Fertilized Community Garden and My Favorite Gardeners

I used the organic vegetable fertilizer today at the community garden.  Last week I harvested the last of the turnips.  The lettuce is starting to bolt, so I'm trying to eat that up aggressively.  Unfortunately, slugs love my lettuce.  Today I picked a head of lettuce and removed 2 slugs from it.  I looked around for me and didn't see any.  While reaching for a bag, I turned the lettuce upside down and another slug fell out next to my foot!  Then, I looked more carefully to see if there were any more hiding.  I found one that had a good grip, so I turned the lettuce upside down again and shook it.  The slug clung on tenaciously, but 3 other little caterpillars sprinkled down!  Good grief!

I'm also harvesting some very nice carrots, some of which are surprisingly fat considering that I never thin the carrots.  Also, some beets and the chard is nearly as big as my 7 year old!  Here's a picture of the chard with DD and my niece's Flat Stanley.  I know the Flat Stanley looks like a snowman, but this one is from Connecticut, so it looks different than our San Diego Flat Stanleys.  Oh and check out our matching Yosemite shirts.  DD thinks it is so cool that our we're shirt twins!  We just had a wonderful family trip there with friends.

And here's a picture of the garden with my two favorite gardeners!  DS just turned 11 and DD is 7 1/2.

Fertilized at New House, Community Garden

We moved in Sept 2015 and now I'm finally getting around to the bare minimum of yard work.  We have a citrus tree in the front that looks a lot like a Valencia Orange.  The prior owner thought it might be a mandarin but was unsure.  It doesn't look like a mandarin.  Another in the front that is almost dead, but resprouting from the stem.  It is labeled a Washington Navel Orange.  There is a tiny Anna Apple.  In the back there is a small Babcock White Peach and Pomegranate.  All of these I fertilized today.  Plus, I did the potted herbs and veggies, the carrotwood trees, a bougainvillea, and 2 star jasmines.  I hope to plant some more citrus soon.

Also, about 2 weeks ago I fertilized at the community garden. From there we've been eating kale, beets, bok choy, and one strawberry!  Also, this week I picked some radishes.  DD and DS planted some of that garden this winter and nothing is labeled, so it is a surprise when things come up.

Soil Sulfur, Citrus, and Solarizing

Those poor citrus - I can seem some teensy, tiny little green shoots coming up off low on the trunk, but not a lot of other action.  I put more soil sulfur in the wells today and clawed it in.  Then I watered it in with a bit of the prior mix of ferrous sulfate and fish emulsion.  Crossing fingers for the distressed trees.

The plastic sheeting that I put on last fall, I'd initially planned to leave on to solarize the North and West garden beds for about 6 weeks.  But then the weather turned cooler, and I thought it should stay on longer.  Then I decided I might as well leave it on until Julyish to really cook the soil.  Alas, it has cooked enough - the plastic has begun disintigrating into little, tiny, hard-to-pick-up plastic bits.  Thus, I removed the plastic sheeting today from those beds.  Since I'm busy, I'll leave the beds fallow for now.

Fertilized pots

It was past time to give the pots in the back yard a kick, so I gave them the granular vegetable fertilizer.  

The citrus have not looked better or worse since the recent changes.  I've been spraying them every day or so with the combo fish emulsion/ferrous sulfate hoping to keep them going.

Acidifying Mandarins' Soil

After last week's pH test of the upper mandarin at 7.5, I went to the nursery and got two products to address that.  The first is E. B. Stone Naturuals Soil Sulfur.  The quantity instructions on the box are very confusing, but mostly it seems to be an imprecise science anyway.  The amount to add depends on the type of soil (mine is clay-ish) and seems to also depend on how buffered the soil is.  So, I winged it and sprinkled the sulfur granules generously over the top of the well and worked it in with a claw.  I did this project while wearing gardening clothes because I'd read elsewhere that sulfur can stain clothes badly.  My understanding is that this soil sulfur could take months to break down since it requires certain bacteria in the soil to work on it, and that they are most active in soil temperatures above 80 degrees F.  So, I'm not counting on that working fast.

Once I had the granules worked in, I got out my trusty foliar spray pump.  Into the canister I put a few tablespoons of Bonide Liquid Iron + Micronutrients.  I'm trying this product because it is a liquid with multiple ingredients, most of which involve "sulfate".  The principle ingredient is ferrous sulfate, which is another way to quickly lower pH in soil.  I also added to the canister some Fish Emulsion to give some nitrogen kick to these poor plants.  We need leaves!  So, I sprayed the few leaves they have with this concoction.  I made a similar blend in a watering can and watered the well thoroughly with it.



Also, I've continued to work on the watering for these trees.  Feeling it was dry, I basically doubled the watering time and went from every 5 days to every 4 days.  Then, I've been checking it more often and still wonder if it is slightly dry.  Today we changed it to every other day.  I know this may not let it dry well in between, but so far, I haven't felt the soil was soggy.  When we had some very rare rain, that did coincide with the lower tree blooming and creating a few leaves, so I wonder if the rain influenced that.

While we were out there, DH also did some shredding to add to the compost pile.  Go DH!

I planted some dill and basil in pots from seed.  I put little plastic domes over them to create a greenhouse to aid sprouting.

The kids and I also put about 18 jade pieces into pots for the fun of starting more jade plants.

Kingsnake

On Friday we were walking home from school, when one of DS's friends called him over to where he was in his front yard to look at a snake.  The other child's mom was alarmed by the presence of akingsnake in the front yard and had already called on another neighbor who had a snake stick to catch it.  The neighbor arrived with the stick and was able to catch the snake.  It was good he had the stick because I was trying to figure out how to catch this thing, which has hiding in some fairly dense reeds.  The other mom wanted the snake relocated elsewhere, so we volunteered to take it.  The kids have dubbed it "Kingy Bands" since it is a Banded Kingsnake.  What a beauty!  My brother and I kept two kingsnakes as pets when we were kids.  So, my Mom thinks the snake should be named "Deja Vu."  We figure that we'll keep it for a while before letting it go in our backyard, which connects with the canyon.  I'd sure like it to stay in the yard and eat rattlesnakes.

The first night we got it set up in the terrarium with a secure lid, potting soil in the bottom, and a nice water dish.  DH bought some pinky mice at the pet store, which they only sold frozen.  Those things are dinky!  We weren't sure it would eat frozen mice, since its a wild snake, but thankfully it did.  DH warmed the mouse up in warm water (in a cup, which had been microwaved), then held the mouse in the cage with needle nose pliers and wiggled it temptingly.  Kingy Bands caught on pretty quickly and ate it whole.  It is about 2.5 feet long (I think) and fatter than my thumb.

Fertilized and Update

Today I fertilized the community garden again with an Organic vegetable fertilizer.  Somethings, like the kalette, are doing great.  Others, like some SunGold Cherry tomatoes I planted as starts are looking stunted.  The San Diego tomatoes look happy enough.  I staked a few tomato plants.  Also harvested kalette leaves, beets, and onions.  Pulled out some bolting lettuce and a lucinato kale that the aphids had conquered.  There are still ample aphids, but it doesn't seem as bad as a few weeks ago.  Here's a picture of the garden today: