Category Archives: general

Harlequin Bug Control

Harlequin bug. Photo courtesy Hobby Farms

I’ve got a lot of questions from people about an orange and black bug attacking their food crops. It’s called a Harlequin bug and it is a bad one for our vegetable gardens. You need to hand-pick them off right away as they can decimate your  vegetable garden. They particularly like crops like cabbage, broccoli and mustard but will attack squash, beans, corn, asparagus, or tomatoes. I pick them off and put in a bucket of soapy water just like for squash bugs. Funny But I don’t remember them in years past but they are here now. Some people are reporting picking off hundreds of them! So don’t wait, get on it NOW.

Read more at Gardening Know How: What Are Harlequin Bugs: How To Get Rid Of Harlequin Bugs https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/pests/insects/get-rid-of-harlequin-bugs.htm

 

Organic Pest Control in the Vegetable Garden class

Sunday, July 22th—
12 noon to 2 pm

Organic Pest Control in the Vegetable Garden
What’s bugging you? Come find out what’s currently eating your crops besides you and how to deal with them organically!

Instructor: Jannine Cabossel/The Tomato Lady
Location: Jannine’s mini-farm:
56 Coyote Crossing • Santa Fe
Fee: FREE

Please sign up here:
CLICK AND REGISTER Eventbrite 

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PRESENTED BY HOME GROWN NEW MEXICO
http://homegrownnewmexico.org

Monsoons are here!! Free your tomatoes!

Some of my new dwarf tomatoes-about 3′ tall, loaded with blossoms and some tomatoes and looking good!

TOMATOES ARE FREE! FREE AT LAST!

Now that I’ve had 3 days with some rain and lots more in the forecast, and no leafhoppers in sight, I decided to free the tomatoes. If you still see leafhoppers in your garden, I’d wait a few more days. And of course some of you have already taken the row cover off but I like to err on the side of caution.

Now that they are free, I placed straw over the ground around the tomatoes so no dirt shows. This is done to keep the Early Blight fungal spores from getting on the lower leaves from overhead watering or even the rain. I noticed two tomato plants had Early Blight starting so I immediately cut off the yellowing leaves on the bottom, and trimmed all lower branches, making sure no leaves touch the dirt or straw. I disinfect my trimmers between trimming plants with 10% bleach-about 2 tablespoons in a container big enough to put my hand and the trimmers inside it since I’m reaching in around the leaves and it is contagious between plants.

Tomorrow I will spray all the tomatoes with Serenade, a biological fungicide that will help prevent Early Blight. Sure looks good to see the tomatoes instead of row cover! Finally I can see my garden grow!

Everyone needs water right now

Even a snake needs water apparently. This bull snake was visiting the water for the bees. It was huge-around 5 feet long. I just read that bull snakes and gopher snakes are actually the same snake and do need water!

100 degrees in Santa Fe today!

I would encourage everyone to water their veggie crops 2x a day here in Santa Fe while we are having this extreme heat wave. The heat is really taking a toll and many plants are stressed to the max right now. Do not fertilize anything in this heat as that might add to their stress. Instead you might water with sea weed and SuperThrive or Vit. B which are good for plant stress. Don’t plant any seeds right now while the heat is on, rather wait till it is cooler and the soil can be kept moister.

Also adding row cover or shade cloth over plants should help. If you have any fencing, you could cut a piece and open it over your bed and put the shade cloth or row cover on top of  that which the plants will love even more as the cloths will not rub on them but if not just put some medium weight row cover over them which won’t weigh too heavily. I would not use heavy weight row cover as it will not breathe and the row cover should not be tight over them.

Once we are over this period, you could go back to watering 1x a day and take off the row cover once the monsoons come-hopefully in the next few weeks but leave the row cover just to the side of the bed in case we get a hail storm, then I put it back over the bed again. This is of course assuming we get the monsoons!

Perennial fruits in the garden

Still trying to finish up the veggie garden. I better hurry or the season will be over! Still need to transplant some cabbages and amaranth that Alessandra and Chris gave me and some chard.  Going to Italy for 2 weeks when I should have been planting put me behind but it was worth it–L’Italia è così bella!

Today I planted 4 Blackberry plants on the garden fence nearest the greenhouse for those of you who know my garden. Triple Crown is the variety and I got them at Newman’s Nursery. Triple Crown is a thornless variety that I first saw in the Master Gardeners Herb Garden that does very well here in Santa Fe. The ones I bought were in 2 gallon containers and cost $15 each which is a bargain and they are in great shape.

Part of the main veggie garden is being devoted  more and more to perennial fruit as I have the room. Years ago I planted Himrod grapes, Victoria rhubarb and June-bearing strawberries and added more strawberries this year. All are doing well. In addition, this spring I planted a 30 foot row of Polana raspberries and now these Triple Crown blackberries.

I planted the blackberries this morning before the heat hit. I added some soil amendments and polymer crystals to help keep the water in the the root zone, made a well, put in the drip system with extra emitters as they like water and gave them seaweed and Vitamin-B mix to help with transplant and heat stress. Then I put straw around them to help keep water from evaporating and row cover over them to cut back the sun and heat on the new plants. I’m super excited to be putting in so many berries and can’t wait till next year when I hope I get some to EAT!

 

‘Guardian Odyssey’ Glass Art Opening

‘Guardian Odyssey’

Opening Reception

June 22, 2018
5–7:30 pm

Liquid Light Glass • 926 Baca Street #3 Santa Fe, NM • 505.820.2222

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Since I am a glassblower professionally, I wanted to share an art opening that Elodie Holmes & Enrico Emboli are having this Friday at our studio, Liquid Light Glass. Elodie & Enrico have done a collaboration of glass and bronze art. I think it is Elodie’s best show yet. Please come and enjoy this wonderful art. Here is a sneak preview from the new show. Don’t miss this one–it is fantastic.

 

‘Afterlife Passage’  12.5″ x 26″ x 6” hot sculpted gold leafed glass, bronze, wood, steel.

 

 

 

 

 

Back home in the garden

Beans from Italy coming up nicely under row cover in a bamboo teepee

After a wonderful trip to Italy, I’m now back in the garden trying to get it finished. Seems I got a lot of dry beans in Tuscany at a Florence Farmers Market and have planted 4 different varieties-Fagioli Zolfini, Fagioli Piatellini Nuova, Fagioli con L’Occhio (a black-eyed pea) and Borlotti. These are dry bush beans. I love dry beans as I just have to plant them and after they are up, give them water and you don’t pick them till the end of the season after they dry. Not too many bugs bother them either at my place. They make great soups and stews in winter. So looks like this is the year of the bean.

But I have planted many other interesting crops this year as well.  Other new veggies/fruits include the Bradford watermelon, Tahiti Butternut, a yellow zucchini called Rugosa Fruilana, Craupadine beets and my Fuggle hops and artichoke came back from last year and are doing well. Also 15 bare root raspberries I planted this spring are all up and doing nicely-the variety is Polona-I got them from Nourse nurseries online. My dream is to have so many raspberries I get sick of eating them (never!) And I’m starting a new thornless blackberry (Triple Crown) area in the garden. I got some beautiful 2 gal plants from Newmans for only $15.

And of course I have more tomatoes than I need but have cut down drastically since I am not at the Santa Fe Farmers Market. This year I’m growing more dwarf tomatoes than regular tomatoes and some of them are trials for Craig Lehouiller. All my tomatoes are caged and have row cover wrapped around them to protect them from the Beet leafhopper which passes a deadly virus to them here in the southwest called Curly Top Virus. The row cover is also great for protection from hail storms. It will come off when the monsoons arrive. Hope they do well and can’t wait to taste them. I haven’t eaten a tomato since last November when my crop finished as I won’t eat store-bought tomatoes. Guess I’m a tomato snob.

I’ve actually cut down the garden by 30% this year due to our drought. Pray for rain (no hail please!)

 

Chianti wine country in Tuscany

Here are some pictures from our Chianti Wine trip in Tuscany. Went to several vineyards and small towns on the Chianti Wine Trail. Beautiful countryside and great wine!

Florence, Italy farmers market

 

I’m in Florence, Italy right now. Here’s Mercado Centrale by San Lorenzo this morning where produce, meats, fish, pasta and more are sold every morning. Felt right at home! Those are mushrooms in the last photo.

Tomatoes in on May 6th!

tomatoes 05 24 16

Tomatoes went in on May 6 with the help of Linda, Janet, Mike and myself. Many thanks! Planted 27 plants for me and 9 for the dwarf tomato trials. Plus this week I planted peppers and eggplants transplants in wall of waters and cucumber and bean seeds directly in ground. A bit early, as I always say to wait but I’m currently on my way to Venice, Italy and am typing this on my phone which is a pain! I didn’t want to wait till June. I’ll still have to plant squash, watermelons and flowers when I return. But this year because of the warm nites, I think I will be ok.  Ciao!

