Summer Bounty

August 25, 2011

It seems like we just put the little plants in the ground and already, Alec has cleared out the first round of squash and beans and put in some late season crops. This morning buckets of green beans, tomatoes and peppers were harvested to share with the staff and our members.  On last inspection, I found lettuce, peas, radishes and beets poking up where the squash and beans used to be. 

The tomatoes here at the warehouse are doing so much better than those at home. We have had a problem with blossom rot, which I understand to be the result of inconsistent watering- first too much, and then, not enough. Here at the warehouse, the yellow cherry tomatoes, tiny yellow pear tomatoes, and grape tomatoes are producing like crazy and are just delicious. It is really helping me stay on my diet, because they are better than any kind of candy you can imagine. We also have these amazing pink tomatoes Alec tells me are an old fashioned variety called “Brandywine”. Yummy! Other good producers are the “Better” type and a small round variety which we don’t know the name of. The Zebras and the Mr. Stripeys are just now getting ripe.

The staff has really enjoyed all of the goodness of the garden- fresh tomatoes on our sandwiches, pasta sauce full of peppers, squash and tomatoes, grilled squash, baked squash… then David found a great way to use up some of the zucchini when we all started getting tired of it. Chocolate Zucchini Bread http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/ChocolateZucchiniBread.html really gave us all a new appreciation for this prolific fruit! He substituted “Reece’s” chips for the regular chocolate ones and it made this bread just a little bit “more better”J.

I told you earlier in the season we had a natural pest deterrent to our aphid issue- ladybugs! Now, we have a new issue. Alec is a little worried because his tender little pea shoots are looking a little ragged. Could it be that the cute little rascals in this picture are helping themselves to a moonlight snack? Dot and Lindy would love to see if they squeak when you squeeze them!

All ‘Topsy Turvey”

One of the things that keeps us all gardening is optimism- that the sun will shine, the rain will fall, the seeds will germinate and with a little luck, we will have beautiful tomatoes mid- July. We will have the tomatoes, but not from our original Topsy Turvey planting. As you can see the plants in the purchased topsys flopsied!  Too much water was the culprit. These poor plants simply drowned.

David came up with another set of directions to build our own upside down growing container (directions below). This second round of tomatoes is growing strong and seem to be holding  the water just right.

You may also notice another garden favorite growing out of the top of our planters- it’s basil. Not only is this a delicious planting pairing, it is a practical one. Tomatoes and Basil require similar soil, sun and moisture and are complementary to one another. Planting the Basil in the top of the planter creates a natural umbrella for the soil, again assisting with moisture control.

The plant on the right is bearing fruit. The brown leaves are because                                                                                             we are gone over the weekend and Topsy Turveys require regular watering. 

Hanging Bucket Tomato Planter

Purchase an empty 5-gallon bucket. This bucket can be found at hardware stores. Clean the bucket with warm sudsy water to prepare it for planting your tomato plant.

Cut a hole in the bucket using a drill or a utility knife. The hole should be right in the middle of the bottom of the bucket and about 2 inches in diameter.

Opposite of the handle, drill two holes to accommodate a sturdy cord to form a cross handle. If the bucket does not have a handle, add a second cord to form an X.

With the bucket hanging, place several layers of newspaper in the bottom of the bucket, covering the hole. You can also use a 4 x 4 inch of 1 inch thick foam rubber. This will later be used to anchor the tomato plant.

Cut a slit in the newspaper or foam rubber at the bottom of the bucket to allow you to plant the tomato plant. Plant the seedling with only about 3 inches of the plant coming out of the hole. Use soil to anchor it in the bucket.

Fill the bucket with soil. Soils with vitamin additives, like Miracle-Gro, are the best for growing tomatoes. In the top of the bucket you can plant your favorite herbs. This will help to retain the moisture in the bucket.

Hang the bucket in a sunny area and water. Tomatoes require at least 50 percent sunlight. Move the bucket according to where the most direct sun is during the day.

Harvest tomatoes as they ripen on the vine. Tomatoes will begin to form not long after the tomato plant flowers. The fruit should be red and firm before cutting from the plant.

