Compost to fruit trees

 We still compost both in the worm bin and in a normal compost bin. I've not been adding to the normal bin for a month or so, allowing it to finish. Today, we sifted it and put it at the base of all the fruit trees. The sifting step is not necessary, but we like to get out the sticks and some bits that are taking longer to compost before using it. We throw those items back in the bin so they're broken down for next time. Our current compost has quite a few worms in it, too, as it hasn't been heated very hot for a while. 

If anyone reading this does not yet compost, I'm a big advocate and think you all should do it, too. 😊 It can be as easy or as involved as you want it to be. We keep a lot of our waste out of the landfill by composting, rarely having more than a couple small bags in the trash can each week. But on a daily basis, I empty kitchen scraps into the compost bin. Between that and the recycle bin, that's where most of our waste goes. 

Worm castings and composted steer manure

Our worm bin was full, so we harvested the castings and switched the tiers. There are tons of happy worms in there! We spread the castings, along with the composted steer manure I bought months ago, on the fruit trees. There's been plenty of rain this week and more is in the forecast. Hopefully, that will help soak these into the soil, not wash them away.

Our tiny Gold Nugget Mandarin tree has ripe fruit now that we're enjoying. I love the fruit, but I'd like to see this tree grow more this coming year.

Happy New Year 2022 is almost here. Hang in there everyone. 

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.

Citrus gets composted chicken manure as Country gets some good stuff too

 To celebrate the Inauguration yesterday of our new President and Vice President, our citrus trees today were the lucky recipients of celebratory compost chicken manure! A new era deserves some prime sh**.  Actually, the timing has mostly to do with a kind friend ordering extra bags and bringing some to me and with me wanting it on the trees before the rain anticipated for this weekend. (Thank you, kind friend!) Yesterday, I spent most of the day watching the Inauguration, so the trees had to wait. I found the Inauguration very moving with a message of unity and hope, an especially reassuring contrast after the Capitol Insurrection 2 weeks ago. I hope it is a better year for our country and my citrus.

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.

Fruit Trees, Fertilizer, Compost & Garden Update

A few weeks ago we finally sorted and sifted our compost from the bin.  Some of this we used in potted plants around our garden. This week we widened the fruit tree wells, mixed our compost with composted steer and chicken manure, and amended all the fruit trees.  The trees look... variable.

Valencia - established - looks very happy
Algerian Mandarin - some new growth but not a ton
Eureka Lemon - which was slowest to grow last year - robust, very happy growth. Like I'd expect from a lemon.
Minneola Tangelo - this one fruited well last year then dropped all the fruit mid-maturation. It had tons of aphids and little green bugs that I think were katydids.  Now it has many new small leaves starting.
Gold Nugget Mandarin - grew well first year and had surprising amount of delicious fruit for so young. Now it has mottled mature leaves and many tiny new leaves. This is the tree that the Agricultural Inspector sampled.


Also...
Anna Apple Tree - established - has a pretty little crop going
Peach - established - beautiful bloom this year. Never has given fruit. There was weed barrier very close to this trunk. We pulled a lot of it back when widening the well.  I wonder if it will improve the tree's growth and fruiting.
Pomegranate - established - this tree has either been trimmed or eaten by animals for years. The last 2 years I watched carefully and its sudden trimming happened at once. It has not yet happened this year, but this is the usual time.

Speaking of trimming... some animal has aggressively eaten the aloes in the back down to pathetic nubs. And another succulent has had lesser hits.  I've seen both rabbits and squirrels regularly plus we know there are rats and mice, too.  We continue to have regular owl appearances, including pellets in the backyard. And this week I nearly stepped on a snake, which gave me a start. After so many rattlesnakes in the yard one year, I'm just waiting for the next sighting. But this was a beautiful, fast garter snake.

In the past week and a half, we also had bees swarm in the backyard TWICE! The first time they set up housekeeping in the gazebo over the spa, and the second they found the lid of the compost bin appealing.  It's felt like a wildlife adventure!

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.

Harvesting and Planting of Community Garden, Citrus, and Rain

On Friday 2/27, at the community garden, I harvested broccoli and removed most of the remaining plants.  Also some cheddar and carnival cauliflower.  The latter seemed to have more aphid problems this week.  Overall, the best thing about preventing the aphids from getting to the broccoli and cauliflower seemed to be for me to pick them ASAP.  I also harvested a lot of kale (Luciano, Green, and Red Russian, plus Kalette).  Some of this we used in an omelette for the egg-eaters in the family.  Some I sauteed with crimini mushrooms.  I also harvested a great beets and its greens.  Plus one whopper of a romaine lettuce.  On the same day, I also planted San Diego tomatoes, a banana pepper and a miniature red pepper.  I sprayed water forcefully on aphids, but they are winning since I'm not there spraying daily.

