The Garden Plot

All the good weeders are gone

2008-03-06T21:05:00.002-06:00

Every year, around this time, I have the best intentions for the garden. I imagine all sorts of ambitious garden projects. And in my mind, our garden is green and lush, without one single weed. There's this guy at the garden plots who figures prominently in these fantasies. He's the gardener I'd like to be when I grow up. He's out there every morning. He pulls the weeds before they even surface. We used to think he used some sort of chemicals. Nope. Just a really active, dedicated weeder.

I am not this guy. Typically, by early July, I'm talking a lot about how much I plan on weeding. But in actuality, I'm climbing through two-feet high tangles to get to the Black Krim tomatoes. Scratched and sniffling, I keep bitching about the weeds. Then, planbreaker and df head out one sweltering morning to actually do the weeding.

All of this is simply to say that I'm really going to miss df and planbreaker this year. They're kind of like my gardening conscience. Now that they live in an important node point in the global economic system, what will become of the garden?

So, I did some research, trying to figure out how to minimize the weeds. I found this helpful little article, which praises the benefits of mulching. We've sort of been mulching, by laying down straw, but it appears that we can it one step further. Mulching not only controls weeds, but also helps to increase your crop yields (scroll to page 7 to read about an organic mulch experiment in Peoria). This is because mulch enriches the soil and helps to retain moisture. Since we've had problems with blossom rot in the past, as well as weeds, mulch really seems like an all-purpose answer.

The cheapest mulch, and one that seems to be very effective, is made from shredded leaves. You spread this around the plants, and it diminishes the number of weeds substantially. I have tons of leaves in my yard, and am wondering if we could use these. Apparently, you're supposed to gather and shred them in the fall, which I didn't do, but I wonder if this is really necessary. I mean, do you think we could just rake up the leaves out there now and then shred them? Or is this crazy?

Overall, what do you guys think of mulching? It's no replacement for planbreaker, df, rj, or js, but it seems like our best shot at weed-control this summer.

True leaves are emerging!

2008-03-04T15:19:00.004-06:00

Yep, that's right folks, this gardening stuff actually works. Right on schedule, our baby tomato plants are growing their first "true leaves":

That's them, in the center of the plant. Almost all of our plants have sprouted their "true leaves." Soon, it'll be time to transplant to bigger pots.

Also, this is Sophie the cat, who hates the baby tomato plants, because they're blocking her favorite sun-spot, the kitchen windowsill. She's retreated to the kitchen shelf, where she's planning a major attack:

Poor Sophie. My money's on the baby tomato plants.

Get your garden on

2008-02-28T16:09:00.008-06:00

It's nowhere near spring yet in the mid-west. But in my kitchen, garden-time is here. We have baby tomatoes!

I think I'm in love. They're so cute, I can hardly take my eyes off them. Those little leaves are called cotyledons. Once they're replaced by "true leaves," we'll be transplanting them from these small containers to larger ones.

It's no doubt over-kill, but EJK and tfoster and I have opted to grow 72 plants. We have 7 varieties, including some of our all-time favorites: Black Krim, Brandywine, Beefsteak, Yellow-pear, and a crazy-new yellow and red-striped concoction. I can taste the tomato tart already!

The plants look healthy and happy, but I'm nervous about the light situation. That seems to be the biggest pitfall with home grown plants--it's hard to get enough light. EJK and tfoster purchased an excellent (and cheap) flourescent light, which I'm running 16 hours a day. It looks like a space ship:

Keep your fingers crossed! I'll be starting the pepper plants in a few days.

African Peanut Soup

2006-08-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

This is from Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook, and it's always been a crowd pleaser! Plus, it calls for bell peppers and over a 1.5 lbs of tomatoes... I'm adding it to the blog b/c I think that using fresh tomatoes would be better than canned ones.

