The garden is on steroids - compost!

Seriously, something happened in the span of a week that made my plants double in size. As the previous owners just posted on their own blog, it must be the compost. I ran around the garden Saturday morning after being away for a week, "Look at that! This one was half this size last week, OMG, etc."

The biggest difference was in the tomatoes. We bought ten tomatoes plants all the same size. I had one left still in it's pot that was waiting for a space. The ones I had planted the week before were twice the size of the little one. See the wimpy one in the back right of the bed? That's the newbie. Oh and that post? I need to pound it down more but it's from the previous owners who swear by this method to deeply water their tomatoes. We're going to do an experiment and compare sides this summer.

The strawberry bed is kicking in too. We planted thirty-six plants, enough to feed a family of four. A few strawberries here and there are ripe, enough to bring a smile on your face when you take a bite. There's nothing like a homegrown strawberry, they're so much sweeter than even the ones from the farmer's market. Why is that?

On the inside of the house, we're getting the kitchen ready for a bumper crop just in time for summer. Gutted and gone!

Our contractor is working at a furious pace and hopes to be done by the end of May. In the meantime, here was this week's harvest in three acts. Chard and spinach, lots and lots of it.

Peas, broccoli and a lemon. These peas are from seedlings planted in November. Lots more coming next month.

Green onions, lettuce, radishes, parsley, mint and chervil.

Next weekend will be all about the watermelon and pumpkin beds, the last beds to be ready for planting. Then the hard work will be done!

March in the garden

We have been coming up Saturday mornings lately. I try to already have everything I need to make dinner so the only shopping I have to do is in the garden. This week I was able to harvest my usual pile of chard and the first spinach and lettuce leaves to make a side salad.

The weather has been so mild these past few weeks we've been taking afternoon bike rides throughout Sonoma. A few blocks away from the cottage we have this view to enjoy. There's a wonderful spot nearby to set out our picnic blanket which we plan to do a lot of this year.

Back in the garden, things are turning green, especially the weeds in between the beds. I'm debating what to do about the surrounding paths.

On the one hand, if you follow the concepts around permaculture, this is a vital part of the garden, providing shelter for good bugs (but also bad). The downside is the paths are uneven, you have to hand trim the paths because of the irrigation lines, and it just doesn't look very tidy to me.

I'm looking into mulching the paths, not sure if I'll go forward with it. In the meantime, I'm slowly removing an old straw bale bed to make way for a seating area with a fire pit between the beds.

In the midst of all these thoughts, though, the plants are growing well. Radishes sprouted last week, the snap peas have their first flowers and my flowers seeds (nigella) are growing fast.

Fruit trees in bloom and new growth

I swear these the fruit trees waited for me to arrive before opening their blossoms. We arrived on Monday, with just a flower or two open only on the nectarine and by the end of the week, many more had followed. My sweet friend, Jaime Rugh, sent me one of her weavings last year and I've been waiting for just the right tree on which to hang it. I love how the blossoms bring out the pink thread.

Next came the canning plum which hangs over into our yard from next door. I never would have noticed before but these plum trees are all over Sonoma. I've heard they make good jam, we'll see for ourselves.

Then mid-week a little hint that the white peach would be next. I managed to do the final of three copper sprays on the peach trees before they bloomed. I cut it really close this year but I managed it. The previous owners, who were entirely organic, told me we have to give in and spray to protect against peach leaf curl with these trees.

The last day we were at the cottage, the santa rosa weeping plum burst into bloom for us. We trimmed the tree back quite a bit this year but there are plenty of beautiful buds.

 Next will likely be the yellow peach, followed later by the fig, apples and perhaps even the pears, although one of the pears already flowered in November. The other exciting thing that happened this week was almost all of my shelling peas have sprouted. I was so worried someone would come by and eat up all the seeds. I planted them at the end of January and they're growing fast already.

 Next weekend I have more weeding to do. Three more beds left, two of them are 14' long. Luckily, I don't have to plant anything for a few more weeks while I wait for the soil to warm a bit more.

Every Gardener's January: Reading

I've spent most of this month reading up on edible gardening and am now in the planning stages of what to plant and where. There are several books that have stayed by my side this January. My most used reference is How to Grow more Vegetables by John Jeavons. I kept seeing this book in stores but felt I had enough garden books already. When I realized the previous owners used this as a reference, I knew it would be a worthy addition. It explains a lot about why my garden is planted the way it is. And now that I understand, I can't imagine changing it.

I've had a really old, dog eared copy of Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew on my shelf for years. I would love to have the new edition, shown here, with much better pictures but the text seems the same so I can't really justify the upgrade.

Square foot gardening is kind of a revolution gone mainstream theory around gardening. In addition to maximizing space, it saves gardening time by reducing weeds and hopefully pests by using companion planting.

For the eye candy and pure inspiration, I love looking through From Seed to Skillet by Jimmy Williams and Susan Heeger. The gardens featured are beautiful. I love his recommendation on varieties, a lot of my favorites and a few that are new to me.

And while I was at Baker Creek, I had to buy their new book, The Heirloom Life Gardener by Jere & Emilee Gettle. This offers in-depth descriptions about the heirloom seeds they sell.

 

I've got a plan now for the garden, based on all of these books which will be coming soon.

Seeds

My vegetable patch in San Francisco is a tiny 40 square feet. A few weeks ago I sat down to wrap my head around the new garden. Umm, this one is a little bigger, weighing in at 420 square feet of raised bed growing areas alone. Yikes! I debated on just starting out with a few beds here and there, but then I began to worry about wasting all that amazing dirt just sitting there, calling out to me to fill it.

At least one bed has been taken. This is her garden bed.

So I figure this, most people who have a garden, have day jobs, right? They are likely only able to spend most of their time in the garden on the weekends. Just like me. Yes, I'm sure I'm going to miss a few crucial times when I should be ready to pluck those just ripened peas off the vine before they go starchy or when the birds get a hold of the cherries before we get a chance to (aparently, this will happen).

The 60 year old cherry tree that still produces fruit. Stay away birds!

But you've got to give things a try. Take some risks. What's the worse that can happen? You lose a lot of money on plants you've bought. Which isn't good. So, this lead me to realize that it was going to cost A LOT of money to fill all those beds up with store bought plants. Not to mention I'm picky when it comes to choices. Quality counts. So it all comes down to seeds. A lot of this garden will be grown from seed. I can only start seeds in the ground, no transplanting since I won't be around to baby them all week. There certainly will be some storebought plants. I'm looking forward to this Tomatomania in a few months where I plan to stock up. Peppers will be bought too. But the rest, all seeds.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds to be precise. It just so happens that we live one town away from the Petaluma Seed Bank, where you can spend hours pouring over seed packets among other seed-crazed fools like myself. We went over last month and I stocked up. I was kind of shocked by the $45.00 price tag but then I realized these seeds could provide most of our vegetables for a couple of seasons. Think of what that will save in trips to the grocery store and farmer's market. A lot. Check out Baker Creek's site and be sure to order their catalog, it's 196 pages of incredible seeds. They have a new book out too which is a nice read.