California - What are you doing this month?

Our PGE crew came by yesterday to inspect the power pole and have given me permission to plant under it since what I am doing is not going to pose a fire hazard. They've sprayed with a horrible ground killer so for now I'm just going to put deep compost and then wood chips and plant some strawberries for ground cover but won't harvest them for at least a year or so. It hasn't been sprayed now for a year - does anyone know how long that stuff survives in the soil? Weeds are starting to grow there a little bit.

So, with that in mind I have moved 5 wheelbarrow loads of compost up that hill (whew!) and spread it. I have 1/3 of the space left to go. I had to fill in deep ruts and am hoping that the wood chips laid down thickly will stop them from reforming or at least not being as bad.

Planted a 2 x 6 section of bush beans in the ground. I'm going to take a risk that we won't get a cold snap again - I have more seeds than I need anyway so if the first batch doesn't make it we'll just plant again!

Here's the hillside I'm repairing.  I did 3 large wheelbarrow loads of compost and 3 loads of wood chips this afternoon - I'll a little whooped tonight.  This is the smallest of the "ravines" that were being cut in the hill.  The other 4 of them have been filled in with compost and covered with 4 inches or so of wood chips.  



I'm trying to keep the dogs out with my pile of junk, LOL!  They were already digging in the compost *deep sigh*



I have elephant garlic, potatoes, egyptian walking onions and purple onions starting to take off.  My seedlings are popping up but they're so tiny right now that they won't even photograph, guess I'll have to wait til next week to show them off!:

You deserve a bubble bath tonight!

+1! 

That's a lot of work, Audrey Jeanne.  But it will be well worth it once it starts producing...

4 more loads today and I think 6-8 more needed to finish the section of the hillside. Strawberries planted so we'll see if they do okay, fingers crossed! If they don't make it (due to the herbicide) we'll just plant some more next year.

Audrey, you are getting a real workout.  Today was the first day I've done any hard work since getting the orange tree fed and mulched.  For all my talk, I have only completed seedling 5 trays' worth.  I filled pony packs enough for 2 more trays of flowers (maybe tonight before I go to bed?) and have enough potting MM for the last, and 8th, tray.  I still have the Baker seeds coming so I have to save a tray for them.

Removing the tree has opened up a whole area to sunshine.  My little brain is smoking.  

Well, I walked outside this morning and the sunshine smacked me in the face. As much trouble as the tree gave us in pruning it each year, it did provide shade for the Gardener. Probably plant a xylosma shrub / tree in a container. We have one in the front yard and it is something I can prune myself without husband's help.

On another note, the bok choy are spouting! I turned on the fluorescent tube lights and there they were!

Cool! Excited to see how much better things will grow for you with the increased sunshine.

My seeds are sprouting all over the place. Squash, cucumbers and the like are up. I'll need to protect them if we get a cold spell but being outside in the real sunshine really makes a difference - I'm glad I can do that between my greenhouse and the new table tops with the hoop houses I can let the start where they're going to actually grow. In the greenhouse I have some extras in case something direct sown doesn't make it, I can plop them in.

My cantaloupes and cucumbers transplants rotted last spring. Then I direct sowed them a couple times before they survived. Still had plenty of time for them to produce. I wonder if removing the tree will increase the chance of some of my transplants or direct sowed seeds to "take" earlier this spring?? I'd prefer direct sowing beans, squash, melons and cucumbers.

Today I'm going to have to put the sheers over the kale! And final harvest and remove the snow peas!

You might discover that to be a big factor in your problems. Sunlight is so key for growth.

It's downright hot today... I'm concerned we'll have another hot spring which will just murder my lettuce and spring crops

Worked shoveling out the last bed set on the ground and actually started sweating.  Yep, unseasonably hot.  The bed was crawling with earth worms.  I didn't see any little wigglers but maybe they are inside the worm tube, which I removed whole.  The orange tree is budding new branches so Saturday will be the final picking and pruning.

DH wants to go dune riding at Pismo next week, so, maybe a few buckets of seaweed!!

I am almost finished with my hillside section.  I am emptying one of my original table tops of strawberry plants and am going to plant them all along the hillside where I'm fighting with the tree roots.  I figure they're more likely to win that battle than anything that needs deep soil, so we'll see.  

I won't be able to fill the table top again until one of my compost piles gets to heating up again though.  That TT is the most shaded of all my beds so I'm going to make it my lettuce bed for the summer.  It gets late afternoon sun which is still brutal but we'll see if I can have fresh lettuce this summer, last summer it didn't work so well.

Have fun at the beach!

We are home from Pismo beach and this is part of the haul.  We collected more after this photo.  DH took the truck to a do it yourself car wash where they have a wand sprayer with cold water to get most of the sand off.  I only have one little area that I can dump sandy water.

Wow, Sanderson!  Nice haul!  Your garden will be very happy...

For a week we've been in the 'Chetco Effect' which means unseasonally warm sunny days.  While the East Coast is freezing, we're happy as clams on the Pacific Coast.

Pruned all the fruit trees and sprayed before the buds pop.  Been working on the beds inside the big greenhouse to be ready for planting.

Sowed 8 trays of assorted veggies and set them out when the sun shines.

Thinking I need to get the tractor down the hill to turn the compost - a big job for sure but the tractor sure helps!

Starting to arrange my power point, notes and demo items for the SFG Intro. class I'll teach next month.

Other than that....not much going on here!

Looks like you are getting a lot more done than many of us, rillgardens. You must have quite a large place to be able to turn over your compost using a tractor.

It's wonderful that gardening etc allows for all sizes of outfits from pot plants on balconies  to acreage.

rillgardens wrote:
Other than that....not much going on here!

Sounds like that's enough!

Yesterday we cut up (8"-24") and rinsed (and rinsed and rinsed) the seaweed. Also, threw away the roots after reading Audrey's comment. Thanks, Audrey. DH fetched a lot of horse manure and hauled over the bags of leaves collected this late fall. All ready, except the temp here is 55*F which is uncomfortable for me. I still have to remove the hybrid pile from the compost cage. I guess I will read today, stare at the seedlings and prep the last 85 oranges from our tree for dehydrating.

Any left over manure and seaweed, plus coffee grounds, will be used with some of the sawdust/soil from the stump grinding.

I look at the freezing weather some of you have to endure, and I feel like a total wimp. Tomorrow it is supposed to be over 60*F for 5 hours so no excuse for not building the pile. A pleasant surprise is that the hybrid Hugel-Bereley-BTE compost pile I was going to toss in the green waste can is actually pretty nice stuff for covering some of the bare soil around trees, bushes and roses. Good for summer-proofing and worm attraction.

Sort of disappointed with my seedlings this spring compared to the previous 2 spring seedlings. Tomatoes and some flowers look good but I'm still waiting for peppers, and some of the herb and other veggies.

Be alert, I hear we may have some cold weather this next two weeks (cold as defined by California not New England!)  My seedlings are out in the greenhouse and I have a lot of squash, cucumbers and other sensitive things and of course I've gotten lazy since we've been so warm.

Tomorrow I have to set things up again, I tore things apart to clean up in there.

With a chance of rain Sunday and Monday. So, tomorrow I have to get everything done.

The last bed to be raised!  We finished before we went to Pismo this past week.  DH used 3/4" plywood this time instead of 1/2" on the other beds. The area will be covered with the new wood chips from the RIP Pistachio tree.

Spent the whole afternoon cleaning up the yard, putting 4 inches of wood chips on my new beds that I have been getting ready for the spring.  Cleaning up the greenhouse and getting things ready for the rain.  A good afternoon's work, but I'm a bit achy

I bet you are achy.  I've spent the day with a migraine. Got nothing done. Wait, not true. This morning before it bloomed, I sliced 2 bags of gifted lemons and put them in the dehydrator, plus some squeezed juice in the freezer in shallow containers until it freezes. See, just having a hard time thinking.

Felt a lot better today and got the seaweed-manure-leaf compost pile built during the easy rain this morning. Now it can rain all it wants!