December 12, 2015

Checking in as we move into winter. I'm leaving everything alone for the remainder of the month as I'm waiting until after the solstice to set new plants and seeds. It very much looks like we're going to keep getting rain this year, such a difference from last year when we had high and dry days even into the 70's through the solstice and into January. We did have those two storms at the beginning of Dec 2014 but the storm door shut with a slam after that. This year I've shut off all irrigation since the beginning of November. Hopefully it can stay off until well into Spring 2016.

In Box 1 we're still getting broccoli florets for the dinner table. They are getting slim but I think we might be able to pull one more harvest before pulling the plants. The remainder of the box is all overgrown now but waiting until I am ready to completely redo the bed before taking everything out.

Box 2 is progressing nicely. I've been diligent about making sure we keep thinning the herds for eating so that this box doesn't overgrow like Box 1 did.

Box 3 will hold the garlic and onions through the spring and into summer for the harvest in July with some pickings for green plants in around March. All of the garlic has come up now. Took a while for many of the plants to do so.

November 28, 2015 - late autumn

Late autumn has arrived, the entire month has been cool to downright cold with a reasonable amount of rain for a change. The produce has quieted down a bit so just an update today of the current status here and there.

I planted the garlic back on October 17, rows 1-4 here. See post. The shoots in row 4 (from the left) came up within the first week while the others have staggered along with a different shoot finally popping up in the weeks since. Even today there are new shoots just appearing now. I'd been concerned that they were not all going to succeed but apparently each one has its own timing.

The basil is finally succumbing to the cold (34°F-45°F) evenings and mornings of the past week or so. I got one last harvest for a pesto a couple of weeks ago but even then the taste wasn't up to what we get in the peak of mid-late summer.

The broccolini plants were planted from a nursery 6-pack back in August. We started harvesting the stalks back in mid-October and have been picking from them since periodically. I'm finding that as long as I leave enough of a stalk with a side shoot from every cutting, more will keep popping up afterwards. I've done about 4-5 harvests in the past 6 weeks with more to come, each one yielding at least twice of what we can use in one dinner. Well worth growing since the flavor is far superior to even the best of what I've seen even in farmer's markets.

The performance of these two thyme plants in the herb box are pretty perplexing to me. They did well last winter and spring and grew quite a bit. During the dry summer after months of no rain, they started showing signs of stress even with the regular drip irrigation that helped the basil and Mexican oregano to boom. I started hand-watering by July to get them through and it really seemed to help. However for the past several weeks they've both been slowly dying back to the extent that I'll need to replace them soon. Maybe they're too crowded with the nearby marjoram. The thyme I've been growing in a container has done ok and I'm using that for cooking now. I'm thinking that maybe they just need to be replaced periodically but less than a year seems a bit premature to me.

After almost losing the Bearss lime to the drought last summer, the regular irrigation I gave it over the summer and autumn with the tree bags seems to have brought it back to life. I removed the bags at the start of this month as the rains started arriving and with it looking like more is in store for us over the next couple of weeks, I'll let them go for now. I got some blossoms last month which have now translated into a few fruit. Hopefully they won't drop this time if the plant keeps getting water.

November 4, 2015 - winter is coming

Just as we passed into November this past weekend, we are suddenly leaving summer, hot weather, and forever drought. We had a substantial (for the Bay Area, anyway) rain (almost 1") all day Monday and the nighttime lows have gone below 50°F for the first time since April - not too shabby. Forecasts call for more rain the next two weekends and then some after that so maybe El Niño is finally kicking in.
After 4 dry winters, the rain was so glorious it was amazing. The plant material in the yard immediately perked up and I was able to kill the irrigation, at least for a while.

Meanwhile the garden beds are being reworked to meet the new season.


Box 1

I planted everything way too close and didn't keep tabs on it. The broccoli has done very well but the beets were buried, the greens overgrown, and the kale and chard got moldy from a lack of air circulation. My wife has been picking from the greens regularly though so we've had plenty of them for salad every night.

I've gotten 3 harvests of broccoli for dinner and there's more on the way. Now that I've removed the kale and chard, I may replace them with a few more broccoli plants to get us through another month or so. Box 2 has a fresh seeding of greens, beets, kale, and chard which should keep us good for a while.

 Box 2

I planted a couple of rows of peas along the eastern edge and seeded the rest of the box with radishes, greens, beets, kale, and chard. I'm keeping a close eye on everything to keep them from crowding as happened in Box 1. I've also noticed the problem with the pea sprouts that I had in the spring (someone is snacking on them) so covered them with netting to keep them protected until they've grown a bit.

Box 3

The garlic and onion transplants are progressing nicely. The only question is about sunlight as this box may get as little as 4-5 hours near the solstice.

Box 4

The herbs are holding their own for the time being. The cold temperatures will eventually get to the basil but they're still doing ok for the moment.

Box 5 

I pulled the remaining carrots last week. The basil and peppers are hanging in there for the moment. The only row left that needs to grow is the fennel which has been coming along.

Citrus 

There are hardly any lemons remaining. I've cleared out the rotted ones and there's only a few that are still usable. There are quite a few flowers and green fruit but may not be reliable for picking for at least another month.

The satsumas are close to being mature. The tree looks a little straggly but considering they've only received the piddling from the irrigation all year, not doing too badly. Hopefully a good wet winter will revive the tree for next year.

I was able to save the persimmon tree using the large green bags for watering twice a week along with the stakes used during irrigation. This is the first of 5 fruits the tree was able to produce. Hopefully more next year.

October 24, 2015 - Herb Box

Now that I've been through the first growing season with the new raised beds, time to reassess the 'herb' box, Box 4. The idea was to maintain this bed for perennial herbs as opposed to either growing them with seasonal vegetables whose beds have to be periodically refreshed and refilled with soil and nutrients or growing them only in containers where they have less room and opportunity to fully grow and thrive. I wanted to experiment with various herbs to see how they grew and progressed and to evaluate how much I would use each one in the kitchen.
Over the year the box held parsley, sage, chives, oregano (Greek and Italian), marjoram, Mexican oregano, and thyme. In addition I added a couple of basil plants to guarantee that I would have some in case the seedings in Box 5 didn't germinate and grow.
I also had a plan to seed both cilantro and dill in successive seedings to always have some available. That worked for a couple of plantings but then the third seeding never took. Another victim to overcrowding I'm guessing.

I've found myself using the thyme, marjoram, chives, parsley, sage, basil, and dill the most. Here are the plants as of this morning:

This thyme in the corner did very well all year until the past couple of weeks when it suddenly started losing entire branches. I haven't figured out the cause but it may be from overcrowding, age, watering (too much or too little). If a severe pruning doesn't ameliorate the situation I may just replant this winter.

The marjoram started out ok but then started dying back until I added some hand-watering this summer. It has since rebounded but has been crowded out by the neighboring basil and Mexican oregano 'trees' that have taken over the middle of the box.

The second thyme plant that has survived but never had the room or light to thrive. It also has died back suddenly at the same time as the other one.

The chives did very well but has overgrown somewhat over the past month. It was suddenly besieged by some tiny critters causing the plant to wilt significantly. I severely cut it back this week and sprayed it with oil to see if it can be salvaged. Another plant that may have to be replaced this winter.

The Mexican oregano took over the middle of the bed and has grown into a small tree. It has thrived but since I haven't used it at all I'll replace with one in a container to have around when I resume my Mexican culinary adventures.

Both basil plants, especially the outside one, exploded this summer after a slow start in the cold Spring. Like the M Oregano, it's become something of a tree. With the healthy plants from seeding in Box 5 and the fact that the flowering has taken it over, I may just remove this before it gets hit by the winter weather.

The Italian oregano was moved from the container it grew in over 2014. It survived but never really thrived probably due to overcrowding. It had some trouble in the early part of the year until I started hand-watering it.

This is the Greek oregano I had kept in the wine barrel container for several years until moving it into this box in January. Like the Italian oregano, it has survived but needed to be rescued with hand-watering at the start of summer. It too may have been hampered by overcrowding of the basil and M oregano.

The sage has done remarkably well. Once I remove the basil tree neighbor I'll trim it and see how it does over the winter.

The two parsleys I planted last winter did extremely well but died back in April. I added these to have some for the kitchen but they haven't thrived nearly as well. These also had to be rescued with hand-watering this summer.

The takeaway for me is to re-evaluate what herbs I've relied on in the kitchen and to replant the box accordingly. Since nothing here is irreplaceable I may have to completely replant with perhaps saving a couple of them while I do. I also will be concerned about overcrowding which I seem to have been guilty over the year.

Since all of these can easily be replaced, I may schedule to replant each winter and see how that goes. This will keep the soil healthier, guarantee the nutrients, and give me a chance to reconsider what to grow each year.

October 22, 2015 - Onion Planting

Best time I've heard to plant onion transplants in these parts is about December but since GrowOrganic sent these this week, I figured I better get these in the ground now as they won't last more than several days otherwise.
I planted two rows each of two varieties: Red Burger and Walla Walla, left to right. I prepared the rows each with blood meal and bone meal. I trimmed each onion to several inches on top and about 1/2" on the roots. I set the transplants to just where the bulb was as they tend to grow with the bulb just at the soil surface. It's easy to plant too deeply so I'm pretty careful about this. The plants are about 3"-4" apart in rows 12" wide.
I watered them thoroughly after planting and will keep them hand-watered until the garlic shoots in the west end of the bed have pretty much come up at which time I'll start the drip going. My idea is to allow the drip to be a backup to general rain and hand-watering during dry spells this winter. Supposedly El Niño is going to bring significant precipitation but after the past few years I'm not too encouraged yet.

October 17, 2015 - Garlic Planting

Last year's garlic harvest was less than usual as I wasn't able to get them into the ground until the boxes were built and filled with soil. This year I'm planting at the optimal time for the Bay Area, mid-October.
Spanish Roja, Italian Purple, and California Early White occupy the first 3 rows from the left, the fourth row is a mix of the Spanish and Italian. Yesterday I turned over the soil in Box 3 (home of this past summer's tomatoes) adding steer manure and replenishing the Local Hero then watering deeply. Today I've planted four rows, 12" apart, of cloves staggered within the row diagonally about 3" apart. Before planting I dug in both blood meal (nitrogen) and bone meal (phospherus) then planted the cloves top end 1-1.5" deep. No watering today and will not start doing so until the shoots emerge. The remainder of the bed will be dedicated to the onion transplants I'm expecting to be delivered this coming week.

October 11, 2015

Now that I've been through 10 months of growing season with the new raised beds and backyard configuration, I've had enough experience to help drive my approach in the coming years.

Herbs: The 'herb' box I established in Box 4 showed me which herbs I'm likely to use more than others. I'm going to reformat the box to hold the herbs I use on a regular basis - parsley, thyme, marjoram, oregano, sage - and relegate the others to pots. For instance, the Mexican oregano has become something of a shrub and I rarely find a use for it, at least so far this year. The basil has performed magnificently but the oregano is still having trouble filling out. The first planting of parsley was fantastic but subsequent ones have been weak as was the case with both cilantro and dill. The sage has done very well, it's filled out well without overgrowing its spot.

Greens: I still tend to over-plant in some cases especially in terms of greens. This isn't so bad if I am constantly thinning out the greens and using them while I do but if I don't so for just a couple of weeks, things can quickly get out of hand.

Garlic: I planted these late although the plants did pretty well. However the yield was somewhat disappointing. The bulbs took a long time to develop and not all of them did in the end. And what I've harvested has already started to rot quickly. I think this was a combination of the late start and the lack of rain in the earlier part of the plants growth.

Tomatoes: Next year when I plant tomatoes, I'm going to use my old method of establishing wells for the new plants, water them by hand for a few weeks to get them going, then work in the drip irrigation to eventually replace the hand watering with an eye on the progress of the plants as I do so. This past year I basically just relied on an arbitrary schedule for the drip to see how that would go and the results were less than stellar. Of course the unseasonably cold and overcast conditions of the Spring didn't help in getting the plants established either but there's not much to be done with that. What a weird year of weather we've had.

Peas: These also had a slow start and also something kept eating the seedlings as they would pop up so I had to replace them a couple of times. But the yield was good. The plants would quickly get mildew though. Another one to keep an eye on as the harvest can overwhelm a bit.

Beans: I scheduled bean planting to grow 4 different varieties in 4 different seedings with each seeding having one group of each variety. I also relied on the drip without any hand watering and, like the tomatoes, the first seeding had difficulty in getting started. Once they did, some varieties out-performed others and shoved them out by competition. Also it's good to remember that the beans will practically show up out of nowhere and, in the case of Romanos especially, will quickly over-mature to the extent that they are no longer edible. They're fantastic if you pick them at the right time but that time passes very quickly. And as you really need to look through the plants to find the beans, they can easily be overlooked. And the beans will go for longer than I'd expected so I'll anticipate that next year.

Carrots, celery, chicory: All of these performed well but in my use of them in frequency and taste, I didn't find that growing them, given the effort and space, was warranted.

Peppers: These had a hell of a time getting started (Spring cold) but once the weather improved in June and with the constant warm evening temperatures since then, they've done very well and should continue to do so until (if we do) get cooler temperatures and (could it happen?) rain.

Basil: Amazing yield this year, especially considering the trouble I've had with it the past few years.

Zucchini/squash: The two plants had a problem with blossom-end rot. Apparently this could have been due to the watering as with the tomatoes. Next year I'm going to take the hand watering approach with it to establish the plants and then work in the drip over time.

Broccolini: These take up considerable space but the yield has been good both in the winter and now in the fall. As the photos will show though, with our short trip to Chicago this past week, the stalks have quickly bolted. Another plant that can easily get away from you. So even though we've had one good meal, I've trimmed as much as I've harvested. Still more to come though.

Box 1

The broccolini has been getting away from me as I haven't had the chance to harvest quickly enough. But there's more to come from them. The greens were overplanted again but I've been thinning them out so there's been plenty to get from them.

Box 2

I pulled the squash a while back as it seemed we got what we were going to get. The beans are still growing but more sporadically. I've stopped watering it to conserve but next year I'll have a better idea of what to expect and how to deal with them.

Box 3

I pulled the tomatoes out a couple of weeks ago (Sept 27-29) and am going to prepare this box for garlic in the next week. Hopefully the box will provide access to enough sun in the autumn sky for the plants to get established.

Box 4

I'm going to reconfigure the box once the rain(?) starts to meet the requirements I have for my cooking as I detailed above. Too much Mexican oregano and not enough parsley, oregano, dill, or cilantro here.

Box 5

Lettuce, fennel, peppers, carrots, basil.