Starting to Wither - Late August

It's been a while since I posted because we have added a new addition to the farm. 'Captain' the Vizsla puppy has joined us and has settled in quite nicely. He's high maintenance and I have had to watch him closely in the yard, but so far, he has not torn up any of my pants, or Stella. He did make it behind the tomato vines once, but that was a fluke.

The garden is looking ok. The heat of the summer got the best of some of my younger plants, while the BLASTED WHITE FLY and Potato/Tomato Psyllids (Nymphs) enjoyed destroying some of the foliage on my 8 foot 7 inch tomato vines this August.

There is significant damage to the tomatoes, starting from the bottom, up. The vines are still surviving and producing the sweetest fruit though. At first, we used the Neem Oil, diluted with water and a little dish soap to keep it mixed up. After my homemade remedy proved to be less than perfect in the height of the infestation (it was gross) we went for a concoction that was store bought. I had been growing these flipping plants for 9 months! I was dammed if I was going to lose them now, right at harvest. We still went with an organic pesticide, Captain Jacks Bedbug Brew, ironically, my dogs name. After applying an entire 8$ bottle to our plants, it seems to have halted the infestation. I still see some flys kickin' it, but for the most part, the plant seems to be healthier. I hate bugs. Bees are cool.

New Addition: 'Captain',  garden dog

We have been getting lots of cucumbers from our vines. I've been pickling them in Vlassic brine and making the most wonderful crispy pickles. This is my new favorite thing to do this year. We are actually growing the pickling cucumber variety so it works out perfectly.

 2 zucchinis (left), 2 pickling cucumbers (right)

Here is a glimpse of what's been going on in the garden.

Standing on a standard height chair, measuring the Tomato vines @ 8 feet, 7 Inches tall

Largely still healthy, with the exception of the lower interior of the plant. Almost 9 feet tall!

My Brandywine Heirloom got over the blossom drop and started making LOTS of tomato

Visible pest damage from white flies and tomato nymphs - they eat the leaf, not the fruit

8 feet 7 Inches!!!! Healthier at the top

New sunflowers getting munched

Brandywine Heirloom (from seed)

Perfect crop to grow with tomatoes, just need a cow to make cheese

Lettuce gone to seed

Yummy sugar snap peas

The FIRST Brandywine Heirloom of the season, I ate it like an apple

Red onion from seed

Watermelon Vines

Pumpkin Patch, I dunno about this one, not seen one Pumpkin yet!

Captain enjoying his garden

4th of July on the Urban Farm

It's been really hot in the Bay Area the last couple of weeks, with the exception of a cloud burst system which made a cameo mid-last-week. When I say hot for the Bay Area, that is anything above 80 degrees. This is hot even for plants and can damage them sometimes if it gets too hot, especially if you are not diligent with watering. I seem to have an issue with "blossom drop", a common symptom of the plant overheating in the summertime. Simply put, the blossoms drop off at the elbow, instead of turning into tomatoes. Unfortunately, there is not a whole hell of a lot you can do about this since we can't control the weather.

My mulch has been proving helpful in retaining soil moisture, although I haven't been able to mulch the rest of my seedlings, because they aren't big enough. As a result,  some of them are drying out because they are so tiny and fragile, only the strong shall survive.

Here are a few pictures of the property and how far it's come since we've moved in. We finally sank Stella's pond into the ground and got a filter, fountain and some pond plants. The best part of my day is looking out our kitchen window to watch our duck get in her new pond and take a nice afternoon bird bath.

Side yard

Stella pond+side yard+garage+house

Stella's duck house, and today's egg

4th of July Stella egg

My beautiful sunflower that a squirrel planted for me

Yummy Strawberries coming into season

Pond and duck house

Side yard beds

Wilted radishes in the afternoon sun, they come back to life every night.

Daryl brought home the kiddie pool, I didn't complain.

Three weeks after compost tea: before and after pics

Before and After Compost tea:

Week of transplant; 6 weeks ago

Before Compost tea - 3 weeks growth

AFTER: grew about 1 1/2 - 2  feet in 3 weeks!!!!

AFTER COMPOST TEA and a little pruning

Thriving in new soil

Here is what the garden is looking like about 3 weeks after the first batch of compost tea. We have lived in the new house for 6 weeks exactly. Our plants have been thriving in their new soil and sunshine. I have brewed 3 batches of compost tea total so far; the first 3 weeks ago, and the second and third  last weekend. My goal is to fertilize with compost tea every 2 weeks until the end of harvest in October or so.

I made 2 last weekend, about 3 days apart, because I forgot to de-chlorinate my hose water, however with further investigation discovered that Oakland does not chlorinate the water. So all three batches should have been full of that beneficial bacteria that I'm looking for that comes from the 'live' compost.

I also pruned my tomato plants to ensure that all their energy goes into fruit production, rather than leaf production. This has spurred the plant's main stems to grow faster vertically rather than produce a lot of low lying foliage. Also, as you can see, I finally mulched my garden now that my babies are big enough to not get squished by the straw.

Pea vines and trellis

Peas starting from seed at the new place

Lettuce so, so good.

New batch of arugula, more to come

 The elephant garlic below started growing these beautiful edible flowers, which we snipped off and ate like garlic in our stir fry. Once you remove the flower stem, the garlic starts putting all its energy into bulb production, rather than flower production. I could have let one go to seed, but I only have 3 and wanted to eat them all. Also, garlic is a biannual seed, meaning that once you let your plants go to seed and you plant those seeds, the first year, you only get a clove, the second year, you plant that clove to get a bulb. Its a 2 year process. I think I'll just buy more bulbs next year, and lots of them, as garlic is my favorite thing in my garden, and something I use quite often. 

Elephant garlic

Laura's Onions

This side is sweet cluster tomatoes

3 Brandywine tomatoes on left, 2 sweet clusters on right

Housewarming heirloom gifts, forget the type

Potted heirloom, same variety as above

Giant pumpkin variety, started from seed 2 weeks ago

3 kinds of cucumbers and summer squash

2 watermelon vines

Zucchini taking over

Lots of zucchini fruits emerging from the stem

Beautiful sun flower that has grown 3 feet in a month.

One week after compost tea

Its been a week since brewing my first batch of compost tea and applying it to all my plants. As I said, I feel that the plants are thriving here at the new home but the compost tea has added new brilliant green growth to most of the plants. The tomatoes have started sprouting new growth all over the entire plant. They are healthier than any tomatoes I have ever grown before. I can not wait to eat them.

Zucchini on left and Brandywine Heirloom tomato on right below.

Midget melon on the left (started from seed in March), cucumbers on the right (from starters).

Radishes on the left, kohlrabi on the right, started from seed 10 days ago.

Crinkle and romaine lettuce