A Journal of Urban Living

We decided on an outing to the Atwater Market yesterday.  (We can’t grow everything.  Our corn and watermelons need more time, our raspberries are done for the season and our chickens aren’t quite plucked and dressed.)   Simon spent the morning asleep in the stroller, or so we thought.  It was only after getting him back into his car seat that we realized he was shopping under protest:

Fighting the power, since 2011

In about six months:

The chickens are growing so the coop construction must be completed soon.  The drip irrigation heads are installed and the lines need to be run.  The Valencia Orange is the last of the potted citrus that needs to be planted.  (The kumquat will stay in a pot.)  The fig and the bay we lost this summer need replacing.  It’s also about time to set up the seedling starting station in the shed.

It’s been raining more than I’ve ever seen. The garden is fairly well planted to hopefully something is absorbing all the water.

UP
beets and chard have been thinned and are looking good. Peas and favas are up as well as a single random bean. It’s either the old bush beans I planted last fall or a next generation pole bean. Two cabbages seeded last fall seem happy. Arugula is being thinned and eaten. Turnips, spinach, lettuce and a bit of mache are up. chervil and dill and cilantro seemingly everywhere. Spring leeks and mini purple onions distinguishing themselves from crab grass. Radishes are marking the carrot rows and almost ready to come out. A row of rapini just broken the surface.

OUT
The last of the radicchio was harvested and we have a single jalepeno which will go into a pot of black-eyed peas this week.

ON DECK
This year will see more pole beans including some from Native Seeds in Tucson. Also from Native Seeds some corn, hot peppers and watermelons. We’ll start Padron peppers soon as well as whatever old tomato seeds we can scrounge up. Perhaps shishitos if I can find them as well.

Tomato tasting at Loteria Grill

Today we went to a tomato tasting at Loteria Grill in Hollywood.It was hosted by Tomatomania! who sold us all those interesting seedlings last March, a food blog I’ve never heard of called SippitySup and Loteria. Admission was one homegrown, correctly identified tomato — which for us means FREE! because we are swimming in tomatoes.

We decided to pick the tomatoes just a couple hours before, but the plants have slowed down a bit. There was only one ripe Black from Tula. I forgot to pick the adorable little Red Currants who live in a container out back unfortunately. That’s ok tho, b/c I got to show them off at a party a couple weeks back — I brought a small salad bowl full, and people ate them like candy.

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poor beans

Something is nomming the beans! We can’t figure out what is eating them before we do.  Several sprouted but were scissored off at the ground by somebody nibbling on their stems. Very upset about this. Once they reach the structure that Peter lovingly built for them, they still get munched around the edges. Hope the 2nd planting will fare better.

Al, the veteran Master Gardener who runs the LA Community Garden Council, says it’s grasshoppers, but I haven’t seen a single one. I think it’s something that comes out at night, like slugs. That would be good, because the late summer heat will do them in. If that’s the case, I’m not going to launch an all-out campaign.