Things that fly

I really want to know what this insect is. It was on my ichiban(oops, not ichiban, actually my turkish orange eggplant) yesterday and today on a sunflower. Be it friend or foe? I have to know!

Strauzia longipennis
sunflower maggot fly
I had an assist from an internet acquaintance. The site that confirmed it is BugGuide.Net
I found more detailed info about this variety of fruitfly here, North American Insects and Spiders, via wiki. Gotta love the internets! Instant info.

Guess it's bad but it's pretty.

I finally have documentation of hummingbird visits. They come by pretty frequently now, every few minutes, at least at dawn and dusk, rather than once every few days. It is true that salvia guaranitica is a hummingbird magnet. They LOVE it. I think during the day they get scared of people. There is a lot of foot traffic on my street and next door a 6 unit apartment building whose entrance is 15 feet(5 metres for you metric types) from my front door.

I've been obsessed. Last night, as dusk set in and this morning at the crack of dawn I staked them out. The 1st picture is from this morning, the second from last night. I think I used a flash for both.

Tomatoes (part II, frontyard)

Here's my prime gardening space, my front yard. Right off the bat I am breaking tomato growing rules. This tomato, a juliet cherry is growing under a globe arborvitae. I kinda ran out of room so I planted this and another cherry tomato under it. As it grew I broke the leaves off. It is too dark under the shrub for it to benefit much anyway and extra leaves can make it more susceptible to various afflictions. I also broke off extra branches. I will let it branch out a little, but not too much. I intend to train it to this railroad tie wall, possibly with landscaping staples. This borders the sidewalk and gets a lot of traffic so hopefully people walking by will sample these tomatoes and enjoy them. I think I will have some issues with nutrients here as the soil quality is pretty bad but I have taken steps to correct that.

Here's the 2nd wall tomato, a supersweet I think. It is on the driveway. I am training it towards the sidewalk. Supersweet cherry tomatoes will probably be in every tomato garden I have. They are very productive and taste great. They also are very early. They gratify me while I am waiting for my big tomatoes to do something. Unintentionally in this picture is a bottle of weed tea. I won't talk about weed tea in depth in this post but recommend any gardener to know about this.

Here is my most traditional tomato planting. These are sungold, an excellent cherry and costaluto genovese, a delicious and beautiful(to me) tomato. I can't even remember if there is any bokashi buried below these tomatoes or not but I did a lot of amending of the soil for these guys. Last year in this space I had artichokes. Unfortunately in Pittsburgh, wintering them outside is not a great idea. I dug them all up except for one which was killed by the elements despite extra mulching. Anyway, it might not be readily apparent here but I kept the diamond planting of strawberries around this bed. I also have decided this year to prune away most of the sideshoots and to strip my tomatoes of excess leaves. I want them to have a bare stem that goes above the companion plants around them. This should allow their companions to grow batter and also should make the tomatoes less likely to be infected with blight. I also have these tomatoes attached to a 7 foot stake. I will encourage them to grew very tall. There are some that believe that removing extra leaves makes tomatoes put more energy into growing tomatoes. Perhaps this is true.

Here's my tomato box. In it is a bucket of bokashi, buried very deeply. I think that this will be excellent for my tomatoes. Varieties here are carbon and brandywine. I think that this will need more water then the in ground tomatoes but this box is so big it might be be a big issue. I have to admit that around here, water is not the issue it is in other areas. We have 3 rivers so we never have to ration.

I'm going to post this in each post. Please take a moment to answer my little survey. Thank you!

Tomato Strategies (part I side and back yard)

This is one of those posts where I attempt to keep my thoughts coherent. I have 10 tomato plants this year and 6 tomato growing strategies. I've said it before, tomatoes are complicated. They are pretty demanding and there are multiple philosophies about how to grow them right. I wouldn't say that any one is the right way, but like so many things they do deserve examination. The things to strive for are productivity, tasty produce, beauty and low maintenance. Another question is how much space do I have and how well will it grow here? Well, my gardening style is freestyle. I'm not worried about maintenance because I am obsessed with gardening. I like to experiment, follow rules and break them. I like to try obscure things and throw some new ideas into the mix. And that is how I grow tomatoes.

