Solar Power

Nematodes have plagued the raised beds in the garden for some time now. So, two beds remain fallow this summer.  I'm following the directions from UC Davis for solarization one bed at a time. The soil must be turned, smoothed, and irrigated deeply.  An application of chicken manure is suggested to be successful.  While the bed is still moist, clear plastic is applied on top of the soil.  Thinner is better; but very thin may tear.  4 ml is being used. The plastic sheeting needs to be anchored down then left for 4 - 8 weeks.  The plastic builds up the soil temperature to kill pests and seeds.  

On about August 13 (8 weeks), the plastic can be removed from this bed and discarded.  It will be ready for planting a fall salad garden.

Fingers crossed.

Boysenberries 2015

Thornless Boysenberry

Harvest of the Thornless boysenberries is complete.  Now it's time to get ready for the 2015 season.  Berries develop on the growth from this summer; so the canes that bore fruit in 2014 need to be removed.  I removed the bird netting then Farmer MacGregor got into the overgrown thicket and cut those canes to the ground.  He also removed any canes with thorns. So much for "thornless". Discarded canes should be burned; but the San Joaquin Valley has very limited times when you can burn.  So into the green waste can they go. That leaves canes that started sprouting this year.  From those, we select 5 canes on each of the 6 plants to be tied to the supports.  Think of fingers on your hand fanning out.

2015 Producing Canes

It's not a perfect science, but it helps to keep this part of the garden tidy.  Berries can really get away from you. If you're not careful, your berry patch will look more like a brier patch from Song of the South.  Any other canes that sprout are removed.  This is something that should be done at least once a week here.  We have found something that thrives in this spot of the garden.

2015 Thornless Boysenberry Patch

As these canes grow, they will be tied to the supports until they reach the top.  At that point, they will be pruned to keep at a manageable height.  Laterals will form and those will get tied up too.  Everything should stay within the support frame.  At least, that's the goal.  The berries will continue to be fertilized and irrigated throughout the summer.  Soil amendment is next on the "to do" list.

Now it's time to enjoy the harvest.

Super Sweet 100

Just planted a Super Sweet 100 in the Serrano pepper bed.  Picked it up at Walmart this weekend while taking my mother shopping. This variety is resistant to nematodes.  Excellent.

It's 90 °F & not quit 8pm. The garden is popping from the heat.  My swamp pants tell me it's time to enjoy the AC.

Eenie Meenie, Jelly Beanie…

Sweet Olive Tomato

Today, some of the tomatoes are showing great signs of ripening.  Sweet Olive along with the larger Celebrity varieties now have a blush on their skins.  It will be salsa making time soon.  Salsa and catchup are my favorite only condiments.  The recent heat put the Serrano peppers into hyper mode.  I use more peppers than tomatoes in my salsa; so everything is aligning just right.

Now, I'm on the look out for another grape sized tomato variety.  Sweet Olive is determinate - they will all ripen at once.  I'll visit the local nurseries to see what is available.  By planting different varieties throughout the growing season should keep me in salsa for some time.  Has anyone tried the Jelly Bean variety?

Hello. Good Bye.

Some onions are about ready to burst attracting more pollinators to the garden.  Not many butterflies yet; but there are honey bees, bumble bees, and hummingbirds visiting.  More visitors to the garden are expected soon.

This weekend I searched for a grape tomato plant to help fill my mother's need for daily munchable tomatoes.  She can be found cruising the grocery store aisles popping tiny tomatoes before finally checking out and paying for her treat.  We went for a ride to a nursery on the other side of town and found an overpriced, gangly plant that should work.

Johnny's Select Seeds describes this variety:  Bite-size, firm, oval-shaped grape tomatoes. Fruits avg. 10 gm. Plants have medium-short internodes and are manageable without pruning, but staking is recommended. Determinate.  For the metric challenged, 1gm = 0.035274 oz.  I'm still looking for a couple of other varieties of small tomatoes to try.  Determinate would be great; but it's not a requirement.  The search continues.

Sweet Olive Tomato Planted 05/04/14

The lame plant is very spindly and was growing horizontally.  I removed it's lower sets of leaves and planted it deep in nicely amended soil with organic fertilizer.  A bamboo stake and green garden tape helped to convince Sweet Olive that she needs to stand up straight.  Sweet Kern River water was then applied to welcome Sweet Olive into the garden. 

Rio Red Grapefruit

Sadly, this is the last harvest from the grapefruit tree for 2014.  Supplies have lasted from the first of the year until now.  And I usually eat one grapefruit each morning.  Good bye, Rio Red.  See you again in a few months.  

That's pretty good - and delicious.  My daily fruit will now switch to berries - boysenberries, blueberries, and strawberries.

Garden Progress in April

 Here's what's going on in the garden after some nice rain before we head into a scorcher of a week.
Several lavender plants are drawing various pollinators into the garden - hummingbirds, bubble bees, bees, and butterflies.

Lavender

The plum tree is alive.  I thought it had been lost after it bloomed in the fall and produced leaves into the winter.  Those leaves looked awful and sad; but it bloomed this spring and produced some fruit.  Most of that fruit has fallen though.

Santa Rosa Plum

The peach tree got away from my pruning shears last year.  Once the fruit has been harvested in a few months, I'll work on slowly trimming it down to a manageable espalier.

O'Henry Peach

Good ol' Granny Smith looks like it is thriving and will provide plenty of apples at the end of the summer.  This tree had some problems with scalding a few years ago.

Granny Smith Apple
 

The Red Flame grapes were pruned a bit today by Farmer MacGregor.  He took down an unfilled Scrub Jay nest that distressed those nest builders.

Red Flame Grapes

The Warren pear tree never bloomed (AGAIN!) and the Fantasia Nectarine lost all of its fruit.  The Bleinheim apricot has had a few prunings so far this spring.  The fruit has a bit of cosmetic damage from the sun and wind.  Hopefully, it won't do a thing to the flavor.

Bleinheim Apricot

A few peas have started to develop.  I'm surprised since the heat came early.  Maybe I'll get a few to sample.

Wando Peas

Celebrity tomatoes have produced well in the past even though there is a nematode problem.  This year is no exception.  There is hope of homemade salsa.

Celebrity Tomato

Thornless boysenberries were covered with netting today to fight off the pesky birds.  This season may not be as bountiful as last.  If so, I'll blame it on my pruning.

Thornless Boysenberries

Serrano peppers are great stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped with bacon.  They are also my pepper of choice for making salsa.

Serrano Peppers

Most of the irrigation is only twice during the week.  Basins are filled from the hose.  This method may encourage the roots to push deeper into the soil and not dry out as fast.  I may be wrong since so many encourage drip irrigation.  We'll see.

Garden Update

Just a quick notation of Spring progress in the garden.

The Pink Lemonade Sunshine Blue blueberries are developing nicely.  These are in a pot so it's much easier to keep the soil acidic.  Netting to combat those thieving birds needs to be put in place this weekend.

Thornless boysenberries (6 plants) are producing well.  Once the petals have matured a bit more, bird netting will be installed here as well.  It's a lot more difficult than with the blueberries.

O'Henry blossoms have faded giving way to developing peaches.  This summer I will try to correct some pruning neglect from last year.  More on that in a later post.

Granny Smith apples are coming along beautifully.  I don't thin out the fruit.  Nature will drop the weak ones in most all cases.

Celebrity tomatoes (6) all have multiple blossoms and are thriving amongst the onions.  I suspect that when the heat turns up this week (95 by Wednesday), these plants will be going bonkers.  In the meantime, I'm loving this cool, overcast Saturday.

I picked up a little lavender plant that needs to be potted. It's already developed buds.  No doubt it will enjoy the heat next week and be in full bloom.

That's a quick peek at what's going on in the garden.

Grrrrrreat Grapefruit!

Rain! We received heavenly rain.  It even looks like we may receive more. Keep it coming. The weather is beautiful and cool. Most all of the spring blossoms have faded giving way to infant fruit that will surely drop as they develop. 

The Rio Red grapefruit tree is loaded with babies thanks to lots of busy bees.  In the photo above, the current crop being harvested can be seen below the new flush of growth.  I've had one grapefruit almost every morning since January. Wish I would have kept count.  Needless to say, there is no chance of a scurvy outbreak in this garden with grapefruit, orange, manderin, and lemon producing beautifully. The only imperfections would be the cosmetic damage from miners.  The next citrus tree I will bring to the garden is a Bearrs lime.  One of my favorite drinks is chunks of a variety of citrus all squished in a glass with ice and club soda.  So good.

Ajax doesn't care for citrus, but he's enjoying the cool beautiful weather.  High 5 paws for this great weather.  We need to duck inside.  It looks like the skies are threatening to open.

Thanks for the rain and snow!

Wisteria to Drool Over

The wisteria is loaded on the pergola.  Every afternoon, the bumble bees are bouncing around loaded with pollen.  The spent petals float to the ground littering the pavement with sweet smelling purple confetti.  Ajax, our English Mastiff, has many water bowls.  That's because they get very slobbery.  In an effort to conserve precious water, his bowls are dumped regularly onto his lawn or various flower beds and baskets.  The wisteria benefits from Ajax's drool (gross).  Nonetheless, his drool helps.  This year especially we all need to be very creative in conserving water.  Thanks Ajax.

Apricot Beats Plum

This year, the Blenheim apricot won the bloom off competition in the garden. The apricot buds broke on Valentine's Day.  Each year the Santa Rosa plum blooms 1st.  This year I was worried that the tree had died.  It's simply confused like the rest of us - mild winter, no rain, swamp pants season starting waaaaay too early.  The plum finally bloomed on February 23.  Strange.  I thought the date would have been one of the earliest because of such mild conditions.

There was a skiff of rain today.  Nothing really.  All the fruit trees in the garden have below surface irrigation.  I prefer to apply the water by hand to the surface allowing the water to seep in deeply to encourage the roots to push deep rather than pushing up to the surface for moisture.  I'll be switching to below surface irrigation soon to avoid evaporating precious resources.  Surface flooding will only occur when fertilizer is applied every 6 weeks or so.

I'm having problems posting using Googles device.  This post was finally created using the app which is very limiting. Anyone else having a similar problem?