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Vegetable Garden Pest Problems – Squirrels?

Up until this point I’ve been pretty lucky with the pest problems in either of my gardens. The fire escape garden has a built in defense from pests being on the fourth floor. My backyard vegetable garden doesn’t have that luxury.

Back in June there were some small signs of pest problems, but nothing horrible. The containers seemed to be a pest deterrent.

I’ve since expanded to more than containers though to cinder block gardening and during my final fall planting used traditional pots.

The pests seem to be much more willing to mess with the plants in these. One of the cinder block had nearly all of the plants pulled up out of the soil. Two of the pots had huge holes dug into them and the plants were scattered.

My guess is that it’s squirrels doing this because, well I always see squirrels scampering around in the backyard and almost saw one approach the pots.

Now the question becomes how do I deter them? Thoughts?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=291puzfePBE

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Using Phone Books In Your Container Garden

I finally found a way not only to use phone books, but to use them in your container garden.

Since fall has quickly arrived, the weather’s dropped. I’ve been planning to build a hothouse, but don’t think that the weather has dropped to that point yet.

As a first step to building one on my fire escape garden, I knew that I wanted to raise the containers off of the cold metal.

The initial plan was to fold up cardboard boxes and place them under the containers. That plan changed when I went running the other day. As I was running, I noticed that I was running through an obstacle course of phone books. Within a three blocks, I had to have literally passed 3-4 dozen stacks of them still wrapped up and on the sidewalk.

Shawna Coronado wrote a post on how phone books are a complete scam a few months back. Since reading her post, I’ve been thinking of ways to reuse them. Then it hit me. I could easily use them in my gardens to raise the containers off of the cold ground.

It won’t make a huge difference, but it’s a start. I wrapped the phone book in a plastic bag that my roommate had from grocery shopping and taped it up to keep it dry. Then I slid them under the containers.

I think it’s the most use a phone book has gotten in years

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD9_a9hVPqw.

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What To Do When Cucumber Plants Yellow

I’m still figuring out what to do with my cucumber plants because the leaves are yellowing.

It’s just over a month since I moved my cucumber plant across the yard. The plant was moved for a few reasons. First being that it was outgrowing the trellis that I built for it and needed more support, so I moved it close to the fence to train it up. The second being that the leaves were yellowing, which I thought was due to sun exposure.

The plant is growing along the fence, still bearing fruit and blooming. That’s nice, but the leaves are still yellowing. My next guess is that it’s due to the lack of nutrients, so I threw some left over compost that I had in the container.

The important part is that the plant is still producing because I’m about functionality first and aesthetics second. My guess is that the yellow leaves can’t be good for the long term health of the plant though, so I’d like to remedy that.

What’s your thoughts on what to do when cucumber plants yellow?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqjNPE149tc

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Why Did I Grow Radicchio?

Now that I have my final fall planting done in my backyard vegetable garden, I’m starting to look back and evaluate my first season of gardening. As I look at my garden, I ask myself…why did I grow radicchio?

I can’t complain about the way that it’s growing and would definitely recommend it, which is more than I can say for cauliflower.

The problem is that I just haven’t used it at all. So what’s the point of growing something if I’m not going to use it. It’s not that impressive for me to tell people that I am growing radicchio. I need to either figure out how to use it or not grow it again.

Any suggestions for using radicchio?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9NTwcT_bzU

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Thoughts on Growing Cauliflower in Containers

With the fall season upon us, I can look back at my initial May planting and say that I’m most disappointed in the cauliflower plant.

Of all the plants, it’s the one that has done the least. It’s pretty much done nothing.

A few weeks ago, I also said that I wouldn’t recommend growing red peppers in small spaces, but was proven wrong when they started to bloom again.

At least that I got some peppers out of those plants though. With the cauliflower, I’ve gotten nothing.

Here’s my thoughts on what could be going on:

  • It was a bad plant.
  • I planted too many (3) plants in one container.
  • Cauliflower just doesn’t work in containers.
  • It takes a really long time to head up, and I am being impatient.

At this point, I’d have to say that I really wouldn’t recommend growing cauliflower in containers, especially if you have limited space. That container could be used for something much more productive and rewarding.

What’s been your experience with growing cauliflower?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXBii4HiAHk

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Testing Soil pH the Old Fashioned Way

There’s a lot out there on the importance of testing the pH balance of your soil in order to grow healthy vegetables. I wasn’t interested in buying some fancy pH test kit or something like that.

CleanAirGardening had a post a few weeks ago titled, “Dare you taste your soil?” It was about how they used to test the pH levels of their soil back in the day – by tasting it.

I took it as a personal challenge and test tasted my soil. No, I didn’t taste the soil of the cherry tomatoes that I urinated on.

The purpose of testing the pH of your soil is to test whether it’s acidic or basic. To put it into perspective lemons are acidic, sea salt water is basic and pure water is neutral.

From what I’ve seen a soil pH that is slightly acidic is optimal for growing.

If your soil is to acidic, you can add limestone in it to make it more basic. If it’s too basic, you can add more compost to make it more acidic.

So the results of me tasting my soil were – it wasn’t very good. Besides that it actually did taste a bit on the acidic side.

Just saved me at least $20.

How do you test your soil?

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

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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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Finding the Best Way to Remove Bolting Vegetables

The lettuce in my self watering containers have bolted. I needed to figure out how to remove them from the containers, so I can plant another round of vegetables.

I’ve read of two different ways of removing the bolted plants. The first is to remove the plant from the root. The other is to cut the plant at the soil line.

To find out which way was better, I decided to do both to see the results. In the containers that there were no other plants, I pulled them from the roots. The containers that contained other plants, I cut at the soil line.

Once the plants were removed, I added a little bit of compost to them.

I’ll leave them alone for a few days to if the plants continue to grow before I get my next round planted.

Which way do you think will work better?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lXC-Xflexg

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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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How to Harvest Lettuce

Once your lettuce grows to be about 4-6 inches, you can safely harvest it and it will grow back again.

To harvest, simply place your thumb and pointer fingers about 2 inches above the soil and snap off the leaf. Place in your harvesting basket and continue.

It’ll likely take a week or so for your crop to grow again for another harvest.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntTwPXQUFm8

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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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Showing Some Love to my Peppers and Tomatoes

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been showering my lettuce plants with love because they’ve been producing the most. Nearly forgot that I had peppers and tomatoes planted on my fire escape as well.

Luckily for me, they didn’t hold it against me and are starting to produce. There is a small sweet Italian pepper that has formed and is doing it’s thing (whatever it’s called) with lots of flowering going on.

My cherry tomato plant is also blooming (I’ll use different phrases until I find out what the proper terminology is) and flowering as well. Being the experienced gardener that I am, I bought a cherry tomato plant for my fire escape thinking that small tomatoes equals small plant. Not so much.

The tomato plant has grown to be pretty large, but it’s still not in the way on the fire escape. Since that’s what it is, a fire escape and not my personal garden.

I have an old mirror frame to support it for now, but with the tomatoes starting to grow, I’ll need to find something a bit more sturdy. Will just go to the park and get some tree branches.

Happy that I’ve raised my vegetables not to hold grudges and they’re still doing their thing. Pretty soon, I’ll have something besides lettuce to chow down on.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp1G_kyCnBo

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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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Farm to Plate? My Produce is Traced Fire Escape to Bowl

Last month, I read the book Plenty. There was a passage in it about “food traceability” and how our food travels on the average 1,500 to 2,000 miles from farm to plate. That has stuck with me, well because that number is insane.

Besides the distance that it traveled, what about what else went into getting that food to me. How was it treated? Who are the people that worked to get it to me? How were they treated?

Even though I didn’t start from seed, I can tell you that I got the planter from Trina at Silver Heights Farm, which is a few miles outside of NYC. Then I planted it on my fire escape, harvested it and put it in my belly, which is part of me.

I also didn’t harm myself in the growing of my veggies. Though I did nearly bust my ass climbing out to and in from the fire escape. The risks I take for my food.

When I first started this gardening project, with my ingenious window garden idea, my goal was to get one salad out of this. Well, I stand (or type) before you now with that goal accomplished.

I harvested my first round of lettuces from my fire escape garden and made me a salad. Yes, I GOT MY FIRST SALAD.

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

The feeling is difficult for me to put into words, but I’ll do my best to. It FEELS AMAZING.

You see, I’m a city boy. My gardening experience is non-existent. My gardening skills were picking produce from the grocery stores because that’s where produce is grown in the back of the grocery store, right?

This experience so far has made me realize and appreciate food that much more. Entire societies and civilizations have been built around areas where food can be grown.

Now here I am in my Manhattan apartment growing on my freaking fire escape. It’s crazy. Maybe I’ll start a civilization in my apartment. It should help with the expenses around here.

More importantly, what I hope this does is inspire at least one of you out there to take on something like this.

Go ahead you know you wanna. I’m here for you if you need any help.

Before and after picks of the self-watering containers:
June 16, 2009. Bucket of lettuces with tomato plant in the middle before (L) and after (R) I harvested them.June 16, 2009. Bucket of lettuces before (L) and after (R) I harvested them.June 16, 2009. Me with my first lettuce harvest.

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The First Vegetable Harvest from My Fire Escape

After being away for six days, I was shocked when I returned to see the growth of the lettuces in my containers. It was definitely time for my first harvest. Most of the leaves were at least 6 inches and didn’t want them to get much larger.

This brings me one step closer to my goal of getting one salad. Didn’t turn this into a salad because I had already eaten dinner.

Made this post abbreviated because still playing catch up from being away. I definitely wanted to get something posted though as it’s pretty damned exciting (at least for me).

Will definitely do a more substantial post later in the week. Hopefully, it’ll include some fire escape salad in it.

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How to Tell When a Self Watering Container is Full

We’ve been through how to build a self watering container, talked about what kind of potting soil to use and how to make it. Now I am going to tell (and show) you how to water them and how to tell it’s filled:

  • On my fire escape garden, I use a funnel and an empty juice bottle.
  • In my Brooklyn garden, I use a hose.
  • Fill with water (not Kool-Aid) through the pipe.
  • Once the reservoir is filled, it will start to come out of the overflow hole that was drilled into the side.

    • httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDpaMI6NEIQ

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    Making Potting Soil

    In a previous post, I explained the basic differences between coconut coir and peat moss based potting soils. Now I am going to show you how to make your own potting soil using a peat moss base.

    Here’s what you need to make your own organic potting soil:

  • Sphagnum peat moss – holds water and air; provides little nutriton
  • Vermiculite – provides minerals (potassium, calcium and magnesium)
  • Garden lime – provides minerals (calcium) and balances acidity of peat moss
  • Compost – provides the lion share of the nutrition to the plants
  • Large bin to mix it all in. Watch the video and you’ll know why you’ll need to use a large bin.

    • To mix it:

  • Add the mixture at a close 1:1:1 ratio of the peat moss: vermiculite: garden lime. You definitely want peat moss to be the dominant ingredient. Mix well.
  • Now that you have the peat moss mixture, add an equal part of compost. Mix well.
  • Add some water to dampen the mixture. Don’t want to saturate it. Mix well.

    • httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nbTWGoxJjs

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    Five Things I Learned About Planting Vegetables

    This whole experience is all new to me, especially the part about actually planting. Here’s five things I learned about how to plant vegetables in a self watering container:

    Be gentle. Pop the vegetable out of it’s cell. Push it from the bottom and gently pull out.

    There are many plants in a cell. A lot of the cells contain multiple plants, so you have to thumb around the soil line to see the separation of the plants.

    Pry apart with thumbs. Use your thumb to gently pry them apart. You’ll wind up breaking up some of the roots, but don’t worry. Be gentle.

    Plant deep enough to secure plant in soil. Once the plants are separated, dig a hole about 3-4 inches in the soil (depending on the plant) and insert the plant.

    Support plant with soil Cover it with soil and make it compact to support the plant.

    Check this video on how to plant celery in self watering containers.

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LrCc31i_OU

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    Potting Mix or Potting Soil? Peat Moss or Coconut Coir?

    First off, from what I can tell there is no difference between potting soil, potting mix and transplant mix. It’s all the same thing just different names.

    The reason that you want to use potting soil is that it allows for aeration and water to flow. If you use traditional soil in a self watering container, the roots would get too compact and not be able to grow. That’s no bueno.

    Of course it isn’t that simple, there are different kinds of potting soil. There is one that is peat moss based and one that is coconut coir based.

    Not being sure which to use, I decided to use both. Screw it why not? That’s part of this whole experience. Trial and error to find out for myself what works best.

    Besides the base, the other ingredients are pretty similar. They are vermiculite, compost and some kind of mineralization.

    The vermiculite makes the mix lighter and allows for better aeration. The compost provides the nutrients and the minerals, well they provide minerals.

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6y_gpetMkQ

    So I bought some 20lb bags of New York Paydirt Potting Soil from the local Lower East Side Ecology Center.

    This is coconut coir based, which according to the label is “a sustainable alternative to peat moss.” From some of the articles that I read coconut coir retains water, which is bad for self watering containers. I guess I’ll find out.

    I also bought ingredients to make my own organic potting soil – sphagnum peat moss, vermiculite and garden lime. This was mixed up with the compost that I made in my kitchen.

    So instead of reading 100 different arguments on which kind of soil to use, I’ll use both and see which one works best and so will you.

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    Completing the Self Watering Containers at My Parents

    After getting the news yesterday that the vegetable gardening season already started and some plants should already be out, I need to get moving quicker.

    I went out to visit the ‘rents place today in Staten Island to make all of the self-watering containers at their crib.

    All of the materials were there, so it was just a matter of putting everything together. At their spot, I have am going to have two containers and two buckets set up. Each container took about a half hour to put together regardless of the size.

    There are two 30 quart containers that are about 17X12X11. In those I built room for a 3-4 quart water reservoir.

    Also going made two buckets a five gallon that’s about 15″ diameter and 14″ height. I built about a 1.5 gallon reservoir in that. The other bucket is a little taller at 15″, but it’s more square shape. The reservoir holds about 3-4 quarts of water.

    Each of the containers was marked at the bottom with the reservoir size, so I know for the future.

    The biggest challenge is still cutting out the circles, but it’s getting somewhat easier. Cutting the circle around the pipe was a bit of chore. I am hoping that duct tape will sure things up.

    At this point I have two concerns. The first is the level of the water reservoirs. Are they too much? Not enough? I have most of them measured off at about one gallon. That’s all part of this project though, documenting and learning for the next time.

    The other concern is that the wicking containers and vinyl tiles will be able to handle the weight of the soil. I am thinking there will be some leakage of the soil into the water, but the soil won’t be as heavy because it won’t be water logged.