We'll start with my most neglected tomatoes. A problem I have is indecision. This makes me put things off because I cannot decide what to do. Such has been the sad fate of these 2 cherry tomatoes, super sweet, and juliet. I just planted these here 2 days ago. They are on my back porch which does not get as much light as the front in an earthbox. The earthbox is a self-watering container that is nice for a lot of plants, most actually, but not all. I had some herbs in here that weren't very happy because they liked it less moist. Anyway, these poor tomatoes might do better than they are right now.

This is my straw planting. It is a Dr Wyche. A couple years ago I did a lot of plants in strawbales. This was an excellent experiment. I learned a lot about what makes different plants happy but I also found it to be fairly high maintenance. The biggest problem with bales is that things get dried out fast. This time I cheated a little. I mixed in a little moist stuff, um what's it called? Some people actually plant disposable diapers but I have yet to take that plunge.

Now that I have taken the time to research this tomato, I am finding it likes LOTS of water and usually is not very productive. Uh oh. This might not have been a good idea for this variety. I was actually thinking about mounding up some compost around this to keep it wetter. I might do that.

One more thing. This isn't a bale. It is a metal laundry basket I got at yardsale for 50 cents that I stuffed with straw. This allowed me to shape it the way I wanted to and to include a deep pot shaped cavity in the center. I am of the philosophy to plant my tomatoes as deeply as possible. Up to the top leaves. A lot of new gardeners don't know that the stems will grow roots. You want your tomatoes to soak up as much water as possible. This tomato was 3 times as tall as it is here because 2 thirds of it is underground.

This is my centerpiece tomato for the back yard. It is planted on top of some bokashi. I am hopeful that my bokashi will greatly reduce the need to fertilize all the tomatoes that are above it. You may have noticed that all of my tomatoes are planted with other plants including marigolds and basil. You can't see it so well but I also planted leeks with these 3 tomatoes. I think if I planted them alone that they might end up being more productive, I can't really say but I've decided that a very important thing for me is beauty. I think tomatoes look prettier with flowers. However, flowers are more than pretty. They attract pollinating and pest eating insects so I grow them together.

There's so much more I could say about tomatoes and I will say more, but in my next post. Next is my front yard tomatoes. Please humor me by responding to my little survey. Thanks for reading!

Number One, in more ways than one!

Why am I so self-righteous? We'll start with this eggplant. This is the 3rd year I've grown ichiban eggplants, but somehow I only discovered a week or so ago that ichiban means "number one" in Japanese. I can see why. The plant is beautiful. It appeals to my taste for dark things. The fruit is beautiful, the plant very, very productive and delicious. I became an eggplant convert in large part because of this variety of eggplant. And today, it earned the title number one for one more reason, it is the 1st eggplant, and I have 5, that is producing fruit! I should qualify that by admitting that I had to buy a 6 inch pot rather than 2 inch, which is what all my other eggplants started as.

I consider these sunflowers a triumph too. I have not seen any as big as mine right now. In this instance I may thank the birds and the squirrels for spilling birdseed all over the place. These germinated as soon as the ground was warm and moist enough for their taste. I simply transplanted them here and they survived. I might be the 1st to have sunflowers blooming on my block, if not my neighborhood.

All right, this image does not continue the #1 theme. It's the back of my pick-up and it shows my homemade potting mix. I won't get into a specific recipe. I will only say that this batch has these ingredients, compost, which was already in the truck, peat moss, vermiculite, and agricultural lime. I like to do more than a few pots and it's a lot cheaper to mix my own especially when I buy compost by the cubic yard anyway. I just mix it all up in the bed of my truck as needed. Most people that make their own mix it up in a wheelbarrow. This is more or less what potted soil is.

