Garden Update

 The seeds that I planted directly into the raised bed are going crazy. Those were all ones I'd saved from last fall (beets x 2 types, chard, lettuce) plus a newer envelope of carrots. I didn't realize they'd do so well. If I'd known, I would have planted them more sparingly.

On the other hand, the seeds that were mostly old that I planted in little pots or 6 packs aren't doing nearly as much. Fingers crossed that more come up.

Last week, I brought seeds (beets x 2, chard, lettuce, celery) first to the library for the seed library and later to the garden swap at the library. I came home with a few tomatoes and some passion fruit. Yum!

This weekend, we transplanted some nasturtium from the community garden bed (where it was overwhelming the space) to a side of our yard. We'll see if the plants survived the journey, which was actually pretty funny. Dear husband carried the long nasturtium vines slung over his shoulder for the mile hike home! We sometimes get odd looks coming back from the garden. This time we truly deserved them.

We also moved a hydrangea that a friend gave me years ago from the pot it had been in to a border area. The loquat seeds that the kids and I started from neighborhood fruit May 2023 went into the front yard. I won't hold my breath on getting any fruit from those soon. They're about 5 inches tall. We also cleared out some succulents from a bed where I didn't want so many of those. I'll give them away. When next we have time and interest, I hope we'll plant some succulents that are currently in pots in that bed. 

Southern California is getting an historic amount of rain, which is probably good for the vegetables bed and eases the transplanting but bad from some homes, etc. Son's dorm has some leaks, the hot water died, and today classes were virtual. Our home has been fine, thankfully. I hope everyone is staying safe and relatively dry.

Planted winter vegetable seeds

 The community garden offered up some new "Raised garden bed mix" from San Pasqual Valley Soils. We took advantage of that and put plenty in our box as over time the soil sinks. Whenever we add new soil or amendments, we then lift up the drip irrigation to put the tubes back in order. Once this was done, it was time to plant some seeds for winter crops. We planted carrots, beets, Swiss chard, Romanesco broccoli, and kohlrabi. 

Citrus update, Fertilizing, Squash, Pumpkins and Milkweed

    My husband reworked the valves and commandeered one exclusively for the fruit trees, which has been great for the citrus. Now we can water them more deeply and less frequently. Since I started hand watering and then we transitioned to the new valve, the mandarin that had been struggling with brown spots on the leaves has not produced new leaves with that. In fact, it had a little new healthy growth. But then the new leaves are now curling on themselves, which I believe is from an insect. I've seen some white fly, but not necessarily on the curling leaves. The citrus saga continues. 

    Speaking of citrus, this time of year we're still eating our Valencia oranges which we enjoy plain or in smoothies. I love that tree, especially when peach season ends and there's not a lot of fruit in the stores that excite me. Although, props to some of the grocery store pears recently. There's been some good ones.

    This weekend I fertilized all of the fruit trees with an organic fruit tree fertilizer. The citrus trees also got a small dose of Citrus Grower's Blend.

    We've had a lot of small pumpkins and squash from the community garden. For 5 years, we've planted and replanted the descendants of some mini pumpkins my daughter got in school. Over the years, they've changed in appearance and had varying harvest sizes. Last year for the first time, we got a few white ones. This year's crop had one white one, and they all lost their mini pumpkin shape! I suspect the shape issue may be cross pollinating with the seeds I'd saved and planted from a kabocha squash, which we're now into the second generation of. The first generation of those looked like kabocha and overgrown zucchini. This year's didn't look or taste at all like kabocha and mostly reverted to plump overgrown zucchini-ish squash. I know, of course, that I could have squash and pumpkins that bred true if I used seed packets, but I do enjoy seeing what shows up.

    Here are some of this year's pumpkins

    We've had lots of squash like this, most of which tastes zucchini-ish

    There's the age-old dilemma of what do do with a bunch of summer squash. I made an eggless frittata-type thing that was pretty good. My husband's favorite (other than zucchini bread) is when I roast it with garlic.

    A friend of mine is really into monarch butterflies and, thus, milkweed. She gave me some seeds she'd saved, which I planted. I was surprised that most of them germinated. 

    I've just transplanted them to give each sprout a bit more room. I'm hoping the critters don't eat them now that they've graduated from my window to the great outdoors. 

    If it survives the critters, someday it might look like this, complete with caterpillar. See the caterpillar?

    Here's a yellow garden spider that set up shop in my community garden box. It's big! I'm glad to have it though, to eat the bugs.

Fish Emulsion to Citrus and Apple, Summer Garden

 A few more times this spring, twice in March and twice in June, I've applied fish emulsion to the citrus and apple trees. I wonder if it is helping my smallest mandarin a bit, but it is hard to tell if it is just normal spring growth. 

In the meantime, I'm harvesting delicious grape and cherry tomatoes that are mostly volunteers from the compost I spread near the trees or in pots. I planted some Celebrity tomatoes and Annie Oakley II okra starts in pots and at the community garden in June. 

The aphids and bagrada bugs have put a halt to the amazing swiss chard from this spring and really slowed down the kale. This seems to be a pretty normal cycle each year, so I'm just moving on.

At the garden, I planted seeds saved from kabocha squash and also planted whole mini pumpkins that are the descendants of the ones my daughters got at school 4.5 years ago. Like last year, I'm getting some bizarre squash from those that I didn't actually plant in addition to the mini pumpkins and kabocha I desired. At this point, there are some pumpkins although they look rounder. There's one that looks exactly like a golden acorn. And there's the omnipresent zucchini/random summer squash thing that's chubbier than a zucchini and more oval. Time will tell on the squash project, although it is fun to watch them and guess what's coming. For the record, some years I do grow squash from actual seed packets. I just didn't do it this year or last. 

Anyway, Happy Summer!

Planted some seeds

 I've been harvesting some gorgeous, huge swiss chard from the garden plus a few large beets. I meant to plant some beet seeds today but discovered I'm out. Instead, I planted some kabocha squash and bush bean seeds. The squash seeds are ones I saved from last year. The bush beans are from an old packet. I wonder if any will germinate. There are several plants already sprouted well from the miniature pumpkins I buried from last year. 

Cleared community garden plot of tomatoes and zucchini, planted parsley seeds

 This past weekend we cleared all of the remaining tomato and squash plants from the community garden bed. It is always hard to decide to pull out the tomatoes because so many green ones remain, but they just stop ripening. We will put down composted manure (this time only steer, as the garden center was out of chicken) and plant more soon.

Here's the last tomato harvest of the year (except some cherry gold tomatoes at home in a pot that are still producing).

Also the final overgrown zucchini-ish squash and some zoodles I made from them. I'm getting sick of zoodles. I think I need to make a LOT more zucchini bread.

At home, I planted some parsley seeds in a pot. They're pretty old, so I'm curious if they will grow.

Fertilized garden; Pumpkin and squash harvest; Hawk

 Today, I used organic fruit tree fertilizer on all of the fruit trees in our yard. I also used an all purpose fertilizer on several landscape plants and pots, including the star jasmine that seems to get reddish leaves less if it has a boost of fertilizer.

We had a great harvest this summer of tomatoes such that we were eating them three times a day for weeks. They've slowed a lot, although we're still getting a few here and there. We did plant my daughter's baby pumpkin that's descended from a few (maybe 3?) she "bought" in a classroom auction 4 years ago. Some years she's had a handful, one year just one, and this year over 25!

Also, I don't recall planting zucchini, although I might have planted some old seeds. We ended up with many overgrown summer squash things that never really looked like zucchini, even when caught young, but they tasted about the same. One day, DD and I made 4 loaves of zucchini bread from one of them. With the remaining shredded squash from the one, I then made several pans of vegetable falafel-ish patties. I've given away some of the squash but still have a few left. I think next will be zoodles. 

This lovely hawk showed up for my birthday this year to help celebrate. 😏 I'm not sure what type it is, but it doesn't appear to be the usual red tailed hawk that we see frequently.

Planting seeds

 Today at the community garden plot, I tore out the rest of the old, aphid-infested kale that had been there a long time. The plants were big and woody, although they did provide new leaves that were fine. But they were so large that they were all over the place and felt like they took up half the space. In that area, I planted new seeds for kale, chard, carrots, beets and lima beans. The tomato plants from last week look fine and the newly replaced irrigation timer appears to be working. 

Planting tomatoes

 Yesterday we planted Sun Gold Cherry tomatoes in pots at our house. We added in compost from the bin and organic fertilizer. It was a nice family project for Mother's Day weekend. This week, I will plant the Champion tomato 6 pack that I bought at the same time at the community garden. We're still not going into stores, so these were both selected over the phone at a place that offers curbside pick up. I grew Sun Gold last year and actually prefer some red cherry tomatoes, but this is what they had. The plants in the packs look nice and healthy, which is better than I'd expected for curbside pickup. Kudos to Armstrong Nursery.

Worm castings to fruit trees. White fly.

 Our worm bin wasn't draining well, so we did an impromptu clean out of it. We had a lot of tea all at once, which we put on the back fruit trees (peach and pomegranate). We used the worm castings on the front fruit trees (citrus and apple). The back trees have been the happy recipients of extra buckets of water this summer. These are the buckets that we fill while running hot water to start a shower. This is prompted a lot of new growth in the peach with it's first ever, most progressed fruit. There is one single peach on it, that we're hoping we (and not a squirrel or rat) gets to eat. There's also a yucca near the peach that is having a growth spurt, but that's more problematic as it is so tall now that it's top leaves are in danger of shredding the awning over the back window. Also, it is near a walkway which the sharp leaves are now too near. It is a very odd place for this yucca, but it was here when we moved in. Soon, I may have to saw off large branches of it. My mom, a avid desert gardener, tells me that the terminal end should root well but she does not think the proximal end will regrow unless it is already at a self-proclaimed branch. I'm keep this in mind when I get out the saw. For now, it is too darn hot to consider stressing out the yucca like this. California is having a record heat wave, plus wildfires (thankfully none immediately near us), plus the coronavirus pandemic. 2020 is a rough year. 

We keep harvesting tomatoes and kale every weekend and are enjoying them quite a bit, although the tomatoes are petering out now.

I recently saw the white fly is back on the valencia orange. I think they don't mind the heat. When it is a little cooler, I'll pay more attention to that issue.

Fertilized Community Garden Box

For a few months the garden box was hard to access due to trail and parking lot closures, but we managed to walk in various ways most weeks. Now the trails and lot are reopened, thankfully. This weekend we walked the canyon trail to the garden with containers of fertilizer in baskets. We fertilized and harvested to our limits of carrying back. We had kale, chard, lettuce, beets, tomatoes, strawberries, and turnips. The tomatoes have taken over about half of the box, so it helped that we pulled all of the turnips. Now the pumpkins/squash have a little more space.

Planted vegetables and fertilized

The weekend of 3/28 we planted tomato and lettuce starts at the community garden and home. We walked to the garden carrying baskets of plants. It felt very old fashioned. The following weekend, 4/4/20, we carried vegetable fertilizer in yogurt contains in those same baskets. This past week we've had a lot of rain, so the plants must not be thirsty. We had few seeds sprout from those planted a few weeks ago. Most successful seemed to be some radish and turnip seeds I'd saved from prior years.

Planted seeds at community garden

With California having a "Stay at Home" order, we're mostly confined to our homes but still permitted out for exercise, food, medical needs, and critical jobs. Most days we stay home with the exception of a walk in the neighborhood, maintaining social distance from others. Today was a Saturday, so we had more time on our hands. This afternoon, we rode our bikes to the community garden and enjoyed the sunshine.

We've had a lot of rain this month, so the first task was weeding in and around the box. Then, we picked kale, chard, and celery. Unfortunately, the aphids are very happy, especially on the kale. We plants lots of seeds, some of which are very old, so we shall see how much success we have. Today's plantings were: peas, chard, beets, carrots, cucumber, cantaloupe, lima beans, and bush beans. I'd meant for us to plant radishes but forgot. Oops.

Happily, our friends also rode up on their bikes to garden. They were on a mission to find aphids to feed to their new chicks, a corona-break project. We had plenty of aphids to share with them! The hand-off was done in a way that feels silly but is becoming the new normal, where one sets an item down and backs off before the other moves in.

White fly update, Compost, Citrus Fertilized, COVID19, Social Distancing, Remote work/learning

To update on the white fly I'd been battling last fall on the citrus...  I continued to apply worm tea to the affected citrus, pouring some over the leaves, but mostly putting on the surrounding soil. I also rubbed the white fly off the leaves 1-3 times per week. Then came winter, if you can call it that in San Diego, and the problem has resolved (for now.)  This is about what I recall happening when I had white fly on an ornamental potted plant near our front door a few years ago. I'm calling it a success.

With the COVID19 pandemic, our work, school, and sports lives have been drastically altered. Last weekend seemed like an excellent time to work in the garden, giving us exercise and fresh air.  Our neighbors had the same idea, so we even had some social time, at an appropriate distance, of course.

We rotated the worm bin, harvesting the bottom layer and spreading it on the fruit trees and some potted plants. Next we harvested the compost from the regular compost bin, which we'd stopped adding to about a month ago in anticipation of this. We spread this on the fruit trees as well. This time we fully emptied the bin because we had to move its location in preparation for redoing the back retaining wall that separates our garden from the canyon. Once in its new location, we added back larger compost pieces that needed more time from the sifting and added the contents of the trash can that had been serving as a temporary compost receptacle. So we're ready for the next compost cycle.

Those worms are funny. It is hard to tell how many are in there until you really move the contents. This time we were pulling up handfuls of worms!

Both last week and this have been rainy, which will be helpful for working the compost and fertilizer down into the soil a bit.  The canyon is looking green.

We also added citrus fertilizer to those trees. We're all ready for a bountiful 2020 fruit harvest!

For fun, here are some other spring garden pictures.

I haven't planted the vegetables I'd have liked to at the community garden yet. When the rain pauses, I hope to go to both harvest and plant. With trying to space out grocery trips due to "social distancing" measures (there's a new term that has now become mainstream), I'll be grateful for whatever vegetables I can produce.  Food supply and the ability to access it are a concern to me. Stores have empty shelves due to the sudden demand.  And going to stores with the crowds wishing to get food is risky due to how very crowded they are. My last outing was on Friday 3/13 for food and the stores were nuts. Trader Joe's freezer section was so empty that I took a picture.

I'm thinking about how to extend the food we have to minimize trips to the store. We will run low on produce, meats and dairy first. We've been eating more beans to supplement our meats in the protein arena. Thankfully, we have a lot of beans.

In the meantime, DH. is working remotely from home and the kids are doing optional class assignments from home. This large house suddenly feels smaller with all of us here full time and trying to do tasks that sometimes require a quiet atmosphere, yet each needing to talk, too (like with DH's many audio/video calls). Funny tidbits from that include one power-career colleague in his wife's craft shed taking calls from a stool and another on a sofa next to an enormous teddy bear that dwarfed her.

DD, in 5th grade, is receiving daily emails from her teacher with suggested activities. There's a google doc where students are reporting to each other and the teacher about what they're doing. They've also been encouraged to email the teacher (journal style) about their day, to keep them writing. Some of the emails to parents have suggestions for schedules and multitudes of daily tasks, but so far they feel scattered and we don't have one cohesive plan. Which of course is difficult to do when things seem to change by the hour. 3/13/20 Friday is when they announced our schools we begin a 3 week closure on Monday 3/16/20, so this is only beginning. We receive daily updates from the district. Last night's said there'd been hints from the governor that schools may be closed for the duration of the school year. I wonder if they will get true remote classrooms in place. Some students do not have devices or wifi. The devices could be checked out. But how to get wifi to everyone? I know some cities have wifi networks all around town. This shows a weakness of our not having such a network. Public libraries are, of course, closed, so there went the default public internet access option.

DS, in 9th grade, has received an avalanche of suggested activities from his English teacher and about nothing from Math, Spanish or PE. On our own, we found an app to help teach Spanish, which both kids have been playing with. There is an assessment for skill level, but it placed DS in second year Spanish at the same level as DD, who is a true beginner. So the assessment isn't what you'd wish for. The big void coming from PE itself is odd, considering that DD's 5th grade teacher is "assigning" exercise to her class. Also, his PE had recently created personal fitness plans, which would be easy for the teacher to point them to. Like... how about working on your fitness plans and modify them as needed for home use?  The teacher could also easily suggest 30 minutes of exercise a day and ask the kids to email in what they did.

Romanesco is my favorite Brassica to grow!

I planted some seeds last winter that sprouted this fall. By that time, I couldn't recall if the plant was cauliflower or broccoli. I was pleasantly surprised that it was a Romanesco Cauliflower, which is my favorite to grow due to its fractal-like beauty.  This beast defied measurement in one piece on my kitchen scale which wasn't up to the weighty task because it exceeded the maximum. In total it weighed 7 pounds 15.25 ounces. Later I found a happy slug in it, so its weight is included in that mighty sum, which is kind of cheating.  I cut the behemoth brassica in half and set one aside for future cooking. Eventually both ended up roasted in small pieces and seasoned with salt, pepper, and olive oil. It was delicious!  And the extra crunch of Romanesco over usual cauliflower or broccoli went well with the roasting technique. The whole family enjoyed it, with my daughter asking for more.

We're also enjoying kale from the garden. 

Harvested Worm Castings, Compost and Castings to Plants, & Visitors

The worms love the start of melon season.  Nothing like watermelon rinds to get them overproducing. Since they seemed to be running out of space, we harvested the completed castings and I put them under the peach, apple and valencia trees.  I also gave some to the miniature roses and a potted plant on the from patio for bug control, which seemed to work well last time.  The fruit trees also got the last of our finished regular compost from the last compost cycle.

Over Mother's Day weekend, we had family visiting us.  I was so glad to have my Mom and Step-Dad here to celebrate Mother's Day.  We went for an outing to the community garden.  My Mom and the kids kept busy trimming the flowers from the cosmos I as pulling out so we had a beautiful bouquet.  The cosmos reduction in the box was part of the normal cycle there.  It self-seeds and is beautiful, but as it takes over I have to pull it to make room for the tomatoes, green beans, kale, carrots, etc.

Spring Update

Spring is here!

Community Garden: I've continued to rip out the broccoli at the community garden.  The bean seeds are sprout well.  Some tomato starts are struggling.  The cucumber and carrots are sprouting minimally.  Likely the seed is too old.  I dug out some cosmos from the garden box and brought it home to enjoy here.

Around home: The Mr. says he wants more flowers in our yard, which we've done very little with since moving in.  So I bought a dahlia this week and added that with cosmos to a prominently placed pot in the backyard.  Also, there was this old, scraggly and sad poinsettia plant in a pot in a fake well decoration that I was sick of looking at.  The location is tough due to water issues.  Now I'm trying some succulents in there.  We'll see how that works.





















I'm loving the apple tree blossoms in the front yard that we walk past multiple times daily.



These little freesia are blooming in a spot we see out our back windows.

Many of our potted plants I topped off with finished compost.  Some I planted seeds in, including some Super Snow White Cherry seeds I'd saved from 2012.  It was an incredibly sweet and flavorful cherry.  I doubt those old seeds will sprout, but its worth a try.

I also put Basil in a pot and some flowers, including these Bachelor Buttons, Carnations and a Black Eyed Susan, which I'm hoping will vine up a tomato cage.









We've had a heck of a time this winter with first DS, then DD, then DH getting pneumonia.  I'm grateful to say that no one currently has pneumonia or is on antibiotics.  Everyone is on probiotics, though!

Community Garden update

Today at the community garden, I harvested the last of the summer tomatoes before ripping out the vines.  The kale is still going.  I harvested some BIG broccoli and broccoli leaves for sauteing.  Then I added 2 bags of chicken manure and one of steer manure and turned it into the soil.  I planted carrot seeds in a small area.  The rest is ready for planting soon, when I get to it. I think I need some beets going in soon.

Harvested Worm Castings

At home, we harvested the worm castings from our vermicomposter.  I used the castings in a pot near the front door that had some white fly problems, plus gave some to the roses, apple tree, valencia, and peach.  Giving the worm tea regularly to the roses seems to keep at bay the bugs that want to eat it.  I also gave a good dose of fish emulsion to the struggling bougainvillea on the west side.

At the community garden, I continue to harvest kale, tomatoes, yellow crookneck squash, and green beans.  I really should remove the tomatoes to make room for fall planting, but I hate to do it when I'm still getting fruit off them.  Having put in more chicken manure, steer manure, and bags of coffee grounds recently really gave things a second wind.  The yellow crookneck was from a mixed seed pack that in theory had zucchini and pattypan as well, but none of those came up.

Fertilized Community Garden

I've had a fabulous harvest of tomatoes that are now petering out.  The green beans have been a small quantity, but ongoing.  Today I pulled the bulk of the remaining carrots, plus a beet, and some kale for dinner.  Once in the last month, I went out to the community garden at night to hunt for hornworms.  My friend and I found only one, but what it lacked in numbers it made up for in size.  I think it ate the competition.  We also found two chrysalises.  Contrast that to a hunt for similar at home where we found about 16 on three plants!

Since I could see bare soil here and there again, today I spread 2 bags of composted chicken manure and 1 bag of composted steer manure in the community garden.  Makes for happy plants but stinky soil.

At home, a plumeria I got as a cutting about 2 or 3 years ago is blooming beautifully.  We stick our noses in its flowers each time we pass.  It is still in the pot I stuck it in when it was a bare branch.  I hope to plant it sometime soon, since it seems to be happy in its spot.  It is slightly under an overhang of the house, which I hope will shelter it from future frosts.