Friday Garden, Before And After

About a month and a half ago, I started to resurrect the garden from a year's worth of neglect. The oldest part of the oldest bed finally gave out - it has rotted at the joints. I'm salvaging what I can, and re-arranging things a bit.

Remains of the oldest bed. Top half is all the can be re-used as-is.

The new potato bed, with potato sprouts

I'm experimenting with a new potato growing technique. I was told by one of the guys at the auction to keep burying the sprouts as they come up, which causes them to grow more potatoes. I've doubled the height of this bed, and will add one more layer. This makes use of another bed that started to rot.

10 Gallon Potato Bag

I'm also experimenting with the bag o' taters! Same principle, just in a canvas bag. The bag has a door flap that you can use to 'pick' potatoes without pulling up the parent plant.

Romaine lettuce and onions

I pulled up the oregano, replaced it with red and green romaine, and tidied up the onions.

Below, the two blackberry sticks:

 
Progress below the fold!

Today's Friday Garden

As you may (or may not) have noticed, it's been quite a while since I talked gardening. So, here we are.

Being a SoCal boy, and seeing the strawberry plants pulled up every year before the fields were re-planted, I assumed (yeah, I know), that strawberries couldn't winter, especially here where there is Real Winter. Silly me. The strawberries I 'rescued' by potting and taking inside died off pretty quickly. The ones I left in the bed did quite well.

I weeded and did a little re-arranging.  Now that I know they will winter, this is the official strawberry patch:

The blackberry also wintered well. This is the first year it hasn't started over from just a stick:

I put the random small potatoes from last year in mom's old collander, by the sink. I wound up with a collander full of sprouting potatoes, which have been strewn through several of the beds:

The actual potato bed...,

...and half of the pepper bed.

The garlic/onion bed seems to be doing well, along with a few potatoes, too:

Not to forget the kitchen bed, Oregano, garlic and onions:

And, random flowers:

The rose stick -

I believe the horticultural name for these guys is "weeds", but they're pretty ones -

Lastly, the contribution from the local tree rodentia - sunflowers (They didn't plant them quite so neatly, tho...) -

The theme for this year's garden is "Leftovers". The strawberries, blackberry, and potatoes are left over from last year, as are the oregano and all of the onions and garlic. In addition, I am attempting to sprout seeds, which were either given to me last year, or came from produce I grew.  I am incubating Thai Hots, Basil, lettuce, Red Bells, Honeydew, Mystery Melon (maybe Cantaloupe, maybe not), and Mystery Bells (color unknown).

The only new addition are the Sunflowers, thanks to the squirrels.

Garden Du Jour

In spite of the house's best efforts to the contrary (see previous post), gardening is actually getting done. To whit:

Establishing shot 1

Establishing shot 2

The little pig shaped sign is from the Doc. It is a lament on the dearth of bacon seeds. And yes, weeding is needed.

Top bed, garlic & onion; middle bed, lettuce, peppers, and more onion; bottom bed hidden melons seeds.

Kitchen bed, oregano, basil, rosemary, strawberries, and onions. (And maybe my finger?)

Future melon patch.

The Salad Box: onions, orange bell and Dragon peppers, and salad (Red Lettuce and Red Romaine).

Garlic and onion.

The Oregano part of the patio border,

Strawberries on the left. Bare patch is hiding two Russet potatoes that got overly sprouted. #ScienceExperiment

Blackberry (This time for sure!! </Bullwinkle>)

Lastly, three potted tomatoes. I have had less that stellar success with them over the years, due to what I called 'dry rot'.  I gather that it is a soil issue, and rather than carpet bombing the beds, I thought I'd try a pot. Another #ScienceExperiment

I have also attempted to organize better, and not over-plant. I've tried cramming far too much into the beds, with the result that some things could not produce as well as I hoped. So, this year, potatoes all by themselves, a bed of nothing but garlic and onions.  The salad box will only have enough peppers to thrive, surrounded by onions and lettuce. Melons all to themselves, too. The biggest problem was all of the tomatoes I tried to cram in. They made it difficult to impossible for much else to thrive.

And thriving is good!

Garden Update

I haven't been blogging or Tweeting much, lately. But the garden has been growing and transmogrifying itself, even tho I have been somewhat neglectful.  Regular rain has helped.

So, here's what happened since last time:

Tomato and potatoes are berzerk.

Griffin inspecting the low bed w/ scavenged tomatoes, and the peppers and melons.

A look over to the kitchen garden.

One of the Thai Hots.

And the Anaheims.

Tomatoes mas grande'!

Smaller tomatoes.

And the potato harvest! Upper-left, red, to the right, white, and three random blues.

The tomatoes have all gotten infected w/ the dry rot (brown leaves, black spots), so the tomato harvest is just about done. I've been giving them away at work, and pureeing and freezing them at home. Got a new key for the outside freezer and defrosted it, so there's plenty of room. May have to go get more quart jars.

The Anaheims are just about ready to come up. I have two young Muskmelon on the vines. The Sunflowers have gone to seed, and I've pulled up about half of them. Some of the Honeydew have survived, and are starting to stretch out.

More, later!

Mid-Week Friday Garden

Well, it's been just over two weeks since we've looked at the garden.  The rains over the last week or so have had quite the positive effect!  So, in a more-or-less clockwise pass:

The kitchen bed is overwhelmed by lettuce!

Reverse angle on kitchen bed to show the basil and rosemary (found that at Wall-Mart).

Sunflowers and honeydews.

Red onions, garlic and yellow onion. I added a few Poblano peppers from my sprouts.

Tomatoes, Thai Hots, and some more Poblanos. Also, some random tomatoes in the sprouting trays (center).

Potatoes in the background, the two Anaheim peppers and one Thai Hot. And one of the Early Girl tomatoes.

The Royal Candles are beginning to bloom.

Roses.

Another view of the Potato Forest!

Both of the Early Girls are living up to their names!

Finally, the wild strawberry is settling in around the edges of the garden. I think it makes a nice ground cover, so I'm letting it encroach pretty much where it will.

Long Time, No Garden

Last time a posted about the garden was late June.  Things have changed.  But first, some of the fruits of my labors:

My very own canned produce.  On the left, crushed tomatoes.  On the right, not pineapple, but also crushed tomatoes.  The yellow tomato plant is going like gangbusters.  The latter is going to be used to make a chicken chili.

The kitchen garden.

The Basil is doing fine, as Basil is wont to do.

The tomatoes are not fairing so well. I do not know why.

Another view.  The Rosemary is healthy.  Unseen but also healthy are the two Oregano plants.

Front high bed.  Pumpking and tomatoes are well, as are a few of the pepper plants (hidden in the pumpkin).

 The Yellow tomatoes, and what I now believe is Honeydew melon

An almost ripe cluster of yellow tomatoes. The are meatier, and a bit less juicy, but they put up just fine. Also, a couple of Peppers hiding behind the Pumpkin.

The last Early Girl.  Some fruit is forming.

Blackberry.  I actually got eat the one that the critters didn't get.  Yummy!

The one red tomato that it still reasonably healthy and producing.

Once again, the Romas are coming in the what I'm calling "flat-bottom rot".  It isn't actually rot, but the bottom part of the fruit is flat and brown.  This has happened for the last two seasons.  One of the tomatoes from the bush directly above also had it.

Google is my friend.

In other news, I got bacon, and made bacon and tomato sandwiches.  Life is good!!