Life, Death and Ratatouille

It's been quite a week in the garden.  Exciting news: last week, I enjoyed my first tomato sandwich with ripe tomatoes straight from the garden:

on my homemade squash bread:

And a dab of light mayo, salt and pepper:

A few days later, I got a slightly larger harvest of tomatoes, along with a green pepper, parsley, oregano, basil ...

 A couple of zucchini and a mystery squash.

I decided it was just enough for a side dish of ratatouille, to go along with the chicken Parmesan that the MOTH was making for dinner that night.  I sauteed some onion, garlic, along with the green pepper:

Then I added the zucchini and squash and sauteed that for a while:

I pureed the tomatoes, and added them to the saute along with the parsley, oregano and basil:

And let it simmer for a while until all the flavors had melded:

It was really delicious.

As you know, I wasn't entirely happy with the squash bread (made from the mystery squash), so this morning I harvested a few more squash and made some banana-squash bread and muffins:

Sadly, while harvesting the squash, it became clear to me that the garden had experienced some serious casualties.  As I previously reported, the zucchini plant had been attacked by some kind of insect (squash borer maybe), which basically chewed through the vines.  I tried to save it, but evidently, the infestation was too great and the zucchini had become completely separated from its roots.  Also, the infestation had spread to the mystery squash plant.  Today, I spent several hours removing the zucchini and cutting out the affected areas of the squash.  Here is a photo of the utterly revolting culprits and some of the devastation they have wrought:

Piece of Zucchini vine with disgusting murderous attacker

Close-up of the culprit

I found dozens of these nasty monsters throughout the both the Zucchini and the Squash plants.  I dug them out of the vines and shmooshed every single one of them I could find - they made a horrible popping sound (or maybe I just imagined the sound, but it was definitely a popping sensation), which was actually more disgusting than satisfying.  Each time I came across another one as I went through my poor plants, I literally shuddered and said things like "oh my god, ahhhh!" out loud.  It was the most disgusting day in the garden by far!

In the end, I salvaged one last zucchini and a few remaining squash and squash blossoms:

The Zucchini plant is completely dead and has been removed.  I also removed most of the squash plant, but left two vines that might stand a chance of surviving.  We will see.

In addition to the last of the zucchini harvest and what may well be the last of the squash harvest, I also harvested a bunch of basil (which I will puree and freeze for future use):

In addition, I spent several hours pruning and tying up the tomato plants, which are growing like crazy in this heat and have started to tip over again.  I ended up pruning off several branches of tiny green tomatoes, so I'm going to see if I can find some recipe to use those in:

As well as a bunch of ripe tomatoes - a combination of Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes and Early Treat Hybrid tomatoes:

Still pondering what to make with today's harvest.

Creepy Crawlies

So now I have to start paying serious attention to bugs for the first time in my life.  Evidently, there are good insects and bad insects.  As a city girl, this is news to me.  In New York, there are really only bad bugs as far as I'm concerned.  Most of them are cockroaches against which we fight a never ending war.

But, since all the gardening books and blogs tell me there are in fact good bugs and bad bugs, I have to believe it's true.  So, this morning I decided to start cataloging the bugs I run across in my garden to figure out who can stay and who has to go.  Some of them are truly disgusting, like those aphids I had to pull off my lettuce plant and squish yesterday.  Blech!

This morning, I ran across this guy at the entrance of my garage:

Okay, so this first one is pretty easy.  Seems to be an earthworm.  I figure he must be okay, because I found this cute cartoon picture of him through Google images:

Courtesy of this website

I also solved the mystery of why he was in my garage.  According to Wikipedia:

Earthworms can sometimes be found on the surface of the ground following heavy rain storms, as a storm may flood the soil with excessive water. However, if the surface where they find themselves is unexpectedly paved, rocky, or compacted (hardened), they may become stranded, potentially suffering injury or death from causes such as heat, exposure, dehydration, or predation.

Well, we have been experiencing several days of heavy rain around here, so maybe this guy got stranded on my driveway and, instead of turning around and going back into the garden, he headed the wrong direction.

Since Wikipedia also tells me that he "play[s] a major role in converting large pieces of organic matter (e.g. dead leaves) into rich humus, and thus improving soil fertility," I picked him up and placed him gently back into the garden where he belongs.  And, if you must know, I did not use my bare hands - I used a pen to scootch him into a plastic cup and carried him to the garden in that.

So, that was easy, but I don't think these next guys are quite so benign.  They just have a bad look about them.

First, there's this gelatinous looking thing:

Looks like some sort of slug

If he is a slug, I have no idea what kind of slug or even if it matters.  I figure any slug is probably bad, but I'm not sure.  My usual litmus test failed me, because I did in fact find some adorable cartoon pictures of slugs on-line.  However, my trusty Vegetable Gardener's Bible tells me that slugs "feed on the soft tissues of a number of vegetables and flowers" and that "[l]ike vampires, they usually work at night or on cloudy days."  Aha!  I did mention that we've had a lot of rain over the past few days . . . ergo, cloudy days . . . ergo Slugs!

I'm afraid that anyone of a vampiric nature must be eliminated.

Then, finally, I have a plethora of these guys:

They seem to collect around moist, watery areas.  Again, I'm sure they can't be good.  However, they don't match any of the pictures in my Vegetable Gardener's Bible or my All-New Illustrated Guide to Gardening.  I will continue to search on-line and see if I can figure out what they are, but if anyone knows, please tell me!

Update:  I think I've figured out what the last guy is.  After scouring insect identification websites and running a bunch of searches like "brown scaly bug in damp area of garden" I found with this:

Say hello to Mr. Woodlouse, courtesy of Bugguide.net

According to Wikipedia, a Woodlouse is a not an insect, but a "crustacean with a rigid, segmented, long exoskeleton and fourteen jointed limbs."  More interesting information about Woodlice from Wikipedia:

Living in a terrestrial environment, woodlice breathe through trachea-like lungs in their paddle-shaped hind legs . . . . Woodlice need moisture because they rapidly lose water by excretion and through their cuticle, and so are usually found in damp, dark places, such as under rocks and logs. . . . They are usually nocturnal and are detritivores, feeding mostly on dead plant matter, although they have been known to feed on cultivated plants, such as ripening strawberries and tender seedlings. Woodlice then recycle the nutrients back into the soil. In artificial environments such as greenhouses where it can be very moist, woodlice may become abundant and damage young plants.

So, that explains why they were congregating in moist, damp areas of my property.  I'm also relieved that they are not quite as evil as they look.  Interestingly, I did find them close to some rotting leaves and other dead plant matter, so maybe they were just innocently munching on those.  On the other hand, they were also quite close to some of my seedlings and young plants, so they may not be entirely without guilt.  The circumstantial evidence does not point me toward a clear conclusion.

Seedlings, and Closets and Trees, Oh My

This week, I'm taking a "staycation" from work, to try to get a bunch of stuff down around the house and garden.  Our schedule is chock full of appointments with landscapers, tree trimmers, and closet designers.

Yes, I have decided to get a custom closet in the master bedroom closet.  I will finally have built-in shoe racks!  It's quite fun - although a little overwhelming because you have to choose how you want the closet configured.  And once you decide, you're pretty much stuck with the outcome, so you have to choose wisely!  I know I need a lot of shoe space and the MOTH needs tons of drawer and shelf space for his enormous and continually expanding collection of T-shirts, many dating all the way back to the early '80s (have I mentioned he's all mine, ladies!).

We have between 4 and 6 appointments scheduled throughout each day.  We've received several estimates from tree trimmers, with suggestions on how to tame the hideous overgrowth in my backyard:

And a couple of landscapers who have promised to provide us with design plans and estimates.  Interestingly, they all tell me that the plantings the builder put in at the front of the house are all wrong for that space.  Most of them will have to be moved elsewhere, or just eliminated altogether.

The good news is, I shouldn't be too sad about the death of my poor tree:

Because, evidently, it was all wrong for that space too, and now we can just take it out and replace it with something more appropriate.  Oh, another piece of great news?  Evidently, there is a huge cluster of poison ivy growing in my backyard like a ground cover, and like a vine up the gigantic oak tree at the bottom of the yard.  That will have to go!

Any free moments in between appointments are spent on garden-related tasks.  Today, I planted some new seeds:

I also picked several clusters of disgusting tiny green insects off my Lettuce (Rosalita) and Swiss Chard:

I don't know anything about insects, but I think they were Aphids.  They did sort of look like this:

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Today and yesterday, I transplanted some of my seedlings into bigger pots.  Here are some different varieties of tomato, an ornamental black pepper, which I planted along with some parsley, and another parsley seedling that I've planted in a pot with some chives seeds.

Tomato Sweet 100 (Cherry tomatoes), which I grew from seed

Tomato Akers West Virgina, purchased at the Rutgers Garden day on Saturday

Ornamental black pepper (from Rutgers) with a couple of parsley plants grown from seed

A type of black tomato I can't remember the name of right now - purchased at Rutgers

Parsley from seed.  I planted some Chives seeds around the edge of the pot

Here is a long view of all the new pots lined up next to each other:

I added bamboo stakes to the tomato plants, so they can be tied up as they grow

These are all transplanted into organic potting mix with a little fish emulsion fertilizer.

Then, I snapped a shot of this little Arugula seedling, which I direct sowed in one of the garden beds in front of the house about two weeks ago.  I sowed about 6 seeds at the time and around 4 of them are coming up.  I previously started some Arugula seeds inside, but they did not do well -  I think they "bolted" because they were on heat mats and were probably too warm.  So, after that I started several more Arugula seeds inside (without heat mats) and these ones outside.  It will be interesting to see which turn out better.  However, since it looks as though my plant beds are all going to be disrupted in the landscaping process, I won't be direct sowing any more seeds in those beds for now. 

Finally, I planted this guy on the corner of my house.  I have no idea what or who he is.  I went to a  meeting of my local town garden club a couple of months ago and several people brought in plants from their gardens to exchange.  I ended up taking home this guy - the person who brought him could not remember his name, but said it is a flowering plant and grows well.  He has been sitting in his little pot for that whole time while I tried to decide where to put him.  Again, he will probably have to be moved in the landscaping process, but according to his original owner, he transplants very well, so I'm hoping he'll be fine.  If not ... well ... easy come, easy go?

Unknown plant from a stranger

 Tomorrow, we make another trip to home depot for more  pots and potting mix.