More grief in the garden

Sometime in August, after the heatwaves broke and the weather got back down to the low 80s, our tomato plants perked up again. Flowers bloomed and tomatoes formed. None got more than the Green Zebra, which sprouted some 15 egg-shaped orbs.
I plucked the first ripe one on Monday. It was quite delicious and I was looking forward to enjoying the rest, a kind of booby prize to finish off a disappointing season.
Well, not so fast. A gusty wind storm knocked almost all of them off the vine.
Figures...Still, we have been getting a nice end of season harvest, including plenty of Angora sweet cherries and even some of the beefier Black from Tula and Azorean Reds, though the current cold snap could curtail that trend.

A Fig Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Fig trees are growing in Brooklyn? According to this New York Times article they're sprouting fruit all over the borough. Well, then, why not plant one in Manhattan. Sounds like a great addition to my already overflowing urban garden. I'll be on the lookout for a sapling come next spring!

Swallowtail butterfly picks parsley

This caterpillar turns into a black swallowtail butterfly

What a discovery I made this weekend - I found this creature noshing on my parsley! Turns out this green gobbler is the precursor to the black swallowtail butterfly. I recall seeing one of them fluttering on my terrace a few weeks ago. Who knew she was dropping her eggs on my greens. I am so amazed that these bugs, which seem to be randomly flitting about, can suss out the exact plant on which to host their offspring amid the inhospitable concrete jungle. How did she find my little patch of parsley - the preferred diet of the black swallowtail? Unfortunately, I didn't want to sacrifice my parsley (this thing eats amazingly quickly and would have polished off the whole plant in a day or two) so I plucked it off and plopped it in the green space beside my building. Alas, there was no parsley planted there, but I hope it will find a suitable alternative. And yes, I feel a little guilty...



Black swallowtail butterfly



Heartbreak garden: A summer to forget



Last of the red hot tomatoes - we picked these in late July

 Oh how I hate to admit it. How I wish it wasn't so. But this season is fast shaping up to be our worst ever! We have had terrible luck in the garden, no where more evident than with our tomatoes. The season started off well. Putting the plants out a couple of weeks early thanks to a warm spring resulted in ripe tomatoes in mid-July, a full two weeks before last season. But our plants have since punked out on us. Just when we should be getting a bountiful harvest, the vines are completely bare. Not a hint of red peeking through the green leaves.
Frankly, it's a depressing sight. The prolonged hot weather, with several weeks of 90 degree or higher days and nights, is surely a culprit. Tomatoes grow best when the temperature is 80 degrees to 85 degrees during the day and in the 70s at night I recently read. Prolonged heat waves like the ones we had this summer inhibit pollination, causing blossom drop - when the flowers dry up and fall off instead of producing fruit. A recent New York Times article throws cold water on this theory, quoting lots of local farmers crowing about their fabulous crops, but I'm sticking to it, since I have only my own garden to go by.
Our choice of heirlooms may have added to our woes. We experimented with completely different varieties this year, Black from Tula, Azorean Red, Green Zebra and Pantano Romanesco, buying our seeds from Tomatofest.com. Though they were highly rated on the site, maybe they aren't as hardy as the Cherokee Purples and Brandywines we've been growing all these years. Even the Kellogg's Breakfast, with its beautiful orange fruit, faded in July after a strong start. I suppose we should always go with what we know - experimenting is fine, but with one or two plants at most, not all of them!
There have been other problems in the garden this summer. I planted cucumbers when I should have gone for the smaller Kirbies, which grow better in pots. Somehow I forgot this after learning the same lesson two years ago. The broccoli seemed like a winner early on, but so far I've harvested only three florets. My lettuce was also overcome by the heat - though now I have new seedlings growing.
To top it all off, those clever mockingbirds took to pecking at the few tomatoes we had on the vines! They're probably pissed that we put nets around our blueberry bushes.
Is it too soon to pine for next summer???

Mockingbird's lunch

Kellogg's Breakfast tomato, perfect for dinner!

This beauty is known as Kellogg's Breakfast tomato. The orange heirloom is definitely our stand out this summer. It's sweet and juicy, with just the right amount of acidity and bite. We picked this 1.8 pounder two weeks ago. It was a tasty treat with mozzarella and basil, a sprinkle of olive oil and some pepper. Perfection! 



Kellogg's Breakfast for dinner



The berries are alright!

A healthy, homegrown breakfast featuring our very own blueberries and strawberries. Though the strawberry plant produces pretty sporadically, the blueberry bushes are prolific, especially now that we've protected them from our resident Mockingbirds with netting. Every morning I gather just enough berries to top my yogurt.

Natural aphid killers

We had a ton of aphids early in the season, on everything from the rose bushes to the eggplants. I sprayed them with soapy water, which really helps to reduce the infestation. But that wasn't enough to entirely eradicate the squishy green bugs. So, we added Safer 3 in 1 bug spray to the treatment. The insecticide  is pretty effective. but had a somewhat negative impact on the plants, which were early in their growth stage. I noticed shriveled and misshapen leaves, though the damage was not lasting. To my surprise, ladybugs dealt the final blow to the aphids. Turns out the black-spotted red beetles love to eat aphids. During the worst of the infestation on the eggplants, I saw several ladybugs hanging out on the broad leaves, and I haven't seen any aphids on them since! It is so nice to know that insects as charming and iconic as ladybugs are a gardener's friend. And of course, it's wonderful to see nature working it's own magic to get rid of annoying pests! If they're not hanging out in your garden, you can buy them online at gardeningzone.com.  

Safer bug spray caused the eggplant leaves to shrivel

Siamese tomato



First tomato of 2012 is too big to pick!



Separated at birth

Our first tomato of 2012, a Black from Tula heirloom variety that we picked on July 11, was so big that we could not get it off the vine without cutting it in half! And we still lost the branch that the tomato had engulfed as it grew! The fruit ripened well ahead of usual for our urban garden, thanks to the unusually warm spring. Last year, we picked our first ripe tomato, a Cherokee Purple, on July 28th.

Urban farming gets boost

New York City has become farm country. According to an article in the New York Times the boroughs are bursting with locally grown produce. Of course, we've been farming here in Manhattan since '05. We are so ahead of trend!!

Blueberry Mockingbird saga, part 2

Jersey berries taste great

A super warm spring led to early blueberry blossoms and we're now reaping the rewards: juicy, sweet blueberries. But we're not the only ones interested in harvesting the fruit. Our neighboring Mockingbirds have been eager to join the party. We were ready for them this year, unlike last year, with bird netting that we swathed around our bushes. It is definitely helping, though the birds are not that easily defeated. Just the other day, I saw a female clinging to the net and poking around with her little beak. She didn't get any berries as I was there to scare her away. However, on July 4th, I found out just how resourceful those birds can be. Our neighbors Amy and Sean stopped over for snacks, and even in the 90 degree heat we took them out to view our garden. As we opened the door to the terrace we heard all kinds of flapping and fluttering. A glance at the Jersey bush revealed a handsome male Mockingbird--inside the netting and desperately trying to get out! As we tried to help, the bird got more distraught. Thankfully, he eventually slipped out the bottom and flew off. I can't say for sure, but I bet he'll think twice before doing that again! And I'll be sure to better seal up the net after picking berries.

This mocking bird wants my berries!



Fresh picked