"Black Krim"
"Golden Sweet"
We are now well into the growing/fighting season. I had fully intended to make frequent updates on the garden, but with the store move my time and energy was required elsewhere. It is now late June and we have enjoyed a handful of “Golden Sweet” cherry tomatoes, one “Black Krim” heirloom tomato, and a few baby yellow crook-neck squash.
This is our first garden in Tulsa and after having much success with our garden in Norman I was excited to begin gardening again. This time around has taught me a lot more, but has not been so easy.
We prepared the beds with mushroom compost, bat guano, bone meal, peat moss and worm castings to provide fertile soil that held moisture and would feed the plants. For the tomatoes I also used about 1 1/2 aspirins in the surrounding soil to increase disease resistance. The plants came from the Oklahoma Food Coop, the Living Kitchen, and Southwood. While all of the plants have been really healthy, next year I would like to get most from the Living Kitchen as my tomato plants from them started of as the smallest and have wound up as the biggest with the highest yield.
All was well, the plants were strong and healthy and growing rapidly. The battle began the end of May/beginning of June with an aphid outbreak on the tomatoes. To begin with I just squished them with my fingers, then I used a neem and fish oil, then I purchased some lady bugs from Garden’s Alive. The lady bugs did a great job of devouring what was on the plants before flying off to their new homes. However, a week later I had another outbreak. At that point I concluded that the best and most cost-effective method of aphid control was the “squish with fingers” method. For about a week I spent 45 minutes in the morning and evening squishing the little buggers. Then the heat set in and I have not seen anymore since. If we had too many more plants the “squish” method would not be a very viable option, but with 6 plants it is doable. Then I noticed some mites on the new blossoms. Mites are so tiny it is near impossible to squish them all so I got out the neem oil and fish emulsion sprayed each blossom which seems to have handled the mite problem.
Along with visits from aphids was the appearance of flea beetles on the eggplant leaves. Research revealed manual control to be best for these pesky little jumpers. So out came my “bug vacuum” the only battery operated, plastic toy that I truly love. I have used this little guy for everything from crickets to rolly pollies inside the house to flea beetles, squash vine borer moths, and spotted cucumber beetles in the garden. It is a great tool that every organic gardener should own (in my opinion). After the main flea beetle population was under control I have tossed the vacuum to the side and simply squish on the spot.
At this point I noticed some wilt happening with the squash. After further examination I noticed various places with a saw dust-like frass and the fight against the squash vine borer was on. In hindsight I realized that I had actually seen the moths and even captured one, but had come to the conclusion that it must have been a wasp of some type that would be good for pollination and let it go… oops! Squash vine borer is the most pesky of pests as the adult lays 200 tiny reddish brown eggs one-by-one ,the eggs hatch in 5 to 7 days and out comes a minuscule little worm that will burrow into the the stem and proceed to turn everything in its path to mush. Some of the eggs will be deposited on the tops of leaves, others on the underside, others on the leaf stem, some on the squash blooms, and some on the main stem. I ended up with nothing short of an infestation.
Once I realized that the evil squash vine borer was attacking my plants, I saw the tiny reddish brown eggs everywhere and began to pick them off one-by-one. At this point I noticed the frass and read that once inside your plant the only controls (organic or conventional) were to destroy the worm via removal or to inject beneficial nematodes or neem oil into the stem. Both methods were reported to be tedious so I got out the scalpel and commenced the operation. After hours of making vertical slits in the plant and removing at least 20 worms (some as long as and inch and a centimeter thick) it seemed as if the operation was a success. But wait, the eggs are still appearing and daily I find another grub-like worm to remove. With the heat, worms, and stress from multiple operations I have almost completely lost the acorn squash and yellow crook neck.
My zucchini seems to still be hanging in there as squash vine borer is not as attracted to zucchini as acorn and yellow. However, it is not pest-free as the spotted cucumber beetle has been hanging around the various squashes eating a few here and there.
And now it is the time for the tomato worms to show up and I have already picked 3 off. I caught the three fairly early after spotting some droppings and searching diligently on leaves, stems, blossoms, and fruit. I could use some BT for worm control, but first I want to see how far manual control will get me.
I have no idea where all these pests are coming from, it is strange to me that my new little garden has attracted every type of pest imaginable. The lessons I have learned for next year are many but can be summed up by this: I live in a neighborhood infested with garden pests and need to be more aggressively proactive. So what will I do next year? Well, I really want to install a bat house or two and cultivate a ladybug, bee, and butterfly garden. Additionally I will be prepared for spotted cucumber beetles and squash vine borers with yellow sticky traps (possibly with pheromones). Since our peach tree may produce next year, I will also be prepared with peach tree borer traps. I have not yet decided if i want to use row covers or not. Floating row covers are a great way to keep pests off, but do not allow the pollinators access to the plants. Without pollinators, crops are still possible but you must hand pollinate. From my current stand point hand pollinating sounds much better and more efficient than what I have just been through.
As for watering… this year we had planned to integrate deep-pipe irrigation to the garden. Moving the store and getting the plants in the ground all hit at the same time and we were not able to install our bamboo irrigation system. We do have the supplies and will be going forward with the experiment in water conservation next spring.
While I have encountered several problems, the garden still serves as a major de-stresser. I love getting my hands in the dirt and helping my plants to produce beautiful organic produce. Gardening organically also gives me a deep sense of peace knowing the I am not breathing in or absorbing any toxic chemicals nor am I contributing to the chemical pollution that is ever so prevalent in our world today. I am open to learn all the lessons that a garden has to offer and enjoy cultivating a deeper connection with the natural world.
HAPPY ORGANIC GARDENING!
from which came the most beautiful and delicious squash and zucchini, and some lovely flower beds. Our intention was to move into the house, green it up, put in a garden, add some color to the flower beds, and start a family. But fate had other plans for us. The house green-up was a little more intensive and time consuming than we had imagined and then came Lundeby’s Eco Baby and two puppies. All bets were off, it was a challenge just trying to take care of the store, the laundry, and the animals. The house was rarely clean and home cooked meals were becoming a distant memory. With the passing of time, the clean house and home cooked meals started to return as our new life began to take hold. So now it is time to start some new projects! Enter the beginning of our small urban farm. 
Behind the compost bin is one of the two 4′ by 8′ plots that we will start this spring. In Norman we constructed a no dig garden, but here we decided to clear the sod and loosen the soil a bit before building the raised bed. The next step was the construction of the raised beds. For which we decided to use cedar wood due to its bug repellent properties and nice warm color. Next we filled the beds with a mixture of topsoil, peat moss, and mushroom compost. Our compost is not quite ready to use yet, but I did throw in a couple of hand fulls for good luck. The cedar post running across the yard will serve as a fence to keep the dogs and their droppings away from the garden and just on the other side is a newly planted peach tree for future shade and fruit.
