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.

Fertilized Citrus, White Fly, Citrus Psyllid

 It's that time of year again! Citrus fertilizing time! So did them and the other fruit trees (apple, peach, pomegranate) today with an organic fruit tree fertilizer. Sadly, there's no rain in the forecast to help get it into the soil.

Also, just recently there was the first CLas-positive Asian citrus psyllid found in San Diego County on 12/31/2020. I hope they're able to contain that. Sad for home growers and potentially devastating for commercial growers.

I have noticed some lingering white fly on the citrus this winter, but it isn't too bad. I'll continue to keep my eye on that. 

Fertilizer to Star Jasmine

 We have two star jasmine plants, one climbing up next to each side of the garage door. This time of year, one of them has leaves turn red and massively fall off. The other is fine. I think in prior years, giving fertilizer helped stop this, which doesn't really make sense. They're the same variety. Both are on the north side of the house. One is behind like it is supposed to be deciduous, unless it is fertilized. Anyway, I gave it some fertilizer, and we'll see what it does.

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.