here are some pictures that i took over the weekend and what i just took this afternoon.

the first one is of one of my watermelon fruits. (its just amazing how fast it grows!). the picture below was taken this past weekend. my hand is in there for size comparison.


this is the exact same watermelon as it looks today! isn't that amazing?! it does have a lot more growing to do, but its so cool! who doesn't like to see things grow and develop?


this weekend, i had a visitor that just hung around during the afternoon. it was a rather large dragonfly on a merlot grape vine.


with this picture, i was also amazed...i didn't think that our lawn's clay soil was able to be aerated. but the animal which did this (this is actually in the middle of our backyard lawn) sure seemed to do a good job of that. a gopher perhaps? or a mole? should i be worried?


these are two bountiful harvest grape tomatoes. it seems that i have yellow tomatoes growing among the heirlooms! i didn't know that. it was also very sweet and yummy! (i didn't know i liked tomatoes that much)


here is the "grape" (it must be some kind of plum tomato, due to its size) i harvested this past weekend. it was very tasty! i ate it raw with nothing else.


this is a complete overview of my harvest over the weekend.




and this is my harvest today. and this morning, i harvested 3 cucumbers and 4 zucchinis that i didn't photograph. whoa...i seriously have to find some cucumber and zucchini recipes! and also learn how to preserve them for later eating...(that's my next endeavor for next year)

a couple of days during the week, i take the train into downtown san francisco and my stop is at civic center. at that stop, just a block up, is city hall. has anyone heard of what is going on in front of san francisco's city hall?

well, a few local farms, victory gardens and slowfoodnation.org teamed up to create a vegetable garden on the grounds in front of san francisco's city hall. how cool is that?! Read the story here.

i just HAD to see this for myself, so i went there and i was really blown away by how wonderful everything was set up. basically they created raised beds by piling sacks filled with something (not sure what) in large circles, filling the bed within those circles with dirt and planted all kinds of vegetables and flowers. They had the classic set up of cucumber growing around the bases of sunflower plants which support the climbing bean vines that grow up its stalk. they had lettuce, kale, swiss chard, brussel sprouts, peppers, tomatoes(!) growing wonderfully and in very artistic displays. it was just beautiful.

i haven't been able to spend much time in my own vegetable garden the last 2 days, and seeing this just satisfied my need to see growing vegetables...not to mention giving me ideas on interplanting of vegetables. beautiful! if any of you are in the area of san francisco's city hall, please do go and see this. everything harvested from this garden will be donated to the san francisco food bank.

next week when i go back to that area, i will make sure to have my camera with me!

here are the pictures of my harvest from sunday (yesterday). zucchini and cucumbers and a side of soybeans.


zucchini, anyone?


yesterday, my husband and i also went looking for some native plants. they are much better acclimated to our california weather and heat and are known to be drought tolerant. i want to convert at least part of our front lawn into a more decorative garden, mostly with native plants. this will probably happen next year in spring, but i wanted to see what was available close to us. i found a great nursery online called Ploughshares Nursery in Alameda. they are a non-profit company that uses any money made by selling plants to go to supporting programs to help homeless people learn horticulture. they work at the nursery as they learn a trade. how wonderful!

anyways, we went there and i was blown away by a few things...first, around the entrance, they have a grape vine hanging along the fence and it has GRAPES on it. all over. beautiful! then, i saw LARGE winter squash growing on the vine (at least two HUGE orange ones), 7ft-tall sunflower plants with flowers bigger than 2x my head, beautiful tomatoes (still green) growing along side a healthy bush of basil, a large sprawling vine of passion flower along the back fence, and etc...it was just amazing. okay, moving along, we decided upon buying 4 plants...one is a native sweet pea type of plant (it is still very tiny. i saw a bigger version of it and i loved the foliage and flower so the guy went in the back and brought out a tiny plant and 2 seedlings of it for me), a sticky money flower plant (don't you just love that name?), a red salvia and another plant that has wonderfully small blue flowers. here are some group pictures.




