Heavy Gardens - Brooklyn, New York

Aphids!

My Cherokee Purple plant has an aphid infestation. I have these:

And some non-parasitized grown aphids as well. I hosed the plant down and intend to give it a full soaking in the morning as well. Hopefully I can reduce the number greatly if I am vigilant about it for the next week. I isolated the plant, which is sad.

Befores, Afters, Updates

It's been exactly a week since I posted, because it is my last week of work before Summer Break and hence it's the most hectic week of the year! Things in the garden have been progressing nicely. There has been TONS of rain in New York City but not that much sun. The tomato plants are all flourishing without exception, and they all now have at least a few flowers, if not a lot of already formed, small fruit. I found some older pictures of the garden on my Digital Camera, and decided to post a few older pictures, followed by some photographic updates. Notice my Grape Tomato plants almost reaching the tops of their five foot stakes -- I'm still looking for a way to resolve this! I am going away for two weeks soon, and need to train some friends in how to take care of the garden. Enjoy! More soon.

May 06, 2006

May 12, 2006

One of the three new Lobelia plants.

Wide angle view, June 6th, 2006

June 6th, 2006 Tomato View

High Stakes

Had some failed experiments with repairing the stakes in my buckets last night. Turns out I am going to have to reconfigure entirely for all of the plants, and in every case except the two Grape Tomato plants, I have plenty of time. I have been pruning and suckering almost daily, which is a lot of work but has been worth it. This thread on Gardenweb explains a lot of nice methods for keeping stakes secure. I am looking into concrete mesh, but I don't feel like messing with the bolt cutters, twist ties, etc. I think securing two posts, one on each side, to every bucket, and then running twine and material between will provide some really great support. I am nervous about my plants growing taller than the stakes / cages / etc., since my Grapes are already really pushing it! Will report results soon. Above is a shot of my beautiful Impatiens. I like these a lot because I used to plant them every year with my dad -- they are doing really well. I took a bunch of photos last night but nothing was in focus! My digital camera is no good at taking closeups -- always blurry! I have to try to rectify that -- flat focus would be fine.

The Sun gets the best view...

The Sun gets the best view: A shot from the Fire Escape.

I was away for a few days and my friend Nate did a great job watching the garden. When I got back, everything had grown quite a bit. I mulched the tomato plants with Organic Cocoa Hulls, which have already started to work in terms of retaining moisture and preventing soil from splashing onto the leaves when I water! The Brandywine plant, which I was nervous about, shot up and is doing quite nicely. The Grape tomato plants are out of control! I let some auxillary stems grow really large on them, and now they are flowering and some are growing fruit. I have been trying to come up with the best way to securely and properly stake or cage the plants, and have been reading lots of good stuff online about it. The Gardenweb Forums are amazing, with tons of information that is very honest and helpful, often with an Organic bent. Below are some pictures, more word updates soon.

The standard shot with flash of all the bucket plants.

One of three Gold Medal tomato plants.

Another of three Gold Medal tomato plants.

The Cherokee Purple, one of the first
Heirloom plants I purchased.

The "questionable" Brandywine, now doing fine.

Broken...Roots...Morning

So my suspicion about having to repot my Grape tomato plants was totally spot on. After running a million errands last night I finally had a free hour to jump on the project, so I took the two paint buckets, drilled drainage holes in them in the same pattern as the other tomato plants, and started out on the arduous task of trying to repot two plants that have REALLY grown in the past few weeks.

I'm glad I had my camera around, because the amount of root growth in a few short weeks of heavy rain and decent sun REALLY surprised me. When I picked up the first plant I intended on repotting, and looked underneath it at the drainage hole, I saw this:

A very thick root poking through the drainage hole!

which made it very obvious that this plant need to be repotted. I tried over and over again to get the plant out while being gentle and heeding the advice of various web sages about the subject. My only recourse in the end, without hopelessly harming the plant, was to break the ceramic pots they were in. I didn't want to do this, but the pots were cheap, and I have plenty of extras, so I figured it was worth it. I gently cracked the pot with the wrench I had outside, which looked AMAZING when I pulled the busted pieces off!

The broken pot. The root growth surprised me quite a bit.

I couldn't believe the amount of root growth. When I put these small plants into these planters, there was maybe a 3" cubed area of roots. Now the roots filled the entire pot, enough to poke out the drainage holes and push at the sides. I sure am glad I chose to repot them.

A fuzzy closeup of the root system inside one of the pots.

After I had removed the old stakes from the pots, removed the plants, put soil in the new buckets, inserted the new stakes, and leveled out the potting mix, I was ready to transplant the plants. This took a lot of care and effort, but I think I did well, and hopefully the plants will be happy in their new homes. I also mounted these buckets on bricks like I did with the other plants, to ease the process of drainage.

Here is a shot this morning of the two Grape tomato plants in buckets amongst the three Gold Medal, one Cherokee Purple, one Striped German, and one Brandywine heirlooms in buckets. I am very happy with the work I have put into the garden so far, and am starting to feel that no matter what the yield I get at the end of my first year of container gardening, I will be very happy. There is something so mysterious and satisfying about spending your time amongst solemn and silent beings like plants. I realized how fragile they were, but also how powerful and profound when I cracked that pot open. That moment alone is "worth" all of the money, time, and worry I have put into the garden so far. Also, when having people over, there is something special about inviting them to hang out amongst the plants. The energy is ... just better.

Jewels!

A Jewel amongst Jewels: My Fiance Maya in the Garden.

Had a great grillout this weekend out on the porch. Friends were all impressed with the garden -- turns out I have kind of a Green Thumb! Some progress reports:

All of the herbs, flowers, and the Arugula are flourishing quite nicely; some, as I have said, almost too nicely! Some roots are poking out the bottom of containers, especially the cilantro. I have to figure out how to remedy this since I can't go up in size that much -- will scour the internet for suggestions and report back.

The tomatoes are all doing very well with the unfortunate exception of the Brandywines! The porch tomato plant is covered in fruit and is producing more buds daily. The two grape tomato plants have outgrown their containers and will be transferred to buckets tonight at some point, in the same fashion as the heirlooms. I am going to keep the patio tomato in its current container or possibly bump them up one size -- but transplanting them at this point would be very harrowing! I am nervous about transplanting the grapes, but they are hearty plants and should do fine. They are also budding and one of them has one tiny green tomato on it! The Brandywine is not growing at the rate of the others, and the leaves have cuts on them. Need to do some investigation there as well!

I will likely pick up three buckets to make the rows 3 x 3, transplant the two grape tomatoes, and pick up some pepper plants to put together in one bucket. My Jalapeno plant from Lowe's is a big disappointment -- no surprises there! Hopefully I can grab a nice one or two at GRDN where I will pick up more Farfard potting mix today before hitting Lowe's for the buckets.

I am going away from Wednesday night until Monday, so my friend Nate is staying at the house and watching the plants and the cats (or the cats and the plants, depending on who you ask). I showed him how to connect the hose, how to water the tomatoes, etc. He has some gardening experience so it should be fine. Can't wait to see how much progress they've made when I return. I wish I could bring them to Puerto Rico with me, they'd rule there for sure!

Some Views

After the rain in Brooklyn, the porch really does look beautiful. Here's some views I took right after I got home from work and opened a bottle of wine.