Pictures - Part Six

Tomatoes (I am growing a type of cherry tomato and san marzano tomatoes), and strawberries (everbearing - Sequoia and another one that starts with a "Q" - the name eludes me...)

Zinnia, marigolds and alyssums border the tomato/pepper patch in the north garden.


Beautiful calendula flowers - self-sown.

Pictures - Part Seven

Lavender and Calendula flowers (north garden). Beautiful combo.

Apples (Early Summer) growing on a 4-species apple tree, and a European plum (I've been waiting for fruit on this tree for 2 years!). Update: I actually found that I have two (!) plums growin on that tree...I can't wait to see how it tastes!




Overview of the apple (far left), dwarf nectarine (nectazee, middle), and european plum (right) in the north garden. (cherry tree, far right - technically in the east garden).

tada..

forgive the pulled out woody herbs to the right...

more images to come as time allows.



(feel free to click on the image above to view a larger version).

Note: I grow my veggies/trees/flowers/plants on the outer edges. Since we have a child, we would like to keep our lawn space for play space for now. But I do have an eye on that space as raised bed areas....

No Pics ?!?

What's up with posting no pictures?!?

um...cuz I'm lazy...?



yep, I'll work on that this weekend.

the return of the garden jugger-whatzamacallszit

Yeah, I was back in the garden this past weekend. I finished planting most of the north garden (all that it is missing are some bean and okra plants, which I am currently trying to grow). I then WEEDed out the entire east garden (near the back fence), loosened up the soil in the two areas around the grape vines (not really double-dug it, but just loosened the top 6 inches or so and worked in some compost and organic fertilizer). I then realized that on the right side, I have enough room for 2 "plots" that are about 4' x 7' or so. So now I three plots total in the east garden.

first plot i planted my corn (golden bantam). i plan to also plant bean plants and charantais melon from my seeds.

second plot i planted squash zucchini (two veggies in one???) and japanese cukes. (more bean plants to be planted here).

third plot...i haven't planted anything in this one just because i never planned on having that extra space. not sure yet what I want there...suggestions? this area is near the almond tree.

all the plants I planted have been bought from nurseries - mostly small local nurseries...I just don't have the patience any more after watching my first batch of seeds being started in mid february (which i gave away). :-/ i do have some zucchini, beans, melon, and okra seeds that i am trying to grow, but only because they grow rather quickly.

am i going to continue to have this boost of energy going for this coming weekend? I still have the entire south garden to weed out, double dig/loosen up and ammend, and plant. what am i planning to plant there? i don't actually plan to plant any veggies there...probably a cover crop and some flowers that attract beneficials. maybe i'll use it for late summer planting of broccoli.

still lots to do, but i got at least 2/3's of it done!

A productive weekend

Last weekend I was a garden juggernaut...okay, spelling might be if-y but you know what I mean.

After coming home from my family trip to Germany, I was highly motivated to start full-force with my vegetable garden. Being away from the garden for over 2 weeks, the weeds were really coming back in with a vengence! I WEEDed the entire north garden (left side), double dug the two plots I have for veggies (both are about 2ft x 5ft), mixed in some organic fertilizer and soil amendments, and started planting - 4 cherry tomato plants, 3 chive bundles, 10 pepper plants (2 anaheim, 4 sweet bell, 4 jalapenos), 6 strawberry plants, and a sprinkling of basil, various lettuce, and cilantro seeds in between. That is all in one plot. And I still have 4 san marzano, 3 chive bundles, and a sprinkling of some other kind of seeds, as well as planting marigolds and seeds of other types of flowers (i don't know what yet) to be added to this space.

The second plot will have 4 eggplants, a bunch of bean plants (i've already started the seeds), and I don't know what yet.

Since I gave all my seed starts away before I went on my trip, I am starting anew. Right now, I've planted bantam corn, 5 different beans (blue lake, garbanzo, tendergreen, royal burgundy, dragon langerie), 3 different soy beans (shironomai, black jet, envy), cucumber, zucchini...and I think that's it. I still want to plant my charantais melon seeds, and some flower seeds to get some color into my garden. Yes, it's going to be a whirlwind gardening project again this weekend. I have to WEED the east garden (the part against my back fence), buy more soil amendments, and try to better plan what goes up in that area. oh, and i have to finish planting my north garden.

the following weekend will be to tackle the south garden (right side) - WEEDing, double digging and planting. If i stay on schedule, I'll have everything done and planted before June comes around. yay! I just feel a little late on everything, and I can't work in the garden during the week because my little 1-year-old is quite clingy when he comes home after a day in day care. Which is okay. I can recoup till then and plan more.

I'll probably get started on more seeds during the week - at least after he goes to bed. :-)

I have an excuse...I promise!

Sorry for not posting for a while. It's not because I haven't done any garden work (actually, I haven't, but I'll get to the reason why). Just 2 days after my last post, I found out I had pneumonia. I have been out of work for 2 weeks. People out there....PLEASE stay away from pneumonia. It's one of those awful things that you should definitely stay away from. If you have a cough AND high fevers (around 102 - 103 degrees F), go to your doctor and test for pneumonia - they can hear it by listening to your lungs and with a chest xray. I took strong antibiotics for a week and my follow up with my doctor shows that I am pneumonia-free! yay! but, it will take another week to get the antibiotics out of my system (I breastfeed, so this means that my son will be drinking from my frozen stash for 2 weeks!), and another 2 - 3 weeks to get my full strength back.

BUT, I have been occasionally tending to the seeds that I planted, and they are screaming to be transplanted - either in a pot to get bigger, our out into the garden. I will try to get to this, this coming weekend. I have to decide which ones go into the garden, which ones go into pots for now to be planted later in the garden, and which ones I will be donating to my son's school garden.

Seedlings I have so far are tomatoes (sun sugar, speckled roman, black cherry), zucchini (eight ball, a dark green type and a yellow type - don't know the name), squash (a yellow one - forgot name), suyo cucumber, burgundy okra, soy beans (black jet, envy, shironomai), charantais melon, cilantro, italian basil, peppers (anaheim, jalapeno, yolo wonder bell), beans (garbanzo, blue lake bush, dragon langerie, another red type). I think that's it. Oh, and I also planted some eggplant, but I unfortunately didn't label that and I don't know where I planted it (along with some tomato plants and bean plants...yes, I know....I lazy!).

Plus I have to bake more bread (I have been baking my bread since the beginning of this year)...we only have a few loaves left. If I have the energy for it, that is. If not, we'll have to buy some for now.