August 23, 2005
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Containers Gayla's Gardens Pests & Disease

Everything’s Gone Massive

The more I garden the more clearly I understand that gardening is a continuous learning process. The last few years have been excellent reminders of that. Last year’s weather was unseasonably grey, cool, and wet and I had to adjust and strategize to work within those limitations (and positives). This year has been incredibly hot, bright, and dry and so again I have had to make a complete 180 and adjust everything I did last year to cope. It’s been quite an education.

It’s fair to say that this year has been a lot of work. Maintenance on the rooftop has been the greatest challenge and has been where the bulk of my energy went. As a result something had to give and as usual it was the side garden. It’s currently incredibly overgrown and in desperate need of attention. I sorta-almost-kinda get why people with money hire in gardening help!

On the flip side my rooftop deck has been thriving as a result of the hot weather — it’s a jungle out there. The tomatillo plants are twice their usual size! I have to push leafy stalks to the side to gain access to plants on the fire escape. The tomatoes are producing in vast quantities. It’s almost time to do a rundown of this year’s harvest. I know it’s early but to be honest most of my rooftop plants are close to done for the season. If I get it together I can have most of my deck cleaned up well before it gets cold. That would definitely a first!

And now — because I am lazy and tired of writing — the pictures.

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I’ll be roasting these babies (Black Plum) in the oven tonight for delicious roasted tomato sauce.

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Most of this is from the rooftop container plants but some of this (namely the monster zucchini and yellow ‘Taxi’ tomatoes) is from my community plot. I don’t like to over-grow my veggies but recent rains freed me up from frequent trips to the community garden and that massive zucchini blew up in size in the meantime. There were lemon cucumbers but we ate them with last night’s dinner.

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I get a few of these every year. I don’t think they liked the intense heat because they waited until the temperature cooled some to show themselves. They never do enough damage to bother.

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I’ll let this guy take care of business.

The anise-hyssop loves the heat. Some days this plant is area is teaming with pollinators.

‘Purple Beauty Peppers: I’m so proud of this plant. It’s been producing well and is still making more. It’s a tasty variety. I will definitely grow this again.

Green Sausage Tomatoes: I’m not a fan of these and the plants have been incredibly prolific. I harvested a ton the other day and made up a batch of Green Tomato Chutney (the recipe is in the YGG book). It’s good on crackers with cheese.

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July 11, 2005
10 Comments
Containers Gayla's Gardens

Did I Mention It’s Hot?

This has been the hottest, driest summer I can remember in a while. It has been raining around the perimeter of the city on a fairly regular basis, however it has been dry as a bone in my area since June 13! The weather has threatened rain several times; the sky has turned grey, the clouds have formed, only to suddenly turn back to sunny and hot in a flash. As a result I have been watering all of my gardens a lot more than I am used to. And man alive, it has been HARD.

Commence with the tears.

As an example I NEVER water my street garden short of the bucket I dump on new additions. Basically my technique is to dig a hole, fill it with water, wait for the water to soak in, fill it a second time, wait for that to soak, dig in the plant, make a moat around it, pour more water in and let it go. I check on the new addition regularly and pour some water in if it looks like it needs it but I try and grow drought tolerant plants in that garden that can handle some dry periods once their roots have developed and they are solidly settled in.

But this summer has been something else. I got the hose out yesterday afternoon and gave the street garden a good soak for the second time this growing season . I did this only after waiting as long as I felt I possibly could. When the anise-hyssop is wilty there’s just no denying that things are dry and HOT.

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Some of the rooftop plants just a few days ago.

That’s the thing about this summer. We’ve had droughts, but the heat has been so intense on top of it. Take my rooftop garden as an example; I water the containers every day of the summer. It just can’t be avoided when you’ve got big water-loving tomatoes in containers. Well, last summer was the exception with temperatures that never did climb much into uncomfortable. I could get away with going a day, sometimes two without watering. But this summer has been crazy. I check my plants twice daily, once in the morning and once in the early evening, hauling bucket after bucket after bucket of water on a repetitive path from my bathtub to the deck and yet I still managed to produce some tomatoes (on one plant only thankfully) with blossom end rot. I know it’s a terrible after all that big talk in my last post about my killer tomato plants. They’re all still doing exceptionally well — the plants love this heat, it’s just a matter of keeping the soil wet.

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It’s a jungle. The baby cucumbers are just starting to form!

I finally understand what it’s like for some southern gardeners who throw up their arms and call it quits during the hottest, driest part of the year. I always understood in principle but now I REALLY GET IT in practice. Hauling countless buckets on a twice daily basis only to wake up the next morning to wilty cucumbers and a touch of blossom end rot on a couple of tomatoes sucks. And I water deeply. None of this splashing a bit here and there business. This morning I went through the ridiculous process of hooking the coiled hose up to my bathroom sink and dragging it out through a window because it just made more sense than the hauling of the sloshing water. The one worry I have about this is the environmental soundness of using what seems like a lot of water to grow my tomatoes. Granted I do get a decent show on each plant, my growing practices are good, I’m doing the best I can to keep moisture in under extreme conditions, and I’ll probably be laughing maniacally over handfuls of ripe fruit come September. Still, it does seem a little over-the-top this year. These tomatoes better taste like liquid candy. They will.

