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...

Have a Bloomin' Great Friday!

Spring is here, oh yeah! Spring is here, uh huh! Doin' my special dance moves up in here (yes, I dance like that)! Woot Woot!

Comice Pear Blooms

Chionodoxia Blooms

Camellia Blooms (in the front yard)

Have a great weekend!

Pearfect!

I wasn't sure when the best time to pick the comice pears off the tree would be, but after seeing a few drop this week, I thought today would be as good a day as any.

I took the time to weigh the fruit, and today's harvest totaled 27.7 pounds! Oye ve!

The smallest pear weighed in at 2.9 ounces, the largest (in the middle of the pic below) came in at 12.7 ounces.

There were also some downright uglies in the mix...

Now the predicament is what on earth to do with the bounty! After reading that comice pears are best eaten raw, I've decided to go against that advice, and try baking with them anyway. hmph. We just aren't big pear eaters, but I really want to use these guys up. I'll blog about my pear usage adventures (or misadventures) in a few weeks after it's all over. ;-)

Off topic, I thought I'd share my flowers with you. DH and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on Sunday, and the sunflowers he gave me are still blooming strong. Aren't they perdy?

Harvest Monday picked on Sunday and Tuesday and posted on Wednesday

HA! I think that title made me realize I've had a little too much coffee, and not enough food. I see more and more of the blogs I read joining in contributing to "Harvest Monday," (hosted by Daphne's Dandelions) and I actually had stuff I harvested on Sunday with intentions of contributing too, but didn't get around to posting about it! Doh! Anyway, here are the goods... On Sunday, I picked all of the ripe cherry tomatoes, and made doubly sure that DH brought them in to work on Monday. He ate most of them for a snack, and gave a few to someone who loves tomatoes. The tomato lover confirms that they were good tomatoes. LOL I also picked a few pears to see how they'll taste. Yesterday I went to work on the SFG, and decided at the last minute to rip everything out. Here is what I harvested before the destruction began (tune in on Monday for carnage pics). My three bell peppers ended up with the same rotting/scorch marks as the one seen in the picture... They were pretty small too. At least I had a good turnout of chili's! I hadn't planned on using anymore okra because I didn't think I would get enough to do anything with, but there were more out there than I expected. After I tore everything out of the SFG, I made a mix of Bumper Crop Soil Amendment (since I don't have any home made compost *yet*), fresh and dried grass clippings, bone and blood meal, coffee grounds, and added this to the existing soil. I've tried to take all the information I've read about fertilizing and amending soil, and putting that info to work. Alas, it just seems so complicating to me that I'm crossing my fingers with this mix. I did a few soil tests two weeks ago with a home kit, and my results showed very low to no nitrogen. This is why I added the coffee grounds, blood meal and grass clippings. Let's hope I didn't overdo it! So guilty! While I was mixing everything in buckets, the LO got into the SFG, and started throwing dirt everywhere. I, of course, grabbed the camera and clicked while I disciplined. Check out how tall that zinnia in the background is! He kept getting into the bed, so I gave up on that battle, and handed him a bowl in a fruitless effort to dissuade him from throwing the dirt out of the bed... Boy Wonder started 2nd grade yesterday. He had a great day, and is excited to be back in school. Dad and I were both sad to see how fast it's all going by, but are so proud of how big he's getting!

Fruitiliciuos!

With the exception of snipping off an okra pod every day or so, and a few more green beans, it's been pretty quiet in the back yard the past week & a half. I was able to get about 10 more beans from my plants, but I think that will be it for edibility. The rest of the beans are pretty curled (we're talkin' 360* here), are smaller, and lumpy (seeds). I am concerned they'll taste the way they look. Funky. Here are a few sweet & spicy developments: My Dwarf Meyer Lemon tree has finally settled into it's new home. I moved it to the west side of the yard where it enjoys spending it's afternoons in the shade of our neighbor's trees. Hopefully we'll be able to enjoy some lemons from this round of growth! I counted 8 buds that are close to opening... On the east side of the yard, our pear tree is bursting with fruit. Well, the part of the tree that is still alive... I don't know why, but this spring after the fruit started growing, the top of the tree just shriveled up and died! I noticed this occurred where the tree had previously been trimmed (by someone else, not us!), and the new growth is what perished. The orange tree is finally producing some sour oranges. Here's a cluster of fruit that is much smaller than what we harvested last fall/winter. Hopefully they'll taste as yummy! My Fresno Chili's are still growing strong! Look at the red one I discovered at the bottom of the plant. DH and I might be fighting over this one! My cherry tomato plant is about 4 feet tall, and producing more and more fruits, but none have turned red yet, so I won't take a picture until then... It just looks like any other green plant right now. lol I've had a visitor hanging around my SFG today... It's a Gray Hairstreak. I love butterflies, and since I haven't seen many around here, this was a welcome visit. Wait a minute... I did some reading on gray hairstreaks, and now I think I know what's been helping the grasshoppers put holes in my bean leaves! Looks like they like my okra too (it's in the hibiscus/mallow family). That's ok... They're a welcome bug in this garden.