Major Garden Update

Whoa! It's been a busy couple of weeks around the yard, and around town. I wanted to share a few of the highlights and a garden update with you, so grab a drink, maybe a snack (yep it's that long), and enjoy!

I first read about the Bay Area Maker Faire on Homegrown.org, and three weekends ago I took the boys (DH included) there. There were a wide variety of things going on, and something for everyone. We all had a really great time, and I'd love to go again next year. Here are my two favorites...

UCCE Master Gardener's Strawberry Tower, made of two 5 gallon buckets. You may be seeing one in my garden next spring... ;-)

I had just discovered these guys online, and here they were, in person! Absolutely love the concept...

On 5/26 I planted my Bush King acorn squash.

May closed out with high winds, making many plums go splat...

Over Memorial weekend we exchanged the cool weather at home for sand castles at Santa Cruz/Seabright Beach...

I almost stepped on this guy when we walked out of our hotel room at checkout time. No joke, it was the size of my thumb!

And, this morning, the yard and it's inhabitants looked happy to finally have a week of warm weather...
The Concrete Garden...

Raised beds and flower garden...

The Container Gang...
Clementine in the back left with nasturtiums, White Habanero's and Baby Belles in the way back (melons and tomato in the green SWP). In the second row is another Baby Belle, two potato plants, and a cuke. In the front are two more potatoes.

Charantais melons and Tumbling Tom (between petunias)...

Bush Slicer Cukes...

My poor, abused Meyer... It hadn't been doing well, and then I made things worse by doing a few things; extreme temp fluctuations, too much moisture retention due to me mulching the soil, and under fertilizing then over fertilizing (slap my hand) to correct nitrogen deficiency. A lot of very yellow leaves were blown off. I flushed the soil several times and removed the mulch, and it seems like it's finally recovering. I'll try to prune heavily when pruning time is here, and continue to cross my fingers.

The good Meyer news is that I've had several successful pollinations! I counted around 25 fruits that are plumping up (I doubt that many will make it).

Garlic, Charantais melons--two of three have started climbing the trellis. I pulled the third plant, and was going to replace it with the Thai Hot Chili plant behind it, but I noticed the melon's roots hadn't broken through the newspaper pot it was still in in the ground so I tore the newspaper off and replanted. I think it'll recover. (Darn! I'll have to make another SWP for the chili plant). A random basil on the right, and Purple Queen bush beans in front.

The tomatoes are doing well. I haven't seen any signs of Early Blight in almost 10 days. It's been 16 days since I treated them, and I'm hoping I won't need to again since I was told by my Organic-Guru-Nursery-Guy at OSH that any flowers that haven't set fruit go sterile when sprayed. Oh yes, I added two more random basil here too.

The Pearson (the one in front) is the first to fruit...

Despite the temps getting into the 90's this weekend, the salad table is doing well (See the random basils in the back right? LOL). Thank goodness for cool ocean breezes making it all the way over the hills to Pleasanton!

There's borage on the left side of the box... Ah, the beans... I started my beans in newspaper pots, and then I ripped most of them out because they were doing horribly. I don't think it was completely the newspaper pots' fault (although I'm still skeptical because of the scrawny melon plant). I just think I should've direct sown.

A few of the original bean plants that weren't doing too bad now have beans growing...

The Acorn squash (and a random basil) love their home...

Phew! Just a few more. The end is close! ;-)
Not a very good pic (I was running out of time this morning), but the plums are getting big, and there are a lot more than I thought there'd be.

Fire blight has returned to the Comice Pear tree, and I haven't seen a single fruit growing, although the foliage is really thick from the pruning we did last year after fire blight stuck.

I call this "Bird Food," DH calls this "Teasing." They're just too high for us to reach.

If you've stuck it out, here are a few flowers for you:
The one CA Poppy plant I've let live, and only because I appreciate it's ability to grow in this tiny crevice behind the AC unit.

PS Not pictured are three new random plants I bought that need homes. Can you guess which random plants I bought? LOL I don't know what this sudden fascination is...

Container Garden Update

It seems like spring is bringing out the busy bees, and busy me's! Between all the activities going on around here, and me being in the mood to do some heavy duty spring cleaning, this here blog is getting pushed aside... Isn't that always the case?

