Finally, some sun! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Garden on May 24"][/caption] And what goes with sun?  Sunflowers! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="2 week old sunflowers"][/caption] I started these sunflowers inside because I didn't want the rain to hurt them.  But it turns out that sunflowers are pretty strong and I probably could have just planted them in the ground ("ground" being my raised bed.)  Oh well.  Just look at their nice roots! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Ignore my dirty fingers, please."][/caption] Along with the sunflowers I also started some summer squash inside.  Again, it probably could have been sown directly in the ground but I like to baby my little seedlings.  Like the sunflowers, these little ones seem pretty hardy and the leaves are a nice shade of dark green. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Again, ignore the fingers."][/caption] I don't have too much space left for plants outside (or at least space that is sunny) so here's where the sunflowers and some squash will go: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="That strangely glowing thing to the right is lavender left over from last year."][/caption] The rest of the squash is going to the right of that picture, to compete with the mint (just kidding, I'll help the squash out until it gets big enough to fight for itself.) Here are some droopy, newly-planted sunflowers with a few squash: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="What's that amidst the ivy? Don't worry about it."][/caption] And here's the rest of the squash [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Stay back, mint!"][/caption] It's a little late to be planting squash (probably should have done it about a month ago) but I think the growing season here is long enough that it shouldn't matter too much.  Here's the squash again, this time with my new little rosemary I bought at Urban Jungle on Passyunk Ave. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Squashies"][/caption] The rosemary was so cute and looked nice and healthy and I couldn't resist, even though I have rosemary seeds.  But I would have had to have waited to plant the seeds in the fall and I wanted rosemary now, dammit.  What can I say, I am prone to impatience. Oh, hey.  While I was prepping the raised bed for the squash and sunflowers (basically grabbing handfuls of dirt and worms and mixing some compost it) I found something interesting: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="That's a weird-shaped rock."][/caption] Hmm.  Not a rock! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Skull"][/caption] Some little animal skull!  My picture is sadly not too great but those front teeth mean business.  I probably should have mounted it on a stick as a warning to all other animals Lord of the Flies-style but it kinda freaked me out so I threw it out.  I know, I know.  Or I could have just kept it in there and let it fertilize the soil and decompose on its own - do skulls even do that? - but I didn't really want to come across it again.  I might have screamed when I found it.  Maybe. That was the excitement for this week!  Still lots of flowers on the tomatoes: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Fuzzy"][/caption] And, well, lots of tomato plants: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="A veritable tomato forest!"][/caption] My grandmother warned me that some of the flowers might fall off the tomatoes without any fruit but I think that's okay because there are many, many flowers now. I'm going away this weekend so I'm kind of hoping it rains here a bit.  If not, though, I've got a backup waterer.  Thank you! Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.

Finally, some sun!

And what goes with sun?  Sunflowers!

I started these sunflowers inside because I didn't want the rain to hurt them.  But it turns out that sunflowers are pretty strong and I probably could have just planted them in the ground ("ground" being my raised bed.)  Oh well.  Just look at their nice roots!

Along with the sunflowers I also started some summer squash inside.  Again, it probably could have been sown directly in the ground but I like to baby my little seedlings.  Like the sunflowers, these little ones seem pretty hardy and the leaves are a nice shade of dark green.

I don't have too much space left for plants outside (or at least space that is sunny) so here's where the sunflowers and some squash will go:

The rest of the squash is going to the right of that picture, to compete with the mint (just kidding, I'll help the squash out until it gets big enough to fight for itself.)

Here are some droopy, newly-planted sunflowers with a few squash:

And here's the rest of the squash

It's a little late to be planting squash (probably should have done it about a month ago) but I think the growing season here is long enough that it shouldn't matter too much.  Here's the squash again, this time with my new little rosemary I bought at Urban Jungle on Passyunk Ave.

The rosemary was so cute and looked nice and healthy and I couldn't resist, even though I have rosemary seeds.  But I would have had to have waited to plant the seeds in the fall and I wanted rosemary now, dammit.  What can I say, I am prone to impatience.

Oh, hey.  While I was prepping the raised bed for the squash and sunflowers (basically grabbing handfuls of dirt and worms and mixing some compost it) I found something interesting:

Hmm.  Not a rock!

Some little animal skull!  My picture is sadly not too great but those front teeth mean business.  I probably should have mounted it on a stick as a warning to all other animals Lord of the Flies-style but it kinda freaked me out so I threw it out.  I know, I know.  Or I could have just kept it in there and let it fertilize the soil and decompose on its own - do skulls even do that? - but I didn't really want to come across it again.  I might have screamed when I found it.  Maybe.

That was the excitement for this week!  Still lots of flowers on the tomatoes:

And, well, lots of tomato plants:

My grandmother warned me that some of the flowers might fall off the tomatoes without any fruit but I think that's okay because there are many, many flowers now.

I'm going away this weekend so I'm kind of hoping it rains here a bit.  If not, though, I've got a backup waterer.  Thank you!

Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.

Hello again!  There has been exciting progress this past week.  First, here's the garden: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="As of May 19"][/caption] And now...flowers! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="See them?"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="There they are!"][/caption] Those are both from the same plant, my monster beefsteak that has always been the biggest one.  (I think it needs a name...Beefy?)  But the other beefsteaks are getting flowers, too! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Pretty"][/caption] Flowers are exciting because flowers mean fruit.  Hopefully good-tasting fruit.  Gotta wait and see! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Good Beefy"][/caption] It's been raining since Saturday so I haven't had to water at all and I'm hoping for some sunny days this weekend so everything doesn't get too waterlogged.  But the rain has been, for the most part, light and frequent which is how watering should work anyway, so I'm actually kind of thankful for it. I realize I've been focusing largely on the beefsteak tomatoes because they're the biggest, but the beauty queens are getting larger and I'll do a closer look at them in the coming weeks.  The eggplants are still pretty small but I think it's still a bit cold for them.  They apparently do well in hot weather, so once we actually start getting summerish weather I think they'll be happier. On Sunday the rain gave us a bit of a break, so I went outside and retied some of the tomatoes to their stakes and did some weeding.  Now containers usually don't need too much weeding since you use new soil each time, but my big metal planter has had soil in in for a while and look!  Little weeds: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Just ignore the misshapen eggplant"][/caption] So I pulled those little buggers out, trying to get as many of the roots as possible. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Roots"][/caption] And now my tomatoes and eggplants can grow undisturbed (you hear that, eggplant?) While I was weeding, I debated whether I should take the little lower branches and the suckers (that's the actual term, I'm not making stuff up this time) off some of the larger tomato plants.  Suckers are the little shoots that grow from the intersection of the main stem and branches of the tomato plant, and I've been told both to prune them and to leave them on.  Basically it comes down the this:  if you do take those suckers off (ha), the remaining branches get more nutrients and therefore produce bigger fruit.  But if you leave them on you'll get more fruit, though it might be smaller.  If you have a short growing season you probably want to take them off since they'll take nutrients from the rest of the plant and probably not mature in time to produce fruit.  They also tend to make the plant top-heavy, so if you're growing in a small space (yup) they might get too unwieldy.  What to do??  I eventually compromised by pruning some plants and leaving the others undisturbed.  Since then I've decided that I'm going to leave the majority of them on since it's only May and the growing season here is quite long.  If things get too top-heavy then I'll reassess. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Another shot of the garden...cause I felt like it"][/caption] The plan for this weekend is to plant some of the basil outside, since it's getting quite crowded in its little indoors pot: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Excuse my thumb"][/caption] I know it hasn't reached the two-sets-of-leaves phase, so maybe I'll just thin it out a bit since I actually don't need 40+ basil plants.  Maybe one of my dedicated readers wants some?  Let me know! One little basil also somehow crept in to my feverfew... [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="See it?"][/caption] Don't know how that happened. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Traitor!"][/caption] As always, I'll be back next week. Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.

Hello again!  There has been exciting progress this past week.  First, here's the garden:

And now...flowers!

 

Those are both from the same plant, my monster beefsteak that has always been the biggest one.  (I think it needs a name...Beefy?)  But the other beefsteaks are getting flowers, too!

Flowers are exciting because flowers mean fruit.  Hopefully good-tasting fruit.  Gotta wait and see!

It's been raining since Saturday so I haven't had to water at all and I'm hoping for some sunny days this weekend so everything doesn't get too waterlogged.  But the rain has been, for the most part, light and frequent which is how watering should work anyway, so I'm actually kind of thankful for it.

I realize I've been focusing largely on the beefsteak tomatoes because they're the biggest, but the beauty queens are getting larger and I'll do a closer look at them in the coming weeks.  The eggplants are still pretty small but I think it's still a bit cold for them.  They apparently do well in hot weather, so once we actually start getting summerish weather I think they'll be happier.

