Dabney Garden Blog

Well, almost.  See the updated Fall Planting Map for details.  Val and I put in a row of snow peas and one of kohlrabi this morning, and I planted some daikon along the north-south sides of the bean patch (between the beans; see signs) and one little row within the patch (again, see sign).  We’re planning to put in potatoes and arugula, and to move some more of the squash over to the herb patch.  Prior to planting the peas and kohlrabi, we worked about 40 pounds of coffee grounds into the soil, so hopefully the little plants should be happy.

Our old compost orb is totally hot.  Science compost needs more green. It will receive coffee grounds. 

The new green hose running the automagic watering of the snow peas and kohlrabi belongs to Blacker.  I’m going to buy us another hose, possibly tomorrow, and give it back.  We have at least 4 non-working busted leaky hoses.  Seriously guys, quit mowing the hoses.

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?

Tons of people showed up this weekend, and we got some things done– pruned the tomatoes and moved squash out of the allium patch and a strawberry out of the tomatoes.  Also did some mulching around the newly respectable tomato patch.  Val watered the mulch, and it turns out mulch doesn’t absorb water– we had a wheelbarrow full of mulch soup.  Even though the middle layer was dusty. Weird.  

I sprayed the squash with 10% skim milk again, and there is so far no sign of powdery mildew.  However, I’ve noticed that some of the tiny plants often have dirt on their leaves in the morning, so I’m worried that the watering system is spraying them.  (Keeping the leaves dry prevents the mildew spores from sprouting, another good prevention strategy.)

We also attempted to make science compost in a new black orb, using layered browns and greens, old compost for bacteria, and compost starter / helper thing. Most of the green we had today was coffee grounds from Red Door, and it looks like we can get a 13-gallon trashcan full about every two days, if we’re good about picking it up.  It seems that the other two composters are actually going a bit, the original black orb especially.  Also, extensive and energetic turning and removal of sticks and supposedly-compostable CDS cups has made the upright composter a lot happier.  We also pulled out all the egg cartons and tore them up– I’m hoping that more effective surface area will make them break down faster.

We should to get a few things done in the near term:

• Move some more squash plants into the main bean patch
• Plant daikon radishes in the now bean + squash patch
• Trellis the peas– the larger ones are already sending out tendrils
• Plant snow peas, arugula, and potatoes– and anything else we want for a winter crop

The MHF Fund has generously agreed to provide funding for us to purchase a drip irrigation system. Currently, the money was included in a grant to the Caltech Community Garden Project, and they’ll be placing the order for us directly. Stay posted for details.

Roper and I spent another $35 of the garden fund on seeds.  While this seems like a small amount, it’s not sustainable from year to year, and we’re all about sustainability.  So let’s save seeds from this stuff.

But yeah, we’ll shortly be receiving

• Arugula (Rocket)
• Amaranth
• Anise Hyssop (good for teas and attracting bees) 
• Pennyroyal
• Coriander 
• Green Honeydew Melon (resistant to powdery mildew!)
• “Beer Friend” variety Edamame  ;-)
• Daikon (Japanese radish)
• Kohlrabi

The herbs, amaranth, and edamame will have to wait until spring, but if we can find space, let’s put in some of the rest this weekend.

We also ordered some bacterial inoculants, to give our peas, beans, and edamame the symbiotic bacteria to fix nitrogen effectively.  The bacteria persist in the soil after being introduced, so we’ll only have to do this once.   

Now all we need is a trashcan and a machete.  Val’s on it.

(File it under “smarter composting.”)

Over the past two weekends (10/19 and 10/26) we planted most of the garden with crops that will hopefully winter well– lots of greens, carrots, beets, squash and cucumber, peas, and herbs.   As of this morning, most of the greens and the beets, carrots, and broccoli are coming up, and the garden is filled with rows of tiny plants.  And they’re already identifiable by color and leaf morphology.  Perhaps more impressively, the cucumbers and peas, and especially the squash, were huge when they sprouted, and only getting bigger.  It’s amazing what a difference a bigger seed makes. 

So far, the squash are thriving, but I’m leery of the return of AIDS (powdery mildew).  Some evidence suggests that spraying with dilute milk is somewhat effective as a preventative.  A review, on the other hand, suggests that the problem hasn’t been conclusively scienced.   In the meantime, I’ve sprayed the squash and cucumbers with a 10% skim milk solution, and may switch to whole milk if I remember to buy it.  Val wants me to switch to baking soda so I don’t kill her.  I will take this under consideration.

And here is a map.

And here is a table of when things should be ready to eat.  (AKA “Theoretical Eating Chart”)

Edit: Map and table can now be found in the “Resources” in the right-hand toolbar.

That’s all for now.

I arrived at the garden this afternoon to find all the weeds removed and the size of the garden increased by a factor of 2 or more. What’s even more amazing is that almost all the existing plants are perfectly OK. We don’t actually know what agents are responsible for this, but whoever it was worked magic, because I understand it all got done in one day — work that would take us a week with a pickax and shovel. Thank you so much to whoever’s responsible!

So we planned the winter crops, in order to make sure we’ve got something planted to keep down the weeds. Roper’s door (in Tunnel) contains the full list, which he will perhaps post here at some point when he’s got a bit of a break from work. Suffice it to say that there are a huge number of different greens coming, plus some root veggies, peas, squash, cucumbers, and various oniony things. Planting schedule will be forthcoming, but hasn’t been discussed yet; many of the seeds were ordered today, so we’ll have to wait for them to come in.

Incidentally, the new crop of beans seem to be doing great. If you want to pick some, go ahead; the ones growing in shadier parts of the plants are tastier.

The volume of comments I have to sift through (don’t moderate all, some get flagged) was getting too much, so we added reCaptcha. It’s pretty easy to use and helps digitize old books! If you want to avoid having to use it, you can post signed in. If you want an account, you should email Alex.

http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~garden/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page