The Onions are flowering!!!!

Summer is fast approaching and my little urban fire-escape garden is growing like crazy.  One of the onions has begun to flower.  The diamond shaped onion bulb has blosommed into hundreds of delicate emerald tendrils.  3 more onion bulbs have yet to blossom, and I'm soooo looking forward to this! :)

My lettuce is growing wild at this point.  I encountered some aphids several weeks back but apparently, with aphids came the sparrows.  The little birds proved their worth by devouring many of the aphids which had been plaguing my greens.  Now the lettuce is half a foot tall and will soon be ready for harvest! 

After a stretch of warm weather, the hanging Tomato plant has almost doubled in size.  While the pea plants has been climbing the metal fire-escape railings in search of more sunlight.  The biggest pea plant is now 3 feet tall and has begun to flower.  Even some of the basel seeds have sprouted, at last count I had 4 little basel plants growing.

 

The urban garden blooms!!!!

More than a month has passed since I revamped my little fire-escape garden.  Much has changed since then.  For one thing, the little lettuce seedlings have blossomed into a forest of emerald leafs covering the top of the entire container.  I should be able to harvest the first wave of lettuce leaves in a few weeks.  I plan to grow another crop of the same container this season.  One thing that I noticed about container gardening is the need for more water.  Containers need more watering than raised beds.  I've gotten into the habit of watering my containers every single day.

Both of my onion containers are getting ready to bolt.  After a year of growth 3 of my green onions are at the cusp of flowering.  Each onion plant has a single heart shaped bulb growing outwards.   I plan on letting all three reach maturity and saving their seeds.  The peas are doing quite well.  3 of the 6 peas that I planted have survived so far.  All three are beginning to climb up the railings of the fire-escape.    

My latest addition to the garden is a hanging basket.  It costs plenty of hard currency to acquire, but after lusting over it for 10 minutes straight at Home Depot, I couldn't help myself and just had to buy it.  The basket has a base of peat moss which absorbs water.  I filled the basket with 2/3 potting soil and the other 1/3 with home brewed compost.  Then I planted in a huge tomato seedling.  After several days of growth the tomato plant has gotten noticeably bigger.  My fire-escape garden is so small yet it brings me so much joy.  To a certain extent, one realizes that life is so precious and should be allowed to continue on. :)

  

Suburban Garden Update 5/09

Last weekend, I journeyed back home to Pennsylvania for Mother's day.  While there I had a chance to check on my suburban garden.  My father had been doing an incredible job in expanding and maintaining the bio-intensive Garden based on the plans that I had drafted in March.  Everything is in full bloom.  In the picture, my father is standing proudly over the expanded garden! :D

The Cabbages are interplanted with rows of Green Onions and Garlic.  Potoatoes were coming on strong in 2 of the Garden Beds.  And 4 tomato plans were growing in one of the newly created garden beds.  All appeared to be growing extremely well.

Garden Bed 5 had Summer Squash seedlings catch-cropped with fast growing Shanghainese Lettuce.  The Lettuce will mature and be harvested prior to the maturing of the Summer Squash plants, thus allowing 2 harvests in one season!

2 Garden Beds used for growing potatoes last year are planted with Snow Peas and Sugar Snap Peas respectively.   Both beds are doing very well with the pea seedlings starting to climb up the bamboo trellis.  The Peas will absorb nitrogen from the atmosphere and fix it into the soil, thus improving long term soil fertility.

Now on to the perennials!  7 of the 8 asparagus plants that I had put down last Spring have made it to their 2nd year!  Now they are the size of small bushes and growing vigorously.  We have to wait one more year before beginning to harvest the asparagus shoots.  But even now, I can see fully grown asparagus shoots that are perfectly edible from each bush!

Both of the apple trees are flowering.  The pruning of errant branches several months ago seemed to have done these trees much good.  So far, I haven't seen any signs of fungus or pest upon the apple leaves.  In anycase, to ensure maximum survivability this year, I coughed up some hard currency and bought a bottle of Organic Pest Spray.  Basically it's a mixture of Garlic, Cottonseed, and Rosemary oils which drives the bugs crazy! :P

Finally, we come to the berries.  Despite our failed attempts to transplant berries last year, my father has bravely tried again this spring, with great success!  He transplanted another 3 blackberry bushes, 2 of them died, but 1 survived and appears to be thriving.  My father lined the berry bush with a lithic mulch in the same fashion as the ones I had laid in around the apple trees.  We need to keep our fingers crossed and pray to the Gardening Gods for success!

