End of mesclun and arugula

This past weekend I was not at home and when I came back I found this in my arugula and mesclun.

EWWWWW.  I looked very closely and I quickly found the green little caterpillars (I didn't take a picture). Nasty! I picked them and threw the on the driveway (usually birds get them very quickly). Here is the damage on the arugula.

You know, I could probably cut off the damage to see if they recover...but I think I am going to just pull it out. They aren't growing so well and I can't quite get over the caterpillar poop. I will try with the green leafy veggies in the fall.  I hope the cooler weather will make the arugula less spicy than the current "crop" (I'm not sure if spicy is the right word, it just had a really strong...bite).

Harvest Monday!!!

I needed to separate this post from pest post to give me encouragement to keep going! I've been looking forward to joining Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions. It is really nice to see what others around the world are producing! Here is my contribution...for the first time:) Thank you Daphne for hosting Harvest Monday!!

First ever harvest - zucchini/summer squash, peas, mescluns

Some more summer squash...

Ichiban eggplant

and summer squash...

Mescluns and Peas!

The REAL first harvest!!

I have been happily watching my little veggies grow. With the zucchini and eggplant, I don't know how big they are supposed to be before harvest. I found information about the Ichiban eggplant pretty quickly (~10 inches) so this eggplant is almost ready for harvest.

The zucchini is a different story. The package says that this variety is called "Summer Squash Burpee's Bounty Hybrid" and it has zucchini on the top too. I found that zucchini is a type of summer squash. I know this is very basic information to most people, but I didn't know there were so many varieties of zucchinis. Here is the package:

The zucchini I'm growing looks nothing like the ones in the picture...So I am confused - do they change color as they grow, or what?

I tried looking for info on this specific variety but can't find anything. I did read that you shouldn't wait too long before harvesting since zucchinis can get bitter - and I've eaten bitter zucchini and it is nasty.  I figured I'll harvest the biggest one, just to see if they are good.
The peas looked ready too.

I really wanted to wait to share this with the boyfriend but frankly I couldn't wait. I tested one.

DE*LI*CIOUS!!!
Since the mesclun green was looking bushy, so I decided today was the day to harvest. Here is my FIRST REAL HARVEST from the balcony container garden. All of these I grew from seeds!!! WOW, I am really proud of myself.

zucchini/summer squash, sugar snap peas, mescluns/basil/arugula

Here is what the zucchini looks like sliced.

The harvest as dinner!

Zucchini sauteed & raw, steamed peas, salad (flower as decoration)

Zucchini/summer squash was DE*LI*CIOUS! It was good raw too (very sweet)! I sauteed it with olive oil with a little salt and pepper. Simple yet delicious. The peas were steamed a little (unfortunately some raw fruits and vegetables make my throat itch) which brought out their sweetness. I'm not sure I like the mescluns too much. They taste a little...well, green. It was good when mixed with some basil and arugula...and the dressing.

All done! Can you tell I am super excited? Gardening rocks!

Flowers on the peas!...and tomato leaves curling

The peas are growing very quickly and they are starting to outgrow the trellis. I'm not sure if I should build a taller support because I wouldn't be able to reach that high anyway. I'm wondering if I can coax the plants to grow sideways. I also noticed some flowers yesterday, I didn't notice it earlier because they camouflage pretty well with the foliage. I'm very happy to see the flowers because I was thinking it might be too hot for the peas to produce any pods. Looks like I might be able to harvest a couple of peas!

Super Snap pea flower

The peas shooting up above the trellis

I noticed that the tomato leaves were curling up. I was a little concerned but I read here and other sites that this type of curling is the plant adjusting to changes in the environment (it has been really hot the past couple of day). I know I haven't been over-watering so I definitely think the plant is adjusting to the heat (makes sense to try to reduce surface area by curling). I also read that sometimes if the foliage grows quicker than the roots, it curls up like this to reserve energy for root growth. I feel so bad that this plant is confined to this container so the roots can't really grow so much. Hopefully it will do OK.

 On a happier note, the arugula is coming back I think! I moved it from direct sun to a space under the balcony - I think it is much happier there.

Arugula on the top, mescluns in bottom container

I just love the flowers on the ichiban eggplant. I didn't know I was such a flower person, but I guess I am!

Basil and little little salad

Last year I had a pot of basil growing in the kitchen windowsill. When I bought the basil the women at the store told me to nip the tip to promote the plant to become more bushy. You want to cut it down to where there are 2 sets of leaves forming.

Hopefully this will make for a bushier basil plant and more basil! With the leaves that I trimmed and tomato I made bruschetta. I used some sort of whole grain chips that I did not like. Need to get some good bread. I'm not sure if I can call this a harvest...but it was good. I wish I had tomatoes from the garden...it will happen soon I hope!

Also here is a little salad I made from the mesclun green. I had just enough for 2, but I had to supplement it with some watercress I had in the fridge.

The real Sucker?!

I knew my veggie plants are growing but when you see them everyday you don't realize just how quickly they are growing. This is a picture of the tomato plant (early girl 50) 3 weeks ago.

And here is the tomato plant today!

I'm so proud  \\(^_^)//
I have been pinching the "suckers" (not too many) as it grows since the early girl is an indeterminate variety. A couple of days ago we had a thunderstorm and the plant was starting to lean sideways. After the storm, I went to tie the stem to the support bamboo pole (the metal tomato cage was all wobbly so I switched to the bamboo pole) and I couldn't tell which stem was the main stem.

I originally thought the branch with red arrow was the main stem. But after stepping back, I think this is just a big sucker (haha) and the blue arrow is in fact the main stem. I am not sure if I should cut the red arrow stem and try to root it in water or something or leave it be. Both stems have flowers on them now. I've read it is OK to keep 1-2 suckers but I feel like I should allow the plant to concentrate all its energy on the main stem (especially because it is confined to a container). Any suggestions?
One of the lettuces in the mesclun mix is starting to flower (bolt). It seems to early to do this.

Here is the package picture:

And here is my planter of mesclun:

Looks good but not quite like the package. I may need to find another location where it can get more sun but not direct sunlight....I think I might have a small salad tonight anyway! My first real harvest??

Balcony fortress

The biggest barrier to leaving the plants out on the balcony is the crazy wind that whips my poor veggie plants every which way. You can see the peas literally holding on to dear life as the wind tries to pry them off the trellis. I though I found a solution to my problem at ikea. When I went to the store they had several left, but they only had the striped ones left (I wanted the solid white).  The pink and green striped one will make my balcony look like a circus which could be fun but probably will annoy me after a while. The black/white stripe is out of the question since it reminds me of a funeral (at least funerals in Japan). There is another ikea in DC but they are out of stock so I am out of luck. I will probably have to make one using a sun shield cloth I found at Walmart. I really wanted to avoid having to make it myself! In the meantime here is my make-shift wind barrier fortress!

Temporary solution for a windy balcony

Flower buds! (Early girl 50)

I hope they will survive the weekend. The tomato and pepper seedlings that I grew from seeds are looking pretty good too - although they are not ready to be left outside for too long (I tried and they got sun/wind burned). There was a small mis-step, however. I mislabeled my seedlings so I am not sure which ones are the supersweet and which ones are the homestead tomatoes. I guess it will be a surprise if/when they start bearing fruit.

Mesclun in recycled container

Attempt at an experiment

I've been using MiracleGro potting mix for my plants. I thought about making my own potting mix, but for me, that is too stressful. I would like to be as "organic" as possible but I definitely have my limits. I decided my goal for this year is not to use pesticides and do my best to deal with diseases organically. I will also try to get organic fertilizers but I started off with MG potting soil which has fertilizer mixed into it (I didn't get the organic type either). When I went to Lowe's to get soil, I initially got garden soil thinking it was the same thing. Fortunately I read that they were different before I opened the bag so I returned the bag and exchanged it with potting mix.
  I was listening to an episode of "grow your grub" podcast where Steve talks about seaweed fertilizer. This reminded me that I have several packages of very old and stale nori seaweed in my pantry (that is not edible). Steve sent me a great link about making fertilizer using kelp. I also have kelp in my pantry but they are still good to eat so I will not use this. I think that nori can be used instead but I want to test if this homemade fertilizer is effective. So I decided to set up an experiment. I had basil, peas (the ones I tried germinate in a paper towel), and tomato seedlings that I could use.

tomato seedlings that are quite cramped and stunted, subjects of the experiment

To set up this experiment correctly, I needed to find potting soil without fertilizer. This prove to be very difficult. I finally found one at Lowe's called Garden Pro Potting soil. I set up 5 conditions per plant (MG=miracle gro; RS=Garden Pro): MG, RS only, RS + liquid MG fertilizer, RS + compost tea, RS + seaweed fertilizer. The compost tea is actually the water that is dripped out of the compost bucket I talked about some time ago. I went all out and set up the 15 cups for this experiment.

Top row: peas, Middle: tomatoes, bottom: basil. The column on the left is MG, the rest of the "regular soil"

The Garden Pro potting soil was really strange. It looked like it had a lot of sand or clay maybe, but the texture was totally different from MG. It looked really dense so I added some perlite. After setting up the cups it occurred to me that this soil will not work for this experiment (ie: not comparable to MG), but at that point it was really too late to look back. I watered each cup...and the RS dissolved to about half the volume and the water that drained out was brown. So at the end, I'm not sure this experiment is gonna work. If the seedlings don't die in the next few days, I'll start the experiment.

After watering, soil dissolves to about half the volume

The coffee colored liquid that is seeped out

Chilling on my windowsill

I'll end with some pictures of mesclun greens that I a) thinned out b) used for salad. They were more mesclun-y than my previous "salad".

Pre-thinning

Post-thinning

The salad was good

Starting to feel like summer!

Second sunny and warm day in a row! I smell summer is finally here!! I quickly checked the weather forecast and decided that today will be warm all day (70-80s). I took all my plants that are in big pots (eggplant, jalapeno, tomato, and zucchinis) out on the balcony. Then I sat there contemplating whether I should leave the seedlings out to. I know you are supposed to slowly expose them to the elements. From what I've read in gardener's blogs and from listening to podcasts (yes, I listen to gardening podcasts because I am totally addicted, a dork, and know little to nothing about what I am doing), you are suppose to take the seedlings out for about an hour one day, 2 hours the next, 3 hours the next and slowly increase the exposure time monitoring how they are responding. On the weekend, yes, this is reasonable. But during the week, I cannot figure out how this is possible. I live really close to work, so it is feasible to come back home quickly and bring the seedlings inside... but really? I can't do that. So I decided against leaving them outside for the day (though I have a feeling they would've been OK). As I was driving home afterwork, I was little concerned that my plants wouldn't fare well in the heat.But they were looking quite happy on my balcony!

If you look real close, you can see the peas "grabbing" the string

Jalapeno and eggplants are doing well

I'm not sure if this is what the mesclun green are suppose to look like. The side I thinned out doesn't look any better than the other side. Hm...

The balcony can be accessed from the second bedroom. There is no water source on the balcony so I have to go into the bathroom. I made a little funnel to make it easier to get the water in my watering container. Works pretty well!

Water bottle-turned funnel