How Time Flies!

Months have gone by since my last turn in the garden. The weeds are taking over and the left over plants are spent. Now is the time for rest in the garden. Now is the time for renewing my plan. Spring will be here in the blink of an eye.

The fall garden that I planted never came up. I didn't have time to baby the seedlings. I would like to think that there will be a winter garden, but I need to be realistic in my plans.  I will take this time to clean, rearrange, simplify and prepare for an early spring.

I have decided to plant one tomato plant next year. Oh how hard that is to write. One tiny little tomato plant? Can I do it? I went from 5 the first year to 3 last year. I had too many tomatoes and no time to tend them or can them. One plant is all I need, but... Simplify, simplify is my new mantra.

My garden goals

• Use well the square foot plots that I have, and I should have all that I need. 
• Plant only those things that I know I will eat.
• Compost and reuse what I can.
• Set up the drip system on a timer to alleviate the stress and schedule of watering.
• Spend time in the garden relaxing and enjoying the work of my hands.

Chickens are still a part of the plan. Hopefully I can get the yard ready while I am rearranging the garden. I need a raised coop, a fence and a gate. That is doable if I work on it over the winter.

Simplify and use my resources well in every area of my life. Too much stuff equals too much to do. My garden continues to be my tutor. 

Lots of flowers but no fruit

So it's the end of August and the garden is waning. This year was better than last, but not what I had hoped. I did get tomatoes, peppers, carrots, green beans, squash and a couple of ears of corn. The cucumbers, pumpkin, and berries were nonexistent. There were Strawberries, those that the bugs didn't get anyway. I guess I set my sights too high each year. The fact that I get anything at all is fun and delicious.

I have begun my fall garden. It is filled with salad greens and carrots. I will keep only one box growing along with some squash in the back bed. I don't have much time to garden in the fall so I will realign my drip system and get a timer for it. We'll see how it goes.

Fall Gardening

This morning I spent time in the garden cleaning up for the fall. The corn stalks are down, weeds are pulled, and irrigation drip system rearranged. I will have to spend some more time on the irrigation.  I know there must be a more efficient way to get the watering done.

My boxes are pretty much empty right now.  I have the last of the peppers ripening on the bushes, a square of carrots maturing and two squares of beans just beginning to sprout in one box and two eggplant bushes in the other box.  Today I planted lettuce, parsley and cilantro in that box. It has been such a mild summer I thought I would give these cool weather crops an early start.  I hope that doesn't mean that the weather is about to change to triple digits!

I'm disappointed with the pumpkin I planted.  It got plenty of blossoms but no fruit. Same thing happened last year. Maybe  I need to plant two vines together next year so they can pollinate each other. No pumpkins again this Thanksgiving :(

The melons are slow to produce as well.  I have no fruit from them but lots of blossoms.  The bees and wasps  are there in abundance but so far no fruit. The cucumbers are in a bad place this year. They are not happy with the sun exposure or the water drainage.  I'll have to find a new solution for them.  I can do another planting soon. They shouldn't mind the cooler weather.

Everything is slowing down, getting ready for fall. Fall is a busy time for me. Maybe I will only maintain one box of salad fixings.  The other spaces can rest for the winter until I get the bug again in the spring.

Tomato Frenzy

Well, it's been a while.  I've been much too busy to blog  or garden for that matter. The garden is producing but it shows the lack of care.  I need to remember that August is my busy month, but the garden needs a lot of attention in August. I am very glad that I didn't invest in chickens.  I just don't have time for them.

So today is tomato frenzy day.  I have pounds of tomatoes that will go bad if I don't do something today.  So I will peel, and boil, and can them. I don't have anyplace to be today, but lots of jobs around the house. The tomatoes can boil while I get the rest of the work done around here.

There are also peppers to chop, and corn to husk. Wow, I better get off this blog and get busy!

First squash!

This week the squash took off!  I have two zucchini almost ready to pick. The yellow squash is just forming now. Naomi's pumpkin plant is taking off, too. No fruit yet, but it is getting big.

 The snap peas are about done so they will come out next week sometime. I still get several off every day, so I'll let it go for a day or two more. I plan to put melons in their place, but have not decided for sure. Cucumbers are my other choice.

Naomi and Eli came and got some carrots, beets and an onion yesterday, They were excited to see what had grown under ground. They helped me find some strawberries, too. Eli really likes to hunt for them. When he found little ripe ones he said, "Oh look at the tiny one. It's so cute!" This is all new to them. I hope they enjoy it enough to continue gardening when they are older.

There are lots of green tomatoes on the vines. I hope the warm weather ripens them soon.  I hate to buy tomatoes at the store.  They are flavorless and expensive. Patience is needed when gardening.

