Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Much Ado About Nothing...
Well, turns out the County didn't spray last night. I called the mosquito control board to find if the scheduled changed. I was told that they didn't spray last night because the "landing count was too low". We are scheduled for dusk next Monday. Lesson learned, call during the day Monday to confirm that we will be sprayed before going through all that trouble. I also spoke to a recent aquaintance this morning who I've met through a local area food program; she has taken the Maryland Master Gardeners Courses through the Department of Agriculture, and she gave me the name and number of someone there that I can call to discuss this issue further. In particular, to find out more details about permethrin such as how long it stays aloft, etc. to make sure that covering the garden is actually going to help. It's hard to see how it wouldn't, but I suspect that both my aquaintance and the woman whose number she gave me know more about these things than I do at this point, so it seems that I have some more research to do.
Monday, June 29, 2009
14 minutes till bug spray time...
And this time we're ready. It took my husband and I about an hour and a half working together to turn the garden into a bubble...
Friday, June 26, 2009
Today's Work
Here's this morning's harvest. My first bush beans! Lots of cukes. In the back in the white bowl is my first bush baby zucchini that I got the other day.
I started work today on my pesticide protection program. You'll get the basic idea from the pictures below. It's just 1/2" PVC pipe, 2' rebar, and plastic sheeting. I'm still not done. I need more supplies. Doing this gives me some good ideas about how to do dimensions on my fall garden space. They won't be spraying in the fall, but I can probably extend my harvest season a little bit by covering the plants...
I started work today on my pesticide protection program. You'll get the basic idea from the pictures below. It's just 1/2" PVC pipe, 2' rebar, and plastic sheeting. I'm still not done. I need more supplies. Doing this gives me some good ideas about how to do dimensions on my fall garden space. They won't be spraying in the fall, but I can probably extend my harvest season a little bit by covering the plants...
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Today's haul - and some dire news...
Here’s today’s take from the garden.
The eggplant didn’t make it.
The eggplant didn’t make it.And it doesn’t look like the plant’s going to make it either; not because of the potato beetles but because the doggone zucchini is just completely taking it over. This happened last year too, with a different plant choking out the eggplant (I can’t remember offhand what).
I think it’s time to put my eggplant seedlings in big pots on the deck and hope for the best.
Here’s my first yellow squash on the deck! I had my first zucchini for dinner last night. It was beautiful and great.
Herbs are going well.
And now for the dire news…
This past Monday evening – without notice – our County began its mosquito control program, which consisted of driving a pickup truck through our neighborhood spraying permethrin from a tank in the pickup bed. This noxious cloud drifts out over everything, including the garden! I was both hysterical and heartbroken. They didn’t do this last year. My husband was a little quicker-thinking. While I was inside have a breakdown, he was outside pulling plastic over the garden. He didn’t have enough to cover more than half. And because our garden is behind a privacy fence on all sides and set back some few hundred feet from the source of the spray, and protected by trees on one side, its likely that the damage was minimal, but I don’t want anything sprayed on my food!
I scrubbed the heck out of everything that I harvested today, and threw away the beet greens – what a shame. The only comfort is that if they did get hit, that there is still probably substantially less residue on them then on commercially-produced agriculture, where the pesticides are sprayed deliberately right on the plants, so we’re still better off. I have since checked out neighboring counties here, as we’re thinking of moving in the next year or so, and it seems all the counties around here do this. It makes me very angry and frustrated and helpless that someone can come through spraying pesticides that will contaminate my garden.
I called the County Mosquito Control Program Tuesday morning and had our address placed on the “objection list”, which means that they supposedly won’t spray at my address, but as I live in a neighborhood with houses not too far from me it’s hard to see how much good that’s going to do. So between now and this coming Monday evening (they will be doing this weekly through September) we are going to have to figure out how to cover this 800 square foot space, and covering the garden will have to be our regular Monday evening chore.
I’ll keep you posted on what we come up with.
Here’s my first yellow squash on the deck! I had my first zucchini for dinner last night. It was beautiful and great.
