Dabney Garden Blog

Tree Trimming

So, over MLK weekend, I sent an email to Grounds Manager Delmy Emerson asking whether we could have the two olive trees trimmed to allow more sunlight in the big patch.  Remarkably, the following Wednesday afternoon I happened upon a guy finishing up the job.  Thanks Grounds!  (Unfortunately it hasn’t been sunny any day since, so it’s hard to tell how much better it will be yet.)

Fungicide

I bought a tree oil based fungicide to help out with the powdery mildew problems (neem oil, for those of you keeping score at home).  I refuse to let the squash die of it without a fight.  I have no illusions that a chemical that comes from a tree is necessarily better than one that comes from a lab.  I’m sure it doesn’t qualify as organic, and I can attest that the concentrate is an irritant. (Yeah yeah, the bottle warned me.)  I chose this particular chemical primarily based on the fact that it breaks down quickly in the environment (one to several days) and has low phytotoxicity at use concentrations.  It kills the mildew on contact and ceases to be active after it dries, so I’ve been using it about once a week on the squash, tomatoes, beans, occasionally the lower leaves of the kale.  I have gone to some lengths to avoid spraying anything someone would want to eat.  It seems to be helping.  The tomatoes especially respond well to it– we won’t be pulling up any more of them.

Worm Composting

So, I finished building a worm bin and ordered a pound of worms from the internet at the tremendous cost of $33.  It’s not clear you could do it for any cheaper. I called about 6 local nurseries, but the best offer I got was I could reserve some worms from the next order, three week lag. Sad.  (Note: composting worms are Eisenia foetida, not the same as normal earthworms.  They’re good at living at high population density and eating approximately their own body weight per day of most anything you can throw at them. Earthworms, I’m told, would just die.)  So we should get our worms next Tuesday or Wednesday, and start having them eat things for us.  Between the worms and the regular bins, we should have some nice compost to use for spring plantings.

Fooood!

Since that last week or nine days had consistent temperatures of 80-85 degrees, the tomatoes set a tremendous amount of fruit.  I’ve picked and eaten or distributed at least 10 cute little tomatoes, and there are many more, including a conical heirloom variety, beginning to ripen on the plants. Kristen notes that the tomatoes taste like they were grown in the cold.  I’m interested to see whether we can tell the difference after it gets warm.  Also, it’s really cool that the tomatoes are still doing so well-  we’ll have tomatoes continuously as soon as it gets warm.

There’s also arugula and lettuce growing wild in the yard, presumably seeded from last year’s wall patch. Along with the thriving mustard greens, you can make a pretty solid salad. 

The radishes aren’t large, but we ate a tiny one the other day– very punchy, good flavor.

I think the beans are done; their last gasp yielded about a quarter cup of dry-able beans.  I’m going to pull them out soon, and I’m strongly considering just leaving in the trellising and planting new beans seeds come warm times. Who said gardening had to be hard?

Also, in a few days, we’re going to start having peas.

Beef & veggie stew using onions and beans from the garden.  Not that you can really tell that from the photo, but isn’t it cool?

Delmy Emerson has offered us “a truckload over the course of a few days” of woodchips every now and then. While I appreciate the gesture, I’m rapidly beginning to think we’ll need to scale the composting operation back or else turn the entire backyard into a compost pile! Still, any extra woodchips (or compost for that matter) can be given away via craigslist or Freecycle or, if worst comes to worst, thrown away (compost is better in a landfill than compostables).

Not to mention our mulch problems are solved.

Last night, we cooked an excellent bean dish with the Kentucky Wonders from the garden (we picked tons and there are plenty left, prolific vines those). Seasoned with Sichuanese chili bean paste, scallions and garlic scapes (also from the garden), and stir-fried in peanut oil. ‘Twas delicious.

Pictures speak louder than words. Full resolution photos available from sidebar to right.

The appetizer: homegrown yellow tomatoes with black pepper and mozzerella:


Val stir fries the seasonings


Here are the famous beans themselves!


We topped it off with a few dried Cayennes my parents sent me from their garden back in Michigan. I’d been eating the pieces, but ran into one really hot one and made a dash for some milk:-)