Little Garden that Could

We've got veggies! So far, we've been able to harvest lettuce, spinach, chives, basil, cherry tomatoes, cayenne peppers, a few jalapenos and one mysterious lime green pepper. I'm quite proud of my little organic garden that could! I'm excited about the prospect of finding more space and expanding the garden in upcoming years; perhaps we will even have a green house in addition to more raised beds and container gardens on the patio.

For now, I'm just happy with the progress my garden has made and all of the hard work that my husband and I have put into it.

My two cherry tomato plants yield a handful of these juicy fruit every two days, perfect for tossing a few on a salad at lunch time.

Will someone PLEASE tell us what these are? I didn't plant anything that should look like the peppers below but alas, here they are. They haven't gotten bigger or changed colors in the last few weeks so I'm thinking this is their mature state. The flavor is mild, slightly sweet, not at all spicy. Thoughts?

The cayenne bushes below are multicolored but the purple ones always pop out first. If it's anything like last year, I expect the yellows, oranges, reds, and cream-colored peppers to show their faces towards the end of summer.

There are plenty of heirloom and mater sandwich tomatoes, rainbow sweet peppers, Carmen red peppers, jalapenos, and cucumbers popping up each day. It seems like we will have a steady supply of veggies throughout the summer and into Georgia's warm fall.

These guys are about as long as my forearm! But why oh why won't they hurry up and turn red so that we can eat them?! I've read great things about Carmen red peppers on the Park Seed website and I want one in my belly. Now.

Alejandro loves the jalapenos. We will have plenty for salsas and jazzin' up dishes this year.

My first year growing heirloom tomatoes. I'm in love. They're so beautiful! They single-handedly make my garden look more professional.

It's my first year having cucumbers, too, and I have really enjoyed watching these guys grow. They're the most entertaining plants in the garden with their lovely large leave and twirling tendrils. I particularly like how spiky the fruit is before it smooths out.

My husband's coworker shared three large cucumbers last week. His garden gets 8 hours of sunlight so everything is ripening much faster. My garden gets only four hours with two additional hours of speckled sunlight so progress is slower. Womp womp womp. But hey, it's coming right along!

Mater sandwich tomatoes are interesting at different phases. Sometimes they're  striped, other times pale and even-toned. I can't wait to taste them.

I'm not sure when the strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries will come to maturity. The bushes are getting bigger but no consistent blossoms just yet. All of them are in positions to get 6-8 hours of sunlight a day so hopefully we'll get some delicious fruit towards the end of the season.

The weather has been much more pleasant than last year. We've welcomed hot sunny days with cooling showers in the late afternoon. The leaves have plenty of time to dry before nightfall, avoiding mold and mildew. This system has minimized how much I need to water the garden.

It seems that the plants are much more resistant to disease and weirdness than last year, too. With the exception of one cherry tomato plant (old seed) everything has come up nice and strong. Starting the plants in the BioDome helped because they were stronger and healthier as transplants.

The condition of the soil is also a factor. Having nutrients worked into the soil before transplanting gave them a great head start, versus trying to fertilize the plants from the top down after they were already in the ground. I haven't done too much additional fertilizing in the past few months. I've used Jobe's Organic Heirloom Tomato and Vegetable Food when I transplanted. About two months later, I used Espoma Organic Plant-tone All Purpose Plant Food mixed in with used coffee grounds donated by my local, independently owned coffee shop The Cupbearer Coffee and Tea Outfitters.

Raking in the fertilizers was scary at first. I raked up the top layer of soil about 2-3 inches and then froze--I had exposed a few hair-sized roots.  I thought I had damaged the plants! Since the supposed damage was already done, I sprinkled a mixture of Plant-tone and nitrogen-rich coffee grounds into the soil and watered the plants thoroughly. Within a few days, the plants had a noticeable growth spurt. The few tiny roots that I interrupted didn't seem to bother the plants.

I haven't applied much in terms of pest control. I'm still using Safer's insecticidal soap but not consistently because of the evening showers that would just wash it away. I only apply it when I have a few days' forecast without rain. The biggest garden helpers have been spiders. I wasn't well-versed on them last year so I would just kill everything that I saw. This year I know better. The spiders been great at munching on winged pests though they don't seem to have a taste for the little worms that eat holes in the leaves, hence my need to spray occasionally. I spray around my spiders' favorite hangouts so that they aren't hurt. (I painstakingly pick off the worms in the areas where I don't spay.) So far, the spiders don't seem to mind. They still eat whatever happens to fly into their webs.

Cute Lil' Weapons of Mass Destruction: Organic Garden Pest Control

Battling bugs can be a source of stress and discomfort for gardeners, particularly folks like me who really, really, don't like killing things. There's no way around it so lets dig into some tried and true (and some disappointing) ways to get rid of garden pests.

Healthy plants have a better resistance towards pests than plants that are drought stricken, water logged, or otherwise fragile. Taking care of your garden from the root up is its best defense against viruses and even some bugs. But even the healthiest plants aren't indestructible meaning that organic gardeners must retreat to a limited tool belt of insecticides and covers to defend the garden.

Insecticidal Soaps

I began with insecticidal soap. I have not noticed a huge difference amongst the brands that I've tried. Many use the same active ingredients and offer comparable performance. Rain is the biggest challenge that I've run into with insect killing soaps. Most products I've found can't be used in rainy weather for obvious reasons. If your area goes for a week of overcast weather and rain, a significant amount of damage can be done to your vegetables. There isn't a whole lot you can do about it other than try to pick off each and every little bug by hand. Depending on the size of your garden and your personal responsibilities, that's not always an option.

To date, my veggies have seen the likes of Safer Insect Killing Soap
Natria Insecticidal Soap by Bayer, and Garden Safe Insecticidal Soap. Natria was my least favorite, maybe because I associated it with big pharm and not because of its performance. They were all fine when used properly. I noticed the slightest discoloration on my tomatoes when using Safer but I might have applied it when too much daylight is available, which the label warns against.

One application of insect killing soap lasts for about one week without rain or...a plague. Application can be tricky. The little jugs are the most economical but then you must dilute them yourself and buy your own sprayer to apply it. The bottles that can attach to your garden hose cost more but they are also more convenient. The downside is that you can't spray the underside of leaves easily when using the water hose. The force of the water may also knock off flowers, buds, and tiny vegetables.  Buying a little hand-held spray bottle lets you get under leaves but it takes forever. Literally, forever.

Safer Garden Dust has been my absolute least favorite. Does it work? Yeah...it kills bugs. But the challenge is applying the powder properly. The power comes in this poorly-designed container that releases the product in uncontrollably thick puffs. It's not even as consistent as a baby powder bottle, which would make more sense. Consistency matters. If you apply too much, it will burn your plants. If you apply it with too much access to sunlight, it will burn your plants. The best success is applying it after sunset by dumping it into a bowl and brushing the leafy vegetables with it using a makeup brush and quite frankly that's too time consuming. I only do it to a few plants on my patio simply because I've already bought the stuff and don't want it to go to waste. I won't be buying it again.

Floating Covers

I haven't tried floating row covers yet but it is definitely on my list for fall, especially since I've got a lot of leafy vegetables in the works. These row covers not only protect against legged and winged pests but they can also minimize the viruses that the bugs can carry. My tomatoes got mosaic virus and I really don't want that to happen again.

Apparently there are a variety of fabric choices and application options. When I begin, I will put up a separate post about what I choose.

Has anyone tried a homemade organic bug killer that they'd like to share? I would like to try that with my floating cover method for the fall!