Windy, Wet Weather Doth Not Motivate Me

The blueberries have obviously been doing well without my help.

Was looking at my 2009 records and think I will push most of my major activity to the latter half of May. I did things earlier last year, but I just don't feel that the yields lived up to 2009. Then again, it could have just been the differences in weather between the two years.

Took advantage of the nice weather today and prepped some new wood planters that will be used for ornamental stuff. Will probably look into grasses and some other things that will add some visual interest throughout the year, as well as survive the winters on the rooftop. In the pipe dream category we'll go for lilacs and a fig tree, and to round everything out, a trip to the greenmarket for some annuals.

If the weather forecast holds for this weekend I think I'll prep two boxes and put in some french breakfast radishes and golden beets. If I have a free finger to hook a bag, may also take the speedy/lazy route and pick up some greens/lettuces from SHF at the greenmarket.

I'd been thinking about training some vines up a brick wall dominating our rooftop space...any suggestions? I saw this post with morning glories; I was also tossing around the idea of pole beans like scarlet runners, or maybe even hops (though I just read something about getting sticky when handling them). Thoughts?

New Season!

This season kind of snuck up on me - and seeing leaf buds on our blueberries really drilled that home. Busy with other things, this year I did not get around to starting seedlings indoors, so I will be relying on Silver Heights Farm (SHF) for seedlings, and direct sow other things. This is what I have in mind for this year:

• lettuces / greens (direct)
• radishes (direct)
• bush beans (direct)
• beets (direct)
• tomatoes (SHF)
• summer squash (direct)
• peppers (SHF)
• basil (SHF)

I've had good luck with all of the above in previous years so I'm keeping things simple...maybe try a few different varieties of tomatoes and peppers. Any suggestions from my fellow roof/balcony gardeners?

PS - I have MANY seeds that I likely won't use, really just about everything and anything you may wish to grow. If you're still in the market for seeds this year, comment this post and let me know what you're interested in and I'll post back what I have. I have a bunch from Pinetree and some from Hudson Valley Seed Library, Baker's Creek, Johnny's and a few others.

Final Harvest

Our box of kale has produced really well despite a bit of neglect (what can I say, caring for a newborn trumps caring for a garden). The golden beets never really got going - seems these do better on the roof in early spring.

We're going to cut this down and pack up the garden for the year. Final thoughts in next post.

Fall Greens

I may be behind the curve here, but popped some kale seedlings I started into an EB, and started some more kale and rainbow chard this past week. My more experienced rooftop gardener friend just put some seed in this week as well so maybe I'm not too late for a nice harvest before the dead of winter. I think the kale and chard may be the extent of my fall gardening...maybe some golden beets in the rest of the boxes if I feel motivated this weekend.

Transitions...already?

Powdery mildew has invaded the tondo scuro and costata romanesco squash plants on the roof and the dragon langerie beans are slowing down, so I'm starting to think of what to replace them with. We've had success with basil this year so I may get six plants in one of the boxes to extend the harvest into fall and start some cooler weather greens in the other.

Tomatoes are doing well - since putting some pickling lime in and ensuring the mix stays wet, it seems the new fruits have escaped BER. I've started a BER graveyard to remind me to stay vigilant. Bucolic Bushwick did point out some troubles of competition amongst tomato plants, which is interesting since I think that's why the robeson and money maker are so challenged (they went in after plants that were put in alongside my existing prince and zebra went the way of compost). When watering this morning I did notice some leaves on the zebra getting the "purple-spot wilties," so we'll see how much longer the good harvest lasts.

Harvests & Help Line

We've been having a reasonably successful harvest so far. We enjoyed handfuls of blueberries every day for some time and have since let the mockingbirds have their run of the runts. The etruria basil plans from Silver Heights Farm have not let us down, as they exploded in this heat wave we've been having; we cut them all the way back to barely two leaf sets and hope to have another huge harvest in a month or so. The dragon tongue beans are pushing out good handfuls every day - enough for a nice bean salad every day or two (though seemingly not as productive as the black valentines we grew last year).

Squash has been a mixed bag...the tondo scuro and costata romanesco are producing in fits and starts. Earlier in the season it seemed we had a pollination issue as fruit was withering mid-growth. Interestingly I think we had the squash started later last year and the fruiting coincided with the appearance of our band of bees. Since the bee activity picked up this year withering fruit has been less of a problem. I might stick to the later start as I am not one to be out there trying to hand pollinate squash...I just don't care enough to go to that length.

Tomatoes, where to begin....they are enormous, so I've taken to trimming the tops. I have had issues with blossom end rot (BER), so over the past couple of weeks I've had to lop off painful amounts of fruit. I'm in the process of procuring pickling lime, which has been identified as a quick-fix. Last year I had the same problem but read that often EBs take at least a year to "get balanced." (BER can be caused by a number of things, among them calcium deficiency)

I picked up the covers of the tomato EBs and noticed that the top was dry. Not sure if this is a function of the crazy heat we've been having, but I'm suspecting that the garbage Miracle-Gro Organic Choice mix I picked up this year is not wicking properly. I've had good luck with this selection in the past, but this year's bags seemed to be more "bark-y" than usual. This morning I'm going to try watering the boxes from the top down to ensure that the mix is thoroughly wet and therefore capable of absorbing the dolomite and fertilizer more efficiently.

BER took my one Paul Robeson, but I still have a decent amount of black prince, green zebra and money maker on the vines, which I am watching over obsessively for any hints of ripening. As for the size issue, next year I might go for a box of determinates instead of two boxes of indeterminates...since the missus and I have started canning some stuff.

Cheers to summer - and if there are any of you in NYC I'd love to hear your experiences with the season so far in the comments.

Rooftop gardening essentials

1. Windblock. Bucolic Bushwick is using reed fencing but I haven't really spent time figuring out how to use something that tall for my space without it either blowing away or blocking sun for a portion of the day. In the meantime I have a janky setup based on a design used by one of the Green Roof Growers. If I recall the sides are 2 x 8s, the bases 2 x 4s and the corners 1 x 2s. Yes, that's plastic wrap...does a good job of protecting seedlings and allowing light to fall on them. When things get crowded, it comes off...usually the plant is established enough to endure summer winds by then with a little extra protection. Last year I ended up putting landscape fabric up after the EBs came out of the trenches; this year I will go with reed fencing only if I can find a short height. I have no comment on ecological soundness of plastic wrap and lumber from a big box store at this time.

2. Earth Staples. Last year I wrapped twine around the EBs to prevent the mulch cover from whipping apart seedlings. This year I bought some of these and they work out perfectly when pushed through the cover.

Frost-free Update

I noticed that the street-level in-ground gardener up the block put in all of his tender plants this past week (I see basil, peppers and tomatoes). Given that he has likely been gardening in this area for over 25 years, he's probably developed a good feel for the season.

For the most part everything is growing well now that we're into mid-May. We've been taking regular harvests from the lettuce and puntarella. The bush beans & squash reminded me that they are super-quick to germinate by pushing through the EB covers in less than a week. Hands down, save for radishes perhaps, they are the best feel-good crop for newbie container gardeners.

This weekend's chores: pulling all victims of the storms and wind of the past couple of weeks (some tomatoes, all basil, most peppers), thinning out squash and beans, sowing herbs (lemon balm, anise hyssop, florence fennel), sunflowers (dwarf firecrackers) and more bush beans.

Harvest & Hope

First harvest of the year was a small batch of french breakfast radishes that we tossed in our dinner salad. Radishes are an excellent "placeholder" as they take roughly a month from seed to harvest.

Busied myself this morning by direct sowing squash and bush beans, and transplanting strawberries, tomatoes, basil, peppers into the EBs. Had followed the Seed-Starters Handbook timing guidelines for the seed-starts and found them way too early for someone in an apartment with limited space and no dedicated grow setup to ensure sufficient light for them (though my guessing on a 4/15 frost-free date in NYC was also a factor). I started them all in six-pack cells and then moved the tomatoes and peppers to bottle SIPs. Tomatoes & peppers are "leggy," while the strawberries and basil seem hardy but stopped growing about a month ago; I put them all in anyway and we'll see what happens.

A Stokes Farm rosemary plant found its way into our Ikea planter.

Other things going on - chives are sending up blossoms, cilantro is up, lettuce is up, mache is up, blueberries are forming, lavender is sending up flower stalks, chinese fringe tree getting ready to flower, zinnias, marigolds, calendula are up, and the Silver Heights Farm lettuce & puntarella seem happy in their EB spaces.

Spring

When forsythia bloom in NYC it's a sure sign that spring has arrived...or at least spring weather has arrived. Just returned from a short vacation and glad to see our forsythia has held onto its flowers while we were away. The pussywillow has shed its catkins (picture below is a couple weeks old) and is now "leafing" out. The abundant buds on our blueberry bushes turned out not to be leaf buds, but all flower buds, so we're excited about the prospect of a fruit harvest this year; now it's a watching and waiting to beat the grackles to the ripe fruit.

My wonderful mother kept my pepper, strawberry, basil and tomato seedlings alive while we were away, but they are long overdue for a transplant to bottle SIPs. Pictures to come.

If I ever get caught up with work after vacation, I'll put lettuce, parsley, cilantro, calendula and more chives in containers...soon squash and bush beans will go in as well. Already in EarthBoxes are french breakfast radishes (up) and sugar snaps/snow peas (went in a number of weeks ago, a possible fail).

Finally, I'm gambling on April 15 being the last expected frost date for NYC, so a whole host of other seeds will go in around then. Stay tuned.

2010

New year brings new posts - as my faithful reader could easily tell due to the lack of posting, I experienced a sudden lack of motivation for the garden and the blog. Considering the amount of effort put forth towards getting it started earlier in the year, I can't say that it was a surprise.

So we rode out the year with a few fall crops (pictured right, a broccoli head that bolted before we managed to harvest it...hence it served as a kitchen ornamental instead). In the past week I've been going through the envelopes & envelopes of seed; saying that I overbought would be quite the understatement. I'm putting together a list of contenders for our limited space, and in the course of my research, I learned in The New Seed Starter's Handbook that strawberries should be started now if they are to bear fruit in the first year. So where did I stash that seedstarting mix?!

Calyces Ripped My Flesh & Eyeball-Busting Humidity

Transition time here at the urban garden. Salad boxes have been put back into service with surrey arugula, broccoli raab novantina and a "kitchen sink" micro-green mix. In the EarthBoxes, the fungus-challenged squashes and tomato, as well as all the tiring bush bean plants have all been pulled and in their places went sowings of waltham and calabrese broccoli, snowball cauliflower, rat's tail radish, noble spinach, wakefield cabbage...all of which are seeking sun through their mulch covers already. Picked up some more Etruria basil plants and anise hyssop from Silver Heights Farm.

Still enjoying regular harvests of lacinato kale, swiss chard, collards, basil, rosa bianca eggplants and jalapenos. All things considered it's been a successful season here so far. It hasn't been without its challenges, but we've managed to eke out some good harvests from six EarthBoxes and three salad boxes; next year I plan to keep a record of our yields.

Issues edition

Some less serious updates on flickr.

Blossom end rot on tomatoes. There is much information on this around the internet, but of interest to urban gardeners is that on the EarthBox forum there have been comments about this being somewhat prevalent in first-year EBs. While precise explanations weren't offered, it seems that it has something to do with needing a year for the box to shake itself in terms of calcium distribution from the added lime. We'll see what happens next year; while many of the fruits on the tomato have succumbed, we do have a number remaining and waiting for warm weather to boost ripening.

Not entirely positive on what this is, but it affected many of the tomato plant's branches. Tomato spotted wilt virus? I pruned the most affected branches and am now playing the waiting game.

Powdery mildew. I had noticed this on a few leaves early on in the growth of the two ronde de nice plants and ignored it. After a few days, it had spread to the entire plant. There has been new leaf growth on the plant and even these young leaves have been affected. Next year I will be more vigilant about treating with natural fungicide in the early stages. Also noted that the adjacent vegetable marrow squash is not affected, so perhaps the ronde de nice is a susceptible variety.

Healthy and since-harvested ronde de nice on the left, starved, failed squash on the right. Happened on all three squash plants. Not sure what causes this, but since the squash fruited so heavily, and I've read that squash are heavy feeders, I imagine that the EarthBox, which is supporting three squash plants and a cucumber, simply couldn't support all that fruit at once. We had our initial harvest of squash and I was concerned that was it, as there was no apparent additional fruit. In the past week though, the squash has advanced, and a second fruit set is well into development.

Delicious set of aphids. Again, I was a little too enamored with all the jalapeno peppers on these plants and I slacked on my aphid vigilance. They received a dose of neem oil-based spray and will be dust in a few days.

balcony update in pictures

Calyx of forming rosa bianca eggplant.

Wind-blown rosa bianca eggplant.

Forming tomato on adopted tomato (unsure of variety).

This pic of the tomato has a very jack and the beanstalk feel to it. Will be researching tomato pruning this winter.

roof update in pictures

ronde de nice summer squashvegetable marrow summer squash
competition for a squash blossom
the four earthboxes, two bucket SIPs

HVSL Seed

Below are all from Hudson Valley Seed Library seed.

Black valentine bush beans have been providing us with amazing amounts of beans, and judging by the flowers they are just getting warmed up. Put some rainbow chard and dino kale seedlings in the front row for fall harvest.

Catskills brussels sprouts in a bucket SIP. Hoping for some good sprouts this fall, though I don't know how I did with the transplant timing on this one.

Dino kale and rainbow chard. The chard ended up all yellow and has provided us with great yield. The dino kale is obviously doing well...it's perhaps our favorite green so to have it grow so well upstairs is wonderful.

Double-yield cucumber, looking for sun. Next year I'll be more prepared with support!

Roof Garden Overview

There was some shuffling around last weekend - regular readers will note that the EB "trench" that was built based on the "tyrus" design is now being used simply to create windbreak using some leftover landscaping fabric we had on hand. Definitely not the most aesthetically pleasing solution, but the wind on the roof was really doing a number on everything. I was hoping once summer rolled around the wind would diminish, but it doesn't seem as though that will ever happen. We don't remember it being so windy in the summer but perhaps we're more in tune with it due to gardening concerns. I'm already thinking about a semi-permanent windbreak design for next year.

The back row is all bush beans, black valentines on the right and pencil pod & royal burgundy on the left. I pulled another aesthetically pleasing solution out of my hat to support the plants, which were wind-whipped and leaning over the side of the box. Cut-up old t-shirts tied to a string!

In front of the black vals remain carrots, though I will probably not attempt carrots in the future. Some of them did not survive the removal of the radishes, and that's left me with about four carrots. I may even just pull them up and put in some lacinato kale and chard seedlings I have languishing in cowpots.

You can seen our chard, kale and collards are doing well...these are real winners and we may double our EB dedication since we love them so much and they seem to grow decently well on the roof.

In front of the pencil pods & royal burgundies are golden beets. I love golden beets and their tops, but the harvest will tell me if I need to grow them again. The bonus of eating both tops and roots is a big one, but we're still only talking eight plants...and I don't think it's possible to harvest the tops while the roots are still forming.

In the bucket SIP is a Catskills brussels sprout. It will soon be joined by another bucket SIP containing Waltham broccoli.

Last but not least is the MONSTER box in the foreground, on the right. The box contains direct-sown ronde de nice and marrow squashes, with a transplanted HVSL double-yield cuke (which I just realized is not in the frame). We haven't harvested anything from these yet but judging by all the forming squashes this is a slam-dunk for a repeat effort in 2010. I'm generally not a huge fan of cucumbers and the only reason I planted them is that it was one of the early seed packs I had on hand, but maybe my opinion will change if I have fresh cucumbers at hand throughout the growing season - and ms. mapleton-bklyn loves her some half-sour pickles.

So, that was a long-winded way of saying things are growing mostly well on the roof for now. Our harvest is a bit later than what I imagine is standard for this area due to our later start on things, but it's shaping up to be a pretty good first year.

EB harvest

Lacinato kale, rainbow chard, watermelon radishes. The radishes weren't really ready but things were getting crowded in that box, with the radishes, black val beans and danvers carrots. Next year I'm seriously considering limiting the varieties to one per box.

This is a summer squash (2 x ronde de nice and 1 x vegetable marrow) and cucumber (HVSL double-yield) box, though you don't see a cucumber in the picture. I know cucumber tends to take over everything but mine did not know it would be sharing a box with summer squash. That marrow leaf in the foreground is bigger than my head, and my head (physically) is pretty big. Yes, there is some weird white stuff on the veins of the ronde de nice leaf in the back, but like a patio farmer I know I choose to look the other way for now.

Okay, so cherries were from Locust Grove Farm but making pie was a nice break from aphid management. Wonder if a sour cherry tree will produce on our roof...

Beginning Gardening Tip #1

From one first-year gardener to others - don't let the joy and Jonas-Brothers-tween-squeal-inducing presence of an eggplant flower or forming tomato distract you from the presence of aphids.

I've had to ditch two tarragon plants and four pansies due to aphid infestations. One minute things are hunky-dory, maybe some brown edges or other signs...then THEY'RE EVERYWHERE.

I returned from a two-day trip to find an eggplant flower and impressive progress of our first tomato and jalapeno fruits. Doubling back later to admire them again, I noticed some tiny holes on the eggplant leaves; sure enough, with closer inspection on the underside of the leaves, there were aphids. Being an urban gardener without a hose to spray them away, I gave the eggplant and tomato plants a treatment of neem tree seed oil-based insecticide. I've had good results with insecticidal soap in the past on bush basil that was aphid-infested.

Of course, that is a rain-dotted balcony door you see in the photo above, so hopefully the neem did its trick before being mostly washed away.

I'm a little concerned about my urban crop because I've been seeing bugs more often these days, and a little image Googling has identified them as flea, cucumber, squash and insert-vegetable-name-here beetles. Yes, where there are vegetables, there are bugs...I was hoping that the leaf-shredding winds of our balconies and rooftop would at least provide us the benefit of blowing away insects. Who knows? Perhaps we would have much bigger problems if we were ground-level in-ground gardeners; at least our plants are not sitting in puddles of water.

On a positive flying-thing-note, there has been noticeable increased bumblebee presence this year over last.

Surprise Guests

While clearing out salad box 1.0 for another sowing, I came across a number of surprise guests - I imagine they are red wigglers, as fifty-percent of the mix in the box is LES Ecology Center compost. I don't know whether there were eggs in the mix when I brought it home or if there were already mature worms hanging out in there. Needless to say I was a little less aggressive with the hand fork upon discovering my squirming friends.

I decided to pull this box because, as compared with the simpson & usb mix in box 2.0, its produce was bitter. It was sown in late April, was (maybe) allowed to dry out a bit too much a couple times in the early days, and was (probably) thinned a little late. I'm chalking up the bitterness to gardener error, but I wonder how much the growing media influences produce bitterness, and whether there are any amendments that can be made to improve the produce. The only tips I could find are to keep lettuce evenly moist and cool to keep it growing fast and sweet. Any suggestions?

Up next in box 1.1 - radichetta, lolla rossa, red sails and merveille des quatre saisons. Is that last one part of the Named Vegetables Trend? Bittman calls this the trend that means, "you no longer eat just, say, gremolata, but 'A Relish of Flat Leaf Parsley, Meyer Lemon Zest, and Bob's Iranian Garlic.'" If so, next month's chez Mapleton-BKLYN guests should be prepared for a "La Merveille des Quatre Saisons Early Summer Harvest Salad with Charcoal-Grilled Baby Ronde de Nice Squash, Evolutionary Organics Watermelon Radishes and Green Goddess Dressing featuring Hudson Valley Seed Library Forest Green Parsley & Chives." Maybe I'll cut the lettuce super early so I can add "Baby" to the name. Oh yes, and it's a pass on the anchovies in the dressing for my vegetarian friends, in case any of you were wondering.

Summer is on its way, and though this afternoon we had a brief showing of sun and respite from the humidity that has been plaguing us here in NYC, dark ominous clouds have rolled in right now. I was feeling a little moldy myself and it doesn't look like that will end any time soon.

Since my sowing and setup activities have dwindled, and you probably don't want posts like "wow, my squash leaves just grew 1.2mm in the past six hours," I'll be turning off the computer and spending the summer outdoors. I will post if I think it worth posting for the benefit of fellow freshmen gardeners or anyone thinking of diving headfirst into urban container gardening. I'll also be posting regularly on flickr as growth and harvest warrant (hint, I think one can use RSS to keep track of new posts if so inclined).

As always, I welcome feedback, suggestions, flames and token gifts...especially token gifts. Comment away and have a safe and productive summer.