Herbs are going well.
The potato plants are getting HUGE.
And now for the dire news…
This past Monday evening – without notice – our County began its mosquito control program, which consisted of driving a pickup truck through our neighborhood spraying permethrin from a tank in the pickup bed. This noxious cloud drifts out over everything, including the garden! I was both hysterical and heartbroken. They didn’t do this last year. My husband was a little quicker-thinking. While I was inside have a breakdown, he was outside pulling plastic over the garden. He didn’t have enough to cover more than half. And because our garden is behind a privacy fence on all sides and set back some few hundred feet from the source of the spray, and protected by trees on one side, its likely that the damage was minimal, but I don’t want anything sprayed on my food!
I scrubbed the heck out of everything that I harvested today, and threw away the beet greens – what a shame. The only comfort is that if they did get hit, that there is still probably substantially less residue on them then on commercially-produced agriculture, where the pesticides are sprayed deliberately right on the plants, so we’re still better off. I have since checked out neighboring counties here, as we’re thinking of moving in the next year or so, and it seems all the counties around here do this. It makes me very angry and frustrated and helpless that someone can come through spraying pesticides that will contaminate my garden.
I called the County Mosquito Control Program Tuesday morning and had our address placed on the “objection list”, which means that they supposedly won’t spray at my address, but as I live in a neighborhood with houses not too far from me it’s hard to see how much good that’s going to do. So between now and this coming Monday evening (they will be doing this weekly through September) we are going to have to figure out how to cover this 800 square foot space, and covering the garden will have to be our regular Monday evening chore.
I’ll keep you posted on what we come up with.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
The good news....
My last post was about blossom end rot - this one is about everything that's going WELL....
Here are the yellow wax beans I planted where some turnips were, coming up nicely. I mixed in more manure compost before planting and the beans are supposed to be good crops to alternate with the turnips...
Yellow squash, also planted in a spot where turnips used to be...I managed to eat every one of those turnips, by the way...
Tomatoes doing well...
Look at these cucumbers I discovered this morning! These really snuck up on me....
I have little beans on my bush bean plants!
Zucchini!
Here are the yellow wax beans I planted where some turnips were, coming up nicely. I mixed in more manure compost before planting and the beans are supposed to be good crops to alternate with the turnips...
Yellow squash, also planted in a spot where turnips used to be...I managed to eat every one of those turnips, by the way...
Tomatoes doing well...
Look at these cucumbers I discovered this morning! These really snuck up on me....
I have little beans on my bush bean plants!
Help! Blossom End Rot!
I seem to be getting blossom end rot on one of my tomato plants - not sure which one, I couldn't find the little sign. I ookied this up this morning. It seems that the four possible causes are:
1) I planted them a little too early, the soil was too cold and inhibited the root growth some, this is just occurring in the first fruits and will subside (possible, I planted them at the end of April I think)
2) Too little water (very unlikely)
3) Too little calcium (possible)
4) They're planted too close to other plants and aren't getting enough nutrients because of competition ( suppose this is possible, but I think that #3 is probably the most likely candidate).
I picked off about 8 bad ones today. Right now I'm thinking about getting a food with a higher phosperous amount...Cindy, what do you think?
1) I planted them a little too early, the soil was too cold and inhibited the root growth some, this is just occurring in the first fruits and will subside (possible, I planted them at the end of April I think)
2) Too little water (very unlikely)
3) Too little calcium (possible)
4) They're planted too close to other plants and aren't getting enough nutrients because of competition ( suppose this is possible, but I think that #3 is probably the most likely candidate).
I picked off about 8 bad ones today. Right now I'm thinking about getting a food with a higher phosperous amount...Cindy, what do you think?
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Rainy Saturday...
So...no pictures this morning. But I did go out to check on things. The yellow wax beans I planted where the turnips and radishes used to be are coming up beautifully. I pulled up my first couple of touchstone gold beets, still small, and cooked them and the greens, along with a few red beets from last week and some cajun sausage for lunch...YUM!
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