Season of Squash!

Tromboncinos are so named because of their little bulbous trombone ends.Last year, I had a terrible summer squash experience.  The squirrels in my garden stole the first budding squash, and then every squash plant, both the summer squash and my sugar pumpkins, died suddenly.  The culprit was the squash borer, a creature that lays its eggs in late June and whose offspring bore into the base of squash plants (and sometimes cucumbers) and slowly destroys the stem integrity til the plant dries up and expires. 

In my research on how to prevent these attacks, I came across the information that certain species of squash have developed a natural resistance to the borer.  These squash, falling under the family of Cucurbita moschata, include butternut squash, along with two species I'm growing this year: tromboncino and Long Island cheese pumpkins.  Tromboncino is an Italian summer squash that grows on a thick, long vine.  I can tell why it's so resistant to borers, the vine is super thick and covered in hairs that are strong enough to stick in my fingers like thorns.  The vine is so tough that I had trouble harvesting the first fruit from it, and I believe this is also the reason for the squirrels leaving the monster alone.  The vine has grown so incredibly long that it now runs about 15 feet along the brick path of the garden.  I finally trimmed it back, only to find it had grown about 4 feet longer in the span of 3 days.  I also found that the squash I'd been checking on almost every day, grew to twice its size in the few days I'd stopped looking for it.  These squash are amazing in size, with a mild, nutty flavor.  So far I've harvested two, one of which I donated to my landlord as I'm already getting squashed by the summer squash selection of my CSA. 

Summer squash is notorious for overproducing for unprepared growers, and I've heard entertaining stories of people who leave bag fulls of the vegetable on their neighbors' porches, then run away before they're caught.  For me, I'm tiring of the squash stir fries alread, BUT, I haven't even begun with the stuffed squash or zucchini bread, and I found a very helpful zucchini chocolate chip cookie recipe I'm eager to try out.  Other ways to avoid over-squashing include picking the squash when they're tender and young, at least there's less to consume.

Turn of the Season

"Slow" is the key word for this year's growing season.  The wonky weather and generally cool average temperature for the season has slowed the growth of most of my plants, save the greens, which took the first hot weather as an opportunity to go to seed.  I pulled most of my arugula and made a nice Memorial Day salad with the leaves and spicy flowers.  I left a couple plants, as I'm low on arugula seeds and would love to harvest more.  My bok choy is also seeding like crazy.  I'm going to attempt to pull it for a stir fry, but I'm also content collecting seeds for next year's crop.  In their place, my purple mustard has started to thrive as their competitors are pulled and more sunlight is reaching them. 

I pulled two enormous radishes out yesterday, as I was weeding yet more gourd seedlings (note: never just throw vegetables in your garden without letting them compost in a bin or pile for a bit, or you'll be getting a lot of volunteers you may not want or need).  Radish season is coming to an end, however, as the high heat days deter radishes from filling out, and make them nearly unbearably spicy. 

My tromboncino squash plants are thriving with enormous, foot-wide leaves.  The real test is coming, however, as I've noticed evil squash borer flies buzzing about (June is their breeding season).  These little nasty bugs wiped out all of my summer squash last year, so I'm crossing fingers that they'll be thwarted by this resistant breed of squash.  One thing I seriously missed last year was some nice summer squash from my garden.  My biggest concern for these guys is what will happen when they start developing vegetables.  Last year the few produce that formed were stolen by my enemy, the wily squirrel.  I'd like to fence them off and net them, but I'm concerned about there being enough spacefor the leaves to comfortably fit.  Some creative netting may be necessary.

My pumpkins, however, are not doing so well.  Something, presumably a squirrel, has been furiously digging up my smaller bed.  It's buried my eggplant seedlings more than once until I netted and fenced the entire area off.  It's also dug up and destroyed all but one of my poor pumpkins.  I'm not even sure if they have enough of a head start to grow mature produce, but here's hoping.

Dilly Beans!Also in the realm of pests, I'm noticing my quinoa are being plagued by aphids.  I put in an order to Territorial Seed for a shipment of ladybugs, but they won't be in til the end of the month.  Sunflowers are blooming, and hopefully they'll attract some beneficial bugs to eat some of my pests, in the meantime.

