IKEA, being IKEA, seems to have discontinued the bestest pot ever, their PS Fejo. A few days ago I noticed that it was not part of their 2009 catalog.
What’s so great about it? It is a self watering pot on wheels. Plastic wheels that don’t rust. Wheels that have rarely given me any problem. As I like to move my plants around in the backyard, the wheels are an important feature.
I usually drill three small holes near the bottom side of the pot, a bit above the reservoir, so I can keep them outside. The little indicator, that pops up when the reservoir is full, sometimes fails after a few seasons, bit the main thing, the wheels and the integrity of the pot is longer lasting.
So I went to IKEA and bought 5 Fejos, seeing that the College Park location had about 100 in stock.
Tag: gardening
Going to pot
I’m thinking gardening.
The problem is that I’m planning to paint the front of my house. Once I decide on which shade of color (creamsicle, pencil, kumquat) then I may hire someone to trample on whatever is growing in the ground in order to get the house painted. For those earlier crops they’re going to have to be in a pot, so I can move them out of the way.
Patio tomatoes were fair producers. They did well in mid sized pots and gave me some golf ball sized tomatoes at a slow steady pace.
The Emperor Bean produced a decent number of flowers and was very viney. I didn’t get a huge number of beans. I’m probably not going to grow them again.
Speaking of beans, I’ll definitely do the Parisian green bean again. Last night, celebrating Fat Tuesday, I had a wonderful meal at Corduroy, that had some wonderfully buttery green beans on the plate. So the meal made me think that those beans are worth an encore.
Despite the %$#@ squirrels digging up my seedlings, %$)^$ tree rats, I’m going to try for beets and onions again. This time I’m going to see about putting metal or plastic netting just below the surface to discourage digging.
There are a few things in the ground that will need to move to pots, lest they get trampled. The lavender and the arugula could stand to be moved. Then again, arugula is so easy to grow, I may just dig the plants up and give them to the lady down the street.
Considering how tiny my front yard is, there is a lot of life.
Green Tomatoes $1 a bag
I was in the yard, sort of cleaning up. I thought the tomatoes were done. They’re not done. But the vines have gotten leggy and annoying. A few of my neighbors were out as well. IT was clearing out some weeds and the Guatemalan couple were clearing the sidewalk of leaves. I gave the couple some ripe tomatoes and some bunches of arugula. I had earlier given a tomato to residents of the Section 8 house down the street.
I was cutting off green tomatoes and setting them on the recycle bin as I was cutting back the vines they were on. IT and the couple already retreated to their homes when a woman in an SUV stops in the middle of the road and says, “Excusing me, how much are you selling those green tomatoes for?”
My mind went blank for a second. Sell? I’ve never put a monetary value on my produce. I’ve usually given away the tomatoes, chard, purslane, beans, and herbs growing my yard, but to neighbors, readers of this blog, co-workers, and family. Yet, if someone wants to offer me money, I’m not going to say no. Of course, I have taken bottles of wine…
The woman in the SUV began to tell me how hard it has been for her to find green tomatoes and how she really wanted some to fry. Fried green tomatoes don’t do anything for me, so the green tomatoes have little value to me, so I made up a price, one dollar for a bag. She parked the SUV, and I grabbed a bag and collected green tomatoes off of vines I was eying to cut back. I got $1 in change, which will fund my very bad vending machine Twix habit. The woman got about 3 lbs of tomatoes, which she seemed thrilled to get. G-d bless capitalism in its simplest form.
Help a tree out
I was meaning to post this link earlier.
The 7th Street Garden is moving to Le Droit Park to the Gage-Eckington School. This Saturday they are looking for volunteers to help out. One of the huge tasks will be moving some of their trees.
The garden staff currently don’t have the resources to uproot and relocate a set of trees from the space, including two each of peach, apple, and cherry trees. We want to make sure these trees can find a home in a new spot, and to make that happen – according to Susan Ellsworth of the Garden – we need “a tree spade, a flat-bed truck that lowers to the ground, and a small miracle.” Maybe one of the members of our community can help provide at least the first two? Please let us know!
