Garden Update

As prelude to a land finding trip, I rode home to PA Friday on the train. It has been a good week at the happy organic garden. The entire structure of the beds have changed with the season as certain key species undergo sharp population changes. The corn stalks, now that the ears are removed, are showing their age and sagging heavily. Soon the spent corn plants will join their ancestors in the compost bins. Likewise the eggplants are fading fast, as their fruits have been devoured by squirrels. With the Japanese beetle threat gone, the pole beans have expanded like weeds. All of the corn stalks, all of the bamboo supports, and most of my neighbor's fence is now covered with bean vines. They have grown so much that now there seems to be a competition between the beans and the tomato plants for valuable sunlight. A few days of cool weather have greatly boosted the growth of the turnips, a harvest will be possible within 2 weeks. The animal ecology of the garden has also changed drastically. In the bean vine dominated habitat, there seems to be hundreds of small spiders, all of them furiously spinning webs to capture thousands and thousands of tiny winged leaf-hoppers. In the turnip areas, the struggle now appears to be between green worms and ants. The green worms are taking advantage of the rich turnip greens, while the ants seem to be busy hunting the green worms.


The produce has been abundant this week. All in all, 14 lbs of pole beans, 10 lbs of tomatoes, and 1 lb of green onions have been harvested.

The corn harvest!!!!

My square meter corn patch has finally ripened. This weekend I'm home in PA harvesting the fine corn. After some inspection it appears that heirloom corn looks a bit different from regular genetically modified corn. For one thing, no two ears are of the same size. Upon closer inspection it looks like as if even individual kernels on the same ear are differently sized. As I worked in the garden picking beans and corn, I noticed the appearance of a familiar and much detested character. There is this squirrel in my back yard, a scruffy looking thing. He's slender, gray, and has an unusually thin tail. I had already lost several beefsteaks and some corn to this tree rat, and now he's back for more. So I decided to tip toe back to the garage, where I strung up my long bow, and tip-toed back ready for action.

And there he was, sinking his teeth into a small ripening tomato. I tried to get as close as possible but it wasn't long before he saw me. So there I was, being stared at by the critter. So I promptly notched a blunt arrow that I made, drew, took aim, loosed....and MISSED!!!! The squirrel scurried up my neighbor's fence, hopped a few meters and disappeared up a tree. My arrow had lodged itself between the wooden planks of my neighbor's fence. There has to be a better way to take out this villein. In any case, about 20lbs of corn was harvested. 3 ears had suffered some squirrel damage but not too severe. The yield for corn per unit of cultivated area seems to be substantially lower than the yield for potatoes.

Aside from the corn, the beans and tomatoes continued to yield. I picked up 2 tomatos(1 lb) and 4 lbs of pole beans. The onions should be ready for another cutting next week it seems.

Gathering and shade garden update!

The blackberries have been ripening in the nearby forestlands. So I took a short diversion from NYC last weekend to indulge in the art of gathering. After spending much time in the pursuit of berry picking, 2 lbs of the delicious berries were gathered! The only trick to it is to not let the thorns prick one's hands.



Meanwhile, back in the outskirts of Philly, the long neglected shade garden is finally bearing fruit. After planting some beans, bitter melon, and calabash seeds(that I got through barter last year :D) along the backyard fence early this spring, I had pretty much left the shade garden for dead. Surprisingly enough, the calabash plant got along well with the local ivy to produce several small and one large fruit. The beans had entirely failed. The Bitter melons had largely failed but did manage to produce several fruits. This was rather surprising to me since I had expected the beans to succeed and the bitter melon to fail. The reason being that even the cold climate variety of the bitter melon is still far suited to a warm temperate/subtropical growing region than the north east. Bitter melons are distasteful to me, however it is considered a delicacy in certain Asian cuisines. In any event, 5 lbs of calabash and 4 lbs of bitter melon was harvested.


It has been the usual summer week for the organic garden. 4 pounds of pole beans were harvested along with 7 lbs of tomatoes. The sweet corn is beginning to ripen, and I think I must do something to prevent them from being eaten by the furry creatures of the backyard.

Evil furry rodents!!!

I took a trip home to PA this weekend to see my folks and check on the organic garden. I ate a home-cooked meal consisting mostly of captured wild foods and my own garden's produce. There was a hearty beef stew with copious quantities of Garden tomatoes, beans, potatoes, and lettuce. Fine Kennewick potato pancakes were consumed with great relish. And the dish of worthiest note was a platter of wild sunfish(caught at Marsh Creek the day before) lightly fried along with lots of Garden fresh green onions. It was all so fresh and wonderfully delicious!!!


After dinner, I took the opportunity to check on the 2 beds(originally potato beds) that I had recently seeded with turnip and beans. The newly planted turnips and beans are thriving now. I expect the new bean plants to begin producing in a few weeks. This is good in light of the fact that the currently producing pole bean plants seem to have hit their maximum production limit and are gracefully transitioning into old age. The turnips should be ready for harvest around September when the cool Autumn weather transforms the tuber's warm weather bitterness into a delectable spicy flavor. The eggplants have taken quite a beating this growing season. Upon closer examination, I could see that there were numerous bite marks upon the leaves. I know for sure that both Aphids and Japanese beetles have preyed heavily upon the poor eggplants, and I surmise that leaf hoppers have been attacking them as well. The European Eggplant breed is showing very heavy pest damage and no signs of fruit. The Japanese Eggplant is showing somewhat less pest damage and is bearing 4 small white fruits.

The tomato plants are now reaching the peak of their reproductive cycle. There are roughly 150 tomatoes on the vine. Such a quantity of edibles have caused a disturbance in the force so to speak. One of the tomato plants is of the Beefsteak variety while the other is of the Early Girl breed. The Beefsteak breed produces larger, fewer and much sweeter tomatoes while the Early Girl produces larger quantities of smaller more tart tomatoes. Now we all prefer big, sweet, and juicy tomato steaks, and by we I mean humans, bunnies, and squirrels!!! So these small furry critters have dishonorably eaten at least 5 ripe beefsteak tomatoes from my garden within the last week. It is truly a shame that I can't be there during the week to put my archery skills to the test.

In any case, the organic garden is chugging along and producing rapidly. This week's yield was 21 tomatoes (15 lbs) and 2 lbs of beans.