Local Aphid Resurgence

Donny checks the tomato plants every day. He waters them, makes sure the leaves are growing above the ladder rungs and if they're not he trains them to.

He is also on the lookout for aphids. Last season we had a bountiful amount of fruit, but just as many leaves covered in the green slimy suckers. Aphids can not only prevent your fruit from growing, but it can quickly kill your plant. Next to rodents and lack of sun, aphids are a burden to all gardeners.

Donny learned from the head gardener at our local nursery, that when you find aphids you can clip the leaves and put them in a plastic bag. These leaves should go in your trash and not in your compost, which risks infesting all future fertilizer.

And last night, Donny found that the aphids had returned, so he made an emergency run to Anawalt

for a container full of adorable little red ladybugs. The directions advise you to present the ladybugs in colder weather and that if you do not have aphids, the ladybugs will just leave. If the aphids have taken over, then the ladybugs will sit on the leaves and eat the slimy suckers.

Ladybugs are a great non-toxic option to chemical repellents. It also doesn't hurt that they are pretty adorable to look at and see roaming around your garden. They definitely can't hurt your plants, so I suggest giving them a try.

All photos featured here - by Donny Martino Jr.

Beet Holiday Harvest

This past weekend we excitedly harvested and consumed the 1st of the season beets. See their 2 month story.

Quick Beet Salad

Trim the greens and add to your compost. (I have seen some beet green recipes online, but haven't tried them myself.) Rinse the beets and use a potato scrubber to get the dirt off and clean them up. Cut them in half and toss them in a pot of salted water. Boil the water and let them simmer for about 30 minutes or until tender. Drain and cut into smaller pieces or whatever you choose. The skin should easily peel off. Compost the remaining waste.

I chilled the beets and added toasted almonds, blue cheese and a quick dressing (1 part olive oil, 1 part orange juice, 1 part balsamic vinegar wisked together).

We just planted some more seeds and may try pickling them next time.

Taking stock of our Local Urban Garden

Last weekend Donny and I spent a good chunk of Saturday & Sunday planting more and cleaning up our garden.  We are preparing for a light spring harvest and a plentiful summer feast!  See down below for a taste of whats to come AND here is what we have growing:  

FRONT GARDEN

BLUE BERRY BUSH Ω

DILL *

LEMON TREE Ω²

MINT ^

(9) WHITE ONIONS °

(2) PARSLEY PLANTS

(2) ROYESTA TOMATO PLANTS **

(2) SAN FRANCISCO TOMATO PLANTS ** 

(tomatoes & onions in raised bed / everything else planted right into the ground)

ROOFTOP GARDEN

(2) ASPARAGUS PLANTS ^ 

(2) SPICY BASIL / SWEET BASIL Ω 

(8) BEETS *

BUNCHING ONIONS Ω

(4) WHITE ONIONS ° 

(2) PEPPERONCINI PLANTS *

(2) SALSA HYBRID PEPPER PLANTS *

(2) ROSEMARY * 

(2) CELEBRITY TOMATO PLANTS ***

CHERRY GRANDE TOMATO PLANT ***

(2) ROMA TOMATO PLANTS ***

SPRITE TOMATO PLANT ***

(2) "VOLUNTEER" TOMATO PLANTS ▲

(containers only)

KEY: 

 ° from bulb

* from seed

** indeterminate / from seed

*** determinate / from seed

² transplanted from last apartment

^ continuing to grow from last summer

Ω started as seedling from nursery / farmer's market

▲aka "the others" / unknown plants that sprouted in other pots

Beets soon to be harvested.

LA's cutest weed killers

The Community Redevelopment Agency for the City of Los Angeles (aka CRA/LA) helps to revitalize older communities and attracts building homes for all income levels.  This particular property near Bunker Hill in Downtown Los Angeles has been overgrown with weeds.  Normally the city would hire workers to remove them with weed wackers that project smoke and toxic emmissions into our air.  Instead they hired billy goats. The local goats, from Chino, graised our land for about 2 weeks.  It was a pretty amazing sight.  The goats are cheaper, release no emissions and their poop is a fertilizer for the land.  If the land needs more help the goats will be asked back, but in the meantime they have a lot of work to do.  

Maggots

Warning!

If you gag easily, then I urge you NOT to read the rest of this posting.

Maggots have taken over our compost. I knew this already, but seeing it by myself today made it a little more real. I have to be honest. I have a problem with small creepy crawlies. My definition of a creepy crawly is usually a mouse, a rat or even something as large as a possum. Something that I feel has no problem biting me or crawling up my arm. Those things all scare me. I’m actually stressing out right now. My boss’s daughter has 2 pet rats and I am absolutely freaked out by them. However, I usually have no problem with insects, like spiders, cockroaches, flies, etc... I don’t like them in my house, of course, but I can easy squash them with my hand, my foot or a fly swatter. And now maggots are on my list of things to get used to. I’m not talking about a few maggots. I’m pretty sure there were millions of maggots in that bin. The entire contents of the bin were practically moving in unison. I’ve read many articles that say maggots are good for your compost and that they will reduce the size of your compost at a rapid speed. All of that aside, maggots are just pretty nasty. I couldn’t even make breakfast after I got a glimpse of them. My brain immediately went to that visual of all the maggots moving around. For a moment I thought they were going to climb out of the bin and grab me. I want to get used to the maggots. I really do. At this juncture, though, I will keep my distance and let Donny be the front line. Sorry buddy.

Vegetable Garden Pests Part 1

This morning I found we have a big problem. The gnats and aphids situation was out of control. There were swarms of gnats in front of our door and in front of our neighbor’s door. At a glance, you could easily see hundreds of tiny pests living in my vegetable garden. I quickly started spraying the homemade bug repellent I made last week. That worked for the moment, but what to do about this soil that is just covered in aphids. Gross! Yesterday I purchased some Sea Kelp by a company called Organics Rx from the Living Green store in Culver City. Per the instructions, I added a capful into each can of water I used. I doused the plants. Some websites say lots of water is good to get rid of pests and others say that the pests thrive in wet soil. Today I am going with the notion that more water is better. The sea kelp is more for the plants than it is pest control. I went online and found several non-toxic options, mostly bug traps that are sticky. In my quest to hammer out this pest problem quickly and to avoid having anything shipped I quickly got in my car and went to the nearest nursery, Lucky Plant, which is about a 5 minute drive away. It occurred to me that I probably should've biked there. The salesman tried to get me to buy some toxic sprays and basically told me I should go somewhere else if I wanted a product without chemicals. Ugh – why are people so difficult? At this point I wonder if organic gardening is worth it. I push on. Glad to not be on my bike at this point, I drove to another nursery, which is about 10 minutes away from the first. Merrihew’s Sunset Nursery in Santa Monica has a very friendly staff. I like to buy from them. The salesman actually laughed at me when I told him I had some homemade bug repellent. Considering I was there looking for something that will actually work long term, I don’t blame him. He also pointed me in the direction of a spray. I bought Safer Brand’s Yard & Garden Insect Killer. It is made with Pyrethrum and is Omri Listed, which means it is approved for organic gardening. The salesman told me not to spray until the evening because it could damage the plants. Honestly, this situation is so bad that I feel getting rid of everything might not be a bad idea. It feels about 10 degrees cooler in the courtyard of my building compared to the air at the nursery, so I’ve decided to spray everything right now. I’m sure that every gardener in the world would tell you not to spray your plants with anything, water or insect killer, at high Noon during a heat wave. Oh well. I’m taking the chance. I sprayed everywhere – in the air, on the soil, on the crop. I mulched a bit as well, which brought a few worms to the surface and hopefully unearthed some of the aphids that were living in my organic soil. I have a good feeling about this. I was really discouraged this morning and now I feel a lot better. The directions on the bottle are to apply solution every 7-10 days. I’ll use my homemade spray during the intervening days and hope this is a cure. Even though I have been back inside for an hour, I literally feel like I have bugs crawling in my hair and on my skin. Good times.

Apartment Buildings

I have been remiss in watering my vegetable garden. I was out of town for 3 weeks on business and we were out of town for a week visiting family, so I got out of my routine. Donny gets on me about it sometimes. I convinced him that less water is sometimes good for the plants, which might be true, but I am also lazy. Although our garden is right outside of our front door, it still means that I could be seen by one of the neighbors or a visitor. This means that my usual garb of Loomstate organic cotton pajamas and un-showered hair is out. Of course today was no exception. I changed into jeans and converse and began watering. Just as expected my next door neighbor actress/producer stepped outside to chat. She had most recently been to her niece’s bat mitzvah that was green themed. At the reception, the table centerpieces were an assortment of herbs in a box ready to plant. A few weeks ago my neighbor had me plant flowers because she deemed the vegetables unattractive. I was now asked to plant these herbs. She thinks I have this magical green thumb. I couldn’t really say no because at the core I do think it is important to be neighborly. Aside from that, free herbs are free herbs. Hopefully I can keep them alive. While we were out chatting I noticed an abundance of flies. This was also very obvious to my neighbor who was batting the air around her face. I felt a bit embarrassed. I was the reason these flies had made a home in our building stoop. They were my vegetables and I had chosen to grow them organically. I went back inside and researched organic pest control. There are so so many different concoctions listed online to fend off an array of insects. I found a recipe that seemed easy to do right away with materials I already had in my cupboard. I think it is already working.