Garden Update 2014 and on to the Winter Garden

 These photos are from our community garden plot.  The squash plants are the ones that I reseeded in July.  After harvesting a ton of squash from Patty Pan, Ronde de Nice and Crookneck, the plants were then attacked by aphids.  We finally gave up and pulled those out.  I am so happy to see that the new plants are looking healthy and so far no signs of another infestation.  I also had problems with the Japanese Cucumbers (soyu) that I planted back in March.  The new plants are looking good and are loaded with blossoms.  I think I forgot to get a picture of those so I will add one later on.

 Purple Bell Peppers are doing well, but they have been small.  Too much heat for them early on I suspect. The plants are looking better now and the fruit is growing larger before ripening. 

Yellow Bell Peppers

This is Max's Gold a Yellow Zucchini Squash from Botanical Interest Seeds, just coming in now.

Lacinato Kale looking sad in the heat, but still growing and we are picking once a week.  These two plants will continue to grow year-round for us and will get taller and taller; we pick from the bottom up.

 This is Kentucky Wonder pole beans, again I pulled out the plants from March and this batch was planted  in July.  We had the worst July temperatures that I can remember, plus high winds which really damaged so many of my plants.  Fortunately for us, the weather up until November and on into December will still be perfect for the newly planted seedlings to continue to produce for us.

 First of the Patty Pan I harvested from the seeds planted in July.

 The six Italian Basil plants had no problems at all for me and I have picked so much basil this year.  I cut half and leave the other half to flower for the bees.  Then when the other half grows back, I let that one bloom and so-on and so-on.  These plants are constantly serving up pollen for the bees. Someone somewhere will be getting basil flavored honey!

 More Kentucky Wonder pole beans.

 This is Cocozelle, the only squash plant that did not get infested with aphids or at least not enough that I had to reseed.  It is now beginning to vine and taking over the pathway.  As long as it produces I will let it go where it wants.

 Here is the second seeding of Crookneck.  I plant way to many seeds so some are being choked out by the larger plants, but I will let them decide who gets to take over.

 Here is the second planting of Ronde de Nice.  I should be picking in a couple of days.  See below.

 

I think this is another Cocozelle that I planted just in case the other one got infested.

 This photo shows an overview of the plot.  We took out all but one tomato plant and that is Cherokee Purple (not in photo here)  I have not seen many new blossoms forming so I may take it out.  We ended up buying 3 more San Marzano plants in early July, so far they look good and I have picked about 6 from those plants.  Still plenty of time for them to give us a nice crop.

Another view of the basil in bloom.

 I have started 3 flats of seeds for my winter garden.  This is just two of them. 

 

Garlic waiting to be separated and planted in a flat.

Winter Garden Plan 2014

Here is what I have sowed so far:

Lacinato Kale

Winter Red Kale

Broccoli Raab Rapini

Michihili Chinese Cabbage

Rocket Arugula

Mesclun Blend Lettuce

Butterhead Marvel of Four Season Lettuce

Freckles Romaine Lettuce

Butterhead Speckles Lettuce

Oak Leaf Blend Lettuce

Valentine Mesclun Blend Lettuce

Butterhead Buttercrunch Lettuce

Ruby Red Swiss Chard

Five Color Silverbeet Swiss Chard 

Still need to plant seeds in flats for:

Spinach

Cauliflower

Broccoli

Cabbage

Tatsoi

Bokchoy

Mustard Greens

Peas

Snow Peas

Brussels Sprouts

When we get to planting I will direct sow:

Early Wonder Beet

Turnip Purple Top White Globe

Rutabaga American Purple Top

French Breakfast Radish

Easter Egg Blend Radish

Garlic (from bulbs started in flat)

Spring Onions Sets

Have a beautiful day!

Raised Beds, Vegetable Garden Progress and some Flowers too! Help with plant name please!

"He who sees things grow from the beginning will have the best view of them."

-Aristotle

A few photos to keep my blog up to date on the progress.  I took these photos on Monday Sept 20th and just got around to posting them.  The lettuces have all sprouted along with the beets, kale and swiss chard.  Green onions are doing great, too.  I should have plenty of goodies for Thanksgiving dinner.

Raised Bed Sept 20th, after only ten days

Beets in the 3rd bed

Mesclun in the 1st bed

Onion Sets planted in the 1st and 2nd bed

Onion Seedlings in small square 4th bed. 

First Fall Iris Bloom

Pink Thumbelina  Zinnia

Pink Mixed Cosmos

Giant Zinnia in Orange

Giant Zinnia in Pink

Orange Zinnia mixed with Yellow Cosmos

Perfect White Zinnia

I have forgotten the name of this plant.  If you know it, please leave me a comment.

Close up of the bloom; reminds me of lilacs which happens to be my favorite flower. 

Winter Garden Beds

We spent this last weekend planting the raised beds with goodies for a winter garden.  We added more compost to each of the three long raised beds and also made a small square just for onion seedlings. I don't know what possessed me to buy a pony pack of onion seedlings because it took a lot of patience and time to pull them apart to plant.  By the time I planted ten of the sections with these seedlings I could hardly get up off the ground!  I ended up putting in a few clumps because I was just too tired to separate the remaining seedling.  I might go back down this evening and finish. 

I also put in over a hundred onion sets which should be ready in a month.  The seedlings will probably take three months since they are so tiny. It was a beautiful, peaceful evening last night when I planted them so it was worth the time spent.  I planted these seeds from Botanical Interest Seeds which I purchased at a local nursery. 

Arugula (Rocket and Wild)
Beets (Gourmet and Early Wonder)
Cilantro
Kale (Red Winter and Italian Nero Toscana)
Mache (corn salad)
Mesclun Salad Mix (Farmers Market Blend and Gourmet Spicy Mix)
Radicchio (Palla Rossa Ashalim)
Romaine (Parris Island)
Radish (Cherry Belle)
Sorrel (common seed)
Spinach (Bloomdale)
Swiss Chard (Bright Lights, Fordhook Giant and Ruby Red)

These I purchased at Home Depot.  They have a really good selection now and the sets were fresh; I didn't find one in the bag that was dried up. If you wait too long to buy these and plant them you will end up with a bag of dried up sets. I try to keep the bags in a cool place, but with our heat at this time of the year it is tough.  I need to make room in the refrigerator for the remaining sets.
Garlic (from sets)
Shallot (from sets)
Spring Onion (from sets)

Here are my raised beds for this years winter garden.  Not much to look at but in a month they will be green and lush with all sorts of goodies for salads.

The bed is made from the adobe wall we have in our backyard.  Seven years ago when we purchased this house a section of the wall was so worn we took that section down and replaced it with "slump" block.  Many of the old adobe bricks were still in good shape and we have used these around the property for garden beds ever since.  This weekend we dug out all the soil and lined the beds with chicken wire.  Then mixed in compost.  I also added bone meal, blood meal, kelp meal, worm castings and dolomite lime. I use about 1 part each, a little less of the blood meal, then mix and add to the soil when I am mixing in the compost.  If you use a lot of manure you probably would not need the blood meal.  I like the blood meal for this time of the year because it is fast acting and it seems to really help the fast growing lettuces.

These next two are also adobe bricks but are newer.  They are also narrower than the original bricks.  Adobe is getting difficult to find in our area now.  I had heard that the local property where these were being made was sold and is no longer used to make the bricks.

This one is again, the older adobe bricks.  Just pieces that were left over.  These bricks keep the soil warm in the cooler winter months.  We put up a fence of chicken wire just for last night to keep the bunnies out.  This summer we had a ground squirrel in the tomato beds.  I don't know what I can do to keep those guys out once they find the garden.  I will need to call on the hawks and owls to help me out!

We still have two Green Zebra Tomatoes that I grew from seed.  They have lots of tomatoes right now and with the heat planned for this week I might be picking some soon.  I also have some late plantings of zucchini (second picture) that are doing really well. 

Green Zebra Tomato (in the red cages)

Old zucchini plant still producing a squash, about two a week now.

I planted these three zucchini in late July from seeds.  I have picked a few, but not sure how well they will do with the cooler nights we are having already.  Saturday night we had a low of 56 which is cool for this time of year.

Next project will be to tackle the herb garden, again!  A gopher moved in about a month ago.  I did not lose that much but he has made a mess of the place.  He did eat a lot of my marjoram plant's roots but it survived. I may be lining this bed with chicken wire too.  Now that is a job I am not looking forward to.