BBOP Plant Project

A New Year

2009-06-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-09-01T09:41:00.001-07:00

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

2008-08-29T17:32:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-08-26T17:10:00.001-07:00

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

2008-08-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

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...

More Evidence in Flower Destruction Case

2008-07-31T10:28:00.001-07:00

The case against the deer was strengthened this morning when two suspects were spotted loitering in the vicinity of the BBOP garden.

The two individuals, who cannot be named for legal reasons (no birth certificates as far as we know), were sighted on the hillside behind building 64 at around 9:00 AM. They stayed in the area for approximately thirty minutes, taking the opportunity to snack on some foliage, before strolling off to richer pastures.

Whilst there is no direct evidence supporting the allegations that these deer were amongst those responsible for the garden carnage at the weekend, they both looked well-nourished and failed to respond to my knocking on the window to get them to turn for the camera (probably feeling too guilty to look me in the eye!).

The case continues...

Note slightly disgruntled expression; probably due to the lack of attractive foliage to destroy.

"This isn't half as tasty as those pretty flowers!"

Accomplice watches the wanton consumption.

Note bulging sides: a sure sign of recent flower consumption.

Week 8: Oh Deer...

2008-07-28T20:32:00.000-07:00

Nicole went away for a conference and a wild weekend in New York at the end of last week, leaving me in charge of the garden. My first instinct was to dig up all the boring flowers and replace them with chile peppers, but I managed to restrain myself, and limit my herbicidal tendencies to merely not going into the lab at the weekend to water the plants.

Imagine my shock, then, when I got into work on Monday to find horrifying scenes of chaos and destruction! The flowers in the front planter had been methodically and mercilessly razed to ground level, with several plants pulled completely out of the trough completely and scattered on the concrete in front of the garden. Our beautiful display of pinks, purples and whites was gone, leaving just a few scattered petals as evidence that it had ever been there.

The results are not yet back from the forensics lab, but the prime suspects for the destruction are the deer that roam around the campus; unfortunately they have little respect for lab beautification programs and plant projects! Luckily, the barricades around the vegetables and other plants stopped them from doing any more damage, and the automated machine gun turrets I've ordered off eBay should be an adequate deterrent in the future. Anyone for some venison steaks...?

Warning: some readers may find the following images disturbing.

Week 7: The first fruits of our labours and a Drosophila death knell...

2008-07-25T14:34:00.000-07:00

A trip to Target was the unlikely source of the newest BBOP plant, a highly exciting Venus fly trap. Although they can survive perfectly well on a standard plant diet of water and sunlight, there's no point in having an insectivorous plant in the office if you don't see it capture at least one little critter. In the absence of any flies slow enough for me to catch, I cornered a moth and a spider, which I then fed to the plant. Watching the traps closing around the hapless insects is very impressive, especially the speed at which the plant reacts to the presence of an insect in a trappable position.

The Venus flytrap looking hungry

You can (just!) see the spider that I fed it on the right hand side of the trap.

Meanwhile, out in the garden, the plants have been doing well, thanks to the sunny weather and all that horse poop! Nicole and I sampled the first of the fruits of our labours, some of the Armenian cucumbers which were ripe and ready to be eaten. I am happy to report that they were very tasty (and our office mates agree!). Most of the tomato plants are now bearing fruit, as are about half the peppers. The squashes are starting to flower, with the pumpkin plants in particular growing at an astonishing rate. I'm sure the trips to pick up poop and dirt will all seem worthwhile when we start harvesting more produce from the garden!

Coworker Amina with the monstrously tall Mortgage Lifter tomato (she charges extra to be photographed smiling).

The squashes and pumpkins. The two pumpkin plants (top left and bottom right) have been growing like nobody's business!

Week 6: All play and no garden work...

2008-07-15T16:19:00.000-07:00

After a soil-retrieval sortie on Friday after work, Nicole and I were shamefully slack at the weekend and failed to do anything with the tubs of earth we'd collected. Happily, the plants didn't hold it against us, and have been growing like the clappers. The pumpkins plants in particular are intent on world domination, and seem to double in size overnight! The lack of building activity didn't mean that there was no plant-buying activity however; we now have a courgette (or zucchini, to those unfamiliar with the Queen's English) and a melon plant to add to the garden. Time for another poop-picking mission...

As always, click on the images for a larger version.

One of the prodigious pumpkin plants. The squash in the foreground to the left was the same size when we got them.

The poblano chile

The Armenian cucumbers are going great guns; unfortunately they are resolutely disobeying Nicole's orders to ripen.

A glossy bell pepper

Baby brinjals hiding amongst the foliage

Week 5: Free Horse Poop

2008-07-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

Taking advantage of a long weekend, Amelia and I answered an ad on craigslist for some free horse manure. We drove up to a horse stable near Redwood Regional Park, and shoveled a whole lot of partially-composted horse poop into lots of buckets... enough to fit into the back of my CR-V.

After near-intoxication from the ammonia-scented fumes, we arrived at the lab ready to shovel some... well, you know. We (I use that term loosely, really Amelia did all of the tilling) tilled the horse poop into the dirt that remained unplanted in the front of our building, giving it lots of nutrients and reducing the compaction.

