Can't believe I haven't posted since the 18th. The garden is looking great! Today I put in the big stakes by the tomato plants. They are all about 2 feet tall except for the cherry tomato plant which is about 3 1/2 feet tall. Two gardeners came today-Barbara and Romaine. They cultivated the soil around the tomatoes and peppers and created wells around each. The we filled the wells with water. The tomatoes are beginning to flower and need lots and lots of water. Oh my water bill. Prices go up the middle of the month.

Only one leek came up so I dug up the soil and planted more leek seeds. We harvested kale, bok choy, Swiss chard, arugula, red radishes, Daikon radishes, peas, rosemary and oregano. All in all, not a bad day!

I worked alone today, but got a lot done. First I fed the 2 avocado trees. They're so tall they each needed 14 cups of the fertilizer. Then I mixed up some fish emulsion with water and fed the plum tree (which I recently sprayed with copper to fight off peach curl) and the fig and nectarine trees. I planted more lettuce along the border of Garden #1 and filled in between the spinach plants. You need a lot of spinach if you are going to steam or saute it. It shrivels down to nothing. I also planted more French marigolds in the corner of Garden #1. None of the ones I planted several weeks ago came up.

The zucchini and squash are looking fabulous. I will spray with organic fungicide this week to keep away powdery mildew and any other problems. I also spread some Escar-go around the raspberry bush, the new little sunflowers coming up and around the other plants I didn't get to the other day.

The first harvest of spring!

Don't these radishes look great! They taste great too. My first harvest of the spring. Soon there will be bok choy, kale and Swiss Chard. Can't wait.

Fed the lemon, orange and Cara Cara tree today. I need to buy some more of that fertilizer for the 2 avocado trees. Sooner rather than later.

Tues., June 14

Having problems with peach leaf curl. Finally got over to the nursery and bought some copper foliar spray. I sprayed the plum tree and the Cara cara tree. I also pulled off all the affected leaves that I could reach. Both trees are pretty tall and I couldn't get to the very top leaves.

I worked alone in the garden today. My daughter is in town and I didn't want to have to supervise or work consistently if I wanted to spend time with her this morning. As it turned out, she left at 10 a.m. So, I added Dolomite Lime to the strawberries. Mixed it in really well and watered well. I am determined to have lots of sweet strawberries this year.

Then I replanted the onions. They were planted several weeks ago, but only about five spindly little shoots came up. Either the seeds were bad, they were planted too deeply or I didn't water carefully enough. At any rate, I reseeded with scallions and red onions. Let's see what happens. Then I planted peas where the peas did not come up. It may be a cool summer, so I might as well plant some cool weather crops.

Put in another row of carrots in Garden #1. Meanwhile, the radishes, kale and Swiss chard are looking good. I should probably plant some more Swiss chard and kale tomorrow before the rains come. Oh, and some more bok choy.

It's almost time to feed (fertilize) the vegetables again. One day next week.

We were 4 people today working in the garden. Yeah! First we picked up all the pine needles covering the soil. There was a big wind storm on Monday. Built wells around the squash, zucchini and tomatoes. Then we weeded and I thinned out the bok choy, Swiss chard and some of the other leafy vegetables.

Planted herbs in the herb garden: chamomile, thyme, sunflowers, basil. I also planted more arugula. Then we watered everything. Not too much to share from the garden, so I went over to my neighbors and picked some of her lemons--with her permission of course!