Rolly Pollies, Pickling, Beer, Bugs, Science!

The cucumbers picked up the pace in a big way a few weeks ago. Their progress has kind of waned now. With the first big harvest, I had ten in one day. I gave away most of them at work because there were just too many of them. A lot of my co-workers eat salad for lunch everyday so I had a feeling it would be a welcome gift. I was so grateful to get them off my hands. I hate letting garden stuff go bad, there is an extra sting to it (though, due to the bokashi it isn't as wasteful as it could be!). We have been eating a lot of cucumber salads. I have had to get kind of creative recently to use up the stuff from the garden. I added some garden basil and jalapenos to the normal vinegar salad dressing I used on the cucumbers, that went well. Also, I realized basil is used in a lot of Asian dishes I like so I have been adding it to stir fries and stuff with some success. Jalapenos and basil make quite the combo.

The rolly pollies are getting to everything. I keep finding them munching on my cantaloupes. I cover the cantaloupes in soapy water and practically make a pile of DE (diatomaceous earth) for them to sit in, but that only lasts so long. Now they have encroached on my cucumbers too. It is the worst. They just eat away at the outside. I can cut off the skin and it is fine but everything just looks more haggard when rolly pollies have been busy etching away at them all day. I got the cucumber plant really tangled too, trying to redirect the vines. Some of the leaves near the really jumped parts are kind of fried. Next time I will figure out how to tame it better. The heat hasn't been too bad though, compared to what I had expected for this summer. And, we had some serious rain again so I think things will be okay for a while.

I have done some pickling. First just okra with a jalapeno from the garden (that's the other thing, the jalapenos have been MIA for some reason, since the first initial handful over a month ago).  Then a friend reminded me I can pickle the green beans too, so I threw in the last big harvest from them, a bunch of cucumbers, and okra into one jar with spices and onion and garlic. So there is a huge jar of garden goodness marinating at home.

We picked another watermelon. I read that one way to know if it is ready to harvest is if the nearest tendril to the fruit is dried up. The one I picked had a tendril that was partially dry, and because I was anxious to pick one and someone, somewhere online posted one of those critical sounding statements like "be careful not to wait too long or it will spoil," I went ahead and picked it. It wasn't ready. It was a little more pink this time, but they are supposed to be very red inside. I still have about 4 more goes at this, so I am not too worried. The cantaloupes are getting bigger. One kind of split open a little bit. I am not sure how that happened, just one day it had a tear in the rind. It started to turn black and rot so I cut it up for the bokashi but the inside looked real nice, like a normal cantaloupe, so that's promising!

I did try one cool thing that worked really well for the pill bugs. I scattered little plates with beer in them around  the garden, basically where ever the pill bugs were causing problems. The next day there were rolly pollies floating in all of them. And I got to finish off a lone star, which is always nice. I am pretty excited this method worked out. 

Since there isn't really much development in how the plants look, I wanted to post some pictures of the bugs and things I am finding in the garden. The cucumber plant has become home to a lot of things: lady bugs, spiders, a lizard. I think the lizard is an Anole.  And there are bees and hornets buzzing around everywhere. This is a good sign for the plants I am sure, but it makes garden care a little more treacherous. 

I just found out this is probably a pest: a cucumber beetle. Well, that explains some things.

Fire fly looking things that are always on the okra plant.

Lady Bug 

Anole!

Hornet

Also, I figured I would post some of the neat plant related science stuff I have come across...

I heard this cool story on the radio about plants having memory and being able to recognize predators through the vibrations on their leaves:

http://www.npr.org/2014/07/08/329884061/plants-know-the-rhythm-of-the-caterpillars-creep

And then, on the topic of plants sort of "hearing," this episode on the PBS Nature series is about plants "talking" to one another. It has a part on Hornworns too! That was the grub that ate my bell pepper plant. It is neat, there is this weird conundrum with hornworms. Hornworms are common pests for tobacco plants, but the moth that lays the hornworms, once it emerges, also pollinates the plant. The whole thing is fascinating. It seems like science fiction- plants making choices and being able to discern between things, but it is not! It is so real! Also, it never dawned on me that till recently, everything that happened underground was a big mystery. Now we have the technology to see what is happening. I didn't know that root systems make up 80% of most plants. It's nuts! With all this new technology, some fundamental ideas we have about how things work and why they do what they do, are being totally turned around. It is all very exciting. Here's the link:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/what-plants-talk-about/video-full-episode/8243/

A couple weeks ago I planted some shallots per my step mom's suggestion. You literally just put them in the ground and water them.  I spaced them out along the edge of one side of the garden. I even forgot to water them some days, before I rearranged the drip hose, and they are still doing fine. Low maintenance, prolific plants are definitely a thumbs up in my book.