2 bell peppers, chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
2 TBS canola oil
4 garlic cloves minced
1 28 oz can whole tomatoes, chopped
1/2 tsp. chili flakes
1/2 tsp. balck pepper
8 c. veggie broth
1/2 c. brown rice
2/3 c. no salt or sugar creamy peanut butter.

in oil saute onions, peppers, and garlic (until almost brown). add tomatoes with juice, broth, chili flakes, pepper and rice. cook covered until rice is soft (about 1/2 hour). add peanut butter. stir until disolved.

Tomato Tart Recipe

2006-08-09T17:04:00.000-05:00

So, I'm not going to go so far as to claim that this is the best garden recipe EVER, but I think the argument could be made.

A couple of notes. As I mentioned before, you can add more tomatoes if you have a lot on hand to use up. I think I regularly use about 5 lbs rather than 3. You may want to add more cheese and seasoning, accordingly. Also, the recipe calls for shredded fontina. If you haven't dealt w/fontina before, you should know that there are 2 kinds commonly available in town: Danish and Italian. They both taste good, but the Danish is way too soft to shred. So, ask for the Italian. If you're not in the mood to visit a specialty store, you can substitute "fontinella," which is easy to find at Schnuck's, etc. It's a sharper cheese, but still tasty in this recipe.

Enjoy folks...

Rustic Tomato Basil Tart

1 ½ lbs medium yellow tomatoes, cut into ¼-inch thick slices
1 ½ lbs medium red tomatoes, cut into ¼-inch thick slices
1 ½ teaspoons salt, divided
1 cup fresh corn kernels (about 2 ears)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons sour cream
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup yellow cornmeal
¼ cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal
½ cup thinly sliced fresh basil, divided
1/3 cup (1 ½ ounces) shredded fontina cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper

1. Arrange tomato slices in a single layer on several layers of paper towels; sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Let stand 20 minutes; blot dry with paper towels.

2. Preheat oven to 400.

3. Place corn, juice, and sour cream in a food processor or blender; process until smooth. Combine 1 ½ cups flour, ¼ cup cornmeal, and ½ teaspoon salt in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add corn mixture; stir until a soft dough forms. Knead gently 3 or 4 times.

4. Slightly overlap 2 (16-inch) sheets of plastic wrap on a slightly damp surface [A large, rectangular cutting board works well here]. Place dough on plastic wrap; press into a 6-inch circle. Cover with 2 additional (16-inch) sheets of plastic wrap. Roll dough, still covered, into a 14-inch circle; place on a large baking sheet in freezer for 10 minutes or until plastic wrap can easily be removed. Line baking sheet with parchment paper; sprinkle paper with 1 tablespoon of cornmeal. Remove 2 sheets of plastic wrap from dough. Place dough, plastic wrap side up, on baking sheet. Remove top sheets of plastic wrap.

5. Combine ¼ cup basil, cheese, and oregano. Combine 2 tablespoons flour and ½ teaspoon salt. Arrange cheese mixture on dough, leaving a 1 ½ inch border. Using a sifter or sieve, sift 1 tablespoon flour mixture over cheese mixture. Arrange half of tomatoes over cheese mixture. Sift remaining flour mixture over tomatoes; top with remaining tomatoes. Fold edges of dough toward center; press to seal (dough will only partially cover tomatoes. Bake at 400 for 35 minutes or until crust is brown [Check it frequently toward the end of the bake time—it usually doesn’t take the full amount of time in my oven]. Let stand 10 minutes. Sprinkle with ¼ cup basil and pepper.

new watering schedule!!

2006-08-02T19:58:00.000-05:00

here's our new watering schedule:

8/1 DF
8/3 SC
8/5 MG
8/7 TG
8/9 RT
8/11 AW
8/13 SC
8/15 DF
8/17 MG
8/19 TG
8/21 RT
8/23 AW
8/25 SC
8/27 DF
8/29 MG
8/31 TG
9/2 RT
9/4 AW
9/6 SC
9/8 DF
9/10 MG
9/12 TG
9/14 RT
9/16 AW

I'm not sure how late in the year we're actually going to need to water so why don't we just stop it there for now.

Update - weeds. 'maters, etc.

2006-07-25T20:37:00.000-05:00

Just a little update for everyone, since poor MG has been pretty much the only one watching the garden and I'd guess she is sick of thinking about it. So, I'll try to step in. There is some good news and some OK news and maybe some less than great news.

Good news. So far there are seemingly no large beetle problems, although as you can see from my previous post there are lots of other people in the area who are not so lucky. I've seen a few here and there, but so far, so good.

The weeds, on the other hand, are thriving. We've done a fair amount of weeding in the past couple days and have made quite a bit of progress (I've been just leaving the dead weeds on top of the straw as a second layer of mulch). As we've cleared the weeds, we've found some good surprises (the cukes and one plot of yellow squash look great) and so-so (some of the replanted squash plants seem small but healthy. Brussel sprouts look good. I think the cabbage and broccoli may be toast. I haven't looked at the beans (that area still needs some weeding).

Now, tomatoes. As MG, planbreaker and I have noticed, the tomatoes do not seem to be turning red very quickly (we had a lot of red tomatoes by this time last year). We've also cumulatively thrown out probably 40 rotten tomatoes that have turned red; essentially it seems like if they turn red they rot instantly. There is a similar, though less pervasive, problem with some of the peppers -- although in general the peppers look pretty good. This seems to be only a problem with the regular tomatoes, the cherry and grape varieties seem fine.

However, I talked to a friend who is a big gardener, and got some news that may be better than MG and I had hoped. Turns out a lot of people don't have many red tomatoes yet this year, some people think it has something to do with the weird spring and the effect on bees, which in turn has an impact on pollenation of the plants. However, things are starting to look up in that regard. And, the rotting is likely blossom end rot, which, from what he said and from what I've found online, is caused by soil composition and soil moisture, neither of which there is anything we can do about. HOWEVER, it often solves itself as the season goes on and the roots get better established. I guess for now all we can do is keep an eye on things and hope for the best. The only thing he suggested is more regular watering, but not drowning it when you do (do we need to move to daily watering? Seems excessive, but I dunno...)

I picked a couple good tomatoes today (good sign!), a couple cukes, and a couple beets because I didn't want them to go bad out there. If you want them, come and get them--we're kind of overloaded with food right now. We are probably to the point where there will be good new stuff daily, so people should start picking away. There's also a ton of chard out there and the kale is really good too.

Lastly, planbreaker and I think we should just tear out all the lettuce, maybe plant something new in its place? Here are the things that the UI Extension says can be planted now, and hopefully we could get it harvested by the time they close the garden:

Beets
Brocolli
Cabbage
Leaf lettuce
Peas
Radishes
Spinach
Snap beans
Cauliflower
Carrots
Mustard greens
Mesclun mixes (If weather is unusually hot, plant these greens in partial shade.)

Well, that about wraps up what's been going on. It should be pretty obvious what needs to be weeded, if anyone wants to go out. An hour or so can really make a dent. I'm up for going, with a little notice, if anyone wants company.

We also need to plan a harvest "feast" sometime soon. Anyone wanna suggest a date?

Beetles

2006-07-12T16:11:00.000-05:00

A little local news about our friends.

Green Beans with Pecan Pesto

2006-07-10T22:13:00.000-05:00

My mom recently took a cooking class and loved this recipe that was originally from Gourmet Magazine .

1/2 c. pecans, toasted and chopped (to toaste: place in oven (350F) for up to 4 min)
1/2 c fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 c. fresh cilantro
1 large garlic clove, chopped
1/2 c. extra-virgin olive oil
4 lb thin green beans, trimmed

Blend all ingredients except beans with salt and pepper to taste in a food processor to make a coarse puree.

Cook beans in boiling salted water until crisp tender, 3-5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl of ice water, then drain well

Toss beans with pest. (There may be more pesto than you need--it will keep, chilled, 1 week. To prevent discoloration, cover surface with plastic wrap).

