Finally Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

Wow! It's hard to believe I haven't blogged in a month! Time has gone by too quickly...

The day we returned home from our two week vacation in VA, the LO ended up with croup (I'm still extremely happy he didn't start his barky cough on the plane!), and as soon as he started recovering, I came down with a nasty cold turned sinus and eye infections with laryngitis, and now Boy Wonder is sick. I sure hope this is all we see of the sickies this season!

The next few days my posts will be focusing on updates around the yard. Today I'll do a mostly pictorial post of the growth and changes that have occurred to the plants I blogged about on 10/8. DH was kind enough to take pictures on 10/21 while I was gone.

SFG, right side

(back to front) Lantana, Green Arrow Peas, broccoli, radishes

 10/11

10/21

10/31

Today
(the line in front of the peas will be carrots)

SFG, left side
(back) Lantana, Garlic, Texas Grano onion (front) French Red & Dutch Yellow Shallots, Lettuce mix, and Musclun mix
10/21

10/31

Today

Cantaloupe

10/11

10/21

10/31

Today

Right raised bed
Sweet potatoes, musclun/lettuce mixes, carrots
10/21

10/31

Today

Dwarf Meyer Lemons
 9/23

10/5

11/7

During my next post, I will talk about the changes I've made to my garden plans, and a few issues I've been having around the yard.

Almost Done With Fall Plantings! (long post)

Well, all, I did it! It's finally cooled off consistently enough, so I went ahead and got the rest of my cool weather plants in the ground yesterday! Now, my downfall could come if we have a last heat wave, or if something happens in the next two weeks while I'm gone. Yes folks, I planted everything a few days before we are due to leave on our long awaited two week trip home! I'll either return to dirt or I'll be welcomed back by a lot of green babies in my garden! Let's pray for the latter, k?

I'm taking a relaxed approach this season to the "square foot" method, because my "feet" are more like 10 inches. As you can see below, I measured the plant spaces as I laid everything out before planting. My plans have changed a bit from my original chart, and I'll post an updated one when I return from our trip to VA.

Here's what went in the left side of the SFG. Top: CA Early White Garlic; Texas Grano 502 Onion seedlings. Bottom: French Red Shallots; Dutch Yellow Shallots; Musclun mix, and Lettuce mix seed mats.

The instructions that came with the garlic said to plant them 2" deep. Since I'm absolutely horrible with estimating measurements, I marked a dowel and used this to confirm I pushed the garlic deep enough.

Covering the seed mats... Like last time, I removed the needed amount of soil instead of adding it on top of my mats since my beds were recently filled. Like the dump truck? HA! I just grabbed whatever was closest. The air may be cool out, but the Cali sun likes to cook ya', so I was working fast!

 I didn't thin a lot of the TX. Grano's as they were growing indoors, and it was getting late, so I'll thin themm after they prove to be happy in their new location. I've been acclimating them this week, but I'll shade them in the afternoon until we leave.

The Green Arrow peas I planted on 9/30 began sprouting yesterday (not pictured, but also sprouting are the lettuce/mesclun also planted on 9/30. One carrot has sprouted, the rest are taking their time).

Below the peas, I planted 4 "squares" of Waltham 29 Broccoli, and below the broccoli I planted my radish seed mat strips. I may plant another set of radishes above the broccoli when I get back.

Lastly, I was about to give up on my cantaloupe earlier this week, and rip them out because I didn't see any melons growing, but at the last moment, this caught my eye! It was totally camoflauged by leaves, the lucky duck! I've placed a piece of foil beneath it to keep it off the soil, and to help reflect light onto it since my neighbor's ginormous trees are casting longer shadows on my raised beds.

Alrighty! I'm off to pack our bags!!!!!

Decisions, Decisions...

