Thanksgiving delivery

I gathered up the second-to-last harvest from the rooftop garden for a delivery timed for the pre-Thanksgiving Fresh Market at Breakthrough Urban Ministries.  

Mustard greens with yellow turnips in the background.

Multi-colored chard.

Breakthrough Urban Ministries is located in East Garfield Park.

The delivery was flush with greens and root vegetables - multi-colored chard, mustard greens, radishes and yellow turnips.

The spread on the Fresh Market table.

Yellow turnips and radishes

The collard greens are now the only veggies left on the roof!  They will get harvested before it gets to freezing daytime temperatures.

The collard greens holding their own against the cold in the late fall rooftop garden.

The Dormant Season Begins

Okra stalks and the lower-growing cold weather stalwarts

It is already mid-November, and the vegetables in the boxes are at the end for this season.

The okra didn't make it to maturity after all - the time from planting at the end of July to the first cold weather was just too short for these tropical transplants.  Though we haven't had a "hard freeze" yet, the okra leaves have withered, leaving just the tough stalks standing, as you can see in the photo above.

Notice also that there are still some leafy greens at the bottom of the okra stalks.  While the okra can't tolerate the cold, some plants do quite well in it.  Vegetables in the Brassica genus (collard greens, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower to name a few) really shine when the weather turns colder and the days get shorter.  They have a clever adaptation to survive in colder weather - they move water out of their leaves and into their roots, to prevent the leaves from freezing.  The leaves then have a higher concentration of sugars, which is very tasty! 

Collard greens, getting sweeter as it gets colder

Okra blossoms

Okra blossoms are a delight to behold.  They betray the plant's subtropical heritage - it has a disputed origin of either West Africa, Ethiopia, or Southern Asia.

The flowers have creamy, light yellow petals and a brown center.  They bloom for one day and then begin to form the pods.

 
 The warm season is quickly slipping away as it seems we are in our last week of warm weather.  Since okra is a heat-loving plant, the leaves showed cold damage after the first nights that slipped below 55.

Cold damage on okra leaves.

Another shot of leaves showing damage from the cold.

The first nub of a developing okra pod.

Hopefully there will be enough warmth left in the season to see the full maturity of some okra pods!

Beetlemania and the ecology of a rooftop garden

The beetles and their aftermath: damaged bean leaves

A close-up of the beetles

We have an infestation of bean leaf beetles!!!  These tiny insects feed on the leaves of beans, creating many small holes that decrease the leaf surface area and impair the plant's ability to convert sunlight into food.  They especially like the plant's newest, most tender leaves, which limits the plant's growth and development.  I am looking into organic methods of beetle control to save our bean plants.

 Because the soil the boxes are filled with came bagged and sterilized, the likelihood of the beetles or their eggs being present in the soil from the beginning is very low.  It is amazing to consider how a combination of luck and an acute sense of smell could lead a beetle to find a handful of bean plants that are growing eleven stories above ground level in the middle of a dense urban area. 

As I spent some time observing the beetles on the roof, I noticed a number of other insects had found their way to the little garden as well.  There were many Asian ladybird beetle larvae crawling around on many of the plants.  They feed on other insects, so I am not worried about them harming the plants.  I wonder if they might be feeding on the bean leaf beetles.

An Asian lady bird beetle larva sits on an okra stem

I noticed two different wasps that appeared to be hunting on the bean plants.  Hopefully they are helping us control the bean leaf beetles!  I identified one as the paper wasp and the other is a black wasp that I haven't been able to identify.  As I was checking out the developing flower buds of the okra plants, I noticed a metallic blue insect that I think is a cuckoo wasp.  It gets its name because it lays its eggs in the nests of other bees and wasps.

An okra flower bud and what might be a cuckoo wasp

It is fascinating to see how things are growing and developing.  The second harvest is coming soon!

The Golden Sweet Peas are almost ready

The okra jungle!

As always, a special thanks to Jay Jones for photos of the planter boxes and the beetles!

August 15th marked the first harvest!

Thanks to Rich and the Engineering Department for their help with the trellises and watering!

 The plants were still small on August 15, just 26 days after planting the seeds, yet two vegetables were ready to harvest - the fast-growing radishes and mustard greens.  Jay Jones accompanied me on the roof to document the harvest. 

Cutting mustard greens.

A big bunch of mustard greens.

 To keep the vegetables fresh and to give them a quick rinse, I dunked them in a bag of cold water I brought up on the roof. 

Crisping the mustard greens with a cold water bath!

Three jewel-colored radishes.

Bagging up the radishes.

The first harvest is complete!

From the bounty of the planters, I picked four bags of mustard greens and two bags of radishes!  It is a small harvest, but it is just the beginning!

Cathy Moore, Coordinator of the Food Pantry at St. James.

 I took the radishes and greens to the food pantry at St. James Cathedral in Bronzeville at Wabash and 29th street.  Cathy Moore gratefully received the veggies, saying that fresh food was in high demand among the pantry guests.

Cathy put the HWC roof vegetables in the cooler at the food pantry.

Sprouts

 As the seeds started sprouting out of the soil, I cut away the cover to give them some sunlight.  In this photo from early August, the beans and Malabar spinach are sprouting out at the bottom, and mustard greens are doing their sun salute in the top row.

Earthboxes installed on the roof of HWC

Eleven Earthbox planters were installed on the roof of Harold Washington College on July 20, 2011, as seen in the photograph.  The planters were generously donated by Ken Waagner of E.A.T.  Here is a list of the vegetable seeds planted on that day:

Plum Purple Radish
Mustard Greens
Collard Greens
Golden Sweet Pea
Mr. K's Bean
Clemson Spineless Okra
5-Color Silverbeet Chard
Parsley
Malabar Spinach
Yellow Turnip