Feel the heat

I've lacked the motivation lately to post on account of record breaking temperatures. Two days ago SeaTac topped out at 103, and it's been hovering in the 90s ever since. Considering the fact that my room is an attic room and I don't have a laptop, there was no way I could conceive of attempting an endeavor that sweaty. It finally started to cool off yesterday and today is hot, but certainly bearable. The garden has needed extra watering during the past week's heat wave. I typically water around twilight, and if I'm able for a short time in the late morning. The past two months have been near the driest on record for the Seattle area, with practically no measurable rainfall to speak of. Perhaps a sign of what's to come. I can't really complain though; a gardener can't ask for better weather to grow vegetables, but a little rain would be nice.

Yellow squash ready to be picked today or tomorrow

Quinoa clusters continue to fill out nicely

Golden bell peppers love the heat

The first sunflower opened up yesterday

Peas no more

Ripped out the two rows of ailing pea plants this morning to make way for some winter crops. In all actuality I should have planted seeds for the purpose of growing them through the fall and winter several weeks ago. No excuses.

I planted a row of carrots and next to it leeks and spinach. There are still a good six weeks or so of legitimate summer left, barring early fall rains, so they might have a chance of establishing themselves before the weather gets too wet and cold. I'm going to have to pay close attention to keeping the soil moist so that the seeds actually germinate, a task that may be near impossible if this hot, dry spell we've had lately continues. Inside I've already started several broccoli seedlings which are about 3 inches tall that will go outside as soon as I have more room in the garden.

The trellis pieces will be stored somewhere dry for next year's garden.

An updated shot of the tomatoes planted at the front of the house. I've had to tie several additional pieces of support twine to hold up the abundant fruits on these Better Boy hybrids, and still they hover just above the ground. I'll be keeping my eye out for slugs.

Successful garden installation

A few updated photos of the garden I installed for a friend's mother in early May:

At left is the yellow squash followed by a row of tomatoes

Yellow squash looking very healthy

Jade bush beans with their first blossoms

A vibrant row of peas supported by a simple wire mesh trellis

I asked for a few updated photos to see how everything had performed; I hadn't seen the garden since I planted the seeds several months back. Seems things couldn't be doing better.

Cloche Removal

Nathan and I pulled the cloche today. The tomatoes have far surpassed my expectations, shadowing the peppers and eggplants in the process, and necessitating the prompt removal of the cover. A jungle of jumbled tomato vines greeted us and the full summer sun as we lifted the plastic off. I was pleased to see several of the peppers with fruit already set peering from beneath the massive tomato hedge. Keeping the tomatoes at bay required additional staking in the form of 3-4' lengths of bamboo hammered into the ground and loosely twine-tied.

Judging by how well the tomatoes and peppers heretofore grown in full exposure to the elements next door to the cloche have performed, I foresee no issues arising in the absence of cover. August is yet before us as well. At any rate the cloche has proven mighty successful. I plan on using it soon as cover for a few winter crops I'll be attempting.

A branch of Health-Kick Hybrid tomatoes from the former cloche


Jalapeno pepper coming along nicely


The first eggplant

Urban Grown seeds are sown

Today I'm featuring the first garden of my good friend Nick. He recently built and planted it after recieving a little inspiration from various sources. His is a raised bed garden, built on top of an existing yard using 4' lengths of cedar. The garden is divided into 16 seperate sqaure foot grids, called the square foot method, a popular method which has had several books devoted to the subject. The method involves a special soil mixture that includes compost, perlite, vermiculite, and other components that provide ample air circulation and retain moisture better than other soils.

At the back Nick has constructed a bamboo trellis consisting of three straight lengths of bamboo supported at the base by stakes. A grid of twine is strung across the space created by the bamboo that will allow the peas he planted to climb. Radishes have also begun to sprout.

A bug's eye view of Nick's first sprouting peas.

Gone not forgotten

In my short life I've seen many natural spaces fall to the bulldozer's blade. I watched helplessly as my hometown was transformed from a sleepy out-of-the-way suburb to an ever expanding strip mall as far as the eye sees. Houses line the cliff's edge of the few remaining greenbelts and shrinking watersheds. This, I am told, is a sign of progress, positive economic growth, something to be heralded as the coming of some wondrous and prosperous age. Why does it so often seem this shortsighted destruction concerns itself only with the pursuit of the dollar? How many times can you stamp the same set of franchises and shopping centers on a different landscape?

My father and I once waged a campaign against city council to petition plans that called for so-called 'improvements' to be made to our neighborhood park. 500 signatures and several disappointing council meetings later and nothing changed. "The money has already been appropriated," they'd claimed, "it has to be spent." Concrete was set and asphalt paved. A young boy learned nothing speaks as loudly as a dollar in hand.

Several years ago I discovered a small patch of wild blackcaps (also called black raspberries) tucked behind the same park in a rapidly disappearing greenbelt. I had stumbled across a rare treasure and knew it; I collected the berries every summer from then on which my mother and I made into delicious jam. Two days ago I returned to find the entire patch decimated. A trail building crew had mindlessly carved a swath of destruction through the heart of the patch. In their ignorance they had destroyed something worth much more than money to me.

"Oh well," I thought after my initial anger subsided. What seems like half a lifetime ago I learned to expect such things will happen as long as there is money to be made. I slowly came to understand that saddest of all, no one walking that future trail would even realize what had been lost so that it could be created. No one would know what wonders had once grown in its place.

Container Gardening

A number of factors contribute to the realization of the urban grown garden, foremost among them an actual piece of dirt in which to grow vegetables. For those in want of a simple solution to a despotic landlord or the tragically limiting nature of apartment living, your answer may lie in container gardening. Though this idea is nothing new to many city dwellers, I was recently inspired while staying with my friend Brian at his rented home in the heart of Washington, D.C.

Brian's gracious roommates (thanks again for all your hospitality guys!) live in a 100-year-old Victorian home lacking a yard proper. The space behind the house is a concrete patio meant to be used as a parking spot. While serving as an excellent space to host one mean summertime barbecue, concrete does not the ideal growing space make. Thus, the introduction of the versatile container garden. Brian's roommate Andrew has converted two "muck buckets" to accommodate several varieties of vegetables and herbs.

To purchase similarly sized containers designed for growing vegetables would have cost around $25 each. These buckets cost Andrew around $6, and have conveniently placed rope handles should they need to be moved to follow the sun's changing trajectory in late summer. The only modification to consider is drilling several half inch holes in the bottom of the containers to allow water to drain. The containers (which I believe are 15-18 gallon capacity) are large enough to accommodate between five and six plants each. They are filled with a potting soil mix designed for growing vegetables. This should contain plenty of perlite to ensure good airflow within the soil.

This container contains mostly herbs (from left parsley, oregano, and basil).

The other contains three pepper plants, sage, and a cucumber. Placing the cucumber next to the fence has the added benefit of providing the plant a surface to climb and vine (although allowing it to vine through the fence will prevent moving the container until the plant is done fruiting).

For those with the will but perhaps thought they lacked a way, container gardening provides a fantastic solution to the often perceived problem of concrete and limited space.

Still the garden grows...

I returned from my week-long east coast jaunt late Wednesday night to find everything in the garden very much alive and well. A special thanks to everyone who helped while I was away. The volunteer sunflowers are over 8 feet tall and showing no signs of stopping their skyward ascent anytime soon. Entering the cloche in any fashion other than an army crawl verges on the impossible. Rattlesnake beans are fruiting readily, though the scarlet runners seem to have been spottily pollinated; each flower cluster only managed to produce two or three beans out of around fifteen blooms. Although one bean is nearly ten inches long.

As I understand it, frequent harvesting of beans and peas, tomatoes, zucchini, pretty much any fruiting vegetable, will encourage the plant to produce more fruit. In the case of peas and some beans, picking the pod when it's a bit on the young side will ensure it is tender (and delicious).

Quinoa continues to thrive. According to the seed package the plant was to reach a height of four feet; this one is over six.

The first zucchini fruits appear.

An updated photo of the garden's growth since last week.

One for the road

Leaving for New York tonight to attend my cousins' wedding on Saturday. The ceremony's upstate in Binghamton, but I'll be spending a couple of days in the city with my sister and brother in law prior. Then a few days in D.C. to catch up with an old college friend, Brian.

For the interim, the garden will be in the hands of my able-bodied roommates (I'm praying for rain). I've shot a few pictures of some garden produce as it's coming along.

Dew sprinkled quinoa starting to form the main seed cluster.

Peas overflowing on the vine.

Rattlesnake pole beans filling out nicely.

Pumpkin blossom nestled between the beans.

Scarlet Runner beans and blossoms.

A pic of the garden today (most of it anyway). Even with all my careful attention to spacing, everything seems to have grown rather close together. I guess part of me didn't expect it all to grow so prolifically. The tomatoes in the cloche are beginning to press against the plastic. When I get back next Wednesday I will have to figure out the best way to deal with their rampant growth.

I'm gonna pinch you sucka'

Allusions to bygone blaxploitation films of yesteryear aside, what this post really hopes to address is the removal of "suckers" from indeterminate tomato plants. This idea was presented to me by a close friend's father, Joe, who is also growing tomatoes, among many other vegetables. While I was admiring his garden a couple of weeks back, he asked me what I knew about pruning tomato plants so that they might produce better fruit and direct more of their collected energy toward fruiting rather than leaf production. I promised to do some research, and here are the conclusions at which I've arrived:

Pruning tomatoes is intended to direct most of the plants gathered nutrients toward producing fruit. This is best done once the plant is well established, after it has grown four or five fruit bearing branches. All additional shoots can then be pinched off. The shoot to be pinched off in this picture rests between the main stem and the branch.

The branch already contains blossoms which will soon develop into fruit. By pinching off the shoot, theoretically, more nutrients will be directed toward that fruit rather than being wasted on the shoot. I found the easiest way to remove unwanted shoots was by pinching them. Firmly grasp the shoot between the forefinger and thumb and wiggle it back and forth until it snaps off.

Pinching the shoot rather than cutting it also helps to prevent the open wound from being infected.

I'll be conducting a little experiment to determine, in my own opinion, whether or not pinching the shoots makes all that much difference in the amount/quality of fruit harvested. Some plants will be left to grow as they would in the wild, free from pinching fingers, and I'll compare results at the end of the season. My intuition is that it won't make a demonstrable difference, but that's probably just the skeptic in me speaking. We shall see...