GAAAHhhhhh

*Composure...*

Okay, ask me how my gardening goals went. Did I meet them all? Um...in short, no.

Did I get a few done? Uhhh....errr...no. I couldn't say that.

Did I get at least one goal done???? Well,....if walking out into my gardens to view what is going on counts as one of my goals....darn, I didn't list that (will have to remember that goal for next weekend). Then no.

Not a single darn garden goal was met. I am ashamed. I am embarrased.

But I'm okay. I have a few veggies in the ground (that &#*!& squirrel better stay away!!!), 1/2 of my garden is still (for the most part) weed-free.

A few personal things came up in the family (no bigge, worrisome things) which hindered my garden work. But I did get to do some cooking...baked a few loaves of bread, and had a small early St. Patty's day celebration with some Irish soda bread and Irish chicken and dumpling stew, both recipes from allrecipes.com (I love that site).

I started baking bread before I got pregnant due to the fact that we ate 2 loaves of store-bought bread a week, which averaged about $5. $5 X 52 weeks = $260. And my company was reducing my pay so we had to think of ways to save. with my bread recipe, it costs me less than $3 for 6 loaves (each one weighing a little over 1lb). So I am paying about the same to make 6 of my own loaves as I was paying for 2 store loaves. Plus, I know what is going into my loaves - whole grains, whole wheat, no oil - just the good stuff.

Goals for this weekend

My goals are multiple, and maybe impossible, but one can try!

1) double dig the north garden
2) turn my compost pile (that I haven't touched for almost 2 years!!!)
3) add compost to the north garden
4) WEED the south garden
5) direct seed more broccoli, lettuce (more on that later)
6) WEED the east garden

If I can accomplish all that, I definitely will need to think of an excellent reward for myself. But I wouldn't worry about that just yet...

I went out into the garden early this morning (the sun is coming up around 6:30am here, so I can actually do some snooping around in the garden before going to work. yay!)and either all this rain is completely killing my lettuce (by "completely killing" I mean there is NO trace of the plants being where I planted them...) or there is an animal trespassing on my garden and eating my edibles(!!!!!). I think its the latter because I occasionally find small holes dug (big enough to fit a ping pong ball down into it) in random places. *sigh*. I also think its a squirrel(s) since I see them climbing on the telephone wires. damn squirrels! I need to find some rubber snakes or something to scare them away. Oh, and the broccoli is slowly disappearing too.

The weird thing? It is only happening in the north garden. The south garden has hardly been touched *KNOCK ON WOOD*. So I will try to plant more of the broccoli and lettuce by direct-sowing into both gardens and see what happens.

Wish me luck!

to the WEEDs

This weekend's update will not be a spectacular one. All I did was more WEEDing. I've removed all of the weeds from my North garden. Of course there are some new WEEDs popping up (GRRRRRRRrrrrrr....) but no worries for now. I also did about half of the upper (east) garden (where the almond tree and the grape vines area). Next weekend I will tackle the south garden.

Am I going to plant more cool weather crops? I'd like to actually, but since I will be gone for two weeks between late April and May, I don't know if I should. Isn't that when all of my current edibles will be in full production mode? I guess if I plant more cool weather crops now, I may have something to get out of it when I get back. But, I also don't want to take up much more space than I currently do now so that I have space ready for the warm weather edibles that I will direct-sow when I get back from my trip. Maybe I'll sprinkle some seeds around my current edibles and see what comes up.

BUT...I did want to say something about my WEEDs. As much as I don't like to work at pulling these guys out of the ground, I must say that I am a little thankful that they sowed themselves in to my soil...especially the clovers. Cloves added nitrogen readily available to the plants that I will be sowing into the ground, and also kept the soil loose with their roots. The California poppy (which can get extremely invasive!!) also has deep roots - like a nice carrot! - which kept my soil nice and aerated. Seeing all the wonderful earthworms in the soil as I was pulling out these weeds just put a big smile on my face. (When I first worked this soil - I didn't run into a single earthworm and the ground was rock hard!). The soil amendments with the weeds helped to keep the soil light and loose. I've added some organic fertilizer to fill in the nutritional gaps, and it is very soon till I sow in my warm weather seeds (I may even plant a few before I leave.)