Green beans are currently coming in, in record numbers for me.  I went with bush beans this year, as I was greatly disappointed with my low-yielding pole beans last year.  Today I took advantage of the first harvest by creating pickled dilly beans.  Using this website's recommendations, I prepared a jar and created this briny spicy treat for several months down the road.  I can't wait to open up the jar and try one, but sadly, I have to wait two weeks.

Lots going on as I gear up for my CSA and a busy summer of harvesting, tune back soon as I'll have more updates to share!

-Jen

Spring Update: The Little Tomato Seedling That Could

The garden is making steady progress, now that the weather is warming.  Leafy greens are coming in strong, along with a handful of French breakfast radishes and a ton of volunteer mint.  My Fun Jen frilly bok choy is thriving, it'll be a good year for stir fries.  My carrots and quinoa have started to sprout, and my Brussels sprouts are really starting to leaf out. In the herb bin, little is sprouting, but I transplanted my one successful lemon balm seedling, and my one successful parsely, which are both doing just fine.  Cilantro is coming up strong, and I think I spotted one or two dill sprouts.  Fingers crossed!

I've pulled about a dozen volunteer gourd seedlings out of the garden.  Not that I wouldn't want another group of bird house gourds to carve as gifts for Christmas, but the plants are enormous and I have no room for them, as I'm hoping to grow pumpkins in their place.

Today I transplanted three of my strongest tomato seedlings outside, as they were getting to large for the indoor seeding station. 

About two weeks ago, I was acclimating my tomatoes to the outdoors when I accidentally snapped the largest one clean in half at the base of the stem, leaving it hanging on by a thread of green.  Unwilling to let my strongest seedling die due to sheer clumsiness, I quickly burried the plant up to the first set of leaves.  I had hope, as I remembered from last year that as I was pruning lower branches from my tomato plants, I noticed a large branch I had cut had fallen cut side down into the soil and was rooting itself.  Sure enough, two weeks later, the tomato is doing just fine.  Plants are shockingly tough.  I suppose they have to be to survive in the ridiculous weather with constant animal assaults.

Slow Seeding

Tomato seedlings in their new containers!Getting my garden going this year has been slow going.  But, I've probably said that every year.  The cold weather has slowed the growth of everything I planted outside, with radishes and peas in the lead, but not by a lot.  I'm still waiting for lavender, shallots, and garlic chives to emerge, and after 3 weeks, I'm finally seeing signs of the broccoli and Brussels sprouts emerging.  This week's warm weather has finally coaxed second leaves from my lupine and red mustard, but nothing, save micro greens, is edible yet.  Today, right before a stretch of rain storms, and with the promise of 60s weather all week, I planted the rest of my seeds: quinoa, Trombincino summer squash, Long Island cheese pumpkins, and string beans.  It may be a touch early for these guys, but I figured I'd experiment and see what happens.  I can always re-seed, right?

Indoors, I have a motley collection of containers housing my cold-intolerant seedlings.  The tomatoes have already grown too big for the starter tray, so the four strongest, which I intend to transplant to the garden, got their own makeshift pots made of whatever was in my recycle bin: yogurt containers, plastic cups, and plastic bottles cut in half.  Washed out, they make the best plant pots!

My eggplants were taking their sweet time coming up.  Even indoors, they were ridiculously cold sensitive and it took roughly 3 weeks for them to emerge.  In frustration, I put six seedlings, nestled in a cardboard egg carton, in my warm boiler room.  This cut down germination time by about a week and a half, but they ended up emerging about the same time the eggplant seedlings in the station did. 

Also emerging in the station are a handful of sunflower seedlings, some already transplanted into the garden, and a very strange assortment of herbs.  I seem to have mostly thyme, even where I didn't plant it.  I have three strong basil seedlings of varying sizes, one undeterminable seedling which I think may be lemon balm, one parsley seedling, two spindly Brussels sprout seedlings I planted thinking my seedlings outside were never coming up, and on the lower shelf, a sweet potato with one (and only one) slip growing out of it.

Seedlings, mostly herbs, in various stages of growth.A note on growing sweet potatoes - they're about the easiest thing to start.  You just stick a few toothpicks (or, in my case, kebab skewers) into the sides of a store-bought sweet potato (which is sometimes sold as a "yam" but is not a yam at all) and submerge one end in water.  Roots sprout on the submerged end and slips (sprouts with leaves) grow out of the dry side.  Once the slips mature, or grow a few leaves and look as though they can survive on their own,  you can pinch them off and either place them in water to sprout roots of their own, or plant them directly.  By the end of the year, you'll have a cluster of sweet potatoes growing at the root base.

I've begun acclimating my seedlings to the outdoors by moving their containers out during sunny days.  In the next two weeks, depending on the weather of course, I'll probably transplant the strongest seedlings to their summer homes.  In the mean time, I'm expecting to have full grown radishes in the next week or so! And hopefully some flowers will finally peek out of the ground.  The warm front should coax the tiny seedlings out of their shell and into more recognizable plants.  Can't wait!

Vermicomposting: Fascinatingly Icky

Not for those with a weak stomach...Last year, I tried my hand at an outdoor compost pile.  Food didn't break down quickly (or at all) and I ended up shoving most of the scraps into a remote corner where they were useless.  Animals stole pieces and left them strewn throughout my yard, and the rest just sat, breaking down so slowly that I still had in tact food remnants I'd placed outside in Winter, around the following Fall.  Following the growing season, I attended a presentation by one of my school's prominent compost advocates, who discussed a new trend in organic composting: indoor worm boxes.  Worms are composts' best friend; they munch on food scraps, aerating it as they go, and they digest it into broken down organic material with help from the enzymes in their digestive tract.  This speeds up the breakdown of the food to as little as a month's time. 

I decided to try my hand at vermicomposting this year.  An indoor worm box is perfect for a tiny NYC apartment, and can be kept anywhere, from closets to under the sink.  I keep mine in the hall next to my seed starting station.

Assembling the box is really easy.  I found a plastic box with a snap on lid, about 8"x14", which I'd picked up at a dollar store for $6.  Worms need adequate oxygen circulation or they'll die, so using pliars, I heated a nail over my stove's burner and used it to melt holes into the sides of the box.  I made a small hole every inch, but you can make larger holes and place wire screen over them to prevent escapes, though that's unlikely; their environment inside the box is ideal to where they want to be.

To the box, I added layers of moistened paper, supplied by old phone bills.  Worms need a wet environment or they'll dry out.  Too much water and the worms will drown, so the best way to add moisture is to dip paper in water first, then wring out and add to the box.  The bedding is key, worms lay their eggs in it and eat it along with the food scraps.  Make sure about half to three quarters of the worm box is filled with bedding.  

Next, add food.  You can add almost any organic material: vegetable and fruit scraps and rinds, coffee grounds, egg shells (crushed), tea bags, even paper towels, which help to proide new bedding.  Do not add dairy or meat.  I work at a restaurant known for it's organic fair-trade coffee, and saved the rich grounds and filters to add to my box.  For each layer of food scraps, I added a layer of coffee grounds to cover them.  This reduces the smell and helps prevent fruit flies.  Ideally, you should bury all food scraps under the bedding.  Covering them is key to preventing odor and encouraging the worms to eat the food.  I got a little overenthusiastic and added too much food before I realized this, but the worms seem to be happy, and I'm now adding used wet paper towels on top of the coffee to provide new bedding.

For worms, the best are red wigglers (small red earthworms).  If you want to try finding them on your own, put a pile of compost on some open soil and cover with dry leaves.  In the next day or so, you should have attracted red wigglers.  I decided to buy my red wigglers from the Lower East Side Ecology Center, responsible for the compost exchange in Union Square.  You can call and set up a meeting time, then pick up either a half pound ($11) or pound ($22) of worms, along with "worm condos" ($55), fresh composted soil ($1.50-$12), and other composting products such as compost cranks ($42) to aerate your compost. 

Add your worms to the food scraps covered in bedding, and within a few days, they should settle in.  They hate light and enjoy the warm moisture of the worm box, so they tend to stay put.  I was a nervous new mom when I first brought them home, and kept opening the box to see if they were alive, but they seem to be doing quite well. 

When it's time to harvest the compost, you're supposed to move the dirt to one side, then line the other side with new bedding and food scraps.  Within a few weeks, the worms should completely migrate over to the new bedding (the old worm leavings will poison them, so it's important for them to have new food and bedding).