Garden Update

A quick post for a garden update using pictures (mostly) with few words:

Sweet Peas

Sweet Peas continue to bloom but seed production is increasing.  I've been taking bouquets to work for sometime now.  Sweet Pea bouquets will soon be replaced with Lavender bouquets.


Crookneck Squash

Crookneck Squash is trying produce despite some chewing varmint.  I'll need to make a midnight investigation to determine the culprit.


Black Beauty Zucchini

Zucchini was planted on April 29 along with radishes and parsley. Seeds germinated a couple of days later.  I must now start my search for some unsuspecting neighbor or work associate to flood with gifts of abundant squash.

Thornless Boysenberry

Boysenberries are starting to ripen.  Bird netting has been installed to shoo away pesky birds that mistake the garden as their own personal fly-in diner.  Scare tape works on most birds but hungry birds and those building nests laugh at the fluttering tape.  Perhaps scare tape works like a neon sign to those birds saying, "Let's Eat" or "Vacancy".  There are 3 known Mourning Dove nests directly adjacent to scare tape.  Phooey.

Beets

Sadly, the beets are about finished.  I have no idea what variety I've grown.  Whenever there was a bare spot, I would find a pack of seeds and plant.  There's a complete mix growing; but they are starting to bolt.  Supplies and the local Farmers' Market have dwindled too.  Thankfully, I have a nice big jar of pickled beets in the refrigerator to carry me through until I find a source for the summer.

Carrots

Some spent carrots were removed over Cinco de Mayo weekend and replaced with hills of green beans and marigolds.  There are still carrots producing well in the former "Salad Bed".  Once they have finished, they may be replaced with more onions.  You can never have too many onions.

White Lisbon Onions

White Lisbon and Spanish Utah onions were planted on April 16.  White Lisbons are used as bunching onions and the Spanish Utah will be used for storage.  However, all onion varieties are used as green onions as they are thinned.

Granny Smith Apple

Most all the fruit trees have fruit - plum, peach, apple, apricot, grapefruit, orange, mandarin, lemon.  They are all fertilized regularly and get pruned as needed.  Those growing espalier require more attention than the citrus.

Strawberries

I've lost track of the varieties of strawberries in the garden.   Sweet Pinky was one variety and I can't find the name of the other.  Nonetheless, the strawberries are popping and the birds know it.

Note:  I still cannot post using Live Writer and am relying on Blogger (mostly).

Three Sisters in the San Joaquin Valley

Here’s how the Three Sisters planting works:  Corn (Golden Bantam Yellow Sweet) is a support for climbing beans. The beans (Borlotto Solista) fix nitrogen in the soil for the high feeding requirements of corn and squash. The squash (Lemon) provides mulch and root protection for the corn and beans. After cooperating beautifully in the garden, corn and beans form a complete protein when eaten together.  I don’t know much about the nutrition junk; but I do know that I love corn, enjoy beans, and like squash.  Seems like a good idea so I’m giving it a try.  The corn is up.  The beans are up.  The squash just busted through the soil.  I bet pumpkin was the squash of choice and an other variety of bean was used but I’m simply using what I have.  Looks like I may be a successful squaw in the garden this summer.

Lemon Squash

The Iroquois believed corn, beans and squash are precious gifts from the Great Spirit. Each watched over by one of three sisters spirits, called the De-o-ha-ko, or “Our Sustainers" made up the tale of Three Sisters planting. The planting season is marked by ceremonies to honor them, and a festival commemorates the first harvest of “green” corn on the cob. By retelling the stories and performing annual rituals, Native Americans passed down the knowledge of growing, using and preserving the Three Sisters through generations.  The only ritual I have is keeping the soil moist.

Iroquois were from the other side of the continent.  Yokuts lived in the San Joaquin Valley and up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  They didn’t have corn, nor beans, nor squash.  Acorns dominated their diet.  In elementary school we had field trips to Pioneer Village to watch an ancient Yokut woman grind acorns and weave baskets.  I don’t know if any Yokuts continue to conduct education at Pioneer Village; but I do know that the local casinos are pretty successful.  I do know that corn, beans, and squash are grown successfully here in the Valley; so I suspect the Three Sisters methods just might work.  I’m not taking much of a gamble.

Garden Update

The weather has been great.  Yesterday it was cool and rainy!  It’s May and it was cool and rainy!!!  Here’s a quick garden update:The strawberries are really producing well.  They’ve been fed (Dr. Earth), irrigated daily, and are enjoying full sun.  The fruit size is large and well developed.  There is some loss to insects; but no loss to birds.  The scare tape and owl kite seem to be great scarecrows.French Breakfast Radishes were planted among the Lemon Squash on 05/15/10.  They germinated today, 05/18/10.  The purpose of planting them with the squash is to repel pests that could damage the squash.  If anyone is new to gardening with seeds and would like to enjoy fast results, these radishes should do the trick.In the holes of the cinder block that form the raised bed for the peppers, I planted some Borlotto Solista Beans.  They are only planted on the north side of the bed to allow for maximum sun to the peppers.  Al Kuffa tomatoes are also sharing the bed with the soon to be planted peppers. A few small oranges are hanging on to the Robertson Navel Orange tree.  I thought this tree might be in danger of being lost; but it looks like it is gaining strength and may grow vigorously.  Sadly, the Satsuma Mandarin was pitched into the green waste.  It’s root system was very small and the tree ended with no leaves.

All the tomatoes have been planted (37 plants) with the remaining to be given away.  Four of the tomato plants were auctioned at today’s meeting of the Daughters of the British Empire. It was a nice day in the garden.

Long Live the Queen

The Queen of the Garden celebrated her 19th birthday on Cinco de Mayo.  She enjoyed all the treats she could eat then perched up on the steps to oversee her staff (me) work in the garden.  This is a routing (sans treats) she does most every evening.

Here’s what’s going on today:

The Malali Watermelon have sprouted (05/06/10).  They were planted 8 days ago (04/28/10).

 Lemon Squash is planted adjacent to the watermelon.  It was also planted 8 days ago (04/28/10).

Volunteer potatoes are sprouting amongst the green bunching onions.  They will be removed to make way for the tomatoes.  Potatoes and tomatoes do not grow well together because of the spread of blight.  So…the potatoes gotta go.

The lavender will probably be harvested Saturday morning.  Unfortunately, I do not know what variety of lavender I have.

The Red Flame Grape vine is getting a grip on the arbor.  Color and intensity was boosted to see the twining.

Yesterday, the potted citrus (lemon & mandarin) had all the pansies removed, soil fluffed, and were deeply irrigated.  Today, they look a bit better.  I’m confident the lemon will progress; but the prognosis for the mandarin isn’t good.

As the sun sets, the Queen gives her approval to her staff for a job well done then takes a nap because it’s so tiring being the Queen.

Happy Birthday, Your Majesty.

Summer Crops – Part II

In the last post I highlighted the western most raised bed.  Now let’s move east.  There are still onions developing.  They were planted on September 20, 2009.  The heat has really pushed their growth.  You can easily see the location of the Candy Hybrid onions.  The stakes are placed to prevent garden kitties from littering where they ought not litter.  The bed is trimmed with lobelia, freesia, and strawberries.

From left to right I have planted seeds from Baker Creek.

Crapaudine Beets – are planted under the squash support (4/29/10).  Here’s the description from Baker Creek: In 1885, the French book, The Vegetable Garden stated this is one of the oldest varieties. Today some experts feel this may be the oldest beet still in existence, possibly dating back 1000 years. This unique variety is one of the most flavorful, with carrot-shaped roots that have rough, dark colored skin which looks like tree bark. Inside, the roots are very dark, with almost black flesh that is of superior quality and sought after by chefs who want real flavor. We are proud to offer this rare old selection.

 Beets are cool weather crop; but I wanted to see how they would grow in the shade of the squash as the vines cover the support.  This is a simple experiment.  There’s plenty of seeds to plant at the end of summer if this is a flop.

Lemon Squash – has a custom made support to climb.  Farmer MacGregor installed his workshop creation the same day the seeds were planted (4/28/10).  The idea is to have the lemon shaped squash dangle through the hog wire of the support.  They will stay out of the dirt and moisture and should be easy to harvest.  Lemon Squash has received great reviews at Baker Creek.

The description is this:  The shape, size and color of a lemon, it grows great here, has huge yields and the best resistance to insects I have seen in a summer squash. Very tasty, great fried! A favorite, this is a superb market variety and is very attractive. Our most popular summer squash!

Planting radishes with the squash will help to repel beetles.  I’ll just pick up regular old radish seeds for this purpose.

 

Malali Watermelon – from Israel rounds out the bed.  I picked these because they don’t grow to the size of Guinness Book of World Record prize winning melons and they can take the heat.  The seed company has a wide variety to choose from but these should be perfect.  A sugary-sweet watermelon from Israel; this variety is great for warm climates. Small fruit weigh about 10 lbs. Green-striped rind and delicious light-red flesh is really refreshing. A good little melon for small families and market growers.

I try to mark the date I plant seeds on each packet whenever possible.

Good luck with your Kentucky Derby wager.

Spectacular!

Bird damage control just got cranked up a notch.  The checkout stand at Von’s had a variety of miniature kites for the kiddies on special.  Butterflies, turtles, dragons, and owls once filled a display.  The inventory was reduced to turtles and owls.  For a little over $3, I had something to add to my arsenal of bird detractors.  Perfect.  I snagged an owl to stand guard over the strawberries.  Along with the scare tape, things look fairly good. This little guy is tethered to the post for the squash support.  Strawberries are planted in the cinder blocks that form the bed where squash and watermelon will grow this summer.  The squash is called Squash Lemon and the watermelon is call Malali.  It’s from Israel.  More on those crops another time. Farmer MacGregor was not distracted by Hootie’s bobbing and weaving in the breeze.  The gentle farmer was on a mission to complete the installation of the squash support.  I’ve planted the squash along the right side of the support.  The plants will be trained to grow up the wire.  I will help the blossoms poke through to the other side.  The squash should dangle down on the other side out of the dirt, moisture, and sun.  Pretty cool. Since the area on the left side of the support should be shaded, I may plant beets under there.  I have a few days to decide.  Note the drying rack in the background behind Hootie taking a dive. This evening was nice enough to not only plant the squash and melons, but I planted radishes and onions too.  Then the storm moved in and it rained.  It rained!  This weather is spectacular.