The garden is in, it’s growing like a weed, and the heavy lifting is over.
Now what?
Well, people, now comes the good part.
The Crop Tour
Where I come from, the Crop Tour is a daily excursion on which you check how the crops are growing, if the bugs are eating them, or if it’s safe to drive across that wet patch yet.
Often showing themselves in the early evenings, those on a Crop Tour give themselves away with their slow moving vehicle, tanned-to-the-elbow arm out the window, and eagle eyes.
Photo by Sue Pederson, www.vert-a-go.com
Note that those on a Crop Tour should be approached with caution, as they are busy taking close note of things the rest of us can’t see, and chances are pretty good they’ve just had a rye and coke.
Same rules apply to Crop Tours here in the city, except we don’t get to drive a truck.
Observation and routine maintenance
The Crop Tour is all about taking stock of how your garden is growing and performing some routine maintenance. A lot can change in a garden in only a day or two: the tomatoes suddenly need staking, the flowers need to be deadheaded, the potatoes need hilling. Is everything getting enough water? What is with that crappy looking plant? Who is that creepy little bug?
Here, we’ll go through the first batch of tasks that need doing, and will keep returning to Maintenance and the Crop Tour as plants grow and jobs change.
First things first
When it comes to cooking and Crop Tours, we at Urban Land Army follow the advice of Nigel Slater, world’s best food writer:
“First, pour yourself a drink.”
Early evening is a great time for a crop tour because it’s cooled down a bit, you’re ready for a beverage and a stroll, and the plants have recovered from a day in the hot sun.
1. LOOK
Is everything ok?
Check the health of each of your plants by observing color, size, and stance.
Are they yellow, puny, and falling over? Maybe you are overwatering.
Are they brown and crispy, puny, and just sitting there like a stick? Maybe you are not watering enough.
Does the plant look good overall but has a few leaves that look like crap?
Just pinch them off and pretend like you didn’t see anything.
Are there holes in your plant leaves? Chomp marks? Do you see suspicious bugs or creatures like slugs? We’ll be talking about critters and critter control real soon, so stay tuned. In the meantime, don’t panic, and keep in mind that everyone has to eat and plants usually outgrow a little bit of damage. Also, bugs don’t live forever and may be nearing the end of their life cycle and will go away soon. If you want to get a jump on it though, take a picture or describe the ailment as best you can and send it to us. We will try to help.
An important and satisfying part of the Crop Tour is spotting the good stuff, too. Are you noticing butterflies? Bees? Get down low to the ground and see what you can see - there is a whole world of little creatures on top of and just below the soil and it is pretty darn interesting. We’ll talk about encouraging biodiversity and beneficial insects in a future post.
Finally, would you eat this plant? You know in your heart what a healthy plant looks like, so if the answer is yes, they’re probably doing just fine and you can take a deep breath and enjoy your beverage.
Look how nice.
These plants are also just fine.
Lettuce
Parsley
Oregano.
And frankly, the potatoes are nothing short of fantastic.
Does this garden have enough plants?
Are all the plants filling in? Even when the plants are full grown do you think you’ll have too much bare ground? We took a step back and reckoned we would.
Because we forgot to plant the marigolds! These were in the original garden plan but got lost in the shuffle. French marigolds will add some more color to the garden, but they also emit a scent that scares off some tomato-loving bugs.
So off to the nursery we went, and picked up three 4-packs of “Durango” marigolds. We got these ones because we thought they were real pretty and they reminded us of an enthusiastic Urban Land Army member in Durango, Colorado. Here’s to you, Katie!
Watch, and learn
One of the great things about frequent crop tours is that you get to watch the life cycle of a bean.
Neato.
2. PLUCK
Thinning
Remember when we threw down some lettuce seed in amongst the plants? Well those little seeds grew like a damn, and now there are too many plants in this little space.
Remember that you want to leave several inches between lettuce plants - if they’re too close together like these little sprouts are now, then they won’t have room to spread out their roots and leaves, and won’t realize their full potential as a lettuce.
So, dear gardener, the time has come to harden your heart a bit and thin them out. We know it hurts, but take a deep breath and start plucking, choosing the strongest looking plants and leaving a few inches between. The remaining ones will grow into a lovely crop of July lettuce.
We know. We know you want to leave them all because you planted them and they grew. It’s not easy, but it’s for the greater good.
Natural selection, eh.
Prologue (about 1 week later)
Just look at them now!
Ok, they’re still too close, but we couldn’t do it either - we couldn’t pull out as many as we should have. We’ll move them around and space them out though and it’ll work. Sigh, our hearts are still too soft for thinning.
Weeding
As your plants grow, so will the weeds, and you don’t want these pesky things robbing your vegetables of space, sun, and moisture, so get them out! Early picking is important because if you let a weed hang out, flower, and then drop its seed all over the place, then you have an even bigger problem.
Weed identification can take time and experience, but since we have a pretty straightforward garden here and you know what you planted and what you didn’t, just pull out whatever doesn’t belong. We all have different weeds in our gardens, but Urban Land Army Headquarters is partial to dandelions and quack grass.
Remember, though, that a weed is in the eye of the beholder. Some people go to town on dandelion wine, or putting dandelion greens in salads. We are a bit old-fashioned in this regard and tend to yank the sucker out, but that’s just us.
Make sure you get the whole root of the dandelion or you will be seeing that fellow again.
And sometimes, you just get a happy surprise.
Two sunflowers - the top one looks like it is a red variety and the other one who knows - popped up side by side near the Sungold tomato. They were a little too close together and too close to the tomato, so we gently dug them up and transplanted them in a better place - at the back of the garden next to the bean trellis where they can grow tall and proud. These should make a real cute addition.
These sunflowers are a good example of the fact that stuff just grows, eh. You might end up with random seed and plants in your garden courtesy of friendly neighborhood birds and squirrels, the wind, not-quite-finished compost, or, if you live in a warmer place, from seeds overwintering in the soil. Some plants are just real outgoing and want to spread themselves around. California poppies, Bachelor Buttons, Johnny-Jump-Ups, and even tomatillos pop up all over our garden in the spring. If they’re not in the way and we like them, we just leave them be. Flowers are pretty and useful in a vegetable garden.
3. PINCH
Deadheading
After a flower has finished blooming, it will shrivel up and look crappy, and it is time to get it out of there.
Pinching off dead, spent flowers is called “deadheading” and is a satisfying part of any Crop Tour. You can even do it with one hand, so you can still sip your drink. Deadheading not only improves the look of your plants, it also helps to encourage more flowering as the energy is put into new buds and flowers rather than ones that are past their prime.
With violas you can pick off the entire stem, not just the flower. Just pinch it off at the base.
Now take all your little flower bits and toss them in your weed bucket…
Shameless promotion of Bucket Brigade - they make great weeding buckets too!
…or the compost, or what have you.
Lovely. This garden is really starting to shape up.
Yes, those are silver spiral tomato stakes!
Up next: Tomato staking, pruning, and fertilizing
