We brought in about 20 pounds of tomatillos, about 5 pounds of green tomatoes, and about 20 peppers, including a plethora of poblanos.

The white habanero plant finally kicked in last month and we have a bunch of tiny yellow and white habanero peppers which managed to survive the frost. The chiles start out green, turn yellow, then finally white.

Michael cleaned out the plants and we gathered all the tomato and pepper cages from the three beds. They look so empty now.

The blueberry bushes have turned red and are dropping their leaves. We had a small crop this year, not bad for the first year, and we look forward to seeing the leaves return in the spring and perhaps a few more blueberries next year.

The chards were overtaken by the monster turnip (far end), which we finally dug up. The scallions (left) have continued to thrive in the cool weather, and we are digging up the last of the summer lettuces and waiting for the winter crop to sprout. We have some cold frames we’ll put over the lettuces to keep them going through the winter.

We harvested the ginger which had been growing in a pot on the deck all summer (photo taken in July).

We only planted two small nubs of ginger and were pleased with the amount we got in return. Since the experiment was a success we will grow more ginger in pots next year.

With the cool Autumn season our garden is still producing. The cilantro is happily sprouting in both the beds and the pots and giving us flavorful leaves, and the sage, mint, thyme, and parsley will continue throughout the winter.

The garlic crop was a great success and we planted more this year. Last year we planted about 20 cloves, this year 80. Raised bed #4 (below) has 60 cloves planted around the perimeter and we put the other 20 in raised bed #1 after adding more compost and soil and raising up the herbs. We got the garlic in the ground a little later due to the sudden attack of winter—they need to be planted in mid October to early November—but they should sprout soon.

We are much further along than this time last year. The beds are in place and we have cold frames and floating row covers all set to go, so hopefully we’ll be able to keep some winter lettuces and other things going until spring. And in the meantime, we’ll start planning for the next summer garden.

Squash Vine Borers

(Photo from Wikipedia)

Squash vine borers are moths that are active during the daytime, flying around the plants and laying eggs on leaf stalks and vines. The hatched larvae bore into plant stems and feed for up to 30 days on the plant before moving into the soil to pupate. The pupas overwinter in the soil then emerge in the spring to restart the cycle. Often the first sign of trouble to home gardeners is wilting leaves, at which point the battle is almost lost.

Control is challenging and requires multiple steps. The soil should be turned over and pupas destroyed before planting. Some companion plants may be beneficial, such as marigolds (the pungent Mexican, French, or African types), corn, and nasturtiums. Floating row covers protect the plants from the moths during the spring and early summer when they are most active, but must be sealed all the way around to prevent the moths from finding any entry points. Once the blossoms begin to appear the row covers should be removed to facilitate pollination, or you can try hand pollinating under the cover. Plants should be examined daily for signs of eggs or frass (an orange sawdust-like substance, see photo above) indicating that larvae have bored into the stems, at which point you must carefully slit open the stem to remove the larvae.

Squash Bugs

(Photo from Wikipedia)

Squash bugs (sometimes known as “stink bugs”) are another difficult pest. The adults overwinter under debris, such as pieces of wood, fallen plants, leaves, stones. Once the weather warms, they emerge and mate, laying eggs on the underside of the leaf, which hatch in 10 to 14 days. Once hatched, the nymphs feed on the plant by piercing it and sucking the sap, at the time injecting a toxin which causes the plant to wilt and die. They also transmit a disease called Cucurbit yellow vine decline, which can yellow and wilt a plant overnight, usually within weeks of harvest. If infected early in the plant lifespan, devastation can result.

Nymphs mature within four to six weeks and the cycle starts anew. Control starts with cleaning out plant beds, removing all debris and leftover plants from previous seasons. Turn over the dirt and keep leaves from building up in the planting area. Some companion plants may be beneficial, such as radishes, marigolds (the pungent Mexican, French, or African types), mint, and nasturtiums. Use row covers as mentioned above. Check plants daily for infestation, and if you find adults, nymphs, or eggs on the leaves, brush them off and crush them. One trick for catching the bugs is to lay a piece of wood flat on the ground next to a plant. The bugs will often take cover underneath the wood at night, making it easy for you to kill many at once in the morning.

Cucumber Beetles

(Photo from Wikipedia)

Cucumber beetles damage cucumber, melon, and squash plants at two stages. The adults eat young tender stems and leaves and the blossoms, while also spreading bacterial wilt and cucumber mosaic virus, both of which cannot be treated and will kill a plant. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae (aka corn rootworm) feed on the plant roots.

