San Diego County Fair - Plant Envy!

I went to the San Diego County Fair today and visited their "Farm" section, where they planted a bunch of crops and also had some educational exhibits on composting and vermicomposting.  I had such plant envy as I looked at all the bountiful vegetables that they were growing and at how huge all their crops were!

Herb Garden

Sunflowers

Gourds

Corn

Sweet Peas

Raised Bed for Herbs

Tomato Garden 

All of their tomato plants were at least 4 feet high!

Giant Cabbages

Carrots

Radishes - Looks like something out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon!

I also learned about vermicomposting, or composting with worms.  There are several ways to do it, but the most common is with a worm bin.  I've always been reluctant to try this out because commercial worm bins on the market typically cost anywhere from $80-$100, plus another $20+ for worms.  Seemed to be too big of an investment for just trying something out.  But I learned today that I could make my own bin for less than $10!  Here are the instructions that I got from the exhibit:

I also met a nice lady who does her own worm composting and she made it sound so easy! So I'm going to go to WalMart and get some plastic bins and build my own! More on this next time!

Vegetable Bounty

I've finally came to terms with the fact that I need to pick my vegetables. They've been sitting on the plants for a while now, and I've been hoping that they'd ripen even more, but I think that they have reached their peak. If I wait any longer, I won't be able to enjoy them. So today, I picked most of my bell peppers (including one mutant pepper), a few tomatoes, a cucumber, and a couple of okra. I'll probably bring some of these peppers to my mom tonight so she can make some of her awesome stuffed peppers.

Here's my tiny okra:



And a Mutant Pepper!! It's like a little one trying to emerge from the big one! Just like the mutant tomato in my last blog entry!

I'm so sad that summer is coming to an end. My garden will take a little rest soon, and it'll be time for focus on winter vegetables! Stay tuned!!

MUTANT TOMATO!!

Look at what I found in my garden today.

To the casual onlooker, this looks like an ordinary, lovely garden tomato.



By a closer look reveals-- EEK!


A MUTANT TOMATO!!





This reminds me of those stories of a baby absorbing its twin in the womb, except in this case, it looks like the twin is trying to emerge from it.





I have no idea how this happened, but I'm looking forward to eating it! :)

My Garden - 5 months later

Thought I'd give everyone a look at how my side garden looks 5 months after my baseline entry. To remind you all, here's how the Rookie Garden looked in March 2010:

With a lot of sweat, blood, and tears--- well, mostly sweat... and achy hands, it has since been cultivated to look as it does today. A few weeks ago, I covered the bare spots with wood chips, and it really finished the area up.

*ROOKIE TIP: Wood chips are great for your garden not only because they look nice, but they also help to retain moisture, prevent weeds from growing out of control and some types will deter deer (I think cedar wood chips help with that).

I'm so proud of how my garden looks today!!

From the other end:

Sorry the pics are fuzzy... took them with my phone camera. You can click on the picture to see a higher resolution version. I'll have to take some detailed before and after pictures to compare how everything looks now in relation to my very first blog entry.

I've really learned a lot in the last 6 months and continue to learn... Here are some pictures from other areas in my garden:

And look! Siamese cucumber twins!!! Can't wait to eat that one! =)

Thanks for visiting!!!

HOLY MOLY!!!

I got home today after a week of business travel. My hubby's been gracious enough to water my plants everyday while I've been gone, and I was so happy to see that my plants were doing really well when I got home. I went to check out my Italian squash plants and, HOLY MOLY! Here's what I found!!

These were more like Italian Stallion Squash!

I don't know what the hubby did, but WOW!!

Needless to say, we'll be eating lots of squash this weekend. :)

Tonight, we shall have peas!

Sugar snap peas, that is! Freshly picked from my garden!

I think I'm going to give these guys a quick stir-fry and have them with some rice! YUM!!

The fruits-- or shall we say-- Vegetables of Summer

Well, well... how quickly Summer approaches us! And with Summer are the vegetable that are FINALLY starting to show up in my garden!!

TOMATOES:

ZUCCHINIS (Or are they called Italian Squash?)

Snap Beans!




And here's the beginning of a young cucumber!

I've been traveling a lot for work lately, and have found that my garden seems to make more progress while I'm gone for a few days. Maybe it's because I'm not going outside every 4 hours to see if anything's changed!! Hahaah!!

Eww! Gross!! Aphids in the Rookie Garden!

Plant them and they will come. Typically, I am hoping that "they" are the fruits, vegetables, and flowers that sprout from my garden that I so adore. But today, "they" are the bugs in my garden that are eating all my plants, and frankly just give me the willies!

I've been noticing that my tomatoes and bell pepper plants in my side yard have been exhibiting signs of damage. The tomato leaves are getting spotted, and there seems to be something eating up my bell pepper plants. Well, yesterday, a closer look revealed, YIKES! APHIDS and other strange tiny bugs!! I found these suckers on my tomato leaves:

Any ideas about what the heck this is:

On top of that, I've noticed these little blue bugs on my mint plant... in clusters.

In examining them closer, I realize that they're not little blue bugs, but dark green YIKES! APHIDS!!!

How many do you see? I counted 6 above, and 7 below...

Ugh... I'm getting goosebumps just looking at these pictures and thinking about them. I'm also getting itchy all over... they're so disgusting.

So I went online to see what I could do to control these things without pesticides I found this great article from the Golden Harvest Organics website:

Ants "farm" aphids often keeping them in their nest during winter, then bringing them out in spring and placing them on the host plant. The ants eat the honeydew the aphids produce and move them from plant to plant spreading any diseases that are present. The honeydew favors formation of a black fungus known as "sooty mold." Control of the ants may often solve the aphid problem. Aphids abound in warm moist environments and will attack almost anything, favoring succulent new growth.

Predators: Green lacewings, ladybugs and their respective larvae have a voracious appetite for aphids. Larvae from the syrphid fly also consume aphids. Hover flies and praying mantis feed on aphids.

Repellent plants: Anise, chives, coriander (cilantro), garlic, onions, petunias and radish. Nasturtiums act as a trap crop. Aphids definitely prefer yellow flowers.

• Squashing a few aphids around the infested plants releases a chemical signal that makes the other aphids drop from the plants and leave.
• To foil aphids: flatten a square of aluminum foil around the base of plants to bounce light on the undersides of leaves. This also helps the plants in giving them more light.
• Try a barrier of powdered charcoal, calcium dust or bonemeal to keep them away from your plants.
• Stinging Nettle Spray: Aphids & Thrips - Cover 1 quart nettles with water, cover and ferment for 3 weeks. Mix 1 part nettle tea with 7 parts water. Spray.
• Spread out a barrier of tansy around the base of the plant to stop those ants.
• Use a spray made from a tea of tomato or potato leaves and water.
• Chop 12 or so tomato leaves and 1 chopped onion in 1/2 cup of of 70% isopropyl alcohol for a few minutes. Apply the mixture directly on aphids with a cue tip or paintbrush.
• A forceful spray of water is often enough to knock the aphids off the plant and may discourage the ants, well sometimes.
• Put a bright yellow plastic pan in a strategic spot in the garden. Fill it a third of the way full with water. Aphids are drawn to the yellow color, land on the water, sink and drown.
• A soap spray can be used to strip them of their protective wax coating, dehydrating them. Mix 1 tablespoon of Castile soap to 1 gallon of water, spray.
• Garlic oil spray can kill aphids and other soft bodied pests.
• A dusting of diatomaceous earth is lethal to aphids. Wear a mask when using DE.
• Teas made from elderberry or rhubarb leaves can act as a deterrent. Oxalic acid is the compound present in these plants that makes a spray effective. It is poisonous.
• Place banana peels at the base of infested plant. The peels give them a shot of potassium too!
• Also See: Treatments: Horseradish, elderberry and yarrow tea.
• For wooly aphids on apple trees: grow the trailing type nasturtiums training them to wrap up and around the tree trunk to ward off these pests. Very attractive too! Note: nasturtiums will specifically attract the black aphid while repelling others.

Yesterday, I tried the soapy water and it seemed to help. I saw the aphids falling to the ground. I think I'll also try the banana peels and the yellow pan. I've always thought ladybugs are cool... maybe I'll get some of those...

Interesting about the ants farming aphids. I've noticed ants in my flowerbed, and I imagine they have something to do with this!!

I'll keep you all posted on how the Battle of the Aphids at Rookie Garden comes along...