watering and beetle schedule

now that we have traps to empty, it seems like the person in charge of watering should also do the emptying. i'd definitely recommend getting someone else to go out there to help, if only for moral support.

15-TG
17-MG
19-DF
21-TG
23-DF
25-AW
27-AW
29-TG
31-MG

there was some logic to this schedule but now that it's just the last part, i'm not sure how much sense it makes anymore. please be assured that everyone was on the original watering schedule 3 or 4 times. except for jenny, who was on 5. i guess we should work something up for August so if people want to email me with times they're away, i can figure it out.
of course, we also need to have a beetle summit about the other bugs that are out there. ugh.

Traumatized by beetlemania

I went to 5 stores today to look for beetle traps. Good ol Farm and Fleet finally hooked us up. I bought two and I also bought some organic pesticide at Lowes just in case I couldn't find any traps, so I can return it if we don't use it.

I felt like I was in a horror movie when I attempted to set up the 2 traps in the garden. Hundreds of beetles flew from everywhere and landed on my face and hair and hands even after I set the traps down because I still had the scent of the trap lure on me. It was scary.

The good news is that there are beets and broccoli that are ready to be picked, and I picked two green peppers today too. More peppers are going to be ready soon. I could only find one zucchini in the jungle that is the squash plants though.

Beetlemania pt 2

Now the beetles are eating the pea plants.

Beetlemania

Melissa and I checked out the beetle situation today. It looks like they are mostly eating those huge weeds, but they are also eating the tomato plants and the basil. The milk jug trick didn't kill anything, so we went to Home Depot to see if they had any organic pesticides that would kill beetles (Strawberry Fields didn't have anything). They had one brand that said "made by vegetables for vegetables" but melissa and i couldn't figure out what one of the ingredients actually was (and now I forget what it was) so we didn't buy it. Maybe Melissa will remember the brand so we can look up that ingredient.

Bottom line is that we need to do something about the beetles on the tomato plants--in one section of the garden, it's relatively bad. I have some issues with touching bugs, so if everyone else decides to do the potential plan of picking beetles off plants and drowning them, I don't think I can help with that. If you want to wait until Donovan gets back and he sees what's up, that is ok. Melissa and I are ok with organic herbicide (if indeed we can figure out what the mystery ingredient is in the kind we saw today). She and I are also ok with using the other stuff our garden neighbor recommended. Let us know what you want to do.

P.S. Donovan, I picked a bunch of pickling cucumbers for you, so they will be in my fridge til you get back

Snake

In addition to the beetles, we also have a black snake living around our garden plots. I take this to be a good sign--our garden is so beautiful, all of the creatures want to live there. Apparently, this snake has been around for a couple of years--it's a familiar friend to some of the other gardners--and it is totally harmless. It's also very small. But, if anyone is afraid of snakes, do be careful. Thrash around a bit before entering any high weeds, for example.

Weeding Tip

Our experienced garden neighbor (the nice one, not the mean one) passed along a little weeding advice to me yesterday. She says that when the weeds get this out of control (and trust me, they're totally out of control) you should pull them, but leave them in the garden. She says you should then take the piles of weeds and throw them over the other weeds. Supposedly they will suffocate the other weeds, thus reducing the amount to be weeded. I thought the advice was worth a try--especially since it means I don't have to carry piles of weeds over to the dumping ground.

If you notice weeds piled in the garden, this is why.

Exciting News!

I went to the garden tonight and pulled weeds all around 7/9 pepper plants and watered. I didn't put more straw down around the pepper plants because it was impeding the weeding process and there is much more to weed over there next to the tomato plants.

The exciting news is that a big cucumber AND a big zucchini were ready to be picked today, as well as tons of the peas. Also I gave Sascha lettuce and in exchange for the gift, he said that he would help me pick vegetables that were ready next week.