Makes 6-8 servings

update from the weekend

2006-07-10T15:15:00.000-05:00

a few quick things:

-beans are ready so people who want them should go and get them
-there was an extraordinarily large zucchini that i picked and served on saturday night to renee. a couple of more should be ready this week so go get them
-there were 5-6 beetles on the chard so we should keep an eye on them and make sure they don't get out of control.
-i planted some scallions where the spinach used to live. all you need to do is cut off the tops with scissors or a knife, maybe leaving about 4 inches above the ground and it should grow back. i'll check in on them this week so make sure they took to the ground

Greens with double garlic

2006-07-10T15:09:00.000-05:00

This is straight from p. 562 of How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman so the measurements will be exact. Even though it says "collards or kale," df and I use chard and it's pretty awesome. Actually, I'm addicted to this recipe.

1 pound colars, kale or broccoli raab with stems under 1/4 inch, well washed
1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. thinly sliced garlic (about 5 or 6 cloves) plus 1 tsp minced garlic or more to taste
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes or to taste
salt and freshly gorund black peper to taste
1/2 c chicken, beef, or vegetable stock or water
lemon wedges (although this is not absolutely necessary)

1. coarsely chop stems and leaves of the greens
2. place olive oil in a large, deep saucepan. Add the sliced garlic, pepper flakes, salt, and black papper adn cook over medium-high ehat for about 1 minute.
3. Add greens and the stock or water. Cover and cook over medium-high heat for approximately 5 minutes, or until teh grees are wilted and just tender but stilla little firm.
4. Uncover the greens and continue to cook, stirring over medium-high heat until the liquid has all but evaporated and the greens are quite tender. Taste for seasoning and add red or black pepper and salt as needed; add teh remaining minced garlic and cook for 1 minute more. serve with lemon wedges (I usually just put the sprinkle of lemon juice on top and stir).

Tofu and Kale salad

2006-07-10T14:59:00.000-05:00

this recipe is "adapted" from Strawberry Fields. this is a pretty vague recipe.

1 pkg firm tofu
a bunch of kale
corn (either frozen or 3 or 4 ears)
soybeans

cut up the tofu, boil the soybeans (they'll end up firmer than a black or kidney bean when they're done; maybe about an hour or 1:15?), defrost or cook the corn, and steam the kale. the best steaming method for me is to wash it thoroughly, then put it in a covered pan at a low-med heat with all of the water still clinging to it. don't let it get too wilted, but cooked enough, then run cold water over it in a colander so you can roughly chop the cooked kale. when all the ingredients are cool, mix them together in a bowl.

for the dressing, start with a mixture of sesame oil and vegetable oil. i worry that sesame oil on its own is too strong for a raw salad so i cut it with vegetable oil. i guess this is what they mean by "to taste"; i usually do a little more than a third of a cup of sesame oil and then a quarter cup of vegetable oil. like the spices in the zucchini cake, i kind of go by smell. quantity also depends on how much of the other stuff you have. mince 3-5 cloves of garlic, slice up some scallions, add some red pepper flakes and a little bit of salt. whisk up the dressing and then pour it all over the kale and tofu and stuff. mix gently.

this keeps pretty well in the refrigerator for a few days. you can tell when it goes bad b/c the tofu will get slimy.

Chocolate chip Zucchini cake

2006-07-10T14:48:00.000-05:00

The recipe is actually adapted from the Chocolate Zucchini cake recipe on epicurious. I wanted it to be more of a spice cake with chocolate chips and zucchini. Here's my variation:

2 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c. sugar (maybe a little less)
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. butter (1 stick)
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c. buttermilk (but I didn't have buttermilk so I just used a little less than half a cup of regular milk and filled up the rest with plain yogurt and lemon juice and mixed it all together)
2 1/2 c (or even more) of grated zucchini
spices--cinnamon, cloves, ground ginger
1 1/2 c. of semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (I used bittersweet)

Preheat oven to 325. Butter and flour 13x9x2 inch baking pan (I ended up using a 9x9 square and then a 6 inche round). mix flour, baking soda, salt and spices (I eyeball it until it looks and smells the right amount of spice for a spice cake; maybe a 2 tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 or 3/4 tsp of cloves and ginger?). Beat sugar, butter and oil in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract. Mix in dry ingredients alternately wiht the milk mixture in 3 additions each. Mix in grated zucchini. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until tester is clean, about 50 minutes.