So help a tree out.
Fall garden
It must be tomato time, because they are all over the place. Well all over the place in the yard. Though 2 of the 6 backyard tomatoes plants were complete duds (no fruit), The front yard tomatoes have been making up for it. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been bringing my overflow tomatoes to work and giving the to co-workers.
The San Marzano Roma tomato plant has been obnoxiously fruitful as of late. After grabbing the mail I will notice some tomatoes ready to be freed from the vine, which are then deposited on the radiator in the entryway. I had about a dozen of the sometimes rudely shaped fruits sitting on the radiator, when I figure it’s time for sauce making.
My method is simple. Wash tomatoes. Cut off bottom blossom rot (a problem part of the potted tomatoes). Remove seeds. Cut in half or several pieces. Throw in pot. Add water as needed. Heat on low. Find something else to do while it turns into pasta sauce mush. Throw in salt, maybe remove skins, or not. Maybe add garlic, cream, herbs, or whatever I feel like, or not. Cool. Label. Freeze.
As the tomatoes are doing their thing, I’m planting seeds for winter foodstuffs. Pretty much beets, leeks, garlic, and onions. The arugula and coriander were sown earlier and I expect them to serve me through the winter like they did last year. I’ll see if the parsley will last.
Fall planting and the problem with being organic
This morning while I was eating breakfast in the backyard, reading the newspaper, B. yelled over the fence about some bugs spotted on the plants. There are these bugs that sort of look like lady bugs, but aren’t. They need to die. B.’s solution was spray, mine, shake ’em off the plant and step on them. The are some organic pest control sprays, but stomping seems to be the best earth friendly, plant friendly way to take care of them.
Same thing with bugs found in the corn at the farmer’s market. I’m going to assume that the farmers use little to no pesticide. Anyway, at the tops of the corn there were these fat ugly worms eating and turning the kernels to mush. Solution, knock the worm out from the corn, stomp it, knock off some of the mush, buy the corn. When I got home I just cut the top off, the rest of the corn cob was just fine.
I was taking a closer look at the pots because I’m trying to figure out where I can fit the fall plantings for a winter crop. Somethings do well in the winter here. Arugula, does but I’ve already planted that, as does onions and beets and Swiss chard. I have beet seeds and I need to get them in the ground while it is still warm, but the summer stuff is taking up all the space.
Edible Front Lawn
Well it’s August and the edible front yard is moving along quite nicely.
Tomatoes– The patio tomatoes are near done and the bigger tomato plants are beginning to show some fruit. Well some of them. Some are just disappointing thus far, with lots of vines but no little green fruits to show for itself. It could be that other pants are getting in the way.
Beans– Beans, beans a wonderful fruit. The Parisian bean is dying if not dead. My beans seem to suffer from a spider mite problem that requires a nearly daily dose of spraying a strong stream of water of the leaves to knock the little buggers off. Unfortunately, with my spotty watering the mites won. At least I got a few nice Harcourt Verts out of them. The red emperor bean is giving me nice little red flowers but nothing else. I don’t think I’ll grow them again next year. Lastly I am very happy with the conch peas or Texas Cream 8 bean. Conch peas are what I used to eat as a child in Florida. I can’t seem to find these kind of peas/beans up here in DC. Though it is a very small amount that I am getting, I’m happy I’m getting them. I will grow more next year.
Thyme– It’s taking over every empty spot in the yard. This is the creeping variety, not the culinary kind. I can eat it but only when I’ve run out of the type I like.
Salad Greens– I don’t know the exact name of whatever is pictured here but whatever it is it suffers heat and spotty watering well. It hasn’t gone bitter like many other greens and is salad and sandwich worthy. Corn Mache didn’t like the heat, and those plants look pretty beat up, so I am hoping that they do better in the fall. The purslane is all over and I’m not eating it fast enough.
