plant lice & farming ants

Aphid giving live birth

I am running into my fair share of gardening mishaps during my novice gardening experiment... my big battle right now is aphids. And neglect - I haven't been home much during the daytime hours to give the garden love, just some early morning or late night watering. But yesterday I noticed some ant action on some plants and some hardcore feasting, resulting in swiss cheese leaves.

Aphids are plant lice. Enough said. Gross.

Aphids are gnarly little creatures - disgusting and destructive, but really interesting. They are a small, plant eating insect. There are thousands of different species (over 4,000), but the ones that attract ants have symbiotic relationship with the ants. These ants are referred to as "dairying ants" because they come and "milk" the aphids - meaning they stroke the aphids with their antennae to collect the honeydew the aphids produce. Weeeeird. 

Some farming ants go as far as to store aphid eggs over the winter. Aphids are sometimes sexual and sometimes asexual - they also sometimes lay eggs and sometimes give birth. They are very confused about their identity, which is why they need so much creepy ant love.

Organic solution:

1) I remember when I was younger that my mom mail-ordered some aphid-eating lady bugs, also known as ladybirds, for her garden and 2) I have read about spraying a diluted dish soap (organic/bio-degradable, of course) solution to fend off aphids - so I am researching these two options. Hence, my intense aphid description. More later.

Photo credit: Wikapedia via Creative Commons

bee's knees

My sister is visiting this weekend from Chicago - she just finished her finals and is celebrating with me here in Brooklyn!! Yay!!

Today we went the the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens centennial celebration - BEE DAY!! Their bee themed birthday party was filled with lots of fun things to do... music {the Django Experiment}, gardeners, honey of course {New York City rooftop honey}, art and lots of fun things for kids. 

We spent hours there learning about keeping hives from the local bee keepers (bee keeping just became legal in NYC in 2008, which is really exciting!!), looking/smelling the flowers, listening to music, etc.

Pictured above is my lil' sis Annie by the centennial birthday sign, who has a really cool blog, winged correspondence, check it out; some pollinatin' bumbles; a bee display; a display of seeds from local flowers that attract beez; me having a moment with some tropical flowers; lil' bug takin' a snooze in the leaves; obligatory antennae pic; sister's being sisters; and more tropical flowers.

Photos by Annie/Liz

guest blogger: the garden before the storm

From Boston:
My friend Erin and I officially began our outside veggie garden on Saturday. We used the raised bed that our friend Lauren had created last year and planted a variety of yum! Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, and sage. We got it in just in time to let mother nature give our garden a good shower. It will be so much fun to watch our little garden grow!

buongiorno ziggy zag

 According to Wikipedia, morning glory is a common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants. I was researching whether morning glories are native to New York because I see them everywhere. What I did find out about these Ipomoea purpurea (this might be what mine are, but there are numerous species) is that they reseed easily, so, although they are an annual they easily come back year after year.

This is my DIY planter box beautifier. Some zig-zaggy twines for my buongiorno glories to climb. You can easily make this yourself with some twine, wire nails, a hammer and scissors. Make fun shapes or spell a word... something creative. I think this will make my garden boxes pretty, but beware of the nail heads jutting out - I hammered mine flat against the wood but they are still a little dangerous. 

I just read a really intense thread on Morning Glories vs. Field Bindweed. Field bindweed is an invasive plant that hurts crops. "Biological controls" were used to combat this conceivably destructive plant, meaning a moth was imported and released to kill this invasive plant. What a horrible idea...We have a problem with a non-native plant so we bring in a non-native moth to make our problems down the road worse. Awesome planning guys.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that whatever is growing in my urban garden is a) not toxic to grazing animals (because I don't have any) and b) isn't affecting any farmers crops. Whew! So, I guess I don't have to worry too much. If you want to take a look at the thread, you can read it here.

herbal armor & dirt lines

I haven't been updating the urban garden blog as much as I would like, but it's growing like crazy! Ben (my neighbor) built 2 new boxes!! We are experimenting with sizes. The big one is split in half and really tall because I order sweet potato tubers and then like deep soil. We spit that in half to cut down the need for tons of dirt, but I think we are a little shallow on the non-potato planting side. Oh well, I threw in the "Husky Cherry Tomato" plant I picked up at Lowes and planted the parsley that I started indoors a couple weeks ago. The were living on the edge being outside while I was away camping over Memorial Day weekend. I'm glad they pulled through! 

Pictured above: My dirty-ass feet coming in from working in the garden - my all time FAVORITE thing about gardening is getting a little dirty!! Any excuse to get dirty is fine by me!; my best friend - bug repellent, this is not a sponsored post, but if you want to sponsor me I could buy this stuff by the gallon! We have an army of mosquitoes in the backyard; Shots of the garden from my porch.

diy garden organizer

I created this little bucket shown in my diy garden bench makeover to keep my gardening essentials on hand and lookin' good. It was super simple and I only used items I had on hand. You can really get creative and use things around the house without having to buy a single thing!

diy garden organizer

Things you will need: Old plastic nursery pot, scissors, spray adhesive (or glue), hot glue gun, patterned paper, EnviroTech lite

Step 1: Wash plastic nursery pot well to remove loose dirt

Step 2: Cut patterned paper to fit the nursery pot, leaving some room at the bottom to fold under if desired

Step 3: Spray plastic pot with spray adhesive carefully on the desired location, use another form of glue for a more precise application

Step 4: Adhere patterned paper and let dry, use hot glue to fold and adhere paper to the bottom of plastic pot

Step 5: Cover generously with EnviroTech to waterproof if desired and let dry for 24 hours

Step 6: (Note: I was going to add the rope around the edge with an extra loop for hanging, but I didn't do it... I'll post that option if I can get myself out of the garden and in the house crafting!)
Step 7: Store all your garden essentials! In my garden organizer I have All-Terrain herbal armor bug repellant, gardening gloves, little trowel and a spool of twine, the duct tape of the garden!

thinning the herd

Babies Pak, Mustard, Kale & Escargot

Baby Pak, which sounds like a rapper name, was my very first mini harvest! I have been holding off thinning my pak choy because it seemed like such a waste to just toss little seedlings in the compost pile. Tonight I went out to look at the garden after being gone camping all weekend and the baby pak's looked like actual vegetables! I snipped a few, lightly sautéd and drizzled a little toasted sesame oil on top. Delish! 

I also have some chinese mustard greens that appear to be bolting. I tore some leaves and added that to my bean, kale and brown rice macrobiotic meal for some mustardy spice. Not sure what's up with the bolting, better do some research.

Pictured above is my first harvest of baby pak choy; the harvest of babies kale, mustard and pak; freshly rained on leaves, complete with fresh escargot; beautiful, artsy rain-makers that my cousin/big sister Alycia gave me for my birthday - a great way to water your plants while you're gone for a few days or a week depending on the plant's watering needs