I am thinking that in August I will start planting things for the fall. Probably by then most of the current plants will be petering out. I will be starting school shortly after but it seems silly to wait nine months or so to do this gardening thing again, especially after putting so much effort into it and getting a lot in return. I think it'll work out, it has become kind of an obsession, which I am happy to have at the moment. I think it has helped keep me grounded (no pun intended, ha), and served as a much needed reminder that there are still things I can get excited about and interested in. And the things are pretty simple too, which is comforting, like spotting a weird bug or watching a watermelon slowly ripen. Also, a part of me really likes always having a problem to trouble shoot. I have always been kind of crafty, but I see now there is something energizing about spotting a problem and then making it a mission to figure out what it is and solve it, or to at least give it a valiant effort. I think that is it, it is nice to have a mission. Especially one that involves wearing your worn out clothes and digging around in the dirt. I just hadn't really done this type of stuff in while, working outside and examining bugs, not since I was a kid. I forgot I enjoyed it. I will be beginning school soon, so the garden project will have to be juggled with other things, but I think it is worth a try since we've made it this far. Thank the universe for water timers!

Also, the plant that was decimated by the hornworm has been making a great recovery. It pretty quickly started sprouting new leaves and branches. It may even look a little better than before. Go figure.

Green Beasts

Things are moving along. Nothing is churning up big time but there is a steady flow. So far beans, okra, chard, and basil are my main plants.

The bean plants themselves are looking worse and worse everyday, but they are still mustering up a handful of munchables so I can't complain too much. I finally got a lead on one of the issues. Several of the plants were weak at the bottom and starting to lean over. I found rolly pollies blanketing the stem for about two inches up from where the plants meet the ground. I read that pill bugs are beneficial to gardens but the huge number covering them just didn't seem healthy. To make matters worse, I tried surrounding each plant with cinnamon and then later a pile of DE (diatomaceous earth) and the bugs barely noticed. Those were my main lines of defense! I tried the ole' "nothing" method on the plants for a while too. The one or two bean plants that looked really good I had never doused with anything other than water, so I thought maybe the plants just needed a breather. Anyway, after trying this method for a few days the plants were sporting a nice spray of light brown on the tops of the leaves. So who knows.

We also had a brief mystery last week. One of my bell pepper plants lost all its leaves. It was a lush bushy plant one second and then a skeleton the next. 

When I found it, there were no scraps around. None of the plants in the vicinity were damaged, ruling out a big clumsy animal lumbering through and messing stuff up or birds landing in a tussle. Obviously there was only one reasonable explanation: sabotage. The other morning there was a big brown cardboard box sitting in the middle of the garden, and that same day the drip hose was detached and the timer had been tinkered with. I thought this bell pepper situation was just my tormentor taking things to a new level. Spooked, I avoided the plant for a while. I carried out my normal pruning and watering tasks, certain that the neighbors were lurking behind their drapes, watching my reaction as I stumbled upon their latest affront. All the passers by reeked of malintent and the shadows seemed to be getting longer and bigger by the second (or maybe it was just dusk, what ever). Finally I had no other choice but to deal with the plant. I figured I might as well just finish what was started, just to let them know I wasn't shaken. I went to pluck off one of the last two leaves but when I turned it over I found THIS on the bottom...

It is a hornworm! I yelped and jumped back a little. I was startled and it is terrifying! This grub had been eating my plant all day, and it basically ate the entire thing. I sprayed all the plants and ground near by in soapy water- they are not into the soapy taste apparently, and the grub met its fate on the concrete, under my dad's shoe. Green liquid squirted out when he stepped on it. That green liquid was my whole digested plant, reduced to a deep hued slime. Ugh that jerk grub.

I read later that there were other options for taking care of the worm. I was reminded that I could have put it in a jar and watched it turn into a moth. I would like to say that I am an adult and so over mini experiments like that and that I don't have time for watching life cycles play out anymore, but that would be a bold face lie. The moment I read that option I immediately had a pang of regret for authorizing its kill, and I felt bad that hadn't even crossed my mind when I was considering what to do next. I could have let it live out its life in captivity. I froze when I found the grub initially, I had never dealt with a bug this huge. As much as I'd love to see a grub turn into a moth though, that is pretty cool you must admit, it was overruled by the majority of me that just wanted the relief in knowing we took it out of the picture completely.

When I was little I didn't think twice before killing bugs. Sort of in the same vein, I loved fishing too. The feeling of catching a fish was great and even cleaning them was fun for me. I was also the one that did my science project on putting salt on slugs. I was given a microscope set for my birthday that year and I kind of turned into a mad scientist for a while. There was a tier in my head I suppose, and at some point that fact that it was a living creature was less significant, and I didn't really understand that there was a choice in what measure I took to deal with pests. I didn't realize that fish were still just as much living animals as whatever else people hunt. Eventually I guess I just started noticing when friends would catch and release something instead of just stomping on it. Texas is kind of  buggy place though, and my family comes from a line of people with a more no-nonsense approach to pets and bugs in general. Your obligation to wildlife encroaching on your personal space uninvited is a favor at best. My parents were pretty progressive on this front compared to most, but we still killed pests when it came down to it. For the most part I just go with my first impulse and kill the invaders, but I have softened quite a bit since my younger days and I think it is a nice practice to consider alternatives sometimes. Even if it's just an exercise in restraint. I did feel less bad though, about the hornworm squishing, after reading about another likely fate it could have met. If you see one covered in white pods, just let it be. Its days are numbered. A wasp has laid eggs on it that will feast and eventually emerge to build a cocoon. Nature is pretty gruesome on its own.

We picked a watermelon because it had looked the same way for over a week, same size and color, but we picked it too soon. It wasn't ripe enough. It still tasted pretty good but we can do better. There seem to be plenty of little watermelons popping up so we should have more than one go at this. A cantaloupe finally made an appearance! And I gotta keep a close eye on the cucumber plants. They have subsumed two chard plants and I found one of the tendrils wrapping around a bean plant and pulling it over. It is such a tangled mess right now. It is hard to catch the cucumbers in time. On Saturday I went by and found this huge one buried in the jumble.

Crazy cucumber and okra

Cucumber

Okra

Cantaloupe

Dinner: Cucumber salad, chard, and okra/bean veggie medley with a minty cucumber drink.
We are growing mint too by the way, we added it later.

So the majority of what is still standing in the garden is thriving. I wish the jalapenos would start contributing again, and it would be nice to see at least one bell pepper this season, but my chances on that front seem to be getting smaller and smaller. For the most part, I am just stoked to still see a bunch of huge bright green plants when I roll up to take care of things and do damage control.

Oh, and happy 4th of July weekend!

I Can't Stop This

The plants are going crazy, just blowing up. We had some serious rain the past couple weeks and the plants responded really well. I swear, I checked one day and there were just a few flowers, the next day all the flowers had baby vegetables growing underneath. This weekend we left some of the vegetables on the plant for an extra couple days and they literally doubled in size in that small amount of time.

When things first started popping up a part of me was convinced that it was some freak occurrence. Every time we picked something I would have a moment of panic thinking it might be the only fruition from the plant we see for the season. That fear has been put to rest pretty quickly. The only thing I am still sort of unsure about are the tomato plants. One has zero fruit showing up, the other three have only one or two tomatoes and it has been that way for several weeks, just one or two tomatoes. We'll see what happens.

I was pretty shocked by this recent surge in progress. I had been doing things to maintain the plants and keep pests at bay but I don't think this latest growth spurt can really be attributed to any of that. At least not much. This was bigger, cycle of life, nature's inner workings type stuff. Dare I say, beyond my control? I think the key players in this crazy turn were the steady, sometimes torrential rain that showed up with uncanny timing, and the man power we put in at the beginning to make the garden bed just right. Before planting we were meticulous (thanks dad) when it came to digging out all the previous dirt and making the bed deep enough, we laid down a weed barrier, and used some super quality dirt and compost. I also watered twice a day pretty consistently. Then the rain showed up at these really strategic points. It seemed like we had a good rain at every stage- when the seeds were just put in the ground, when they had grown to little seedlings, and the ones recently when the plants were established but had not yet bloomed.

While I was twiddling my thumbs waiting for things to appear I kept reading that the best defense for a garden is good soil, but then I would promptly shrug this off. Boring, moving on. I wanted something more to do now. As my worry mounted leading up to this crazy harvest period I became convinced that there was either some way to drastically mess up the garden in the mean time or that there was some thing I could do to alter what I was certain was an already shaky trajectory considering that I was the one in charge. I see now, having witnessed the burst in production, that once I put the seeds in the ground, other than watering, there was actually only so much I could do to make a difference. I could mitigate some problems but in fact, the majority of the leg work falls on the plants. So it's true, their not all quacks. A critical factor is the soil. It helps to create the most friendly, welcoming environment/atmosphere possible for the seeds to take off in and get a strong start. Gardening after a certain point seems like just watching and eventually playing damage control. Who knows, maybe in a week I will have a completely different take on this. This is Texas and it is heating up outside.

Speaking of damage control, my soy beans have turned yellow and a couple of my chard plants didn't really sprout... I may have over picked them thinking they were weeds early on. Also, the zucchini totally subsumed one of the bell pepper plants. So gardening has not been with its perils lately. Also, I had some bad dreams about bugs eating my squash after someone told me this is a common problem in Austin. I dreamt that I forgot to check on the garden and then when I went by and poked them they turned into mush. I have had stress dreams about the garden before. The one prior involved me accidentally getting days wrong and somehow missing a whole week of watering. Everything was decimated. These dreams have actually proven to pretty helpful for kicking me into gear. I wake up so relieved to find they are not true I hustle to fix the pressing issues.

The first time we picked vegetables, after the initial excitement, I was feeling kind of overwhelmed. I think the breadth of the project was finally sinking in. The sudden progress and realizing we were only half way through the season had me a little worried that I had maybe bit off more than I could chew. I was thrilled at first as we called out all the new vegetables we found, but eventually I started to get freaked out. "OK, that's enough, I am good for now" I wanted to say. In the car after visiting the garden I was trying to put my thoughts into words and it just wasn't happening, then Andrew helped me out with "there is not a pause button." Exactly. You can't come back to it later and pick up where you left off, it just keeps going. Also, if a plant isn't doing well, it doesn't just immediately keel over and disappear like in a video game. Or beep to tell you are on your last life. Improvement is gradual, and progress, good or bad, is constant. The garden is going to keep going whether I show up or not and the reality is that the plants have reached a point where they have some momentum. I would have to drastically change some thing to get them to just stop producing altogether. This has been hard for me to grasp. I am always looking for imperfections which I think has helped me be vigilant about a some things, but a critical eye can be exhausting. Case in point, it happened again where I had been looking at the beans for a week getting discouraged that nothing was showing up then Andrew came by and immediately pointed out a whole bunch that had probably been there for days. It would have been so nice for my piece of mind, to have noticed those beans earlier. I am starting to realize that there is not an expiration date on my worry for this project. Unless I can figure out a way to to bring a second set of eyes with me every where I go, I need to start focusing on the observation part. Sometimes I skip that step and miss out on some really nice moments for mini celebration, and I don't really give myself or the plants the credit they deserve for surviving and thriving so well. I mean it is a rough and tumble world, and they have made it this far. That is no small feat.

The cooking and eating of the vegetables has been an excellent remedy for the onset of garden fatigue. Cooking dinner with produce you helped bring into being is amazing. It is probably a placebo thing but after eating something we just picked from the garden, I feel more energetic, like absorbing one of the blinking stars in Mario that makes you invincible and super alert and fast for a few seconds. Again, probably all in my head but I will go with it!

Anyways, with out further ado here are pictures...

Bush Bean

Edamame

Baby watermelon

Squash

Chard

Tomatoes

Monster Zucchini Plant 

Tomato

You can see squash and blurry Jalepeno,
but in the center there is basil

Jalepeno

The weekend bounty

Washing that Chard

Dinner!