot.

Sneak Attack

This morning, I sat on the deck to read since the weather was cooler and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I went inside to do a few chores, and when I went back out a few hours later, I discovered that I was attacked while I was away. There were these mysterious and pretty sizable holes in my peppers!!! This was on the larger plant, not my Wilbur. The runt has been left alone for now.

Anyone want to tell me what could have done this and how to prevent it in the future? I have netting around all my plants so I didn't think birds could get to them without getting tangled up, especially since these bites are on the underside of one of the larger peppers in the middle of the plant! I don't think the caterpillars I got rid of yesterday came back. I looked high and low and didn't see a trace of them. Although I guess it's possible. Does anyone have a clue??

The first sign I had been the victim of a sneak attack.

This just makes me so sad! One of my largest, now handicapped, green peppers.