Back home!

I was out of town for 3 weeks so not too much was going on in the garden. Juna helped care for the garden in my absence--watering, weeding, adding soil, harvesting.

Had a good day today. Rodney fed all the fruit trees in front with Fish Emulsion and iron. Then he pruned one of the overgrown lavender plants. Still need to prune the other lavender and two rosemary plants. He also pulled out two bougainvillea plants on the hillside. I am going to use that area for fruit trees. I will probably transplant the plum and lemon trees on the south side of the house.

Two new gardeners today--Dasha and Rubie. They helped Juna clean up the whole hillside of pine needles, pine cones, roots, etc. Then we worked on the main two gardens. I pulled up all the stakes and thread marking the rows. Pulled out all the radishes and broccoli that never quite matured. Harvested spinach, Batavian endive, Royal Oak leaf lettuce, peas, green onions, kale, mint and rosemary.

It was a warm and wonderful day! Will start planting the seeds for the garden in the next few days.

Saturday. Wasn't planning on working in the garden, but Rodney came over to work, so we worked. Used up the last 4 bags of topsoil, covering the potatoes and adding soil to the wisteria and raspberry. boy, those bags of soil go fast. Looking forward to ordering those 4 - 6 cubic yards of soil in April. I bet they get used up a lot faster than I'm imagining. And that's A LOT OF SOIL!

Worked in the garden today, but there wasn't too much to do. It was a beautiful day, sunny and close to 80 degrees. Gotta love that Southern California weather. Rodney poured a 2 sq ft bag of topsoil on the potatoes. I will have to buy 6 - 10 more bags tomorrow. Probably 10. Have to cover those potatoes. Spread one bag of topsoil among the four wisteria plants. I think I am going to have quite a few blossoms this year.

It's supposed to rain Sunday night or Monday. Haven't turned the automatic sprinklers back on yet.

It wasn't sunny today, but it was a great day for gardening. I started out by adding soil around a potato plant whose potatoes were appearing on the vines above the earth. Then I cut out a large portion of mint that has been crawling from its corner in the raised bed, in an attempt to take over that part of the garden. Mint is wonderful, but very much like a weed in that it's insidious, and creeps all over with its vines and roots. I want to keep it in the corner.

Juna came today and so did two new gardeners I met through Home Grown Culver City: Barbara and Romaine. How appropriate for Romaine to be gardening.

We turned the soil in all the gardens and around the trees where the vetch was pulled up and dug in from last week. Then we watered all the areas well. I dug up the earth around the strawberries on the hill. The ground is still very clay like. It's supposed to rain tonight. That will be good for helping the vetch to further decompose.

We added soil around the three areas containing potatoes, and added another bag to the area I had already worked on. We are going to have a heck of a lot of potatoes this year.

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.