It’s official. This is the spideriest year in all of Seattle history.
On the way to the compost pile, I count anywhere from five to (last night’s high count) eight spider webs. The back stairs are a prime spot, always with a minimum of two webs between the banisters. Orb weavers dominate the gardens, stringing guy-wire silk that stretches up to fifteen feet. On garbage day, in between the time when the garbage trucks came and my neighbor came out to pull the can back into his garage, spiders had spun webs between the can and his mailbox. Their webs are in the trees, in the bushes, across the lawns, and in the window frames. They are everywhere.
And if I can help it, I leave all of them alone. They do good work.
The vegetable plants are filled with spiders. Webs festoon the tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers like so much gossamer bunting. Sometimes I see a bee has been caught and that’s not good, but mostly I see other, more insidious creatures, and with the notable exception of the aphids on the zucchini, my plants have been relatively non-arachnid free.
So, after three months, how’s everything doing?
The zucchini are done. Planting them in what would become the shade behind the tomatoes was not good planning. They produced two really good crops of fruit, and a lackluster third round as well, but back there, they succumbed early to powdery mildew. When they put out nothing but male flowers and all the leaves were grey with mildew, I cut them down. I left a few leaves on one plant, to see if it would re-grow, but nope. Mildew has attacked even those new leaves. That box also has the cantaloupe vine, but due to extreme competition with the zucchini, it may not produce anything. Note for next year: zucchini are gluttons; two per box and nothing else.
The cucumbers are petering out. These were a hybrid/bush variety, which produces a pickling-size fruit (4-6″ long). They are quite tasty when fresh, though, and the plants were putting out more cukes than I could serve up daily, averaging around five or six cukes a day for about a month. They were great for snacks, and performed well in sweet pickle recipes (my attempts at dill pickling didn’t do as well–tasty, but not crisp). The plants themselves benefited from some plastic scaffolding–these worked better, overall, than the nylon mesh frame purchased from the Earthbox company. One mistake this year was to put them in front of the tomatoes, stealing ripening sunshine. Still, a very productive plant and very useful in the garden. I will have more of them next year, but they’ll have some sort of crawling scaffolding to grow onto.The tomatoes seem to have topped out at about six feet in height. I did prune the tops one day, to keep them from overgrowing the supports and thus flopping over and cracking vines. Here, too, the Earthbox-manufactured frame with nylon netting was of little use. These plants needed caging five feet tall, plus a fair amount of stringing and tying back to keep them from falling over and pinching all the vines–and that was before they were heavy with fruit. The Yellow Pear heirloom has dozens and dozens of fruits on it. They’re just starting to yellow-up now, which is right on schedule (remember, I didn’t plant until June 1). The Pink Brandywine heirloom has many fruit as well, though this variety is more susceptible to blossom end-rot than the other. I’ve treated all plants of this sort with extra calcium, but this one variety seems particularly persnickety. I like heirlooms, but will probably try another variety next year.
The strawberries are a complete disappointment and will not be making an Earthbox 2014 appearance. One variety had few fruit, and the other had absolutely none. I will transplant them to other parts of the garden and see if they flourish in a harsher environment, but for Earthbox use, a waste of space.
The chili peppers, however, are doing well. Again, right on schedule, the Golden Cayenne are starting to ripen. The one bush has two or three dozen peppers, each from 3-4″ long, and they’re starting to color up. The Jalapenos are not as big as in the shops–only 2-3″–but are green and glossy. My pepper growing pal from Israel told me to leave them on the plant to ripen until they’re red in color. In American supermarkets, I never see red jalapenos; he says they have more fruit notes when left to ripen fully, and I’m eager to test this.
The herbs are great. The cilantro has long since bolted and I’ve let it go to seed to gather the coriander. The seeds are still too green, and when it bolts, it’s no longer good for cilantro leaves, so next year, I’ll buy that in the shops. On the other hand, I’ve purposefully let the marjoram go to flower; they’re so pretty and it doesn’t harm the flavor of the leaves. The basil is about two feet tall; I’ve been pinching off the flower-heads and it’s been thickening. It’s ready for a major harvest and a pesto-fest this weekend. The sage is great and exceedingly flavorful; this will probably be transplanted as it’s hardy enough to do well in the ground. Lastly, the oregano, which is now a foot-wide mass of leaves and heady aroma. I’ll be cutting it back and prepping it for the dehydrator soon.
Overall,
- The major players of summer are winding down: zucchini, done; cucumbers, almost done.
- Some Did-Not-Start plants will not be making a return appearance: strawberries, nope; melon; probably not.
- My planning needs to take heights and growth habits into greater account: zucchini in front; cucumbers and tomatoes in non-compete positions.
I’ll be looking into late-summer/autumn plants, and will be getting some more boxes for next year to add to the garden plan.
k
PS. The Zepherine isn’t growing in an Earthbox, but after a difficult start, she finally put out a few blooms. Zepherine Drouhin is one of my favorite roses. Virtually thornless, a great climber, a heavenly scent, she’ll look great climbing through the stiles of the railing near our front door.
Trapped in my house….spiderwebs across all of the exterior door-frames. Yes, it is official, this is the most spidery year ever! Longest length: from apple tree in the yard over to the eaves of the house!!!!!
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I was comparing notes with a friend this weekend. Turns out we both have same two kinds of conversations with the arachnids in our garden. One starts with “Sorry, sorry,” while the other one starts with something like, “Dude…seriously?” followed by a puppetmaster relocation of the silk-strung weaver to a more spider-friendly location.
As for our indoor Hobo spiders, I have no such conversations, especially this year when they’ve exceeded their usual 1.5-2″ leg-span and now are coming in at between 2.5 to 3″ across. They’re large enough to scare the cat, large enough to hear crossing the hardwood floor, and our conversations mostly just go [skitterskitterskitter-WHAM!]
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My indoor Hobo spider is named Herbie and lives in the laundry room. The outdoor spiders are collectively named Legion. Be sure to launch from your hilarious descriptions here, into some writing projects with spider characters! You’ve got plenty of material!
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[Snort!]
Those names are PERFECT! I will from now on name all my Hobos Herbie; each one, in succession, just prior to their demise.
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I think there might have been a car named Herbie (not sure) but for sure, the name is not copyrighted. I do think carefully, consider my spiders and get to know their attributes. No danger of Herbie’s demise at my house, he is too fast for me. The outdoor spiders, I feel that they are my children (since my human children grew up and got married!) and that it is my job to mentor each season of spiders before sending them off into the world.
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Herbie was the name of Disney’s “Love Bug” from the movies of that name, back in the ’70s. These guys are far from my idea of a Love Bug, but I like the odd juxtaposition.
I tend to foster the outdoor egg sacs I find around the house perimeter. I know it’s truly spring when I find the screen door covered with both yellow pollen and a yellow mass if tiny spiderlings breaking out of their cocoon.
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