California - What are you doing this month?

What I am doing is a subtle takeover of that living room window space. If I set up everything all at once it would be too obvious. By bringing a new container into the space every few days it's not as noticeable. It's the "boiling frog syndrome". 

Me 


Mrs TD 

All my efforts to camouflage my seedlings went awry when my wife discovered my grow lights blazing in the guest room last month- the poor seedlings were banished to the garage. I did give them a warming mat to keep their feet warm at night, and they are now taking field trips outside in preparation for their new refuge where they can stretch out in fresh MM and sun themselves. I plant when the moon phase is right- don't know how that works, but I've has some disasters when I ignored the "Farmer's Almanac Gardening by The Moon Calendar" and planted during the "barren period".

When I catch my husband  reorganizing the garage, I know there is another tool or toy coming. . . Am I smart or what

YS, "blazing" was her first clue.

AtlantaMarie wrote:Kelejan, I'd encourage him, but I'm not a typical female....  

If I had a formal dining room, I'd use it for seedlings too!  And probably a whole lot of other things as well.  Beading, crafting....

Anything except formal dining, that's for sure....LOL.

You got it, SR!

Being the packrat that I am, there's NO WAY I could have a room with next to nothing in it most of the time... And I'm not exactly a formal-type gal anyway...

GO, TD, GO! Get those seedlings going! She'll thank you this summer...

Found another window ledge that may be useful for seedlings. It has more of a South-West (more West), gets plenty of light especially after about 11 a.m. Going to give it a try.

BTW I would not say that our living room is "formal". It's neat and clean but not formal and we use it all the time as a reading room and for entertaining visitors. The grandchildren get a free pass and they turn it into a play room which is lots of fun when all five of them come to visit at the same time. We have two who live about 20 minutes away and I'm thinking about setting up a small SFG for them.

That will be lots of fun, TD!

I actually got some work done in the garden today. Nothing like the threat/promise of rain to kick me into action. Nothing like what Audrey got done, but did spend 3 hours actually working! I cleaned out and added compost to 6 beds (50 sq ft). Four (22 sq ft) beds still have snow peas, garlic and onions. Three (9 sq ft) have a root-spreading weed so I will have to replace the MM. Never, never let weeds grow around the boxes!!) Transplanted 5 Rainbow Swiss Chard to another box to over-summer. Amended and planted one storage tote of spouted sweet potato fingerlings. Took down the colored Christmas lights. I've used up three 33-gallon cans of homemade compost. Down to one, plus the new one in the compost cage and the "junk" open bottomed one I made in the fall for the flower beds. The junk compost actually looks pretty good. Worms in the lower half.

You go girl!!!  I'd say you got quite a lot done 

My neighbor has 2 tickets to the Home and Garden Show and she invited me! Probably go today.

Wow, Sanderson, you go, girl! And have fun at the show, so many ideas!

How was it, Sanderson?

Well, Let's see.  It was raining at the beginning, then stopped, which was good.  We couldn't tour the whole place because of my neighbor's hip pains (she is 80).  She was done in early.  I did talk to one vendor of compost and amendments about fescue grass and SFG.  Showed him photos of the TTs, winter crops.  He said another person mentioned SFG earlier in the day.  Ate 2 hot berrocks/bierocks, and bought one to take home for husband.  $6.75 each.     All the walking I had to do showed me how losing 20 pounds has really helped.  Maybe another 10-15 this year??  I wish I could have scouted for some more garden/landscaping but I know my neighbor really couldn't have handled everything, especially the long walks for parking, if I hadn't been with her.  And if she hadn't invited me, I wouldn't have attended.  I bought a pretty pink stun gun (not a taser)!  

After talking to the one vendor about Fescue grass, I am so excited to try the great experiment this summer.  He said twice weekly watering is not enough for that type of grass, yet we managed to squeak by last summer, plus we had the least damage from dollar spot fungus.  I used milk, molasses and Neem last summer.  But, after reading Microbes, I'm raring to tackle the lawn with compost tea and cut 'n' drop mowing.

About 1-2" of well composted wood chips added on top of a lawn during the winter will greatly increase it's thickness and health.  It increases the soil's porosity, breaks up hard ground and increases fungal and worm activity.

A 1 acre pasture in the Pacific northwest that was treated like this has been feeding a herd of 30 sheep all summer long without being consumed it grows so fast.  The area it's growing in only has 16 inches of rain a year so it isn't the water.  If I had a good supply of wood chips and a lawn worth working with I would do it.

sanderson wrote:
After talking to the one vendor about Fescue grass, I am so excited to try the great experiment this summer.  He said twice weekly watering is not enough for that type of grass, yet we managed to squeak by last summer, plus we had the least damage from dollar spot fungus.  I used milk, molasses and Neem last summer.  But, after reading Microbes, I'm raring to tackle the lawn with compost tea and cut 'n' drop mowing.

Hmmm.  We grow both fescue and bermuda.  Fescue is kind of iffy in full sun during the high heat of summer.  It likes partial shade and a little cooler weather.  My fescue got the dollar spot at the same time my bermuda came down with it.

I've been watching everyone else having such success with getting their seeds sprouted.  Finally, tomato seeds that I planted Feb 29 finally sprouted! I am trying "sterile" MM that I baked and stored last summer.  I thought maybe something was wrong with it or that putting the 2 trays outside in the greenhouse wasn't working.  Today, DH got down the fluorescent lights and I found the pieces for the stands and got the trays under the lights.  I am so, so far behind in starts.