There are weeds everywhere though and it's driving me bonkers! Maybe I can get Sascha to weed too in exchange for all of the lettuce we can't eat.

hot day update

lots of exciting news from the garden--a fair number of peapods are ready to go, the chard and lettuce are out of control, there are some more beets sticking up out of the ground, and i spotted little zucchini, yellow squash, peppers, tomatoes, and beans. i'd guess that there's at least one zucchini that will probably be ready by the end of the week so someone should go out there and get it!

on the work side of things, it looks like our little straw plan only sort of worked because weeds are getting out of hand in some areas, despite the straw. apparently we didn't do a super job of getting rid of everything before putting the straw down. some places are better than others.

i was able to weed a little bit but i didn't have a ton of time. i'd say that the "problem" areas are in the back right where the peppers are being choked out (and a couple of the roma tomato plants in the way back on the side that have no cages) and then by the herbs. i did some emergency weeding to give them a little room but i would guess that they'll be overcome again in a few days. almost everything is marked with sticks or cages or has yellow flowers or actual little vegetables on them so it should be much easier to weed now.

it was really exciting to be out there b/c there's a lot of stuff coming in. yippeee!!

oh, and if anyone has the nerve to put up our signs (in the dead of night?), they're on our front porch.

The heat is coming

I've been out a few times this week to water and weed and put down more STRAW (finally looked it up, we are using STRAW, not hay). Things are looking pretty good. We need to eat greens like crazy - go nuts with that stuff. I also made a better pea cage, so that oughta be safe now. We'll try to get out and water daily if we can, and every other day at the least, on account of the insane heat coming our way. FYI, I've been watering just using the hose without a nozzle and basically dumping water right at the base of the plants, which seems to work well and is a fairly fast way to water.

The peas, squash, greens, beets, chard, and 'maters are all looking good. Beans look pretty good but might need some poles (we need more tomato cages too). The peppers are looking decent, but not amazing, hopefully they will perk up. The herbs are not looking horrible, they just don't seem to be going crazy like I had hoped - maybe we need to take off the wind shields that we put on when we planted em and see if that helps.

There are a few spots that still need to be weeded and "strawed", and a few places where I guess we just put straw down over the weeds and they are poking through. The area where the squash was planted is looking kinda weedy, but I'm unsure where the plants and weeds begin and end on the south end of the rows, so maybe someone who planted those should weed them. Also, the far west row where we planted okra is a loss and we should clearcut that and plant more okra and/or some fall squash. The dudes behind us said okra is supposed to take 60 days from planting to eating, so we can have em by the end of August if we get em in now.

I'll try to get out and do some more weeding, caging, etc before we head for NYC.

Harvesting advice

i'm wondering if we could all share our harvesting knowledge since we are starting to have a pretty good looking garden (despite what some older neighbors may think...). we have lots of lettuce, chard, beets... and tonight we spotted a few peas!

i read in the gardening book that chard should be harvested by picking (meaning taking a leaf and snapping it off at the stem) some of the bigger leaves from each plant and leaving some of the other leaves. i guess this keeps the plant viable so more chard can grow. when i harvested some chard the other day, i was able to get a pretty big bag just from picking a few leaves from each of the plants.

oh, i also know that beets are ready when you can see their tops coming out of the ground. please don't eat the beets without eating the greens, or at least seeing if anyone wants the greens. they are super-tasty and it would be sad if they went to waste.

any other harvesting advice? how soon to pick things, how to pick them, etc... we need help.

Mean Midwesterners

That's it. This isn't really garden related, unless you see the WORLD as GOD'S garden (you do? seriously? tool.) in which case I would like to make the point that the Midwest is as nasty and weedy a part as any other. I have heard so many people claim that the Midwest contains a different sort of person than the rest of the country - specifically a NICER sort of person.

Um . . . . . bullshit.

Seriously.

Bull. Shit.

I would like to take a moment to decry that particular sentiment as the sad mix of patriotism/xenophobia and anti-urbanism that it is. This belief is founded on the idea that Americans are somehow the best people and that the Midwest is somehow, due to its geographical position, the part of the US that is the least corrupted by the outside world (the incredible number of Mexican restaurants in a town the size of Champaign notwithstanding). Alternately, it is founded on the belief that people in cities have somehow been corrupted by the evil inherent within them and that this evil manifests itself as a lack of "nice".

Crap. Crap. Crap. Self-serving, egotistical crap. Are you serious? Does anyone really think that Americans are better people? Or that people in cities are somehow less wholesome? Look, I'm sorry if the only time you went to New York you got freaked out by the homeless guy in Times Square but lets be reasonable. Cities scare you. That doesn't make them evil. And anyone still laboring under the belief that Americans are a superior group of people needs to carefully consider both John tesh AND Paris Hilton at the same time.

So look, cut the crap. Some old ladies in the Midwest are every bit as crabby and pushy as those in Philadelphia. Some bouncers at bars in Chicago are every bit the assholes that bouncers at bars in L.A. are. Silly teenage mallrats dress ridiculously all over this country. Peopl here are not inherently nice. nice people are nice people. They are everywhere and they deserve nice treatment in return. Crabby, pushy, scolding old hags are also everywhere and need to be dealt with through sarcasm, name calling, and possibly jokes about Jesus.

I am going to go pick some beets, and if Grandma gets cheeky I'm gonna belt her.

Our lovely garden neighbor...

Actual quote from the mean old lady in the garden next to us: "Someone needs to teach you how to use a hoe. You never had a garden before, did you?" Seriously, she said this to me today. Her reasoning was that I was pulling weeds by hand, which clearly implies that I don't yet know how to use a hoe and have never had a garden. I tried to explain that the bean plants were too closely tangled with the weeds to use a hoe, but she just said that was our own fault for letting it go so long. She said, "Aren't there a bunch of you? Why didn't somebody take care of it sooner?" Also, she said our beans look "pretty pathetic."

I almost whacked her in the head with my hoe.

Speaking of progress...

I just ate a delicious salad from our beautiful garden. Planbreaker and I spent the morning laying straw, and, in the process, we discovered baby tomatoes, baby peppers, and plenty of flowering plants. All the work that you people did while I was out of town has completely paid off! So, in this moment of optimism, I thought it might be a good time to take a look at just how far our little garden has come.

Remember a few weeks ago when we had no idea where the weeds ended and the plants began?



Well, compare that sad hodgepodge of greenery to our new "super-rows":



And how 'bout that mystery row? What were those plants anyway?




That's right...They're beautiful bean plants! (OK, so we still have a little weeding to do, but come on, they still look pretty good).

And look at this panoramic shot of tfoster watering in late May. One false step and a whole row could be wiped out:




Just a few weeks later, and look at the difference. I dare tfoster to try to crush these hearty plants:



And these were our peas just a few short weeks ago:



Now, they've grown so fast you can hardly recognize them:



All in all, it's been a good few weeks for the garden. Seriously, two different people commented on how good our garden looks today when planbreaker & I were out there. Yay garden!

vacationing....

what are people's "away" schedules for the rest of the summer? I'd like to figure out a watering schedule, if possible.

Frustration

Ok, it seems that the weeds are seriously taking over the garden (and this is after some pretty hefty weeding sessions by all on sunday and monday). df and i went to water last night and found that the kale and many of the other greens had been covered over *again* with weeds. we took some time to rescue them and some of the other plants but we only spent an hour weeding so there are still a lot of weeds out there. what can we do to make those weeds go away?? what's going on with the straw/hay?

the signs are also ready to put in but i feel like a jackass doing it b/c the garden doesn't look spectacular yet.

in better news, anyone who wants lettuce/salad greens should go and get it. i believe you can just bring scissors and cut some off and it will grow back. just don't eat the stuff that the bugs have eaten-- those are weeds! oh, and the new pepper and tomato plants and herbs seem to be doing well. and the one thai basil survivor looks like it's making a comeback!

Money

A quick appeal for sanity. At this point there have been numerous purchases for the garden: sprinkler, several rounds of tomatoes and peppers, stakes, bigger stakes, cages, seeds, etc. I think that it is a really terrible idea to assume that we will be able to remember all of this in November, so I am sending out a second appeal for people to send their expenses to me to put in one place (a nerdy spreadsheet that I created).

Send me your expenses!

An update about our lovely garden for Melissa

Amy, Donovan, and Tim all planted herbs and more peppers this weekend, and they and I did a ton of weeding. Amy watered yesterday and Tim and I watered today. Tim also tied the peas up around posts and they are looking good. I'd say about 5 more hours of weeding total and the garden will look beautiful. Donovan and Tim are looking into the hay option to place between plant rows.

what's in the garden?/RIP peppers

Ok, so i'm not all fancy with some graphic but here's a little guide to what's planted in quadrant 1 (which is what i'm calling the first quarter of the plot we planted):

row 1: cucumbers
row 2: mesclun
row 3: green lettuce
row 4: kale and beets
rows 5 and 6: beets and chard
row 7: edamame (aka soybeans) and snap peas
row 8: okra and white onion

hopefully this will help us distinguish the weeds from the plants.

df has some crazy map that deals with quadrants 2 and 3 (the next two quarters, moving counter-clockwise) so I'll let him relay that to you.

also, here's a list of what didn't make it: red chili (hot), yellow peppers (2 plants), green peppers (2), red peppers (2), tomatoes (umm... some type I can't read--3), tomatoes (roma-2), tomatoes (beefsteak-1), 4 thai basil plants.

