October 24, 2012

It's been a while, hasn't it? :-)

As we got the first real rain of the season this week, I picked the remainder of the tomatoes and cleaned out the box putting the cylinders away.

The satsumas are really kicking in this year with fruiting and, although a tad tart, are much sweeter than the few that came out last year. And the production seems like it will be much higher this year, to the extent that we'll probably have enough to avoid having to buy any at all this winter.

I also picked the peppers (padron and Italian frying) although the plants still look capable of producing more fruit for a while.

I sprayed the bay laurel with the insecticidal soap about a week ago and it looks like it might have done the trick. The leaves are still crappy looking but I think the progress of the scale has been halted. It remains to be seen what the tree does from here.

The basil is still growing but that may not last much longer as they are getting pretty woody now.

Garden - July 14, 2012

Things are well under way now in the garden. We had to remove the large deciduous magnolia that was here since before we bought this place in the 1990's as it had gotten way too big for its britches starting to take over the entire yard hogging a lot of the sunlight in the yard and the nutrients from the flowers and vegetables. We're planning a nice small garden designed in the space it used to inhabit, probably putting it into place next spring.

Tomatoes getting there

Another view of the tomatoes

Chard and beets still holding up in the back, fennel, carrots and basil up front

I'm trying the pole beans on actual poles instead of a trellis. So far I'm not impressed.

Bought 2 zucchini plants and we got 3. Lots of squash this summer.

Thinning out the fennel and basil from the other bed, moved these here

The containers - added some marjoram, dill, and cilantro seedlings

Garden 2012-06-12

Lots to catch up on since the last post as it's a week before summer and things are really starting to pop.

Above are the current seedlings I've started - marjoram and cilantro in front, dill in the back. My idea is to stagger the dill and cilantro to seed every time I move the previous seedlings out which means I'll be seeding again this week.

These is where the new potting area will be once I get the gravel in. For now the mints are in front, behind are lemon verbena, chives, catmint, Greek basil, and sage L to R. We just potted the chives and basil last weekend which we purchased as seedlings at Berkeley Horticulture. The others were saved from last season which I repotted in March.

Here's my everlasting Greek oregano which seems to have finally stabilized. It didn't have a great year last season as I wasn't as attentive to it as I should have been. Even though it thrives in a dry climate, when it's potted it still needs to be watered and catered to somewhat I've found.

Mesclun and Butterhead lettuce still growing from the seeds in March.

Below are the three citrus trees: lemon, satsuma mandarins (a close up of the new fruit), and the struggling Bearss lime. I've been adding iron chlorate the past weeks to get the green back on the lime as well as feeding and watering it biweekly and the new growth seems to bear out the effort. Hopefully it will be on track by the end of the year otherwise I might have to try with a new one next Spring.

Below is the Bay Laurel. Like they told me it would take a couple of slow years before it would start to boom and now it has. These things will get to 40 ft if given the room to do so, I'll see if keeping it trimmed can help it live as a container plant for cooking.

Two zucchini seedlings we put in last weekend in the new bed. They're already thriving and the hot weather we're having this week should only help them continue.

Here are the first two potted parsley seedlings from the seeds I started in April. They should easily fill each pot and usable through the winter.

Never say die: two pepper plants I thought it would be fun to check out growing. With the lack of real hot weather for any stretch in these parts, we almost never have luck with them. Same with melons and eggplant unfortunately.

Below is the bed for the beans which the peppers and a couple of extra parsley plants are sharing. On the left is a row of bush beans which I'll add to for a second planting in a week or so. On the right are the two types of pole beans. We should be pretty sick of fresh beans by October.

Various seedlings - basil, fennel, carrots and lacinato kale. Kale is not a summer crop generally but we can usually get away with it as well as with chard with the coolish summers we have here.

The chard and a row of beets behind them. We've already thinned the chard somewhat for frittatas and dinners, more to go still.

Now the tomatoes. Notice the large cages used to support and keep them separate. I've been using these suckers for about 25 years and are indispensable for getting good harvests IMO. Along with deep watering 3 times a week, an abundant amount of steer manure, blood meal, and bone meal at planting time, I never fail to get a nice crop. Typically I grow a couple of early varieties, a paste tomato, an heirloom and a cherry tomato.

 Garlic harvest time!

Pulling out the early Russian garlics. These were all hardnecks, next year I'm going to only use softnecks as they're supposed to be better suited for the Bay Area climate. But these didn't seem to do so badly.

The thyme always looks so good in the winter and early spring I figured it just needs more water during the rest of year but so far it still seems to be not so good even with the care I've been giving it since the rains ended last month. We'll see how it goes.

More Garden Photos

End of May - garlic is getting close to harvesting and we're picking greens for dinner salads now.

 Garlic tops starting to dry out signaling the beginning of the end

 Beets, chard and arugula

 Mesclun, arugula, Bibb lettuce

Bay laurel leafing out

Spring Garden - Tomatoes

Here we are with the tomatoes starting to really take. Notice the cages I use for supporting the plants as they grow. I picked these up years ago from a cement company in Berkeley - rebar with wide apertures that can keep the plants upright through the season with easy access to the fruit as they mature.

As tomatoes are the most important planting of the year for me, I plan the entire season around where and when they are set. To avoid any diseases or pests from carrying over between years I move the tomatoes among the various beds in the yard from year to year making sure not to plant them in any bed that had tomatoes (or potatoes for that matter as they're closely related and can share diseases) within the previous two years. Prior to planting I completely turn the soil over and liberally add well-rotted steer manure to keep the soil friable. In the bed (8' x 4') I dig six deep holes, turning the soil in each with blood meal and bone meal, then plant the tomato seedling deeply covering the plant about 1/3 of the way up above the root level as roots will then grow from the portion of the stalk that is buried. The more roots the better. I then establish a moat around the plant so that water can collect when I water them without draining off. Since the best method of watering tomatoes is to water deeply but not too often, I typically flood each plant for about five minutes each 3 times a week. I want to make sure that there is enough water each time to reach as deeply as possible under the plant as that is ideally where I want to get the roots to grow. Watering too shallowly will promote more root growth near the soil surface and watering too often will not allow the plant to get a good dry period which it needs to alternate with wet periods.

 Costoluto Fiorentino - an Italian heirloom

 Roma - a paste tomato - good for pasta sauces

 Better Boy - early, the best bet for large-fruit in borderline fog climates

 Cherokee Purple - an heirloom

Early Girl - prototypical early fruit for this borderline foggy zone