here is an orange sticky monkey flower plant. it had the most interesting name, therefore it was actually the only one i remember the name for. only ater i touched the stems of the plant did i realize why it had the word "sticky" in its name. pretty, though.


here is a salvia that we bought too. very pretty, feathery, bluish grey foliage with hummingbird-friendly flowers.


for this one, i totally forgot the name. but it is already quite tall (i'd say over 2 feet) and the tiny flowers atop the long stems have a striking blue color.


after planting the broccoli, i happened to notice the shine of a marble lying amongst the freshly planted plot. i have found a handful of marbles in the right garden. im thinking that the previous owner used these marbles to help with soil aeration.


this photo leaves no doubt...the scalloped-edged seedlings ARE infact broccoli plants. look at that tiny "real" leaf. that looks EXACTLY like the leaves from the broccoli i planted earlier in the left garden, just on a smaller scale.


the zucchini forest still going strong, even after 2 major trims. like the cucumbers, they are also trying to "escape" out towards the lawn for more space.


after some flowers showing up the past week, i spied some baby green beans growing! look at them! aren't they cute? (i really had to use the macro setting on this otherwise you'd need a microscope! remember to click on any of the images to get a bigger version.)






the grape/roma mystery tomato is getting ripe! i think i will pick this today since i will not be in the garden very much the next 2 days.


on sunday, we bought 4 more trellises to support the growing grape plants. i realized that my tiny hemp string will not suffice when these plants get on in age. i don't know how large these grape plants will get but i won't let them take over the entire top garden...i think once they take up all the space on all these trellises, it's time for a trim! and where's the grapes??




the cucumber plants going strong...no problems with cucumber production. this one is turning slightly lighter green than the other one to the right of it. i wonder if it is being affected by the cooler air lately...




a wrap up with a picture of the pretty dahlietta...going strong with many new buds showing.

Ins and Outs

i had a lot planned this weekend. i did. and when i went out to my garden at 7:30am this morning, i found that there was more to do than i originally planned. okay this was my to do list this morning:

- work in the soil ammender, that i sprinkled on top of my cool crop plot #1.
- plant all the beets (i found out i have burpee's golden beets, NOT touchstone gold), broccoli and swiss chard seedlings into the plot (worked on above).
- prepare the cool crop plot #2 by dressing it with soil ammender and covering it with mulch to keep in the moisture.
- till the plot closest to the flower garden since i haven't touched that area yet, and work in some soil ammender and organic fertilizer to get some extra nutrients into that soil.
- find spots for the soy bean and bush bean starts and plant them.
- turn the compost and water it
- plant michihili, pac choi, red and brown onions, spinach and more of the broccoli and beets.

and the other tasks i added as i looked on my garden this morning:

- dig up the 4 soy bean plants near the zucchini plants (they were turning yellow and i think it was past their prime. once that happens, they are prone to fungus attacks and whatnot)
- prepare the area where the late amish tomato plant once stood to receive a bean plant.
- harvest (yes, harvest!) the ripe spitze tomato (yay!)

by 3pm, all these tasks were completed. yeah, i worked almost non-stop like a weirdo on a mission. it was great, though. i loved every second of it - even if it was occasionally filled with bouts of newbie stupidity! (but a good learning experience, i promise!)

to talk about my learning experience, i need to take you back in time when i started to plant my first seeds for the beets, chard and broccoli. i did a newbie no-no (learning experience #1) and didn't label my peat pots after planting the seeds. when they started sprouting, i have NO idea why, by i thought the leaves with the scalloped edges were the beets. in my mind i was 100% sure they were the burpee golden beets, so as i was labeling my second round of seed planting (aha! see, i learned), i took the time to label the scalloped-edge leaf plants "beets", and the ones with the green stem and two long narrow leaves "broccoli". the other one had the same kind of leaves as the broccoli, but had a reddish stem, which i labeled "chard".