Rearranging

One of the lovely features of square foot gardening is that one is always rearranging their produce. This morning I pulled out the spent bean plants and chard planting cabbage, carrots, cilantro and more beans in their place. It feels sad to pull up the old. but invigorating to plant the new. The snap peas are almost done producing.  I think I will plant cantaloupe in their place.

In a few short days I will see new growth. I love my garden. It reminds me of the old stuff in my life that is just hanging around taking up space and sapping nutrients from my soul. I need to do some rearranging there, as well. Plant some new seeds to enjoy the new growth. Tending the garden of my soul is well worth the effort.

Tending the garden of my soul.......

hmmmmm, there's a poem there, I just know it.  I'll be pondering that all day

What a mess!

I just got home from vacation and wandered back to the garden. My oh my what a week of no attention will do!  I have my work cut out for me. Good thing I took another day off.

There are tomatoes on the vines, and peppers on all three bushes. The cucumbers are gaining strength and the corn is getting taller.  I am excited to see what the next month or two will bring!

I need to plant some more melons. Three sisters plot is ready for beans. The weather is finally right for them. I love my garden. June gloom or no, summer is on the way!

The Lopez planting

Today as I watered the garden plot, I noticed that all of the Lopez family's seeds are sprouting.  The pumpkin, squash, sunflowers, wildflowers, carrots, and chives just broke through this week.  The children will be so excited!

My cucumbers have sprouted, but the watermelon has not. I think I will have to plant some more corn since only two of the 15 seeds I planted have germinated. The bush beans have taken over the plot where I put them.  I'll have to remember next year that they need a lot of room and 9 per square is too many.  I had to pull the lettuce up, it was too crowded with the beans. It may be too warm for them to grow now, but I think I will start another square anyway.

The tomatoes are coming along nicely, lots of flowers on each plant.  I will continue to pick out the suckers and try to contain them in their wire cages. Last year was a chaotic mess of tomatoes! This year will be nice and neat with any luck.

I love my drip watering system! Unfortunately not all of the planted area is set up with a dripper.  I have to remember to go out and water those areas. It has been fairly cool lately so it has not been a problem.  I will try to get out this week end and expand the reach of the drip system.

Naomi and Eli

Today Naomi and Eli came to help me in my garden! Blanca came too, of course.  We dug and planted and watered for almost two hours.  There are now petunias in the flower bed between the roses and sunflowers between the roses and the cactus. There are wildflowers on the east fence of the garden and a pumpkin mound in the corner.  Naomi wanted to make a sign that told that the garden with the pumpkin was hers. So I gave her some paper and she made a lovely sign. So cute!

We also planted a zucchini seed, some carrot seeds and some chives.  I hope some of it comes up.  The kids will be disappointed if it doesn't. They will come and water every other day or so.  We'll see how it goes.  We can plant the seed but God makes it grow.

Rent - a -student

This week end was rent a student week. I paid for 3 kids from youth group to come and work in my yard.  Malachi Hose was one of those students. He did amazing work for me.  Because of his hard work, I now have my garden plot all cleared out and ready for planting! Corn, beans and squash will go in the new section of the garden. Today I built the berms and got the space ready.  Tomorrow I will plant the corn. In a couple of weeks I will plant the beans and squash to build a "3 sisters" garden. I have been wanting to do this for years. We'll see how it works.

The idea is that the corn grows tall and supports the beans to grow on and the squash shades the ground to help with ground temperature. It sounds cool anyway.

Now my problem is, where to plant the melon? I need to expand the garden already!

Productive weekend

I've had several days off in a row this week, so I spent most of it in the garden. I decided to put the tomatoes and squash in a different part of the garden this year so they can grow without taking over my sfg squares. So Saturday I planted corn and peppers in my new raised bed, but the tomatoes went out in the newly tilled area.

 I bought two plants from the Fullerton Arboretum. I missed the sale this year so all they had left were tomatoes, all the peppers and eggplant were gone. I did find one of my favorites, though. Ibiis is the plant that produces yellow cherry tomatoes that we enjoyed so much last year.  I was not good to keep it in control so it took over the world, but this year I fully intend to maintain a normal sized plant.  We'll see how that goes.  The other tomato plant is a beefsteak variety.  I love large tomatoes with lots of flavor for my sandwiches.

Then I went to Walmart. They had a good variety of vegetable plants there, so I bought 3 colors of bell pepper and one more tomato plant. I really wanted to buy more vegies, but decided to hold off for a bit until I could make some good decisions. The plants look healthy. I am not convinced that Walmart can sell great  plants, so it's kind of an experiment.

I have today off, too.  5 in a row, pretty crazy, right? I will spend most of it in the garden again.  Life is good!

The pepper tree is gone

Yesterday I took the day off for a long Easter week end. As a worked around in the yard weeding and such, Fred chopped down the pepper tree. It was a bittersweet moment. That tree has been the play equipment of our kids for 20 years. Well, ok, no one has climbed it for the past 8 or nine years, but it has so many memories. It needed to go. Every year it gets tangled in the phone lines, it shades the garden, and it grows new shoots from the ground. I'm glad its gone. It was the last hurdle to being able to buy some laying hens.

It will take a week or so to get the mess cleaned up. I still have a raised bed to plant in my garden. So by the beginning of May I should have some chickens.

The garden will get a lot more sun now. Hopefully we won't have to battle with mildew this year. So long pepper tree; it's been nice.

A stay at home day

Today was a stay at home day.  I love these days.  I don't get enough of them. It had been two weeks since I had mown the lawn, so that was the first order of business. It was a warm day so I needed to get it done before noon. We went to Home Depot to get lumber and pvc pipe to build our next raised bed.

Elaine and Chuck Davis came by for a few minutes.  They had extra compost from their yard remodel and they brought us a barrel full. It was nice to see them and share our gardening adventure with them. They are great friends!

As soon as I got the mowing done, I decided that the weeds near the house needed to be pulled. It was not a hard job, just time consuming, and I enjoy the process. The compost tumbler has been ignored for a while so I had Fred turn it a few times. I dug around in it and pulled some of the good stuff out. I won't fill it so full next time!

Tomorrow we'll get the new bed set in the garden and I can plant my next set of vegies.

My garden

sage and basil in the containers

Black berries

Oregano 

This is box one the salad box, beans, carrots, beets, onions, lettuce

snap peas

strawberries

snap peas and black berries

My friend, Michaele gave me some blackberry starts last week end.  I got them in the ground and they are sooooo happy! I will have berries next year perhaps.  Not counting on them this year, but you never know. The lavender she gave me is not so happy. I am hoping it will come around in the next few days.

The snap peas have sprouted, and I am anxious to begin my three sisters area. I bought some basil and thyme and sage for the herb wheel. Elaine gave me some mint.  So things are coming along and moving quickly now.

I need to get some tomatoes and peppers in soon!

snap peas

Tuesday, I dug up a 1ft by 12 ft section in the ground just under my chicken wire frame. Then, I put compost and potting soil in the hole and planted my snap peas! 24 peas to be exact. Now I have to wait a week for them to sprout. Hopefully they will do well in the compost mix.  We will soon see.

Sprouts!!

After a beautiful week end away, I come home to find strong new bean sprouts! The carrots have sprouted as well. I love spring time.  I have decided to plant my peas and cucumber straight in the ground with a good bit of compost and vermiculite. The frame is up and filled with chicken wire, so tomorrow I plant peas.  I will buy a kiddie pool this week at Lowe's by work for my herb wheel garden. I am excited about the prospect of a beautiful herb garden in the center of my garden plot.

My oregano from last year is beautiful and full, so I will leave it alone. I will pant basil near my cucumbers to keep the spider mites away, but the other herbs will go in the herb wheel.  More info about this in my next post.

planning, planning...

Today I planted some chard and carrots and beets. I watered the spots that I planted yesterday  and the already growing spots of onions and lettuce.  I picked a few strawberries, too! I am debating about the expansion of my garden plot. I want another box or two for squash, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, peas and melons. Squash takes up so much space, 3x3 for summer squash and 1x2 for winter squash. Maybe I'll plant the three sisters pattern with corn beans and squash. It would be something new to do. I wonder if I could do it in a sfg? Maybe I'll make one of those charts and post it here. Hmmmmmm

Finally a dry day in the garden

It has been a month since I have posted anything here. The weather has not allowed me much time in the garden. I harvested most everything last month, so there is much to be done. Today I had a chance to do some weeding around my raised bed. It had gotten a good ground cover again, but the soil was soft from the rain and the weeds came out easily.

My worm bins have been ignored for most of the winter. I throw food in and walk away. The poor little guys needed some attention ,so I spent some time fluffing their bedding and moving them from one bin to another. They should be happy now for a week or two.

I plan to plant some tomorrow after church. I sectioned off my raised bed into square feet with some small rope, Clothesline actually, so I can be more efficient with my planting. I want to plant some peas along my trellis, but I have a sneaky squirrel that keeps coming in the yard. I haven't figured out how to protect the peas from him yet. I will wait a week or two I suppose. Lettuce, carrots, spinach and chard will go in this week.

I will probably work on the drip system tomorrow too.  So much to do, so little time!

