Garden Devastation – Grilled Fish with Pesto

I thought this was going to be a good year in the garden. It started off with so much promise – for the first time I had perfectly plump cabbages that did not get eaten by cabbage worms. But it was mostly downhill from there. It was the year of the pest.

I was hoping to avoid asparagus beetles, however, there they were when my spring harvest ended, as the short stalks grew into tall fronds. The larvae and mature beetles began to defoliate the wispy leaves. While I am hesitant to use any chemicals in my garden, neem oil, an organic pesticide targeted directly on the pests after harvest got rid of them after a few short weeks. The plants could continue to photosynthesize and send the energy into their roots ensuring growth and a harvest next spring.

After the asparagus beetles, dreaded invasive juvenile spotted lanternflies appeared. I had only seen a few in previous years; all of a sudden, my garden was swamped. I expected complete and total destruction; yet they seemed to move on. They turned out not to be a big deal, at least for the plants I grow.

We were probably three quarters of the way through our early June strawberry harvest and suddenly there was a precipitous drop in ripening fruit. Years ago, I had fashioned a sturdy screen cover to place over the bed to keep out hungry squirrels, racoons, and possum. So, I knew it couldn’t be them. Then I observed the chipmunks. I had seen more around the neighborhood than ever before, even though they don’t usually do too much damage to my garden. Then one sunny afternoon I saw a solitary chipmunk approach the strawberry bed and vanish. Next thing I knew, it was inside. The pesky beast had snuck in through a crack where the corners of the wooden frame were starting to rot and separate. Whereas it was too late to save the remaining harvest, at least we had been able to savor a few weeks of tasty berries. I promptly added thick wire screens to the corners to prevent an attack next year, as I’m not ready to replace the wood frame corralling the bed. Hopefully it will work.

You may be thinking that this doesn’t sound too bad, nothing like total devastation. And truth be told, up to this point, you’d be right. I always lose a little of my harvest to competition with nature, and I’m okay with that. But it was about to get much worse.

Until last summer I had never enjoyed much of a blueberry crop, most being sacrificed to birds who nimbly pick the berries just before they fully ripen. My neighbor helped me build a cage that did a sufficient job keeping the birds at bay. Still, it wasn’t very helpful for those chipmunks. I was only able to collect a small handful of blueberries from two growing bushes.

And then there were the deer. I’ve always had deer, but this year they were hungrier and there were more of them than ever before. They ate plants I’d never imagined they would find tasty. They ate every Hosta in our yard, along with the tips of the Montauk daisies. Of course, I eat neither Hostas nor Montauk daisies, so this was not the end of the world in my eyes. However, the damage was not limited to ornamentals. Instead of just nibbling a few leaves of my green beans, they ate every leaf in sight. They gnawed the tomato and tomatillo stalks to nubs, resulting in completely leafless branches. Zucchini, squash, and cucumber foliage was grazed down to the prickly vines. And without a way to capture sunlight, these plants could not produce their own food or food to feed me. Only two measly tomatoes have ripened from two dozen plants with which I started. (I wish they would consume the poison ivy and wisteria that grow uncontrollably along the edges of my property; of course they leave those alone.)

While the deer have definitely been frustrating and depressing, I can probably deal with them in future years by erecting an eight-foot fence around the perimeter of the garden or fine mesh floating row covers over vulnerable beds. Expensive options, yet options, nonetheless.

The groundhog that arrived in mid-August is a different story altogether.

There it was one day, nibbling grass outside my raised beds. I had no problem with that. The next day it was in the middle of the sparse vegetation of one of the devastated beds chowing down on a Honeynut squash. Plump and round, adorably cute, and very content eating the whole orange fruit, I chased it away, only to see it return to finish the remaining squash. I was feeding the wildlife. It ate the tips of carrot plants and new growth of late-season cabbage, despite the fact that it was protected by a fine mesh floating row cover. There have always been plenty of groundhogs nearby – at my wife’s office a few miles away on a 100-acre nature preserve, for example – although I’ve never had them near my garden. And I’m sure next year this well-fed rodent will have babies. I have no idea how I’ll protect my garden from them.

I have always had bunnies, squirrels, and insects that have done some damage to my garden, along with deer that have nipped at the leaves. I wondered why this year the herbivores were so much more prevalent than in the past, and I came to one conclusion. Our dog Lyla passed away about a year ago, and Lyla loved nothing more than being outside with me in the garden. She would sit in the shade under a bush on hot summer days and, never leashed, she would roam the property as I shoveled, weeded, planted, and harvested. If I was in the garden, she was with me. While Lyla always wandered, I never thought of it as patrol. Now that she’s gone, I realize she was the top predator, even if she never could catch her prey, a trophic cascade scaring the pests away from defoliating my vegetation.

