Ah finally, the first day of school

A picture perfect day for the students to return to school. After a great opening ceremony, the students got right to work - and were very excited to see their friends and favorite teachers. And boy how they have grown!!

The spinach, mesclun mix, and sugar-snap peas started a couple of days ago have already sprouted! The lettuce has one or two starts. The sugar-snap peas just planted in the garden have not sprouted.

Mice (or a mouse) found my sunflower heads drying in the grow room, but that is o.k. they have a sticky surprise waiting for them tonight!

The pumpkins are starting to turn orange, very exciting, while the tomatoes are very prolific. The peppers and eggplant have found their stride, and the sunflower heads are really starting to droop.

Too cool!

Fall crops started, clean-up after Irene complete, and going Urganic

Yesterday we started some of our fall crops. We cut down all of the sunflowers that were snapped in half after Irene passed through, trimmed up parts of tomato plants that ere damaged or not producing, and pulled up spent squash plants.

We planted our first round of sugar-snap peas, and started our fall salad boxes. In our boxes we have spinach (which we will also do outside and over-winter), lettuce, and a box of mesclun mix.

We are also going to do some root crops like carrots and radish and over-winter onions and garlic again.

I've coined a new word and concept and I want you to read it here first. Urganic - urganic is using organic methods, but allows for the use of properly applied non-organic fertilizers such as Miracle-Gro and Osmocote.

Organic is a wonderful ideal, much like enlightenment in Buddhism, but not necessarily achievable in one life time and definitely worth continuously working toward. We have been completely organic the last few years and this year went organic, and heirloom with many of our vegetables, and while production has been pretty good it could be a lot better. We also started completely organic micro-farms in containers on front porches in Belair-Edison and we have very healthy leaves and stems - and a bunch of hungry, frustrated farmers.

Feeding people while protecting the environment are both important ends. Non-organic fertilizers, properly applied achieve both and especially can help to maximize the feeding end.

So Urganic I go. No herbicides, no pesticides, but I am going to become good friends with Miracle-gro and/or Osmocote. I will continue to work toward organic and I am o.k. with not becoming an organic Buddha.

PUMPKINS

Irene was a menace, kind with rain, hard with sunflowers. Overall, however, things are alright.

We found a third HUGE pumpkin under the blown down vegetation - way cool!

I am excited to start planting and starting fall crops. Just found out that BCPSS just called off school for Monday - so it will be a planting day.

Hope everyone came out of Irene relatively unscathed - flooded basements and missing shingles are all good in a weird way...

Hello Irene

Well, now we have rain...

So, in the last two weeks we have had plenty of harvest - tomatoes, okra, squash, cucumber, and hot peppers. And we also lost crops to insects, rot, and children.

Our last garden we kept locked behind a 6ft fence and never had crop loss from humans. Our new garden is not locked, and not completely fenced, and the crop loss is getting annoying. I don't mind the pick and eat crowd so much, but the little gremlins that are picking and smashing is something else. A talk with the kids and a parent has not had the effect I hoped for. We'll see what happens as school starts up again, though these kids don't currently attend our school.

Ah, what to do!?

School starts Monday. Hope to get some new crops started this coming week. We had a volunteer day at school last week-end and spinach that had gone to seed that we were storing was accidentally thrown out. But lots of seed escaped and is now sprouting in our play areas!!! I'm too excited to see where the goes!

Are birdhouse gourds pollinated by moths?

So I'm at the Farm, watering after dark this evening and there are all these big white flowers that catch my eye. Why are those morning glory in bloom now, I wonder? Then I see that it is not morning glory, but that it is birdhouse gourd, how cool. Hey, why is the flower in bloom at night and big and white? As I spy the almost full moon, I wonder if it is to attract moths!?

Well, I don't have the answer right now, and I have not looked up the possibility online yet either. I hung out by the blossoms for a while and saw a moth flitting around, but never saw it land.

Pretty doggone cool!

More rain! Some crop damage from human pests

Another sprinkle passed through yesterday and we are up to about an inch of recent rainfall! Ah, crop loss - aggravating as it is some is avoidable and some is not.

Yesterday the city started to replace damaged sidewalk around the school. Unfortunately, three or four blocks were right in front of our main garden. More unfortunate was the lack of care the contractors took removing concrete to be replaced. Our Birdhouse gourds were damaged as were sunflower and black-eyed susan. We've asked the crew to be as careful as possible pouring the new concrete to minimize further damage. The perils of urban agriculture!

Found a lone harlequin bug today on my lone spinach plant - it is no longer with us (the bug, not the plant).

Harvested squash and tomatoes! The watermelon is getting quite big and pumpkins are really starting to stay on the vie and grow! The okra is going nuts as are the cucumbers. The eggplants have plenty of blooms but have not set any fruit.

I'm looking forward to the much cooler, less humid weather forecasted for the next few days.

1/2" of rain - I'll take it!

Finally, Mother Nature threw this old dog a bone and gave us some rain! Yipee! So much is going on in the garden. We have lots of tomatoes, squash, and birdhouse gourds. We have cucumber, a watermelon and pumpkins are forming and starting to stay on the vine.

Bees are so covered with sunflower pollen they can hardly fly around and the black-eyed susan's are robust! Figs are trying to get bigger and the strawberries are still sending out lots of daughters. The greens on the horseradish are huge (which I hope indicates huge roots!) and the eggplant continues to bloom, but has yet to set fruit.

Hopefully some forecasted cooler weather and rain will further help our plants rebound from the recent hot and dry spell.

Rain?

Rain? What is that anyway...

Wow, things are parched but watered. We could use a slight cool spell and some help from mother nature - just a little rain, not hurricane style, or gully washer style. Just a nice, soaking inch or two.

We have Okra. I found it today. I know I capitalized Okra and it shouldn't be, but I am excited. We have Okra. And more Okra blooms which look like marshmallow blooms, or hibiscus blooms - very pretty.

We also have tomato, squash, eggplant blossom, lots of pumpkin blossom, many peppers (hot and sweet), and lots of birdhouse gourds.

The flowers are gorgeous. Sunflower, marigold, all of the natives, cut and come again zinnia (remember, cut not pull), black-eyed susan. Did I mention we have figs growing?

The cukes and the watermelon or trying so hard.

Stop by and see all the bees, butterflies, and assorted pollinators at work, they make us look lazy!