For a few days, I've been testing the soil temperature in my beds to see if I can start sowing seeds. I've discovered that my two raised beds along the patio are about 20 degrees cooler than the SFG along the house. I was originally going to start my fall crops in my SFG but I've decided to end there, hoping that by the time I'm ready to plant there, it'll be cool enough so the soil won't reach 100 degrees! Today I added soil amendment and grass clippings to the right raised bed where my watermelon and sweet potatoes were residing (I ripped the watermelon out a week or two ago). I've been going back and forth on whether to keep or chuck my sweet potatoes since they haven't been growing, and finally ripped them out today. Here's what had grown: The long skinny one in the middle is about the length of a new pencil. But, I just couldn't trash them! So, I put them back. HAHAHA! Who knows what they'll do now that they've been disturbed, but I just didn't have the heart to let them go! Also, when I put them back, I put them on the left side (vs the front, where they were) so I can start my carrots and lettuce on the right. In addition to my sweet potatoes, I've also decided to keep my cantaloupe for a while longer because they've started growing again, and are finally producing both male and females. I was able to hand pollinate 3 this week (one, however, was chomped on by a slug, and won't make it). I tried googling how long it will take the fruit to complete growth from pollination to maturity, but couldn't find anything. Anyone out there know this? On a side note, I'm starting cardio kickboxing classes next week. It's not an aerobics class, mind you, but full blown kickboxing! I'm totally crazy for doing this, as I've never done any kind of martial arts, let alone been that active in about 15 years, but I've always wanted to do something like this, and finally got the nerve to sign myself up! Here's the LO testing out my gloves... Cheers!

I knew something like this would happen...

We went camping in Bodega Bay for a few days, and something happened while we were gone... A female watermelon bloomed! Oooh, I'm all turned about inside. I wasn't here to make sure this lady was pollinated, and now I have to sit around with fingers and toes crossed! I guess I'd be doing that even if I had ensured pollination, just waiting to see if it would be healthy and grow... Male watermelon flowers, waiting for mates that won't appear in time... Patience seems to be paying off with these peppers so far. There are 3 healthy looking (gasp) bell peppers on the front plant. Since it's getting close to the end of the season, I'm leaving the Fresno's on the plant to turn red. 4'x2' cantaloupe bed. All three are blooming, and only males have bloomed, but I think I spotted 2 females this morning. Now the trick is getting them blooming at the same time! Do the melon's leaves seem small? The Meyer lemon blooms from last week died, but there's already another round going. The interesting thing about these blooms is their size difference. The blooms up until now have been small, like those seen below. See that big one though? There is another set of all large blooms like that one. Maybe these will do some growing. I cleaned up and reorganized the shed yesterday. This was an unplanned project (I have yet to do any planned projects ugh), but I needed to do it before putting the camping gear back in the boxes. Thanks, Boy Wonder, for helping make a quick job of it. I don't have a before picture, but it was a mess. The boxes were under the shelves, and bags of soil and folding chairs were in front of the boxes. I could barely get to anything on the shelves, or into the boxes. The shelves still need to be tidied up, but it's great being able to walk straight up to them. During our trip to Bodega Bay, we stopped at Candy & Kites for salt water taffy and a kite to fly on the beach. I wanted a windmill for the garden, and Boy Wonder chose a ladybug. A few pictures from the trip... These wild orchids were growing all along Route 1, and down the hillside to the beach. There was also a beautiful variety of succulent but I forgot to take a picture of it. Dad helping Boy Wonder get his kit up in the air. It took no effort at all because of the constant breeze. It also only lasted about 30 seconds before Boy Wonder decided digging in the sand was much better than a self flying kite! Cheeze! Boy Wonder took this... He's got a great eye for a 7yo.

Finally Seeing Green!

This was my first "substantial" harvest, on or around June 30th. A lot of garden bloggers out there are weighing their harvests, and I think I'll do that this fall... For now, my harvest is small enough that I can count what I get! LOL 9 Green Fresno Chili's - I've really enjoyed these, and have been our most useful vegetable so far. I've added them to pizza and ramen for a little zip. We've also grilled them, and added to our steaks and burgers. Having these chili's have been great because DH and I like things spicier than the boys, and they're small enough to dice up and add to our individual meals. 25 Green Beans - I have two varieties growing; Kentucky King and Greencrop. I picked 9 today, and the rest are in the picture above... I steamed those, and split between the boys and I for dinner (DH worked late, so he missed out). Boy Wonder really enjoyed them. We both agreed that they're a lot sweeter than store bought beans. 7 Clemson Spineless Okra - I'm clipping 1-2 of these every other day or so... I've been cutting and freezing these without blanching. I'm hoping to have enough before too long to make some fried okra. Here are a few pictures of what the garden was doing on July 4th... The blooms on the okra truly are magnificent, but I have mixed feelings about them because they only last for one day. This is good because it means I get to enjoy the okra that much faster, but I also wish I could enjoy the blooms a little more. I don't get to make it to the back yard every day, and when I do, the blooms are typically on their way out. It's really hard to tell yet, but the cantaloupe are growing. Hopefully they'll pick up some speed, and produce a melon or two before the end of the season. I planted my watermelon on June 19th, and they are taking off! These are called, "Family Fun" watermelon, which I was told is an heirloom variety (yay me! I'm growing somethin' old school). Behind the watermelon are my sweet potatoes. I think they've been taking their sweet time establishing their roots--but that's ok! That's where the potatoes will be! I did notice a new leaf forming on one of them, so there's proof of growth above ground too. I'm pretty sure these are going to turn into long skinny potatoes, which happens when there's too much nitrogen in the soil. And, I think there's too much nitrogen in the soil because it's a brand new bed... We shall see!

A few Days of Work

Few! It's already Wednesday! With the LO being sick, Boy Wonder's last week of school, and working in the yard, I've forgotten to blog... This weekend DH built my 2 2'x4' raised bed (RB) frames (yea, I "let" him lol just kidding honey). He also went the extra mile for me and leveled out the ground for the beds to go on. It's good that he did that instead of me... He's very detail oriented, and had a level out n' everything. I would've just eyed it, thrown some dirt down here and there, and gone about my business. The RB on the right will have my sweet potato slips growing in another week or two... As I was filling the bed, I decided to try the "dig and drop" method of trench composting. My pallet compost bin isn't doing very well (yet! I won't give up!), and I was tired of storing food scraps in my freezer so I buried them at the bottom of the empty RB. LOL I felt like an animal burying my food... Oh wait. I am an animal, and I was burying food. Doh! The box on the left has my cantaloupe and unhappy marigolds (suffered heat stroke from sitting in containers on the concrete). The cantaloupe already look a lot happier not being crammed together! This weekend I broke off a few SP slips and placed in water. They're not very big, as you can see, they're sitting in standard size shot glasses. I noticed the slips still growing from the SP have taken off, and almost doubled in size since removing the below slips. DH and Boy Wonder had a little fun picking cherries from the tree. Someone at GardenWeb let me know we're growing a sour cherry tree. And sour those cherries are! Whoa! We won't get enough to make a pie or anything, but the boys still had fun... I wanted post this pic because I think it's so darned cool! Again, my GardenWeb gurus let me know this is a parasitoid wasp resting (or parasitoid-ing) on a bean leaf. Before borrowing Garden Insects of North America from the library, I'd never heard of parasitoid wasps, so it woulda' been a goner! I love that book... I took daring action with my Yolo Wonder bell peppers on Monday, and separated them. They were doing perfectly fine sharing the container--my best growing plants so far in fact, but I had an empty container after moving the cantaloupe, and decided to separate the plants to give them more growing room. The existing fruits appear to be doing well, but a few buds have fallen off. The roots were pretty compact, and filling most of the container, so I think they'll be happier now... I pulled up a radish to see how they were growing, and it was all leaf, no root. I proceeded to tear them all out, tear the leaves into shreds, and put the shreds back into my empty squares (the ones previously holding broccoli). I read somewhere to do that with the leaves... don't know why though... In those squares, I also planted my okra seedlings. Lastly, my cherry tomato plant is growing like crazy, and has it's first buds. "Oh, neat" I flatly thought when seeing them... I don't like tomatoes, so am rather indifferent about their growth.. But I'm growing a tomato plant, so don't be a tomato hater hater, ok?!?! ;-)