June 18, 2016 - end of spring

The summer plantings are well under way. The weather has been rather temperate this spring - mostly in the high-60's to the 70's in the daytime with no real heat waves so far. The lows had been in the mid-50's but in the last week has started to come up to about 60°F again as it had been the past couple of summers. I think the endless weeks of foggy evenings and mornings that had always been typical of the climate here are starting to become a thing of the past as climate change progresses. If the past couple of years are any indication, it will remain like this through October, not that the peppers or tomatoes will be complaining about that.

Box 1 was completely turned over last month for the zucchini and the beans.

Box 2 has the tomatoes which have been greatly outperforming those of last year. I think the winter rains this past winter along with 2 daily hand waterings along with a weekly 60 minute soaking from the drip irrigation is to be credited for this. It may be that the weather has not been nearly as cool this Spring as it had been in May-June 2015.

Box 3 still holds the onions which I am pulling as we use them. I harvested the last of the garlic a couple of weeks ago. They seem to have done a lot better this year which is at least partly due to the rains in the winter as well as the fact that I was able to plant them in October rather than January. They were starting to develop a rash of yellow 'dust' on the leaves in the middle of the patch. This may have been due to the plants being placed too closely as well as keeping them watered through to the middle of May. I removed the worst plants early but the rash may have developed too late to ruin the crop as they seem to have survived it ok.

Box 4 - the peppers, save for one, have been growing ok and now that the weather is stabilizing warmer they should do quite well from here on. I'm having problems getting the greens started from seeds again. When I prepared the box I left a layer of bagged steer manure as a dressing and that may have caused an issue for the seeds. I've tried a couple of seedings again but still not having a whole lot of luck. This may be a mixed blessing as the ones that have grown are doing very well which may be from a lack of crowding.

Box 5 - the herbs are mostly doing well. A couple of dill plants I put out succumbed to a plague of aphids but so far seedlings are coming through. The chervil plants died back quickly so I seeded some but only a couple came up and only because they're shaded. I've been diligent about trimming the oreganos and thymes which seems to have helped quite a bit.

The container herbs are all doing well. I've only been watering them once a week but may have to increase as the temperatures warm up.

I repotted the bay laurel as the soil level had gotten quite low and the tree was starting to look stressed. Unlike what I expected though, the tree was not root bound but adding a few inches to the soil level was not a bad idea. The only shock I could determine was some dieback in the tips of the highest leaves. Although bay doesn't need a whole lot of water, it's still important to keep a potted one watered at least once a week.

May 11, 2016 - Mid-spring

First post since returning from our month in Spain and Portugal. There was significant rain while we were away, at least for April. Things were pretty much booming when we returned which meant quite a bit of clean up the past couple of weeks. I turned over the soil in Box 2 for the tomatoes the last week of April and Box 4 for the new salad greens, beets, and peppers this week.

Box 1 still has the left over salad greens from the winter. I only kept the irrigation running for the beets on the west end of the box but the rain apparently kept the rest of the box growing. I'll be removing the beets next week and turning the soil over for planting squash and beans. I got a sampler of Italian broad and thin beans from online to plant.

Box 2 has the new tomato plants. I set it up for irrigation with two feeders for each plant with 360° shrubblers at the end of each then set the station to run for an hour 3 times a week. However immediately I was less than impressed with the results. Even with .2 inches of rain last weekend the plants were starting to look like the ones last year when I first tried watering with irrigation. I went back to forming 'bowls' around each plant and the shrubblers were putting out water ok but something was just NQR. As a result I'm planning to simply water by hand like I always have with such great success. One possibility I considered was that perhaps with the boxes being so high above the native soil the roots were having a hard time making use of it as they would have a much longer path to get down to it. But now that I've watered by hand a couple of times, I'm almost convinced that those plants with deep rooting really need to be manually cared for given the quick results I've seen already. The poor performance of the squash last year with drip would bear this out as well. So for now I'm not going to use drip for the tomatoes or squash except if I am out of town for more than a couple of days which probably won't be likely through growing season.

Box 3 - the onions and garlic are starting to look a bit waterlogged so I've turned off irrigation here too. It's getting near harvest time anyway so I think it's best to starve them of water now to prepare for the tops to die back.

Box 4 just got a new crop of peppers and seeding of salad greens, beets, and basil. I won't be seeding kale and chard until closer to mid-summer for the fall, perhaps trying some cole crops as well again then. Note the netting structure to keep the cats out until the plants are established.

Box 5 - herbs are doing well for the most part. The chervil plants have died back already, perhaps due to the fairly significant rain the past couple of months - they really don't seem to like too much water and dampness.  A couple of lettuce volunteers really grew through April so we've been whittling away at the for salads while opening up the space for the growing thymes and oreganos which have also done very well along with the sage, marjoram, and chives that have replaced the ones in Box 1. I planted a few more parsleys and trying to get them established.

March 28, 2016 - Early spring

March kicked in with a bang with good precipitation, at least for the first two weeks. We had about 150% of the total average for the month by the 15th, definitely appreciated in these parts. The effect of what has been basically a normal season of rainfall this year is quite obvious, especially after the past 4 years of an extreme drought. All the plants that struggled to get established and flower last year have really come alive. Hopefully we can continue with this in subsequent years. It looks like that's about it, though, April doesn't seem to be very promising but we should be able to get through to next winter ok at this point.

A couple of photos for Boxes 1 and 2 - first from March 17 then the others from today.

Box 1 had radishes, arugula, beets, lettuce, mesclun, Russian white kale, and broccolini. Everything did well except for the broccolini which didn't time well with the warm, dry February and cold damp March. 

I removed the radishes, arugula, kale, and broccolini in preparation for our holiday tomorrow. The beets will have a chance to grow over the next few weeks.

Box 2 had an older growth of beets, greens, Lacinato kale, chard, and sugar peas. Everything did quite well.

 I pulled the peas yesterday and am leaving these beets to grow further through April as well.

Box 3 still has the garlic and onions all of which have been growing well. However there are flower stalks coming up from some of the onions which I've picked. And there are signs of black aphid infestation on the garlic leaves. I expect more onion flowers but not much I can do there while I'm gone. I soaped the garlic leaves pretty well a couple of times the past week and blasted what remained with a hose today. I'll probably soap them once more tomorrow. Hopefully that protects them for a while. I haven't seen any flower stalks coming up on them yet.

Box 4 is a bit cleaner now. The parsley's about done but the marjoram, thyme, and oregano are doing so well it'll be hard to clean this bed in May. Their replacements seem to be doing well in Box 5 though, so may not be so tough to give up.

Box 5 is doing well for the most part. I pulled the original cilantro plants and the seedlings are doing well. However the dill seedlings never got going and the original chervil died in the rain. I replaced the chervil with 3 plants. I'll reseed the dill in May hoping they do better in the warmer dry weather.

February 22, 2016

February has been a dry month this year, El Niño notwithstanding. Apparently there is plenty of activity over the Northern Pacific but a fairly persistent ridge over the past several weeks has been blocking any of it coming in at this latitude or lower. Seattle has had record rainfall while So Cal has hardly had anything. Over the past couple of weeks meteorologists had been hinting at/hoping for signs of storm activity resuming again in March but now that seems to be dissipating altogether. Oh well, still an improvement over last winter but I'm thinking we're going to just have to get used to a new warmer and drier climate overall and adapt to it.

I started up the irrigation again a few weeks ago with a short break for last week's rainfall. Now it's running again until if/when we get any further precipitation which at this point may not happen until next Autumn. I think I'm getting the idea now, letting the raised bed stations run for 60 minute 3 times a week. Since the drought-tolerant material in the yard has now been established, they'll need only infrequent irrigation if any which saves more water for the vegetables which require regular watering.

First harvest of winter peas

Cilantro seedlings in Box 5

Dill seedlings in Box 5

Isis guarding the onions and garlic in Box 3

A full harvest in Box 2 of greens and the peas

The next generation of greens seedlings coming up in Box 1

Butter lettuce and broccolini

Beets, mesclun, Russian white kale

Radish and arugula from the left

February 6, 2016 - mid-winter

Mid winter here now, just in time for the 'El Niño' rains to subside for a while perhaps even end? So far we've received about normal rainfall for this time of year although compared to the past few years it seems like a lot more. Unfortunately there is no longer any rain on the horizon for the foreseeable future and the coming week promises temperatures up into the 70's. From my experience here in the Bay Area, the chance is always open for an early end to the rainy season altogether, hope sincerely not is not the case this year. Regardless, I'm starting up the drip irrigation again tomorrow for the first time since the end of October.

Box 1

Radish and arugula seedlings in front.

Beet seedlings just coming up to the left, mesclun on the right.

Close up of the beet seedlings.

Lettuce up top, broccolini plant below

Box 2

Peas are flowering ready to set fruit

Box 5

Parsley, cilantro, chives, dill

Oreganos, thyme, chervil

January 23, 2016 - chard

First chard harvest of the year - from seeds planted in October 2015.

January 22, 2106 - pea blossoms

Even with all of the cloudy days and rain we've had for the past couple of months, we're getting our first winter pea blossoms this week. Forecasts call for a dry week ahead of the next batch of El Niño storms the first week of February. To take advantage of the break I'll be seeding and transplanting then.