A few more pics:

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June 21, 2005
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Containers Gayla's Gardens

Photos of My Rooftop Garden

As promised, a few photos of my rooftop garden in June.

In the foreground you can see lemon cucumber, tomatillos, and peppers.

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- A full view from underneath the gazebo – Facing north.

- Facing west

- Facing west (closer) – Sweet and hot peppers in the foreground with purple tomatillos in the grey, oval-shaped container and a tomato in the larger grey container (right side). That’s ‘Siam Queen’ basil hanging out the front of the tomato container. To the left you can see another large grey container (white tray underneath) with a tomato plant and some red rubin basil. It’s hard to see in this pic but I’ve added a decorative trim of twigs that I bent into an oval shape. I did a similar thing to protect the peppers (foreground) from the raccoons that insisted on digging the seedling up every night. Worked like a charm.

Fire escape silver boxes – The box on the left has lavender and various succulents while the box on the right has miniature curry plant and portulaca. The plants underneath are various basils, nicotiana, tangerine gem marigold, and green sausage tomatoes. There’s a silver fir tree tomato hidden back there too. It already has one small tomato!

- An old washbin holds beets, chives and catmint. – This looked exceptionally great when the chives were blooming. I need to fill in that bit of space with something flowering.

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June 13, 2005
2 Comments
Gayla's Gardens

Waiting for the Rain

We’ve been experiencing a rather long bought of both extremely high temperatures and humidity levels plus drought here in the city. They’ve been getting rain and other strange weather patterns outside the city, but here in the core it’s been nothing but massive heat and humidity with a distinct lack of rain. This is both incredibly difficult (the smog is terrible.) and amazing. My plants are growing like wildfire!

For example, I planted my Painted Lady runner bean, dwarf pea, and sweet pea seeds into their respective containers no more than two weeks ago and they’re already massive. It is possible that this was only a week ago but the growth is so incredibly extreme I’m hesitant to believe it. Is it possible it was only a week ago? It’s all a blur. Needless to say I planted them incredibly late. I started at the appropriate time last year and am certain they were not this big by this stage. Tomatoes are producing suckers faster than I can pinch them off! I’m already harvesting small bunches of basil, some from plants I haven’t even planted out yet! It’s madness.

On the negative side, the heat is so extreme I’ve experienced over-exposure twice while gardening and have been hesitant to touch my community plot. I’m waiting for rain and am fairly certain it’s going to happen any minute now. Once it rains I’ll be prepared to go over to the plot and get things planted. I prefer to plant in-ground during or after a rain. Otherwise I’ll have to go back to the plot again to make sure everything is setting in well. I also need to add some serious organic matter to the plot and do not want the extra hassle of scratching bone-dry soil. I hope the perennials in my plot are still kicking.

The street garden has been doing quite well. The purple irises had finished flowering and when out of nowhere I discovered the peach irises in bloom. I forgot all about them. I cut them back to enjoy in a vase on my desk since a couple of irises look kind of sad in a large patch of iris leaves. The peony plant that went in last year produced a lone, but very pretty pink n’ puffy flower. I cut that back too. One flower is just too much temptation for some passersby. The wild rose I put in last year is also blooming and I have already noticed that a few branches have been ripped off to get at the blooms. I honestly have no idea how this was accomplished without tools. I received several thorny jabs while cutting three blooms and I used both gloves and clippers to accomplish the task. I like that the white flowers are green as buds.

I’m happy to report that this gorgeous mullein (Verbascum) I put in last year has propagated a second across the garden. The purple smoke bush is flowering!

Sadly, the street garden feel-good-fest is about to change since my landlord has an order from the city under this new incredibly stupid by-law to clean up the tiny bits of grafitti that have been on the wall for several years. He has a week to do it and has hired some people who are going to spray some scary paint-dissolving crap and then add a layer of a paint-repellant chemical. We don’t know when this is happening but I’m hoping to be there to be certain they do not trample the plants and spray chemical all over the place. There goes years of organic growing efforts down the toilet.

I will post more photos soon but my camera ran out of juice just as I was about to shoot some show n’ tell pics.

Good timing. Here comes the rain!

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June 3, 2005
2 Comments
Gayla's Gardens Pests & Disease

Garden Update: Street Garden and Roof

This week has been a frenzy of cleaning, selecting plants and planting. As hard as I try, I’ve got perpetual dirt-under-the-nails. I should have thought to take a picture to show what I mean.

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I haven’t been up to much in the side/street garden (it really needs a name) so I’ll start there. Earlier in the week I transplanted a hyssop that used to take up residence in one of the planter boxes on the deck. Today I moved a big bunch of anise-hyssop that sprouted in one of the large containers on the deck. Now it can spread itself all around the street garden. That’s okay cause it’s a native that can withstand drought and attracts lots of beneficial insects to the garden. I’ve got my own mini version of The Clash of the Titans happening down there.

And speaking of titans, the plume poppy is up to it’s usual tricks. It’s massive and growing fast! I have already pulled out a bunch and have tried transplanting some into containers and the large planter boxes on my deck. I am discovering that plume poppies do not like to be transplanted. All the leaves are dying back, however the roots underneath the soil are good and new leaves are slowly poking through the surface. I decided they would be good in the planter boxes because they’re tall and hardy and will provide good screening and pretty tropical-look foliage once established. I don’t know why I didn’t try this sooner. This morning when I was out taking photos, I discovered a pigeon living underneath the dense plume poppy foliage. See, it’s not all bad.

The wild rose bush I planted last year seems to have attracted a healthy colony of aphids. The plant looks good, has grown quite large (I’m thinking it’s time for a trellis), and is producing lots of flower buds. But the aphids! The horror! I’m not freaked out much by bugs but you should have seen how thick they were along some stems. It gives me the shivers just thinking about it. They were like teeny, tiny, evil robots of destruction, making their way over a densely packed spread of shivering green and red bodies searching for a position with stem contact. Yikes. I first discovered this last weekend on the way out for lunch and vowed (shaking fists at the sky) to get to it the next day. Thankfully, it rained overnight and that washed off a good many of them. This week I have been going out daily to wash them off followed by a douse of my herbal buzz spray concoction (it’s in the book). I was pleased to discover that year-old herbal bug tea still smells okay — which is good since the wind shot some of it back at me. As predicted nothing else in the garden has any sort of bug infestation — just the roses. In fact most of the plants around the roses are insect repellents, but those crafty aphids still managed to find their way to the gold.

The soil is terrible on that side of the garden (the new side) and I’m sure that’s not exactly helping the roses fight the good fight. The plants look healthy but one look at the soil tells me otherwise…. I really need to add more amenders to that side and add two more bags of mulch to the entire garden. Weeds are coming up faster than I can pull them in certain spots and the soil on the newer side is just sadly lacking in decent organic content. I used up all the compost in containers so I’m going to have to buy some.

What else is happening:

  • I fixed the fence and extended it slightly. I ran out of branches before I could cover the entire garden. Oh well.
  • The irises are in full bloom. It looks like someone stepped on a few but so far an entire section has not been destroyed, unlike last year. I even had enough to cut a bunch to enjoy indoors. Also see wild dwarf iris.
  • The Euphorbia is in bloom. I cut some of these to bring indoors as well. This one emits a sappy secretion so burn with a flame (I used a lighter) before placing in water.
  • Planted the Nicotiana I bought at the Parkdale Plant Sale before we left for New York. I saved some for the deck too. They get really big and lush but the night-time blooming habit means I must have some on the deck in order to enjoy the flowers.
  • Peony is in action.
  • Purple Smoke Bush seems to be making a comeback after being stepped on last year. Someone cracked the main stem right where the large stems join. Special thanks and shout-outs once again to the drunken idiots who see the garden as a handy place to urinate on their way from the bar.

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And now moving on to the deck:

First there was the cleanup. That’s boring stuff so I won’t bother. I decided to do as little as possible before leaving for New York because I worried that plants would not survive in my absense. Unfortunately a few of the alpines I purchased at the Parkdale Plant Sale did not make it. A cosmos I bought as a prop for a television appearance was eaten by an animal. And speaking of plants eaten by animals, an unknown mammal is back at it again this year. It could be a squirrel or a raccoon since they are the only culprits around here. I have yet to see either on the deck but am left every morning with the remnants of a disaster. Okay I’m exaggerating because anything they tend to be interested in that I have covered with a chicken wire or plastic bottle cloche has been left untouched. However, some plants that were not covered have been either completely eaten (a newly planted sedum. Who knew? They never go for this!), or partially eaten (lavender, sage).

A bunch of containers are yet to be planted up, and with this Sunday’s Herb Fair at Harbourfront I expect to have a lot more planting to do, but here are some photos of finished projects.

  • Fire escape planter box – I can’t technically call this a succulent box anymore because I added an english lavender this year. It looked really good two days ago before the unknown mammal ate half the lavender and crushed a few of the large sedum stems. A cloche now protects the remaining lavender.
  • Some veggies – There are more but here’s a big cluster of containers. Here you can see (clockwise): black cherry tomato, lemon thyme, rosemary, purple beauty pepper, purple tomatillo, lemon cucumber, green sausage tomato, silver fir tree tomato, and another tomatillo.
  • Cart full of plants – I picked these up yesterday from Colette of Urban Harvest at the Dufferin Grove Farmer’s Market. These include the purple tomatillos, all the tomatoes I listed above, two basil varieties, peppers (and more than listed above), and lemon and tangerine marigolds. The marigolds are really cool. They have feathery foliage and really do taste like lemons and tangerines. In fact I’d say they taste a lot like citrus peels. Definitely not your average, boring marigolds.
  • More plants – Mrs. Burns lemon basil, red rubin basil (I think), dill, a striped german tomato I got from a friend at a party last weekend.

More News:

- A bunch of us from the Toronto YGG group are meeting up at the Herb fair this Sunday at noon for a plant geekery field trip. Anyone in the area is welcome to join us.

- I’ve begun posting about my trip to New York over here. I am also keeping a general book-related journal here.

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