Monday morning, June 18, was overcast and cool.  Great day to work in the garden.  Juna came by and helped me reseed areas where the vegetable seeds did not germinate.  We planted extra carrots, eggplant and lettuce.  Had trouble with the watermelon on the hillside too, so I reseeded.  Keep my fingers crossed.  I want watermelon this summer.  And the cucumbers.  There are plants on the hill, but I don't know yet if they are cucumbers or weeds.  We'll see.  And since all the spinach is gone, we planted a whole row of spinach.

Forgot to mention that I put a board in the raised bed part of the garden, and underneath I put banana peels, apple cores, avocado skin. I keep the soil damp.   In the morning I lift the board and what do I find?  All kinds of worms and bugs that eat the vegetables.  I scoop them up and throw them in the garbage.

Rodney pulled out the soaker hoses earlier this year.  They weren't wetting the ground enough.  So last week he make troughs from the upper part of the garden to the lower, in between rows and around tomato plants.  Turn the hose on and fill the trough.  All the plants get watered.  Maybe this will be a good solution to the watering problem.

Gardening at its best!

Alitash came again to garden and brought her friend, Dave, with his 7-year old son, Ezra.  Alitash was excited to see that the radishes she planted on Monday had already started coming up.  Radishes show their faces in 5 - 10 days.  She planted more radishes in between the rows already there.  Then I let her try out my new tool.  It's like a hoe, but it's shaped like a wide triangle.  It cultivates the soil around the plants easily.  Dave planted lettuce and helped Rodney mound 2 bags of soil around the rapidly growing potatoes.  There are purple flowers everywhere, the bees are ecstatic and soon we will have potatoes.  I cleaned up around the plants in the bottom garden and also around the strawberries and squash and zucchini up on the hillside.  We weeded, we watered, but Ezra had the most fun.  He went looking for worms in the compost pile and transferring them gently into the garden beds, covering them with a little bit of soil.  He did it for the longest time.  Then he dug a large hole in the middle of the garden where nothing was growing.  7-year old boys can have the most fun doing very simple things.

We harvested peas, kale, lettuce, mustard greens, rosemary and divided up the last of the radishes we picked the other day.  A wonderful day in the garden!

The planting and watering has begun.  Three artists came to the garden this morning-Juna, Rodney and Alitash.  It was overcast and cool.  Perfect weather to be out in the garden.  Since a lot of the vegetables are already planted, we filled in where plants didn't come up and extended some rows.

We now have 3 very long rows of corn.  We filled in the beans, broccoli, spinach, carrots.  I wanted to plant more basil, but we ran out of time.  Juna did start 5 or 6 new eggplants.  We harvested radishes, kale, arugula,  spinach and rosemary.  Since all the radishes have been harvested we reseeded the area with radishes again.  The next time we will move the radishes to another location and plant something else in the radish patch.  It's always good to rotate crops.

The compost pile is doing great.  Rodney added 2 bags of leaves from last fall.  The pile is full of worms and the soil is rich.  We have already added compost to two of the garden areas.  In a week or two we will  put compost in the other 3 gardens.

PIF is germinating!

May 31, 2012 a new season is beginning.  Even though I sometimes tire of the work involved in gardening, I must say it always seems to re-energize me.  I wanted to have a smaller garden this year, but it seems as if it will be as large as it has been for the past 3 years.  The gardeners will begin coming this Saturday, June 2.  It is going to be a great year!  Already I am harvesting baby kale, Swiss chard, amazing red radishes, lettuce, mesclun greens and arugula.  Soon there will be spring peas and string beans!

Time to plant

Spent 3 1/2 hours in the garden today, planting green bunching onions, walla walla onions, kale, Swiss chard, arugula, 4 different kinds of lettuce, radishes, corn and mache. It's supposed to be quite warm for the next few days. In the 80s. Yeah, that will get everything off to a great start.

Did I mention that I planted 2 rows of carrots and 2 rows of peas on Monday? See the criss cross supports? Those are for the peas.

Meanwhile, my seeds in pots are finally taking hold. I have sprouting squash, Brandywine tomatoes, Beefsteak tomatoes, and peas. So far, nothing from any of the peppers I planted. Same for the broccoli and eggplant. Oh well, let's give it a few more days.

It's Plant It Forward Time

After a long hiatus, it's time to get back to the garden. I planted a legume-based cover crop in the 2 lower gardens last fall. They grew to be 2-3' tall. 1 month ago we dug it in. I still have to break up some big lumps in the soil, but it's time to start planting. I'm only going to use the 2 big gardens on the bottom this year. No hillside gardens. I would have started earlier, but I spent 6 days in San Miguel de Allende recently, and I didn't want to be gone at such an important time. When you've just planted the seeds, you have to watch over them carefully, like a newborn baby.

Anyway, I'm ready to roll. Yesterday, I prepared small containers to start seedlings, which would later be transplanted into the main gardens. I planted cucumbers, watermelon, eggplant, broccoli, red, yellow and purple bell peppers, Jalapeno peppers, Brandywine tomatoes, Beefsteak tomatoes and Chianti Rose tomatoes. I also planted zucchini, Butternut squash and summer squash. Some of the other vegetables, I will plant directly into the main gardens, like the radishes, beets, onions, carrots--all the root vegetables.

Have to buy some more potting soil. I want to start the peas and beans as soon as possible.