Raised Bed Remodel

I thought it was time to remodel the garden and improve upon my raised beds.  Originally I had planned to install redwood raised beds, but the price tag was a bit hard to swallow.  So I went with a heavy border material.  To the left of the photo, you see the raised stone area where the new double barreled compost bin will sit.

 PVC Pipe mini greenhouse set-up for seedlings.

I think I went a little overboard with the tomato and pepper plants.  These guys are now moved into the greenhouse outside and I am preparing to get the Okra, Squash and Beans started.

 Red Mustard Greens and Collard Greens in my large grow bag.  These guys seem to love the partially processed compost that I buried in the bottom.  I thought the trenching method of composting might work well in the grow bags.

 
More Collard Greens and Indian Green Mustard Greens.

Garden Update

The garden is reaching a transition point where I really need to pull up all of the lettuce type plants and plant some hardier things in their place (or not).

Eggplants

(Japanese Eggplant)

Peppers

Ok I have to admit that I ran out of room in the garden and had to plant this bell pepper plant in a pot.  But it's doing great especially since I took it off the deck ( I noticed one of the bells had gotten a bit of sun scald, so I moved it to a somewhat shadier spot).

(Poor Bell outside the garden in a pot)

(Sun Scald - Where the sun has burned the fruit.). This can be prevented by making sure the fruit is well protected wite plenty of leaves and making sure that the plant is well watered so the leaves don't wilt when the sun is at it's hottest.  Sun Scald doesn't ruin the fruit, however that spot is usually mushy and and soft.  I will usually pick the fruit and cut out the soft spot or donate the whole thing to the compost bin.

These peppers can be eaten at any stage.  They will go from green to red (this particular type). The red peppers will have a much sweeter taste than the green.

This little guy looks to be on his way to turning red, so he won't get very big.  But the little ones taste just as good as the bigger ones, so I won't be discriminating in the kitchen.

(Mild Poblano Peppers)  I'm a real wuss when it comes to hot peppers, but I usually grow them to put in my pickles every year because my mom and husband like 'em spicy. No pickles this year so I can grow mild flavored peppers for salsas and sauces that I can eat.

 (Mild Chiles)

Squash

So I made a poor planting decision by planting this squash in front of my cucumber plant.  You can see the cucumber leaves peaking out next to the fence.  I had to make a decision and dramatically cut back this plant although I hated to do it. So what you see now is a quarter of the plant that it originally was. It was also beginning to encroach on my bean plants on the bottom right.

The trellised Butternut Squash experiment still seems to be doing well.

Beans

(Various Shelling Beans - Cranberry, Black Peas, Navy, Edamame etc)

(Soy Beans)

(Green Beans - lettuce in front that needs to be put out of it's misery, and a very vibrant Sweet Basil plant to the far right)

Plants on Their Way Out

(Left to Right - Arugula, Broccoli, Mustard Greens and Collard Greens)  The Collard Greens will be staying

Tomatoes

Even with the late start, the tomatoes are doing well.  They've reached about 6' tall and are doing well with the new staking hybrid system.  I've been using the mini sprayers on the drip line to keep the ground consistently moist while doing a slow deep watering about every 10 days.  I fed them with fish emulsion which I've been doing about once per month.  There are only about 8 tomatoes on the vines and I think this is because the very warm weather we had in the past few weeks. Tomatoes don't really like to set in temperatures over 90 degrees.  Hopefully, the mildness of this past week will make some more of those babies pop up.

I found a nasty horn worm chomping on my plants the other night.  I had seen the signs for a few days but was unable to find the culprit, so I snuck out with a flashlight around dusk and caught him red handed.  Of course I gleefully took out all of my aggression on him.  I realized I should have taking a picture of him before he became a green slimy blob and the after picture was a little too gross to post. So, you'll just have to take my word the he was punished appropriately.

(Horn Worm Damage)

(Horn Worm Damage - branches cleaned of leaves)

I bought this great book the other day called " Bug Off" by Jerry Baker.  It had great natural remedies for getting rid of every critter you can think of.  He has a recipe in the book for a citrus spray for any soft bodied caterpillars, slugs, snails etc.  He says to take citrus peels and boil them in hot water.  Let the solution sit 24 hours and remove the peels from the water. Spray the solution on the plants (not in directly sunlight of course).  I'm going to try this on a test section and see what happens.

On a lighter note the Kellogg's breakfast has a potential two pounder plus hiding in the lower half that is still growing.

(Kellogg's Breakfast)

The Pineapple also has a few nice size ones coming in.

                            (Pineapple)

This is my first time growing the Sioux, so I really don't know what to expect from this guy.  It's supposed to be very heat tolerant, so I'm hoping it will set more midsize tomatoes than the others, but it's been rather disappointing so far.

I'm going to do a little bit a research and see what I can do to help these guys a long.

In With Summer Out With Winter

Things are finally looking normal in Northern California.  We're having upper 80's low 90's and I couldn't be happier (Not that I don't reserve the right to complain about the heat in a couple of weeks).  I spent the weekend digging up my long over due cool weather spinach and chard and planting more summer fare.

The poor struggling Pinapple, Siox and Kellogg Breakfast tomatoes are finally happy and have grown in leaps and bounds.  This year instead of tying the plants to an overhead trellis, I decided to trellis them against the garden fence with twine and velcro. So far so good, the real test will be when those babies get heavy with 2 lb. fruit and the winds start whipping.

 I also noticed that we had our first little 'mator of the season on the Siox.

Now none of this would be possible without the activity of our little friendly pollinators.  We are lucky enough to live across the street from a local orchard that also keeps bees.  Now that the weather is where it should be, our yard is literally buzzing with activity (get it buzzing?).  Any how this weekend was especially active in the garden and I thought I'd give you a peek.

I thought I'd try my hand at growing winter squash this year. I usually have stayed away from winter squash and melons since they are such space hogs, but I thought what the heck when I saw the plants at my local nursery.  I figured I'd try growing them vertically and see how it turned out.  I only bought two plants so I figured this little structure would do it.

This Weekend's Harvest

Green Beans

Broccoli

Strawberries

Yellow Pear Squash

It's time to let the summer veggie recipes flow.  With all the abundant good things growing, I try to cook them all. I always end up taking bundles to the office for everyone else as well.  So, as I come up with good recipes for garden produce I will begin to share them with you as well.

On the organic front I am still going strong, I haven't had too much trouble with the garden pests.  I've been having snail stomp fests and beetle squashing session, but nothing overwheling yet.  I have noticed some little munching happening on the green bean leaves, but I'll be watching closely to any signs of a hostile take over.  The pups are still holding down the fort to keep any 4 legged or winged culprits after our prizes.

Now on the other hand we are fighting a losing battle with the local mole that's been torchering my lawn for the last year.  The smelly things you drop in the holes haven't worked.  Watering the lawn hasn't succeeded in doing anything but stressing the grass out.  So if anyone has any ideas that won't harm the dogs I'm all ears.