Tomato Rot Update or, Why I love Oakland Nursery

I was panicked about tomato rot…or what I have been informed is actually called Blossom End Rot. Even scarier, in my humble opinion. How did I deal with this? How did I take control of a terrifying situation? How did I rescue the poor plants from certain doom?

I’m glad you asked.

I ran, post-haste, to Oakland Nursery in Clintonville.

Best. Nursery. Ever.

You can go there and ask questions! And, even better, they answer them! In depth!

I met a lovely man who told me that my tomatoes were suffering because we had so MUCH rain, followed by so LITTLE rain. And, because I water when I get home at night. Apparently, that upsets their delicate sensibilities. And this, friends, is why the bottom of my tomatoes look like someone set it on fire for 10 seconds.

The lovely man also told me that the tomatoes are still good, you just have to cut off the bottom. Good to know.

He then gently led me to where they keep the weapons to fight things like bugs, unbalanced soil nutrients and…sprays specificially made to help with End Blossom Rot! Hooray! The Calvary!

He helpfully informed me that it cannot reverse the effects, but that it will slow it down on tomatoes already suffering and keep it from starting on tomatoes not already suffering (as it happens, I have a good number of both).

Elated, I rushed home and sprayed both tomato plants with the spray and I am anxiously staring at the plants every spare moment willing tomatoes to not rot.

If it works, I am sending Oakland Nursery a card.

Adventures in Gardening: From Blossom Drop to Tomato Rot

After initially feeling like our poor tomato plants were doomed, stricken with blossom drop, I regrouped.  I soil tested. I “deeply watered”. I went and got a plant food that had a good nitrogen content after the soil test revealed our plants soil had no nitrogen to speak of (it’s like the potato chip of nutrients for tomato plants…they just can’t stop eating it!).

And…much to my surprise…the tomato plants recovered! They have grown big and strong and have lots of green tomatoes. It was a veggie miracle and I started to believe that, yes, I could grow food to eat in my own backyard. I started to believe that I wasn’t clueless and a walking gardening disaster. I walked around my garden  proudly, feeling in control. I was a gardening rock star!

And, while this newly discovered confidence and commitment did greatly upset the squirrel gang, who have found themselves unable to successfully pull off their darkness of night attacks on my plants (oh, did I mention the cayenne pepper is working GREAT? Score another gardening victory for the Gardening Rock Star and her husband) it was, sadly, a short-lived confidence.

Which brings me to last night. As I pulled into my parking spot, I surveyed those beautiful plants. I had noticed over the weekend, a few were starting to turn red, and I wanted to see if they were getting closer to picking time. And that’s when I saw it…

One of those beautiful, red tomatoes looked like someone had sliced off the bottom half. How odd, I thought. (I immediately blamed a squirrel. Jerks.) I jumped out of my car and hurried over to the plant to see what was wrong with my beautiful baby…I turned the tomato over and was SHOCKED! to see that the whole tomato was there, but the bottom part was black and gross looking. I picked it and threw it away. I looked at my other beautiful plant and realized ANOTHER tomato looked the same way!

Dear God! What was wrong now?

Some quick research on Burpee.com and Gardening.com revealed that we now have…(gulp)…Tomato Rot.

And, not unlike Blossom Drop, it could be any number of things causing it. Most likely, it is calcium deficient (who knew!). But it could also be too much water or not enough phosphorus or too much nitrogen (Please tell me they are joking on that one – I went from too little nitrogen to too much nitrogen? I have a headache.) or too rainy a beginning of the season followed by too dry currently.

And with that, my rock star status ended.

I am sure the squirrel gang is rejoicing. Maybe having a dance party in my cucumber patch.

Adventures in Gardening: Have I ever mentioned our large gang of squirrels?

I love living in Clintonville. I do. The farmers market, the eclectic neighbors, the good beer choices (that one was for Brandon, I don’t actually drink beer…I go for vodka)…Clintonville is a magical place.

