Herb This » Community Garden

Tomatoes, and Sunflowers, and Beans, Oh My

Sheryl — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 16:09:28 +0000

My wonderful husband has been tending to the garden in my absence (just so we are clear, he does tend even if I am in the country), and he sent me some pics from the garden yesterday. It looks fabulous. Can’t wait to check it out when I get back!

Tomatoes turning red!

Sunflower seeds!

Green bean patch! (and snap peas in the corner)

Baby Pumpkin!

Sheryl — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 21:30:50 +0000

Last year (our first year on the plot we have now in the community garden), we got a surprise pumpkin that grew along the fence. We knew SOMETHING was growing, but we didn’t know what. It grew up the fence, and we got an elongated pumpkin out of it! We dried and vacuum packed some seeds from it, and also dried and vacuum packed some seeds from a small (normal, round) pumpkin we picked up from our local farmers market.

We decided to try growing both of them this year from the seeds, as you can see in the top right corner of the Garden Map. I planted and labeled each one in its own terracotta pot earlier this season, but failed to realize that the marker I used would fade in the sun. Now, both plants look exactly the same, and right now, we can’t tell them apart.

Today, we noticed one of them already has a baby pumpkin on it! Look how cute!

Of course, we don’t know which pumpkin it is! We are not sure if the elongated pumpkin was a different type of pumpkin or if it a ‘normal’ pumpkin and just grew that way because we let the vines climb the fence. I am hoping we will get to find out soon enough! (For the record, this year they should have enough room where they should not need to climb a fence)

Ok, maybe I should have named this site squashthis?

Sheryl — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 10:00:35 +0000

I’ve had so many posts about squash, it may be getting a bit out of control, but I love them. They are finally starting to look like the NJ squash I’ve come to know and love. Also, for those of you paying attention to detail (it’s OK if you missed this), I actually made a mistake in my garden map: I DID plant a golden squash! I only had 1 Largo that I planted though, not two (still 5 total squash plants). So, I do have all 4 types of the summer squash going strong in the garden. Even though some of them were looking a bit weak in the pots prior to the transplant, once they got into the ground and got some sunlight, they recovered in no time. That fungus issue seems to have been resolved after I cut off the infected fruits. All of them now have yummy (healthy) squash growing on them. It should only be a few more days until the first few are ready to harvest!

Here they are:

Sure Thing Zucchini

Golden Squash

Greyzini

Largo

Updated Garden Map 2012

Sheryl — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 10:00:50 +0000

Here it is, the latest version of the map:

I think I figured out what to do with the barrel, which I marked TBD. I really ran out of room in the back row with all the squash and pumpkins, and I know the eggplant is going to be tight with them as is, so I didn’t want to risk planting more squash plants. However, I ended up without any golden squashes! I read that summer squash can actually do well in large containers, so I’m going to try for it in the barrel. I have one ready to sprout this week, and hopefully I can get it in the ground (or barrel) in a few weeks.

Future Home to Golden Squash

Grow veggies, grow!

Sheryl — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 10:00:28 +0000

We finally finished the garden this weekend, and I can’t wait for stuff to start growing! There are one or two spots that I might try to squeeze in something else, but for the most part, everything is in the ground.

Here are some pics:

I did deviate quite a bit from the original plan when we were finally done, but I’m still pleased with the result. Updated map of garden (maybe I will use a computer this time to catch any key spelling mistakes) to follow.

Fungus is not fun

Sheryl — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 10:00:44 +0000

OK, OK, I learned my lesson with summer squash. You DO NOT have to plant it early. It sprouts enough within about 2-3 weeks from seed and you transplant it right away into the ground. I planted too early, and had to watch my plants suffer a painful death.

The zucchini that was doing great in the pot a few weeks ago ended up catching an orange fungus — GROSS. I think it was probably a combination of all the rain/moisture we’ve had and potential damage during the transplant of a larger plant, that cause a weakness and allowed for the fungus to settle.

Sorry for the bad picture (I am realizing lately just how terrible of a photographer I am… I am actually thinking now that maybe an adult school class would probably do me a world of good, we’ll see), but you can see the bit of orange at the end which is fungus. This is actually the better of the two zucchinis, and I didn’t actually get a pic of the REALLY gross one. It looks like it’s contained to the fruit, so hopefully the rest of the plant will be OK. It looks like there are several flowers that will produce fruits on both the zucchini plants, so I hope to find out soon.

Good news though, the Largos I guess were small enough not to have been damaged in the transplant, and there are quite a few small ones that will hopefully be ready in a week or so.. or maybe I should stop saying that, because every time I’ve said how ‘good’ the squash is, shit happens. Oh well, here is a pic anyway.

Tilling Complete!

Sheryl — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 10:00:51 +0000

Finally! It stopped raining long enough this week for my husband to finish the tilling in the garden plot so we can get the rest of the plants in. He worked super hard, and it looks great. This weekend we should be able to finally finish all the planting.

Below is a pic showing the section where he tilled, and he also put down some planks for walking, and put down mulch. On Monday of this week, everything between the last weedblock and the gate was covered in grass / weeds about 3 feet high. Now, to the top left of the pic, you can see an 8′x10′ nicely tilled area, and a nice PERIMETER (for those of you paying attention, in my graph paper drawing a few weeks ago, I wrote ‘parameter’. I’m SMRT.) of mulch against the fence, which we found is a decent control for weeds from outside our plot.