On Sunday the rain gave us a bit of a break, so I went outside and retied some of the tomatoes to their stakes and did some weeding.  Now containers usually don't need too much weeding since you use new soil each time, but my big metal planter has had soil in in for a while and look!  Little weeds:

So I pulled those little buggers out, trying to get as many of the roots as possible.

And now my tomatoes and eggplants can grow undisturbed (you hear that, eggplant?)

While I was weeding, I debated whether I should take the little lower branches and the suckers (that's the actual term, I'm not making stuff up this time) off some of the larger tomato plants.  Suckers are the little shoots that grow from the intersection of the main stem and branches of the tomato plant, and I've been told both to prune them and to leave them on.  Basically it comes down the this:  if you do take those suckers off (ha), the remaining branches get more nutrients and therefore produce bigger fruit.  But if you leave them on you'll get more fruit, though it might be smaller.  If you have a short growing season you probably want to take them off since they'll take nutrients from the rest of the plant and probably not mature in time to produce fruit.  They also tend to make the plant top-heavy, so if you're growing in a small space (yup) they might get too unwieldy.  What to do??  I eventually compromised by pruning some plants and leaving the others undisturbed.  Since then I've decided that I'm going to leave the majority of them on since it's only May and the growing season here is quite long.  If things get too top-heavy then I'll reassess.

The plan for this weekend is to plant some of the basil outside, since it's getting quite crowded in its little indoors pot:

I know it hasn't reached the two-sets-of-leaves phase, so maybe I'll just thin it out a bit since I actually don't need 40+ basil plants.  Maybe one of my dedicated readers wants some?  Let me know!

One little basil also somehow crept in to my feverfew...

Don't know how that happened.

As always, I'll be back next week.

Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.

Every 3rd Monday of the month, the group Transition Philadelphia (the local arm of "a movement of people making their communities more resilient in the face of peak oil, climate change and plain old economic hard times") hosts educational events that seek to inform about how to prepare our homes and neighborhoods for the end of cheap fossil fuels. Tonight's event is about permaculture or, as their website puts it:

...learning to modify natural, self-contained ecosystems to produce a yield for us to eat while at the same time continually enhancing soil fertility and biodiversity, and managing food forests of perennial plants, familiar and new

Go to Transition Philadelphia's website for more info on the program (a short film with a guest speaker) and how to RSVP. Event begins at 6:30pm with a potluck dinner and main program starts at 7. I've actually just started learning about permaculture over the past few weeks and am therefore a bit disappointed that I can't make it tonight at the South Philly Older Adults Center (northwest corner of E. Passyunk Ave. and Dickinson Street). In fact, not to tread on Sarah's beat, Alison and I finished planting our garden this weekend taking special care to include plenty of flowering annuals and some perennials (a new butterfly bush, for example) that will, in theory, attract pollinators and predators to fertilize our tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini while protecting them from the white flies, black flies and worms that we had last year. And, unlike last year when our garden was almost all green, we have some great purples, reds and yellows going on (pictures to follow if everything we planted actually takes hold and thrives). Though not exactly permaculture since we didn't plant in such a way to keep us from having to add nutrients to our soil from compost, it is an ecosystem in the making. (Now, if only those good bugs can find their way to us!) So if you're interested in figuring out how to take that bare patch of concrete behind your house and turn it into a self-supporting ecosystem, tonight's event is for you.

Every 3rd Monday of the month, the group Transition Philadelphia (the local arm of "a movement of people making their communities more resilient in the face of peak oil, climate change and plain old economic hard times") hosts educational events that seek to inform about how to prepare our homes and neighborhoods for the end of cheap fossil fuels. Tonight's event is about permaculture or, as their website puts it:

...learning to modify natural, self-contained ecosystems to produce a yield for us to eat while at the same time continually enhancing soil fertility and biodiversity, and managing food forests of perennial plants, familiar and new

Go to Transition Philadelphia's website for more info on the program (a short film with a guest speaker) and how to RSVP. Event begins at 6:30pm with a potluck dinner and main program starts at 7. I've actually just started learning about permaculture over the past few weeks and am therefore a bit disappointed that I can't make it tonight at the South Philly Older Adults Center (northwest corner of E. Passyunk Ave. and Dickinson Street). In fact, not to tread on Sarah's beat, Alison and I finished planting our garden this weekend taking special care to include plenty of flowering annuals and some perennials (a new butterfly bush, for example) that will, in theory, attract pollinators and predators to fertilize our tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini while protecting them from the white flies, black flies and worms that we had last year. And, unlike last year when our garden was almost all green, we have some great purples, reds and yellows going on (pictures to follow if everything we planted actually takes hold and thrives). Though not exactly permaculture since we didn't plant in such a way to keep us from having to add nutrients to our soil from compost, it is an ecosystem in the making. (Now, if only those good bugs can find their way to us!) So if you're interested in figuring out how to take that bare patch of concrete behind your house and turn it into a self-supporting ecosystem, tonight's event is for you.

The following South Philadelphia event for tomorrow came across our desk and we thought it would be worth sharing. This is a great example of the community doing more to take control of its own food production. Efforts like this and the co-op can help bolster food security and promote health, security and equity in our neighborhoods. SOUTH PHILLY TEEN ORCHARD PLANTING When: Tuesday, May 17 @ 4pm Where: 2029 S. 8th St, South Philadelphia Join in on this orchard revitalization and replanting! United Communities, PHS, PUFFA, Teens 4 Good, and POP are collaborating in redeveloping this orchard site as a vital community gathering space. We'll be mulching and planting with the Youth Leadership Council and other community volunteers. Click here to RSVP for the event. Rain date: Tuesday, 5/24 @ 4pm.

The following South Philadelphia event for tomorrow came across our desk and we thought it would be worth sharing. This is a great example of the community doing more to take control of its own food production. Efforts like this and the co-op can help bolster food security and promote health, security and equity in our neighborhoods. SOUTH PHILLY TEEN ORCHARD PLANTING When: Tuesday, May 17 @ 4pm Where: 2029 S. 8th St, South Philadelphia Join in on this orchard revitalization and replanting! United Communities, PHS, PUFFA, Teens 4 Good, and POP are collaborating in redeveloping this orchard site as a vital community gathering space. We'll be mulching and planting with the Youth Leadership Council and other community volunteers. Click here to RSVP for the event. Rain date: Tuesday, 5/24 @ 4pm.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Garden as of May 11th"][/caption] Welcome back!  This will be short because I don't have too much to say (finally!).  Things are moving along and I'm happy to say that thanks to all the sunny days my waterlogged plants have finally dried out and I'm trying to stick to the schedule of watering them lightly every day. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="More garden. Still May 11th"][/caption] I'm being totally serious here when I say that watering every day will be the hardest part.  Mostly because of my job which keeps me away from the house from 8-6 Monday through Friday and my tendency to not go directly home after work.  I'm on the lookout for some sort of self-watering system so I don't have to completely change my lifestyle (and kill my social life) so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know!  Sadly I don't have a hose (or even an outdoor spigot) so I'm looking for ideas with some sort of reservoir for the pots.  But for the foreseeable future I'll by relying on my two friends here: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Watering can friends"][/caption] And hey!  Some of the mint was used for juleps on Saturday [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Pretty and tasty"][/caption] But there's still a lot of it.  I have a feeling I'll be cutting this back all summer. Because I can never leave well enough alone, I have been noticing some strange things going on with the lower leaves of some of the plants, like this: I'm hoping this is from transplanting and the leaves getting stuck to each other rather than little insects or slugs, but I'm going to keep an eye on it.  Also I've noticed that some of the little eggplants have what look like little bites in the leaves: But again, I'm going to watch them and see where that goes.  I'm obviously not going to use any pesticides but I know that there are some gentler solutions like diluted soap and water that can help if things really get out of control.  For now the eggplants look pretty good and lots are getting new leaves: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Someone figured out how to use the zoom on her iPhone!"][/caption] This one, however, is worrying me: I think it got pretty wet and maybe never dried out.  We'll see! I've also been reading this book: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Hippies"][/caption] And it's pretty informative!  It's definitely geared more toward those who have an actual yard and garden as opposed to containers, but it has lots of tips on composting, pest control using natural methods, and just general gardening knowledge.  ALSO they totally endorse using your hands instead of a spade to work the dirt (the chapter is called "Spadework?  No Thanks!") since spades disrupt the natural layout of the soil and plants already there.  So hey, getting your hands dirty is fun and helpful! One more random thing:  as I was walking through the Gallery on Sunday I noticed a Pennsylvania Horticultural Society display and stopped to look.  There was no actual person there because the Gallery is eerily empty on Sundays (what's with that?  I love the Gallery) but the display was all last years winners of the City Garden Contest.  Here's the website and pretty much anyone can enter as long as they have a garden!  I'm actually thinking of entering just for fun because sadly there's no cash money prize.  But if anyone's interested the deadline to enter is June 10th and then judging is during July and August.  You can also volunteer to be a judge if you want.  I think it's cool that they have a container garden category, as well as garden block and urban farm categories.  And there's also a children's garden category for all you young gardeners.  Anyway, the rules are basically that the garden has to be within the city limits and it can be an individual or community garden.  I highly recommend checking out the display at the Gallery (it's right inside after you go down the stairs at 9th and Market) if you're interested - I can't seem to find any pictures of last year's winners online but there was one grandfatherly-type man who grew insanely large squash in his little backyard.  I also think it's cool to see what people can do with just a little space. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Tiny tiny feverfew"][/caption] On the indoor front, my feverfew and basil have sprouted and are ADORABLE as little baby plants always are.  I especially like the basil (shh don't tell feverfew!) because they already smell like little mini basils. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Mini basil"][/caption] Since they're still babies I've been misting them and I'm just waiting until they're big enough to put outside.  I've still got more things to start inside so hopefully this weekend is the time for that. That's it!  I'll be back next Thursday with another update. Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.

 

Welcome back!  This will be short because I don't have too much to say (finally!).  Things are moving along and I'm happy to say that thanks to all the sunny days my waterlogged plants have finally dried out and I'm trying to stick to the schedule of watering them lightly every day.

I'm being totally serious here when I say that watering every day will be the hardest part.  Mostly because of my job which keeps me away from the house from 8-6 Monday through Friday and my tendency to not go directly home after work.  I'm on the lookout for some sort of self-watering system so I don't have to completely change my lifestyle (and kill my social life) so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know!  Sadly I don't have a hose (or even an outdoor spigot) so I'm looking for ideas with some sort of reservoir for the pots.  But for the foreseeable future I'll by relying on my two friends here:

And hey!  Some of the mint was used for juleps on Saturday

But there's still a lot of it.  I have a feeling I'll be cutting this back all summer.

Because I can never leave well enough alone, I have been noticing some strange things going on with the lower leaves of some of the plants, like this:

I'm hoping this is from transplanting and the leaves getting stuck to each other rather than little insects or slugs, but I'm going to keep an eye on it.  Also I've noticed that some of the little eggplants have what look like little bites in the leaves:

But again, I'm going to watch them and see where that goes.  I'm obviously not going to use any pesticides but I know that there are some gentler solutions like diluted soap and water that can help if things really get out of control.  For now the eggplants look pretty good and lots are getting new leaves:

This one, however, is worrying me:

I think it got pretty wet and maybe never dried out.  We'll see!

I've also been reading this book:

And it's pretty informative!  It's definitely geared more toward those who have an actual yard and garden as opposed to containers, but it has lots of tips on composting, pest control using natural methods, and just general gardening knowledge.  ALSO they totally endorse using your hands instead of a spade to work the dirt (the chapter is called "Spadework?  No Thanks!") since spades disrupt the natural layout of the soil and plants already there.  So hey, getting your hands dirty is fun and helpful!

One more random thing:  as I was walking through the Gallery on Sunday I noticed a Pennsylvania Horticultural Society display and stopped to look.  There was no actual person there because the Gallery is eerily empty on Sundays (what's with that?  I love the Gallery) but the display was all last years winners of the City Garden Contest.  Here's the website and pretty much anyone can enter as long as they have a garden!  I'm actually thinking of entering just for fun because sadly there's no cash money prize.  But if anyone's interested the deadline to enter is June 10th and then judging is during July and August.  You can also volunteer to be a judge if you want.  I think it's cool that they have a container garden category, as well as garden block and urban farm categories.  And there's also a children's garden category for all you young gardeners.  Anyway, the rules are basically that the garden has to be within the city limits and it can be an individual or community garden.  I highly recommend checking out the display at the Gallery (it's right inside after you go down the stairs at 9th and Market) if you're interested - I can't seem to find any pictures of last year's winners online but there was one grandfatherly-type man who grew insanely large squash in his little backyard.  I also think it's cool to see what people can do with just a little space.

On the indoor front, my feverfew and basil have sprouted and are ADORABLE as little baby plants always are.  I especially like the basil (shh don't tell feverfew!) because they already smell like little mini basils.

Since they're still babies I've been misting them and I'm just waiting until they're big enough to put outside.  I've still got more things to start inside so hopefully this weekend is the time for that.

That's it!  I'll be back next Thursday with another update.

Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.