So, to the WEEDs! Although I still intend to call you out in disgust as I unmercifully tear you out from my soil and unflinchingly toss you into the recycle/bio bin, you at least do your part in keeping my soil healthy.

Now, what is with those icky GRUBS???ACK!

Garden Pictures #1

Here is the "north" garden (one of two sections I have planted so far). Here are some sugar snap peas, snow peas, broccoli, various lettuce, and spinach. all sprinkled with a bit of sluggo to keep those icky beasts out of this area.




Here is the 4-in-1 apple tree (Gala, Early Summer Red, Fuji, and Granny Smith). I don't have a close-up of this tree, but some of the buds are starting to swell! Very exciting, tho I don't really expect any fruit this season since I just planted it in the ground. we'll see.




The apple tree is in the foreground and a Nectazee is planted in the background. Nectazee is a dwarf nectarine tree that, if left untrimmed, will not grow taller than 8 feet. I plan to keep it around 6 feet for easy fruit access.




Currently the Nectazee is in full bloom and is hardly 1 foot tall. It is so exciting to see all the blooms - I wonder if I will get any fruit during its first year in my garden....

Garden Pictures #2

Here is the little Nectazee tree and the European plum tree behind it. Notice how small the Nectazee tree is (I think it is barely a foot tall).




Here is the plum tree and the 4-in-1 cherry tree in the background. I am trying to keep this plum tree (and the cherry tree) between 5 and 6 feet tall to keep it manageable and easily pickable. Dave Wilson nursery (davewilson.com) has great photos and information about how to keep a backyard orchard manageable. key is to prune about 3 - 4 times a year, and especially early summer when the growth of fruit trees explodes. It will, of course, affect the amount of fruit I get off the trees, but who needs bushels of fruit?? Even with this tree size, (if I take good care of it) I will still probably have to give away some of the fruit. But really, that is the best part of the whole backyard edible gardening for me - sharing the bounty.




Finally! Some proof of life in my plum tree! Ready to possibly produce some fruit for me this season?? Please?? It's been 2 years since I first planted you and so far not a single flower/fruit. :-(



Here is the 4-in-1 cherry tree (Bing, Black Tartaine, Vans, Lapins). I didn't get a closer shot of it, but there are some buds starting to swell! It may fruit this year, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Some cherry trees take a few years to bear fruit.


And on to the "South" garden...

Garden Pictures #3

This lovely tree is my all-in-one almond tree. It has been in the ground for about 2 years now. From the very first year I planted it, I got some great almonds. (It was the first time I ever saw how almonds grew on a tree!) I would have gotten some almonds last year, but due to pregnancy/baby/life, the squirrels got to them faster than I could. I am contemplating on either putting up something that would scare those buggers away, or just let nature take its course...



These are some garlic plants starting to grow. I know they are supposed to be started in the fall of the previous year, but this was a last minute effort to grow some garlic. They are growing pretty well so far (11 of them). This garlic was sold at a supermarket and the tag stated that they were grown in Gilroy, so I am thinking they could probably grow up here too. I love the idea of planting one clove and getting a whole head of garlic in return, don't you?





Ahhh. What is a winter/early spring garden without peas! I've always had great success with peas - snow peas and sugar snap peas here. I have about 14 plants total (7 of them in this area of the garden). I just love their dainty leaves splashed with white spots.


The "south" garden. This side gets more shade than the "north" garden. I just wanted to see what does better where. In both gardens I planted the same things - broccoli, various lettuce, spinach, and peas. The garlic, however, was only planted on this side. I'm hoping for the best for them!

they got planted!

This morning I was finally able to plant my cherry and apple trees in the ground. i also planted my spinach sprouts in the garden - among its lettuce/pea/broccoli brothers and sisters. i hope i can harvest some this time around - last time my spinach seeds never grew (i think i planted them to late).

i also did more WEEDing. last time, i said i WEEDed only 1/16 of my garden. i think now i have done about 1/3 of my gardening area.

i was thinking about planting more cool weather crop seeds, but i think i'm gonna stop while im ahead (and things are growing happily). besides, we are planning to go on a trip late april, so i won't be able to harvest much around that time. and once i get back, i'll be planting some warm weather crop seeds into the ground. yipee!