Spring is in my garden!

I took a leap of faith and started a little early this year. All of my tomatoes are living outside now and 9 of them are planted in their buckets (with 3 to go). Oregano and rosemary are potted up outside. Last year's strawberry plants (in a cement mixing tub) are showing a few flowers and the Meyer lemon is also getting ready to bloom.

In the SFG, the Lacinato/Dinosaur kale and Giant Noble Spinach starts are perking up and looking good (I am pushing it with 2 to a square, but we will harvest them A LOT). The basil is not liking the cold weather, but it's hanging in there and couldn't live in the house anymore.

Chiogga beets, Lutz Salad Leaf beets, Berlicum 2 carrots, Easter Egg, Munchener Bier, and White Icicle radishes, Tall Telephone Peas, Stuttgarter Onions, Amsterdam Prickly Seeded spinach and Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach are all sprouting. Still waiting on 4 squares of Rainbow Chard and a square of Marigolds. This weekend I'll be planting the beans, more spinach, more Kale, and perhaps the Black Beauty zucchini starts will go in the ground (they've been hardening off outside).

It's raining for the next few days and will dip into the 40's at night but should be warming up again after that. I'm really glad I started early. Some of my garden is still in the shade but the sun is rapidly rising in the sky and I think both beds will get full sun soon. Last year I started planting in late April but because of The War of the Squirrels, nothing got to actually grow until late May. I can't wait until the garden is in full swing! And having spent a year now watching how the sun falls, I think I will still be able to grow things on the back trellis year round, as it never loses the sun like the rest of the garden does. I love CA!

and just a little jealous

Wow, that looks great. I'm with Turan... a little jealous!

ditto, your garden looks great and your plans also make me green.... with envy

wow your garden is amazing!

happy gardening
rose

Coelli, your garden looks great! I am a little jealous too as spring hasn't hit here yet. You garden inspired me know spring is coming soon. This was last week but going to warm up nicely in the next few days unlike our gardening friends out east.

Wow!

Your garden is beautiful! I love California weather. Spring will eventually get here too.

Lilly

I'm way behind. I haven't started any seeds. I guess I'll just have to break down and go get seedlings from the nursery.

I do have one surviving tomato plant that made it through the winter. It got pretty ratty with the February cold snap but seems to be bouncing back.

The apple tree is blossoming. The plum tree too. The onion and garlic in the containers seem to be doing okay, but a little slow. The Shallots not doing too well for some reason.

Now for my problems. Everything I haven't planted is growing like gangbusters. I can't keep up. My rosemary plant needs a trim, it's in ground and currently 4 feet high and 3 feet around. Covered in little purple flowers the bees love. The lavender plant is even bigger. Both are getting pretty woody with thumb thick stems sprouting from the base. The prior owners had planted asparagus fern and spider plants below the orange trees. They had gone wild before we bought the place but now are just insane. I went on a plant execution spree and filled a large portion of the green waste container, but didn't make much of a dent. The spider plants are standing knee deep.

Then there are the roses. I feel bad mauling roses, but really, they're turning into trees. And they don't have thorns, they have talons. Thorns the bigger than my thumbnail. Our reward this year is rose root runners coming up everywhere in the lawn and beds.

And finally, clover. I can't keep it out of the beds or containers. I'll not pay attention for a week and I'll have a solid blanket of clover covering my bed. Right at the moment, I'm pondering how to remove all the clover surrounding the garlic. There it is, a sea of green clover with a nice grid of garlic leaves sticking up like flagpoles. Will the clover choke the garlic?

Coelli,
Beautiful garden - I am also so jealous!

No_Such_Reality wrote:I'm way behind. I haven't started any seeds. I guess I'll just have to break down and go get seedlings from the nursery.

I do have one surviving tomato plant that made it through the winter. It got pretty ratty with the February cold snap but seems to be bouncing back.

The apple tree is blossoming. The plum tree too. The onion and garlic in the containers seem to be doing okay, but a little slow. The Shallots not doing too well for some reason.

Now for my problems. Everything I haven't planted is growing like gangbusters. I can't keep up. My rosemary plant needs a trim, it's in ground and currently 4 feet high and 3 feet around. Covered in little purple flowers the bees love. The lavender plant is even bigger. Both are getting pretty woody with thumb thick stems sprouting from the base. The prior owners had planted asparagus fern and spider plants below the orange trees. They had gone wild before we bought the place but now are just insane. I went on a plant execution spree and filled a large portion of the green waste container, but didn't make much of a dent. The spider plants are standing knee deep.

Then there are the roses. I feel bad mauling roses, but really, they're turning into trees. And they don't have thorns, they have talons. Thorns the bigger than my thumbnail. Our reward this year is rose root runners coming up everywhere in the lawn and beds.

And finally, clover. I can't keep it out of the beds or containers. I'll not pay attention for a week and I'll have a solid blanket of clover covering my bed. Right at the moment, I'm pondering how to remove all the clover surrounding the garlic. There it is, a sea of green clover with a nice grid of garlic leaves sticking up like flagpoles. Will the clover choke the garlic?

I don't think it's too late to start seeds, since we have such a long growing season. It depends on how much of a head start you want! I am still seeding - I just planted pole beans this weekend, and will be re-seeding a few things that didn't come up, and am thinking about re-starting some peppers to replace ones that aren't thriving. I just wanted a big head start on my tomatoes and I think I got too much of one, though 10 of the 12 are now in their buckets.

If you have clover, if it's not seeding I wonder could you treat it like a cover crop and dig it down into the beds that don't have garlic? You'll probably just have to keep pulling it around the garlic. When did you plant your garlic btw? I think I want to grow some but I can never find the right time to plant it when I have room.

Your lavender and rosemary sound amazing. I make rosemary garlic beef jerky - i just dry the rosemary, grind it in a mortar really quick, and throw it in the mix. It's really good that way. I'm looking forward to growing my own.

And I'll trade you roses for beaugainvillea. That stuff is HORRIBLE, and the spines are a good 1" long and needle sharp. We've had them go right through the soles of shoes. We're slowly but surely eradicating it from the yard, but it is tenacious and persistent.

I just covered the 3x12 with tulle to keep the bugs and oleander seeds out (they're everywhere) and put some more tulle over the beet and carrot seedlings in the other bed, which are getting their seed leaves eaten by something. I dusted them with diatomaceous earth a couple of days ago and just got 5 (!) more pounds from Amazon in preparation of The War of the Ants, Episode 2013. The little buggers are already exploring the garden and scouting out where to farm their aphids when it gets warmer.

Are you composting? That might be a good way to put your spider plants and ferns to work.

Here's the tulle'd garden:



I also made a PVC frame for my strawberry bed (it's a cement mixing tub) - they're starting to flower, so I put bird netting on the frame since birds are definitely not something we lack here, living right next to a wash.

planted corn, carrots, kale, lettuce, zucchini, soy beans, beets, spinach, turnips....our weather has been beautiful! wow. Hoping the stores get in the "good" tomatoes this weekend, want to get them in the ground too!! Happy gardening guys!!

NSR .
this is how I've succeeded in getting rid of several clumps of clover before it took over the bed .
Gently ease out what clover you can without dragging your crops out .
Then with gentle use of a pair of scissors to snip it just below the surface .. again don't chop your crops .

Re the thorns on the roses . Play pick one off three times aday . Start low down and every day use a small pair of pliars to twist off several thorns ..they don't grow back .
Once you reach say six feet up the stems all the other thorns above should not matter too much.

This method is used to make " standard roses " . Where there is a thornless, leaf free stick about four feet long with a bunch of grafted in roses at the top .

Note
Apparently rose thorns grow a particularly nasty toxic fungus .

Here in the UK several gardening people a year die from the toxic posioning of rose thorn particles in their hands , finger tips or feet .

Well, my basil starts appeared to be damping off in the box (it's not draining very well) so I pulled it today and just seeded directly in-ground. Also re-seeded some things that didn't come up and planted 4 curly kale starts that may or may not make it (they've been in the house and honestly, I didn't feel like hardening them off - at worst, I re-seed and lose a couple of weeks).

Potted up another Scotch Bonnet too, and am waiting for the shadow of the house to be off the lower bed so I can get the sweet peppers in there, and seed some jalapenos. Mustard Habanero and Ghost Pepper will go in pots.

My peas are looking good and I'm hoping we get some before it gets too hot. One of the Chinese Noodle Beans has emerged so the rest must be following in short order.

The tulle seems to be helping my seedlings from getting eaten - poor things were getting beheaded, and I still need to re-seed a bunch of beets and carrots if they don't survive.

The tomatoes in their buckets seem to be doing well, although I still have two more to plant (ran out of mix). That will make a total of 12 which seems a little excessive... but I'll figure out what to do with them. I am especially looking forward to tasting Blue Berry Blend and Cherokee Purple, which everyone raves about.

The strawberries have more flowers now too! Might be time to think about a permanent bed somewhere...

Looking at the forecast, I think it's going to be smooth sailing for the next couple of months until the shade cloth has to come out.