Happy Hunting

Today in our gardens we did a scavenger hunt fining all kinds of things.  I did not find any aphids, caterpillars, or whitefies though.  I've seen them in previous weeks but I could not find any this time.  That's not a bad thing though.  I'm excited to start harvesting and eating things next week!  I spent a lot of time today picking weeds, and fertilizing.  I'm excited I can see at least some of my carrots are starting to thrive and I planted a lot of Kohlrabi hoping some would survive and it seems to have been successful.  I'm thinning them out now because so many germinated this time around.  I pulled out another squash do to virus... I just wish everything would be virus free.  The weather was also perfect for gardening!!! I'm happy it has cooled down for at least a week.  Here is my scavenger hunt collage.

FOOOOOOOOOOOD

My garden is starting to produce food!  But I can't eat it yet because of the pesticides...  I pulled off 2 large zucchinis and an eggplant.  I know there will be plenty more to come it is just sad.  speaking of food we discussed the parts of the plants we eat today in lecture.  We eat almost every part of the plant from the leaves, to the roots to the flower.  Of the plants in my garden I will eat the fruits of the tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, peas, zucchinis, squash, and cucumber.  I'll eat the leaves of the lettuce and scallions.  I'll eat the roots of the beets and carrots.  I'll eat the stems of the Kohlrabi, and I'll eat the flowers or the cauliflower, and lastly I'll eat the seeds of the peas.  I'm excited to start taking home and cooking and eating all of the different vegetables!

In the garden I did the normal weeding, fertilizing, spraying neem and BT.  In addition to the routine I also put up trellises for the tomatoes and peas.  I'm excited to see that many of the plants I was worried about are starting to look more healthy and produce flowers.  One of my lettuces did die :( and I pulled two more virus infected squash but planted two new ones and hopefully that will stay virus free!

Keeping Busy

I did a lot today in my garden.  On top of the usual weeding, bed shaping, spraying insecticide, I also planted a lot of new stuff in places where things have failed to grow.  I planted more cauliflower, Kohlrabi, beets, and lettuce since I dug up and plowed several large areas of my beds that hadn't grown.  Also in my extra bed I planted more carrots and peas since my carrots don't seem to be doing too well and the peas are doing really well so I want more! 
I'm sick of the bugs and other pests.  The virus that the white flies cause has claimed three of my squash plants and many other plants are heavily chewed, and have other deformities caused by the pests in our garden.  I can only imagine how many crops large farms would lose with out the use of insecticides and herbicides.  I know they get a lot of heat for using such products especially in our fab phase of organic, and all natural, pesticide freem non-GMO the list goes on...  But these things are necessary especially in large scale settings. 

The first vegetables are also starting to become visible and its exciting.  My garden will not be a total failure!!!  There was a small eggplant, zucchini, and pepper that I noticed today that were not there last week.  That's what the pictures this week are showing. 

FOOD

So I checked out the farmers market this past Wednesday and it went as it always does when I go. I want the food, and juices that are there ready to eat and I don't find much appeal in the vegetables or meat products.  Mainly because of price.  I feel my dollar goes further at the store so that is where I will by such products.  I wish it wasn't this way, I wish I could buy all of the produce for a cheaper price at farmers markets because I would rather support them.  This brings me to my problem with agriculture and food in the US. Ideally products off the farm being sold by farmers should be the cheapest! They have no middle man to drive, deliver, and stock the food. But our government here has found a solution to that, subsidies and other policies. I wish I could fully understand why this happens this way since it goes against common sense and basic economics. The less transportation costs, the less middle man there is the cheaper the food should be.  It makes perfect sense but it sadly does not work that way here.  Along the same lines here highly processed food are often less expensive than non processed alternatives. It makes no logical sense how foods that must be produced in factories, sealed in plastic and cardboard, and shipped hundreds and thousands of miles are cheaper than fresh local foods. Again I believe we can thank our government for that.  When I studied abroad in Ethiopia there were street vendors everywhere selling bananas, potatoes, and all kinds of agricultural products for very low prices.  At the same time if you were to go to the store and try and buy processed foods they would often be double the price they are here in America.  It is cheaper and easier to eat healthy in developing countries, but here it is the opposite.  Here the wealthy are the healthy because lower quality highly processed foods are more affordable for those less well off. It is sad...

Viruses, Flowers, and More

So when I got to class today I remembered we had a quiz today... oops.  I also left a trowel in my garden last week... oops.  I'm really forgetful this semester, senioritis has got a hold of me in a tight grasp.  Anyways things in the garden seem to be going mostly well.  Today I planted the last new additions to my garden assuming nothing else gets replaces and that was the cauliflower.  I planted 3 of the little guys.  Most things are looking good including the peas, tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, an cucumber.  Unfortunately I pulled two of my squashes up since they had a virus :( but I replanted two more and hopefully they will be virus free!  One of my eggplants also had a little flower on it and another one had a bud.  A couple of things aren't looking so great but we will see and these include the scallions, carrots, and I still have seen no clear signs of basil, cilantro, and kohlrabi... I hope they make it!

When it comes to my food I buy most of it exclusively from publix.  It's close, convenient and I love the bogo sales.  I would love to buy things from the co-op and farmers market but I find it to be really inconvenient and also the prices tend to be more expensive for the produce I'd like to buy.  I tend not to worry about things if they are organic, GMO free, or any of that stuff.  The main reason for all of this is price and I'm a broke college student so I am going to buy what is cheap!

The Tomato plants are looking healthy

The Sad looking squash

The First Flower of the season

Happy peas

The new addition

The peas are coming... The Peas are coming

So everything has been getting bigger, and looking more healthy than they did last week.  Along with weeding the beds I also added BT and Neem to the plants to keep the bugs away!  Some of the leaves have been getting quite a lot of chewing, stupid bugs.  Some of the plants are also starting to see flowers like the eggplants.  I also added fertilizer to some of the plants that were not looking to great like the peppers and tomatoes.  Besides that I also planted 6 heads of lettuce today!  I hope they all survive and do well!  I also plowed one of the beds next store that no one was using and planted a couple of squash and zucchini.  Also the Peas I planted last week were all just starting to break through the soil today were looking good!!! (I forgot to take a picture though)  In class we talked about soil and what plants need.  The essential ingredients plants need are  split up into 3 groups environmental, macro nutrients, and micro nutrients.  All three are just as important to the plants life, but the plant needs more of some than others.  I believe some of my plants especially the tomatoes may have a nitrogen deficiency since the bottom leaves are sort of yellow.  Below are pictures of the lettuce I planted, one of my eggplants and a zucchini plant.