Sprinklering

I took the sprinkler out to the garden today and am happy to report that it performed quite well. Only drawback: garden gets really muddy. Please beware of this when you go to retrieve the sprinker. My New Balance running shoes were not so lucky.

Also, in case you're interested I found a great trail to go running or biking on right by the garden. You enter it near that crazy monument to Olympic athletes (the giant white doorway thing). I don't know how long it is in total, but I followed it down to near Schnuck's (maybe a mile each way?). Anyway, it's a good place to run while you use the sprinkler.

I'll be out of town Friday thru Tuesday, but will be available for garden work beginning Wednesday the 8th. Keep me posted.

Weeding is fucking wonderful

Today I watered the garden in the morning and then Tim, Melissa, and I did some weeding, and then Tim watered the garden again around 6pm. The pepper plants are still a little sad, but hey, they are still there for the most part. Tomorrow I will water (Donovan, can I use yours and Amy's sprinkler) and then Melissa will water on Wednesday and Thursday before she goes to Pittsburgh on Friday.

Row upon Row

So planbreaker and I went out to weed today. She and dfinn had done some already, and now things are looking fine. We have some great lettuce, quite a few cucumbers, some kale, chard and beets, edamame, and peas. The beet/chard/kale rows are a bit sparse in parts, but we may still see some new sprouts. There is a lot of VERY tiny kale. I think that we decided that it wins cutest baby plant. The row along the edge, with the okra and onions is a mystery. There is one small bunch of onions, but as for okra, who knows. I don't have any idea what it looks like, so we didn't weed that row. The area that Jenny and I planted has some sprouts of both squash and beans. The tomatoes that are still around look OK, but most of the peppers have been lost. Over the next few days, I would suggest that we need to do the following:

• Weed the okra/onion row
• Transplant new tomatoes, herbs and peppers
• Weed the beans and squash
• Water daily

I will be out of town tomorrow (Friday) but I will be back Saturday and around for the next few weeks.

Even More Water

How funny to see that last post. I also went out to water on Sunday afternoon. I don't think that the weeds are terrible yet, but we should get them soon. The tomatoes, peppers and herbs have all suffered in the bizarre weather. Looks like we might need to replace some. Th first plot is looking good, though. Several rows of baby plats are coming up. i recognized lots of greens and some onions. df will be watering today, and I will go again tomorrow. I will be available to plant/weed/water again next Tuesday, by which point I expect the Champaing climate to have completely changed character 3-4 more times.

Water and Weeds

Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we have many plants that are looking kind of sad. I went out to water today (Sunday) and there are at least seven or eight plants that look pretty bad--yellow, wilted, collapsed. My guess is that they weren't able to survive the heavy winds this weekend. I noticed that the other--more saavy--gardeners have constructed things to protect their baby plants. So, what to do? My guess is that most of them will still survive--and certainly we have a few plants to spare. But, I'm going to go out tomorrow or Tuesday to try to do some repair work. Any one else interested?

Friday

I went out and watered today...so I know it will rain now. It had been so long since we had any precipitation that I just didn't wanna risk it anymore. Every day: chance of rain, but no rain. Most of the tomatoes, peppers and such look good...we may have a couple losses once all is said and done, but should be pretty good. Some lettuce or greens are starting to sprout, but I didn't have the map with me, so not quite sure what it was. Not much other action. Hopefull some rain today follwed by a couple sunny days, will be good.

Watering schedule?

I'll be gone from tomorrow the 11th to May 20th. After that I will be here pretty much all summer and can water the garden any day of the week. How do you all feel about making a watering schedule? I won't have any email access for the next week, but when I get back, I am down to do whatever you decide.

Progress!

