Full Circle

Monday, May 21, 2012

This spring has sucked way less than last spring. Although we did have a very late frost (end of March), and for 3 nights in a row! A little snow too, which melted immediately. The first frost everything did pretty well, but 3 days later...I lost a lost of seedlings. Despite this, the garden is doing quite well, as you can see below.

May 19, 2012 - Corn


May 19, 2012 - Pepper transplants and melons in the back

May 19, 2012 - Garlic!

May 19, 2012 - In front a leek, garlic behind.

May 19, 2012 - Radish seed pods

May 19, 2012 - Volunteer lettuce going to seed

I hit some weird button on my camera for these next ones, accidentally. Kinda neat though because only the green hues show up.

May 20, 2012 - Herb bed growing swimmingly

May 20, 2012 - Carrots at the top, potatoes surround

May 20, 2012 - Tomatoes on the right, edamame in the middle

May 20, 2012 - MOAR GARLIC!

May 21, 2012 - Nasturtium, the picture does not do it justice

May 21, 2012 - Peanuts! Surrounded by diatomaceous earth

May 21, 2012 - My baby, the rio red grapfruit tree

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Bird Netting

My bird netting has done a lot of things, unfortunately keeping birds from eating seedlings doesn't seem to be one of them.

It has taken out a beautiful lizard (it's head got trapped and it strangled itself)

It has trapped and killed an equally beautiful dragonfly that I didn't get pictures of
It seems to be a cool place for snails to hang out on

I have to conclude that this stuff is pretty useless. I won't be buying more.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Blueprints

This year's garden:

A couple blank spaces to fill in still...

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Planting season is here!

I can't believe it is my 3rd planting season since I started gardening. It's hard for me to imagine my yard before there was an abundance of edible things growing in it. I went a little crazy(er) this year and bought A LOT of seeds. Specifically this collection from Baker Creek.

Small Southern Seed Collection

Baker Creek has a huge variety of seeds. The catalog takes days to go through, and has really cool pictures.

Here is what I have already planted/started for the spring garden:

Basil (Genovese)
Basil (Thai)
Beet (Bull's Blood)
Broccoli (Waltham 29)
Cabbage (Early Jersey Wakefield)
California Poppy
Carrot (Big Top)
Carrot (Cosmic Purple)
Catnip
Celery
Chives
Garlic Chives
Cilantro
Corn (Fisher's Earliest Sweet)
Cucumber (Japanese Long)
Dill
Garlic (Inchelium Red)
Lavender
Leek (Blue Solaise)
Leek (King Richard)
Lettuce (Green Oakleaf)
Lettuce (Sanguine Ameliore volunteers)
Marigolds (Red Marieta)
Melon (Rich Sweetness)
Mint
Mustard
Nasturtiums (Empress of India)
Onion (Ailsa Craig)
Onion (Australian Brown)
Onion (Borretana Yellow)
Onion (He Shi Ko Bunching)
Onion (Red of Florence)
Onion (Red Wethersfield)
Parsley (Giant from Italy, flatleaf)
Pepper, hot (Chinese Ornamental)
Pepper, hot (Habanero Red)
Pepper, hot (Ordono)
Pepper, hot (Tohono O'odham)
Pepper, hot (Wenk's Yellow)
Pepper, mild (Carnival Mix)
Pumpkin (Pipian from Tuxpan)
Pumpkin (Shamrock)
Squash (Early Golden Summer Crookneck)
Strawberries
Sunflower (Mammoth)
Sunflower (Mexican Torch)
Watermelon (Golden Midget)
Zebrinas
Zinnias (Persian Carpet)

February 5, 2012 - Starting seeds!

March 9, 2012 - Time to transplant!

And here is what I'll be planting in the next few weeks:

Amaranth (Golden Giant)
Beans (Blue Lake)
Beans (Heavyweight II)
Morning Glorys (Grandpa Ott's)
Okra (Red Burgundy)
Peas (Oregon Sugar Pod)
Peas (Super Snappy)
Peanuts
Pink Banana
Potatoes (Yukon Gold)
Soybeans (non-GMO!)
Strawberry Spinach
Tomato (Arkansas Traveler)
Tomato (Cherokee Purple)
Tomato (Moonglow)
Tomato (Wapsipinicon Peach)

And here's what overwintered:

Basil
Habaneros
Tomatoes (Roma)

I planted some really strange looking pumpkins. This is how big they grew in less than two weeks!

March 9, 2012

March 9, 2012 - These things get big, fast.

March 9, 2012 - Neat leaf pattern

March 9, 2012

This year's corn bed. Last spring I had some volunteer sorghum from who knows where grow here, so I figured it'd be perfect for the corn.

March 9, 2012

March 9, 2012 - The new beds this season

March 9, 2012 - Garlic, leeks, radishes, volunteer lettuce.

I let one lettuce plant bolt last spring, and below is the product. For some reason the volunteer lettuce growing in the rocks with very little water or room to develop root structure is doing phenomenally while the lettuce I painstakingly planted in even spaces in perfect soil, has almost all died. Go figure.

March 9, 2012 - Sanguine Ameliore lettuce

March 9, 2012 - More garlic!

I broke down and started planting flowers. Not because I'm a real girl or anything, but because I want to attract more pollinators.

March 9, 2012 - Marigold

The one head of lettuce I planted that hasn't died.

March 9, 2012 - Green Oakleaf lettuce

My overwintered tomato plants are a bit diseased and not at all pretty,

but they are still alive and producing fruit already.

March 9, 2012 - Boo yah! First tomatoes of spring in yo face.

March 9, 2012

Broccoli is pretty cool, you chop it's head off and then it grows more little ones for you. Like a hydra.

March 9, 2012

My sad, sad cucumber seedlings. They will probably die. I kept trying to transplant before they got root bound but we kept getting Gail force winds and cold nights. I planted seeds right in front of the seedlings when I transplanted as a Plan B, so either way I'll have cucumbers.

March 9, 2012

Sunday, January 1, 2012

In the Bleak Midwinter

It was 85 degrees today. I also harvested 15 tomatoes today, in January. I did not use any season extenders. Gardening in So Cal should be a crime. Yesterday I dropped $200 on seeds, plus I've saved quite a few seeds from my own plants. I have planned out most of the spring garden and this week I start construction on a new 4' x 10' bed. If this weather continues, I am going to explode from happiness, and fresh veggies.

Jan 1, 2012 - A bit beat up from the wind, but tasty!

Dec 31, 2011

Dec 31, 2011 - Garlic and radishes

Dec 31, 2011 - Volunteer lettuce! And lots of it.

Dec 31, 2011 - A very light frost, still eating basil in January!

Dec 31, 2011 - Lavender

Dec 31, 2011 - Yep, that's a bunch of tomatoes

Dec 31, 2011 - More garlic, and volunteer onions

Dec 31, 2011 - Bok choy

Dec 31, 2011 - Kale and carrots

Dec 31, 2011 - Volunteer dill

Saturday, November 26, 2011

The Winter Garden, Second Time Around

I understood in my first year of gardening that since I was in Southern California I could still grow things during winter. Kale, bok choy, chard (which probably wouldn't die if a nuke was dropped directly on it) and spinach were all I planted last fall. I didn't realize that here, my "winter" garden gets to be as diverse as my spring one. I basically get to plant all the crap that would die in the 110 degree summer weather that isn't recommended for my zone. Take that mother nature! I can grow whatever I want, I just have to do it at certain times of the year. Boo yah.

I planted: