Away again...and does anyone know what's eating my tomatoes?

I'm off on a business trip all week and won't be blogging (unless I can grab a free minute in the evening).

While I'm gone, can anyone figure out who's ravishing my 'maters?

Week 15: 22 July -- The first harvest

So I've learned that I can never, ever go away for a week in the middle of the summer again. The lads in the garden got quite unruly while I was away.

But first, let's talk about what I pulled out this week. My first zucchinis, some squash, some string beans and a cucumber. Here's a picture of the collection.

Now if you're thinking that I have a rather big zucchini there, you're right. Here it is on it's own with a 20-dollar bill for perspective. It's kind of ridiculous and well past it's prime for eating. My mom did take it and swore she'd make zucchini bread with it. I'm looking forward to that.

Back in the garden, things had gone haywire. What was left of the lettuces had bolted so I hoed both plots over and left the remainder to rot back into the soil. The peas had come and gone without too much to show for it so I tore those out as well. I'll throw some lettuce in the pea plot in a few weeks when things start to cool down.

But it's the tomatoes that required the most work. All of my heirlooms had flourished to the point that they knocked over the bamboo stakes I had tied them to and were growing along the ground (as Stephen predicted). Not good for the ripening tomatoes. I spent hours untangling them and getting them firmly attached to more substantial six-foot stakes. I'm not sure how well they will do at this point but I should get some yield from them. The other plot of tomatoes were safely ripening in their cages and much happier for it. Cages all the way in '07!

And the pumpkins are continuing their conquest of the garden. They have managed to make their way through two adjacent plots and seem to be heading toward the house. Here they are devouring my sunflowers!

Not quite an update...

So I was with my family in Puerto Rico for a few days which was a welcome break. The weather was accommodating and we all won in the casino. I was hoping to make it upstate on Monday to check on things but didn't manage to do so...

Which means that tomorrow will be my first day up in two weeks. Who knows what will be doing? Will my new irrigation system have failed? Will I have ripe veggies rotting on the vine? Will the heatwave have wiped everything out? How will Clark escape from the Phantom Zone?

Stay tuned patient readers, a full update and photos when I get back next week.

Hols

I'll be away for a few days so no blogging until next Tuesday. Should have some good stuff for you by then. Stay tuned!

Two impressive performers

Now, it's a bit early to get excited about yields or anything like that but I wanted to call out two crops which have really astounded me with the speed in which they have flourished.

The first is no surprise and one I've been marveling at for a few weeks now: pumpkins. Have a look at these shots from 11 June, exactly a month ago, and this past weekend. It really is incredible how quickly they can go from seed to this. They have really taken over a huge section of the garden (they have 60 square feet to themselves) and would grow beyond if I let them. I'm hoping that they continue to do well and, more importantly, that I have room to support all of the pumpkins that they will produce. Next year I'm going to have to make a vining structure for them to climb.

Almost as impressive are my pole beans. These are your standard stringbeans -- well, not quite standard, I planted three different colors: green, white and purple. Once again, here is a before shot from 11 June and an updated photo from this past weekend. These guys have really taken to their environment and have managed to climb well beyond the top of their teepee. There's another 3 feet of vine at least draped off of the top of the tower, I bet they would climb another four feet if I had a structure tall enough. They have now flowered and I'm hoping to see some beans unfurling on them soon.

So I may have jinxed myself with all of this crowing, but it's been so amazing to see these huge and vibrant plants emerge from tiny seeds.

Week 13: 8 July -- Water, water everywhere

This weekend my friend Sheldon and I installed a drip irrigation system across the entire garden. I'd ordered one from Dripworks and we managed to get the entire system set up in a few (long) hours. Fortunately Sheldon had actually done this a few times before so things went a lot quicker than they would have otherwise. I'm pretty darn pleased with how it all went (and very indebted to Sheldon for his expertise and labor).


And have a look at my first tomatoes. These will be a yellow cherry tomato so they should be ready in just a week or two (max). We've also got zukes and squash growing, flowers blooming and the start of a pumpkin (assuming this female blossom blooms and manages to get fertilized).

Guess what I found...

I know I said no more compost entries but this really is exciting. My compost is riddled with worms!!! Great big earth worms. How cool is that? It means that they like my compost recipe and they are helping to turn my compost into a nutritious soil additive. It's amazing what gets me excited these days.

Some wine thoughts...

So my brother and his girlfriend Rachel were up this weekend. We spent some time futzing with the cellar and went through quite a few bottles on Monday night. Two particularly stood out. The first was the 2003 Kenwood Jack London Zinfandel. I don't quite have the palatte my brother has but it went down great with notes of chocolate and berries. A really good easy drinking summer wine.

The second bottle was a 2004 Pinot Noir from Lafond winery. The bottle was a gift from a colleague and it was suprisingly enjoyable. By that point I was completely smashed so don't have any tasting notes for you but I remember thinking it was a great drop ; )

Week 12: 1 July -- A rare four-day weekend

First off, I have no pictures for you this week. I didn't feel like a photo session. But I gotta tell you, I could totally get used to four days a week in the country.

So let's start with the garden. The salad leaves are looking good and I'm expecting them to go bitter any week now but so far so good. I've not put in a new crop yet so I may be stuck buying lettuce again at some point.

The herbs are looking good too. The cilantro has flowered so there'll be seeds soon. I should probably get them out before they seed all over the place. The peas are coming but not so much. I may get a handful off each vine but not a fantastic yield. The only other failure this year is the eggplant. For some reason they never established themselves and they now look downright anemic next to everything else.

And everything else really is flourishing. I found baby tomatoes on a few plants this weekend which was very exciting. I have a few nice zucchinis and yellow squash coming. The cut flowers are blooming now (I even cut a few this weekend) and even the sunflowers are starting to bud.

And boy oh boy how 'bout those pumpkins. They're really starting to take over and I'm concerned that I will lose control of them soon. I found the vines reaching into the sunflowers this weekend and I'm afraid they're going to jump the path into the squash patch in the next few weeks. It may be time to thin them again but I feel awful doing it.

I owe you one

Hi everyone. Swamped at work after being away for four days. I'll drop you a comprehensive update this evening. This week's hot topics will be tomatoes, beans, pumpkins and worms (yes worms).

Good guy or villain?

I found one of these in the garden this weekend. What would you guess? Is this a good thing or a really bad thing?

The answer is it's a hoverfly and it's a good thing. They help with pollination, and more importantly their larvae eat aphids. I don't think I have aphids which either means they were never there or Mr. Hoverfly and his young'uns did their thing.

A few more kitchen shots (this is the last of them, I promise)

So the kitchen is done...at least this year's projects. I sealed the new countertops this weekend and Jim and I hung the shade on the new light. A few pictures for those of you that just can't get enough.

More compost stuff

Okay, now I've really lost it. I'm actually photographing my compost heap. Sorry friends, I guess I'm long gone. I won't be surprised if I come home one day to find you all sitting in my apartment explaining how an intervention works and dragging me down to the Maritime for drinks. But until then here is a picture of my compost heap

So a few weeks ago I was upset that my compost had sprouted weeds. I was concerned that I'd polluted the whole thing and now couldn't use it for fear of creating a major weed issue in the garden. So this weekend I decided to start yanking the weeds in an attempt to save it (which means that in addition to weeding the garden, I'd be weeding the compost too, maybe I am going insane).

Anyway, as it turns out, they're not weeds. Check out the picture at left to see what happens when you throw some potatoes in the compost. I guess my compost is pretty fertile after all.

Close Encounters

I really can't beat this one. Saturday night we were having dinner with our neighbors Bart and Jim and a few friends of theirs. The rain that had been plaguing the weekend stopped for a few hours and we had a wonderful meal on their deck.

I told them about the bear that had attacked my birdfeeder...but they managed to do oh so much better. Jim and Bart had actually come home one evening and found a black bear doing the number on their own birdfeeder. It's probably the same bear as our houses are so close to each other.

Even better, they had the presence of mind to get the camera, move to a safe place and photograph the bear doing his thing. He stuck around for a half hour or so and allowed himself to be photographed. When I saw these shots I had to get them for the blog and Bart and Jim very kindly agreed. Guess it's time to get some of this.

I guess they'll be here soon

Look! My first zucchini. He's just a wee lad yet but I imagine he'll be ready for harvest in a few weeks. I understand they grow pretty quick. How exciting! There were a few green ones and a few yellow ones.
Maybe it's really working.

This whole nature thing is pretty darn cool. If I'm this excited over a zucchini, what am I going to be like when the pumpkins start?

Week 11: 24 June -- A few messages

So we're looking pretty good. The major storm that was predicted for the weekend didn't seem to hit with the punch that I was prepared for. We got a nice soaking rain but no heavy water damage. The garden seemed to love it. The hosepipe that I repaired on Wednesday night has held too. I've had good garden karma this week.

Saturday was a day of weeding. Lots of it. Message to self: next year, mulch well once your plants are established.

Have a look at these tomatoes. After all of my worry and fret these seem to have established themselves well. Another message to self: next year every tomato plant will be caged, no more stakes and ties. Still no sign of fruit but a few flowers which means that fruit can't be far behind.




And check out these beans. They're working their way up the teepee. They have these amazing spiral tendrils which climb up the poles. Very cool.

I'm feeling pretty good about things right now, everything is doing what it's supposed to (except the eggplant, they seem a bit stunted). The lettuce is growing faster than we can eat it. I think my first bed is going to bolt soon. One more message to self: next year, divide each bed into three and stagger the planting even more.

This week will bring that same mix of sun and rain that we've had for the last month. It doesn't seem like a typical summer but the garden is sure loving it.

Yikes! Not a great weekend for gardening

...FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH SATURDAY AFTERNOON...

* A COLD FRONT WILL DROP SOUTHEAST THIS MORNING FROM THE SAINT LAWRENCE VALLEY AND BECOME STATIONARY THIS AFTERNOON OVER SOUTHEAST NEW YORK AND SOUTH CENTRAL NEW ENGLAND. SEVERAL WAVES OF LOW PRESSURE ARE EXPECTED TO MOVE NORTHEAST ALONG THE STATIONARY FRONT TONIGHT AND SATURDAY BRINGING HEAVY RAIN TO THE REGION. RAINFALL AMOUNTS IN THE WATCH AREA FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH SATURDAY AFTERNOON ARE EXPECTED TO BE 2 TO 5 INCHES...WITH ISOLATED AMOUNTS UP TO 8 INCHES.

Compost

When I took over the house, I was determined to recycle as much kitchen and garden waste as possible. There was already a compost pile set up but it was looking pretty dry and dead. After a few loads of grass clippings I managed to breathe some life into it last summer. I've been pretty dilligent about saving coffee grounds, lemon rinds, carrot peels, etc. from the kitchen but I doubt at nearly enough volume to make a difference. I'm still not getting that black gold from my compost pile that gardeners crave.

This year I'm making some changes:

1) Grass clippings again, these seem to have gone composty the quickest

2) All kitchen waste is getting chopped before it goes on the pile. I'm still finding whole lemon shells from last season in the pile.

3) Diligent turning of the pile at least twice a month. I got this neat tool that makes the job a whole lot easier.

If I'm feeling ambitious at the end of the season, I may set up a three bin system.

A very short trip upstate

I was so freaking out about the state of the irrigation and my outside water hookup that I raced upstate last night after work. Raced because I had to get there before dark so I could survey the situation. Not easy to get out of Manhattan at 5pm on matinee day.

Good thing I went. The pipe had once again come undone and was spraying everywhere. I managed to get it reattached and it seems to have held, at least until this morning. I had a quick look at the garden and all is fine, despite the lack of irrigation for at least one day this week. In fact, things are better than fine. The tomatoes have all taken (woo hoo), I have a pea pod (just the one) and it looks like I'll be eating salad for the next few weeks (at least). Amazing what a good blast of sun will do.

Of course, this all meant that I had to leave at 5 this morning to get to work in time. A few interesting points:

1) I got over 28 miles per gallon on the trip down, that's impressive! (see picture)
2) Rabbits are everywhere at 5am
3) There is no way I can live upstate and work in the City, 5am is too early to start and 132 miles is too long to commute

Try the wine...

The cellar is now installed and stocked. It's pretty neat to have the entire collection hermetically sealed and completely climate controlled.

I'm heavy on Zins right now as I spent a good few months learning the varietal and stocking up in anticipation of summer barbecues. I'll work my way through those and then move onto my next varietal which will probably be Rioja. Either that or Petite Syrah. But probably Rioja. In my quest for wine mastery I'm taking a grape by grape approach and trying to get my head around one at a time. I'm thinking that I'll alternate between US and European producers and I'm not going to jump into France until I'm a bit more confident. So Zins now, then Rioja, then Petite Syrah, then something Italian and then American Pinot Noir.

The whites get their share of attention in and among the others. I know that I prefer Sauvignon Blanc and that I can deal with Chardonnay but don't really seek it out. I'll need to make a concerted effort with Rieslings at some point but not just yet.