Finally, despite a frigid May 1st wind that made it feel more like late October, we actually got out and muddied our shoes. Tfoster wins the best dressed award for farm-themed gear. From the parking lot I thought, "Who's that old farmer dude talking to Hungrygirl?" Turns out it wasn't an old dude at all...anyway, here are some pics to prove we actually made a dent.


Tilling by hand. Gas power is for wimps.


The first casualty.


A little progress.


And a little more. (Keep in mind that we can't feel our fingertips at this point)


And at long last, we get some seeds in the ground.

Post-Plan Plans

What is the next agenda item and when do we want to implement it? I am free this weekend to help, this time with a warm jacket and gloves. Also promise to build up some muscles and stamina before then.

The Plan

Do we have one? Did we use up all of our energy on the signs? Let's get those seeds in the ground! Come on, sun! Cooperate with us!

Procrastinating on a chilly Sunday

After Melissa cooked a wonderful french toast souffle, the painting cloaks were thrown on, stakes hardly worthy of Vampire slaying were lathered in old house paint and a photographer with a professional career in mind was snagged to document the day's events. (Melissa is working hard on school stuff, so I, Doug, am taking the liberty of posting the photos for her.)


The gangs (almost) all here. MIA: a sick Jenny.


Tim's handwriting leaves little to be desired.


Donovan's unique application technique gives this stake a beautiful tie-dyed effect. I'm sure the weeds will be appreciative.


Melissa can spell! And, in this particular instance, she left room for all the letters, too!


This impressionistic snap shot is titled: "Boys at Play, Or Two Blurry Bald Heads Are Better Than One."


Sophie says, "Yawn. Wake me when you're ready to go to the garden."


When Donovan isn't turning sticks into art deco masterpieces, he's busy playing refrigerator poet. (Uh, stick to the sticks.)

And that concludes our photo essay. (And no, I don't want to join your evil veggie clique.)

Return of the blog

The blog is back. The blog is back. Kudos to Melissa for realizing that "Republish entire blog" might prove a useful command in a case such as ours. The weather has recently reverted from late spring to late winter, and we all decided that it made much more sense to eschew planting and eat brunch and make signs for the as-yet-unplanted garden - the sort of decision making that got our pioneer forbears through the harsh prairie winters.

where is the blog?

When It Was Dirt

Before there were savory vegetables, luscious herbs, and delicately wrought row-markers, there were two lonely plots:






Under the watchful eye of the bird-for-hire, the dirt is being monitored 'round the clock, awaiting cultivation:



All winter long, the giant metal machine enriched the soil, and now it is ready:



Are the novice gardeners up for the challenge? Can they really transform dirt into gourmet vegetables? Is democratic, collective gardening a horrible, horrible mistake?

The plots thicken.

the weather may be conspiring against us

the forecast for sunday says high of 59 and low of 39...is 39 too low for our plants' first night out? i guess we should just keep an eye out and maybe make a plan B.

I am a nerd, but doesn't this photo look awesome and sinister - like we are refining high-grade plutonium instead of planting squash. I can almost see Colin Powell waving it angrily at some ineffective UN committee. 

Companion planting

For those who are interested, I looked up some info on companion planting. The best link that I found is to the right.

Next Weekend: Chapter 1 in the Great Garden Adventure

After a quick trip to check out our garden this week, the plan was made to load up on seeds and plants next weekend and commence to planting. The space looks huge, but when I look at the list of items we're thinking of growing, it fills up fast:

Eggplant, Tomatoes of all kinds, Yellow squash, Zuchinni, Lettuce, Mesclun mix, Leeks?, Beets, Green Beans, Chili Peppers, Bell peppers, Cucumbers - reg and pickling, Spinach, Arugla, Collard Greens, Chard, Chives, Scallions, Onions, Broccoli, Soybeans, Peas?, Rhubarb?, Brussel Sprouts?, Chayote Squash, Butternut Squash, Rosemary, Basil, Lemongrass, Fennel, Mint, Marigolds

Whew....

7374

The plot:
#7374 - 30 ft. by 40 ft. - A ragtag band of graduate students tries to turn seeds, soil and sweat into HEALTY LIVING.

The Cast:
Amy
Donovan
Jenny
Melissa
Tim

The Setting:
Parkland College and various kitchens in Champaign, Illinois.