Alec brings us up to date

A huge THANK YOU to Alec. In addition to being our unofficially official on staff garden expert, he is also today's guest blogger! 

Alec’s Garden log:

July 5, 2011

Discovered a bug that I suspect is Aphid’s on a few of the Tomatoes on Thurs.  I researched ways to get rid of them and there are quite a few methods both organic and otherwise.   Last Thurs. I smushed some of the larger concentrations on the back of some the bigger leaves.  Today, after a five day hiatus, I tried another method.  Since the last possible rain here was Saturday morning and the whole garden needed a big drink, tried the forced water method that I read about.  I held the tip of the vine in one hand, turned the vine over to expose the underside of the leaves and used the hard spray from the hose.  All of the Aphids were washed off.   This will hopefully keep the infestation at bay… we’ll see.

Two tool library customers, returning tools first thing this morning, asked me what I had planted so far.  So, I went through the list: Tomatoes, Peppers, Carrots, Italian Parsley, Eggplant, Runner Beans, Bush Beans, Cucumbers, Yellow Summer Squash,  Edamame (Soybeans), Sweet potatoes and Basil.  The beds planned for this year are about 2/3’s complete.  As we finish these beds in July we will consider the following veggies for fall: Spinach, Peas, Lettuce, Beets, Radishes, Cabbage, Cilantro, and Collard Greens.

The hanging Tomatoes took it tough.  We had planted 4 hanging tomatoes – Two in old ‘Topsy Turvey’ bags and 2 in plastic 3 gallon buckets.  We lost 1 tomato in June to too much water.  Today after 5 days of not much water, the 3 remaining were very dried out and almost dead.  Hanging tomatoes need to be watered about every day in heat.  I had hoped that they got a good soaking during the Saturday morning rain (monitored from home by radar).  I soaked them down real good this morning and they started to perk up almost immediately.   We’ll see if we end up losing any vines or if they all recover.

Yikes! Where does the time go?

June 27, 2011

Well, here we are facing the 4^th of July and, no, our crops aren’t knee high! This whirlwind of a month took me to Denver, Colorado, with a promise to the staff I would make time to update this blog, but, between conference meetings and visiting with my RT peers, I was pooped! Blame it on the lack of oxygen, but every time I sat down to write, I fell asleep.

So here it is, the last Monday of the month and I am making another promise. I will write a short blog every day this week to catch up before I take a nice, quiet “staycation”. During that week, I will send you a quick update about another gardening project we are taking on at home.

This week’s updates will be about:

·         Another method for “Topsy Turvey” growing

·         An update on our plantings

·         A little bit about square foot gardening

·         Why we made some significant changes to our plans

At home, the garden is growing well. The tomatoes are in bloom, the peppers have little about the diameter of a quarter and if the eggplants produce according to bloom, we will have plenty to share. One note of disappointment- after losing the “Battle of the Beans” to the neighborhood rabbits, my husband gave up and plowed down what was left. It was probably for the best, as what was left was a row of bare stems! Rascally rabbits!!!

KeyBank volunteers help RTCO Make a Difference

It finally quit raining! We are so glad that we are not even complaining about the extreme heat, or that fact that this is the second year in a row Ohio has decided to skip having any pleasant spring days and gone right from yucky, cold, wet days to yucky, hot, humid days. At least, we are not complaining much.

Rob Zelina, Pete Schmitt, Eleanor Scott and John Welcome from

 KeyBank

The best thing about the dryer weather so far, is that KeyBank employees, Rob Zelina, Pete Schmitt, Eleanor Scott and John Welcome, came to share their time and talents to build our first raised bed and install the pole for our hanging garden.

What is a raised bed? So glad you asked! Because we are building our garden in an industrial park, we need to amend the soil to avoid pollutants and make it is well balanced. We know the here is heavy clay and not very welcoming to our plants.  The Ohio Farm Bureau explains the need for testing soil in home gardens on an annual basis in this article http://ourohio.org/home-gardens/gardening-basics/year-round/all-the-dirt-on-soil/

We built this bed with cement block our property manager donated- many thanks to Don and his terrific staff!!  When the City Challenge team was here, they lugged about 80 blocks from the back to our complex to our warehouse and started digging the footer and leveling the bed.

Rob, Pete and John hit the ground and really made our first bed a reality. They put in the rest of the block and then dug the holes for the hanging tomato plants (more on this later) and for a small tabled bed that will demonstrate gardening for those unable to get down on their knees to work.

Eleanor prepared the hanging tomato plants in commercial “Topsy Turvy” planters our staff member, Alec brought in from home. This is a great alternative for those who don’t have much room for gardening, and it makes a fun family project. If Alec hadn’t donated the hangers, we would have created our own- here are some simple instructions for using 2 liter bottles http://www.cheapvegetablegardener.com/2009/04/make-your-own-upside-down-tomato.html

P.s. Have to let you all know, I am feeling pretty proud of myself with this post- I got the photos where I actually wanted them, figured out how to add a caption and how to get the links to work! If you have any ideas, or suggestions, please send them my way. We are also looking for guest bloggers, so if you garden and have want to contribute, send me a note. Thanks!

On dogs

If you have ever visited the RTCO Warehouse, chances are you have met Lindy and Dot, our Canine Patrol Corps. Lindy is the lovely, long legged Standard Poodle, and Lieutenant of the Corps- and the brains of the outfit. Dot is her lovable sidekick and comic relief for the team. Dot is a tubby little rescue who thinks she is a long legged Standard Poodle. They sleep at my house and I am their personal chauffeur and valet.

What is the Canine Patrol Corps responsible for? Oh, well… the list is fairly short:

• Crumb cleanup in the kitchen and break room 
• Warehouse cat supervision (more about Maulie in her own post)
• Squirrel Patrol 
• Doorstop (Strategic Napping Patrol)

And, most recently, Dot took on the role of determining the soil moisture level in the garden at my house.

Last Sunday, my husband, Steve, challenged the weather and raced through tilling and planting our new, smaller garden plot. Earlier in the week we had lamented our old garden spot which was 14’ x 40’ and produced 100’s of bushels of produce in rich, loamy soil for over 20 years. We had tended and enriched it while our family and the sapling trees our neighbors all planted around it grew up. A couple of years ago, it didn’t produce nearly as well and when we stopped and thought about it, it was in part because our once sunny plot is now nearly all shade!

Dot  and Lindy on Squirrel Patrol

Since we are now empty nested, it made sense to start a new plot in a sunnier part of the yard and while we loved our big garden, we don’t need quite that much to care for any more. We are working on the soil in our new 14' x14' plot and it tilled up nice and loose this year. It looked healthy and happy Sunday evening, with all of our plants in. And then, of course, it rained. Lots. Lots and lots and lots of rain. Several inches of rain on our nice, loose soil.

And so, back to Dot’s new role of garden soil soup monitor. I was on one side of the garden when our neighbor, Bob, came over to take a gander at the havoc the rain played on our baby plants. He has a vested interest in our garden because we are his orange tomato source every summer.

Dot was on the other side of the garden. Dot likes Bob. Dot took the shortest route to get to Bob- straight through the garden. It was a good thing Dot had some momentum going, because Dot’s short legs were no match for our garden soil soup. She landed on all four smack dab in the center of the tomatoes and was instantly up to her brisket in mud. Immediate reaction- PANIC!!! You could see her limited intellect responding “Feet don’t fail me now”!!! According to the Dot Garden Soil Soup Monitor, we have good soil moisture- probably about 8 inches deep.

They met the CITY CHALLENGE!

Last Thursday, I stayed home to hide out and work on writing a grant- staying focused in the office can be a bit of a challenge for me, so I sometimes hide out! While I was out, some wonderful people showed up and started making our garden a reality.

They manned the tillers and dug in to lay out the first bed. This one is 4’x12’ and bordered with concrete stone donated by our property managers here at Warehouse Services. Thanks millions to Isaac, Aaron, Jay, Samantha, Grant, Ellie and Toby for their hard work.  

We will add new soil (Thanks to The City of Columbus and Franklin County Community Gardens Grant, In cooperation with the Foundation for Active Living of The Columbus Foundation and our friends at Scotts) and cross our fingers that we get just the right amount of sunshine and showers to get our seedlings off to the right start.

We are all really anxious to get to that ripe tomato.