Done

2 gallon size bags of lettuce and 1 gallon size bag of spinach later, my harvesting is done for now. I hate to harvest before the plants' prime but I also hate losing my crop. So, I went to the garden and pulled them all up. I figure the onions should be able to survive the freeze. Maybe I am figuring wrongly but they are not big enough to harvest just yet.

The strawberry plants from last year may be lost, but they are sort of sickly looking anyway.  I want to plant them in better soil next season. The dirt in my yard needs a lot of help. Raised beds are the answer.  The one Fred built me for my birthday last year is perfect. The soil is soft and loamy. It holds moisture well and the plants love it. (They whispered it to me one morning). I'll add one every once in a while and build up the garden slowly.

I will be ordering more seeds soon and now I will be able to start fresh in March.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate.  I can't imagine how the real farmers must feel when the weather is uncooperative. I stress out about my little backyard garden.  Maybe I shouldn't wish for more.

Now, I have to decide... chickens or no chickens. That is the question

Hurry up Harvest

I'm going to have to get out in the garden tomorrow and harvest as much as I can before it FREEZES.  Seems silly at the end of February in Sunny Southern California to have to worry about the lettuce freezing but they say it's going to freeze. So, I'll go and get what I can before that happens.  There is not much there, just some lettuce and spinach.  There are strawberries, too, but they are still green so they will be a loss this time.

I may try to save them with some plastic sheets over my raised bed cages. Then again, I may just cut my losses and start again.

Hopefully we will get some good weather for gardening this year. I may have to move to Oklahoma or something.

In between rain bursts

Today I had a chance to play in the garden for a few minutes between rain showers and moving my daughter to a new apartment.

I harvested more salad greens, picked a few weeds, and planted some swiss chard. The red onions I planted have taken root and sprouted.  Next week I'll add some snow peas to the mix.

I have decided to try a drip system in my garden this year. I am hoping that a consistent watering will give me a better harvest and less mildew than last year. Never having done a drip system before, I am dealing with a pretty big learning curve, but I'll just keep trying  until I get it right. Home Depot has a kit called "Drip Irrigation Kit for Dummies."  I figured that was for me so i bought it.  Haven't tried it yet.  I'll  let you know how it goes.

More clean up and such

This afternoon I took some time in the garden again.  The weeds had taken over!

I started in the strawberry box, raking out leaves and debris blown in last week by the wind. Look what I found!

Strawberries in February

I moved on to the salad box and harvested enough lettuce and spinach for lunch salads all week. 

I planted a few red onion bulbs in this box and watered thoroughly. It was a short but lovely afternoon in the garden.

Problem solved

Sarah is young and smart and creative so now I have a sewing page.  Thank goodness for young ones who are not intimdated by the computer.

word play ineffective

So, the word play in my blog title is not going to work.  I was hoping to have another page on here about my quilting and handiwork.  Unfortunately being technically challenged, I cannot figure out how to do a second page.  Lest I seem a poor speller, I have had to change my blog title. I will not change my blog address, however. I am determined to figure this thing out.

Let the gardening begin!

Yes, I know the date is only January 30, but... I just can't help myself. Yesterday was such a beautiful day, sunshiny and warm. The garden called my name after months of being ignored.  Of course, the rain this month watered the ground generously, so the weeds abound! I have my work cut out for me to be ready to plant in March.

I have one square planted already with 2 kinds of spinach and 4 types of  lettuce. At the end of the season, in October I threw some seeds into my new raised bed and then forgot it. Winter time is not a good time for me to garden because I work full time. I go to work in the dark and come home in the dark, which leaves no time in the garden during the week.  Weekends are full of all the things that didn't get done during the week.God decided to water the garden for me this winter and the greens have grown. It is yielding beautiful, fresh greens for my salads.

I had not been in the garden, because I could not bear walking through the weeds to get to the lettuce. Yesterday was the day to begin. I took the hoe and rake to the garden gate and started there. I cleaned myself a  path to the lettuce without much trouble because the soil is soft from having been worked last year. That silly hoe just would not stop. The garden is about 25% cleared and my gardening bug has come out of hibernation. I look forward to a yummy salad of fresh greens tomorrow for lunch.

Next week, if weather permits, I will plant some onions and cilantro in the salad bowl box. let the gardening begin!

Morning's Song

In the quiet of the morning,

As the sun begins to rise,

There’s a special sort of silence,

A praise song in disguise.

The birds commence their singing.

The stars begin to fade.

As twilight slowly sheds its veil

And colors come to play

My mind records a simple song

That only one can hear.

Cannot be sung by human lips

Nor heard by human ear.

It speaks directly to the one

Creator God is He

Who hangs the morning star on high

And causes all to be.

by Cinda Tribble

March 2010

My Favorite Hymn

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzzqhaLl_8w&feature=related