Harvest Monday, and More Planted

This weekend was satisfyingly productive. Sigh... Beautiful weather, happy boys who listened and played well, and accomplishing a lot in my PJs. Yes, the proof is in the PJs... This is how I meander into my garden most weekend mornings... T-shirt, flannel jammies, and socks (maybe that's why so many of them have holes).

The alliums are coming! The alliums are coming! Quick! Run for your knives!

I removed the onions (Texas Grano 502) that I started from seed on 8/7/09. I didn't want to pull them just when they were starting to plump up, but I needed to get my melons in the ground. Ya' know? I'm not too sad about it. They produced something! Including the greens, they weighed in right at 4 pounds.

The largest one is a little smaller than a tennis ball...

I also pulled part of my California Early White Garlic. These were also small of course, but they're a little lumpy, so it looks like I have something usable. These weighed in right at one pound.

Geez, they look big in these pictures, but they're not...

Fortunately, I have ten more left that will have the chance to get nice and plump...

In the picture above, you can see that 3 of my 5 Charentais melons are set to grow up the trellis. In front are more Purple Queen beans. I'm not sure how well the beans will produce... They look pretty scraggy. The last two melons will go into an 18 gallon SWP  when I finish this post.

While I was amending the soil for my melons and beans, I found this beast...

Last week I received an order from Park Seed Co. of flower seeds along with a packet of heat tolerant lettuces. I've complained in the past about mixed lettuce packets because I don't know what I'll end up growing, but I got these after I went through Park's heat tolerant lettuces and my basket was full of most of what was included in the mix anyway. Although it's late to get a new round going, and I'm more than likely going to end up with bolted greens, I wanted to give it a try. So, I mixed up some soil for my salad table (40% peat, 40% compost, 10% perlite, 10% vermiculite, fertilizer & some lime), and planted the pre-sprouted seeds. The table will receive first light, and then about 2 hours of sun around 11-1pm.

Each week Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions hosts Harvest Monday. Check out her page to see what other's have been munchin' and crunchin' on this week.

Starting 2010 With Rain, Growth, and Blogging

First, thank you to those of you who contacted me to make sure everything is ok, and to those of you who have encouraged me to get back into writing. After being gone for two weeks back in October, I fell out of the writing and gardening groove. Having the holidays thrown in there didn't help much either! One of my New Year's "Do Better's" ("resolutions" seems so extreme, and tend to drop by the wayside faster than "do-better's") is to get back in that groove!

So, here's what have been growing around the garden. I have two sets of most pictures. The first of each are from 1/11, and the second from today, after we've had a week of rain (gasp).

Below: Salad table, and current hot spot for producing life! Left (sown 11/5): Summer Crisp Lettuce. Right, back to front (sown 11/23): French Breakfast Radishes, Short & Sweet Carrots, loose-leaf lettuce mix.

Cilantro. After all the rain, I have fungus gnats--bad. I drilled more holes at the bottom, and will treat with BTi once the rain tapers.

SFG, right side: Peas and broccoli, and hidden behind the broccoli, under the peas are carrots. The carrots were more of an experiment after my carrot seed mats sown in my west-east running raised bed failed due to lack of sun, and slugs. The peas are taking up so much more space than I anticipated. I added a wire "fence" to try containing them, then I added more trellis string I had and tried tieing them back, to no avail...

At least the peas are beginning to bloom.

My broccoli is beginning to flower! YES!

SFG, left side: Looks like a bunch of weeds, yeah? Garlic and onions are in the back, with soggy onion scapes taking over the empty spot on front right. Shallots in the front left. I dug down in the dirt to see what's happening, and nothing is happening. Nothing to match the growth on top at all. I'll give them until April when tomatoes need to go in (yes, tomatoes, but more on that another time) to show me they're worthy, or they're gone.

 

The orange bush/tree is doing really well. This year there are a lot more but smaller fruits growing than last year... Interesting...

My hyacinths and crocus' (croci? hehe) are coming up. Early I think? They aren't very picture worthy at this point since the flowers that haven't been decapitated by slugs are spread far apart...

Hope you've enjoyed!

PS Many thanks to Mom and Dad for my new camera! Now I just need to learn to use it to it's full potential!

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!!!!!

I'm a blog slacker

Well, fellow gardening bloggers, sorry for not posting anything in a while... The garden has sort of taken a back seat for me with preparations for Boy Wonder starting 2nd grade on Tuesday, and trying to squeeze in a few more activities before summer break is over. We've also had our 1 year anniversary of moving to CA, and it's had me feeling a little down and out. The garden would normally kick those bummy feelings, but I haven't been gardening! It's too stinkin hot, and I'm too busy for it! The good news is, there hasn't been a lot going out there... I finally got around to frying up the okra I'd been stashing. I chopped and froze about 1.5 sandwich bags worth, and ended up making way too much for one sitting. Now I know that next time I grow okra, I can probably cook about 1/2 that amount at a time. I don't know that DH and Boy Wonder will be glad to hear that since they didn't like it a lot. The LO and I, on the other hand, scarfed the fried okra! Then again, I've got southern blood runnin' through my veins, and the LO eats almost everything. He's been the one eating the cherry tomatoes, in fact. I tried them, I promise, but I didn't like them! Blegh. I served the fried okra with BBQ chicken topped with grilled Fresno's. So yummy... This is the lone giant purple zinnia that grew from the 6-10 I planted on June 1. The first picture was taken 10 days ago, and I thought I'd caught it at the end of it's bloom, but it turns out it was the beginning... the second picture is from today. The zinnia has filled in nicely... Here is my first watermelon. She's still growing, but growing sorta crooked. I think this may be the beginning of the end for her. I recall reading a blog or forum post somewhere where melon's that weren't fertilized grow for a while then die off, and I'm jumping to this conclusion due to the funny growth. The good news is, I ensured these ladies got some lovin'. Teehee The one on the left was pollinated 3 days ago, and the one on the right was done today. Here are my Texas Grano 502 onions. I started them on the 7th, and they began sprouting on the 11th. I have them growing in a 2:1 combo of Miracle Gro Seed Starter and vermiculite, in a plastic container that salad greens from Costco came in. I also started my first round of Waltham 29 broccoli (3 square pots) and Red Acre Cabbage (circular pot) on the 13th. It took the broccoli 4 days to begin sprouting, and the cabbage 6 days. They're looking a little leggy so far... Hmm... I guess there have been some things happening around here after all! I'm feeling a little better now... Yay!