California - What are you doing this month?

Looks great sanderson. I enjoy the photos of your garden.

trolleydriver wrote:Looks great sanderson. I enjoy the photos of your garden.

+1

sanderson wrote:Got the purchased herbs planted today.  Then I realized I forgot to plant the little Thyme I started.    I also worked in the front yard, weeding, trimming up perennial flowers, planting new annuals, and tackling the China Doll rose that I have ignored for 2 summers.  I am so sore . . .

I started pulling weeds in the Salad Bar, but then I started sneezing and couldn't stop. This is a bad year for allergies. Even the cats are sneezing. 

Today was an effort to get as many of the starts into the ground.  We are going out of town for 2 days and the little starts in pots were suffering.  The 7 little tomatoes planted 10 days ago are doing well.  The tomatoes are in every other square with a flower in the other squares.  The 2 petunias are store bought.

Various cucumbers planted 4-15 - Muncher, Pickling, Crystal Apple and Lemon.

This bed ended up a flower bed.  The flowering vinca, stock and dianthus are store bought and barely hanging on.  The only hope was to plant them.  The others are from seeds.

Herb bed.  The tiny thyme are in the shade of the perennial oregano.

KY Wonder beans.  This bed hasn't been used for 2 years because of the neighbor's trees, which were recently removed.

Various cantaloupes.

Winter squashes (R) and 2 small watermelon and flower (L).

The new bed 2' x 1 1/2'.  One each yellow squash and zucchini.

If you squint real hard you can see the tiny tomatoes finally planted 4-24.  They are definitely doing better.  The trellis is not finished but it had to be in place in order to know where to plant the tomatoes.  Yolos suggested the wood blocks to support the EMC so they wouldn't sink into the BTE soil.  Holes were drilled in the wood for the rebar which was half sunk into the BTE soil.

Wow sanderson, you have been busy! It all looks great as well.
  

I see you are allowing flowers to take over more squares. That has been my thought as well but we will see what happens when planting time arrives.

I had big plans for today, but it ended up raining off and on, so I got nothing done. Tomorrow we have to run errands all day, so I won't get back into the gardens until Tuesday. 

Break in the rain and I took the opportunity to plant some red,white, and yellow onions, garlic, and seed in some Italian torpedo onions. Had a bed prepped and waiting for radish, carrot, beet and parsley seeding- fingers crossed and hope they all germinate- should be warming up and nights are not going to get much colder- they're covered, but just hope I can keep the seeds safe from the neighbor's cat's urges to use my boxes as a latrine.

trolleydriver wrote:Wow sanderson, you have been busy! It all looks great as well.
  

I see you are allowing flowers to take over more squares. That has been my thought as well but we will see what happens when planting time arrives.

Just something different for this year.

Ive been planning more flowers myself trying to get more habitat for the beneficiaks interspersed with the food crops.

My borage which i was so happy to have growing over the winter has turned into a self sowing weed that grows 5x as fast as everything else in the garden 

Borage made one of the beds one year and I had it coming up the next 2 summers!  Now it can run wild in the BTE front flower bed.

I am behind and hope to catch up on the Forum tomorrow, Thursday. I was out of town, and when we got back, Comcast for our TV, computers and iPhones was not working.

sanderson wrote:I am behind and hope to catch up on the Forum tomorrow, Thursday.  I was out of town, and when we got back, Comcast for our TV, computers and iPhones was not working.  

I can relate to "behind." I'm starting to think I may never catch up. I can't even manage to get a new avatar "planted." 

YEE-HAH! Whatever was making me sneeze is now GONE! I am finally able to work in the Salad Bar. Last year, I covered the "floor" in wood chips. It took me forever and just about did me in. This year, pulling the winter weeds out of those chips is a piece of cake. I should have it done by noon.   

Also added a 2nd hummingbird feeder so I don't have to worry so much about having one run dry. Those poor little stinkers rely on me (and have a fit if I go anywhere near the feeder that I provide for their unappreciative little selves).   

If I live past noon, I may start moving some of those beautiful wood chips into some garden beds or around some fruit trees.    After that, I need to finish planting and complete the drip system. 

It is gorgeous weather right now.

sanderson wrote:It is gorgeous weather right now.

And we have several more days of it on the way! 

Going to be in the 80's here, but we get coastal fog at night, so it cools down into the low 50's.The cool nights are not too good for the tomatoes as they really start to push up when the soil get warmer.

I always find it amazing how many climates can be found in California.

I have been hit with a cold ? with bronchitis so I'm a little pokey in the garden and on the Forum. I'm going to the Urgent care clinic tomorrow. An update on what is growing so far, mainly beans. Bird nest gourd finally making its appearance among tomato volunteers. I will be planting the the luffa in the BTE. I have a square EMC trellis frame that will be re-purposed for it.

Purple podded beans doing well in the hottest spot in the yard.

Bush Blue Lake.  I need to install the horizontal trellis.

Dragon Tongue next to the sweet potato totes. Ditto on instally the horizontal trellis.  I wash and store the trellis netting for each box for winter

Kentucky Wonders growing the the bed that was shaded out for 2 seasons.

Red Noodle not doing so well.  I would say herbicide affected except the Purple Podded have the same home made compost.  I will go ahead and pull them.  Maybe 3 Queen sunflowers in this box. ?? Yes, I have grids on the 1' x 3' beds!

These 2 photos are of the BTE strip with new EMC and paracord tomato trellis.  The 3/4" PVC tees are for holding the trellis vertically.  From the street side, the trellis looks nice and tidy.  

New 2' x 1.5' bed with a yellow and zucchini squash. I think there are leaf hoppers ?? so I will spray with Neem one evening.


The new PVC corn trellis is in the background.  I still have to clip the zip ties, add sting to the 2 ends and figure out how I will make the cross braces to prevent the stalks from being blown over.  I planted the seeds 48 hours ago and they still aren't up!  

sanderson wrote:I have been hit with a cold ? with bronchitis so I'm a little pokey in the garden and on the Forum.  I'm going to the Urgent care clinic tomorrow.  

So sorry to hear that you're not feeling well. I hope you're up and running at full throttle again soon.

Hope you are feeling much better soon, sanderson.  Get plenty of rest.  Too many times I had bronchitis that worsened to pneumonia.

Hope you get well soon, S. I can imagine that it's driving you nuts not to be doing something out in your garden, but cool it for a while and just give yourself enough rest so you can shake off the bronchitis and get back to gardening.

It's great to be home after 5 days away.  I swear everything really grew during that short time!  The garlic was looking a little peaked so I went ahead and harvested it today.  Any that don't cure will be chopped and dehydrated for garlic powder.


I installed 2 horizontal trellises for the Blue Lake bush beans before we left and it was a good thing I didn't wait.

I also sprayed this zucchini with Neem Oil solution because of aphids.  I wouldn't be around to hose them off so I brought out the big gun.  I don't know if this is damage from the Neem or a disease.  The yellow squash on the left seems to be okay. In fact, it has a failed fruit on it. I haven't seen many pollinators around this year.

Looking good.  Nice haul on the garlic.   

Whew, those beans shot up! Nice haul on the garlic.  Will you save back the best heads to plant in the fall?

The squash, to me that looks like a nutritional deficiency.  Is it possible that the mix did not get evenly mixed there? Could the pH be overly high and binding the iron or manganese?  Squash soil pH preferences is in the 6 range, a little acidic.

Turan,  The different beans are doing good in their various 25 squares scattered about. I lost 3 squares right away. Should I try fava beans in those 3 squares? It is the second hottest bed in the garden.

There are 2 squashes in the box, one of each.  The zucchini on the right is the one affected and I was thinking (hoping) it was Neem oil sunburn.  The Mix was saved from the 2'x2' box that had rot and termites.  New compost was added evenly.