Adventures in growing edibles veganically in a small townhouse backyard in Ottawa, Canada. (veganic since ~2021)
Sunday, August 28, 2022
Tooooooo manyyyyy tomatoesssssssssssss
Leaf miner damage still happening to (untulled) chard
The experiment I started a few weeks ago by removing all miner-damaged-chard -- well, there's now a bunch more miner-damaged chard.
No big deal, just goes to show I guess chard needs to remain covered the whole summer.
Praying mantis!!
Oh wow! A praying mantis flew from the northmost carrots into the nearby Jasper tomato against the vertical structure! Definitely flew. Is green and skinny. Amazing camouflage! I wonder if someone in the neighbourhood bought a mantis egg sac and this fellow made his way here. Not many "pests" around for him though -- although, tons of sparrows visiting the yard and I read that mantises can eat birds -- yikes...
Hadn't seen any mantises since that first one a few years ago, whose egg sac never "hatched" the next spring.
Wednesday, August 24, 2022
100th ZUCCHINI HARVESTED!!!!
Woot! I guess this makes up for all those recent years of puny wimpy zucchini plants that hardly produced anything at all. Still unsure whether it's due to new varieties this year, or because of the kelp/MRP I gave them at planting and along the way.
The plants are definitely still slumped, but some more zukes are still on the way.
Shade container potato experiment: Results of container #1 = 0.75 lbs from 4 seed potatoes
Emptied the first of the three containers along the fence, which were in full shade. This container's plants are fully brown/dried/disappeared, so figured it was time.
At first I thought there were zero potatoes, but it turns out they potatoes were all in the lower ~third of the container.
So, a non-impressive 0.19 pound of potatoes per seed potato... Better than 0.0, but, yikes!
The blight might have been a factor for sure, since the yield in the north bed was low too.
Will see what the next two shade containers bring, later on once their plants are 100% dead too.
Sunday, August 21, 2022
Garlic bulbils scattered randomly in central bed
The one volunteer garlic, which I had let the scape be, turned into the cutest little bulbils.
Today I decided they had dried enough (on the plant) so harvested them and scattered them in the central bed. Didn't dig them in or anything.
Carrot weevil damage in the upper third of a few carrots so far
Not a lot of loss from this so far. I had noticed some carrot tops flopped over a while ago and wondered why... this must be it.
Just cut off the affected tops, the rest of the carrot parts were fine.
The weevils don't fly, so hopefully not a big deal for future years if I rotate the carrot crop enough.
Good info on this page: http://omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/93-077.htm
Saturday, August 20, 2022
Might have "cooked" the fall pea seeds under the plastic
Oops. Very hot, direct sun.... might not have much a fall crop of peas.
Berry alley: Blackberries and thimbleberries in season
A good amount of blackberries and thimbleberries at berry alley. Even one raspberry which was extremely delicious. The blackberries look to be going for a few more weeks, though the thimbleberries might be near their end.
Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Neighbourhood apples wormy so far
Collected 2 or 3 so far -- looked wormy from outside, were all rotten inside. Discarded. They were on the smaller side compared to last year, so, maybe later in the season...
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Dill (fall crop) sowed directly (didn't start in PT)
In the central bed's south part. Just to fill in a gap. (And I'm getting bored of so much buckwheat everywhere!)
Monday, August 15, 2022
Pre-soaking peas (Sugar Snap) and beans (Kentucky Wonder Wax)
For an attempt at a fall crop. Will sow them tomorrow under the west vertical structure.
The Kentucky Wonder Wax beans sowed August 4th took (5 or 6 of them), though none of the Great Northern ones did. So anyway, all of these beans are the same kind then.
Sowed lettuce (Romaine "Paris Island Cos"), radishes ("Cherry Belle"), and forget-me-nots in north bed
Sowed buckwheat in north bed, imm south of vertical structure
Pre-soaked in water for ~24 hours, then thickly sowed (1/2 cup of seeds!!). Covered with soil, then watered, then covered with clear plastic.
This is the first time I didn't do any pre-sprouting in PT -- figured it's worth a try.
Fertilized all zucchinis with Azomite (first time), MRP, and kelp meal (1 Tbsp each)
Sunday, August 14, 2022
Another 1.25 pounds of potatoes (measly) -- total of 2 pounds so far
... and that's from $27 worth of seed potatoes!! Compared to ~$5 at the store for a 1.5 pound bag of the nice small potatoes... d'oh.
There are still the 3 pots of potatoes, plus a small area next to the a/c where I had put the runtiest seed potatoes, so maybe a smidge more to come...
On the bright side, the potatoes themselves look fine (though definitely small, even for fingerlings), so at least there is *some* harvest.
Next year I'll look for a blight-resistant variety. (Avoid waxy, because they aren't good for mashing.)
Saturday, August 13, 2022
Big Tofu Plus tomato harvested -- a nice big one!
Wow, these are probably the biggest tomatoes I've grown! Will give it a few more days to ripen inside before trying it.
SVB moth seen laying eggs (on untulled zukes), including on top of leaves
Watched her for a few minutes, followed along removing eggs where I could.
Also, noticed one of the leaves in the tulled zucchini in the west bed (south pair), has a little reddish dot on top of a leaf that isn't touching the netting. I don't think it's a SVB egg, but, am not totally sure. Will try to keep an eye on it.
Thursday, August 11, 2022
And another cabbage butterfly in tulled zucchini
Samed zuke pair as last time (west bed's north pair).
The main tomatoes are finally starting to ripen!
Wow, must have been those two days of rain a few days ago, but finally some of the many nice big green tomatoes in the central bed are starting to ripen. (The cherry tomatoes and the poorly tomatoes in the north bed had started ripening a while ago.)
80th (and 81st and 82nd) zucchini harvested today!
Sunday, August 7, 2022
Another cabbage butterfly in different tulled zucchini!
This time also in the west bed, but the north pair (which is also next to the broccoli bed).
Saturday, August 6, 2022
2 cabbage butterflies inside a tulled zucchini bed!!! Must have hatched from kale leaf used as mulch?
Thursday, August 4, 2022
Pre-soaked beans sowed (two kinds)
The brown beans (Kentucky Wonder Wax) are on the east part, the white beans (Great Northern) are on the west part. Not covering with anything, so maybe the birds etc. might eat them, but in which case, oh well.
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Bean seeds soaking in water, will transplant tomorrow
Would need a warm fall to make it to harvest, but figured I'd try, just to use up the rest of the beans in these two packages:
- Kentucky Wonder Wax (brown beans)
- Great Northern (white beans)
2 of the PT Eureka cucumbers transplanted to central bed temporarily
"Cos Lettuce Mix" and "Baby Pak Choi" scattered in central bed's south part
Just to use up the rest of these random seeds.
Didn't even scratch them in -- will see if they take care of themselves.
The bought basil is getting blighty-looking spots on some leaves (not downy mildew)
Just a few leaves affected so far, otherwise the basil plants look good still.
Haven't seen any of these spots on my home-started basil (Prospera) yet.
No sign of downy mildew on any of the basils yet.
SVB worms (tiny) found in several leaf stems of the un-tulled a/c zucchini
Monday, August 1, 2022
More cucumbers started in PT for fall harvest
2 Marketmore (the last two from the foil packet collection)
4 Eureka
started in PT.
Figured why not, and since only two of the in-ground seem to have made it so far. (Though there are also the 3 in the pot...)