Hades Releases Persephone

February 3, 2014 - 7.3"/185mm snow

The winter has been rather harsh here. A great deal of snow was shoveled. Much more than normal. Temperatures were low into the first month of spring. But as Zeus commands Hades to release Persephone each spring, the earth awakes.

I began the growing season late again this year as last. The reason was one of mixed cold temperatures and malaise. I missed the sowing of peas and onions for the second year in a row. I do so love freshly picked snow peas. Not to worry. The temperature rose above 68ºF/20ºC this week. I feel planting fever coming on.

First action I took in the square foot garden was sprinkling two tablespoons of my organic fertilizer on each square foot section of both raised beds. Second action was to mixing it into the first inch or so of planting medium.

What you see in the photograph are the two of the four drip irrigation tubes I use to water the raised beds along with the fertilizer atop the growing medium.

Fertilizer mixed into the growing medium.

Third action was to cover both raised beds with red plastic mulch.

The mulch will server many purposes.

1. Warm the soil
2. Keep out any unwanted seeds
3. Retain moisture
4. Reflect light up under the leaves.

Persephone is only upon the earth for a short time. Don't just stand there, do something in your garden. 

I am already thinking of that first tomato.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

For A Few Tomatoes More

Mortgage Lifter, 20 Oct 2013

Temperatures are dipping below the point for comfortably wearing short sleeve shirts outdoors. With that ripening has all but come to an end in the garden, but for a few tomatoes more.

Sweet 100, 20 Oct 2013

There are just two tomato plants remaining in the square foot raised beds. A Sweet 100 in near bed, and my prolific Mortgage Lifter in the far bed.

Quite a few pink and plenty of green tomatoes still cling to the vines. There is a chance I will get some ripe tomatoes before temperatures fall below freezing.

Once the tomatoes are all gone, I will don a poncho, cut down the vines, remove the trellises and cover the growing medium with fresh red plastic. To keep out unwanted seeds. If I get ambitious, I just might create a greenhouse over at least one bed with clear plastic and black plastic tubing. When and if I do, I'll plant lettuce seeds. Bunching onions would be nice, too. For a few 2013 harvests more.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Hades Returns to Claim Persephone from my Garden

Persephone must return to her husband, Hades, deity of the underworld. Her poor mother, Demeter, begins her slow decline into a dark depression. And so the garden begins its slide down the same path. But, not before the cornucopia is full.

It was a good summer for tomatoes, in my garden. Specifically the production of Mortgage Lifter and Tami G varieties. The above bowl of fruit was harvested on October 8. What you see amounts to 7.75lbs/3.5kg of ripe tomatoes, bell pepper, cucumbers and Nacho chiles. Of that total Mortgage Lifter contributed 3.36lbs/1527g and Burpee Burpless cucumber 2.9lbs/1327g of weight. After culling out the unripe fruit, the Tami G grape tomato weighed in at 0.5lbs/259g.

Mortgage Lifter, Rutgers, Tami G, Red Bell Pepper and Burplee Burpless

Mortgage Lifter was by far an away the largest producer of any plant. The total weight of Mortgage Lifter tomatoes harvested, from one 11'/3.35m vine starting July 6 and running through Oct 8, was an amazing 35.53lbs/16.114kg. Let me say that again. Thirty-five pounds of delicious heirloom delights. As for the next runner up, the Tami G grape tomatoes total weight was 11.6lbs/5.67kg from one 9'/2.7m vine.

Mortgage Lifter and Tami G

The third must prolific producer was one the the two varieties of cucumber planted, Burpee Burpless and Tender Green. Burpless was the winner for both production and taste. The total weight of Burpless harvest 30 July through 8 October was 9.58lbs/4.68kg from two 6'/1.8m vines.

Burpless

Overall, it was a good year of gardening in two 16 sq ft/1.48 sq m raised bed square foot garden beds. A grand total of 91.5/43.47kg of produce was harvested. I am a happy gardener in 2013.

During the dark hours that cover my garden until Hades allows Persephone to return to Demeter, I will plan the garden for 2014.


©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Mortgage Lifter Harvest Savored

For the last two months I have been savoring home grown tomatoes from my garden. Not that I am bragging but if you don't grow you own tomatoes, you don't know what you are missing. Rutgers, Cherokee Purple, Beefsteak, Tami G, Sweet 100 and Mortgage Lifter. Of all the varieties the Mortgage Lifter provided the most pounds of big tomatoes.

I was taken by surprise with the massive production of Mortgage Lifter. As a matter of fact, if back in late April, you told me that one tomato plant was going to produce over 22lbs/10kg of tomatoes in one growing season, I wouldn't have believed it. Nonetheless, that is exactly what happened in my raised bed square foot garden.

The tallest plant is Mortgage Lifter Tomato 28 June 2013

Mortgage Lifter Tomato 18 July 2013

Here is how this went down. 

1. One store bought Mortgage Lifter plant was transplanted into the bed on 20 April.
2. On July 6, a 13.7oz/388g Mortgage Lifter was the first tomato harvested from the garden.
3. As of August 31, 22.19 lbs/10.065kg of ripe Mortgage Lifter tomatoes have been plucked from a single vine.

Let me repeat that. I think it deserves repeating.

One Mortgage Lifter tomato vine produced 22.19lbs/10.065kg of ripe tomatoes from July 6 through August 31.

A plant that is still producing wonderfully tasting vine ripened tomatoes.

Mortgage Lifter harvested 6 July 2013 weighed in at 388g/13.58oz

Production was not the most important feature of this variety. For hugh production of a rotten tasting tomato would just be, well, a waste. Of course, the most important feature of any tomato is taste. The Mortgage Lifter has that wonderful old fashion taste you remember as a child. A taste you can only get if you grow your own tomatoes and allow them to ripen on the vine. Or get them from your generous gardening neighbor.

http://carrot.mcb.uconn.edu/~olgazh/photogal/summer08/

I will probably plant at least one Mortgage Lifter again next year. Maybe two. If I transplant any more, I will surely need to set up a roadside stand at the foot of my driveway to sell the surplus tomatoes. Then I could spread to my neighbors, the pleasure of eating home grown tomatoes. I might even sell enough tomatoes to pay for the seeds, soil mixture, fertilizer and lumber for the raised bed frame. I'll have to consider that in the coming months.

In just three weeks summer will die to autumn. I will leave you with a thought I believe you should take very seriously.

Savor your garden while ye may.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

August 13 Harvest

A few vegetables harvested within this last week from my raised bed square foot garden.

One Nantes and several Kaleidoscope carrots

In this one bowl are 2.9 lbs/ 1343g of Tami G grape, Beefsteak and Rutgers tomatoes and one bell pepper.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Tomatoes - Beginning of August 2013

Early August finds the raised bed square foot garden beds doing well. You can see in the above photograph the Mortgage Lifter tomato is quite tall. Easily 9'/2.8m in height. As of 3 Aug, 6.5kg/14.5lbs of Mortgage Lifter tomatoes have been harvested from just one plant.

On a sadder note, to continue my problems with tomatoes this year, I believe the Cherokee Purple plant is dying. I haven't seen a new flower on it since the weather got hot. By hot I mean above 90ºF/32ºC in July. I must say I believe the tomatoes from this vine were the best tasting harvested this year.

Rutgers

Beefsteak

Along with the Mortgage Lifter, I continue to harvest Tami G, Super Sweet 100, Rutgers and Beefsteak tomatoes. However the Rutgers and Beefsteaks are small in size.




Sandwiches with tomatoes are quite popular since the beginning of July. Bagel with cream cheese, tomato and sweet onion, grilled cheese with tomato, oregano with and without bacon are the top choices.

Although the homegrown tomato season is not over, I will really miss them when they are gone.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Produce Harvested from Garden as of July 30

I have been keeping track of all the produce harvested from my raised bed square foot garden, with the exception of lettuce. Following are the vegetable varieties and their weights harvested since the first planting/transplanting into the garden on 20 April 2013. 

Clockwise from the top - Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter and Rutgers

Starting with the most total weight to the least:

1. Mortgage Lifter Tomato - Heirloom 4.291kg/9.46lbs
2. Cherokee Purple Tomato - Heirloom 3.334kg/6.82lbs
3. Tami G Grape Tomato - 1.088kg/2.23lbs
4. Rutgers Tomato - Heirloom - 0.589kg/1.21lbs
5. Anaheim Pepper - 0.305kg/0.62lbs
6. Sweet Red Bell Pepper - 0.274kg/0.56lbs
7. Sweet 100 Grape Tomato - 0.267kg/0.55lbs
8. Mucho Nacho Jalapeño Peppers - 0.255kg/0.52lbs
9. Carmen Pepper - 0.09kg/0.18lbs
10. Kaleidoscope Carrots - 0.067kg/0.14lbs

Total weight of all produce through July 29 2013 from two 4' x 4'/ 1.219m x 1.219m raised beds was 11.034kg/23.26lbs.

That is an amazing amount of produce for July here in USDA zone 6B. It must be a combination of the raised bed, non-soil planting mixture, red plastic mulch, ambient temperatures and earlier than normal planting/transplanting. No matter what the reasons I am happy with production. I have the tomato seeds running down my chin to prove it.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Teenage Cuke

Baby Cucumber 11July2013

Two weeks have passed since the first baby cucumber arrived.

Toddler Cucumber 18July2013

Last week it had grown to the toddler stage.

26July2013

This week it's hanging out, a fresh teenager. It will be a legal adult before you know it.

I sneaked a peek at its calendar. I believe it has a lunch meeting at the beginning of next week with lettuce, onions, tomatoes, bell peppers and radishes.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved



Made on a Mac

Mortgage Lifter Production

By far, the tallest tomato plant in the raised bed square foot garden is the indeterminate Mortgage Lifter. The trellis is 8'/2.4m tall and the plant bests that by another 1'/30.5cm.

It is not just all vegetation either. It was the first to produce a large ripe tomato. On July 6 a 13.7oz/388g tomato was harvested. Up to and including July 19, the total production of this variety has been 5.46lbs./2.5k.

The other tomato to produce anywhere near that weight in red deliciousness was Cherokee Purple. The first Cherokee Purple was harvested July 10 and has produced a total of 3.9lbs/1.785k in the same period. I have to say this tomato has the best taste of all those harvested to date.

At this time the one Mortgage Lifter is out producing all the other tomato varieties in my raised bed square foot garden beds. I like every bite of it.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Get Into Your Garden For An Hour Everyday

I have heard it said that if you have a garden, it should be visited once each day for and hour. Although I try, I don't always spend the hour a day in my garden. Woe to those who don't.

I cut the lawn this morning starting at 10am. The temperature was 80ºF/27ºC and the relative humidity was 92%. My property is just under 1/2 acre/2023 sq meters and can be cut in approximately one hour with a self-propelled mower. Although I wanted to stop between cutting the front lawn and the back I persevered and finished cutting without stopping. With the mower back in the garage I entered the air conditioned house. My shirt and pants clinging to my skin. I changed into dry pants and shirt, flopped onto the sofa and turned on the TV. While watching reruns of the BBC version of the Antiques Roadshow, I fell asleep. Not to say the show had anything to do with it. That is what happens when you get old and out of shape. 

During the time I was indoors, the temperature rose to 88ºF/31ºC however the relative humidity dropped to 63%. As long as I didn't exert myself I could bear being outdoors. Awake and recovered I strolled outdoors to check the progress of the raised square foot vegetable garden beds. Here is what I found.

Bed# 2

The Mortgage Lifter tomato plant is almost as tall as the trellis. Which I believe measures 8'/2.4m.

The Mortgage Lifters are large and almost completely pink. I might have my first large tomato by Saturday, July 6. There are a fair number of them, too.

The grape tomato, Tami G, is full of flowers and green fruit. I harvested a couple of handfuls of them this last week. Their skins aren't as thin as I like but they have good taste.

The lettuce is bolting (growing tall and going to flower). I will harvest them in the next few days. The carrots aren't ready to harvest. I know because I pushed my finger down into the soil and felt the carrot wasn't very thick. The radishes are putting out their second set of leaves, their true leaves. They were planted Sunday, June 23. I expect to harvest them in two weeks or so.



Those two yellow tomatoes are on the Mr. Stripey vine from which I removed the leader stem. The number of leaves on that vine are negligible. I still wonder where the tomatoes are getting their energy. Once those tomatoes are ripe I will seed that square with cabbage or cauliflower.

Bed# 1

The other bed doesn't have tomatoes as tall as Mortgage Lifter, but the Sweet 100 is getting there. Six pepper plants are all doing well down in the front of the bed.

The Sangria ornamental is very prolific. Even though sold as an ornamental, they are eatable. I tasted one of the first to ripen. It wasn't very spicy. I will give them a second taste soon.

On the right in this photograph are Anaheim peppers. The other pepper varieties are Carmen, Mucho Nacho, Red and Orange Bell peppers which are going strong. No peppers have ripened to red or orange.

As I made my way around the raised bed I arrived at the Sweet 100 grape tomato plant in square #9. This is my favorite small tomato. It is sweet and I pop them into my mouth like candy. I started looking over the tomato with the display of flowers and fruit at the base of the vine. I was eager to find a ripe tomato to eat right off the vine. There weren't any. Then I found something that made me shiver. Something lovely, colorful and destructive as hell.

A tomato hornworm - Manduca quinquemaculata, and it was going to town on the tender young leaves and stems of my beloved Sweet 100. It was the size of my pinky finger. Remember I have big fat hands. We're talking 3"/76mm long and near 1/2"/13mm thick. I was horrified. I was repulsed. I was not going to let it get away with eating my beloved.

Let me explain something before I continue. This insect is a plant eater. Not a meat eater. There is no danger of being eaten by this soft bodied, beautifully nature designed despised devouring demon. Nonetheless, I didn't want to touch the thing. It had to be removed from the vine and I was the only one there. I had to remove it.

I reluctantly outstretched my right hand with my index finger and thumb forming a pincer. I didn't want to put an excessive amount of my body in harms way. Two fingers was enough. Even though there was very little chance I would be harmed. Claw-like, my digits hovered over it, having second thoughts. Fight or flight went through my mind.

Adult Manduca quinquemaculata

Fight!


I grabbed the thing and pulled. It had a strong grip. The feeling was like splitting the loop section of velcro from the hooks. I exerted more effort. It was fighting back by holding on. I broke its grip from the plant. Immediately, it began to wiggle and twist. Except for the absence of squealing, I acted like a little girl. I tossed it onto the concrete patio towards the shallow cast iron bird bath. I strode to it. Picked it up again in my pincer. Again, wiggle, twist and I tossed it towards the bird bath.

Being friendly to birds, I was wondering if one of my feathered friends might like to eat this juicy bugger. Thinking there was a strong possibility of that, I placed the worm on the concrete patio heated by the noonday sun, equidistant from anything or anywhere I thought the devouring demon might find cover. However, because the concrete hot or despite the hot concrete, that hornworm was like a speed demon as it scurried towards the day lilies. Again I grabbed the gooey green gobbler, this time I plunked it into the bird bath. I thought, maybe it would drown and then the birds would find it and make a meal of it. Feeling confident it wasn't going anywhere, I returned to bed #1 to continue my observations and look for more of its kin.

I looked thoroughly. I saw no more. What I did see was the damage one worm did in one morning. Several leaves and stems were gone. More, lots more, would have been gone had I not spent some time checking over the garden. 

Tomato hornworm doing its business. The term pretty ugly comes to mind when I see it at work.

I returned to the bird bath to see if the worm drowned. It was gone. I did it again. Another bad judgement. I searched all around the bird bath looking for a fried worm. No sight of it. Either it was camouflaged amongst the day lilies or possibly eaten by a bird. I wasn't sure. I hoped for the latter.

I stepped back into the house for an hour or so. When I returned outdoors the tomato hormworm was doing breast strokes in the bird bath. I had a second chance. I definitely didn't want it to return to my tomato plants. I pulled a utility knife out of my back pocket, extended the razor blade. Using the knife blade I flipped the hormworm out of the water onto the hot patio concrete. I held the knife firmly and slit the green beauty in two. Masses of dark green oozed from the wound. Bitter ooze from the eaten stems and leaves. A bitter end to the lovely colorful camouflaged critter.

Although I don't visit my garden an hour everyday, if I hadn't caught this bugger when I did I might have lost another tomato plant. I already damaged two tomato plants, this juicy guy would have devoured another because of my lack of diligence.

A word of advise, if I may. Get out into your garden for an hour everyday.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Raised Bed Square Foot Garden End of June USDA 6b

Below are photographs captured in late June of one raised bed square foot vegetable garden, bed 2.

Lettuce and carrots in squares #1, #2, #5 and #6.

Lettuce and bush beans in squares #3, #4, #7 and #8.

I have been picking the outside leaves from all the lettuce plants leaving the centers to continue to grow.

A close-up of a lettuce in square #3.

These bush bean seeds were planted on Sunday, 23 June in square #8. This photograph was captured Friday, 28 June. The ambient temperature and sunshine have kicked their sprouting into high gear.

Likewise, these Easter Egg Radish seeds were planted on Sunday, 23 June in square# 5. This photo was captured on Friday 28 June. They were planted in the same square that carrots were growing for the last two months.

This is bed 2 from the ESE side at 09:52am EDT. The nearest tomato is a Tami G grape variety. The tallest is adjacent to the Tami G, a Mortgage Lifter and was at least 5'/1.5m tall. Behind the tomato trellis squares #13 and #14 were planted with small watermelons. Squares #15 and #16 were planted with cucumbers. The plants in all four squares may be suffering from diminished sunlight because of the dense foliage of the tomatoes. They are not growing as fast as I think they should.

On the whole, I am satisfied with the progress.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved