A New Year

Well, the blog did not get off to an early start... but better late than never. We've finally resurrected the BBOP garden. One of the large planters had to be deconstructed, since the sides completely fell apart. It's a bit sad because this planter was big enough for the heavy-hitters like tomatoes and squashes. Instead, we moved in the little planter and added flowers, and potted up the remaining tomatoes and squashes in 5 gallon paint jugs. The flowers add a nice site in the cement desert.

Here's what we have growing:
* Tomatoes:
** Green Zebra
** Early Goliath
** Tomatillo x2
** Black Cherry
** Ground cherry
** (Unknown) reseed from last year
** A couple of other tomatoes we lost the tags for

* Peppers:
** Ancho chili
** Red Sweet
** Yellow Sweet
** Habanero
** Serrano
** Fish Pepper

* Squashes:
** Cucumber
** French round zucchini
** Amish melon

* Other:
** Basil
** Eggplant

Week 14: Survivors

At the weekend, I went up to the lab to see what could be salvaged from the wreckage of the garden, and to tidy up the plants which weren't going worth keeping alive. The tomatoes were all completely destroyed, as were the aubergines and most of the squash-like plants. The pumpkin was semi-alive, but the leaves that the deer hadn't eaten were covered in a mildew-like dust or burnt by the sun, so that went to the big compost pile in the sky. The deer did an excellent job of stripping the pepper plants of their leaves and eating the fruit; at this point in the season, it is really too late to expect them to recover, so I ditched the majority. Happily, a couple of the chile plants hadn't faired too badly, and I gave them a nice drink of smelly fish emulsion to help encourage them to grow further.

Organizing the garden thus did reveal a mysterious squash-type plant which neither Nicole or I planted. Who knows what it might be!

A strawberry plant, two basil plants (rather gone to seed!) and the mystery squashiform plant...

The two surviving squashes. Unfortunately both look to be infected with some sort of mildew, and the left-hand plant probably doesn't have enough leaves to sustain itself. Oh well, we can hope!

Habanero (left) and a rather leafless golden pepper (right). What a shame French marigolds aren't edible.

The chile planter, featuring the cayenne (middle left), de arbol (middle right), thai (front) and an ornamental chile variety (rear left). The de arbol chiles were almost untouched by the deer... obviously too hot for their tastes.

The new garden guardian (plus some thyme in the front left corner), who is in charge of ensuring the deer can't jump over the fence. I just hope he's reliable!

The garden now looks very different from its state three weeks ago:

Look Ma, no plants!

Week 12: The continuing drama...

Once again, there was a horrifying sight when I arrived at the lab to water yesterday. This is not the prime weekend for there to be a holiday... it means that the deer have the run of the lab with little human intervention for 3 days. And, boy, did they take advantage of that fact.

I came strolling into work, keeping my fingers crossed that the deer had been fooled by my silly fence, but of course crossed-fingers could not get in the way of their power. I found the culprit in the garden the moment I drove up. We had a bit of a mexican standoff. Then, as soon as I opened my car door, he hopped away. I was not swift enough to get his mug shot, but I do have details of the damage:


The promising mortgage lifter tomato now devastated:


The only remaining bit of fruit from the mortgage lifter:

The whole scene is sad:

The eggplant has gotten sunburned! I brought a couple home to ensure amelia would get to eat them just in case the deer came back.

It looks like the deer do like eggplant after all... the japanese eggplant was getting munched even more. And the green zebra, well, totally wiped.


Nearly all the tomatoes, ripe or not, were consumed by our 4-legged non-friend. I rescued the poblanos (even though they weren't all their full size) and a few eggplants. No tomatoes. So sad.

Tragic

There have been numerous violations at the BBOP garden in the last few days by the no-longer-cute deer.... just was my mouth was starting to water for the ripening Roma and black cherry tomatoes, a deer figured out how to hop the fence. Twice...once from each side of the garden. The riggers spotted one of the culprits having breakfast in our garden as they drove into work this morning, at which time the deer promptly hopped over the fence out of the garden.

The proof is in the hoof prints (arrows):


Here's the damage:

I guess no green zebra tomatoes (left) this season. and the poor, poor japanese eggplant (right). I wonder why the fruits were left?




A forsaken poblano pepper... I guess the deer don't like these kind of fruits.


And just when the zucchini was starting to recover...



A half-eaten early orange... I guess the fact that it wasn't ripe yet meant that it was okay to leave it...


