sustainable agriculture

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Flea beetles

July 28, 2016 Pests, Tips & Tools

Flea beetles are one of those challenging pests that can quickly wreak havoc on crops and are also very difficult to eradicate once present. These tiny insects with their shiny black exoskeleton will jump away as soon as you get nearby, hence the name flea beetle. They go after many crops, but seem to particularly love arugula, the leaves of young eggplant, and the greens on turnips. The tiny holes they create in crops’ leaves are unsightly and can also diminish the plant’s ability to undergo photosynthesis, thereby decreasing growth and overall health. Once flea beetles have arrived, it can be quite challenging to get rid of them. When I was growing...

Cabbage worms

July 18, 2016 Pests, Tips & Tools

Cabbage worms are one of the most common garden pests in this region and, in a bad year, can easily decimate crops in a short time if not kept under control. Cabbage worms target crops in the brassica family, also known as cole crops. These include kale, cabbage, broccoli, collards, arugula, and mustard greens, among others. You’ve probably noticed the white butterfly adult form of these pests flying around from spring through fall. The eggs these butterflies  lay on brassica plants will hatch into the small green, velvety-looking worms which can grow to a plump 2+ inches as they munch on the leaves of the plant. A sure sign that you...

Pickling Zucchini

July 15, 2016 Canning, In the Kitchen, Weekly Updates

Unexpectedly, Wednesday turned into a solid day of rain- perfect for the garden and also a perfect opportunity for me to get some preserving done! In the morning, before the rain set in, I was able do several hours of work in the garden itself- prepping a bed for the next planting of fall carrots, further trellising the tomatoes and peppers, and harvesting lots of beans and zucchini. Because I’m caring for my one-year-old son as well as for the garden, my days are largely structured around his nap schedule. While my son is exceptionally good at occupying himself, there are certain things that are just easier or much safer to do when he’s...

Freezing basil

July 12, 2016 Freezing, In the Kitchen

When it comes to preserving food for later use, you can go complex (think canning) or easy. Although last week we did both, I’m just as excited about this simple-as-can-be technique for freezing basil. One of the most disappointing things about cooking in the winter is the drop in flavor as you move from fresh to dried spices. Follow this method to help preserve the basil’s flavor as close to fresh as you can get! Frozen Basil Cubes Ingredients: – Basil – Olive Oil Method: 1. Pick basil leaves off of stems. Rinse and spin leaves in a salad spinner. 2. Figure out how many cups of basil leaves you have. You’ll need about...

Summer for real

July 9, 2016 Weekly Updates

And just like that, real summer sets in. We got to coast through most of June with relatively manageable temperatures, especially as nighttime lows continued to fall at least into the 60s. But with the start of July came reality! It’s been in the 90s for the last several days and, boy, is it hot. I’ve been doing my best to stay out of the garden in the hottest parts of the day. However, with plenty of crops that prefer cooler temperatures still in the ground, it’s important to provide some overhead watering during the heat of the day to help keep them cool and prevent them from going to seed and...

More and more

July 3, 2016 Weekly Updates

With a good day of rain this week, the soil finally got a decent soaking after several weeks of intensely dry weather. Almost immediately, everything looked greener and bigger. The tomatoes are shooting up, requiring a new trellis line every week, and I got a small first harvest off of the bush beans this morning. To date, we’ve harvested over 42 lbs of food out of the garden since May 26! About a month into harvesting, we’ve now had a good amount of time to see how things are growing and how much we are able to use. As a result, this week was a great time to reevaluate our year’s plan for the garden....

Vertical gardening, simply

June 30, 2016 Garden techniques, Tips & Tools

Using the vertical space in your garden is a great way to get the most yield out of a small area. There are tons of inventive, more complex vertical gardening systems, but you can still take advantage of vertical space while staying simple. It’s common to provide trellis support for crops like tomatoes and beans, but other crops like cucumbers, winter squash, and melons can be trellised vertically as well. All of these plants are expansive growers, creating a lot of green leaves and stems in proportion to the amount of fruit produced. Because of this, they can take up a significant amount of ground space, which can easily be freed back...

The crop pests cometh

June 24, 2016 Pests, Tips & Tools, Weekly Updates

There’s always that brief window in the year when I think, “Maybe this year is the year that I’ll have the perfect, pest-free garden.” And then they arrive! Despite a relatively light spring in terms of pest damage (we did have the broccoli annihilated by cut worms, but little else was affected), they’re here at last. The eggplant leaves are becoming speckled with the tiny, pin-prick holes that are the signature mark of flea beetles and, more severely, cucumber beetles have arrived to feast on the previously perfect squash and cucumber plants. If in your garden you’re noticing ragged holes on the leaves of these plants with the outside rim of...

All that empty dirt

June 18, 2016 Weekly Updates

The weather gets warmer, the plants grow bigger, but there’s still some bed space yet to be planted, something I’ve gotten asked about a lot recently. Even though it looks like an oversight, the empty beds are actually completely intentional and provide more than an occasional play space for my son! Coming from larger farms where there are always beds either waiting to be planted or having just been emptied of crops past their prime, this is something that seems natural to me. Still, it is much less common in smaller gardens where it can look like nothing more than a waste of space. In fact, it can be the opposite, providing an opportunity...

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