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Urban Gardening - 2025

We had some crazy weather swings this year, with an unusally cold and wet spring, followed by a dry summer with prolonged periods of extreme heat. I transplanted my tomato and pepper seedlings outdoor in mid May; a week later, the temperature dropped to a low of around 5°C for a few days. I didn't think think they would survive, but they did! The life-force and adaptability of plants never cease to amaze me.

Not sure if the weather was a contributing factor, but there was a shit-ton of flea beetles this year compared to previous seasons. They are tiny, black bugs the size of a sesame seed, and chew holes in the leaves. Mostly my tomato plants were affected. I think I killed thousands over the course of the season, by hand -- I'm like the John Wick of flea beetles. They are elusive pests, and jump away (like fleas) when they sense a threat. You have to move slowly, then suddenly ninja them with your fingers. If all life is sacred and connected, then I must have racked up enough bad karma to reincarnate as a shit fly in my next life.

Last year at my allotment garden plot, my beets were decimated by wild rabbits. This year, I tried to prevent this by building a low fence with chicken wire. It kept the rabbits out, but I think mice were still able to get in. Many of the beets were partially eaten. Maybe I'll try a wire mesh with smaller holes next year.

When I was harvesting peppers one day, I saw this giant worm/caterpillar on one of my shishito pepper plants, and it freaked me out. It was bigger than my finger! According to Google, it's a hornworm, and it eats the leaves on the plants of the solanum/nightshade family (e.g. peppers, tomatoes). It reminded me of a sand-worm in Dune.

A cool-looking sweet banana pepper. I had 18 plants and they were super productive. I harvested twice a week. On a good day, I can get 40-50 peppers. The plants are compact and relatively low-maintenance.

The peppers are the perfect size for stuffing. Mildly sweet, you'll occasionally get one that has a slight kick to it. The stuffed peppers are best served freshly baked, but they can be frozen and re-heated (the peppers tend to get mushy, though). Here's a recipe that uses Italian sausage, but I guess any filling that holds its shape will work. (Yeah, I know I suck at food photograpy. But it does taste a lot better than it looks in the pic :)

Sunrise Bumble Bee tomato. A productive cherry tomato variety with orange skin streaked with red and yellow. Not the sweetest or best tasting cherry tomato (Black cherry and Sungold are sweeter and more flavorful), but the beautiful appearance more than makes up for it. The skin is thick and crack-resistant. Open-pollinated.

Thorburn's Terra-cotta tomato. A prolific and early-producing variety, it yields tons of medium size tomatoes with brown skin streaked with green on top - very eye-catching. First year growing these; just had a couple of plants as a trial, but will definitely grow these again. Not too big, not too small, the size is just right for a quick tasty snack.

The flesh is orange with a hint of green. When ripe, it's juicy and delicious eaten raw - with a complex, low-acid and fruity flavor. Never tried cooking with it. Flavor-wise, they're probably in my top-5 (for tomatoes).

Pawpaw trees. The pawpaw is a small deciduous tree native to the eastern United States and southern Ontario, Canada. When mature, it grows clusters of large fruit that is often described as having a banana-like or mango-custard flavor. I planted 3 pawpaw seedlings 3 years ago. One got snapped in half by an animal (?) last year. The other two had excellent growth this year: 3-4' tall now, with a bunch of new branches and leaves. There was a bit of insect damage on the leaves, but it didn't seem to affect the growth of the tree.