TONITE: BIG FREEZE WARNING for Santa Fe!!!

One day it’s 78° for a high this week-warm and windy and tonite it will be very cold and windy with the temperature dropping to 24°. Of course this will wipe out the fruit tree blossoms (for me the apple blossoms are just starting) and there goes another fruit crop for this year. This will be the second year in a row that we may not get apples. Waaa! And forget about the apricot trees. I haven’t seen a crop in 7 years. You know what you call an apricot tree? A nice shade tree-as we usually get a freeze that wipes out their blossoms.

So cover up any plants that you may have put out early with winter weight row cover or 2 of the mid-weight row covers for the next two nights even if they are cold hardy crops. The plants are actually affected by the wind chill, just like us. Then it warms up in the 40’s on Sunday and Monday except for next Tuesday when the night-time temp will drop again to 30° and then warms up again at nite to above freezing temperatures. And so it goes with the ‘shoulder season’ where the weather doesn’t know if it’s still winter or spring and the winds are ferocious. But what we need most is precipitation. I’ll take it in any form.

Dwarf Tomatoes started!

Dwarf tomatoes in foreground and on right side in background. The two taller ones in background are Lucky Cross tomatoes which are regular size indeterminate tomatoes

 

Since I’m involved in growing dwarf tomatoes for Craig Lehouiller in his project, I decided to grow some of his varieties of open pollinated dwarf tomatoes that have been released to the public. I got the seeds from Victory Seeds. I’ve never grown dwarf tomatoes before. All the dwarf tomatoes will get between 3-4 feet tall and are stockier than regular tomato plants. They are indeterminate variety so the they will grow like all other indeterminate tomatoes only slower throughout the season and will be shorter. Indeterminate tomatoes keep producing fruit till it freezes. The actual tomatoes on dwarf tomatoes aren’t necessarily smaller just because the plants are. The days to harvest can go from 65-80 days depending on the dwarf variety. I am trying 10 released dwarfs plus 6 more unreleased in trials for Craig. So I am heavily invested in the dwarfs this year but I am growing some of my all-time favorites as well.

I noticed right away that the dwarf tomatoes pictured above are shorter and stockier even just after germination. I start all my tomatoes in shallow seed propagation trays on heat mats with a thermostat and under lights inside the house. Because of their shallowness, the soil heats up faster so germination is faster but you must water them 2x a day.  The two taller tomato plants in the background on the left side are regular indeterminate tomatoes called Lucky Cross, which is one of my favorites but notice the height difference with the dwarfs being much shorter and stockier. For earlier post on dwarf tomatoes, go here.

Major changes in the garden!

Adding new wood framing for my existing garden beds this spring

Major changes are happening in my 3000 square foot vegetable garden this spring. I have changed my low free-formed rectangle raised beds without edging into raised beds with redwood board edging to help retain the soil and compost inside each bed. The majority of the beds are made but now I must site them over my existing free-formed beds, digging out the edges of the bed so the forms can fit over the existing bed without losing any soil. Then I will level the soil out and add compost to each of the framed beds.

Sections 1 and 2 will pretty much be done and section 3 will be partially done as well. Each section is 1000 square feet. The beds are 12 feet by 4 feet and there is enough room between the beds to get a wheelbarrow through. I know some people put their beds closer together with little tiny paths between the beds but being able to get a wheelbarrow of compost through to the beds is really helpful. Then I will put wood chips on the path which help keep the paths from washing away should we ever get rain again! The wood chips will help with the erosion since I live on a hill. So I will finally have a nice tidy garden where the soil will be retained by the frames. All very exciting for an obsessed gardener!

Meanwhile, I can hardly wait till I can plant the cool season crops I have growing inside the house out into some of my other raised beds by the house. They need to get outside so I have room for my baby tomato plants just coming up inside, under lights, on heat mats. I need more room as the tomato plants can’t go outside yet-way too cold at night for them.

The only thing holding me back is the dang wind-just horrible right. Ugly horrible and not nice for gardening with 40 mph winds. I’m not that obsessed! Hopefully it will be better in a few days and I can get the cool season crops out and the framed beds all straightened out and then I will be ready to rock n roll in the garden!