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Moving my Cucumber Plant for Better Support

Three cucumbers have started to come through on my cucumber plant, so I needed to relocate it to another part of the garden for better support. I moved it closer to the fence where I was able to train it up with some string.

I was pretty happy to see the cucumbers since the leaves at the bottom have been drying out and dying. They were picked off and the cucumber trellis that I made was readjusted and tightened.

After the trellis was tightened, the plant had to be propped back up on it and secured to the fence.

Now I’m hoping that this will allow the plant to grow up and be more productive.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mdKcOfxfJ0

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Stop Reading About Growing a Vegetable Garden and Start Growing One

I’m back “home” in Philly this week visiting friends that I haven’t seen in a while. My old roommate and I got to talking about the gardening thing. He dropped a comment saying that I should read some books on gardening and stop with all the experimentation.

If I were to do that, then I’d still be reading books, get overwhelmed with unnecessary info and likely get frustrated and just give up. Which is I’m sure has happened to some of you if you’ve even gotten that far.

What did people do hundreds or thousands of years ago? They certainly didn’t Google “starting a vegetable garden” to get their instructions. Nor did they pay thousands of dollars to get some certificate declaring them an expert.

Not sure what they did, but I’m sure it was much more simple than what we’ve made it into.

So that’s what I’m doing. I’m making gardening simple again. I’m not claiming to be an expert and maybe I just have beginner’s luck, but my gardens have been productive so far.

Of course there is room for improvement, and I have lots to learn, but in order to learn you have to do.

Honestly, I’ve read about a half a book and have skimmed like two others to get a basic idea.

Here’s a perfect example from my experience – from the little reading that I’ve done, nearly everyone recommends a peat moss based soil for containers instead coconut coir.

I decided to make my own organic soil using peat moss, but also bought some coconut coir based soil because it was available for cheap in my neighborhood at the Lower East Side Ecology Center.

From what I’ve read the coconut coir soil retains too much water and is bad for container gardening. Thus far, the plants that are in the coconut coir soil are producing just fine.

Now stop reading this and start growing your own garden. You have no excuses.

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How to Make a Cucumber Trellis for a Self Watering Container

It’s been a few weeks since I planted my cucumber plant.

It was starting to grow outside of the container, which is a good thing (at least it ain’t dying). So I built a cucumber trellis for it using mostly recycled materials.

    Tools and materials:

  • Old poles put out by someone for garbage. You can use anything that is sturdy enough and stands upright such as tree branches, old crutches or broom sticks.
  • Strong tape to tape the poles to the container.
  • String to tie around the poles and make the trellis.
  • Scissors
    Steps to build:

  • Cut the poles to your desired length. I cut mine at about 4 feet each. Since I planted slicing cucumbers, this length should suffice. If not, I’ll have to add extensions.
  • Tape the poles to the container individually, then wrap tape around all of them. I taped mine about 4 inches from the top of the container.
  • Tie the string about 6 inches from the top of the container to leave room to water through the pipe.
  • Wrap the string around each pole with about 3-4 inches between each level of string until the top of the poles are reached.
  • Place the cucumber plant inside of your newly build trellis.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPi0X9MICbI

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Allow for Drainage in Your Self Watering Containers

I learned a valuable lesson in gardening (and life) this week, it doesn’t pay to be lazy.

A few weeks ago, I transferred my celery into a new self watering container and didn’t poke a hole to allow for water drainage.

Sure enough with all of the rain that we’ve been getting here, the bucket became nearly submerged under water. The celery was getting water logged and starting to die off. Celery drinks a lot of water, but not that much.

I had to poke a drainage hole in the container to allow the water to drain out and remove the dead ribs. I’m hoping that I caught this early enough and am able to prolong the life of them.

In this video, I show the water in the container and how I poke the hole to drain. My grandmother also tries to make her way on camera (again), but I cut her off. Gotta keep her ego in check 🙂

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3ieAXunaaM

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Pick the Flowers Off Your Basil Plant

In case you are new or couldn’t tell at this point, I am new to this gardening thing. Just taking things as they come.

The one thing that I do know (I think) is that when plants start to flower, they are coming near the end of their productive lives.

So I was a bit concerned, when my basil plants began flowering so early. What’s a man to do when his basil plant is coming to it’s end? I did what anyone else would do these days…I asked my peoples on Twitter.

Luckily for me, master gardener Teresa O’Connor of SeasonalWisdom dropped some knowledge on me and advised me to snip the flowers.

That’s what I did when I took to my Brooklyn vegetable garden. I picked off the flowers and am hoping to prolong it’s life.

Thanks Teresa!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lADERWZvac

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Transferring Celery into a New Self Watering Container

I needed to transplant my celery into a new self watering container because the telephone pole in my Grandmother’s neighbor’s backyard rotted and crashed into her backyard. Luckily, nobody was hurt.

Can’t say the same for my celery container. When the pole fell, it hit the pipe, which in turn cracked the reservoir. I used duct tape to patch up the hole because duct tape fixes everything. It’s a myth, don’t believe the hype. The container was still leaking.

Thankfully, I still had some green tubs left over to perform the tedious transplant.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F27GNkBcNY

It was actually much easier than I thought it would be. Here are the steps you need to take if you ever need to do this:

  • Remove the pipe.
  • Turn the container on it’s side and tap the container to loosen everything up.
  • Slowly slide out everything in the container onto the ground.
  • Place the new container on top of the old container contents.
  • With your hand on top of the soil for support, flip everything right side up.
  • Reinsert pipe and fill.

Now if you ever need to transplant your vegetables from one self watering container to another, you have the know how.

I had to transplant all of the contents of the broken container on the right to the new container on the left.The first step is to remove the pipe from the broken container.Next you turn the container on it's side and tap the container to loosen everything up.Then slowly slide out everything in the container onto the ground.After that place the new container on top of the old container contents.The pipe is then placed back into the container and filled.The contents are successfully transplanted into the new container.

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Gram Changes Her Tune About the Lettuce

I didn’t want to have another post about my Grandmother so soon, but after spending the day with her yesterday I had to post a little something.

I spent the day with her to help clean out her shed and take care of some chores around the backyard (because I am such a wonderful grandson.) As I was about to leave she asked me to pick her some lettuce for her dinner.

If you didn’t catch the first post about her, she called my lettuce “grass” when I asked her to taste it.

So I was shocked when she asked me and her thoughts on the lettuce quickly changed.

Luckily, I had my Flip on me and got it all on video.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCSPaLUms30

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The Woman Behind My Brooklyn Vegetable Garden

I spend a lot of time with my Grandmother. One day during the winter we got to talking and I expressed my interest in wanting to grow my own vegetables.

She offered up her backyard, which was great. As much as I wanted to utilize it, it wouldn’t have been fair to her because some of the responsibility would be on her shoulders.

Door to door Gram is about an hour commute from my Manhattan apartment. So making that trip 3-4 times a week would’ve been a bit much for me.

She just turned 90 a few months back, but she’s still as sharp as they come and ain’t nothing really slowing her down.

Back in the day when she was a bit more spry, she used to grow a lot of her own produce in the backyard. These days she just rocks a few tomato plants that she harassed me to plant for her.

So when I came across the self watering container idea, I thought it would be perfect for her backyard. She was adamant that it was to be my responsibility and didn’t want to have to take of it. That was fine with me. I didn’t want to put that burden on her.

Sure enough each time I visit to check in on things, she’s bent over and knuckle deep in some soil. She’ll be straightening things out and making sure things are ok. It’s good to see her showing interest in it too. I love it.

One of the great things about her is that she’s also not scared to speak what’s on her mind. When I completed my first harvest in her backyard, I brought it into her room to show her. Let’s just say that she wasn’t nearly as excited and amazed as I was. She was more concerned with some of the lettuce soiling her bed.

I shot some video of her as she rips apart my attire to attempts to figure out how old she is:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC0dZtfBwtk

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Some Pest Problems in My Brooklyn Vegetable Garden

After not checking in for a week, I was bit nervous in checking in on my vegetable garden in Brooklyn. Luckily with the ridiculous amounts of rain that we’ve been getting, things looked good, but some of the containers showed signs of pest problems.

June 19, 2009 - Some of the leaves of the collard greens on the left side were chewed.The first problem that I noticed was on the collard greens. Some of the leaves on the left side were a bit chewed through. Most of the bigger leaves were untouched. I didn’t notice any pests on them while I was there. At this point, I’m not seeing this as a huge problem, but just something to note.

June 19, 2009 - Close up of the bug ridden nasturtiumThe plant that had the biggest pest problem was the nasturtium. The flowers that bloomed were overridden by some tiny black bugs. I think the problem was that I let the flowers go too long and they died. Once that happened the bugs took over. To help combat the problem, I just picked off what appeared to be dead.

June 19, 2009 - One of the leaves of the pepper plant had a mysterious black funk on it with some ants and the basil leaves were chewed through.The container with the peppers and basil had some pest issues as well. One of the leaves on the pepper plant had some kind of black stuff of some sort on it. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was besides nasty. There were ants crawling all around it. The basil leaves were also slightly chewed through.

June 19, 2009 - I was still able harvest a good amount of lettuces and herbs.Despite the small pest problems, the rest of the containers looked good. I was able to harvest a boatload of lettuces, some herbs and should be able to get some more throughout the week. Check this video too see how everything is looking:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YhYvQHPk6Q

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Checking in on the Gardens One Week Later

It’s one full week since I’ve planted my vegetable gardens on my fire escape and in Brooklyn. Here’s an update on how things are progressing.

Before I do that, I wanted to let you know that I decided not to garden at my parents in Staten Island and to move those containers to Brooklyn. Logistically, it makes more sense that way.

My Fire Escape Vegetable Garden

  • The tomato plant started to bloom a bit and was picked. It was picked so that the plant can focus on growing as opposed to blooming at this point.
  • The pepper plant also started to bloom
  • The herbs in the upside down planters, especially the parsley and basil did not look so good. Need to take another look at what was done to remedy for next time.

My Brooklyn Vegetable Garden
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK78ClpiIp4

  • For the most part the plants looked good.
  • The cucumber looked pathetic. Watered it from above to try and wake it up.
  • It looks like there was some kind of critter that was digging in the containers, but didn’t harm any of the vegetables, yet.
  • The celery and greens look to be very productive.
  • The nasturtium has started to bloom.

Fire Escape Garden - Anna aasa tomato plant started to flower, so I picked it off. Saturday, May 30, 2009.Fire Escape Garden - The pepper plant started to flower and was picked as well. Saturday, May 30, 2009.Fire Escape Garden - The parsley definitely looks like it's hurting. Saturday, May 30, 2009.Fire Escape Garden - The basil pretty much looks like a lossed cause. Saturday, May 30, 2009Brooklyn Garden - The onions look ok, but it looks like something was digging. Sunday, May 31, 2009.Brooklyn Garden - The cucumber plant looks pathetic. I watered it from the top to wake it up a bit. Sunday, May 31, 2009.Brooklyn Garden - The celery has seen some good growth in the past week. Sunday, May 31, 2009.Brooklyn Garden - One of the buckets of greens is looking productive. Sunday, May 31, 2009.Brooklyn Garden - The Nasturtium has already started to bloom. Sunday, May 31, 2009.

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Vegetable Gardening – Brooklyn Style

After two long, but fun, days and some rain I set up my vegetable garden in my grandmother’s backyard in Brooklyn this past weekend. All said and done I planted in 16 containers and 5 herb planters.

The vegetables I planted were – buttercrunch lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, collard greens, crisphead lettuce, cucumbers, escarole, onions, radicchio, romaine lettuce, sorrel, stinging nettles, swiss chard, sweet red pepper and wild leaf lettuce.

The herbs that were basil, chocolate mint, dill, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, spearmint,thyme, zataar and nasturtium (which is an edible flower).

Here’s a quick video of the garden:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh4lhCTToiU

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Recycling and Making a Cheap Vegetable Garden


Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License by jamieleto

After securing the garden space in Staten Island and sleeping on it the past few days, I came up with a plan to make this more affordable and environmentally friendly.

I did as much research as I could into what would be the most affordable, environmentally sound and healthy way to do this project.

The first thing that I looked into was which plastics are food safe and environmentally safe? The numbers on the bottom of the containers surely mean something. Sure enough they do.

Then came across another site, which spoke about which plastic water bottles don’t leach chemicals.

So now I have a better idea on the quality and grade of the plastics that I’ll be recycling and using.

Next onto the self watering containers. Instead of using two buckets or bins, Inside Urban Green filled in the hole that was left from the Incredible Vegetables book. It had a post on building a Simple Sub-irrigation Insert using vinyl tiles.

Vinyl tile likely isn’t the best option in terms of water leaching, but need to balance the affordability with the money.

Up until this point, I still hadn’t thought about the wicking container. I could easily go to the pet store and buy a pond basket, but that would cost money and I’m sure that there ways to make my own.

I started to rummage through my grandmother’s shed and came across the jackpot. She had some old slot containers from Atlantic City (Now get it. Jackpot. Slot containers. Atlantic City). That gave me the idea to use plastic deli containers also that I can drill holes into.

So I asked my grandmother to start to save hers, even though she has an entire cabinet filled with them. She swears she needs and used all of them. My gram, always willing to help, put out a bulletin to all of her friends as well. Also, called my parents to ask them to save as well.

Now that I got the building aspects behind me. Need to compile all of these materials and put all of this together. Oh yea also need to figure out what I am going to plant and where. There’s that too.

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Getting the Layouts of My Vegetable Gardens


Took the day off from work today to spend the day with my gram and to negotiate the land space with her. Before I headed out to her, I measured out the space of my fire escape garden. Not too bad about 36″x”12″. That should be enough for about three buckets without getting in the way. Just need to figure out how many soda bottle planters we can fit.

Then I hopped on the L train and headed into Canarsie. During the train ride, I continued to read the Self Watering Container book. After some b’sn and catching up, we headed outside to scope out the land. I knew her backyard was big, but it is f’n huge.

Here's a shot of some of the backyard. Couldn't get the whole thing in the shot. She's been living there for over 60 years.

Here is the first plot that I was able to negotiate along the fence. The space is about 14' x 2'. Those milk crates are about 80 years old.


I also have this entire plot of concrete which is 9' x 6' and on the cinder blocks.


The good news is that I got a lot of land to work with and the bad news is that I got a lot of land to work with. Not sure if the bucket in bucket will work, especially for the double bins. Those are going to be at least $15 each. Need to look into other possible solutions and still fit my criteria of being affordable and as environmentally sound as possible.

This also got me thinking that I want to expand out further. Gotta call the ‘rents this weekend to see what I can work out with them.

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Expanding My Vegetable Garden to Brooklyn


I am taking this project beyond my small fire escape garden and back to my Brooklyn roots in Canarsie. Yup, I’ll be growing a vegetable garden in Brooklyn. What?

A few weeks ago my grandmother offered up her backyard to grow what I wanted. The offer was turned down because I didn’t think that I’d have the time to tend to it, and I wouldn’t expect my 90-year old grandmother to take care of it. My gram still lives in Canarsie, which is about an hour commute from me.

Now that I’ve come across self watering containers it seems more realistic. I can handle doing that 2-3 days a week. Not like I’d need another excuse to visit my Gram, but it’ll give me another.

So I gave her a call and she was more than happy to give me some space as long as I didn’t disrupt her tomato plant. See my Gram used to grow a sh!tload of vegetables in her backyard. She no longer does for many reasons, but just has one tomato plant.

I agreed on not messing with her tomato plant and explained to her my plan to grow. She gave me the idea of going to the local bodegas and asking for the buckets since they usually wind up throwing them away. That would be great because it would cut down on costs considering I priced them out at like $8 a piece at the local hardware store.

The plan was to go to her spot over the weekend to negotiate the land space.

Also scored my first two soda bottles at work today for the upside down gardening. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I didn’t want to have to don the medical mask, trash bag suit of armor and hit the streets. I ain’t messin with them crazy old women.