California - What are you doing this month?

Audrey,  I see lightening in the foothills.  Hope everything is okay in your area.

Yardslave,  I hope your garden holds while you take your vacation.  I'll wish a cool spell while you are gone!  

Yeah, we had a huge lightning storm last night. It was close too. I love storms though so it was fun :-) I haven't checked my seedlings yet this morning we had a little hail I'm hoping they're okay. They're outside on a table.

(Finally got my internet svc back!  Would have replied earlier...) 

Looks great, Sanderson!

We got seed tapes from Territorial Seed - onions, beets, carrots, lettuces - and planted them this morning.  I"m especially bad at thinning so I'm interested in how these turn out. 

We have been harvesting many pounds of both Burgundy and Provider beans.  The yogi was right.  Provider out does the others.  The yogis at the Hindu temple are really bright fellows and our guide told us that when new initiates come they pour through the seed catalogs and get all kinds of stuff but that Provider really outdoes them all.  

For what it's worth - I just read somewhere  why we have more bush beans varieties instead of more pole beans varieties.  The article says that research has been focused on the bush beans because the big food producers can harvest them with machinery.

We continue to harvest kale, some broccoli, some lettuce (Drunken Woman from Territorial Seeds is going very well at cut and come again.  I just bought it because I liked the name.)  Some beets and some endive.

I hope I learn to put pictures on this site soon.  Collin (grandson) is redoing the row beds with similar ingredients to Mel's mix and the soil is wonderful.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t16654-video-tutorial-how-to-post-a-picture-located-on-your-computer

Hope this helps   

Hello friends!  I haven't been on here in a few weeks.  I have harvested my first 2 tomatoes of the season (sungold cherries)!  And my carnations that I transplanted last spring have flowered.  I have never grown carnations before.  They are beautiful and are very fragrant. 

Gazebo gardens in Fresno has Zoo Poo, composted manure from the Chaffee Zoo!  It is SUPER expensive in small quantities though ($5 per quart).  They sell it in bulk for $100 for 1/2 a cubic yard though.  I am trying to find a few people who want to go in a bulk order and split it.  That way it comes to $7 something for a cubic foot - very good!  I have 1 person on the gardening facebook group and need at least 1 or 2 more to make it affordable.  Anyone here interested?   Sanderson????

I'm cooking a Fresno State manure and hay compost right now and should get 13.5 cu. ft. from it. But, I would take 3 cu. ft. if it helps with the costs. Let me know.

LOVE carnations!

sanderson wrote:...LOVE carnations!

+1 Having flower envy! Okay, green envy in general, as only my onions and garlic are in the beds yet...  

GG

Sanderson I will let you know about the zoo poo then   I'm going to take some pics today of my garden.

The Valley is supposed to hit 100*F tomorrow.     I still don't have everything mulched or the remaining drip lines installed, so I have to water every day.  I'll be so happy when we have finished repairing, painting, cleaning one of our rental houses that we want to sell.  Then I can get back to the important stuff - my garden.

The Berkeley pile is 36 days old.  I've only turned it 6 times so it's my fault it's taking so long.  Hopefully tomorrow, I can turn it in the evening.

Keeper,  Where are those photos?  

not familiar with the term, although I did go to Berkeley - back in the day.

You little hippy, you!    Here's a link.  

http://vric.ucdavis.edu/pdf/compost_rapidcompost.pdf

I was pre-hippy although I might have been if I had stuck around.

Audrey,  That's some light show going on in Auberry.  Are you getting any in SV or any rain?

Update- It's coming down 168 and is about 2 miles from me. Clovis is wet. I moved the tomatillo with a lantern under the porch cover!   

All we got was an incredible light show - no thunder or rain.  We had some heavy duty thunder and lightning around 3 PM for half an hour or so.

I had great hopes for the garden this year but things are not turning out like I thought.  I haven't had much time to tend to the plants (rehabing one of the rentals), and critters and disease are having a field day.  I don't think I will need the pressure canner this year!  This is what I harvested today:  Not much but a little something to give me an emotional boost!    

1 each of zucchini, lemon squash, straight-neck yellow squash, Baby Blue Hubbard, Japanese Millionaire eggplant. 3 small red onions (stems rotting), Rattlesnake, Dragon Tongue and Purple podded beans (most plants are diseased and have stopped growing), 3 red chilis, fingerling carrots, chard and kale.

