Insect identification

There are good and bad bugs in your garden, and determining which is which can sometimes be difficult. Some bugs look so ugly that you may be convinced that they are bad for the garden, but in actuality, they may be one of the best bugs you could have.

Lady Bug Larvae

Lady bug larvae is not pretty but these are very beneficial for your garden as they feed on aphids and other bad bugs and have not developed wings yet to fly away.  Most of the knowledge I have about bugs in the garden comes from fellow gardening friends who have been kind enough to share their knowledge. I wanted to have a good reference guide of my own so I asked my more experienced friends, and they suggested the Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America, so I picked up a copy.

Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America. 

 

Fleck and Gidget play with a Fig Beetle

Gidget plays with her bug

Fig beetles are generally not extremely destructive to the home gardener but they will feed on ripe fruit if you don't get to it soon enough, and if they lay eggs in your soil, then it can cause some problems for seedlings because the larvae are very active and disrupt the top layer of soil, thus disrupting seedlings. 

I am looking forward to using the Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America for insect identification in the future.

Mourning Cloak Butterfly

I did recently see a new type of butterfly to me in our garden, and even though I knew my book was on the way, I couldn't help but ask some friends what it was. They were right, I verified it in the field guide; this is a Mourning Cloak Butterfly. I thought it was absolutely beautiful. 

Unknown Bird

I need a field guide for birds next as we are seeing a lot of species that we have not seen before and I have no idea what they are. 

It's fun to explore the garden for bugs, and it is even better when you are confident about whether the bug is good or bad for your garden. So far, I would recommend this book to any gardener who wants to use good bugs to do some of their pest control work in the garden.

This week's eats

This is the last week we will do our this week's eats blog post, as we're getting way to much out of the garden to keep photographing all of it, we don't want to seem like we're just bragging. 

Moving forward we will do a post of harvest on Fridays to show our market customers what they may be able to buy from us at the Golden Hill Farmer's Market beginning on July 16th if everything goes as planned. 

It was a fabulous tasting week here at Gidget's Garden.   

Our first Roma, they'll all be ready soon. 

The first beans we noticed; these are Purple Podded Pole Beans. We discovered many more after these. Yum. 

We let this zucchini get a little too large, they grow overnight! 

Gidget inquires; "Are we eating any REAL food this week, like chicken?"

Nice mix this day

Even more the next day. One of the first Japanese eggplants at bottom right. 

And another nice mix again the next day

Our first Kabocha squash

Jay Leno?

This zucchini was hiding from us. It's 16 inches long. We wouldn't let them get this big on purpose.

Gidget says; "I guess I'm going to have to eat this bug."

We can't wait to share some of this bounty with our customers at the market. We'll leave the bugs at home for Gidget.

Where we get our seeds

Seeds are one of the most important supplies in your vegetable garden. Buying established plants makes things quicker but in the long run buying all of your plants already established will cost you more money. You can buy a packet of 50 seeds for the same amount of money as buying one of the same plants already established.

Many people ask us where we get our seeds so I thought I would share some of my favorite seed companies to help get you started. 

My most favorite is probably Seed Savers Exchange. They are a group of gardeners who have been saving and exchanging seeds for a long time.

The Seed Savers Exchange catalog above and individual seeds packets below. 

We buy a lot of seeds from City Farmers Nursery and they primarily sell the Seeds of Change seeds.

Seeds of Change seeds

Botanical Interests is another favorite company for seeds.

I'm always thrilled to get seed catalogs in the mail.

We have also purchased a few from a newer company, at least new to me, called High Mowing Seeds.

High Mowing Seeds catalog

We generally only use seeds that are certified organic but will make an occasional exception for some heirloom varieties.

We store our seeds in zip lock bags in the freezer and then make sure to allow the contents of the bag to reach room temperature before opening it. This helps keep our precious seeds viable longer, and allowing the bag to reach room temperature cuts down on mildew related diseases.

All of this seed talk is boring Gidget.

Soil is the most important factor in your organic garden

The most important factor in a healthy, productive, and tasty organic vegetable garden is the quality of the soil. This means a little more time, effort, and in some cases investment to begin with, but it will pay off in the long run. When plants are in soil that they love, they will be bigger, more productive, stronger, and more resistant to pests and disease.

I am not an expert on soil and how to nurture it, but I have learned that when you focus on your soil, rather than your plants, you will be able to create an organic garden that will continue to get better with each season. How to go about doing that is a subject of vast discussions among gardeners.

New planter boxes made by our friends at Sonny San Diego. 

The first thing I consider when planting a new garden is the type of planting conditions I will be working with. There are several ways to plant a garden such as in the ground, in large raised beds, and in containers. We're going to show you how we approached building the soil for these two large containers. We planted 3 Habanero peppers and some beans in the furthest container, hoping that the beans will trail down the wall behind it. In the other one we put in some basil that will only be there long enough for the Golden Zucchini plant to take over the whole box. We'll see if a Golden Zucchini is a good idea here or not; they are very large plants. 

In containers like this, making sure the drainage is adequate is one of the most important factors. These have numerous large drainage holes that I covered with a very shallow layer of rocks. We wanted to get the most value for our dollar and create a soil mixture that will keep our plants healthy from the beginning so while we would have liked to buy a pre-made, excellent quality soil like FoxFarm, we opted to make our own mixture.

We started with Grandma Mary's potting mix that is made from California's Lake Almanor forest products

I've learned some hard lessons about bagged soils. It would be fantastic to have access to a forest where we could go harvest our own soil, but we live in the city so we must rely on commercial soils. Nothing is more frustrating than finding that your plants are covered with fungal disease and in general poor health because of bad soil. Now when I buy a new brand, I will use it for awhile with strictly flowers and ornamental plants before deciding if it's good enough to try with the vegetables.

We used 2 parts Mary's and 1 part good quality topsoil and mixed that together. We get our topsoil from City Farmers.

We added E.B. Stone organic fertilizer according to the directions 

And we also added organic perlite to the mixture to further improve drainage and air circulation

We worked in layers mixing as we went because it was easier for transporting the components 6 feet up into the containers. 

In addition to the fertilizer, we added worm castings to the box with the squash because they have a high nitrogen  content that squash like, and worm castings are a great way to build up the quality of any organic soil. 

We added some calcium to the box with the peppers because Habanero peppers are calcium lovers.

We are hoping this is a good start to keeping the soil in these boxes healthy for seasons to come. We will continue to build and enrich this soil by adding organic matter in the way of small amounts of organic granular fertilizer, more worm castings, and compost as time goes on. 

An empty EarthBox

We did invest in FoxFarm soil for many of our EarthBoxes and want to get as much use out of it as possible. To keep it fresh and healthy, we sanitize it in full sun in a pod made of clear sheet plastic. I took one long piece of sheet plastic and put the soil on the bottom half in a 2-3 inch layer, then folded the other half over the top. I take some of our landscape rocks and put them all around the edges of the plastic, you could use bricks or whatever you have handy to secure the plastic. 

We will leave the pod here for at least 5 very hot days and may leave it for a few weeks in cooler weather, we want to make sure it gets as hot as possible. Doing this reduces the chances that you will spread disease to next season's plants. We will also thoroughly clean the EarthBox with non-chlorine bleach and water.

Soil sanitizing pod.

The plants in this box did not show any sign of disease so I feel comfortable planting in this soil again but we do have an EarthBox With 2 tomatoes in it and the tomatoes are suffering from early blight. I will take that soil out of the rotation completely because I do not want to risk infecting other plants with that disease. 

One of the things I am most excited about learning during my internship at Urban Plantations is more about how to love and nurture my soil so our plants will be even happier in Gidget's Garden.

Gidget guarding the compost because she knows how important it is to her garden. 

Photo of the week

Morning mammoth sunflowers

I'm going to be an Urban Plantations intern

I am lucky enough to have an opportunity to intern with Urban Plantations, at the Fibonacci's Farm in La Jolla. The farm is to supplement the food for the restaurant. I went on a tour of the farm yesterday and met with Yael, the amazing woman in charge of this incredible farm.

I am already learning about, and getting ideas for great trellis systems.  These are young  Blackberry plants. 

Their tomatoes look absolutely gorgeous. Many of the varieties came from seeds the chef obtained in France.

Pumpkins growing in front of the corn. Yael explaining how we will have to manage the plants as they get huge.

I am especially excited about learning how to grow artichokes successfully because we struggle with them.

They are hoping to do well with some Spring mix in the shady bed,  but the greens in the sunnier raised beds will be coming out soon.

One of my main jobs on the farm will be harvesting which I am really happy to learn more about, I find myself second guessing when things are at their peak and should be harvested.

Beautiful beans.

Rosemary lines the walkway. The covered area in back is reserved for events and has gorgeous grapes climbing up the  posts

One last look at the space I will be working at on Monday mornings starting in Mid July.

In Gidget's Garden news, we should be at the Golden Hill Farmer's Market, on July 16th for the first time. It depends on when we receive the actual certificate but other than that we're ready to go. Look for our teardrop trailer and arrive early because supplies are limited.

Gidget has been letting all the neighbors know that we are certified and will be at the market soon.

What you might find from Gidget's Garden at the Golden Hill Farmer's Market

Some of you may be wondering what we will be bringing to the market, now that we know our certificate to sell, is on the way. We sometimes ask ourselves that too, but with the bounty of fruits, vegetables, and herbs that we have ripening in the garden right now, I am becoming less concerned.

Here is a partial list of the things we are certified to grow and that we hope to bring to the market in very small quantities. 

Warm Season (currently available or will be very soon)

• Zucchini; Black Beauty, Costa Romanesco, and Yellow Bush
• Eggplant; Black Beauty and Japanese
• Tomatoes; Yellow Pear Cherry Heirloom, Orange Queen, Gardener's Delight Cherry, Three Sisters, Roma, Champion, and Better Boy 

Some of the Tomato plants

• Cucumbers; Lemon Heirloom, Spacemaster, Japanese, Armenian, Persian, and possibly Diva

A Lemon Cucumber

• Beans; Rattlesnake Snap, Purple Podded Pole, and Ideal Market
• Bell Peppers; Big Bertha, California Wonder Bell, Sunrise Orange, Black Beauty, and Red.

Some of the peppers

• Chile Peppers; Gidget's Rio Grande, Jalapeno, Poblano, Pepperocini, Habanero, Pizza Pepper
• Herbs; Basil (several types), Thyme, Sage, Oregano, Rosemary
• Watermelon; Sugar Baby

Sugar Baby Watermelons

• Sunflowers; Russian Mammoth seeds, Moulin Rouge and Elves Blend blooms. 
• Lemon; Pink Lemonade

Pink Lemonade Lemons

• Strawberries; Sequoia
• Tomatillo; Toma Verde
• Flowers; Roses, Lavender, Gerbera Daisies, Valerian blossom, and Lemon-Rose Geranium.

Lemon Rose Geranium

Later Warm Season, or Fall, or next year

• Passionfruit; Yellow
• Avocado; Golden Hill Hybrid

We're growing more of our amazing avocados as fast as we can

• Blueberries; Sharp Blue
• Banana; Ice Cream
• Lime; Dwarf Sweet
• Artichoke; Green Globe

Cool Season

• Nasturtiums; Fiesta Blend
• Sweet Peas (non-edible), Early Multiflora and Cupani

Sweet Peas

• Broccoli; Dicicco
• Cauliflower; Early Snowball
• Arugula; Rouquette
• Spinach; Bloomsdale and America
• Lettuce; Grandpa Admire's, Flame, Red Romaine, Winter Destiny, Bunte Forellenschluss
• Cabbage; Copenhagen Market and Chinese Wong Bok
• Swiss Chard; 5 color Silverbleet and Bright Lights
• Peas; Amish Snap and Green Arrow
• Carrots; Danvers

"I love optimism!" 

We'll be sure to let you know when our first day at the market will be as soon as we know. It shouldn't be long.