On Saturday 2/28  I added Organic Growth Power fertilizer with high aconcentration of humic acid to the mandarins.  I'm wondering if this might adjust the pH, especially in the lower hole that looked so chalky on planting.  The Dr. Earth's I used recently has about 10% humic acid, if I recall correctly, and this product has about 20%.  I watered them, and the transplanted Australian willow, deeply.  I also planted the Plumaria sticks in potting soil and compost.  This is my first attempt at rooting Plumeria, so we'll see how that goes.  I also added compost to all of the garden pots in the back yard to top them off.  I have some snapdragons resprouting from last year's plants and sprouting from last year's seeds in some of those pots.  I had to remove fennel from a number of pots as it is self-seeding everywhere.

Friday night was supposed to start a series of days with a bunch of rain, which is quite rare for here.  It didn't start on time, but Saturday night and most Sunday did rain, clearing up toward evening.  Again, it was supposed to rain starting in the early morning of Monday, but it was late to get going.  Around 10 am, it suddenly started with thunder, hard rain, and some hail - again very rare.  But so far, that seems to have ended quickly.  It would be nice if it drizzled for about a month.  That would sure help the drought.

Amended and Planted Community Garden

For a birthday gift, dear friend T.W. did the labor of adding wheelbarrows full of soil to my garden box to bring it back up to level.  Thank you!  We also added some composted chicken manure and a composted manure blend.  Today I planted many seeds, including saved carrot and lettuce seeds, plus commercial chard, bok choy, beets, and probably some other things that I forgot.

Home garden update

The upper mandarin's water was a little low, although we ran the irrigation to check it before I got to assess how dry the soil was relative to when it last ran, so hard to tell if that was the issue.  Anyway, adjusted the drippers so the upper mandarin is getting more water.  Also added compost to its well.

Used fish emulsion to fertilize the two mandarins, the back lemon, the North bed, the West bed, the carrotwood tree, and the front hedge.  Used Grow Power Plus on the carrotwood and hedge.  Also used Organic Citrus fertilizer on the two mandarins and back lemon.  Used organic veg fertilizer on the North and West beds and pots.  Finally, DD put old commercial worm castings in the North bed, West bed, and pots.

I saved seed from our cauliflower and broccoli and tore out the old plants.  I planted cucumber seeds in the West bed, and zucchini and pumpkin seeds in the North bed, plus some nasturtiums for fun.

Fertilized and applied compost at home

Today I used the fish emulsion to fertilize the N. and W. garden beds at home, plus pots and citrus trees (except missed one on the side yard).  I also applied compost to the two lower mandarins.  The lowest one is still looking less than thrilled with life.  When we planted it initially (was it only a year ago?) the dirt there was shockingly pale and whitish/chalky.  I wonder if that is impacting the tree.

Worm Bin, Planted seeds

Today we cleaned out half the worm composting bin to harvest the worm castings and make room for more composting.  I used the worm castings in the N. bed, W. bed, and on both mandarins.

The prior oil spray seems to have improved the black aphid situation on the chard but it is far from over.

The prior compost addition to the N. and W. beds did indeed attract the raccoon back for more digging.  Fortunately, it didn't dig out any plants this time, just the dirt/compost.  I'm sure the worm castings will be a raccoon magnet.

I also planted seeds from romaine and buttercrunch lettuce and for beets in the N bed.  I hope those don't get trashed tonight by the raccoon.

Happy New Year!

Compost to garden, sprayed with horticultural oil

Yesterday while DH was sifting the finished compost, I sprayed the small, dark mystery bugs on the chard with horticultural oil.  They look a bit like aphids, but black.  I've never had any significant bug issues on my chard, but these things are so problematic that some of the leaves look like they are melting to mush.  I also, finally, took the time to separate some romaine and buttercrunch lettuce seeds that I'd saved from last spring.

Today we took that finished compost and put down a good layer in the North and West garden beds at home.  I wonder if that will draw back the racoon, to dig for fresh worms.  Hope not.

Canned Organic Chicken Stock

We normally save the bones from organic chicken that we've eaten and freeze them until I'm ready to make soup or stock.  But this time the freezer was full and it wasn't really soup weather, so I canned most of the stock using this recipe, mostly.  I did my bone broth as usual - lots of chicken bones with bay leaves, a little salt and pepper and 1 T apple cider vinegar per quart of water added.  I had so many chicken bones that I put them all in my new 16 quart stock pot.  It was the perfect size.  After simmering for 24 hours, we strained out the bones (which we bury in the heart of the compost pile to add phosphorus and calcium to the compost.)  The saved stock, I reboiled and canned as directed.  I had originally added 10 quarts of water, but this boiled down a bit.  In the end I had 7 quarts canned plus about 1-2 quarts that I made into a quick lentil soup.

Trip to the Nursery, VFN tomatoes, Marigolds, and Compost

After the bad news of my infestation, I wanted to know more about VFN varieties.  Interestingly, the Territorial Seed Company seed catalog that I had at home did not seem to comment on VFN status.  I wonder if I missed it or if the info really isn't there.

Friday afternoon, we went to the nursery.  There we found only a few hybrid seed packets labeled with VFN information in small italic, light font.  The tags on actually plants weren't very helpful either - the most informative said "disease resistant" but didn't specify which diseases.  The customer service desk did have some helpful printouts regarding VFN status of some varieties they carried.

To test the theory that my tomatoes' big issues at home are the wilt and nematodes, I bought a 6 pack of Champion hybrid tomatoes.

Reading more on the root knot nematodes online, I saw information about using marigolds to help control them.  So, I bought 24 French Marigolds to plant at home.

I also read that using compost may help, as it may up the beneficials populations such that they can prey upon the parasitic nematodes.  I need to also read further about whether it is worthwhile to purchase predatory nematodes.

Saturday, I put our entire supply of finished compost into the North and West beds, which gave several inches of new compost to each.  I removed dead plants, cut diseased ones, planted the new tomatoes and the 20 or the 24 marigolds.  (The other 4 I'm saving for the community garden bed.)

Here are the beds as I'm cleaning them out and adding compost:

And here they are when I was done:

I also supported the tomatoes in the front bed with an approximation of a Florida weave.  Despite the fact that all of those plants are heirlooms, some of them are doing okay.  I haven't grown any vegetables in that soil before.  It isn't the best soil, but it also isn't too infested apparently.

Here is the weave in progress:

Here is the finished photo:

Lastly, here are some of my garden helpers.  They supervised some of the gardening from up in the Carrotwood tree:

Massive Soil Testing: No nitrogen!

My northern, and to a lesser extent, my western garden beds have been suffering terribly.  I've put in dozens of tomatoes that died.  Plus many beet and green bean seeds have been total duds.  The shallots in the West bed are very sad as well.

Here are pictures from my north bed, where so many tomato seedlings have died.  The chard and parley are from last year.  There is one okay eggplant in that bed that is a start from a nursery this year.  Plus some of my cinnamon basil starts have survived.  Those things in yogurt containers are months old tomatoes that I started, like in February!  

I've been wondering if I've contaminated the bed with a persistent herbicide like Picloram because this fall I used horse manure that I composted in the bed before I knew about the issue.  I spoke about that some in this link.  But I was also hoping it was something like a pH issue.  In my compost pile use a ton of coffee grounds that I get in big bags from Starbucks, so I was wondering if perhaps the pH was just off.

On Friday I went to a good local nursery, Walter Anderson's, to gather advice.  I explored the send-away soil test options but the people there weren't selling it to hard, saying that the results were confusing, even for them to understand.  I'd heard that home test kits were iffy, but they seemed fairly confident in theirs.  So I came home with a new home test kit in addition to the pH probe I already had.

This weekend I did a lot of pH and NPK tests from these beds. I used both my pH probe and the pH that came in with the NPK test kits.  The probe gave readings about 0.5-0.75 lower than the test kit, but all were acceptable.  EVEREY SINGLE nitrogen test I did was ZERO!  The P and K were in the slightly low, to normal, to slightly high range.  So I'm averaging that out and calling the P and K good.  Here are my handwritten notes:

So how is it that my organic beds, amended with homemade compost and homemade worm castings has zero nitrogen??!!

Manure made my day

This weekend was such a great gardening weekend.  It started early on Friday with a preschool field trip to a local dairy farm.  It was a very kid-friendly, educational trip.  The kids' favorite part was probably getting to play in the cottonseed pile in the feed barn.

Knowing in advance that where they have cows, they have cow manure, I brought my shovel, gloves and trash can.  I expected to be offered to muck out some stalls.  Lo and behold, this dairy has developed a very successful side business of supplying organic compost to local organic farms.  DS, DD, and I stayed after the tour to get some black gold from the compost business.  We had a great time watching the compost guy load up an enormous open-topped big rig with about 42 cubic yards of compost.  We also came home with a trash can and several bags full in the back of the minivan.  Unfortunately, we were late home for lunch, nap, had a chaotic evening and before I knew it, it was Saturday morning and my van was still full of cow manure.  For the record, when I opened the car door, the olfactory stimuli were overwhelming.  But that was some good s**t.