Pest Problems

Not everything in the garden goes as planned. It seems over the past week or so we've had to battle not only increasing weeds, but a number of different pest. Earlier in the year we noticed some bugs chewing on the broccoli leaves. This continues to be a problem, but the florets of broccoli are still OK. We've had problems with Mexican Beans Beetles, Cucumber Beetles and it appears now we are having trouble with the zucchini and yellow squash. Most likely we will lose the zucchini and squash to these pests. The stems are almost rotten and many of the vegetables from the plants are rotting also.

Maple Grove UMC

The cucumbers at the Maple Grove UMC veggie garden are really growing well. We picked about 15 cucumbers including some fat ones that must have been overlooked last week! We also got a couple of nice tomatoes, a couple of peppers and a zucchini. Garden maintenance is fairly simple right now at Maple Grove. We've got several folks working together. Its mostly harvesting the veggies that are ready, taking care of the weeds and then we usually water really well.

Epworth Stuff

Tonight we took a break from some of the work in the Epworth Veggie Garden and helped with some general landscaping stuff around Epworth. We added a few plants around the sign on Penworth Dr. and added some black mulch. Another project that we worked on was to pull out some of the shrubs that are going to be replaced this fall. We used Penny's truck and a chain to help us out. Even though it was hard work we still found some time to have a bit of fun. In between digging some of us would take a turn "pulling" the truck back.

Beans!

We harvested the first of the beans at Epworth Veggie Garden last week. I knew we'd have quite a few more beans this week, but I've never picked so many beans at one time. We ended up with 22 - 1 quart bags of beans. This year, we planted a mix of bush beans including green, purple and yellow beans.


Seems like earlier in the season, we lucked out and did not have a problem with the Mexican Beans Beetles. That has suddenly changed and I'm worried we could lose our beans crops soon from these beetles.


We could dust the beans with Sevin, but we really try to not use any type of pesticides in the garden. Its amazing how quickly the beetles can multiply and also how quickly they can destroy the plants. First you'll notice all the holes they've chewed on the young leaves. Next you'll start to notice where the beetles have chewed on some of the beans.


Perhaps I will order some type of biological control to try to save the beans.

Rain, Rain and More Rain

We haven't been in the gardens much these past few days. Seems like we just keep getting more and more rain. We've had a little bit of sunshine, but the soil is so wet its difficult to work in the garden without getting so much mud on your shoes that its hard to walk. Although the rain helps the plants, it really gives a boost to the weeds too. Over the past few years we've had some drainage issues at the Epworth Veggie Garden. We've added peat and compost to the clay soil along with trying to level out some of the lower spots. Its a good idea after heavy rain to take a look at how the soil drains and continue to make amendments as needed.

Maple Grove Garden

The garden at Maple Grove UMC is growing right along. Above you can see a bloom from the cucumbers. Tonight we harvested: a tomato, some zucchini, peppers, broccoli, green beans and chives. We also brought over a few veggies from the Epworth Veggie Garden to send over to the Clintionville Resource Center along with the harvest from Maple Grove.

Epworth Flowers

Tonight we worked on a few areas around the church. Work was done over by the North sign. We cleaned out lots of the weeds, till and turned some soil with the shovel. A group of the community service youth planted the flowers by the sign. The youth came up with the design on their own. We had hoped to seperate the petunias, but in the end decided to plant them in a bunch similar to how they were in the original pot.

Epworth Veggie Garden - Harvest

We continue to harvest more and more from the Epworth Veggie Garden. We decided to harvest one of the cabbages, a few of the tomatoes are starting to ripen and we also have some beans. Some of the yellow squash are a little bit more mature than we'd like, but we still continue to have more squash on the way. The destructive insects have left the garden alone for the most part. This is the first week we've harvested any beans. The beans are a little bit young, but I'm always nervous that the bean beetles will get the beans before we can harvest them.

Northwold Critters

We noticed this rabbit today when we went to check on the Northwold Garden. It appears at this time, the rabbits seem to prefer grass over some of our veggies. Things could get interesting later on in the season if we begin to plant crops such as lettuce. We're not allowed to fence in the entire property on this lot since we are leasing this property from the city. At most of our gardens we put a garden fence designed to keep rabbits and other critters like dogs out of the garden. Looks like we've also had some deer traveling through the garden too.

Epworth Veggie Garden - Beans

We've got 3 different plantings of bush beans growing. The first row we planted is almost ready. I'd say within about a week we should have beans to pick. The first row was planted 1/3 green beans, 1/3 yellow beans and 1/3 purple beans.


About 2 to 3 weeks later we planted a second row of beans.


About a week ago we planted 3 more rows of beans. In past years, we've struggled to keep the mexican bean beetles away. The bean beetles have almost completely devoured the plants before. Last year we released some specialty wasp that target only the bean beetles. This year, we've been lucky to have minimual damage to the beans.

Water's Edge Veggies

The veggies are looking good at the Takin' it to the Edge Community Garden out at Water's Edge in Buckeye Lake. We're starting to see some small squash and some broccoli. We've been waiting and waiting and waiting to see some we could harvest. Perhaps next Wednesday we will cut the broccoli and break out the ranch dressing and sample some. Our biggest problem continues to be watering the garden in between rain showers. We've assigned watering duties to different folks during the week, but we're lost a few plants from lack of water. Perhaps in 2010 we will install rain barrel or some up with a better system.

Maple Grove UMC

This week the broccoli is looking much better! Last Tuesday we were worried because the broccoli seemed to look yellow. We were able to harvest lots of broccoli and even a few other items. The romaine lettuce was sample to make sure that the summer heat has not turned it bitter. A couple of tomatoes were ready to pick.


We also have some small cucumbers that will be ready soon.

Garlic

At the Epworth Veggie Garden we had 3 garlic plants that were "volunteers" or leftovers from last falls harvest. This spring we planted all around this area not realizing that that garlic would sprout up here. I finally decided for some reason this evening that I would go ahead and harvest this garlic. We do have another spot where we planted lots of garlic cloves in the garden. As we were checking out these 3garlic plants a neighbor was over at the garden checked out some things and brought over even more garlic for us. I can't wait to sample a little fresh garlic. I don't know if I'll have some with spaghetti and meatball or some other dish.

Epworth Veggie Garden - Tomatoes

We finally have some tomatoes that are beginning to ripen. It seems like we've been looking at green tomatoes for 2 to 3 weeks waiting for them to ripen. I bet when the tomatoes begin to ripen we will be flooded with tomatoes. There are probably 20 or so tomatoes plants - some cherry, some grape or plum and some beefsteak. We finally got some rain today. Good for the plants, but also good for the weeds. In the picture below you can see we've still got a number of weeds to pull as seen here in between two tomato plants. Overall the garden does look fairly well maintained.

Northwold Pools

More seeds have germinated in the pools at Northwold. We're a little late, but I still think these plants will be ok. The turnips continue to grow and now you can see where the yellow squash and okra have germinated. Hopefully we will get some rain tomorrow and this will help the plants grow even more.

Buckeye Lake

Brandon took some photos for us out at Buckeye Lake. It's nice to get the point of view from different photographers. Most plants are looking good, but a few plants are struggling from not enough water. It looks like we will have several more days without any rain. The tomatoes are looking good, but we need to bring in some better stakes.



Broccoli



Petunias

Northwold Turnip Sprouts

We've got turnips germinating in one of the wading pool gardens at the Northwold Garden. Its been just 3 days since we spread the seeds. The biggest challenge at the Northwold Gardening is figuring out how we can water the pools in between rain showers. We don't have any water sources on the property and we don't really have a way to attach a rain barrel to a structure in the garden. For now we are filling up 1 gallon milk jugs and bring them over to water. This method is already getting old. Perhaps we will invest in a 55 gallon drum that we can fill up and bring over with the truck. The other wading pools are still hanging on. Check out the peppers:

Maple Grove - Broccoli?

Things are looking good at the Maple Grove Garden with the exception of the broccoli. I noticed today that the broccoli looked very light green to yellow. Usually this happens if you wait too long to harvest the broccoli, but I don't remember seeing any florets on the broccoli last week. We were starting to wonder if this might be cauliflower, but I still believe its broccoli. We have the same variety of broccoli at the Epworth Veggie Garden and we harvested the first batch on Sunday evening and it looked ok. Here is how the same variety of broccoli looks over at Epworth:


The cucumbers are growing nicely and beginning to climb the fence. We continue to harvest green beans and drop them off at the Clintionville Resource Center (CRC) Food Pantry.

Epworth Harvest

The amount of veggies we are harvest each week has picked up. Its nothing like it will be once the tomatoes start, but the zucchini is doing great. 11 zucchini were harvested tonight. Some of the zucchini were rather large by the time we picked them tonight. Some times they seem to be hidden under the giant leaves. We also harvested a number of carrots - 56 this evening. I think pulling carrots out of the ground is rather exciting. Its sorta like finding hidden treasures. With the warm weather the carrots have a nice sweetness to them. Roni took the pictures this evening.

Northwold Pools

We came back this evening to finish the wading pool gardens at Northwold. We decided that we just needed to get some plants started some how and then we would have something to build on for next year. Pools have tomatoes, peppers, and a number of different types of herbs. We are also starting a few plants from seeds - yellow squash, okra and turnips. We'll see how things turn out. Many of the neighbors have stopped by to see what's going on.

Epworth Veggie Garden

Veggies continue to grow at the Epworth Veggie Garden. We have yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers that will be ready for harvest in the next few days. THe lettuce has slowed down significantly with the warmer weather. We have planted a few new rows to get younger lettuce back in the mix. We've harvested around 90 - 1 gallon bags of lettuce mix so far. Not bad for the first part of the season. Toward the end of summer and fall we should have more lettuce.


The red salvia is starting to bloom.

Northwold Work

We did some more work at the Northwold Garden. The grass needed to be cut. We still are not ready to plant anything in the ground. There are issues with rocks and we will need to eventually add some type of soil amendment to break up some the clay. Our plan for this year is to go with the "wading pool" gardens and see what we can grow before the end of the season. We will work during the fall and next spring to see if we can get the Northwold Garden in better shape and to start planting directly in the ground. There is lots of space for gardening! Imaging lots of corn and cucumbers and other veggies that need more space. Slowly, but surely we're making progress.