My Garden Adventure, 2012

My Garden Adventure, 2012, or What You Miss Using Mel's Mix

Background:
We moved into our draught-tolerant landscaped home 19years ago. 18 years ago I pulled all of it up along the side of the unit facing the pool and put in roses. They run the color spectrum, and on one side of my patio I have my 3 favorites.

Planning:
On the other side of my patio I have 14SF that I planned to work as of 2/1 for veggies. It has laid fallow for many years. The last time I grew anything there (tomatoes the first year, bean and peas the second), everything died from the roots up. Laying fallow, I hope what ever it was has died and gone away.

On 1/30 the City called and offered me a plot in the community garden. Thankfully, someone was there that afternoon, and I was able to take some photos.

I chose this one, because it was fairly cleared, and the soil soft.



I did a drainage test, soil testing, and silt test. I don't know who had it before or what they grew (except some remaining strawberries), and I didn't know of Mel for a few more days! (The honey bee reminds me where not to step - recently filled one foot hole; Soil testing tubes in the background of the silt test.)




Drainage was very good. Dirt was wonderful loamy. Soil results: half sand, half silt, no clay. pH = 8.0 (very alkaline), Nitrogen Very High, Phosphorus Very Low, Potash (Potassium [salts] Very High. Alkaline and Salty are typical for here - we don't get a lot of rain. Must amend to add Phosphorus, reduce alkalinity/increase acidity, reduce salts.

On a whim, I tested my rose beds and the patio veggie bed. Both were Very High in Alkaline, Very Low in N, No readable Phosphorus, Very High Salts. I began to understand why new roses weren't growing and I rarely had weeds in my fallow bed! Talk about dead soil!

Design:
Thanks to child labor, er, I mean a family project, we designed and built boxes. My son and I bought and moved the wood on Friday night, my daughter and I started treating them to deter termites early Saturday morning to and the guys built the boxes in the late morning.



Then we set about sifting and cleaning the dirt, removing 50+ lbs of rocks and some roots. In the north bin (of COURSE the last one!) we found a lot of crabgrass underneath. How I wish I knew about landscape cloth & Mel's system then! I treated with a per-emergent and moved on.


Now it looks like this (3 of the 4 boxes), and the plotting of where to plant begins.


Notes:
I ran the boxes E/W for more light (Zone 10b).
Internally, the boxes are almost 20SF (12" x 10').
There is 7" between boxes (you shuffle through). Narrow yes, but I wanted all the planting space I could have.
I need to build trellises for probably the northern two boxes.
The northern most line will be salad greens and spinach that will benefit from shade.
The bee bath is for the bees!
The third box is planted with strawberries, which are perennials. I may move them to the south box, because of 'pickers.' Or I will plant brassica in the south box.

Back to my patio garden:
I've amended it with lots of decomposing matter to boost the nitrogen. We've tilled (I use a Claw - love it! Works the obliques, shoulders, quads and core! For one low payment call and get yours today!). I need to replace the soaker hoses on both sides of the patio (today's project until Mel's books were in my hands at 10:10 this morning!)

One more till, smooth it out, and it's ready to plant. (I should plant that avocado tree. It's nearly 6 feet tall.)


I've also been working on a new worm farm, and I have to replace several roses. I ordered them this past Monday.

Overall, I lost 8 lbs and several inches in two weeks, and my DD lost a couple of inches, too. She also discovered the peaceful feeling one has gardening. ( )

May the plotting resume!

Yesterday I picked up a pound of worms. I placed about 1/4 of them into my media (a mix of composted trees & manure & egg shells) to see if they would adjust.

I left the lid off, exposing them to daylight so they would dig in.

Unsure what to do with the rest of them, the box fit perfectly, closed and upright, inside the top (empty) bin.

I checked them this morning, and there were several on the paper of the bottom tray. On a whim I look at the bottom of the top tray in my hands. There was a jumper, hanging on! Escapees! These were the leaders of the pack, I presumed. (Those are wet used coffee filters, used during setup to cover the media & worms.)


I looked inside the lid (on the empty top bin) and sure enough, the worms were escaping the box, trying to go below to get food and warmth. Maybe to greet some distant relatives? Wanting to explore a brave new world?


As you can see the media is pretty full. I pulled some out, threw it around the garden, and add the remaining worms from the box, and the escapees to the bin.

Then I extracted 12 oz of decomp tea from the bottom catch tray & spigot (with the green sticker). The roses (that's a Sterling Silver and a Tiffany, L to R), love it.

Now I'll keep on eye on their eating of the decomp food, add more as needed, move the lid to the bottom tray and store the top tray for a bit. The lid will allow me to add several inches of shredded damp newspaper and remove the coffee filters.

As they consume everything there, I'll start a new tray, allow them to move up, then harvest the casings. I have extra trays, but want to be conservative until I see how hot our summer is. The patio faces south, although DH built a lattice patio cover last year and it cuts the heat (and air conditioning) tremendously. The lattice are taken down in October (beginning of high wind season). They'll go back up by July 1 when it gets 'fryin' hot.' Until July, it will be very moderate and comfortable. Good weather for gardening!

Those are lovely beds!

Thank you Danni!

I was reading the book, and the thought occured to me...I should have built two big boxes and given myself more foot room.

I went over to the garden and BAM! Someone had done just that! DH says he's change it for me next year if I want. That's a lot of dirt to move. If that crazy grass weed is a problem I will...and put landscape cloth underneath. So far it is the root pieces are rooting and popping up. Insideous! Regular grass grows straight up. This stuff looks like it was shocked by electric first. The call it crab grass here, but back home we called crab grass something different.

The coordinator want to bury it in mulch. Personally, I think we should do a controlled burn. It's all over the walkways. Someone with the burner, 2 with hoses, rubber boots...done!

Before you build...give yourself walking room in between!

In the past 3 weeks I've done a lot of gardening! I've gotten lots of compliments and comments since I 'laid the tracks.' People get it. I did have one old Japanese gardner come over and tell me how he's been doing this over 20 years and the corn won't fit and it won't work. That's okay, Tom...thanks for stopping.... (those are laths on their side...I want as much dirt to grow in as possible!)


The boxes are mostly planted. Of course, the weather went crazy after. Santa Ana's (dry desert winds) come in immediately. I ran over and watered and tarped. Got home, and the winds stopped. The heat stayed and the winds were gone.

When I uncovered the boxes, my brocolli (from a start), showed signs of flowering (the buds were beginning to spread). This week 2 little flowers have appeared on the underneath side. I'm so bummed...the head isn't even big enough to eat unless you were a little person! It's about the size of a side growth. (This is a close up taken 3/19, so it looks bigger)


In my garden calendar I used the size of the start to guess when it popped from seed. Based on "maturity" my guess was pretty close. Tomorrow (3/19) it says "broccoli may be ready.") I do hope the one I'm starting from seed actually produces a decent head!

In the SFG, the corn is popping, peas are popping, carrots, garlic & shallots too. Onions (starts) greens are yellowing (WHY???). Celery (starts) are growing, radish shoots are delightful (a bit over seeded!), the stock (flower) and the Brussels sprouts have mean leans. (Corn sprouts are in the foreground, lettuces beside, icicle radishes surround stalk with a mean lean, celery behind, snap dragons next to celery.)


First Fruits! Last Sunday we filled a 1.5qt bowl with lettuce greens (and radish shoots...or should I say "micro greens"). We've had 5 strawberries so far, mostly tiny tart ones, although my DD received my biggest one for her birthday on Friday. They are Sequoias, and she said it was delicious!

One stawberry plant went into shock between Sunday and Thursday, and all the leaves turned brown (WHY???). I took them off and we'll see if grows again.