I had an upper post implant today so just cooling it.  I will try to get more seeds potted tomorrow.

Rain forecast for Friday and Monday.  This past rain totaled 1.55" = 1.15 = 2.70" of rain.  A little more would be welcomed.

Hi Sanderson, 
I planted my 2 year old seeds in 1/2 MM with 1/3 worm poo and 1/3 fine vermiculite and they were up in 5 days. They were started on heat mats- tomatoes get lazy when they are cold and don't want to do anything until they're warmed up. One year I set December seedlings out in beds too soon (March)and they just sat there. The next year, I set early starts out with cloches made from 1 gal. plastic jugs to keep warm at night and they did fine. Once sprouted, water from the bottom only- to help keep damping off from attacking.

The tomatoes and tomatillos are up!  Herbs to be seeded tomorrow.  I still have to seed the Snow Fairy and Rutger seeds I just received.

With the storm and rain (0.75" total) we had, the rain gutters just couldn't manage.  Water just poured into my Table Tops that are off the back patio.  When will I learn?

So, I just bought three 4x4 raised beds since they were on sale. They are 9" deep. I'm reading more and getting really worried that I've made a bad decision with the depth. I live in a Mediterranean climate. We have a wet season (Oct-Apr) with rain and no frost. Then we have dry season. There is literally not a drop of rain from May until October. Is 9" too shallow to keep the moisture in? Should I do 6" of soil and 3" of mulch? Or 7" and 2"? What should my mulch be? Where do I get the mulch? Also, my garden site is fairly windy. It's next to a huge water tank, so it's somewhat protected. Overall we get a lot of wind because we are high up on a hill, and the wind comes off the ocean. So maybe I should leave an inch for a wind barrier? Ugh. I feel overwhelmed. 

Also, do I really need the weed barrier? I am debating it because I just don't understand it. Won't it cut off the plants from getting into the rest of the earth? However, I will be putting hardware cloth under the beds because we have a crazy gopher problem, so they'd probably eat the plants anyway. And it would be nice not to have weeds around the beds... 

As always, thank you for your time and expertise in helping a newbie like me!

Joy,  Welcome to gardening in the Mediterranean climate!  9" beds are great - 6-7 Inches of Mel's Mix and 2-3" of mulch.  I don't remember if you have read All New Square Foot Gardening.  If not, do read it.  The roots do not need to grow any deeper than 6", so yes, put down a layer of weed fabric under the beds.  Put down weed fabric on the walk ways and cover with a thick layer of wood chips.  This will help prevent weeds from coming up around the beds and their seeds drifting into your garden beds.  Everything the roots need are right there in the 6".  Trust me.  I'm going on the 4th year with SFG in Fresno where the summers get over 100*F.  ALL of my beds are Table Tops (suspended in the air with legs) with plywood bottoms.  I also have a few square feet of beds on cement pavers.  Here are two bean boxes of 1' x 3' sitting on the pavers.   So all of my roots are within the 6-7" of Mel's Mix.  Water, sun shade in the summer and MULCH.  These will help the plants suffer through the hot summer until early fall, when they will have a second wind and really start producing again.

 You have a wind problem in addition.  I don't know your set up but a permeable wind screen can be made of pounding heavy metal poles in the ground and stretching Home Depot sun shade (6' widths) along the length of the fence horizontally.  If the wind comes in from the West, the sun shade fence will also provide some protection from the hot afternoon summer sun.  My HD sun shade.

For mulch, I buy a bale of bedding hay from an ag feed store and chop up in 4-6" pieces.  I just get set up and comfortable outside and spend a while cutting the hay into pieces and picking out any wheat seed heads I find.  The grids and drip lines are under the mulch.

Photos of your set up or area can really help us understand your situation, so please post some.

Welcome from Ohio, Joy, you are off to a great start!

Okay here is a picture of my gardening area and the containers I have collected. I am planning on just doing these containers for the spring and setting up my raised beds as I have time.

Off to the right of this area is our huge water tank since we are on a well. If you could see through the water tank, you could see the coast off in the far distance. I am hoping the tank will act as a buffer for the wind.

Our property is sloped, so while we have over three acres, it doesn't feel like it. We had our nieghbor create two "terraces" in the hill below our house. The one higher and closer to our house has tables, chairs and my children's play house and play structure. This lower terrace has the water tank and my future garden area. 

You can see the supplies I've collected so far for my mel's mix. 

My father in law just gave me these two cupboards. I am so excited about them! I just organized them all today. You can see the hardware cloth and landscaping fabric I will use for my beds.

My jaw dropped when I saw your garden area! Wood chips, plenty of room, graded, views to die for. The container collection is impressive. Some of them will be great for future auxiliary garden projects like potato and sweet potato tubs, dwarf lemon tree, etc. Spill over area from the SFG beds. Artichokes in your future? I think I saw some 1/2" tubing for future drip lines? Gosh, you could even have rain barrels collecting from your roof gutters and gravity fed down to the garden for severe drought. My mind is running crazy with future possibilities. Wonderful garden site.

Beautiful! Tons of potential!

Joy.cheri, all I can say is W.O.W....