One More Thing

One thing that did surprise us about the Box Car Willie experiment, where Cindy grafted a tomato plant onto disease-resistant tomato root stock was that the grafted Box Car Willie produced much larger tomatoes than the ungrafted plant right beside it.

A Tale of Two Box Cars

This picture shows tomatoes from both plants: the tomato from the ungrafted plant is on the left and the grafted one on the right.  The ungrafted one was about three quarters of a pound and the grafted one weighed 1 and three quarters pounds.  

That's a lot of tomato.  

"Gracious Outdoor Living"

That's what the catalogs call it when you've got carpets and furniture outside, right?  Only they usually mean carpets and furniture that's intended to stay outdoors, not your inside furniture.

We had to move things outdoors the other day because the fourteen year old water heater finally cashed in its chips and leaked water all over the downstairs, including the carpet and some storage cabinets.

It's all cleaned up now and most of the stuff has dried out; it could have been worse, but it gave us an opportunity to get rid of some stuff we no longer need.

Actually, I thought the carpet looked pretty good outside.

Greatest Hits

I've been writing this blog for four years now, and I've learned a lot about the plants, animals and insects that appear in our garden.  Plus, I've been able to enjoy some really great food along the way.

So I though I would post links to some of my favorite posts from the early years so anyone who missed their original appearance could see them now.  They're also available in the Archives section on the right side of the page.

Plants.  We found these interesting Mystery Nuts cached in a corner of one of the raised beds, so, of course, we planted them.....
      I thought the Leek Flower looked like something created by Dr. Seuss.
      The birds and the bees usually do this:  Sex In The Garden.

Animals.  My all time favorite animal post is the one about the Gray Fox that Cindy saw climbing on our car one morning: Number One Reason Not To Have Chickens .
Followed closely by #2.  Cock-A-Doodle.
And then there are our cats, and the lizards that fascinate them:   Lizard Patrol .
And, of course, one of our favorite Varmints.

Bugs.  Mystery bug--the  Katydid .

Some great pictures of a Monarch butterfly forming a Chrysalis and hatching .

Food:  Meatballs, a recipe we've since refined by adding a quarter teaspoon each of cocoa and cinnamon--yum.  And also Mozzarella Madness-- who knew you could make your own cheese? (Well, lots of people knew, but that didn't include me until we tried it.)

Adventures: No Going Back(ward) .  And the Flower Thieves.

I think that's enough for now.  Thanks for reading my blog, it's been fun!

Last Tomato Standing

Grafted Box Car Willie

By this time it should come as no surprise that the last tomato plant standing is the Box Car Willie plant that was grafted onto disease-resistant root stock.

That plant has shown signs of stress in the form of yellowing leaves, but managed to fight off the powdery mildew and bacterial wilt that claimed all of the other tomato plants this season.

Other San Diego gardeners have reported that this was a terrible year for tomatoes all the way around; we enjoyed a mild winter, but apparently it never got cold enough to kill off all the bacteria and bugs that love our veggies as much as we do.

We are pleased that this plant was so successful, since it shows that it is possible to combat these diseases.  Cindy is hoping to have several other Master Gardeners graft their tomatoes next year so that we can develop more information about what works and what doesn't work so well.

One Very Bad Bug--Bagrada Bug

Cindy was over at the Franklin Elementary School the other day to consult with a volunteer who maintains their garden as part of the School Garden Program, when she noticed some bugs on the Alyssum plants.

The bugs were Bagrada Bugs, Bagrada hilaris, a very invasive pest bug that is a major threat to crops, especially crops such as cauliflower, broccoli, collards, cabbage, kale, radish, rutabaga and wild mustard.  It also feeds on melons, strawberries and members of the nightshade family, such as potatoes and peppers.

The infestation at the school was pretty bad, so Cindy and the volunteer pulled up all the Alyssum plants, but weren't able to kill all the bugs.  They could easily wipe out the vegetables in the school garden.  Since Cindy was just getting ready to plant some of winter crops, including cauliflower and broccoli, it's a good time to check up on what these bugs are and how to control them before we find them on our plants.

For information on how to control these stink bugs, see the University of California's Invasive Pest Management's Pest Note at: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74166.html .

Wait, these things attack POTATOES, too?  Noooooooo!!!!

Desperate Measures

Cindy's continuing quest to get me to eat more vegetables led her to give me the "Garden Sampler" box of Numi organic herb teas for our anniversary last week.

I understand her concern, but really?  Beet Cabbage tea?

Carrot Curry?

Broccoli Cilantro?

Spinach Chive?

Who comes up with these flavors:  the makers of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans?*

The Fennel Spice flavor sounds like it might be all right, but most of the rest of them sound like candidates for the compost heap.

After all, potatoes are the only vegetable that really matters, right?

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*Harry Potter reference