My pony pak of red & green lettuces starts appears to be a bad idea. They were planted together, and the greens are choking off the reds. Two reds have no green companion. One of them was all wilted last Sunday. I removed all the dying leaves, and it is growing new ones. [Although 3/19 it shows no signs of life.]

And then there are the mystery plants. This one comes up wild in the first box we finished. I've transplanted 5 so far. Are these lettuce...or something else? They may not all be the same thing...


This came up where I have not planted. The seed (bean?) does not want to let go. Very nice fan shape...what is it?


Patiently waiting for the arugula and spinach to pop (she says, tapping her foot).

Tuesday the half of a bed of #4 will be ready to test and plant with the climbers (that's the box near the composter). I'll need to make plans for building a trellis. Nylon net on conduit is the hot recommendation from my neighbors - they say the birds aren't really able to land on it and eat the veggies! Box #3 on the right is where the asparagus is planted. The corn is a few squares away.

The seedlings all have their hot little houses - bottoms of gallon milk jugs or half of a plastic half gallon jug.


We've been working a lot on my roses at home, too. We removed one rose (David Austin Othello), put in the three bare roots (Miss All American Beauty, Sheer Bliss, and Black Baccara - this one replaces Othello), with lots of aerating and amending the soil around each. Everyone cheered when the mock orange bush was removed. We dug out and amended the 8x2 area 1.5 ft deep. The dirt is a good 6 inches higher than the rest of the beds! I planned to put one rose there (Sonia), and realized I need another. Found a suitable one (Secret) at a local nursery. I also planted a Barbra Streisand where my pinks move to mauve. I hope she's not too dark! I sold the Othello on Craig's List to one of the people who got our city to establish the community garden! How cool is that!
(Miss All American Beauty; Sheer Bliss; Black Bacarra; Sonia; Secret; the Babs)


My (existing) roses bloomed 3 weeks early this year! I think it is from conditioning the soil, because the weather is pretty standard for this time of year. All the bushes are bigger and greener and full of buds than is usual...like they are in July, not the end of winter!

While admiring a Sheer Bliss on my table, I realized I now had two, right next to each other! OOPS! I need to dig it up (it's a bare root just coming out of dormancy), and put it on Craig's. I'm still waiting for 3 more bare roots roses to arrive. They are supposed to be sent mid-April, which is rather late for us.

I'm really looking forward to using Asparagus ferns with my roses. I've tried a variety of greens, and never found the "right" one. I bet Asapagus will be it! The Alstromerias are in bloom a bit, and they look great with roses if long stemmed enough. If Asparagus doesn't work there's plenty of fennel around the plot.

The worms have been pretty mellow, until this storm. There were a ton that tried to escape...3 made it outside the box! There were probably 75 in the basin and and other 35 in the lid. When I add a tray, I'm going to line it with landscape cloth, make it the bottom tray, and see if that keeps them from escaping to the basin. Lifting a tray is tough (it is heavy and doesn't want to let go of the basin), and I've already knocked all the new growth off my Tiffany rose that is next to it. I'd be happy not to have to check the basin daily.

It rained like crazy yesterday, and the winds have been howling all day (20-25mph). I wonder what I'll find (or won't find) in the garden tomorrow! [All the little hot houses stayed in place...yea!]

I went over tonight to get a better look. The 5 unknown "lettuces" are not all the same. Some are jagged leaves, some are not. What are they?

The other one, that has the fan shape, changed today. The seed pod let go, and there are two distinct leaves, both ovals. And I found 2 more in other boxes, none where anything is planted. (A gift from the former owner?)

could be volunteer plants from your compost

hugs

rose

AvaDGardner:

I love your gardens! They are look great!!

Here on the East Coast in NJ I just planted my peas, radishes, carrots and lettuce. The garlic was planted in the fall.

Best of luck.

Your garden is beautiful.
I put my celery in my hoop house about a week ago and went away......
I am anxious for our weather to catch up to yours......

FamilyGardening wrote:could be volunteer plants from your compost

hugs

rose

The coordinator called last night. I asked him about the previous owner and the 3 new mystery plants. The pic shows a bean-type seed case on the leaves (not a fan-shape at all but two big fat oval first leaves), and we found a pod of white beans (climbers?) when sifting.

He said she didn't grow any beans at all!

So either someone dropped them on their way to the trash/composter (I'm on that aisle) or they blew in!

I pulled one of these plants. A very long straight root.

Will have to wait for it to show more of itself!

from where I can see they appear to be dandelions...... dandelions have a very long straight root

GWN...those in the row? Yeah...I'm almost convinced their dandilions too...how foolish I will feel if they are! Some of those transplanted have sawtooth leaves. Other plants have rounded ones. My neighbor to the west has a row of this same plant in their garden...I hope to catch up with them so I can ask!

These baby plants had a thick stubby root on them. That's why I thought they were lettuce. They had 4 or more straight leaf shoots off the root, and generally 1 would have a bit of green on it.

DD wanted to grow dandi greens. Another neighbor said to eat dandi greens before they flower. We tried some of the baby leaves of these. Non-distictive flavor.

The new 3 I found this week are standing stall (well, the two that remain). I haven't moved them yet. They are the ones with the deep root.

Thanks for your compliments all!

I find every new place you garden, you have to learn the weeds.
I have unfortunately had gardens in many many places..... I am calling this one my "final resting place".
But each time I have carefully cared for plants that eventually turned out to be weeds....
I have even transplanted weeds from the forest into my garden

Well, it was like reading a book. Too many items mentioned and discussed for my old head to capture. For my part, you'd have better luck addressing one thing at a time in a post, including pictures. I don't know what to answer but I'll do my best.

First off, what are your temps there? You are in Calif and lots of Cal gets mighty hot this early. Are you having an unusally warm spring? Boccoli is a cool-weather crop. When temps hit the 80s they will start to go to seed. Even here in Maine last year I had several broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage ruined by early spring heat (in the low 90s for several days). Your broccoli looks to me like its going to seed and it won't form a solid head. I would cut it out and hope the nubbins do better

Your walking space is just too narrow. You'll have to be thin as a rail to manage to get thru there when crops start filling in. They'll overshoot that narrow space. If you can, change it to only 2 long beds.

When did you put in your onions? Around here when summer arrives, the onions start to get brown. They are usually ready to harvest when half the tops fall over. Once the tops turn yellow, bend them over horizontally with the back of your rake.
This will divert erergy to the bulbs instead of the stems. Lay the tops of row one over the bulbs in row 2 to prevent sunscald. In a day or so when the tops turn brown, lift the bulbs with a fork gently from the ground. If its sunny, let them dry out on the ground for a week to cure. If its damp or rainy, I put mine in the lid of a cardboard carton in the garage.

I'm in zone 5a and today I just put in my sugar snap and snow peas in the SFG. My first sowing for the season. I've got Mizuna and Tokyo bekana in cups in the A-frame to harden off today. You are way ahead of me.

Another thought about your lettuce. When you buy a lettuce or greens mix, they usually list on the package what crops are mixed in together so you know what you're growing. Check the package info. Thin out your lettuce anyway and use the thinnings in a salad (baby greens). Nice and tender.

I can't think of anything else to help right now. Good luck.

I love roses too, so seeing yours will be wonderful. I have all David Austins so they don't take as much care and I have to go hunting for Japanese beetles several times a day to keep them alive. I bury banans peels beneath them to fight black spot. Works for me. Have fun in your gardens.

Doing the happy dance!

I tested the last bed and I've gotten the pH down from 8.0 to 6.5! In 6 weeks! I hope the other levels come down, too. Still waiting for the water to settle for the Phosphorus test. It was off the charts low.

I gave the lettuce a haircut; and brought home about 1/2 gal of cuttings and some pea sprouts. Boy they're cute! So interesting to see how they and corn grow out of their seed.

DD pulled up my new carrots shoots, thinking they were grass.
No darling! Carrots!
OH NO! MAMA! I've RUINED your GARDEN!!

She was clever enough to replant them. They are barely bigger than a blade of grass. GARDEN SAVED!


Another plotter offered me their full grown heirloom purple brocolli. The plant is HUGE - larger than 1 SF. I don't know if I can put it in, or not. They had several that had not produced anything. So interesting.

GWN wrote:I find every new place you garden, you have to learn the weeds.
I have unfortunately had gardens in many many places..... I am calling this one my "final resting place".
But each time I have carefully cared for plants that eventually turned out to be weeds....
I have even transplanted weeds from the forest into my garden

LOL! I'm glad it's not just me!

Hi there AVA...
There is a carrot growing contest on this site that everyone starts in April, so perhaps all is not lost.

I am holding out to plant then, but then again I HAVE to wait until then to plant ...
You really seem to be having a good time!

quiltbea wrote:
First off, what are your temps there? You are in Calif and lots of Cal gets mighty hot this early. Are you having an unusally warm spring? Boccoli is a cool-weather crop. When temps hit the 80s they will start to go to seed.

I'm in Southern CA, and when I tarped the garden to protect the seeds just planted from the Santa Anas (hot desert air during the day, cold desert air at night), and the winds suddenly stopped, I think it got too hot on the broccoli for a few days.

I cut the head off tonight. We should be getting a lot of mild temperate weather until July 1. With the weather this year, who knows? The experienced plotters encouraged me to put in winter plants.

quiltbea wrote:
Your walking space is just too narrow. You'll have to be thin as a rail to manage to get thru there when crops start filling in. They'll overshoot that narrow space. If you can, change it to only 2 long beds.

I probably will next year. Thanks.

quiltbea wrote:
When did you put in your onions? Around here when summer arrives, the onions start to get brown. They are usually ready to harvest when half the tops fall over.

Well that explains a lot. When we get the winds, it gets hot. Every onion on the property turned yellow on top, even though they aren't ready to harvest yet. They were starts, planted 2/28/12.

quiltbea wrote:I've got Mizuna and Tokyo bekana in cups in the A-frame to harden off today. You are way ahead of me.

Are they really good? I've never heard of them. I planted Cascadia, Green Arrow, Marvel, and Oregon Sugar Snap (all bush). They are all popping. The soy (bush) beans are slowly coming up. The lentils (bush) are not responding yet.

Tomorrow I'll be seeding my tomato and pole beans. And round 2 of carrots. Several seeds seem dead...bell peppers, daisys, cabbage, broccoli raab, caulflower. I'll give them another week then retry.

quiltbea wrote:Another thought about your lettuce. When you buy a lettuce or greens mix, they usually list on the package what crops are mixed in together so you know what you're growing. Check the package info. Thin out your lettuce anyway and use the thinnings in a salad (baby greens). Nice and tender.

We love baby salads. The lettuces were all starts. The green red mix is not identified on the tag. (bummer!) Several of the lettuce seeds I bought are mixed...can they be separated? Can you tell which is which? I don't like how my starts are choking each other out. I think I've lost 4 plants so far.

quiltbea wrote:I love roses too, so seeing yours will be wonderful. I have all David Austins so they don't take as much care and I have to go hunting for Japanese beetles several times a day to keep them alive. I bury banans peels beneath them to fight black spot. Works for me. Have fun in your gardens.

What a wild idea! I never saw a beetle on them and barely had any roses on it in 18 years. VERY thorny! I'll pass it along to the gal who bought it. She raises lots of Austins.

Thanks Bea!

GWN wrote:Hi there AVA...
There is a carrot growing contest on this site that everyone starts in April, so perhaps all is not lost.

I am holding out to plant then, but then again I HAVE to wait until then to plant ...
You really seem to be having a good time!

There is something so peaceful about gardening. Like a few days ago, my ear was felt like it was partially filled, and every noise seem magnified. Off the garden I went, just to hang out.

Thanks for the tip on the contest! I found the thread. I have Nantes seeds...mid April...will do! My carrot area is 10+" of soil, so I'll have to go for longest, LOL.

Ava, I just wanted to say that your roses are beautiful and your gardens look great! I'm glad to hear the garden was saved when dd replanted the carrot! lol I love gardening with kids.

AVa.....Mizuna and Tokyo Bekana are greens, like lettuces. Never tried them before but this year we're getting into lots of greens and green vegetables so my garden is changing. Got the Curly cress, Claytonia, Arugula, and Corn salad/Mache also sown yesterday In the A-Frame. All new greens to me. It probably too hot for you to grow them right now. The ones started indoors are outside hardening off. I wanted to try both ways to see if starting indoors is really necessary.

Am curiuos to know why you have your little plants under the milk jugs.

If the weather is semi hot, will it not fry those plants?

The peat moss in the dirt sample settled enough that I was able to finish testing the "vertical" box. N is higher (to be expected); P is still unreadable; and K has come down in a normal range. I must say the N was a gorgeous purple-red!

Headed over now to seed some tomatoes and pole beans!

@ Rod.

Well...if it was hot, I guess it would fry plants! These are just for germination. It's been very cold for us (41-55) and mostly they are to protect from the high winds (when we get them for days at a time) blowing the planting surface and seeds off.

While the rest of the country is warmer than usual, we are colder, getting the air first from the artic before warming it and sending it over to you!

Works great as a mini-hothouse. It causes the weeds to germinate too, so you can clean them out right away.

We still carry jackets, especially if going over a few miles to a coastal city. North of the freeway it warmer, south (and closer to the ocean) it's cooler.



@ Thanks Bea! I wondered what those were!

More happy dancing! I've got Asparagus sprouts! Whoo Hoo! I LOVE Asparagus! Saturday there were 3, today there are 5!!!


With two year crowns, I didn't expect anything. At this rate, I might get a serving this year.

We had heavy rains on Sunday (about 4"). Photos were taken Saturday. Monday, the boxes show lots of "splashed dirt" on the side and the plant markers. Everything else looks good.

Strawberries rubies and little pea plants (right), with one little soy bean (left, lower 1/3, just above a strawberry plant) pushing up...


Little broccoli side shoots are starting (I trimmed up this cut with a better tool).


After reading the "biggest brassica broccoli" thread, I replanted the broccoli and Brussels sprouts down to their first leaves, and gave the Brussels a TeePee to help straighten it up. It's responding well to guidance! Replanting gave me a chance to put the 2" cardboard protection around them better, and to get them well anchored.


I harvested 10 strawberries and a gallon container of lettuces...this is so fun!

AvaDGardner wrote:

And then there are the mystery plants...{snip}

This came up where I have not planted. The seed (bean?) does not want to let go. Very nice fan shape...what is it? [It opened up later that day to reveal 2 perfect oval leaves...and I found two more of them in other areas of the boxes).

This little guy is exposed!

Someone on the forum was writing about dicotyledons. When I looked it up to find out what they are, Wiki had a picture of this, with true leaves. Sure enough...the true leaves on mine were beginning to show when I pulled them.


I should have recognized it. We used to have the mature ones on the edge of our property at home. They are huge plants here, 25' weeds. They have very deep roots and take over quickly. Can you imagine having to remove these? It reaches this height in less than a year, and seed constantly!



Then today, as the DH was viewing the garden & plots, I saw this wiggling toward my baby asparagus:



What is it? It's about 1.5" long on a tiny lettuce leaf. Do I need to be concerned about 'brothers & sisters'? Do I need to take action? It is an organic garden.

Ava