I put cream cheese frosting on top, which was 1 8oz pkg of cream cheese, 1 stick of butter and confectionary sugar (I didn't really measure; just put a cup in and then added more until the consistency looked ok). Mix it all together and then put in the freezer so it firms up a little bit (that way, you can use less sugar).

df and I discovered that the cake tastes pretty good freshly baked when it's all moist but even better after a night in the refrigerator.

Recipes

2006-07-09T15:50:00.000-05:00

Let's add some links to tasty recipes or actual recipes that use ingredients from the garden. The first is the Swiss Chard Tart that Jenny found; the second is a tasty cake Amy made last night. Amy, would you add the Strawberry Fields kale recipe?

Swiss Chard Tart: Pasticcio di Bietole al Forno

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake

Maptastic

2006-06-02T08:48:00.000-05:00

planbreaker whipped up this diagram last night, but netfiles access from home has been wonky lately, so I'm posting this diagram of the garden:

(Click on image for a larger version)

Nice rain yesterday...we'll be eating fresh produce in no time.

Minutes from the garden meeting at the Plot/the Esquire

2006-05-31T16:47:00.000-05:00

After our assessment out at the garden plot and a quick weeding and watering, we retired to the Esquire for some refreshments and discussion. Here are things that are now settled:

Watering schedule: we all agreed that we should each do a little weeding while we're out there. Everyone is on the calendar 5 times. here it is....

June 2-SC
June 4-DF
June 6-MG
June 8-TG
June 10-SC
June 12-RT
June 14-AW
June 16-DF
June 18-TG
June 20-MG
June 22-RT
June 24-AW
June 26-SC
June 28-TG
June 30-DF
July 2-TG
July 4-SC
July 6-RT
July 8-AW
July 10-DF
July 12-AW
July 14-MG
July 16-RT
July 18-MG
July 20-RT
July 22-MG
July 24-SC
July 26-DF
July 28-TG
July 30-AW
tomato cages: we're just going with the old standbys. df and rj are going to borrow John's truck to go to Farm n' Fleet and other places to gather them up in the next week or so.
staking the peas: hungrygirl and sc volunteered to stake the peas some time in the next week. there are directions on how to stake the peas using a kind of wigwam design in the organic gardening book or we can stake them like last year.
hay(hey)/straw and plants: tfoster volunteered to pick up some straw, along with two tiger-striped tomato plants. since i have no task yet, i'm happy to volunteer to go and throw some hay around.
hungrygirl has 4 tomato plants at home that can go in the front plot with the 4 peppers in it.

We also have some other issues that we'll need to figure out in the coming weeks:

beans and eggplant, basil & soybeans: how long do we wait before we decide to pack it in with these? I think I said I'll try to look for baby eggplant pictures on the web so we can distinguish. In the meantime, i'm happy to take on the weeding responsiblities for that plot.
if we do have a little more room, what do we want to plant? SC said he'll research radishes, I'm going to see if arugula is a possibility and we all seemed excited about cantaloupe.
harvesting: we had questions about onions, shallots, broccoli, and spinach.

Is there anything else? Vegetables soon! yay!

Big Time Progress / Bear Wrastlin'

2006-05-21T16:56:00.000-05:00

After several aborted attempts, Your Garden Friends succeeded today in securing a tiller and a truck in which to carry it. Big ups to John of famed Champaign band Shipwreck for the truck.

For those of you unfamiliar with the use of a tiller, it is sort of like a lawnmover with anger management issues. We are talking serious negative affect here. Sasha and I managed to bend the machine's animosity to our will, but to me it felt like wrastlin' with a bear. (Full disclosure: I have never actually wrastled with a bear of any kind, and hope to never be called upon to do so.)

Good news - we have progress. Below are some pictures and a link to a movie of an epic struggle between Sasha, the tiller, and a big weed. See how Sasha expertly forces the conflict between the tiller and the weed and escapes unharmed - sort of like being in a fight with a lion and then coming upon a shark and somehow convincing the lion to kill the shark for you. Ladies, Sasha also rides bikes, is in an excellent graduate studies program, and can cook well.