I love red cabbage, not so much to eat, but as a focal point in landscaping. I can directly acknowledge Joy Larkcom as my influence here. Just a few days ago a little boy asked me about this cabbage. "Is that a cabbage?" he asked while gently petting a very grateful Sally (Sally loves children, unlike the other cats)
"Yes it is!"
"Is it edible?"
What a smart child! That was my #1 moment that day.

I hate to shill myself here, but I'd be quite gratified if you readers would take a moment to answer my survey on the right.

Porch Chaos and Hops Buds

Here's a window into my porch, my main center of potting and planting. I seem to have an ongoing fight with myself to eliminate small seedling pods. I keep planting things out and then acquiring new plants somehow.

The majority in this 1st image are Siam queen and lemon basil. I was at a nursery in Washington county that had some pots with 50+ seedlings crowded together which I couldn't resist buying and dividing. Most are planted out somewhere.

Next is the front wall. The salvia guaranitica keeps getting bigger so I keep moving the pots next to it further and further away. I think I have it settled now. This black and blue sage is a magnet for hummingbirds. I have seen 3 this past weekend make a beeline for it and spend considerable time feeding at more than a dozen blooms. The cypress vine is starting to climb so I poked bamboo into the planter for them to reach a good height. I hope that it makes a good screen.

Here's my secondary table with some now empty vases. Projects on this table include future bean seedlings. I decided to pod plant them 1st because the cats often disturb bare soil in bad ways(I mostly suspect SALLY). Better to let these get a little bit of growth before placing them in their final spot. There's also a couple black and blue stalks that broke when I poked the bamboo in that I am trying to root. I think I want a planting or 2 on my back porch to better see more hummingbirds.

And finally, the cascade hops are getting ready. It looks like we'll have a lot more than last year. Many of my wild hops are starting to show similar signs. I should be able to sex them soon.

Dew, my terrace, tulip bulbs etc...

I'm back to taking some pictures then blogging a few days later. It's amazing how fast things change and given my freestyle gardening, how busy I get. I did a lot in back but I still need to sow more scarlet runner beans and some more beans in front. Todd made me watch some permaculture videos which is what I am leaning towards. Some videos came from the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia. This is pretty cool stuff, makes me wanna pack up and find 5 acres somewhere.

Here's a dewy cabbage with dewy self-sown fennel. Self-sown plants are one aspect of permaculture. The bottom line is getting the most whatever it is you want with the least amount of effort. I did a post, Lazy Man's Way which seems pretty close to the perma culture philosophy. I am glad that this is catching on in some places.

One thing I saw a lot in the permaculture planting were terraces. Terraces can make passive irrigation pretty simple. This small terrace here isn't exactly set up to water itself, but it's true that I could water the top to overflowing and just let it filter down. This terrace has filled out quite a bit since I established it.

This tulip is not an example of permaculture. I decided to do the extra work of lifting my bulbs this year. Usually I leave them which leads to them gradually dying out. I really liked the flowers so I thought I'd try lifting them which give me the option of planting them in a different location. At this point I DO rotate my crops. I follow the simple rule of not planting brassicas, and plants in the tomato family in the same location consecutively. I'm not absolutely strict about that but it does makes me keep some semblance of structure I guess.

This tulip bulb has a smaller bulb that grew on the surface of the soil. Perhaps 6 of my bulbs had this going on. From what I understand tulips are native to a place that gets hot and dry after they bloom. Somewhere in Turkey? I'm too lazy to see if I am remembering that correctly. I guess that in the wild surface bulbs like this would break away from the parent plant and get scattered, hopefully to a nice new bed. Right now the bulbs I dug up are in a paperbag on my porch mixed with some vermiculite to help them dry up a bit. Then I'll store them in the basement til September. I hope this works out well.

I posted this picture because it has a cat in it. The bare spot of soil is where the tulips were. I intend to sow some beans here, maybe more flageolet. I probably should harvest the lettuce.

CATS

I put a survey on this blog and had a total response of 3. Granted it is on the bottom of this page but anyway the results indicate that I will, for this post at least write about cats. That got 2 votes!

The easiest thing to do is post a few new photos then repost every cat picture I have previously posted!

