Great Online Find!

In my pursuit to find blogs of gardeners in my area, I found a great live video feed of a hummingbird's nest through An Alameda Garden.

You just have to check this out! What a beautiful hummingbird. I just watched the mommy fly in and feed her little chick!

http://cam.dellwo.com/

Enjoy!

Spring Is On It's Way

An unwelcome guest is trying to hide.

  

  

Between left and right raised beds. There are chionodoxa in addition to more crocus that should be coming in soon.

 

Baby Earwig. The nice thing about the cool weather is the bugs are slow. 

The LO holding a cabbage worm that fell from the peas.

 

First pod!

  

  

Have a good weekend!

Lucky Number Seven

I was looking at this picture I took a few days ago, and didn't even notice his legs until just now! This guy was hanging around my habitat for fungus gnats (ie cilantro).

Please click to see this odd beauty.

First Harvest of 2010

Last night I snipped enough lettuce from the salad table, and a bit from my right raised bed for 2.5 side salads (the .5 being Boy Wonder's mini salad). I also pulled a few of the radishes growing there. I finally grew radishes! Only took me three tries. HA!

My harvest:

They're still teeny little things, but at least I can say I've grown them now!

 

 The carrots and peppers are store bought (for now!)

 

The LO tried a slice of radish when I showed him the pink (pink is the one color he can identify 100%), and promptly spit it out, running off screaming "Eeeew! Bugh, Mommy!" Boy Wonder said he didn't like them, but had no problem finishing them.

I'm very happy with the taste and growth habit of the Summer Crisp Lettuce. I've already sown more seeds in my left raised bed. The French Breakfast radishes are rather bland compared to the few store bought kinds I've tried. I wonder if it's the variety... I'm leaving the rest of the radishes in the table for a while to see if they get bigger, and if the taste changes.

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!

Distracted by Beer!

I will update everyone on my garden changes soon, but first I wanted to share a few bits of something I love. Beer!

I've been having issues with slugs eating my carrots and lettuces in my right raised bed, so I decided to do the easy remedy of placing small bowls of beer out. I've been very successful since I started a week ago. The first few nights I had between 10 & 15 slugs between 2 bowls, now I'm averaging about 5 a night. Then, the other day I came across an article over at Plants That Produce discussing the "pesticide" in beer which kills slugs and snails. Here's a quick excerpt:

"Now some gardeners put beer out in trays or cans to attract and kill slugs at night. But you know, the production of beer involves those very processes and sometimes the same chemical salts that are used in the manufacture of pesticides and fertilizers."

"Iron phosphate is a naturally occurring mineral that is beneficial to plants and animals but deadly to snails and slugs. You can buy iron phosphate pellets under the brand name Sluggo at local nurseries or in bags marked pet safe snail pellets at big box stores. No one should worry about using iron phosphate to control snails and slugs. It is in most human vitamins, pet (mammal) vitamins, and plant fertilizers."

So, needless to say, I went out and bought some Sluggo... Now I won't have to go out every evening and pour one for my slimey homies, and now I won't have to rush outside to empty the bowls of dead beer-swollen slugs before the LO gets to them.

Now my second interesting beer find...

BEER SOAP! HA! This just cracks me up. I may need to get a few bars for stocking stuffers this  Christmas...

Looking through a few of their selections, they offer soap made from some pretty yummy draughts like, Sammy Smith Nut Brown and Guinness.

So, if I use this soap, will I leave the shower smelling like I just left a bar?

Ok, now I will work on more pertinent topics.

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!!!!!