There are two types, the striped beetle in the photo above, and the spotted beetle, though of the two the striped beetle is more of a danger. Both types of adults overwinter in bean and corn fields, or even compost or trash piles. Infested plants should be removed and disposed of immediately. Using row covers helps prevent them from reaching susceptible plants. Consider adding a bat house to your garden, as they enjoy eating cucumber beetles as well as a broad range of other nuisance insects. Some companion plants may be beneficial, such as radishes, marigolds (the pungent Mexican, French, or African types), broccoli, catnip, and nasturtiums.

Visit the sites listed in the References below for more detailed information on these pests and methods of control.

References

Wikipedia – Squash vine borer

Wikipedia – Squash bug

Wikipedia – Cucumber beetle

National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service – Squash Bug and Squash Vine Borer: Organic Controls

National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service – Companion Planting: Basic Concept and Resources

University of Kentucky College of Agriculture Entomology – Squash Vine Borer and Squash Bug

University of Minnesota Veg Edge – Squash Bug

Virginia Tech Cooperative Extension – Cucumber Beetles

Virginia Tech Cooperative Extension – Squash Bug

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Here’s what we are growing this year.

Hot Peppers

Anaheim

Big Chile hybrid (Mild like an Anaheim, grows 8 to 10 inches long. Matures red.)

Chocolate Habanero (Same size as a regular habanero.)

Hot Paper Lantern (Habanero type with smaller elongated pods. Matures red.)

Jalapeno

Kung Pao Hybrid (Medium heat, about 4 inches long, matures red. Good for drying and storing.)

Numex Big Jim (Anaheim type, good for chile rellenos. Can grow up to 12 inches long.)

Poblano/Ancho

Royal Black (Small plant with black stems and foliage. Very hot black pepper ripens brilliant jewel-like red.)

Serrano Grande (Larger version of traditional serrano, matures to bright red.)

Thai Hot (Short plants, 1-inch long very hot peppers.)

White Habanero (Smaller than a regular habanero, but just as hot.)

Sweet Peppers

Miniature Chocolate Bell (Tiny chocolate colored bells, great for stuffed appetizers.)

Park’s Whopper (Large bells, matures red.)

Purple Beauty (Compact plants, medium size dark purple fruit.)

Sweet Islander (Medium size bells, with bright streaks of violet, yellow, and orange. Matures red.)

Tequila Hybrid (Amethyst pepper that ripens red.)

Yellow Corno di Toro (Italian bulls horn type, 8 to 10 inches long, ripens bright yellow. Delicious grilled, sauteed, or in salad.)

[Updated August 15, 2009]

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Long before I had Michael and the boys and a house with a yard, I had a few pots of herbs and tomatoes on the balcony of my small Chicago apartment. It was a small container garden, just enough for me and my roommate, and it was perfect for my needs at the time.

To this day I continue to keep some things in containers even though we now have a few raised beds in our yard. My container garden varies from season to season and year to year. In the winter we grow basil and cilantro indoors so I have a steady supply of those herbs for much of the year. I keep scallions in a pot year round, indoors in cold weather and outdoors for the rest. In the late spring we move the indoor pots out to the deck and plant new things in the remaining pots.

This year our container garden has ginger, mint (transplanted from the yard), alpine strawberries, basil, rosemary, cilantro, lemongrass, stevia, eggplant, scallions, lavender, and sunflowers. We originally seeded the sunflowers directly in the ground, but the bunnies ate the first round of sprouts right down to the dirt, so we decided to start the sunflowers in pots then transplant when they get big enough to withstand the bunny assault. We had similar problems with the eggplants being tormented by eggplant flea beetles, so we decided to give it one more try in containers up on the deck and away from the ground to see if it would work, and it did. No more flea beetles and we have some beautiful little eggplants sprouting.

This baby eggplant is a variety called Ophelia, a miniature eggplant with fruit that only weighs 2 ounces (57 g) when mature. The plant is bushy but not very tall, just right for containers, and the little oval eggplants make perfect individual servings.

The lavender was in the yard last year and had to be moved when we expanded the tomato and pepper area, so they are in containers for now. I plan to move them to another spot in the yard sometime this summer, but I might miss watching the hummingbirds and bees playing among the blooms on the deck.

The ginger is my latest experiment. My friend Cris at From Our (Brazilian) Home to Yours said I could grow my own ginger, and of course I had to try it. I found a very fresh root at my local Asian grocery store with small green shoots on it, which I divided and planted in a pot. Ginger needs very warm weather to prosper, so I did this after the last frost and set it out on the deck. It seems to be doing well and I look forward to harvesting the root in a few months.

After the total loss of all of the snow and sugar snap pea plants due to bunnies and chipmunks, I think next year we will plant those in pots on the deck too.

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The cages were three and five feet tall, and several plants have already gone a foot or more above, so Michael made some more cages and stacked them on top.

He used some binder clips to hold the layers of tomato cages together. We tend to Macgyver things a bit.

After checking out all the tomatoes I went to check on the peas and beans. Our snow pea plants had been eaten again, very sad since this was our second attempt to grow them this spring and they had some beautiful little pods hanging from them a few days ago. We think chipmunks snuck through the rabbit fence and under the protective netting and had a little feast. After I finished taking photos I stepped back over the rabbit fence, turned back for one last look, and that’s when I saw this.

My foot had been right next to it just moments ago. I hate snakes. They send shivers up my spine and elicit all sorts of hand flapping and verbal outbursts from me. I know, I’m a wuss. I lost my cool and yelled, “Snake!” Then I calmed down and started snapping photos. Of course I couldn’t identify it because herpetology is not my forte, so I had no idea what kind of snake it was. Michael calmly walked over with the potato fork, ready to do some damage in my defense if it turned out to be a venomous snake.

Michael gently poked the snake, and when it didn’t move we realized it was entangled in the netting we had put over the garden to protect our produce from the bunnies and chipmunks. Michael carefully used the potato fork to pick up the snake to see if it was a venomous type, which it wasn’t. It was a harmless Common Ribbonsnake, a type of garter snake, but at the time it might as well have been something deadly for all I knew. (I learned later that our area has two types of venomous snakes, the Northern Copperhead and the Timber Rattlesnake.) With heavy gloves on his hands, Michael picked up the snake and attempted to untangle the creature.

No way would I have picked it up, but Michael used to keep bees, so creepy crawling or flying creatures don’t bother him. The snake was thoroughly entangled and could barely wriggle as Michael tried to free it. He had to cut through the netting a snip at a time, carefully avoiding the snake’s skin.

After about 10 minutes, Michael had cut away all of the netting and he freed the 60 cm (2 foot) snake into the wild area behind our house. It slithered away quickly and I was glad to see it go.

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It’s hard to tell from the above photo, it was very bright out, but there are two rows of plants, shorter peppers and tomatoes in the front, taller tomatoes in the back. Michael built two sizes of cages, some three feet tall, other’s five feet tall, and some of the tomatoes have already topped out the five foot cages. If last summer is any indication, we’ll have them at the top of the balcony above, up to nine feet tall.

We planted both green and purple tomatillos and have blossoms on all the plants.

We have a few Sun Gold tomatoes already on the vine.

And true to their name, some Early Girls have set fruit as well.

The Miniature Chocolate Bell Peppers are the first of our peppers to set fruit. They are a short, stocky plant that produces colored stuffing peppers that turn a chocolate color when ripe.

The rest of the garden is swimming today from the sudden downpour we had this morning. We hope that the herbs will hold out, they are looking very yellow from too much rain. The last of the spring lettuces bolted, so I need to pull those and start another round of summer lettuces. Just like last year, we are having trouble with eggplant flea beetles, a pest that feasts on eggplants.

All of our eggplants look like this, but we’re holding out hope that some of them will make it. If not, then sadly we probably won’t plant eggplants next year as we’ve not found a reliable organic method to keep these pests at bay.

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Then we had this.

And this.

Now we have this.

Rabbit-proof fence = $60. Keeping the little wild buggers from eating all of our produce? Priceless.

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BUILDING THE RAISED BEDS

After two years of being in the house we finally decided on the location for our raised garden beds. The first year we had a container garden, then last year we ripped out a bunch of inedible bushes on the south side of the house and planted tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, and herbs in about 48 square feet of space. This year we added 132 square feet of raised bed space and about 50 more square feet where the apple and cherry trees and blueberry bushes are planted. Still had plenty of room for the rhubarb and horseradish that’s coming back from last year.

Before building we took some scrap boards and laid them out where the beds would go so we could get a visual idea of how it would look and test the width between them to make sure we would have plenty of room to walk, turn, and bend.

We used 1×4 and 1×6 cedar planks. No plans, Michael just had a vision and went with it. It’s the whole engineer thing he’s got going on.

It took about 4 hours to build the frames. Once we had them built, we put them in place per our original design, but then changed our minds and rotated two of them, as you’ll see in the photo below. This allowed us to have at least one bed positioned lengthwise next to the back fence, which we’ll use as a prop for beans.

The bed on the far left (we call it #1) is the herb bed, and because of the ground slope we had to partially bury the one side where you can see a gap beneath it.

The next day Michael dug out as much of the grass as possible and relocated it to some barren parts of the yard, then we filled in the beds and began transplanting the herbs from their previous location.

The bed in the corner (#3) has snow peas and sugar snap peas along the back fence, but those won’t last once the heat turns up in June, and we’ll replace them with beans. The bed in the middle (#2) is the spring bed, with scallions, shallots, arugula, chards, beets, more tatsoi, spinach (not doing well), and lettuces. The other bed with the pitchfork standing in the middle (#4) has some bok choy seedlings and will eventually be used for zucchini squash.

PLANTING THE APPLE AND CHERRY TREES

Last weekend we spent two days working the other end of the yard and digging holes for our new apple and sweet cherry trees. The soil is clay and very rocky, and it was a mud pit from all the rain we’ve had. We kept sinking into the mud while working, and we were covered in mud by the time we got those holes dug. Michael wielded the shovel and pick axe while I lugged rocks out of the way. All those boulders you see in the photo are natural parts of the yard, not introduced, and some of them were hidden underground, waiting to surprise us when we tried to plant stuff. There’s more below ground, but many are so big we can’t dig them out, so whenever we find a really big one we just dig under it so it will fall further down in the ground, then we plant around them.

Gala apple blossoms. The cherry blossoms are long gone.

Blueberry blossoms. The plants we bought are a couple years old so we may get lucky and have a small harvest this year. We put in several different types for cross pollination and to spread out the harvest from early spring to late summer.

Chive blossoms. The chives came back in March and are robust and in bloom now.

We planted the tatsoi last autumn but it never sprouted until March. It stayed a tiny little seedling for several weeks, then when we had that hot 90+ weather last week it went from just a couple inches tall to this monster. (That’s some butterhead lettuce planted next to it.) We’ve enjoyed stir-frying the leaves and will plant more in September. It does well in our garden, certainly better than the spinach that never seems to get beyond the seedling stage, and when the leaves are small and tender you can eat them raw in salads.

This crazy little patch of butterhead lettuce popped up last month. There’s probably twenty plants in that bunch. I spilled the seed packet in this general vicinity last autumn, and though I tried to gather them all up, obviously I missed more than a few. I picked some of it for salads this week, but there’s still a fair amount left.

Snow pea and sugar snap pea plants are growing. I use the snow peas in stir-fry and I just like to munch on sugar snap peas. Obviously I need to wait a little longer before I can just walk out and grab a few peas off the vine.

When the mint started to green again, we dug it up out of the garden and potted it, and now it lives on the deck. To keep it from taking over the garden last summer, we planted it in a landscapers plastic pot and buried it to within one inch of the top. It prevented the roots from spreading and encouraged more vertical growth, making it quite leafy. When we dug it up we saw that the roots had split the pot and I had to break it to remove the plant, then we took a shovel to the root ball and cut away half of it. Yes, this mint plant is a monster, too, but I like the flavor in tea, ice cream, jelly, mojitos, and other tasty things.

More gardening coming in the next few weeks as we start planting the summer vegetables and herbs. We have a number of seedlings hanging out in the house, waiting for the nights to warm up and I added some more plants to the collection today. I can’t wait to get everything in the ground!