Clearly one option to protect my hard-earned work would be to get another dog. But for now, we are enjoying the freedom a dogless household grants us, and who knows how the cats would react to a new pet. Another possibility is to wait until coyotes show up. This apex predator has slowly been returning to Long Island after a centuries-long absence, spreading eastward from New York City and areas northward, although there’s no telling how well they’ll control the populations that have done so much harm to my plot.

My garden gives me great joy, even though this year it has been frustrating and depressing. I sympathize with farmers and don’t know how they do it year after year.

Despite the damage that has been done, there are some bright spots, and some crops persist. While I’m hesitant to talk about them lest bad luck or a new herbivore appear, I had a great potato harvest, and radishes are ready again now that the nights are getting cooler. Figs are ripening now, two or three each day, perfect to pick when we get home from our daily walk. Since they are planted in pots in a more protected area, my peppers and eggplants have been booming, along with two cherry tomato plants giving me the only basket of tomatoes I’ll harvest this year. And I have had more basil than I’ve ever had before.

Despite my exasperation and disappointment, my garden will endure. I will plant a diversity of crops to ensure that at least some survive, and I will experiment with solutions to try to find success. I need to be flexible, patient, and go with the flow of the natural fluctuations of the garden. However, I still wish I had a few more big, juicy garden tomatoes to eat this summer!

Grilled Fish with Pesto

Even with all the herbivorous pests in my garden this year, it has been a banner year for basil – the best I’ve ever had. So, we’re eating a lot of pesto. On pasta and grilled vegetable sandwiches, in bruschetta, pesto pizza, and green pizza. It has been delicious. We are also smearing it on thick grilled tuna and swordfish steaks for a quick, healthy, and tasty meal. Accompanied by whatever vegetables I can manage to harvest, it is a great way to enjoy the (limited) bounty from the garden.

To grill the fish, I smear it with a thin coating of mayonnaise, a technique I learned from my wife. As odd as it may sound, it works beautifully. Mayonnaise is primarily oil, so it does an excellent job preventing tricky fish from sticking to the grates on the grill. In addition, because of its consistency, the condiment smears easily and sticks to the fillets, making them easy to handle.

As for what fish to use, my go to is either inch-thick tuna steaks or swordfish. They both are meaty and taste good and go perfectly with pesto. I choose whatever is local, fresh, sustainable, and looks nice at the fish monger or what is given to me by a friend. Both tuna and swordfish are also easy to grill, holding together well, unlike other types of fish that flake apart at the slightest touch.

Different people like fish cooked to different levels of doneness, especially when it comes to tuna. This, along with the thickness of the steaks will affect the cooking times in the recipe below.

2 servings, about 15 minutes, plus time for the grill to heat

roughly 10 oz. tuna or swordfish steaks (this may be two smaller or one larger steak, depending on what is available)

kosher salt

fresh ground black pepper

⅓ cup mayonnaise

⅓ cup basil pesto, homemade or store bought

olive oil

1. Prepare your grill for two-zone cooking. One side should be ripping hot with direct heat, and the other side should be out of direct heat of the flame, so the fish can finish cooking on the inside if the outside cooks faster. If cooking over charcoal, bank the hot coals on one side of the grill. If using a gas grill, heat one or two burners on high, leaving one or two burners completely off or on low.
2. When the grill is hot, sprinkle a little salt and pepper on both sides of the fish steak. Cover one side of the fish completely with a thin coating of mayonnaise.
3. Place the fish mayonnaise side down on the hot side of the grill. Allow to cook until the outside is cooked, but not charred – for rare tuna only a couple of minutes until the outside is seared, or up to five minutes for more well-done tuna or swordfish. Move the fish to the indirect heat side of the grill and close the cover if the exterior is cooking too quickly.
4. Smear a thin coating of the remaining mayonnaise on the top of the fish and flip onto the hot side of the grill. Cook until this side is cooked but not charred, an additional few minutes depending on preference. Again, move the fish to the indirect heat side of the grill and close the cover if the exterior is cooking too quickly. (According to Serious Eats, for grilled swordfish an instant-read thermometer should register 130°F for medium, 135°F for medium-well, or 140 to 145°F for well-done.) Remove from the grill and plate.
5. Drizzle olive oil and stir into the pesto to thin it out, if desired. Pour on top of the fish and enjoy.

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