But, like lots of urban landscapes, we have a lot of rather brazen squirrels. And when I say lots…I mean bazillions. And when I say rather brazen, I mean they are fearless eating machines.

And the tree in the vacant house next door? It’s the headquarters for the squirrels…the bazillions of fearless squirrels intent on starting a new world order.

Seriously. Be afraid. Very afraid.

So last year, as they were systematically targeting, attacking and taking out our vegetables and flowers, we tried something new out of desperation. We crumbled up tobacco and sprinkled it around the plants. It seemed to work. Suddenly we had the option to harvest a vegetable before the squirrels ate it. Or, in the case of my beloved eggplant, picked it, took a bit, spit it out and (I assume) made a yuck face, and moved on – only to repeat the next night.

Sidenote: for gosh sakes! If you don’t like something after you have tried it…DON’T TRY IT AGAIN!!!!

Anyway, back on subject.

So this year, when I planted the pea plants in the late winter, we started sprinkling tobacco, assuming we would get a similar result.

Silly us…

A few days later, I pull into the driveway and there is a squirrel digging in the garden. I stop the car and watch, amazed. A few seconds go by, and the squirrel, sensing my stunned presence, ever so slowly turns around to face me with…A CHUNK OF TOBACCO HANGING OUT OF HIS MOUTH!

That’s right, friends. The squirrel was chewing. Not only did the tobacco fail to save our plants, but we have started a health epidemic among the local squirrel community.

Wait…maybe that wouldn’t be so bad.

So for several months, I have fought a losing battle against them. Out of the 9 pea plants we planted, we got 10  pods. Total. The cucumbers I just planted a few weeks ago that finally sprouted? We just lost once the other day – gone, without a trace of a root left. Flowers? Don’t even get me started…

We’re losing our minds, in addition to our plants. The squirrels are SO brazen they run around on our porch while I am sitting there!

We had to fight back. We had to be strong and retake the neighborhood from these vandals, these hoodlums!

So we did the unthinkable.

I know what you are thinking and no, we didn’t get a gun to shoot them (although the thought did cross our minds). Brandon talked to a friend. An anonymous friend. This friend brought a bag to work the next day and gave it to Brandon with simple instructions – sprinkle the contents on the plants and get it wet.

So we did. I’m not ashamed.

Brandon sprinkled the contents and I watered when I got home.

All I can say is this: after Brandon sprinkled the contents of the bag on the plants, he accidentally touched his face before washing his hands. His account goes like this…”It BURNED! My SKIN!”

Take that squirrels.

Adventures in Gardening or What the heck is Blossom Drop?

I have to say, I am quite pleased with myself on this year’s garden. The flowers are flourishing, the herbs are aromatic, the peppers are spicy (despite some initial doubts), the chives are going crazy!

The bonus? We have to gorgeous tomato plants – a Big Boy and a Cherokee Purple – that have grown big and strong and have beautiful yellow blooms.

Except…

When those brilliantly yellow blooms are done, they have a pesky habit of turning a dry and dispiriting shade of…brown. Oh, and then they fall off. Why must we always be plagued with dramatic tomato plants!?

After consulting with several of my home gardening experts, it was determined that our poor tomato plant had a bad case of…Blossom Drop.

Uh…that sounds personal…

Turns out it is quite common, or so I have been assured. However, the causes are also quite common. A bit more digging (thanks Google!) and the list of possible causes include:

Too much acid…too little acid

Too little Nitrogen…or too much Nitrogen

Too little water…or too little water

Too much cold…or too much warmth

Pests (the kind I have been assured I could not see from just looking at the plant)

And last, but certainly not least, it may have had an unsustainable number of blossoms to being with and was merely self-correcting (how clever little tomato plant!)

With a list like that, the odds of this plants survival went down severely.

So, I avoided it. For a week, when I pulled into the driveway and saw more blossoms withering and dying, I averted my eyes. Oh, I went and bought a soil test, but it sat, unused, on the counter for a week. In my defense, those directions were awfully complicated…something about collecting the soil sample and mixing it with water and shaking…what do they expect? A degree in rocket science? And so, blossoms dropped unnoticed.

Scary as it was, I gathered my courage together yesterday and did the soil tests. First, I tested the Ph level. It was perfect! Right in the middle of the range that tomatoes like. Happy tomatoes!

Next, the nitrogen level…and as it turns out the nitrogen in the soil was “depleted”. Poor tomato’s! They have no nitrogen to eat!

And so, with the problem theoretically solved, I marched myself off to the nursery to get some nitrogen rich food for the tomato’s. The nursery, my happy place.

Stay tuned and hopefully soon I will have pictures of big, plump, delicious, home-grown tomatoes!

Soil…who knew?

It’s a new year and I am anticipating a new garden. I am waiting patiently for it to be warm enough to go dig in the dirt. Sooooo patiently…but it’s still only February. How is that possible?

I decided a few weeks ago that I needed to fill the time between now and May 15 (this is not an arbitrary date, it’s the date in my part of Ohio where it is safe to plant…no more frosts). This decision, coincidentally, coincided with the arrival of the newsletter for Franklin Park Conservatory – a place devoted to gardening and plants – and my realization that they would be offering classes three Saturdays in a row on gardening basics.

So, of course, I signed up!

You may or may not have noticed that I get weirdly geek-ed out about things you can watch on the Discover Channel and things like gardening. It’s subtle, I know, my geek-nees, so you may have missed it. But if you have noticed, then you will not be surprised to discover that I was really excited for the first Saturday (which was today) because they were going to teach us about…wait for it…seriously, this is worth the wait…

SOIL!

Hooray! Someone to finally explain why my plants hate my garden and would rather give up the ghost than produce vegetables for me to munch.

And I was absolutely NOT disappointed. I learned about soil testing, pH levels, what makes soil, composting (cannot wait to start doing this), how to plant certain things together to improve the soil, worms! and so many other things. I feel smarter. Especially about the worms.

The two-hour class flew by. I have to tell you, if you live in Central Ohio and you like gardening, you are missing out if you haven’t taken any of the classes at the Conservatory. It is an amazing place. They recently opened a new community gardening campus (this is where this series of classes take place).

Next week, we learn about the gardening calendar – the instructor will teach us about how to keep our garden going year-round.

I am so happy that I live in a community like this. One that allows me to explore all of my crazy and varied interests…we have the #1 zoo in the country, the # 1 library system in the country, Franklin Park Conservatory, COSI and some great parks besides!

And soon to come…my new and improved garden!

Pickles are personal

Just to start off, I want to confess this post actually began from a conversation with a co-worker about our gardens (hers is much more impressive than mine) and the cucumbers we are both growing. I told her about how I pickle and she mentioned she had never done it (I found that shocking as she is my home-grown guru) and asked about my recipe. Which prompted me to give this sage advice:

Pickles are personal.

I started making pickles last summer because I grew pickling cucumbers and…what else was I to do?

Actually, it was really the year before when our CSA started providing pickles but I never got enough to feed what became a pickle addiction in our household. (Love you Baby!)

Now…you can probably deduce that if I grew cucumbers to pickle I probably had a pickling recipe. And, if you know me and my cooking habits at all, you also know that I have a love hate relationship with recipes which I view as basically just rules and since I hate being told what to do…you get the picture. So I experimented a bit with the recipes until I found one I liked, appropriately  modified.

By the end of summer I had pretty much perfected it – with some help from Brandon who suggested a secret ingredient that was brilliant. And, not to brag, it became popular. Since Brandon is such a kind soul, he shared his pickles at work. I have had requests for the recipe which I of course refuse because why teach a man to fish when you could become his supplier and he then owes you? (Read that as Brandon’s co-worker has asked for the recipe multiple times and I won’t give it to him because if he needs Brandon to supply pickles, then I feel better about Brandon’s safety in a fairly dangerous work environment).