As you can also see in the pic, he put in the tomato cages, too, since the tomatoes already need a bit of extra support. Most of what is going in this weekend is beans (which usually grow super fast, I hope this year is no different) and lettuce mixes. I’ll do a full review of all the plants in the garden at some point, and I’m sure I’ll do some features as things start to mature and/or it’s time for harvest.

Garden Map 2012

Sheryl — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:00:00 +0000

I’m a nerd. I love graph paper. Plus, I’m a planner. So, there are few things in life that make me more happy than planning AND graph paper together.

Introducing: Community Garden Map 2012!

I’ve already had to deviate slightly, but in general, the plan is still in tact.

What I did on Sat & Sun…

Sheryl — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:00:11 +0000

FINALLY got to the garden, and turned this:

Into this:

Year 3 at the Community Garden has officially begun. There is still a lot more to do (there is a 13′x13′ block of land behind where I took the picture that I’m not even going to show you yet). I got the squash (1 Greyzini, 2 Sure things, 1 Largo, and 1 Golden), tomatoes (3 Romas, 5 Cherries), and peppers (jalapeno, green bell, sweet yellow) in the ground. My dear husband will be picking it up from here for the next few weeks! I will still post pics of his progress.

Community Garden – Lessons Learned Y2 (2011)

Sheryl — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:00:41 +0000

Just like the first year, I also followed up with a post on Facebook for our second year in the community garden. See below.

Posted on August 19, 2011:

I know we aren’t quite ready to say goodbye to the garden yet this year, but I thought I’d still summarize the things we learned so far:

Give Yellow Squash & Zucchini as much space as possible, we thought we learned from last year, but it still wasn’t enough. Next year, they get their own plot completely, so they don’t overshadow anything else.
Bush beans grow just fine from seeds, but you have to space plantings, because they eventually just poop out from exhaustion.
Snap peas really need a good support system to grow, a cheap plastic fence won’t cut it.
Tumbling Tom tomatoes grow kind of like a bush on the ground — they aren’t that tasty, and are a pain in the neck to maintain.
If someone grew acorn squash before you, and some of the seeds got in the ground, you’ll get an acorn squash plant (this was a pretty neat surprise)
Even really tall tomato cages are not enough, you need cages, plus stakes, and then maybe they won’t fall over.
Weedblock doesn’t stop this insane weed that travels along the ground, and sprouts roots as it goes.
Arugula grows like a weed, which I thought was fine because it’s usually delicious, but once it gets really hot out, it gets really bitter. We are going to try to plant a fall batch.
Machete + hose = leaking hose

A summary of the crops:

Zucchini/ Yellow Squashes – By far the best crop, we ate a ton, gave some away, and we have a lot frozen for use in veggie lasagna or zucchini bread later
Tomatoes — Still need to do better with these. I think they need more space, and definitely need more support. More research.
String Beans — Awesome, so easy to grow, and so many string beans
Snap Peas – Good, just gotta get better support for next year, and these also could use staggered planting, too.
Mesclun Mix – Pretty darn good, except for the arugula problem above
Carrots – Still TBD, but we did thin them this year, so we are optimistic
Collard Greens (randomly acquired from an old man with an extra seedling) – Great, low maintenance, and pretty tasty, too.
Peppers (bell, poblano, jalapeno, mucho nacho) - So far, not great, but there are still some a-comin.
Ichiban Eggplant – This did ok, didn’t yield quite as many as I’d hoped and had some issues with ants, will try again though
Celery – Worked out good for our purposes -it was nice to just break off a few stalks when you wanted tuna or chicken salad
Cucumbers – definitely an improvement from last year, but 1 of 2 plants died early on so didn’t get as many as I hoped.
Asparagus (randomly acquired from our garden neighbor) – Epic Fail. I think the transplantation was just too much.
Watermelon / Cantaloupe – Epic Fail. I think only because they were next to the squash and had no sunlight. We’ll try again.
Scallions – Epic Fail. Didn’t even pop out from seeds.
Acorn Squash – Surprise bonus, popped up from last year’s leftovers. Not ready to harvest yet, lets see how they taste.

At home in pots on the deck, I planted parsely (flat & curly), cilantro, summer savory, thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, tarragon, dill, echinacea, and sage. Everything did great except for the dill and echinacea, which was eaten (not by us), and the rosemary, which (i think) is just a slow grower.

In the process of reading about additional methods to preserving herbs for winter months. Next year I’d like to try sunflowers and maybe corn. Overall, this year was much more successful than last year, and we actually ate most of the good stuff we produced (though some went to waste, we could still do better with that). I’m pleased.

UPDATE: Fall batch of Mesclun mix was successful, up to the freak Halloween snowstorm of 2011. Carrots came out deformed again– still not sure what happened. Acorn squash didn’t really ripen to a good eating status, the vine was damaged and I don’t think it got to its full potential. Also, peppers didn’t end up great, and when we cleaned up the plants, we found their roots were still confined to their peat pots so we are going to try removing them completely to see if they do better. Also, we ended up with an elongated pumpkin that we originally thought was just a vine for the acorn squash. We used the pumpkin as a decoration during the fall months and kept some seeds to try to grow one on purpose this year.