well, when my second round of seeds started to grow, i saw scalloped-edge leaves growing out of one of the peat pots labeled "broccoli". my first thought (which had a very convincing "tone" in my head) was "sheesh, looks like i got some beet seeds in with the broccoli". but then later, in another broccoli peat pot, more scalloped-edge leaves sprouted...and nothing else. and then i looked into the pot labeled beets, it had plants with narrow leaves and green stems...THAT's when i realized...hm...maybe i am a bit confused. but i did label my plants correctly during the second sowing of seeds, so they must be right.

and i didn't realize this BEFORE i started planting the seedlings in the ground...nooooo...that would've been too convenient. i realized that AFTER all the plants were planted. and i was interplanting what i thought were beets with the chard and the broccoli! instead of having a row of beets between the rows of chard, i had BROCCOLI between the rows of chard! ARGH! so i replanted the beets and the broccoli. i just hope that my thought on chard vs. beets are correct. so far, i dont have new chard growing from the second set of seeds yet. ugh...anyways... so is the crazy life of a newbie. (and i HAVE learned my ways, i planted new seeds today and ALL of them were promptly labeled right after i sowed them in to each pot.)

anyways, onto my pictorial documentation of my day. *hiding my red face of embarrassment*

first off, the harvest:

my harvest...including the very first heirloom tomato picked fresh off the plant


the spitze tomato. i ate it with my toast for breakfast. very meaty, little pulpy seedy part. very delicious!


and here is the "grape" tomato i planted from seed. it sure is getting a really nice orange color to it. it should be ready any day now.


on to the planting...

my soil ammender (it is great stuff with organic humus and poop from various animals, including bats!), my organic fertilizer and an old trash bucket i will use to hold the mulch used on the plot.


my tools and the seedlings soon to be planted.


and here is the newly planted plot! i first removed the mulch that was on it and put it in the old trash bucket. then, i watered the soil down a bit to make it easier to work with. after that, i just started planting seedlings in the top left square (imagine cutting this plot up into 4 equal squares) and the bottom right. of course this is where i messed up the broccoli and the beet seedlings. but that's all corrected now. once some michihili and pac choi start to grow, i will plant them in the remaining squares and this plot will be all set.


here are some of the seedlings close up. (i actually fixed it before i took these)








in the foreground is the newly planted plot. in the back is the newly prepared plot, where i loosened the soil a bit (this plot was previously worked on a few months ago) and put an inch layer of soil ammender on top and another inch of much on top of that. then i watered the whole thing. the middle plot will be used during the third succession sowing of cool weather crops.


and here is the newly prepared plot with the mulch on it. just in case you don't know, that is a blue lake bush bean growing in the middle of it (also growing out of the plot i just planted with the seedlings). it will help bring nitrogen into the soil and help anything that grows near it to grow better.


this is the newly tilled plot. it used to hold my calla lilies, but i decided to move it up into the flower garden so i can have an extra plot to grow veggies in. i think i will make this the garlic/onion bed, since onions and garlic do not grow well near beans. i dug about 8 inches deep to make sure the soil is aerated, tilled in some soil ammender and organic fertilzer in there and watered it down a bit. later on it will be prepared like the other two plots before it gets planted with seedlings.


here is an overview of the two plots.


and as i was looking for a place to plant my bean seedlings (7 total), i saw something peeking through the back fence...do you see it?


here it is a bit closer up...


and one very close up to my eavesdropper. its some kind of squash/zucchini flower. it is smaller than my zucchini blooms, but when i peeked a bit around that area in my back neighbor's yard, there is what looks to be a large round speckled (dark green skin with speckled white/light green) squash! looks like im not the only one veggie gardening around here...nice!


so here is where i planted 2 of the 4 blue lake bush beans... this is nearer to the almond tree.


here is where i planted the other 2 blue lake bush bean plants, and 2 of the 3 soybean plants. this is where the previous soybean plants were planted. i uprooted them this morning as well and threw them in the compost bin (of course first removing the good soybeans from each plant). you could tell they were slowly dying after spending most of its energy in soybean creation (they were turning yellow, although i did not change the amount of water i was giving it nor was it a question of sun (we have been getting really great warm/hot weather here).


i just wanted to share this one with you because my carrots, in the background, are doing wonderfully! they are growing like weeds! i love it. after planting a few veggies, you come to realize that there are something you just need to plant a lot of - for us it is broccoli, carrots, onions, garlic, soybeans (for me) and one that probably will become one is lettuce.


here is a sugar baby watermelon getting bigger. it is about an inch in length and it is already on a vine that is hanging over the side of the top garden.


here are the newest sprouted seedlings - planted last weekend. the sugar snap and snow peas.


the broccoli seedlings planted last weekend. this is how i figured out that the scalloped-edge leaves were the broccoli plants.




and these are the latest seeds planted...spinach, brown onion, red onion, pac choi, michihili, some carrots and more beets.

I have been thinking about the cool weather veggie planting for a while now, and since this is our very first fall/winter crop planting (it is actually my very first veggie planting YEAR...so far so good *knocking on wood*), i am not really sure about when i should start planting them. i have just been itching to get started.

okay, so the zucchini growing in full force, the cucumber is following suit, the tomatoes....the TOMATOES are just STARTING to turn orange/red (the ones bigger than a marble), the jalapenos are producing like crazy and my watermelon plants barely have any melons to speak of except for things that look like melons, but are barely an inch long....but i do long to eat broccoli again...and the sugar snap peas...and some lettuce! i can't believe how outrageous the prices are for lettuce at the grocery store is. even at the local farmer's market, the prices are a bit high.

yes, i am SUCH a newbie. i just want to see things grow and produce. and while i do save some for us to eat - like i ate the last 2 harvests of soybeans by myself (oink) - i actually enjoy giving this produce away more. i guess its the people who come to pick them up are very thankful for them, some even drop off some of their own grown veggies/fruits (which is fantastic!).

and you are right, i am writing about thinking when im supposed to start all the cool weather crops, yet i have photographed seedlings of cool weather crops. i think i might have jumped the gun a bit, but i can label it a "learning experience" if none of these current seedlings produce anything edible. *aha! talk about a newbie scapegoat*

so, this weekend will be a full one of planting seedlings and trimming stuff. did i tell you that i trimmed my zucchini plants yesterday? yep! and i think i might have went overboard a bit. but hey, they grow back those leaves within a week anyway. i did forget to take before pictures, so you are going to have to rely on what it looked like last weekend. i will take an after picture when i get home today. oooohhh...and i get to turn my compost pile for the first time. i wonder how successful that will be....

anyways, the soybean and bush bean plants need to go in the ground. where? dunno yet. the beets also need to go in the ground. where? in that small plot that i prepared 2 weeks ago. i have to also prepare the next small plot dedicated to the cool weather crops.

i also counted the number of seedlings of broccoli i currently have growing...it came out to about 20. sheesh, what was i thinking? and there are also smaller peat pots that i threw more broccoli seeds in that have not yet sprouted yet. anyone want broccoli seedlings? they are the calabrese variety. for the swiss chard, i have around 10. i think this will be enough for the entire season, since you can cut as much as you want and leave the rest till when you need it and it keeps growing.

lots of beets, but then again, they don't grow more than one beet each, i may need a few of those. one of the snow peas i planted last week is starting to peek out of its peat pot...how exciting! these are used more in asian cuisine - the flat podded variety of peas. yum!

how will this all turn out? i don't really know. i've only lived in this area since the beginning of this year, so i don't even know when it starts getting cooler around here. this following week should stay in the high 70s. we'll see. maybe i should start documenting the temperature each day i post something to keep a record of this during the year.

see you all later.