Dare alla Luce

Dare alla luce- to give to the light, to give birth.

Day 33 of quarantine

The store bought ginger I buried in a to-go soup container on 3/25 poked through last night. That's exciting.

Peas are coming up, I see signs of a fava bean coming up. Lettuce, arugula, chard, kale. The winter sown jugs are also starting to come to life- calendula, more lettuce, kale, one sunflower...

Tomatoes are coming along. The ones I planted in the dixie cups are doing quite well (the ones that came up-the seed was like 10 years old). The ones in the milk jug are leggy (same with the tomatillos & ground cherries). I waited too long to cut the top off. I'm trying to work it out with a fan & I'll bury them deep when transplanted. I'm out of practice.

The cucumbers, squash & melon are coming along nicely.  I biffed one of the Thelma Sanders squashes & pinched the stem by accident. I'm not sure it's going to make it so I planted another Thelma seed.

I pulled out the pots yesterday, I need to wash & sanitize them to get them ready for potting up.

It got down to 25'F last night. I brought in the basil & thyme plants that I bought at the grocery store (out of desperation) & re-potted. They seem quite happy. I covered up the rest of the pots on the deck with an old bed sheet. Everything seems to have survived.

DH gave the thumbs up for another raised bed along the south side of the deck. It will be shaded by a silver maple so I've compiled a list of what should be able to grow there-it was surprisingly quite extensive. He wants to wait until May to construct it (hoping that we'll be far enough along on the downside of the virus curve by then-fingers crossed).

I have mapped out the deck/patio/flower bed area on graph paper and am plotting to put in more raised beds there. I have only casually mentioned it as a long term aspiration to DH. I have planted the seed...

Ticks are a problem around here, I have been doing research for non-chemical controls...chickens.  I didn't even mention it to DH. We can have them here with a permit from the town, I'm not sure how it would work with the dogs, they have a very high prey drive but are well behaved. We couldn't have free range (hawks & other birds of prey would be a major issue in addition to the dogs) but maybe a large run & a chicken tractor would work. My neighbors across the street were quite excited when I told them the town allows chickens now so they are thinking about it. He's a grown up Iowa farm boy so he knows what he's doing.

I've been reacquainting myself with seed companies. It's been a few years since I have ordered seed. Most of the stuff I started this year was from saved seeds & I hit up the seed rack at the local garden store back in late February/early March for the leafy-lettucy things. I did a small order from Harris Seed (local) before things got too crazy virus-wise (melon, cucumber & winter squash). I wanted to support a local business but they didn't have much I was interested in. Crosman is also local, they've been around forever & their prices can't be beat. I need to order from them too, they are very old school & don't have anything too fancy but at least I know the stuff they sell will grow here.

I was looking around on the internet for a place to buy the Pellegrini bean & came across Great Lakes Staple Seeds. They've got a lot of good stuff. Unfortunately they aren't shipping right now because they are a two person operation and one person is helping to make ventilators with GM. So I have book marked them for the future & I looked at their reference/recommendation guide for other small seed companies & I found Fruition Seed from the Finger Lakes (!!!!!!). Swoon. I'm in love.  Local, Organic, and a lot of fancy, interesting stuff.  They didn't have the Pellegrini bean but they do have the Haudenosaunee Skunk Dry Pole Bean (!) a pre-Colombian heirloom from the indigenous people of our region. I ordered it along with a bunch of other stuff that I probably don't need. I couldn't help myself.  My pepper seeds haven't germinated (because they are older than dirt) so I will probably order pepper seedlings from them.

End of the Season

We've had some uncharictaristically warm weather the past few days/weeks. Frost at night and in the 50's and 60's during the day. We got to 64'F yesterday. I took the opportunity to move some things around. I planted some Crocosmia Lucifer (that I had in a pot all summer) in the front garden by the lavender. I'm hoping the lavender will survive the winter- I started it from seed (wintersown) and it did really well- smells awesome! I moved Hippolyte (rose) from a weird spot in a corner of the fence to behind the mailbox. I hope it makes it. I kind of accidentally butchered it with the spade while I was digging it up. I put a raspberry bush where Hippolyte used to be. I have another raspberry bush in a pot -it's starting to rain so it might have to stay in the pot.

I dug up the dahlia's and the oriental lillies last weekend and let them dry out over the week. I dug up the lillies because the moles or other rodents like to eat them all in the winter and I can't get them to come up year after year. I cut the stalks off and knocked off the dirt, wrapped them in damp paper towels and put them in a damp burlap bag in the veg drawer of the fridge. I hope it works. I had a gorgeous pale, pale pink lily this year that I'd like to have again next year (see pic). I knocked off the excess dirt on my dahlias and put them in paper bags with pearlite- watered them all down and put them in a cardboard box and put them in the basement. I didn't divide them because I couldn't find any eyes. I'll wait until spring and hope I see some- if they survive. I'm kind of flying blind.

I did end up getting late blight on my tomatoes but not until late, late in the season. Like October, so I'm not complaining. I have the last of the tomatoes in the kitchen. They should be finishing up this week. The ones with the blight are rotting as they ripen so I'm pitching a lot of them out. I pulled up all of the tomato plants and put them in black trashbags- going in the dumpster.

Last weekend I finally got around to planting chard, kale, spinach and lettuce in pots on the deck. I have no idea if it will work. My aunt says they grow lettuce year round (in Zone 5) but I think she does it on her covered porch. I think I can jury rig some kind of clear plastic cover over the pots on the deck if it starts to look promising.

Some notes for next year: Either start the summer squash late (ie: end of June) or start a 2nd planting at the end of June in an attempt to foil the SVB. They got me again this year. I heard there are SVB resistant types but I love cocozelle. I don't see the point in planting zucchini if you can't get the kind you want. Every other gardener has zucchini coming out their ears, I don't know why I don't! I might also try clipping the blossoms off until after July 4, I've read that the SVB moth(?) hones in on the yellow.

I'm not doing eggplant again. I tried them in containers this year. I got a few tiny ones but it's really not worth the effort. I'm also not doing winter squash. Takes up too much space. I do plan on doing more tomatillo plants. I did 2 this year. I'm thinking a minimum of 6 next year. Tomatillos seem to be determinate so they came all at once, I put them in the freezer and had good luck using them frozen. I just didn't have enough to last me past October!

The butterfly feeder is going up again. That was very successful even though I started it so late in the season. I'm also focusing on butterfly host and feeder plants in the front garden next season. I started some butterfly bushes from cuttings this year so I'll plunk those out there either this fall or in the spring (over winter them in the sunroom).

I need more blues/ purples and less pinks in the flower bed on the southside. It was so pink this year I found it hard to look at. It was pretty ugly! I planted a balloon flower over there, I saved some seeds so I'll try to get some more of that. It seems to be a pretty good foil for the pinks.

Less tomatoes next year! As far as the small tomatoes go. I'll stick with Black Cherry, Matt's Wild Cherry and either Coyote or Champagne Cherry. For a GWR I'm going with Aunt Ruby's German Green. Pruden's Purple and Black from Tula are coming back. I think I'll give Black Krim a rest. Absinthe is going to have to go, it was prolific but they didn't seem to ripen very well, they'd go bad almost immediately. I'll probably do Dr Wyche's Yellow, Goose Creek, Berkeley Tie Die and KBX again. I need to really pare it down this year. I did can some but the main problem was the lack of really good tomato growing space. A lot of varieties didn't get a fair shot. I'd like to give Indian Stripe and JD's Special C-Tex a better spot.

The SWC experiment went really well. I plan on making at least 2 more next year. The worm experiment is going well too. I moved the worms into the garage this week. I set container #2 on top of container #1 (full of poop) about a month ago and the worms are starting to migrate up looking for food. I'll have to monitor the temps in the garage and will have to move them into the basement if it gets too cold. My Ruth Stout experiment went really well. It was less work putting the garden in in the Spring and the plants seemed happy this year, I need to put something on the paths next year, that's where the weeds came up. Maybe mulch or something. I didn't shred the leaves I put on the garden this year. Let's see if that works. If it doesn't I'm screwed because there's a lot of leaves out there!The compost tea experiment went really well. For the most part the plants seemed very healthy and prolific this year.