Beets– I like the ones I have and have taken the greens and sauted them in olive oil and garlic. I’m haing a problem with seeds I’ve placed in the ground recently as nothing is coming up and I want something around for winter.
Flowers– Daylilies are done. Pansys and Violas are going strong. I haven’t felt the need to put them in a salad. Nasturtiums have suffered in the heat and seem near dead.
Etc. Somewhere under a tomato vine is a sage plant dying for some sun. The mint is fine and I guess I should ponder another mojito party… or just make mojito sorbet. I haven’t done squat with the oregano, which has gone to flower. The Thai basil is about to flower. I’m ignoring the swiss chard. I should give more of it away. Make room for something else. The parsley looks sad.
So this s just my 14×8 front yard. Yes, it is crowded. Very much so. But growing in the city can be done. And it is quite fun to say everything (minus the weeds) can be eaten.
Walking on my lunch
Part of my gardening is based on the idea of throw it on (seeds) or in the ground and see what happens. If it grows cool, if it don’t oh, well.
The experiment with the purslane has been great. Seeds were thrown everywhere, and like the weed it is, it grew almost everywhere I put seed down. I’ve been enjoying purslane salads for dinner and lunch for a while now, but there is a problem. A good amount of the purslane is where I walk. The reason why I like purslane so much is that it has this great crunch to it. And it is that crunch I hear when I walk towards my bike or go to turn on the water hose.
Now I have arugula seedings from previous plantings that dropped seed growing in my walkway cracks too. Oh, brother!
The good thing about an edible front yard is I can eat it. The bad thing is I’m stepping on and knocking over the food that would be my lunch.
Soil Test Results
From the Soil and Plant Tissue Testing Lab at the University Of Massachusetts:
Nutrient Levels: PPM (parts per million/ parts per milligram per kilogram)
Phosphorus (P) 105
Potassium (K) 282
Calcium (Ca) 4263
Magnesium (Mg) 303
Extracted Lead (PB) 34 PPM Estimated Total Lead is 443
“THE LEAD LEVEL IN THIS SOIL IS IN THE LOW RANGE.
READ THE ENCLOSED INFORMATION ABOUT LEAD IN THE SOIL.
FOLLOW THE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LOW LEAD LEVELS.”
According to UMASS I have high levels of nutrients and really should lay off the compost….. Anyone need compost? Trade you for nutrient low peat moss. The pH levels are outta wack, apparently they are too high.
Despite all your fears and concerns my front yard, my urban front yard has low levels of lead. It has less than 43 ppm and less than 500 ppm estimated total lead. High would be greater than 480 ppm and and estimated total lead ppm of 3000+, according to the accompanying materials the soil lab supplied. Also according to the materials lead is naturally present in soil in the range of 15-40 ppm. My soil falls within the natural range.
Gardening success. gardening failure
First, failure. Though I can see the pea vines from the peas I planted, I’m announcing my guerrilla gardening effort a failure. It’s okay. Lessons were learned. For one, though I decided to make just a small plot for the garden, it was a little too deep into the property. When the weeds got up to a certain size I really couldn’t go back there. And didn’t want to wade through the grass and not see what my feet were stepping on. Second, I thought I could deal with the glass, the trash, the bricks and the rocks. Nope. A hard ground wasn’t helping either. Lastly, the biggest problem was me. I would ignore the plot for days or even weeks at a time. Oh well, nothing ventured…
Where I have so far succeeded is my own yard. I was just able to harvest just enough purslane to make a personal salad. In the other salad greens area, I have been able to cut a handful of clippings and have them for lunch at work the next day. The end is nigh for the spring salads. Tuesday, I should go around to my pea plants and snip off the pea pods and shell the peas, then blanch the peas and freeze the peas. Some of the peas are doing what I needed them to do, help the soil then die when I’m ready to put in tomato plants. Some are a little to happy and productive to kill just yet.