I start with these three never before seen photos!

Here's the rest

On second thought,this is too much work. Enjoy anyway.

I will reset the survey to see if I get a better response. I think I'll let it end a month from now.

Chicken soup and other things

I love chicken soup in any kind of weather. Given my mass quantities of fennel, is as you see here, a primary ingredient, roots included. Also floating is fresh basil and fresh bay laurel, oregano, all from my garden. I don't have many onions.

This is a dragonwing begonia. I got it in a 4 inch pot on impulse.

Here's the same pot about 3 weeks ago. I think it is twice as large.

These are I believe, the same variety of mint, peppermint I think. I hope you notice that the sprig in my hand is greener. The pale mint is from a planting from last year while the green was potted this year. Clearly the old pot is becoming deficient of some things including nitrogen. I just added a little bit of dried cow blood to help it get back some vigor, but it probably needs some more help.

I suppose I won't talk about soil in depth here, but I do encourage all to look closely at your plants as they can't tell you what their needs are. Testerday somebody found this blog after doing a search for "enriching poor soil." Today it seems that this blog is #2 for that inquiry of blogs.

In this case the question is "fertilizing potted plants." There are many possible solutions, so don't take mine as the final answer but I occasionally lime my pots a bit, because the soil has a high organic content which turns acidic as it breaks down. Sometimes I fertilize with a seaweed mixture and very often I use some bokashi juice. If it is a plant with certain specific needs I may add some other things. Also, as the soil breaks down, the soil level in the pot goes down. I generally top it with some compost.

I have noticed that this year my beds seem to be in better shape, my plants seem to be less needy than they were last year. I guess I am doing something right.

Here we have a bunch of chamomile that is ready for harvest. Notice the round yellow balls with the white petals tucked under. When your chamomile blooms look like that, it's tea time! Pop them off and either make some tea or put them in a brown paper bag to dry out.

Monsanto

Overall, I do not want this to be a political blog, but I feel compelled to simply forward a couple news stories about Monsanto that I came across today.

This morning I listened to Morning Edition on NPR and heard this story, In India, Bucking The 'Revolution' By Going Organic Recently, I watched a documentary about Monsanto, The World According to Monsanto that horrified me. In one part they documented Indian farmers committing suicide with Monsanto pesticides. I found this documentary via Online Documentaries 4 U, an excellent resource for online documentaries.

I was checking up on Rose Marie Nichols Magee's blog and read her comments about a story local to her, GMO Beet Roots Busted.

These 2 stories make me feel that there might be a turn for the better in agriculture in the very near future. I'm sorry to say that I do boycott Monsanto and GMOs and I believe that you should too.

Backyard

I've been doing something with the back. I recall Bob Flowerdew's advice in his book the no-work garden, not to do too much at a time. I haven't finished reading this book but have found some good advice. There really is no such thing as a no-work garden but that's besides the point. The point is to make the work you do seem more like fun. If you are breaking new ground, like I am you will enjoy it more if you start on a small scale and you are more likely to succeed.

I started this raised bed last year. I intend to plant a tomato here. I don't think it will grow as well as the ones in front as it is less sunny, but I'm out of room! The majority of plants here are haphazard, the exceptions are the barely visible just planted leeks. Remaining life is giant red mustard, birdseed sunflowers, cilantro, roman chamomile and burnet.

Here's my raised beds. I covered the surrounding ground with shredded bark. It was a weedy, muddy mess. I think that this will be a good spot for things that like it cooler. Currently present are bull's blood beets, lettuce, arugula, peppers, chamomile, radicchio, lemon basil, red russian kale, fennel and corn salad.

Here is a view of the boxes from the other end. I transplanted almost everything from the front yard. It took a few days for them to get over transplant shock. Most have survived.

I've noticed that robins seek out gardens. I think that they've noticed that we often do things that bring worms to the surface, like watering. Framing the robin is some very healthy dandelions, a laundry basket filled with straw that I will plant a tomato in, and a very large sewerpipe that my landlord insists on storing here.