What a great day!

We were just three people working in the garden today, but boy did we get a lot done. Last November/December I planted vetch on the hillside and used the extra seed in garden #1. Vetch is a combination of nitrogen producing plants. You let them grow until they start to flower. Then you pull them all up, cut them into smaller pieces with a shovel and mix them into the earth. We were able to finish all the gardens. Whew! I'm so glad that's done before the rains come Friday and Saturday.

No work in the garden today. It rained quite heavily this morning. Not too much to do anyway. Have to start thinking about spring and what I want to plant. Trying to order some organic soil from Peach Hill Soils. They are supposed to have great organic soil, according to John Lyons (creator of Woven Gardens), but I am having trouble placing the order. More later.

What a great day for gardening--sunny, not too hot, not too cold. Juna and our new artist gardener, Michiko, came to garden. Michiko helped me cultivate the soil around the strawberries on the hillside. Then we created little mounds around each one and a well (for watering) around that. Fed the strawberries with Fish Emulsion. I pruned the raspberry plant and fed it Fish Emulsion, too. Added more boards around the potatoes so we can begin to mound soil around the plants. I have ordered 4 cubic yards of organic soil mixed with Compost for next week to add to the garden and to mound on the potatoes.

Juna & Michiko cultivated the soil and added compost to 2 rows of vegetables: spinach and carrots. Then we went to my neighbor's house, Carolee, to pick lemons and limes. She doesn't really use that many and my artist gardeners were so happy to get them, as was I.

Peach tree pruning

I was so afraid to prune the peach tree. Some of the branches grew so much that they are way out of control. I read two articles on fruit tree pruning and watched a couple of videos on YouTube on how to prune peach trees and went to work. Not bad for my first try.

Photos to follow.

Friday, Saturday

Between these two days I fed all the fruit trees, including the new nectarine, with fish emulsion, mixed with water. I pruned the orange tree (the new one).

Finally back from India!

I have been gone the whole month of January. Went to India with friends. Juna had graciously agreed to take care of the gardens on Wednesdays, her normal day to garden. She watered, weeded, added top soil to the potatoes, added Super Thrive to the watering can once or twice.

Update on the garden: The vetch on the hillside, around the peach and orange tree, in garden #1 is thriving. Just waiting for it to begin to show signs of flowering and then I will have my crew of gardeners help me turn the soil and mix in the cut up vetch. I cultivated vetch to add more nitrogen to the soil and also to help with the texture. Hopefully, the vetch will add whatever is necessary to make the soil up top less claylike.

Also ran string for the two areas where the peas are growing. They are small now and need a little support. Don't we all?

Still harvesting Swiss Chard, lettuce, some radishes and kale. The carrots are showing their frilly tops. May take a few more weeks before we get carrots. The potatoes are finally showing signs of growth. Rodney and I set up the wall around the potatoes in two areas so we can continue to pour earth around the potato plants.

Rodney sprayed all the fruit trees, the bougainvilla and the trumet plant with Neem oil. Thank goodness. I hate carrying that 5 gallon tank on my back. So heavy. Anyway, normally I would use dormancy oil on the fruit trees, but some of them are already flowering. The trumpet plant is infested again with red spider mite. Have to get rid of it before the spring and summer plantings. It will infest all my other vegetables otherwise.