We had a rather fruitful harvest at Morris, despite it being so late in the season. There were lots of cherry tomatoes and the malibar is still doing well. We also picked a few eggplants for the first time as well as a bunch of green peppers. But, most exciting, was the pumpkin. It has been growing on the other side of the fence for the past few weeks, and today was finally the day to harvest. However, that meant walking around the block and finding a way into the fenced lot bordering our garden. Luckily there was a gap in the gate big enough to crawl through and we were able to pick the pumpk ..read more

It was another busy day at Morris. We harvested lots of cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, as well as kale, mint, peppers malibar spinach and mizuna. We also started preparing for the fall planting we are going to do in a few weeks. Since a lot of our squash plants succumbed to the squash beetles, we hoed those beds and removed all of the weeds that had grown. Now, they are clear and ready for new seeds. We also checked the remaining squash plants for bugs, killed a few beetles, removed some eggs and sprayed the underside of all the squash leaves with soapy water to help keep the bugs away. There ..read more

FIELD TRIP! Today we had a horticulture field trip. We got to go on a tour of the Javits Center's green roof. It is the largest green roof in New York City and the second largest green roof in the U.S. The green roof was added a few years ago during a massive renovation to make the building more environmentally friendly. The garden on the top is really big and covered in a bunch of different types of sedum, a low growing plant that is very good at absorbing water. This was a bit unexpected, a lot of use were expecting to see a garden like we work on every week, with flowers and plants, but the ..read more

So. Much. Rain. Unfortunately it started raining on Monday morning and didn't really let up. But we hadn't been to Morris is a while, so there was so work that had to get done, rain or shine. There was lots to harvest: squash, kale, mizuna, tomatoes - including our first taxi tomatoes - and malibar spinach. Unfortunately some of the squash wasn't looking so great, probably because of the squash beetles. Removing the two squash plants last time we were at Morris wasn't enough. There were some young squash beetles on the squash plants on the other side of the garden, but we killed those and remo ..read more

The tomato horn worm hunt continued today in Morris. There was some damage on a few tomato plants, but even with the bounty of one ice cream per horn worm found, we didn't find any worms on the tomato plants. But the hunt will continue next week. Horn worms aren't the only pest affecting the garden, we are also dealing with squash beetles. We found beetles and their eggs on two plants that were pretty damaged. Since we aren't going to be at Morris next week, we made the decision to remove two plants, hoping that will prevent the bugs from spreading to the other squash plants. But the rest of ..read more

Today was a busy day at 111. Since we weren't in the garden last week there was lots to take care of. We harvested cucumbers, zucchini, malibar spinach, mustard greens and our first tomato. We also cleared two of the raised beds that had the cranberry beans. Those plants had dried up and we had harvest all of the beans last time we worked in the garden. In the same beds, there were also a bunch of sunflowers that unfortunately fell over, so we took those out so that there would be room for us to plant some new seeds. Once everything was cleared we planted brussels sprouts and rainbow carrots ..read more

Today was all about peaches. It was really rainy out, so we weren't able to get a lot done in the garden, but we still managed to harvest some malibar spinach and 18 lbs of peaches! Next week we might make a peach pie, since we have so many peaches to use. Since it was raining, we decided to do some cooking. With a cucumber, basil and spinach from the garden, we made a delicious quinoa salad that also had tomatoes and feta cheese ..read more

We were busy at Morris today! We harvested kale, oak leaf lettuce, oregano, mizuna - an Asian mustard green - oregano and chamomile. The other big task was tending to the tomatoes. They are starting to get bigger and have fruit, which makes them lean over. So we had to find the stakes that were used last year so we could tie the tomato plants to them and help keep the actual tomatoes off of the ground. We also planted radishes and red sorrel, we'll see how that does in one of the small beds against the building ..read more

It was another busy day in the garden at 111. At 111, there are a few really lovely rose bushes growing along the back wall. However, they have gotten pretty big and are bending over because they have gotten so top heavy. This wouldn't be a problem, except they are bending over a few of the raised beds, preventing anything from growing there. So a few of us, very carefully, tied the roses to the fence so that they aren't in the way of the raised beds anymore. We got a few thorn pricks, but no serious injuries. We also replanted and thinned out our basil plants. A few sneaky basil plants were ..read more

At Morris today we had to tend to the tomatoes. With over 40 tomato plants, there is a lot of work to do. A few of the plants had what look like aphids, so we had to go over every plant and rub away the bugs and their eggs. While we were at it, we picked off the tomato suckers, which will hopefully make the plants produce more fruit. On the other side of the garden, we thinned out some of the kale and spinach plants so that they will grow better. After working in the garden, we hit the kitchen to make lemonade. We harvested spearmint from the garden to add to it, which was enjoyed by the grou ..read more