Saturday's post on Sunday

Sorry this post is late. I worked in the garden with Nisha and her friend, Gaia. There wasn't a great deal to do, but it always helps to have a couple extra gardeners around. We turned the compost pile, weeded the hillside and harvested spinach and chard. I pulled out the last of the flowers near the infested eggplants. We also harvested arugula (found some snails on the leaves--ugh!) and the last two white radishes. I also pulled out some red onions that had the general shape of green onions.

I have three avocados I need to cut open and try. They are pretty hard, but maybe they'll be moist, soft and green inside. One can only hope!

I worked in the garden today. Time to pull out all the stuff that should be pulled out. Time to let the ground rest, add amendments and other organic additives to make the soil rich and healthy for the spring plantings. What did I pull out? Four eggplants whose fruit was not ripening and whose leaves and stems were full of red spider mites, the broccoli that flowered once, but now are not giving me full heads of broccoli and one jalapeno plant that was actually full of jalapeno peppers, which I harvested, before pulling the plant out of the ground. I also pulled out some carrots and a couple of garlic plants. I don't know what happened with the garlic. They look like green onions in shape, but they smell strong like garlic. However, I am not getting the head of garlic I was expecting. Oh well, next year!

Wow, it's Tuesday already!

I actually worked in the garden yesterday. I turned the compost pile that was pulled out of the tumbler and the bin. It's finally starting to decompose. I also pulled out the broccoli plant on the corner. No broccoli, just flowers. Cut back the eggplant. Checked the garlic--still not ready. I pulled out all the markers for the rows. Pretty soon I will let the garden rest in preparation for spring planting.

Bought seeds for organic peas. I want to harvest a lot more peas this year! I also want to plant different kinds of vegetables-- even more variety.

Rain, rain and more rain!

Yes, it's true. It has been raining a lot here in southern California. We do get some breaks, but when it starts to rain, it pours. Thank goodness, I live on a hill. All the rain washes across the property to the street. I wonder how all my vegetables will fare.

Today is normally a gardening day, but I cancelled it. Even if it wasn't raining this morning (which it wasn't until after 10:30 a.m.) the ground was way too wet to walk on. Nothing to do, except wait for the rain to stop. But I am not unhappy---we need the rain.

My two 55 gallon barrels are full of rainwater. I should buy two more tomorrow. Rainwater is so good for the vegetables, and it's free!

It rained buckets today!

Wow, did it rain today. Great for my transplanted strawberries. They are looking very happy. Hope all the other vegetables do as well. We have 4 more days of even heavier rain to come.

Meanwhile, check out some photos of the Plant It Forward exhibition preview.

Open House for Plant It Forward!

The photographs are ready and hanging on my studio walls. The video has been edited and is ready to be seen on my laptop (hopefully a larger screen for the exhibition). My daily gardening journal is typed and resting comfortably in a three ring binder on a table in my studio. The artists' journal is ready for viewing and I cut out the article from the Beverly Hills Courier so anyone who is interested can easily read it.

Unfortunately, it began to rain just before the Open House began. So I know that dissuaded some people. Others called or Emailed with their regrets, but still, I had so many people who braved the weather and came to see the preview of Plant It Forward. Thank you all.

I was so busy working in the garden yesterday, that I forgot to write. One person came to work with me in the garden. It was his first time here. I started him watering the spinach seedlings. Then he mixed compost in the two lower hillside beds and we transplanted strawberries. Watered with a Super Thrive mixture, of course, to give them a better chance of surviving. The rain comes Sunday night, so that should help them get over the transplant.

Then I pulled out some eggplant. One was covered with red spider mites. In fact, I through a large plastic garden bag over the plant before pulling it out to prevent the mites from spreading more than they would otherwise. It's time to pull out a lot of plants and just let the soil rest. I have some amending to do. I have bad nematodes, as evidenced by the gnarly, bulbous root structure of the tomatoes and peppers.

However, even with all the problems, I harvested arugula, eggplant, chard, bell peppers, lemons, rosemary and parsley.