I did have the chance to get outside on Monday, clean up a little, and take some pictures, so here's an update for you.

I fed my Meyer on the 8th with 1.5tsp of Espoma Citrus-tone, and 1tsp Blood Meal (nitrogen), hopefully erring on the side of "less is more." The leaves are starting to look a little better, and the blossoms are opening up.

My Clementine is also blooming...

Just look at these ratty cilantro under the kitchen window! I wish they'd hurry up and give me some seeds already...

At least their blossoms look pretty (up close LOL)...

Here are my bucket potatoes. In the green buckets are the first round I planted on 2/1, and the white buckets were planted on 2/28. Guess I started the first round too early... All other signs of fungus gnats around the yard have disappeared except in these buckets. I've been using Neem and a BT when possible, but it's been a tough battle trying to dry the soil out when it's been raining almost once a week. So, they've spent the last 24 hours in the shed to stay dry while it rained yesterday. I noticed the fungus gnats don't really even leave the space between the leaves and soil, so I've also loosely bunched and tied the leaves up and strategically placed a fly trap close to the buckets. If this experiment fails, at least I've learned a few things... Regardless, I'll be trying potatoes in containers again next year, just in larger containers.

The new setup so far...

The citrus were to the left more, the salad table was where the trees are now, and I had the cilantro and potatoes where the SWP peppers now are. The citrus will move to the west side of the patio once it gets warmer to be shaded in the afternoon, and I'm pretty sure all of the SWP's will be moved to the east side of the yard. The pepper's soil temp is already getting 10-15 degrees warmer than the air, so they'll fry if they stay in this south-facing spot all summer.The lavender plants in front of the Meyer will go in the ground soon (I'll share in a later post). I just have them there in hopes of attracting bees to the citrus. And I know, I know, I need to get my baby Calamondin in a larger pot.

I know that was plenty of pictures for one post, but I have to post this of the boys playing well together. They're checking out a roly poly...

Have a great day!

Citrus Tree Purchases. I Couldn't Help Myself!

Last year I discovered the Four Winds Growers Nursery is only 40 minutes west of me. Between then and now, I'd been able to thwart my desire to purchase more dwarf citrus plants. I told myself I had to get my Meyer Lemon tree repotted and healthy before I brought any mates home for her (yea, it's a "her." Men give their cars a gender, why can't I give my tree one? She does bear fruit ya' know. Har. Har). Seeing Thomas' new trees certainly didn't help my self control. After all, he grows his trees indoors! I wanted more too (wining). Hmph. Why shouldn't I have more trees (stomping foot). We have the space out back...

Well, my self control and restraint pretty much dissolved after I repotted my Meyer. I didn't go to the nursery, exactly... I only ordered a plant from them online HAHA! I figured shipping was cheaper than the cost of gas and schlepping myself and toddler into Fremont. Last week my delivery came, and tucked perfectly inside was a one year old Calamondin tree. Although a sour citrus variety, I chose this one because it can bloom year round.

After reading about Thomas' unfortunate indoor aphid attack from bringing a contaminated set of plants inside, I immediately looked over my tree. And a good thing! There were early signs of scale growth on a few leaves. I removed the scale, sprayed with Neem Oil, and placed outside on the opposite end of the yard from everything else. So far no signs of additional scale have appeared.

Each time I stop by OSH for gardening items, I stop by the citrus section (also all Four Winds trees). The selection never really intrigued me. A few grapefruit, Lisbon or Eureka lemons... But the last time I went, there were different plants there. Now, if there's one thing I know about decorating or creating art, it's that you should always have an odd number of items on display. So only having two potted citrus trees is clearly unacceptable. To prevent a garden faux pas, I bought a Clementine Mandarin tree. We eat clementines like they're goin outa style, so I just had to get it!

And now my citrus trio...

My Meyer doesn't look as healthy as it was two weeks after repotting it. I found a good resource for discolored citrus leaves, and nothing that I can see seems to match the color/discoloration of the older leaves (the new leaves look great).

I'm hoping it's because of the cold weather we had last week, and the 40+ degree difference in day/night temps... I'll feed later this week with a weakened citrus fertilizer just in case.

Alright! I'm off to get my peppers in their SWP's, and my tomatoes in the ground.