Gratuitous Veggie Porn

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Start small, save big

I was walking in Alphabet City today and noticed someone was growing bell peppers in a small plot of dirt in front of a building where you usually would expect to see hedge plants. With the financial market in such turmoil and the economy in contraction mode I think now is the perfect time to save yourself some money grow your own food. Start small, one plant in a five gallon pot is all you need. For the most bang for your buck I would recommend starting with a cherry tomato plant. One plant can supply you with pints and pints of fruit for the entire summer.

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Good haul today

I forgot to mention that ever since I started harvesting vegetables from my garden I've spent very little money on grocery store produce. Except for one bag of yellow onions, one batch of garlic and a few bags of baby carrots, every veggie I've eaten these past several weeks has come from my garden. Next year, since it's a little late to start now, I'm going to keep track of how much my garden produces and compare it to the prices offered at the Union Square Green Market for local, organic produce. I'm positive it will be in the hundreds of dollars.

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The sparrows win, I'm giving up on peas this year

The spring planting died from disease and now the fall planting has been decimated by sparrows. I didn't even know sparrows liked peas. I came home one day and found the plants looking like someone got too close with a weed wacker. The following morning I looked out the window and saw a bunch of the birds going to town. I'm going to cover what's left, hopefully they'll bounce back.

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Urban Sharecropping

Cityfarmer.info found an interesting article on garden sharing from England. There are a lot of flat, lowrise rooftops in my neighborhood. They're often littered with empty cans of PBR and cigarette butts and they only get used for rooftop parties, film festivals or performance art. I think they would also make great locations for collective gardening.

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I Found the Hornworm Caterpillar Eating my Tomato Plant

After a few days searching I found the hornworm caterpillar that's been eating my tomato plant, please please be the only one.

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Not garden related but still worth sharing

I woke up yesterday morning to the smell of decay in my room. Something died in my room somewhere, most likely a mouse, and I had to find it and dump it. I looked for over an hour, crawled on my hands and knees as I tried to figure out where it was, but it was difficult. I'm congested from allergies so my sense of smell is off so I had a hard time localizing the source of the stink. I took a lunch break, gave myself a pep talk and tried again. I finally found it in my floor fan. No, I did not think to look there the first time around, would you?

The previous evening I heard something fall in the fan's general area, but when I looked over I couldn't find anything out of place. I just shrugged it off and went back to what I was doing. I realize now that sound was the mouse falling to his death. It also explains why I couldn't localize the scent. The fan was circulating the smell around the entire room. It also means dead mouse air was blowing in my face the whole night. Gross.

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Eggplant Experiment

So the heat wave I was hoping for has come and gone and while it definitely did the peppers some good the eggplants have gone nowhere. Out of curiosity and exasperation I decided to harvest one and eat it. I plucked one that was a little under 2 inches wide, cut it up, fried it in a little olive oil, sprinkled some salt on it and popped it into my mouth. It was pretty good. The taste was similar to a potato, but lighter and not as starchy, and there was absolutely no bitterness whatsoever. I enjoyed it, the only problem I had was that I only got 2 bites worth out of one fruit! I'm hoping they'll grow some more before fall weather arrives, but I doubt it. I think I'll just continue to water them and enjoy my 1 or 2 bites when I can.

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Tomato Troubles: Hornworm Caterpillar

Gross. Not only is my roma suffering from wilt I now have to look for the hornworm caterpillar that's been leaving its poop on the plant. I actually saw the caterpilllar a couple days ago, but at that time I didn't know they were harmful to plants so I just cringed and turned away. Today, after I saw the damage to the leaves and fruit and noticed the nearby black particles, I used the google and discovered the culprit.

Gardeners are likely to spot the large areas of damage at the top of a plant before they see the culprit. Hornworms are often difficult to see because of their protective coloring. Not much for the heat of direct sunlight, they tend to feed on the interior of the plant during the day and are more easily spotted when they move to the outside of the plant at dawn and dusk

The presence of the hornworm may also be noticed because of the large, black droppings (frass) that accumulate on the ground beneath the affected plants. 

I have a slightly paralyzing fear of insects so seeking it out and pulling it off should be some fine mental torture to look forward to. What's grosser the necrotic lesions of sunscald or caterpillars?

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Sunscald, Ahhh It Burns!

After returning from a lovely visit to my family in Chicago I came back to this.  Sweet peppers rotting from the outside, but only 2 or 3 and only on one plant. I thought it was some bug or something slowly eating away at the skin, but after some research I discovered it was sunscald. Yes, vegetables can get sunburn. These peppers were the only ones affected because they were the only ones not shaded by leaves. The affected areas had a dry, papery texture and the fruit as a whole felt soft/borderline mushy. I just snipped them off.

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