I also had one good friend request the recipe, which I gave her, but I was extremely nervous ever since. What if they found it too sweet or not sweet enough? So I hedged and gave her the straight recipe not my version (sorry Hanna!). But it was a pretty good recipe to begin with so you know…she’s smart.

Then, finally, we had our first batch of cucumbers this year. We were so excited! I immediately set to making the pickles. But I didn’t have the secret ingredient…the one Brandon thought of halfway through the last season that made the pickles perfection…but how much could it matter? It was just ONE ingredient.

It was the face that did me in. As always. Brandon came home and told me that the cucumbers just weren’t quite right…they were good (he’s such a good boy)…but not like last year.

So this weekend at the market I searched out and, praise heaven, found the secret ingredient. It was included in this weekend batch of pickles. I’m holding my breath to see if these reached that level of perfection. Because, you know…

Pickles are personal!

Proof the garden is growing

I am way behind. I know, I know…you are totally gobsmacked that I am not completely organized and perfectly on time always. Impossible you say? Sadly, it is true.

My whole garden...small but mighty.

But as promised…and I know you have been checking back daily…impatiently clicking around wondering where it was…pictures of my container garden! As an added bonus for your patience, you will see the little tiny baby tomatoes that started growing the other day. With some love and patience and water (hopefully some from the sky not just the garden hose) they will soon grow into large, robust grown up tomatoes for my salads and sauces and general tomato goodness!

Cucumbers! Well...the flowers that come before the cucumbers.

Basil and oregano and supertunia's!

As soon as I see this flower I get impatient for it to fall off...because eggplants come next!

Mmmm...eggplants.

We three tomato plants...all with newborn tomatoes!

Warning: If you are a squirrel or other rodent and try to eat these...I will never stop hunting you. You will never be safe. And one day, when you least expect it...there I will be.

I'm amazed the pansies are doing so well...maybe they aren't such pansies after all! HA!

My garden is doing great…but yours is doing better

I’m a naturally jealous person. As much as I try to tell myself I’m not…I also apparently lie to myself a lot. My friends buy a house…I am sick of renting. And no, don’t call me to move. It’s pointless. I can’t go near your home until I have accomplished SOMETHING, ANYTHING. My friends get a dog…I’m done. (Even though I love Moe Cat and Gill Cat very, VERY much…I want a dog.)

We have entered into a green with envy phase now. Literally. I noticed this week that between the well-timed waterings and the lovely warm weather, my veggie plants ALL had blooms on them and I was very excited. So excited, in fact, it motivated me to get out in the garden yesterday for an hour (and I only have 13 containers!) to weed, put up the cucumber fences, stake the tomatoes, cut back the overgrowth from the neighbors side of the garden (I am totally justified in my covert measures…they have some sort of strangler vine that keeps creeping over and trying to strangle a tomato plant!), and watering. I took pictures, which I know you will look at and be either fascinated or entertained…once I get them off my camera and posted.

I made Brandon come out and look at all my handiwork and the progress of these lovely green things that I nursed from seed or infancy, depending on the plant.

In case you missed it, it was also Father’s Day this weekend so later, I went out to my parents house to celebrate with brats and baked beans and  ice cream! I pulled up to the garage and parked my car. I carefully got my dad’s super-duper father’s day present out of the back seat. I turned to walk into the house and…what do I see…my parents tomato plants have…gasp…small green tomatoes on them!

But how is this possible? I have so carefully and lovingly tended my plants…how is it I will not be enjoying the wonderful, red, juicy fruits of my labor at the same time as anyone else? I have to…WAIT?!

I took deep, calming breaths. I counted to 10. Then to 20. I reminded myself to not hyperventilate…surely, I told myself, it was just my parents. Maybe they used some new, awful chemical that made the tomatoes ripen faster…but they would taste awful and they would come to me begging for my tomatoes. Yes…that must be it. An anomaly. Nothing to be concerned about. Besides, they are family.

And then, after the joyful celebration of the most amazing man ever, who I just happen to get to call father, I returned to my humble garden. I took another tour and realized that during the day and eggplant bloom popped open into a flower! I was cheered! Soon I would have some yummy eggplant to eat!

Satisfied that all was right with the world, I went inside to the air conditioning. I sat on my couch. Gill Cat came to keep me company. I turned on my laptop and leaned back to check email, Facebook and the blogs I try to keep up with. And then…

You HAVE to be KIDDING me! @(#*$)@_@.

My friend, who shall remain nameless because of the love in my heart for this person whose friendship I would hate to lose over this one post, had posted pictures of the family garden and THEY have cucumbers already!

Aaugh!

Banging away at the earth

My mom is a member of an intriguing group of women. I’m not going to explain what they do, because it honestly has very little to do with this post. What DOES have something to do with the post is this: every year they do a mother-daughter lunch. Although, I’m not sure that is actually what they call it anymore, it’s sort of like when the name changes on a popular venue – how long does it take you to start calling it by its new name? If you are like me…odds are good you never will. At least until the name changes again and then you will move on to the new-previous-name.

Now that I am done with pointless ramblings…

The mother-daughter lunch was yesterday. Mom’s friend Bunny (who I will call forever after the Herb Lady of Gahanna) did the program on…wait for it…herbs!

Listening to her talking about going out in the garden and cutting fresh mint to make tea, or tarragon for her scrambled eggs, or making herb blends in her kitchen…it gave me a picture of what I want to be in my ’80’s. She is active, funny and a gardener. I started dreaming about what my real garden in my real home will be like (chocolate mint, lemon verbena, all my standard herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc…).

In the midst of what was an all around fantastic presentation by Bunny (complete with a TMI discussion on her stomach ailments, the hallucinogenic herbs that led to a visit from OSU security and many other funny antidotes) she said something that rang true with me. Whenever something is bothering you, gardening can fix it. “There is something about banging away at the earth that gets it out and calms you down”. Very true.

So when I returned home, I took a look at my own garden. This year, due to a potential move, everything I planted is in containers. So how much gardening could I possibly have, you ask? Good question. Until I took that close look, I thought the same thing. I thought containers = low maintenance.

And then I looked. I saw weeds growing. I saw plants that were over growing their containers. I had plants that still needed planting (my CSA keeps coming through on that 1/2 flower share, but I am about out of containers!). Ignoring the cliché that this could be a metaphor for my life, right now, I took the opportunity to bang away at the earth.

Look at all of those pretty, freshly weeded flowers and plants...

I weeded, transplanted, got everything out so Mother Nature could do her watering later today (we are scheduled for thunderstorms…good for the plants, me and everything around me except for poor Gill Cat who hides under the bed). I don’t have much of a garden so at its worst it usually doesn’t take me more than 45 minutes to do a lot of work the plants, but even in only 45 minutes I feel better. More centered. My to do list isn’t as daunting. The grants I am behind on seem like no big deal – I can get caught up with a little hard work today and the rest of the week.

Even the idea of moving isn’t making me as crazy as it was this morning.

I am calm.

It may not last long…but it’s here now and that was my goal for each week. Do one activity per week that is all about making me feel better.

Of course, then it never rained so I had to water the plants – and as I am sure my neighbors were all watching, it was kind of embarrassing to bring all those containers back up on the porch after they had been sitting out on the walk the whole afternoon. But I still felt calm.

...and as an added bonus, the freshly cleaned off porch!

Mom, this is SO not acceptable...we want the porch back!

And for those of you wondering how Moe Cat and Gill Cat are doing…they returned last weekend from a two week stay at GrandCamp (aka my parents house) where they enjoyed room to run around more, not being told they can’t sleep in the bed or on a table, and the screened in porch…which you can see in this picture, they are clearly missing.