LoMo’s South Philly High Orchard Project

POD signed up for RecycleBank ages ago. It seemed like a great idea: earn rewards for something you’d do anyway! Like recycling! Win! Woo!

The catch, of course, is that said “rewards” usually involve spending money on things one wouldn’t really spend money on anyway: think $10 gift cards to Walmart, coupons for Fancy Feast, BOGO deals on Coke…you get the picture.

And so, POD’s Recyclebank balance balloons. Until recently, that is! Help the LoMo Civic Association out by donating points to their South Philly High Orchard Project. Now that sounds like a win to POD.

Field Work

So, the Hurricane’s been reading all about caterpillars these days — both very hungry ones and ten little ones. Surely this gardener is scarring her daughter for life, but about half the time (which is to say, at least six times a day) the Very Hungry Caterpillar meets a squishing death and five of the Ten Little Caterpillars  never manage to turn into a beautiful butterflies (drowning, asphyxiation, bird snack, chicken chow, and fish food, respectively.)

Got a problem with that?

Those of us here at Plants on Deck feel it’s important to apply all that theory into real-world experience. And so, to that end, a certain hurricane put an end to the loopers devouring the last of POD’s chard.

Rabbit Food

By the time November rolls around, the deck’s greenery is largely tucked away for a long winter’s nap. Despite lofty cool-weather intentions, increasingly (and depressingly) shorter days and a north-facing, shade-plagued exposure, puts quite the damper on gardening pleasures.

Hours in the day have been shrinking since early June (despite 4 a.m. tornado-siren wake-ups from a certain little hurricane), and what plants are on deck have been utterly and entirely neglected since their September 18 seeding.

So it’s a happy surprise that tonight’s dinner consists of a nice green salad, peppered with happy little radishes.

September Progress

September rebootThe Little Hurricane has recently been redubbed Typhoid C.  You see, yesterday marked the one-month anniversary of our shared illnesses. That’s 30-odd days of hacking coughs, multi-colored mucus, razor-studded throats, viscous vomit, and booger crusts. Not to mention shared a  fever of 103. Yeah, yeah: hot-blooded. Got it. Still no fun.

What does a toddler’s discharge have to do with the health and well-being of the little blue deck? Everything, it seems. It’s like the deck doesn’t exist, let alone the computer upon which the deck is rendered public. All that matters is saline solution, honey, vomit dodging, and sleeping. This morning, though, despite a shocking lack of sleep and an abundance of the aforementioned symptoms, the deck’s disarray was too much for this sniffling gardener to handle. So while little Ms. Typhoid and her similarly afflicted father departed for the store and the playground, the deck got some half-assed love.

The final tomatoes were plucked and sad, tired plants were bagged. A smattering of cucumber beetles got smushed, just for the heck of it, and the C. Borealis (AKA french orange hybrid melon) upon which they were feasting gave up its last fruit.

September rebootWhat containers remain have been haphazardly scatter-seeded with lettuce, winter cress (AKA creasy creens courtesy of Bartram’s Garden), radishes, kale, and kohlrabi (courtesy of Startin Yer Garten).

A Final Accounting

saucy tomatoesIt’s been a good year, and despite the late-season arrival of whiteflies, earthquakes, hurricanes (we’re not talking about the toddler variety, here, but rather the other, even more devastating type), floods, and mildews, Plants on Deck endured. And endured well, actually.

It shames this gardener to admit it, but nearly a dozen White Wonder cucumbers got composted after slowing deflating in the crisper into a gushy goo and a half dozen others are still withering away in the office fridge (come on, colleagues, eat up!). Over 40 cucumbers, all told, were harvested from a single vine. And, despite early reports of a dry, squashy texture and flavor, later-season fruits weren’t too bad.

And it was with great delight that over 15 pounds of tomatoes were plucked. Fret not, none of those went to waste. They weren’t the prettiest girls at the party (as you can see above), but we’re firm believers here at POD that it’s what’s under the pock-marked skin that matters. And these particular ladies were pretty dreamy in this simple, no-frills sauce.

Soil Saga

refundAlthough POD lost some tomatoes and a bunch of beans to a batch of faulty soil, a nice little refund check hit the coffers not too long ago. And so ends the saga of the soil.

Oh, Hey!

baked tomato sauceRight, this baked tomato sauce got made a couple of weeks ago. Totally forgot. It was super-simple and used up a ton of cherry tomatoes and a touch of fresh basil. And made the deckmaster feel all June Cleaver. Thanks, Smitten! (And thanks, Greensgrow CSA, for the fresh pasta — ’cause the Littlest Deckhand wasn’t too keen on helping out with that.)