Fire Escape Garden Update

Things have been humming along in my little urban fire-escape garden.  The relative isolation of the container garden makes it seem like a little island onto itself sometimes.  Perched on the 5th fire-escape of a Manhattan apartment building, there is little if any ecology to speak of.  Unlike my sub-urban garden back in Pennsylvania, this little enclave doesn't have to contend with dozens of species of native insects and flora.  However, there is one pest that I had to deal with, pigeons.  These animals are the air-borne equivalent of rats.   These birds have caused me much headache due to their eating of seeds and seedlings that I've planted in the past.  

In any case, the Green onions are thriving in their little pots.  The lettuce seeds have sprouted and are now growing vigorously.  The peas have have been a temperamental lot.  1 of the Oregan Giant Peas have sprouted quickly.  A

nother 2 of the sugar snap peas have also sprouted, but their growth has been rather anemic.

I've become rather attached to my little urban garden.  These little containers of greenery seem to have an enormous, rejuvenative effect upon a person.  Just looking at the little emerald clusters of growth early in the morning seem to make my entire workday feel much better!

Re-vamping the Fire-Escape Garden 3/15

Spring time has hit the city with full force this weekend, and of course I simply had to get my Urban fire-escape garden ready for action.  I didnt' have to worry much about compost, I had an entire year's supply within my compost bin.  The bigger challenge is to create a design which maximizes the tiny space allotted to me on that fire escape.  The fire-escape railings offers a perfect opportunity to garden in 3 dimensions.  So with this in mind, I coughed up some hard currency and bought 3 Container holders which could be hung from the Railings.  This maximized the central area while at the same time allowed for the suspended containers and planter boxes to receive more sunlight.

Once the hanging fixtures were in place, I proceeded to recharge my containers with plentiful helpings of compost which I brewed throughout the last year.  The compost didn't carry much of a smell, although one could clearly see fragments of newspaper and egg shells

mixed with the rich, dark, compost.  After this step was complete I had 5 containers and 1 Planter box ready for planting.

To maximize space and sunlight, I planted peas in the planter box and one of the suspended containers.  In another suspended container, I put in some lettuce seeds for an early harvest.  Of the 3 remaining containers, 2 were already estabilished with green onions from last year.  The 3rd one, I'm planning to use for growing Basil once the weather gets a bit warmer. 

Apple Tree Pruning 3/07

After an unusually long and bitter winter, the warm days of Spring had at last arrived!  I realized, belatedly, that I had put off the pruning of my apple trees since late december!

Thus on the weekend of March 6th, I journeyed back to Pennsylvannia with my girlfriend Marisa.  The weather was fair and the ride pleasant, and soon we were at my parents' house. After having lunch and visiting Lancaster with my folks and Marisa, I approached the task at hand.

To begin with, the Cleaver/Pruning knife must be sharpened to a razor edge to ensure as smooth a cut.  Rough gashes takes longer to heal, and an open gash is an invitation for infection.  Secondly, the edge of the Cleaver has to be washed with soapy water to ensure that the blade is as sterile as possible.

With my tools in hand, I began to assess the trees to see which branches had to be pruned.  Both of the apple trees are just 2 years old.

At this early age, much of a fruit tree's energy must be devoted towards the growth of "leader" branches.  These are main branches growing directly out off a trunk.

A young fruit tree should have no more than 2 to 4 such Leader Branches.  If a tree has more than 4 branches, than no single branch would grow strong enough by the tree's 3rd year to bear the weight of apples.   Both of the Apple trees had more than 7 such branches.  So first, I cut off the leader branches.  The cuttings were made along the length of the trunch, this minimizes the surface area of the wound and expedites the Tree's natural healing process.

Next, I proceeded to remove smaller branches growing at odd angles.  Basically, the ideal tree would have branches extending outwards in the rough form of a cup.  This allows maximum leaf exposure to sunlight, while also enabling air circulation in the middle of the tree's canopy.  However, some branches grow inwards or in rather orthogonal directions.  When fully leafed, these branches would block sunlight to other branches and increase the chance of fungus outbreaks.

With all the superfluous branches pruned, I then proceeded to apply a gum resin over the open cuts.  The resin would quickly seal off the living sap wood from the external environment, this greatly speeds up the tree's recovery by reducing the risk of infection.

Garden Expansion work

Over this Christmas break, we have been doing quite a bit of Garden Expansion work. We first filled in all the asparagus trenches that we dug out last Spring. Filling the trenches during the winter gives the asparagus roots more room to grow next year.






Next we increased the size of each of our 6 garden beds while putting in a barrier of concrete blocks. This creates a 3 sided border around each garden bed. The concrete border not only provides more thermal mass for the garden beds during cold spring/autumn nights but also serves as a mount for our future drip irrigation system. As we were setting in the blocks, a fog descended over neighborhood. I found it rather refreshing and more than a little bit mystical.

I'm thinking of holding off on pruning the apple trees. There are still some leaves on them, and pruning is generally not recommended until the absolute dead of winter. This is due to the risk of infecting the living sap wood of the tree's limbs when cutting them in warmer weather.

The harvest that won't end!!!

The recent spate of mild weather has allowed my little garden to continue producing. The tomatoes haven't died yet. The beans, peppers, bitter melons and even onions are still going strong. This extended fall harvest may offset most of the losses due to the hail storm this summer. In any case, in the last 2 weeks, we harvested 80lbs of tomatoes, 11lbs of green peppers, 2 lbs of bitter melon, 1/2 lbs of onions, and 4 lbs of pole beans.

The end of the harvest

The leaves are changing colors and our little garden is nearing it's productive end for this year. We are still getting a great deal of tomatoes. These plants are growing as if winter doesn't exist. The news is reporting a hard frost tonight, so it's likely that the tomato plants will expire tomorrow. The pole beans and bitter melons are still producing, though in reduced quantities now. They will yield a bit longer than the tomatoes, perhaps into early November. The peppers have just begun to yield, which meant that we need to plant them earlier next year.
The Kale failed again this year due to the depredations of rabbits. And the turnips are suffering a bit due to green worms. Still we should have some turnips this year. In total we harvested 70lbs of tomatoes, 15lbs of beans, 13lbs of bitter melon, and 4 lbs of peppers in the last 2 weeks.

Preserving Tomatoes!!!

At this point, we have about 130 lbs of tomatoes in the refrigerator. When in a normal fridge, a ripe tomato will only last 2 to 3 weeks. After this period the entire tomato rots and becomes inedible. One easy way of preserving this food is to freeze it entirely. This is the method that we've choosen. First, we removed all the vines and stubs from each tomato. Then each tomato is thoroughly washed and dried with paper towels. The tomatoes are then sequestered into special zip lock vacuum seal bags, 5 lbs to a bag. The air is then pumped out of each bag, sealing the tomatoes tightly within it. The bags are then stored in the freezer. Using this method, the tomatoes can be stored for up to 6 months. We did this for 50 lbs of tomatoes tonight.

Cool Season Gardening

This weekend has been a whirlwind of activity. The garden's denizens are now adapting to the cooler seasons. The tomatoe plants in Garden bed 5 are still growing as if summer will never end. My job is coax the most out of the plants before the first hard frost. The squash and cucumbers are largely gone due to the cooler weather. The bitter melon and pepper plants have taken their place in Garden Beds 2 and 3. The cool season beets are doing not so well in Garden bed 6, though the beans there are still producing abundantly. The beans this year has been badly damaged by both Hurricane Hannah and 2 species of pest beetles. Both the Japanese and Mexican beetles have ravaged my pole bean crop. Though unlike last year, the Mexican beetles proved to be the greater adversary. Still, the beans have somehow managed to survive and are producing abundantly. The onions and garlic in Garden bed 4 are now making a come back after the squash cover had died down. The asparagus plants are growing like crazy now, everyone of them is a small green bush. The sweet corn has done very badly. The beetles had stunted their growth already, and the hail basically destroyed half of the stalks.

My father and I spent hours harvesting from the garden. We picked 55 lbs of tomatoes, 34 lbs of beans, and 5 lbs of bitter mellon. This is a massive harvest by any standard. So now we have a couple of hundred pounds of vegetables in the refrigerator. We need to figure out a way to preserve all of it.