RIP Tomato Plants...

How sad and pathetic is this?

To the landfill to help old computers, tv's, vcr players, 8 track players, etc decompose...

All that is left are these 2 markers...not so "Bonnie" after all...:(

More on the blight

Well it appears this Late Blight is very widespread and is taking out farmers' crops as well. The green tomatoes that had no spots, that I took home, are now getting brown spots on them and they are not turning red at all. Some research has shown that this year's blight has come from varieties sold at Home Depot, Walmart, etc. I bought my tomato plants from Home Depot. Next year I am going to raise my plants from seeds.

Check out this New York Times article here and another article from Pennsylvania here.

I guess I will be ripping out my tomato plants. sigh.

Blight!

I think this is what they call "blight", at least that's what I would call blight :( I've cut off about 5 tomatoes that are turning brown. I cut off some green tomatoes and brought them home to see if they will turn red, before they too start to turn brown. I am so sad.

On a happier note, I did harvest some carrots! Not bad I think, some were still small, but you can't tell until you pick them.

Size matters!

OK these were just funny looking!

And my pumpkin continues to grow. :)

It's going to be the Great Pumpkin!

"Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He's gotta pick this one. He's got to. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see." ......Linus, from It's a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Pumkin plants are taking over!

My gosh! My 2 little pumpkin plants are taking over my garden! They are huge! The photo above was from last week and it is even bigger now! Yesterday, I spent quite a bit of time trying to trim it back...it is creeping into the neighbouring plot and over running my beans! Lots of flowers and buds on it though. Here is a photo of one of the flowers below, if you look carefully there is a bee in there too on the left side of the stamen (?)

Someone's corn has grown taller than me! The rumour in the garden is that it is decorative corn not edible corn.

my small harvest last week, yesterday I had 6 beans. obviously my onions and carrots are not ready yet, but the tomatoes, beans, and cukes are crowding out the onions and carrots. I have to say my beans are a mess! I had to cut out a pumpkin tendril out of them too. I have learned many lessons for next year! radishes, onions, carrots are getting their own box next year.

aha! I managed to catch this American goldfinch clinging upside down on this beet(?) plant. I see them all the time down at the garden but they do not stay still for long!

June 7 to July 18

I've shown the progress of other people's garden, so I thought I would show you how far I've come since June 7!

June 20
July 18

Here is a flower on my eggplant!

Lots of rain makes for a green garden!

Someone has planted corn! They look great! I hope it is not too wet for them.

I thought this was a neat idea. Someone used some very twiggy branches to keep the creatures away, from...I think it is cucumber....

Ok so now my carrots tops are looking more like carrot tops...and actually they are bigger now, the photo is at least a week old, growing some great marigolds, though :P...I have been still harvesting radishes, growing to like eating them too!

Check out those tomatoes, eh?!


last count 6! removed a caterpiller from the leaf...gotta keep an eye on that.

20 Days

This post is for Liliana and Marco. The first photo was taken of their plot on June 6 and the 2nd photo was taken on June 26. What progress!! One zucchini has already been harvested!

My First!

Carrots!

Finally the true leaves from the carrots have revealed themselves! I was getting worried there, I thought it might be just grass growing...but now I know they are carrots. They are slow...

...looks like a stray cucumber got in there....I wonder if I can transplant that...or will it just wither and die...?

update on bird's nest...abandonned..sad.

A Bird's Nest!

I saw a bird fly from it and it was yellow, maybe a goldfinch. You can see the hatched babies in there. If you double click on the photo it will make the photo larger.

OK one bean plant going strong, but what happened to the others? At least one other had sprouted but it is gone now.

Cucumbers were up last Sunday, but now all the leaves are spotted yellow and I found those little yellow and black beetles on the leaves....grrr.

Thanks Dad! Dad made this mighty fine planter for our square garden....next time, I think we'll set up the planter first! Looks good though!

Glorious Sunday!

It was a busy day already at the garden before noon! After all the rain, everyone was checking in on their plots. I met a few new neighbours and have invited them to check out this blog...I have now made this blog public. If you have a garden plot here and want to post your garden exploits, just email me and we will make arrangements. Happy Gardening!

K&S resting before they've even started!

Kevin's eagle eyes spotted this skipper, we chased it until we caught this good photo!

They brought in the barrels of water! I thought they were going to be rain barrels but I guess someone comes out and fills them periodically. It's dip and scoop with these, no spouts...that's OK as long as it is full, when it empties out, someone suggested holding children upside down by the legs and dipping them in...hehehe....a new book "101 uses of a child"...honestly, I love kids, they are very useful!

Houston, we have lift off! go Beans!

Yay, radishes! I planted a few more today, and some more carrots....

The white stuff in the garden is cottonwood seeds. This is the white " summer snow" you see floating around downtown. There a lot of these trees by the river. It is not dandelion fluff. Here's a pic I grabbed off the internet:


The birding was great this morning, too! Spotted a turkey vulture way up high, lots of robins, swallows, and goldfinches. Kevin showed me a bird nest and I hope to go back and get a good photo.

Plot #45 continues...

My Dad helping me sift the grass out of the soil. We used these wire mesh trays I got at the dollar store. They work great!

My Dad came out from the suburbs and helped me rough in my garden. Early in the morning we roughed in 2, 4'x4' gardens, following the "square foot gardening" method. What do I know about vegetable gardening? nothing! So after some internet research and getting some books from the library, I found Bartholemew's book. It addressed my concerns of growing too much food, (I don't do preserves) and not enough time to do all the work required... this method offers, so the book says, enough yield with the least amount of work (my kind of thinking, exactly!)





Basically you make a grid out of your garden and plant only what you need, and space your seeds according to the final placement of your veggies, eg 3" apart equals 9 seeds per square foot. It eliminates the thinning and since you are only working with a four foot garden there shouldn't be as much weeding either....well let's hope not...we shall see.

The other rule to this type of gardening, is garden up or vertically. Apparently, you can get a better yield and nicer, straighter looking cucumbers if you grow them up a vine instead of on the ground...so you have got to build a trellis. So after lunch Dad and I headed out to Copps to get what we needed to do that. My Mom came by to supervise and she was quite afraid children were going to get caught in this contraption, which lead to all sorts of jokes of checking to see if we trapped any kids lately...SO KIDS BEWARE OF THE GIANT SPIDER NET! mwahahhaha!

I've place a plastic planter in the corner of my plot to catch rainwater until the barrels (I heard we are eventually getting rain barrels). The white bucket is not mine...

A compost pile has been started at the south east corner for all the grass sifted out of the plots:

All in all, I planted:

marigolds, nasturtiums, 1x pumpkin, 1x eggplant, 2x tomatoes, 1x basil, cucumbers, radishes, carrots, onions, green beans, yellow beans, and zucchini...all I can say is wish me luck!

Plot #45

Well, this is it! Put off until tomorrow what you can't get done today! I did get my seeds, today, and tomorrow I shall rough out the garden and plant them...

I've begun this blog to keep track of my progress and as I get to know my garden neighbours, I shall invite them here to do the same. It will be a private blog, open only to those who have a plot. Hopefully, we can share gardening tips and information. I only ask there be no politics and negativity. I have started a list of helpful links and will be glad to add to it as we go along.

When you make a post, please put your "name" in the labels, this will make it easier to find your own posts later.