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.

Mon., Nov 21

After that great rain on Sunday, the vetch is coming up like crazy. Not too much more to do. Pulled out all the tomato plants. Should dig up the soil and plant vetch where the tomato plants used to be. The soil is too wet right now. In a day or two--before Thursday's rain. Still need to do the hillside.

The garlic also looks good. The kelp feeding helped.

Thursday's blog for Wednesday, Nov 9

Can't believe I haven't written in so long. The garden is winding down. Wednesday I pulled out the last of the zucchini and beans from the hillside garden. Pulled out the stakes and trellis too. In the #1 garden I pulled out 4 cherry tomato plants, 2 eggplants and more bell pepper plants. I still have one beefsteak tomato plant with 5 green tomatoes. Also pulled out the last of the radishes. Tilled the soil and planted vetch, which I inoculated the night before. Harvested some spinach from the raised bed, tilled the soil and planted the rest of the vetch. Watered everything really well. Now all that's left are some basil plants, bell pepper and jalapeno plants and a few tomato plants. I think only the one plant has tomatoes. I just have to pull out the other ones. Should I save the roots for an art project? I've already saved 3 cherry tomato plants. Maybe I should try to save a couple of Beefsteak and Brandywine plants and roots to add to my root collection.

I still have lovely lettuce and some spinach. Thinking about planting some arugula.

Planted 26 cloves of garlic today near the potato bin. Hope I get better garlic than last year. Last year the garlic looked like green onions. I read that garlic needs phospherus. Maybe that's what they were missing. Also took soil from the hillside garden and covered the potato plants. I am not going to use the hillside garden next year. I hope to use up the soil in the rest of the garden and then take down the redwood sides.

Juna joined me in the garden today. Before she arrived I harvested some vegetables, pulled out 2 old kale plants, watered. It was 99 oF today. Hot, hot, hot!

When Juna arrived we sifted a wheelbarrow and 1/2 of compost and mixed it into the raised bed. Have to finish that soon. Must plant the garlic, more arugula and the vetch.

Harvest: Beefsteak and Brandywine tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bok choy, spinach, green onions, radishes, 2 watermelons (the last two), kale.

Rain, rain, rain!

I was going to work on the compost pile today, sifting, adding compost to the gardens, but it's raining cats and dogs. Thank goodness I covered the pile with a tarp. It's already too wet, even though I have added lots of newspaper and cardboard. It will have to wait for another day!

Gorgeous weather today!

Worked alone again today. Spread more of my compost from the compost pile into Garden #1 today. Hope I get some help this Wednesday. It's too hard for just one person. Anyway, then I added the equivalent of 2 newspapers to the compost bin to soak up some of the moisture and feed the worms. Pulled out some dead plants and watered.

Also fed my roses with rose food and 2 large house plants with fish fertilizer. Boy that stuff stinks!

Harvested cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, bok choy. I'm going to make bok choy for the first time today. I'll saute it with olive oil and chopped garlic and then add a dash of soy sauce for more flavor. Hope it's good.

Worked alone today. Pulled out all the broccoli after harvesting whatever I could. Not too much left, meanwhile the broccoli is full of caterpillars. I hardly had any caterpillars anywhere and now all of a sudden, they are everywhere--on the broccoli and the tomatoes.

Sifted some compost and mixed it in where the broccoli used to be. Shoveled dirt from the hillside garden into a wheelbarrow to add to the potato pile. The potatoes are looking good.

Sat, Sept 24

Two people came to the garden today-Katherine and Lily. They helped me with the compost pile, mixing in newspaper and ripped cardboard. Both girls helped me put a compost wall around the potatoes so we can start putting soild on top of them. I got more soil from the hillside garden. We watered, weeded, pruned the tomatoes, and harvested tomatoes, peppers, arugula and lettuce.

Worked alone today. Pulled out some zucchini plants and pruned the powdery mildewed leaves. Harvested 7 pumpkins! Imagine that! And I didn't even plant them. Some seeds must have come in with my organic soil order. Pruned the dead tomato leaves and tied up some vines that fell over.

The vetch arrived so I plan to mix in all the compost in the next couple of weeks and plant the vetch wherever I can. Also have to get in the winter crops. I hope to plant onions, garlic, kale, Swiss chard, bok choy, arugula, lettuce, carrots, beets, turnips and parsnips. Maybe kohlrabi. I don't even know what to do with it, but I guess I can find out. It's supposed to grow well in the fall and winter.

I worked alone yesterday. Mostly pruning the dead leaves on the tomato plants. It took so long for the tomatoes to ripen and it seems now that they are all ripening at the same time. Yikes! What to do with all those tomatoes. I have given some away, made some tomato sauce. I am eating tomatoes twice a day-cherry tomatoes with salad for lunch and heirloom tomatoes with basil for dinner. Guess I have to make more tomato sauce. I will be happy this winter and spring when I have a freezer full of tomato sauce. Also must make some pesto.

Tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes!

Finally, the tomatoes are getting ripe--the cherry, the Beefsteak and the Brandywine. The peppers are getting ripe also. Still waiting on the bell peppers, but we have banana peppers and small hot red chile peppers.

It was so hot today. Didn't do too much. I watered everything before Juna came. Together she and I covered the new potato plants. They are doing well.

Then we just harvested tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, arugula, green onions, chard and basil. An easier day, but a good one!

Worked alone today. Pruned the tomato plants. Harvested lots of carrots, cherry tomatoes and some beefsteak tomatoes. Starting to think about fall, cover crops, making the garden smaller--maybe just 2 gardens instead of 5.

Sept. 1--can't believe it. Strange season this year. All the tomatoes are starting to ripen at the same time. The bell peppers are there, but very small. The hot peppers are starting to turn red. The cauliflower never came, although the plants looked very healthy. I pulled all the cauliflower out today. Taking up too many nutrients from the soil and not giving back. The watermelon vine keeps growing. The first watermelon was very disappointing--pink, sweet, but not very red, as one expects.

Bought more citrus/avocado food and fed the 2 avocado trees. Sprayed the lemon tree with bioinsecticide. It had scale. Also sprayed the plum tree which is nearby.

Sprayed the 2 rose bushes for powdery mildew. Must spray the rest of the vegetables soon.

Much nicer weather to work in the garden, although I am sure the vegetables like it good and hot. I fed all the fruit trees except the 2 avocado trees. Ran out of avocado/citrus food. Will buy some tomorrow.

The tomatoes are starting to ripen-cherry and heirloom. Added compost from my compost pile to each of the tomato and pepper plants. The compost is so rich. I think all the plants needed it. I will add compost each time gardeners come to help. The pile is so big now and there is lots of compost to be had.