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

Tomato Planting

Planted the summer tomatoes yesterday - Better Boy, Early Girl, Sungold, Costoluto Fiorentino, Roma, and Cherokee Purple. 

Note that the shade offender is from a neighbor's tree - he has graciously offered to prune the branch that steals the late afternoon sun as it literally hangs well over our property line. This bed is the most precarious in terms of light due to being between two large trees but I think with the pruning we'll be getting at least 7-8 hours of direct sun.

I turned over the entire bed a few weeks ago with a couple of bags of steer manure and added a good amount of blood meal and bone meal to each hole when planting yesterday. I've been using the cages for about 25 years now and always start the seedlings with a large bowl around each to capture the water to get them started. We'll be out of town for a while soon so even with a friend watering while we're gone I want to get them as ready as possible before we leave.

Spring Is Here!

Now we get the rain, sopping wet since the middle of March and now well into April after a bone-dry winter. It's even threatened the respective home openers of the A's and Giants, fairly an untypical situation to be sure. This is the third year in a row that we've had rain extend well into the Spring months. It's all good as we really needed the rain, not only for the drinking water from the mountains but also for local gardens as watering can never substitute for the real thing from the sky.

 Arugula seedlings - seeds planted on April 7

 Mint growing - replanted last month in the rain

 The Greek oregano is looking healthy indeed

Greek bay laurel re-potted into a large wine barrel. Tag says it can grow to 40 feet!

I was finally able to get some seeds in the ground last weekend. Sown beets, chard, salad greens and lettuce, and radishes. Although it's very sunny today, we've had a cold front come in last night, accompanied with thunderstorms, and it's only in the mid-50's at best. It's looking like it will climb up to the 70's by Sunday and will remain dry and mild all next week so hopefully I can get the tomato seedlings into the ground this weekend with the hope that by the time we travel back East in a couple of weeks, they'll be well on their way. I also started some parsley seedlings in a flat on the porch.

Hoping to add a pot for continuous cilantro seedlings, some fennel and a few more things shortly.

Spring Is Near!

Getting to the be that time of year with the vernal equinox just around the corner. Since my last day at work in January, it's been bone-chilling cold, hot and very dry and just the past several days, tons of rain so a bit awkward to get started in the garden. I finally got underway yesterday repotting the 3 mints (spearmint, peppermint, chocolate mint), the sage and the lemon verbena.

Here's a view as things looked yesterday as it kept raining continuously from last Monday night until late last (Friday) night. There were no real gully washers, just steady moderate rain every day and every night. A big boon, since otherwise it's been a pretty bone-dry winter this year - we really needed some considerable precipitation.

Next up, completion of preparation for the new raised beds, bay leaf tree transplanting, hedge cutback, vegetable seeds, and yard cleanup.

Brussels sprouts update

Now we're talking. Here are some photos taken last week of the plants just prior to the rain we had over the past few days.

And here is a harvest that we'll use for dinner tonight.

Meanwhile here's a photo of the Satsuma with some of its flowers.

And peeking through the foliage is - voila - an actual fruit. And unlike the couple we picked last winter, this one was quite sweet and tasty. With all of the flowers we're seeing this year, we should start having decent harvests starting next winter.