I replanted many of the peppers and tomatoes. Meanwhile, Amelia was busy in the Bevetron retrieving some perfectly-sized planters. Okay, so never mind that they might have once carried some really small particles really really fast (don't worry, they were radioactivity-free). And, we recovered two of them! One is a perfectly sized planter that we put in front of our garden with some beautiful bee-attracting flowers; the other is in the back, where it will do well for most of the tomatoes.

So, after another twelve hours of hard work this weekend, we ended up with a VERY respectable-looking garden. We still have the long planter in the back, and one of the large bins in the front, to fill with more free dirt and horse poop... but we need a few days off first.

In other news, we planted some new things:
Papaya Pear Squash (3x)
Zebra Squash (2x)
Aunt Rosy's Ground Cherry (2x)

and some seeds: collard greens, brussels sprouts, leeks, and sunflowers!

Saturday: planter construction

Planter constructed!

The old office chairs are left guarding the plants overnight on Saturday

Sunday: moving the new planter into position: the old office chairs save the day again!

Nicole, dead in the planter

Nicole rises from the dead!

The garden at the close of play on Sunday

Last minute plant primping

The happy gardeners after a (very!) hard day's work (this picture has been deodorized for health and safety purposes)

Not Strictly Garden-Related (again)

2008-07-03T20:21:00.000-07:00

The fog over Berkeley was particularly impressive this evening. Unfortunately you wouldn't know that from my photo, but hopefully you can imagine!

Week 4: World Domination Growing Ever Closer!

2008-06-30T09:04:00.000-07:00

Our subtle plan to take over the car park (and then the world) took another promising leap forward this weekend thanks to discards from the Bevetron and the marvel that is craigslist. Nicole and I picked up two car loads of free dirt and filled up two "planters" (a.k.a. the large wooden crates from the Bevetron), and liberated a third, ready for use. The new planter is positioned further out into the car park area, subtly increasing the area of the garden. At present, we've only planted up one of the three; the others are awaiting fertilizer and some more plants to put in them.

The new planters, complete with free dirt.

In other plant news, a number of the chile pepper plants are flowering. The fish pepper is looking particularly cool with its variegated leaves.

The flowering fish pepper (foreground)

The view from the garden at 9:00 this morning: taking over the entire visible world doesn't seem like such a difficult task, thanks to the fog!

Tomatillos are self-sterile!

2008-06-28T12:51:00.000-07:00

So, I've got a tomatillo growing at home, its doing amazing... so many blossoms. But, very little fruit. So, I started to scour the internets for info. And, wouldn't you know, tomatillos are self-sterile! Why don't they tell you these things at the nursery? Now, half-way through the season, I must start growing a second plant. Yikes!

Update: (6/30/08)
Seriously, Amelia. Well, I've acquired a couple of sad looking tomatillo starter seedlings from the good ladies at Kassenhoff growers...they had a leftover from the end-of-the-season...I've separated them out into 6 plants in little 3" pots, burying much of the stem; hopefully one will survive. I've put several at home, and two here at the lab. I shall try rescuing them for a companion plant.

Not Strictly Garden-Related, But...

2008-06-27T17:10:00.001-07:00

The goats are back in town! Or rather, they're on the hillside behind b64 at the moment. Unfortunately, they flatly refused to pose for photos, so I had to take a few somewhat unflattering candid shots of them. Here are a couple:

Nice beard! Is that what they call a goatee?

Evil turquoise-eyed goat of doom

Week 3: the ever expanding garden

2008-06-25T10:40:00.001-07:00

Alright, we're getting to be professionals here. After rooting around the spare lumber storage in the empty Bevetron next door, we've nearly finished constructing our deer fence, and have added two new bins... there's no dirt yet, but it does provide some additional room for the pots. Here, we've got some cheesy posing with the plants.

New plants added:

Squashes

Sugar pumpkin

Tomatoes

no new ones, but we've moved the sad ground cherry into a smaller pot.

New seeds planted:

Golden beets
Red beets
Butter lettuce
Chives
Green onion

Sad ground cherry

2008-06-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

Some unknown substance dripped from the windows that were above the plants... it fell on the ground cherry and the first oregano plant. This is the result (after removing the dead stuff):

Week 2: They are taking off!

2008-06-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

We're well on our way...

A few new plants have joined the garden; some from Amelia's place, others are just new...

Tomatoes

Green Zebra
Large Red Cherry
Celebrity (6)

Peppers

Chocolate Beauty (2)
De Arbol
Cayenne
Aji Lucento
Habanero
Poblano

Eggplants

Japanese Millionaire
Black Beauty

Herbs

Purple Leaf Basil

We've also had some community contribution: Strawberries!

BBOP Plant Project Blog Begins!

2008-06-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

We're going to use this blog to chronicle the BBOP garden. Amelia and I started this one Saturday afternoon (June 9) when we decided we needed more tomato plants than we could host in our own gardens. So, we went to the Kassenhoff Growers plant sale, followed by a trip to Longs Drugs, and with $15 purchased a few new plants.

Here's a list of our plants:

Tomatoes

Mortgage Lifter - Yellow Heirloom
Martino's Roma Heirloom
Black cherry
Groundcherry Cossack Pineapple
Rosalie's Early Orange
Some other common variety that came in a 6-pack

Peppers

Red bell - the 4 pack that was really a 10 pack !
Russian healthy pepper
Biscayne-Cubanelle

Herbs

Pineapple Sage
Oregano
Lemon Basil
Sweet Basil
Thai Basil
mint
epazole

Squashes

Armenian cucumber

And here's the finished product: