Yummy Summer Harvests

Garden Updates

After the Kabocha Pumpkins came out, we tilled in some clay into this sandy soil. This area was originally a pond, and soil had been bought to fill it in. Unfortunately, it was mostly composed of decomposed vegetation and sand, so when all the vegetation was eaten up by the plants, it was just sand. Sand is easy to dig, but it retains no moisture or nutrients for a long time. So we got a few buckets of the clay from the Hacienda Hts house to ammend the soil a bit. We had buried tons of vegetation in this area, so I dug it up from about 3~4' deep to mix it up on the surface a bit more. After that I finally planted the herb garden mixed with some gerbera daisies. These herbs were potbound since we moved from the HH house so I'm sure this new home will be welcome for their roots. I planted Sage, Thyme, Basil, Lavender & Stevia.

Sorry this is blurry, I took it when it was about to be dark, I'm surprised the color is so vibrant though. This is the carrot and onion bed. I've been staggering the plantings of the carrots at about 3 weeks.

Here are the peppers I grew from seed

Potatoes were harvested, and now the beans are popping up on the side of the kale...yes we're trying to grow kale in summer, nuts? perhaps.

thinned out baby carrots

Summer Ripenings

Millionaire Eggplants going gung ho, I think there's at least 6 fruits growing at once.

Blushing yet??? no... not really, but getting big

Kyohou grapes almost ready

Asian Pear almost ready too!

Powdery Mildew

Summer is perfect for cucumbers, but it's also perfect for powdery mildew in our climate. We have scorching day temps and very cool humid nights. The mildew loves that sort of combination. This leaf was attacked by the mildew, then I sprayed a Potassium Bicarbonate, Garlic juice, orange oil and biodegradable dish soap concoction on and it seemed to stop the mildew from spreading.

As a request from Kory, I am posting my anti-powdery mildew spray recipe:

1 gallon water

4 tsp Potassium Bicarbonate powder

1 TBS of biodegradable dish liquid

1 TBS of orange oil

4~5 cloves of garlic minced very fine or pureed.

Let the garlic mush it steep in a small amount of water for about 30 minutes then strain out the pulp, then mix the liquid into the rest of the mixture.

Mix all ingredients thoroughly then spray with a regular pump sprayer you can find at Home Depot type stores.

You can buy Potassium Bicarbonate powder online from "do it yourself" wine making shops. I found mind on e-bay.

Don't use any dish liquid that has Sodium Laurel Sulfates (as a matter of fact anything with the word Laurel or Sulfate in it, even if says it's biodegradable, it's toxic to plants.

Spray on the plants when it is cool, not hot, as it will scorch the plants. Also, try not to spray on new shoots as they can scorch too. Prevention seems to be better. My Japanese Cucumber was barely infected when I sprayed, and they are still doing very well. The first sign of Powdery Mildew, spray and it should keep for a good while.

Before & After

The pole beans were done, and they came out. I pulled them out and composted them, although some people will till them under, I didn't bother, since I'm lazy...hehe. I added some leaf mold and then planted some tomatoes and put in some bell pepper seeds. I also planted some Komatsuna, a summer brassica that is a fast crop before the tomatoes overshadow them.

The pots of tomatoes being spaced

The tomatoes planted and seed markers(branches) for the peppers.

Homegrown Homemade meals

homegrown greenbeans & potatoes with tofu "omlet"

Cucumber Pickles sitting out for natural fermentation.

June 2009 Harvest Tally

Kabocha Pumpkins 41.97 lb

Beans(green+purple) 09.51 lbs

Kale 06.06 lbs

Potatoes(red) 04.34 lbs

Garlic 03.75 lbs

Bulb onion 03.47 lbs

Japanese Cucumber 02.50 lbs

Armenian Cucumber 01.47 lbs

NZ Spinach 01.93 lbs

Tangerines 01.00 lbs

Strawberries 22.40 oz

Orange 07.50 oz

Asian Pear 07.50 oz

Eggplant 07.25 oz

Green onions 07.00 oz

Baby Carrots w/grns 06.00 oz

Figs 06.00 oz

Lettuce 05.00 oz

Pearl onion 01.50 oz

Basil 01.00oz

Blueberries 00.50oz

Herbs 00.50 oz

Kyohou Grapes 00.50 oz

Pounds tallied: 76.085 lbs

Ounces tallied: 72.65 oz = 4.54 lbs

Total: 80.625 lbs

My Urban Homesteading Knowledge Pantry

I love books, educational books to be exact...I'm not one that likes to waste time on Romance Novels and such. I try to read whenever I can, to learn as much as I can about living a self-sustainable life. Our generation grew up not knowing how to really take care of ourselves. Everything is automated for us. Everthing is pre-packaged and ready to pop into the microwave. Sure we're tech savvy, but is that really going to keep us alive if the grocery stores and restaurants went empty one day? Our grandparents knew so much more in terms of taking care of themselves. They grew their own food, or hunted/gathered, preserved it, and made their own garments/bedding, and took care of their livestock. We've lost all of that amazing knowledge in just 2 generations. It's very sad, and books/internet are pretty much all that we will have soon to "re"learn all this.

Harvest Updates

A day's harvest: Japanese and Armenian Cucumbers, green and royal purple beans, and strawberries(1 is the wild one)

A Red Harvest: Redleaf lettuce, purple beans and Red Potatoes

extra Beans just finished blanching, pat dry then pack them in ziplocks and off to the freezer for winter eats

Yummy Updates

Asian Pear fruitlet getting big!

Thai watermelon looking good!

Red bulb onion fattening up

Bell Pepper started from seed finally bearing fruits

Royal Purple bush beans heavy with growing beanlets. BTW, these beans are sweeter than the green variety from our experience

sad state of pumpkin

Before(ravished by powdery mildew)

after removal...we'll be planting our herbs in the front half and maybe beans in the back half of this large bed.

More Harvest Updates

We have decided to harvest the Kabocha Pumpkins, since the foliage was smothered by powdery mildew. Only 8 large enough pumpkins. For that large amount of space(approx 15x15') food/sq ft. production is very poor. Next time we'll spray the Potassium Bicarbonate mixure earlier to prevent the spread of the disease and perhaps trellis the plants too.

A day's pickin's: beans, fig, strawberry, and baby pumpkins

Harvest Update

First Japanese Cucumber of the Season. It looks like a snake...

Just 2 days worth of beans from the garden

first fig of the season!

Preserving what we can't eat, into the freezer it goes!

Garden Updates

Eggplant and Tomato bed in front, Beans in middle & Melons and Cukes in back

another angle: Left, melons/cukes. Middle:beans. Right, tomatoes/eggplants

Broccoli

Petit Gris Melons coming along. Unfortunately our mild weather has wreaked havoc on the curcurbits with powdery mildew. The pumpkins are covered, but are almost ready for harvest so we're not treating them. But the melons and cukes are just beginning, so I made a concoction of Potassium bicarbonate, orange oil, garlic tea and biodegradable soap to fight the powdery mildew. For now it's stopped the mildew from spreading, but the damage is apparent.

Another watermelon growing, so far just 2! lol! This one is about 5" long.

Kyohou grapes starting to blush

Black Beauty Eggplant blossoms. They're definitely beauties.

Tomatoes starting to get the glossiness. Once this occurs, it won't be long until they start blushing red.

Garden Updates

Tiny watermelon coming along...

Royal Purple bean blossoms are pretty!

Tomatoes (volunteer plant from the compost, so I have no idea what it's called)

Millionaire Eggplant

Our Messes

I thought you migh t enjoy our messy pictures as much as our "pretty" pictures. Photography can be deceiving because we can frame what we want to capture and "hide" the ugly parts. Well, here's our ugly parts! We are constantly doing something to the plot of land we have, and we always have a mound or two of dirt, leaves, compost and yes, cats. We have a very large BBQ party coming up in July that will be held in the backyard concrete area. Right now, there's no way we can hold a party!