This is particularly maddening... just when I transplanted the rescued tomatillo into a larger pot, the deer devoured it.



Same tomatillo and the strawberry next to it.



With no regard for the other eggplants, we find that the lovely foliage has been nearly completely consumed. At least they left the fruits. Can eggplants sunburn? The top picture is how I found the eggplant when I arrived this morning...clearly knocked over when the deer hopped into the garden. Evidence of footprints in the nearby squash planter. When I righted the eggplant, it looked so sorry for itself.


This pepper was topped. Well, at least you can see all the lovely fruits.

All-in-all, the damage could have been worse. But, it sets us back a week or so for ripened fruit. I don't know if the green zebra or tomatillo will recover. Let's hope we can get at least one Roma tomato this season.

Better still... let's hope the new blockade will work for the evening. I guess I know what I'll be doing this labor day weekend....construction!

Week 11: Ripening...

After some quality sunshine at the end of last week and over the weekend, it looks as if the garden is finally obeying Nicole's repeated order for the fruits to ripen. We have been able to sample several tomatoes over the past week, as well as some of the bell peppers and a couple of strawberries. Currently the black cherry tomato is top of the taste charts; it's delicious!

Click on the pics to see larger versions.

One of the celebrity tomatoes; all the celebrity plants are producing huge fruit!



Rosalie's Early Orange tomato, trying to hide behind a leaf



The mortgage lifter tomato. We presume that they are supposed to look like that, and it's not due to proximity to the Bevatron!



Chile de arbol



Poblano chile peppers



Cool pepper, whose name I have forgotten yet again.



Excitingly bi-coloured squash

We've also had our fair share of heartbreak and tears in the BBOP garden. Unfortunately, the Biscayne-Cubanelle pepper, which was already looking sad a fortnight ago, was looking even sadder when I got into work on Monday:


Admittedly, we were tempting fate by leaving it outside the protective fencing, and the plant was on death's door, if not over well over the threshold and settling down in a comfy chair! At least the deer were able to gain some nutritional benefit from it... I don't think Nicole and I were going to be enjoying a huge crop from it.

One of the pumpkin plants is also looking exceedingly sorry for itself after being planted up in some rather heavy soil that didn't draining properly. Although we tried moving it into some different soil, I think the damage had already been done.

Sob!

A terrible fate also befell one of the celebrity tomatoes and the Rosalie's early orange pictured above. This is how they looked mere hours after those photos were taken...



I can report that both varieties were very tasty!

Week 10: A Moving Story, pt. II

The riggers offered their help with their more appropriate heavy-duty machinery.


Repositioning some of the exisitng planters.





Repositioning the biggin... this one required real manpower, and the forklift!





And some expert guidance. (hardhats required!)




The finished product:





Whew! It was a hard day!

Week 9: A Moving Story, part I

A couple of weeks ago, Nicole and I were warned of the imminent arrival of a large container (not large as in planter size, but large as in 40ft metal shipping container size), which would have to be parked right where the garden is now. The thought of having to get rid of all our plants after expending so much time and love on them was almost unbearable, but luckily a new spot was available, about 100 ft away. Apparently, the area that we'd used for the garden belongs to the riggers, the team who are dismantling the Bevatron, whereas the proposed location belongs to building 64. Ah. Anyway, after checking with the building 64 manager, we decided to move as much of the garden as we could over into the new location. A short reconnaissance mission into the Bevatron revealed a hydraulic-jack-type affair, perfect for transporting the smaller planters. Using this, a flat trolley, and the faithful office chairs, we were able to transplant approximately half the garden into the new location.

Nicole takes charge of the flatbed trolley.

The hydraulic-jack-type-affair, with one of the planters.

The planters in their salubrious new location... right by the dumpsters. Nice!

The remaining half of the garden. Not pictured: blood, sweat and tears expended during the move.

Whilst scouting out possible locations for the garden, we espied another promising box; this was duly liberated and Nicole planted it up with some of the squashes.

The new box. Just like the old boxes, but with different plants.


Rather exciting peppers, whose name I have forgotten.


The poblano chile (and a multitude of marigolds)


Tasty cherry tomatoes. They were eaten mere moments later!


Impressive peppers

In other news, something unfortunate seems to have happened to the Biscayne-Cubanelle pepper, as the picture below attests. There doesn't seem to be any obvious botanical explanation for its rather sad state, but there is a suspicious white residue on the soil just next to it. Directly above this residue is a length of very unsavoury-looking piping coming out of an upstairs window. Hmmmm...