Electrical Audio Urban Beautification Project

[Frank R.]

Next year someone should build a raised bed for the garden. It would make it look a whole lot better and wouldn't require a whole lot of money/effort. It would get the plants up off of the ground which would reduce the risk of being trampled, eaten by vermin, and/or pissed on by bums. Also, since the plants would be higher, you wouldn't have to bend over as much (no more achy back!). Raised beds also allow you to plant earlier.

It would also be a good idea to take a pictures on a clear day every three hours to see which parts of the space get the most light. That way you can plant accordingly.

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Next year someone should build a raised bed for the garden. It would make it look a whole lot better and wouldn't require a whole lot of money/effort. It would get the plants up off of the ground which would reduce the risk of being trampled, eaten by vermin, and/or pissed on by bums. Also, since the plants would be higher, you wouldn't have to bend over as much (no more achy back!). Raised beds also allow you to plant earlier.

That's a great idea, but it can't be done because that space (which is also the only space that would work on the property) is between two driveways. Part of the challenge is being able to allow door clearance from either side. A raised bed would mean cranky people.

It would also be a good idea to take a pictures on a clear day every three hours to see which parts of the space get the most light. That way you can plant accordingly.

I'll have to give that a try. As for now, the stuff I'm planting has been doing ok, but I'm always up to improve things.


Speaking of "clear days", every time I've been by to take pictures for update purposes it's been night or rainy. That or I'll water them and forget to take pictures altogether. 'Scuze me for the delay!

Feast your eyes on these, the best this garden has been to date:




Basil is out of control, but I'm fine with it. I transplanted as many as I could, but they're growing faster than I can pinch them back. I had to uproot one on Monday just so it wouldn't impede the growth of Mr. Oregano. I plucked and froze the leaves, even if it's not same-day fresh it beats anything off of the Jewel spice rack.

Below is the mini Bell Pepper plant. Look carefully and you'll see some have turned red. Lookit! So many mini Bell Peppers!


Ok, here's a red one:


No red jalapeños yet, but they're in excellent shape considering there existed only a branch and change once:



These should stay yellow, I think, so I'm just picking the ones that look like they'll explode if I don't:


In between the basil and the basil lie the Thai Hot Peppers. Most are green. Red means "pick 'em already!", and steve enjoys the flavor most when they're dark purple (somewhere in the middle of green and red), so I'm trying to get as many as I can in that phase. The trick is they're not that shade for long, but also there are a bazillion of them so there's usually a handful prime for purple pickin'.


Speaking of peppers, I hope to pickle these again this year, but I'm going to wait another several weeks. It's basically what I do at the last minute to make sure none of the peppers go to waste.


Mint and basil! Look at all that Mint and Basil!



...also there's tarragon and oregano in there somewhere. They are doing well, just chillin' in the shade of ALL THAT BASIL.

Rosemary and Parsley do look a little droopy, but mainly it's because I took the pictures mid-day. At about 6:00 they'll perk right back up.


Oh here's the oregano:


And also the tarragon. Also note somebody stepped on some of the garden. Fortunately it was on the BASIL.


This onion is giving me the horns. Metallist onion ever:


Chili Peppers! One is almost red:


And a quick few pics of what I picked today. Best. Garden. Ever. (here).

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Harvest Day, 2011:

Steve and I cleared out the garden today. Harvested everything but the onion (which will prove useful soon enough for something I'm sure) for various food projects. And there's STILL a mountain of mint, basil and peppers left to be had over the next several weeks. Feels pretty good I must say.

Steve has been working on this flavor-packed, spicy olive oil all afternoon:


I didn't ask him about portions and I didn't retain really anything about cooking time, etc., but what it translated to was a half-of-a-sink full of herbs and spices swimming in many gallons of olive oil. First to boil, cool, and later be bottled for more kitchen mad science I'm sure. I don't have a fancy food nose, but I enjoyed the smell last time I walked through the studio kitchen.

Parsley had his curtain call today - most of it was used in the above project. This year was the first that parsley we grew had any root larger than a medium sized marble. This can later be cooked:


I pickled these dudes today:



Intern Charlie and I pickled last year, and I may pickle more, but for now these peppers have been picked and my options were to either eat them or start a contest with someone else on staff to see who could eat more. Here's my recipe (I looked it up last year on youtube and a few blogs. Charlie and I later refined it after some playing around):

5 Cups of vinegar (last year it was apple cider vinegar, this year it was plain-old distilled - just keep its acidity at 5%)
1 Cup of Water
2 Tablespoons of sugar
2 Tablespoons of fancy sea salt (canning or kosher is supposed to be fine, just not table salt)
1 Tablespoon of black pepper corn
2 Cloves of garlic
Mason/Ball/Kerr jars with lids.

1. Add the above, bring to boil while stirring occasionally.
2. Heat up your mason jars so there's no thermal shock. (last year I dunked them in a big pot of water and kept the heater on medium for 30 minutes prior to canning. This year I ran them in the dishwasher with no detergent with a hot dry, and put 170 degree water in the sink and dunked them in there.) THEY WILL BE HOT, BE CAREFUL HANDLING THEM. TONGS OR A LONG SPOON SHOULD WORK TO MOVE THEM AROUND WITHOUT HAVING TO TOUCH THEM.
3. Wash your peppers
4. Cut 2 or 3 slits into each pepper (helps the brine get inside the pepper). Mine have been 1/2 inch to 1 inch in length. Doesn't need to be exact.
5. Stuff the peppers into the jar(s).
6. After the brine has boiled, fish out the pepper corn with a strainer or spoon.
7. Carefully pour brine into the pepper jars (I just ladle the brine in, and I usually fill the ladle then wait for a minute or two just to cool the brine a little. It is still steaming, though). Leave 1/2 inch or a little more of room in the jar for air.
7.5. Add 1 teaspoon of pepper corn to each jar if you are so inclined.
8.Once you can handle the jars (I use an oven mitt or a towel for a buffer between the jars and my hands) stick the lid on top and screw the top on tightly. (I usually flip and shake the jars a few times to make sure they are sealed.

That's it. I used two batches of this and it was plenty for two jars. Last year I used one batch and it got me to about 1.5 of the bigger jars.

Here are the peppers now:


They will sink in a day or two after the insides of the peppers have absorbed the brine.

[russ]

Those pickled peppers look excellent!

[ERawk]

JSP WTF,

All systems go for this year?
Expanding the garden into the Condo Development of Broken Yuppie Dreams?
Any new plants/herbs, etc.?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

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Not quite All Systems Go yet, so far it's been pulling a few weeds here and there. At present there are way too many, and it's rainy/muddy out there, so I'm going to wait a couple of days until this off-and-on rain/storm business has cleared.

There's a big seedling sale (well, seedlings=little, amount of seedlings=big) at Kilbourn Park in a few weeks (I think 2 weeks?), where I will stock up on most everything I need. What they don't have I'll pick up at either a farmers' market or anywhere else I can find them. I still like the idea of growing things from seed, but most didn't survive before when I transplanted them. So I will adopt.

I bought twine and little stakes - going to try and measure out spots where each plant will grow. Seems that in the past I haven't improved my eyeballing skills.

No expansion, but the condo people on the other side of the building have started back up after their 2 or 3 year lunch break. Hopefully there's no increase of people stealing from/pissing on my crop.

So yeah, nothing exciting yet. Activity soon. . .

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From the past few weeks (sorry, didn't have time to post sooner):

Item #1 - get rid of the forest of weeds in the back. check.


check.

Item #2 - cut the mint back to a manageable amount.


Check. There is still way more than we're ever going to need, but we have the space, and it's to the point now where it won't overtake the rest of the garden.

Item #3 - see what survived over the winter.

Tarragon - check.

Rosemary - check.

Oregano - check.

Old Man Sage, season III: check.

Basil - no sign in the garden patch. Strange, but maybe the seeds didn't take from last year? That's ok, that's what seedlings are for.


A few days later…

Initiated a soil test with this kit I picked up. Tells me the soil pH, nitrate levels, phosphorus levels and potassium levels.

Here's the completed test:


Results? Neutral pH, healthy potassium and phosphorus levels, very low nitrate levels. Not an exact or perfect fix, but since we have Miracle Gro out the yin yang, I have been adding a little extra here and there. Not too much, but for a few weeks I put in 110%-125% the amount I normally would, seemingly not drastic enough to overkill anything. This crudely fixes two things:

1. Adds nitrates to the soil, as the MiracleGro mixture I have is mainly just that.
2. Somebody tell me if this is wrong, but it's my understanding that it will tilt the pH of the soil into slightly acidic territory, which is exactly what I am looking for. Neutral is ok, but 9 out of 10 internet how-to pages I've read say it's better to have slightly acidic soil. For those of you in the know, I'm sure this is total rookie thinking, but for me, I'm happy to be at least thinking about it this year. It's a start.

Later that day, I turned over the soil, pulled more weeds, and did some watering. I also mixed in all of that sand dumped in there last year so it's evenly distributed in the garden. Overall, it's adding a pinch per square inch, doesn't seem to have changed the soil texture very much, if at all. It looks prettier now:


That evening, I picked up Parsley III and transplanted it.


A week later, I went to the seedling sale at Kilbourn park. Wondering what to get this year, we all discussed what we'd use, what we could use more of, and what we didn't use much of at all last year. Based on that, I picked up mostly peppers. 2 Jalapeño seedlings and two Thai Hot Pepper seedlings. I love these sweet peppers we had 2 summers ago (Alameda peppers, maybe? ), but I can't seem to find any. If I do, I'll grow em. Also, for the sake of trying something new-ish, I'm trying these Dragon Hot Peppers. They're supposed to be like Thai peppers but somehow different. I'll compare them once I get my hands on some. Also, I got two strains of basil, since I haven't seen any sprout out this year. Here they were when I arrived at the studio:




Here they are after I transplanted them:

Jalapeños:


Thai Hot Peppers (2 on Left) and New-fangled Dragon Pepper (right):


New Basil (there's a sweet basil strain and an Italian Basil strain):


Oh and look - in the buckets are what are likely 2 basils after all (also pictured, Old Man Sage: Season III. He looks a little bummed out, but water made him happy later):


...so much basil.

Since things have grown and changed over the past few weeks, I'll have to write up another update here soon. So it shall be. Stay ye tuneth.

[Rog]

Initiated a soil test with this kit I picked up. Tells me the soil pH, nitrate levels, phosphorus levels and potassium levels.

Here's the completed test:


Results? Neutral pH, healthy potassium and phosphorus levels, very low nitrate levels. Not an exact or perfect fix, but since we have Miracle Gro out the yin yang, I have been adding a little extra here and there. Not too much, but for a few weeks I put in 110%-125% the amount I normally would, seemingly not drastic enough to overkill anything. This crudely fixes two things:

1. Adds nitrates to the soil, as the MiracleGro mixture I have is mainly just that.
2. Somebody tell me if this is wrong, but it's my understanding that it will tilt the pH of the soil into slightly acidic territory, which is exactly what I am looking for. Neutral is ok, but 9 out of 10 internet how-to pages I've read say it's better to have slightly acidic soil. For those of you in the know, I'm sure this is total rookie thinking, but for me, I'm happy to be at least thinking about it this year. It's a start.

Weekend Guy and resident soil scientist.
Sharp!

Slightly acidic sounds right for some reason...you could ask Larry Meiller.

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...you could ask Larry Meiller.

Thanks, Rog. I'm going to listen to a few episodes here when I have a moment - I'm bound to be well educated after even an hour.

I think we left off just after I transplanted the little seedlings...

...I said to myself after transplanting these things a few weeks ago "Self," I said, "you should make some new pest control spray", and I promptly forgot to do so for 3 days. Upon returning to the patch, I noticed something ate all of the leaves off of a jalapeño plant. I didn't get a good picture of it, mainly because my being irritated with the situation overrode my desire to take pictures. Just looked like a green stem coming out of the ground.

After this, I promptly made a new batch of the pest control spray, and have not experienced any difficulties since.

Aaaaaand, I lucked out, as the jalapeño managed to grow itself some new leaves and is back in the program. I might try and keep this one alive over the winter since it's a tough one!

So, fast-forwarding a few weeks, here are some pictures of progress to-date:

Dos Jalapeños (the tough one is in the back, looks small but is recovering well):


Lots of Thai Hots:


I also pulled enough weeds to fill 2 freezer bags. No pictures. They're weeds.

Thai Dragon:


Mint (L) and Oregano (R) (sorry about the focus):


Tarragon (L) and Rosemary (R):


Parsley III:


Bucket Basil #1 (the two seedlings didn't make it - this makes me sad, but glad bucket basil came back!):


Old Man Sage, Season 3 and two more members of the family Bucket Basil:

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First off, sorry I'm behind on these. I have no captions for each one, mainly because they just grow, no drama. Just been watering and weeding (actually, intern Alicia has been doing a lot of the watering when she's here, volunteered even! How nice!).












The only note I have is of Old Man Sage, Season 3:

He flowered and immediately turned brown. Not calling him "dead" exactly, as there are new leaves growing through the dead branches. Never seen this before, but since there is green, I assume Old Man Sage will last a while longer.







Moving on, here are pics from this afternoon:

UH OH!

Baby's first rat hole. Home to either a small family or one big ass rat. Off to the hardware store, where I stocked up on steel wool. Shoved in a bunch of steel wool and rats stuck inside can't chew their way out. Outside rats can't chew their way in. So either that's the end of that, or there will be a new hole down there soon. This should do it, though.

Now for the pretty plant pictures:


I see peppers, not many and not ripe, but progress nonetheless.


Lots and lots of Thai Hot Peppers, but they aren't ripe yet. Picked a few anyway just for snicks.


So, the Dragon Hot Pepper is tall and healthy, but no peppers yet. It's just starting to flower, so I'm guessing it's just a later growing plant than the Thai Hots.


Saw a few bees and wasps hanging around here. I opted not to weed anywhere nearby.


Just fine, just fine.

[Tommy]

I noticed the other day that someone tried to "beautificate" EA by tagging the front of the building...

[Eugenius]

I noticed the other day that someone tried to "beautificate" EA by tagging the front of the building...

Odd Future?