I did have a problem with cucumber beetles for the first time this year. I'm on the fence about planting cucumbers again next year- I ended up with a powdery mildew problem. If I do plant cucumbers I'll go with the lemon cukes- cute and taste great! No more Armenian cucumbers- I've tried and failed 3 years in a row.

As usual I need to keep up better with my mulching and weeding. I definitely need to get mulch for the front beds near the house. They looked BAD this year. I got a lot of compliments on the mailbox garden and a few requests to enlarge it. I'm going to try to convince the better half to move my lilac bushes to a spot along the driveway then maybe I can extend the mailbox bed eastward toward the house to encorporate the lilacs and then add some more plants on the south side.

I took pictures of the beds this year and made notes of where to move things and what to dig up. I need some kind of plan and need to stick to it. Some of the beds look a little schitzo. So that will be #1 goal for next year: Garden design like a sane person.

Goal #2: More butterflies. I have butterfly garden seeds in the fridge from monarch watch, I need to study up on what's native and what I need to plant to attract them and keep them hanging around. It's tough when the neighbors use pesticides.

Goal #3: Visit more professional gardens next year: The Plantations at Cornell, Sonnenberg Gardens, ect. Less time puttering and more constructive use of time.

Goal #4 for next year: Try to mae a cloning machine (ala 7th street cottage). This isn't a major goal but it sounds like a cool thing to try if I can do it cheaply.

Attack of the SVB!!!

The bastards got me! I dug out 2 from Golden Bush yesterday. Then I found a wilty leaf today so I cut it off and found another. Upon investigation I found the beginings of sawdust on the base so I slit the base and there were a few in there. I pulled the whole plant out. 1 Golden Bush is left. Black Beauty main stem was all chewed up so I yanked it out too, I tried to dig the buggers out but the stem was mincemeat by the time I was done. No Black Beauty left. I found one in a stem of Cocozelle just about to bore into the main stem, I pulled the little bastard out. I didn't pull the Cocozelle. I didn't have the heart. The Yellow Crookneck is the only summer squash that I haven't noticed anything on. I found a couple in one of the Buttercup and pulled them out. I hope that's it. It's really hard to tell, I've been checking them everyday but today I noticed how tiny they can be. Smaller than an inchworm. I think next year I will clip off the blooms until July 1 in an effort of faking out the sob's and start a 2nd set of squash around the 3rd week of June to replace any that I need to pull.

On a lighter note I had 2 Tiger Swallowtails and a Red Admiral in the garden at the same time today. I was very excited.

First ripe tomato!!!

Woo Hoo! Champagne Cherry is the first to ripen of the year. It's a very small (currant?) yellow/white cherry. I got 4-DH and I ate the first 2 so fast I didn't have a chance to take a picture. I got a picture of the 2nd 2, I did weigh them all. They came in at 0.1 oz each (one was slightly less than 0.1 oz it bounced betweeon 0.1 and 0.0 on the digital scale). Tasted great! Very tomatoey, tart-ish. I think Peacevine might be the next one to come in. Green Grape is also a contender- it has bounced back nicely a week after some compost/alfalfa tea. The fungus humungous seems to be subsiding. Coyote tomatoes are still green and hard. Bad news on the front garden: the deer have discovered it. I noticed on Wednesday night that something had chomped back the Squash that ate Cleveland- cool. Then I noticed something had pruned my tomatoes. The giant Pruden's Purple, BTD Pink and Black Krim fruits were intact. I can't remember if I checked out Absinthe or not. Today I noticed that all of my Absinthe tomatoes are gone! I'm not sure if they've only been by once (and I missed the absence of Absinthe) or if they've been by a couple of times. I hung up knee-hi panty hose stuffed with dog hair and peed on (what won't I do to save the tomatoes?) on Thursday night. I'm hoping they haven't been back since then. I'm going to put out Dial soap and aluminum pie pans today. Maybe that will help too.

On a sort of related note (the tie-in would be garden pests). I found the first squash vine borer grub today. My crook necked sqash had a droopy leaf this morning so I cut it off where the stem met the base and notice the little bastard poking his head out of the cut side- it was literally minutes from boring into the main stem! I took the leaf into the house cut up the slit and washed the bugger down the garbage disposal. I think I'll go out tonight with a flashlight. I have heard that if you shine a flashlight on the stem you can see them in there and should poke them with a needle to kill them with minimal damage to the plant. Sounds like a plan to me.

I feel I have short changed the cucumbers. Yes, they are coming in too. I picked the first lemon cuke yesterday and gave it to my in-laws with a cocozelle and the first black beauty squash. I picked the second one today. I haven't tried it yet. Looks nice. I'd post a picture but I don't want to detract from the glory of my tomatoes!

Cocozelle

Mmmmm...Harvested the first squash of the season this week. Cocozelle is by far the earliest of the 4 I planted. It looks like Black Beauty will have one ready in the next few days. I love the creamy-nutty flavor of Cocozelle. It's earned a permenant space in the garden. The first one was sauteed with peppers and onions, the second 2 were shredded to make squash fritters. Cocozelle is located in the front yard garden, the other types are in the back garden where there is less direct sun. The back garden is having issues with striped cucumber beetles. I've never had them before but I've got them in spades this year. I'm hand picking them and throwing them in a jar of soapy water. I've only found one in the front garden.

The front garden has a decent sized lemon cuke and something else, it may be a buttercup squash. The tower o'cucurbits is a big hulking mass threatening to take over the neighborhood. I have to go out daily to rescue the bachelors buttons and cosmos from being taken down. Rampicante is the only word in my vocabulary that comes close to describing what's going on out there! I need a bigger trellis and fewer plants next year.

We're going through a heat wave right now. It hasn't rained in over a week and the temps are up in the 90's with high humidity. I watered both gardens yesterday morning, the first time all season for the back garden (I watered the front garden when I first planted it). I'm trying to keep the containers watered, I'm thinking of moving them into a shadier location. The SWC are looking great. I will definitely make 2-3 more for next year for the tomatoes and put the peppers, eggplants and tomatillos in the regular containers. I harvested my first jalepeno yesterday. It was a nice hot. Not crazy hot but gave a little heat to my pineapple salsa.

Tomatilloes are going gangbusters, I'm really excited for some salsa verde. Pepper plants are doing well. Hungarian Hot Wax and Jalepeno have good sized peppers on them (I harvested 2 HHW about 2 weeks ago- it was too early they didn't taste good- no heat at all). The Arugaman's eggplant has blossoms on it and has set a fruit or two.

This Eastern Tiger Swallowtail has been hanging around here for about a month. My little 6 year old neighbor calls it the "Big yellow butterfly" she's tried to catch it but it's pretty elusive. I'm not sure what kind of bush it's sitting on, it was planted by the previous owners it has tiny pink flowers in the spring.

Heritage bloomed yesterday, Eden will go any day now. Something keeps nibbling off my Captain Sam buds but seems to be steering clear of Eden and Clotilde Soupert. Winchester Cathedral is still going strong despite being noshed on by rose slugs. Same with the Fairy blooming despite the rose slugs.

I finished planting the garden today. Starting seeds for the cukes and squash was a disaster. I dropped the tray and ended up with a lot of soil mixed with seeds. I have one questionable plant: cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash? I guess we'll have to wait and see. I decided to direct sow instead of buying plants. I also ds bush beans. The pole beans I planted last week are starting to poke throught the soil. The cosmos seeds I scattered around are also coming up.

Tomatoes at last!

First regular sized tomato was harvested September 2- a Super Sioux. Since then the Garden Peach and Green Zebra have decided to join the party. I ate everything so fast I forgot to take pictures. Whoops. I have posted a pic of cherry tomatoes from the farmers market in one of my favorite bowls (by Richard Aerni a nationally known local artist). I wasn't at all scientific-I haven't weighed or measured anything. I have just sliced and salted and popped in my mouth. Mmmmm..Super Sioux has a really nice flavor-perfectly round and for the most part unblemished fruit (I picked a cracked one today we had a TON of rain last night and SS suffered as a result). Great flavor. I'm kind of weirded out by Garden Peach-it really looks like a peach and has fuzzy skin. I haven't tried to eat it skin and all yet. But I did try one that I blanched and peeled-it has a really nice mild but not too mild flavor. I made a fresh tomato sauce for some spaghetti for dinner the other night. I can honestly say it was the best spaghetti I have ever had. I shocked the heck out of myself.

2 of Each-Super Sioux, Garden Peach and Green Zebra-blanched seeded and diced

c. 1 Tbs fresh Basil -chiffonade

1 clove Garlic- minced

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Israeli Feta cheese (not as dense and less salty than Greek feta)

I put the olive oil and garlic in a large fry pan over medium heat, when the garlic started to release it's garlickyness I added the diced tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste. Brought the whole thing to a boil, added the basil and then poured over a bowl of spaghetti and topped with the feta- not too much more of a heavy garnish than an actual ingredient. Mmmm the salty creaminess of the feta was a nice compliment to the acidity of the tomatoes.

I gave up on the squash and zucchini-the powdery mildew really took it's toll. The plants weren't putting out much fruit and what was coming out was really weird looking. I ripped everything out this morning. I left the cucumber plant, it is still producing despite looking like hell. I also ripped out all of the lettuce-it has all bolted.

Good news is the roses are happy for the cooler nights (in the 40-50's) They have bloomed in the last 2 weeks in the following order: Winchester Cathedral, Sweet Promise, Gruss an Aachen. Heritage has 2 buds and will probably bloom later this week. Eden is growing like a weed. Captain Sam and Distant Drums are looking a little peaked but not too bad.

I potted up the rose cuttings I took during my class that I took in July with der Rosenmeister. Belle Sultane, Rosarie de l'hay and Illusion didn't make it :( in defense of der Rosenmeister, it was the hottest day of the year and my cuttings were in the hot car for quite a while that day when I was supposed to put them directly in cool shade. The Fairy is doing great and has been transplanted into a gallon container and Thor is chugging along (I'll see if it's ready to transplant in another week or two). I also took cuttings from my moms roses- all are mystery roses given to her by family friends and neighbors. They all seem to be doing well and have been transplanted to 1 gal containers-this is probably their only chance for survival as I had to plow through weeds to find the sickly plants to get the cuttings. This success with the later cuttings leads me to believe der Rosenmeister was spot on in his instruction and I'm just a schmuck for not having a better plan in place after the class.

Note to self: don't let DH drink two cups of coffee and then watch football-he gets WAY too agitated!

Woe is me!

Veggie garden is being assaulted on 2 fronts: squash vine borers and powdery mildew! That coupled with the green tomatoes has left me very discouraged. So far we have had 3 ripe (peacevine) cherry tomatoes 4 more are ready to come in. I harvested 1 black beauty zucchini and another cucumer and a green serrano- the serrano wasn't hot at all. We had a couple of cool nights (down in the low 50's) and the garden is starting to look a little sad. The powdery mildew seems to have taken off over night. Yesterday was a very warm 90'F and it's back in the high 80's today. I woke up this morning and the powdery mildew was everywhere! I cut a lot of leaves off the squash and zucchini and sprayed the rest with a milk solution to try to contain the powdery mildew. I've also cut out 5 squash vine borers from 2 plants (the only 2 plants that have produced thus far!) I'm thinking they are so stressed out now they will probably kick it. I hate squash vine borers! One plant that had them was planted early and not covered, the other was planted later and covered with a floating row cover until the week of July 4-obviously that didn't work well!

I broke down and went to the farmers market today and bought tomatoes. The ones in the garden don't seem to be producing much fruit and the fruit that is there isn't growing very fast and it's not ripening at all. I got some heirlooms, some hybrids and a ton of cherries for drying in the oven. I haven't tried them yet.

Good news: Winchester Cathedral, Gruss an Aachen and Sweet promise all have buds. Zinnias and cosmos are blooming-tiny flowers -it's weird! Veronica has sent up a second flush and the cone flowers are going bonkers.

I'm not feeling the garden today so I decided to share a picture of Watkins Glen taken on Aug 1 when DH and I went down there for a hike. A beautiful state park at the south end of Seneca Lake,

A Small Harvest

1 more crookneck yellow squash (total:3) 2 Amira hybrid cucumbers (total:3), 2 really small, red Serrano chiles (total: 12) and enough lettuce for 2 1/2 side salads (total: about 4 side salads). Everything tastes so good! The squash have been really tender, the cukes were AMAZING-refreshing and crisp. I haven't had the chiles yet. I'm thinking of putting them in an omlette tonight. The salad was very good: Black Seeded Simpson (bolted-I'm waiting to see what the flowers look like-probably not the best way to go but F-it), Red Fire- both bought from the nursery. The Red Fire is excellent and hasn't bolted-yay! Also Jericho, planted from seed, a romaine lettuce that I planted from seed, also tasty- hasn't bolted=BONUS!

Everything seems to be growing really slowly this year. I'm not sure why, we've had heat, sun and rain...my tomatoes are still green-Uggggghhhh! I have been torturing myself by reading about tomato taste testings on other blogs and forums. That's probably not helpful. I think the bunny delay really set me back. In the unplanted portion of my garden I found some tomato volunteers and potted them up out of curiosity. They obviously won't fruit before the first frost (mid October-ish) so the plan is to try to grow them in the sunroom and see if I can hand pollinate and have winter tomatoes. It probably won't work and if it does, they won't taste like real summer tomatoes -but what the heck?

Through the self imposed tomato taste test torture I have been exploring the different Heirloom tomato options-phew- There's a ton out there! I have been plotting next years garden. I'm obsessed with Goose Creek tomatoes but of course can't find seed in the US. I have 2 options: try to get seed from the UK and hope it doesn't get confistacted by "homeland security" or get a seedling sent from California. I really love starting things from seed. Who knew tomato seeds were a threat to national security???

The tomatoes I planted this year are as follows: Brandywine, Super Sioux, Green Zebra, Garden Peach, maybe a Consolato Genovese (extra seed-not impressed with the tomato last year), maybe a Sanibel Hybrid (free seed sample from Totally tomatoes), and maybe a San Marzano. I planted 2 cherry tomatoes- Jelly Bean and Peacevine. The maybe's are in there because once all the seedlings got confused I chucked all the seed packets into a box and I can't remember what I planted and what was hanging around from previous years. Duh! I need to be better behaved when I start my seeds! So next year I will LABEL my Plants, take NOTES about what I planted, start them EARLIER (so I can be eating tomatoes now instead of writing and reading about them!), and try some new colors and kinds. Garden Peach and Super Sioux are the only 2 new regular tomatoes this year. I've never grown cherry tomatoes for myself before so both kinds are new for me. I've never tried a dark tomato before-I'm definitely going for a black or purple tomato next year!

The Sound of Summer

I found this ugly little guy hanging out amongst the rose cuttings in the shade of the maple tree. It's a cicada, it's pretty big -a little bigger than my thumb. Everytime my husband hears one he says "sounds like summer!". They emit a kind of raspy sound when it's hot and humid. You can listen to cicada songs on wikipedia from all over the world but they don't really sound like the ones around here.


I was off from work last week (family in town). On Tuesday I worked for a long time in the garden and yard. I planted seeds of Swiss Chard, beets, turnips, rutabagas and NY head lettuce. I haven't grown any of these before so this is an experiment! I also weeded the heck out of the existing beds and put down newspaper and a layer of grass clippings on the paths. On Sunday I planted peas, beans, spinach, and 3 different kinds of lettuce: jericho, red deer tongue, bibb. Following Sally Cunningham's advice, I'm trying to extend the growing season here. I'm really curious to see how it works.


Harvested from the garden: 2 yellow crookneck squash, 9 serrano chile's (gave them to my BIL), 1 cucumber. Squash tasted great, cuke is in the fridge, we'll put it in a salad tomorrow night. I think things are going kind of slow, combination of the bunny delay and the weather. I've got a lot of green tomatoes but nothing ripe so far.