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The point of the presentation was to encourage people to start kitchen gardens and provide smart tips on how to do it successfully as well as demonstrate some easy dishes to make from homegrown herbs and vegetables (The Lemon Thyme Cookies were to die for.) My notes do not completely cover Reed’s two-hour presentation, but here’s a brief summary of her tips (notes from me in parentheses):

1. Soil is the most important component in a good garden. Without good healthy soil you will struggle. Fortunately keeping the soil healthy without harmful chemicals is easy. Add plenty of good compost.
2. Make your own compost. All those vegetable scraps, eggs shells, coffee grounds and tea leaves are worth their weight in gold. Make sure you have a compost bin in your back yard and add all the above plus dead tree leaves. The formula for creating healthy compost is 1 part green (the stuff you save in your kitchen) to 2 parts brown (dead tree leaves, healthy leftover soil from repotting, etc). Add to it and turn it over regularly. Good compost takes 2 to 6 months to create. Cut your vegetables scraps small so they break down faster. Reed mentioned one gardener who runs all her vegetables scraps through the blender before adding to the compost bin.
3. Raised beds are a great way to plant a garden, whether you build your own with lumber or buy a recycled plastic kit. You don’t have to till soil, just get the frames in place and fill with bags of garden soil and compost and top off with good hardwood mulch. Raised beds should be no wider than 4 feet to make it easy to reach the herbs and vegetables. Avoid using chemically treated woods such as railroad ties and pressure treated wood. (I have a blog post on how we built our raised beds coming soon.) Containers are also an easy way to grow herbs and vegetables. Reed recommended EarthBox containers. (I haven’t tried them yet.)
4. Grow what you eat. Think about your favorite herbs and vegetables and plant those. If you start your own seeds, make sure you follow the directions on the seed packets as each plant has different requirements. If you buy seedlings, make sure you harden them off—bring outside for a few hours at a time for a week or so before planting—and make sure you wait until the appropriate planting time for your zone so your plants don’t freeze. (Don’t know what your zone is? Find it using the Arbor Day Hardiness Zones Lookup. Also check with your county extension office for last freeze dates in your area.)
5. Suggested herbs: parsley, oregano, thyme, basil, chives. (I also suggest mint, but keep it in a pot to prevent takeover.)
6. Suggested tomatoes: Amelia, Better Boy, Better Bush Improved Hybrid, Black Krim, Celebrity*, Cherokee Purple, Early Girl, Small Fry*, Sweet Million, Super Sweet 100, Viva Italia, Yellow Pear. (*=determinate, the rest are indeterminate)
7. Suggested blueberries: Austin (early), Brightwell (mid), Climax (early), Powderblue (mid), Premier (early), Tifblue (mid to late).

A lot of you who Grow Your Own already know these tips, so pass along to any beginning gardeners you know. I also know that many of us could add to the list of herbs, tomatoes, and fruits, so feel free to share your favorites and any gardening tips you have in the comments.

Sample Gardens and Helpful Articles from Southern Living

Gene and Jan Harlow, Laurel, MI

Jill and Todd Utz, Oklahoma City, OK

Mike and Glenda, Blue Ridge Mountains, VA

Southern Living Test Kitchen Garden

A Garden Designed for First-Time Gardeners

Five Easy Fruits to Grow in Your Backyard

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Herbs. That’s pretty much it. We cooked with our sage, parsley, and thyme throughout the winter. We didn’t get the cold frames finished in time to have a successful  winter garden, but that didn’t stop me from trying. We got one little leek and one tatsoi plant, but the cold frames are ready for next winter and we hope to have much more. The arugula picked up some kind of pest late in the fall that sapped the life out of it before we could get a second harvest, but we’ll plant more this weekend. The saffron never bloomed but did stay green the whole winter, so it probably had too much water last summer. I’m moving all the corms to a new location away from the beds we water so hopefully they will flower in the fall.

We will also transplant all of the herbs to their new home in a raised bed and plant some more cool weather herbs (dill, cilantro) as well as spring vegetables and fruits (two kinds of peas, eight kinds of greens and lettuces, shallots, strawberries, blueberries, and hopefully some rhubarb) in the other new raised beds.

The chives, spearmint, and oregano survived until the really cold temperatures hit us in January, then they died off but are making a comeback. We plant all of those close together in their new location so they can go under a cold frame next winter.

The lavender did very well and we’ll probably transplant them to pots now since they don’t require regular watering like the rest of the herbs. Once it has matured lavender requires dry conditions to flower, so we’ll just move them up on the deck and hope for some blooms this year.

The sage was very hardy and just drooped a little when the January freezes began. We cooked with it all winter.

The parsley and thyme shook off freezing temperatures and snow and continued to grow, giving us more fresh from the garden flavor during the winter. It’s going through another grow spurt now after some of the foliage died off.

We planted garlic for the first time in October and the shoots will remain green until the hot temperatures hit in late June and July. Then we’ll harvest and enjoy.

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