Wednesday, June 9, 2010

The Urban Farm goes inorganic

Monday morning before work, I went to Stone Brothers with two leaves; one from the beans that seemed to have some kind of virus and one from the tomatillos being eaten in their entirety by small, dark nasty bugs.

Merrill told me not to worry about the spotty bean leaves since they're setting fruit (in fact, I harvested the first handful of 1/2 runners Monday night). He gave me a red bag of pesticide to dust over the tomatillos. I was fascinated to note that you can also use it to dust your livestock.

So the tomatillo/cabbage bed is organic no more, but I should still be able to make green tomatillo salsa in a couple of months! And I feel better about my responsible use of a small amount of pesticide than about buying organic tomatillos from California. I'm sorry I don't have a picture to share of the fashionable figure I cut while applying the pesticide. I had my sweater tied over my face, sunglasses, and stylish garden gloves. What a way to start a week!

Oh, and to resolve the other garden news, it is just too damn hot for rhubarb. If I plant it again next year as an annual, I will have to remember to harvest it by late May.



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