A small bit of bad news - I have killed a large number of beets through poor thinning technique. Rest assured that they have been replanted and five or ten of the original crop survived my wrath.

Enjoy!

For Weeds - The Movie go here and click on the '2006_05210022.avi' link.

Now, pictures:

Hungrygirl and RJ weeding the lettuce

Beautiful onions, shallots, and peas

The Bear

Tim vs. The Bear

Sasha vs. The Bear

Tilled dirt + Dead Weeds = VICTORY

Nature's glorious abundance

Round two?

2006-04-30T10:44:00.000-05:00

We should start thinking about when we want to do some round-two planting. We went to Prairie Gardens to buy some stuff for our backyard garden yesterday and ended up getting some more tomato plants for the Parkland plot too, b/c we wanted to make sure not to wait too long -- plus we liked the idea of buying them small (read - "cheaper"), repotting, and then planting them later. I am gonna be travelling a lot in June, and planbreaker may have end of semester grading plus some of the same travels -- that said, I could do some planting on the morning of the 7th and/or the 13th. I think 2 half-days might be just about all we need to do, if we get a few people out. I could also do some evening stuff the week between the 7th-13th. What does everyone think?

By the way, M. was out at the garden the other day and said things were looking pretty good.

4/21 -- we have sprouts

2006-04-21T12:11:00.000-05:00

Just got back from Eddie Albert Memorial Gardens and wanted to fill you all in: The bed containing the onions and shallots has some green sprouts about 1 inch long sticking out of the ground and looking good. The mesclun bed has some very tiny sproutlings starting to show through. The small plants we put in all look good (broccoli, etc). The rest of the beds don't have any action yet, but I'm not surprised as it's only been a week. We aren't supposed to get any rain for a few days, so I gave everything a pretty good soak. I will go back and water on Sunday/Monday but if anyone else would like to do it instead, just let me know and you can swing by and pick up the hose.

All in all, things are looking good.

Update as of 4/18

2006-04-18T10:49:00.000-05:00

FYI:

A and I went out to the garden on Sunday and installed windguards on the rest of the baby plants that we put in the ground on Saturday (and were scared witless when the Parkland tornado alarm went off for some reason while we were there). I will try to get out there to take a look and see how things are doing on Friday. We got the rain on Sunday night and are supposed to get more tonite, then some good sun the rest of the week, so that should make for good growing.

We also started a bunch of seeds at home, I'm not sure what, but A can fill you in. If anyone else wants to start some seedlings at home, I think there may be other stuff that needs to be planted now, but I think we already have most of the seeds already.

Also, we will try to send an email with a list of all the seeds and plants we bought, so if anyone sees an omission that they would like to grow, just post a message or buy the seeds, or whatever.

--df

the blog rules!

2006-04-03T11:14:00.000-05:00

So I just looked back and discovered that we didn't do our planting/tilling until the weekend of May 1 last year. Yippee for the blog and its recording of our garden history.

I bring up the date because I think we should start figuring out a plan for when we till, plant, and put up the signs. I know M. is away the weekend of the 29th and df has exams. Which of the next three weekends (the 8th, the 15th, the 22nd) would work for our big garden day? Or should we split up the tasks.

One thing I would like to attempt to do is sketch out the plot before we start planting. So what do we want to plant. Here was last year's wish list:

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

I think we ended up with tomatoes (did well), squash and zucchini (kind of sketchy because of the bugs), lettuce and mesclun (went well but i feel like we should split up our planting so we have more over time), beets (more beets!), green beans (beetle victims), peppers (did ok but not great), cucumbers (we had a bunch and everyone liekd them), chard (chard tart!), butternut squash (did anything ever happenw ith that), broccoli (1 or 2 heads and that's it), rosemary, basil, mint (would have done better if we had planted them closer together and without the weed infestation), snow peas (bugs and bad supports), soybeans (weeds). What else do we want to add and take away?

If we want to do a little bit by hand and clearly mark it, I wouldn't be against planting some shallots, garlic and maybe some early lettuce before the big till.

Waiting for RJ

2006-03-22T13:05:00.000-06:00

I am eagerly awaiting the response of our newest invitee, RJ. However, since she is in the Dominican Republic, I expect that it will be a few days. in other news, we all have admin capabilities, so if you get a hankering to mess around with this here blog, mess away.

I would like to attend both nerdy garden events.

Here's your chance to meet Mr. Food!

2006-03-22T05:34:00.000-06:00

If anyone wants to *really* geek out, planbreaker and I are thinking of attending the Home and Garden show on Sunday at Assembly Hall to see what that's all about. Anyone wanna join us?

Kick-Off the 2006 Gardening Season in Style!

2006-03-19T17:01:00.000-06:00

Hey gardeners, welcome back to our much-neglected blog! A special welcome goes out to our new gardening partner, Renee (By the way, who is the blog administrator? I think we need to add her to the blog).

Two bits of gardening news. First, Prairie Gardens is having some kind of "Gardening Kick-Off" extravaganza on Saturday, April 1. As part of the celebration, they're holding seminars in the morning with local garden experts on a variety of topics. There are two that I thought might be helpful for us. At 10 a.m. there's a seminar on "Organic Gardening," which promises useful tips on enriching the soil, pest control, and crop pairings. Also, at 11 a.m., there's a seminar on "Pest Control," which has a special emphasis on those damned Japanese Beetles.

I think I'm going to go to both seminars. Is anyone else interested? As an added bonus, they'll have coffee and donuts!! The seminars are free, but they ask that you sign up (there's a book at the information counter). I optimistically signed up myself + 1. I thought it might be a nice way to kick off our own garden season. We could get brunch afterwards & discuss the garden, perhaps?

Second point of business: If you or anyone you know drinks milk in plastic containers, please start saving them. We can use them to protect our baby plants from the destructive prairie winds. Remember last year how we didn't do that? And remember how well that worked?

Is anyone else getting garden fever yet?

watering and beetle schedule

2005-07-15T15:10:00.000-05:00

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

2005-07-10T13:37:00.000-05:00

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

2005-07-08T10:37:00.000-05:00

Now the beetles are eating the pea plants.

Beetlemania

2005-07-07T16:15:00.000-05:00

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

2005-07-06T14:54:00.000-05:00

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

2005-07-06T14:51:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-07-01T21:20:00.000-05:00

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

2005-06-28T15:44:00.000-05:00

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

2005-06-24T11:58:00.000-05:00

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

2005-06-21T00:50:00.000-05:00

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

2005-06-20T15:17:00.000-05:00

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...

2005-06-19T20:39:00.000-05:00

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...

2005-06-17T13:48:00.001-05:00

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....

2005-06-13T13:09:00.000-05:00

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

Frustration

2005-06-10T09:59:00.000-05:00

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

2005-06-08T16:36:00.000-05:00

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

2005-06-08T01:07:00.000-05:00

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

2005-06-01T17:18:00.000-05:00

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

2005-06-01T16:10:00.000-05:00

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

2005-05-30T23:28:00.000-05:00

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

2005-05-26T15:05:00.000-05:00

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

2005-05-16T12:24:00.000-05:00

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

2005-05-15T12:46:00.000-05:00

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

2005-05-13T08:05:00.000-05:00

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?

2005-05-11T14:26:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-05-02T22:51:00.000-05:00

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

2005-05-02T17:01:00.000-05:00

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

2005-04-28T18:14:00.000-05:00

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

2005-04-27T18:03:00.000-05:00

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

2005-04-24T14:25:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-04-20T22:18:00.000-05:00

where is the blog?

When It Was Dirt

2005-04-20T11:13:00.000-05:00

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

2005-04-20T08:25:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-04-19T11:55:00.000-05:00

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

2005-04-18T13:29:00.000-05:00

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

2005-04-18T13:17:00.000-05:00

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

2005-04-18T12:20:00.000-05:00

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.