Curly leaf disease has claimed all but 3 replacement tomatoes. Green caterpillars are destroying the onions, 75% of the beans are diseased (I know it's because I jinxed them when I looked at the 'bean disease' link that Camp posted). :-( Every squash, melon and cucumber has to be hand pollinated. The earwigs are in the the space between the ears of corn and their support leaves, the silks have fallen off.

On the bright side, the sweet potato slips are 4-5" tall and I think are ready to plant, the sunflower is looking over the fence, and the tomatillos have lanterns. The peppers are producing though the bells need sun protection. And there are 2 volunteer tomatoes in forgotten pots that may be the only real salvation for the tom harvest.

I just needed a little pity party. Tomorrow I will pick myself up and try to salvage the summer crops.   

Hi all,

This year is a huge experiment for me.  I got a really late start but so far everything is doing well.  I've got the normal type summer things going...tomatoes, bush beans, summer and winter squash, cucumbers, beets, lettuce, peppers, eggplant, melons.  But I might be pushing it on broccoli, scallions, sugar snap peas and carrots that I just put in the ground.

Here is a link to my Territorial Seed garden planner  http://gardenplanner.territorialseed.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=548529

If you have any suggestion, such as when is the best time to put in cauliflower and cabbage, please reply.

Here's another question (I'm full of them)...what is the best way to "train" squash, cucumbers, etc to climb up the netting?  Do you just tie the stems to the netting with twine?

Mazzy

sanderson wrote:On the bright side, the sweet potato slips are 4-5" tall and I think are ready to plant, the sunflower is looking over the fence, and the tomatillos have lanterns.  The peppers are producing though the bells need sun protection.  And there are 2 volunteer tomatoes in forgotten pots that may be the only real salvation for the tom harvest.

I just needed a little pity party.  Tomorrow I will pick myself up and try to salvage the summer crops.    

Okay, Sanderson.  Time's up!  Concentrate on the positive! 

And rehabbing that rental is important too!

Hi Mazzy, I use the stretchy plastic green gardener tape.
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t15786-spacing-for-vertical-summer-squash?highlight=vertical

sanderson wrote:I had great hopes for the garden this year but things are not turning out like I thought.  I haven't had much time to tend to the plants (rehabing one of the rentals), and critters and disease are having a field day....

I just needed a little pity party.  Tomorrow I will pick myself up and try to salvage the summer crops.    

 This too shall pass!   

I would look at this way: you're getting gardening's toughest lesson out of the way.  Just as soon as we figure that we have this gardening thing figured out, we get our butts kicked!  There are good years and bad years, and there's nothing we can do about it.  Learn to appreciate whatever the garden gives, and don't put undue pressure on yourself by creating unnecessary quotas-leave that for commercial growers.

(stupid bugs and diseases anyhow!    )

I think I'm mainly embarrassed.    

WHY???  There's only 24 hours in each day.  That goes for all of us, including YOU!

Do what you can when you can.  The rest will have to take care of itself.

Hugs!!!

what a wonderful response. We can all take that wisdom.  And Sanderson, we totally empathize you can be sure.

Oh poor girl! So frustrating to have such excitement and high hopes and have such issues. Everyone's comments are so right on - gardening is utterly unpredictable and humbling!!!

I'm struggling with my watering schedule with the drought and the early heat I lost most of my spring items. Broccoli went bad. Everything else is bolting now in the heat.

I thought I had a bunch of spaghetti squash planted and it turns out to be a yellow zucchini type which I must now have 15 zuccs so I really didn't need them, LOL!

I planted 4 sp sq seeds today. Fortunately, they grow fast so no problem.

I feel a little better having done something proactive today.  The heat and drought, it's just starting.  One success so far are the peppers.  Several were overwintered, and I cut them down to 6-8" when I saw the tiny green signs of life.  This cool evening, I added some of the new compost to the potted peppers, potted squash, and volunteer tomatoes I potted.  Then covered the compost with tulle, and added 2" of wood chips.  Tomorrow I will remove most of the curly leaf tomato plants.  I have 2 survivors that I will spray with Neem, hopefully to keep the leaf hoppers at bay.

About the 'Berkeley' compost, there are still identifiable ingredients but it looks so rich.  Road apples and all.   

I have to chuckle about planting yellow zucchini.  Thank goodness it's still early enough to sow the spaghetti seeds.

Have you ever planted okra?  They are suppose to grow where nothing else will!  How can I lose?