Babies!

It's January in Southern California, and do you know what that means?  It means: BABIES!  Well, little sproutlings, to be exact.  My little veggie nursery is doing well.  Only eleven days after planting, I have several tomatoes and a few squashes popping up.  I'm still awaiting the peppers, but I'm not worried.  Neither the seeds I pulled from the last pepper we had, nor the brand new seeds from Mike the Gardener (www.averagepersongardening.com/) have sprouted yet.  I'm thinking any day now...

I'm especially excited about these little guys!  There are two reasons:  #1 - These are the best tomatoes in the world.  Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter!!!!  They are huge, and fleshy, a really nice pink color (not red) and sooooooo yummy.  #2 - These little sproutlings are from seeds that I fermented and saved from last year.  2nd generation!  I count that as a small success.  I may have lost that mama plant to blight and pests last summer, but she lives on...  maybe it's a big success, especially if all ten little sproutlings become full grown plants. 

I also have some other tomatoes that I'm growing from seed.  They are "Delicious" variety, and came in my Mike the Gardener package a couple of months ago.  I've never heard of them, but I'm giving them a try. 

This is what they look like.   It's a new variety for me, but they are germinating at about 75% right now, and I'm hopeful that I'll have some success with those as well. 

I also have some yellow heirloom tomato seeds that I saved from last year.  I'm going to plant them in my next batch, once I get these babies moved into pots.  The large yellows were delicious mixed in with the Mortgage Lifters, and drizzled with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

I'm drooling just thinking about it. 


 This is my collection of seeds so far.  Some I am really excited about, like the Kohlrabi, the tomatoes, squash, sunflowers, Kale and onions...  some not so much, like the brussel sprouts.  I don't really want to eat them, so I'm not too excited about growing them.  There are some flowers in there too...  and I'm thinking about planting a bed in the yard dedicated just to flowers.  I have a lot of work, and a lot of planning to do still.  Thank goodness I still have about eight weeks until planting  starts. 

Yes, I said it.  EIGHT WEEKS.  That puts us at the end of March.  For anyone outside of Southern California and Florida, you're probably thinking that's nuts, but I assure you, it's not.  By August, we're frying here, and it's extremely difficult to keep the garden going.  So we have to push earlier into spring, when our temps are consistently in the 70's. 

It will be here before we know it!  I need to get The Guy started on those new garden boxes!!!
More to come.
Green Thumb Out.  :)

The Girl & Guy's Class of 2014

It's a new year, and one of my goals for 2014 was to update this blog more frequently. 

We're so fortunate to live in Southern California where gardening is a year round activity.  In Southeastern Pennsylvania, where we used to live, we'd spend from October to April dreaming about gardening, planning for gardening, and thinking about gardening, but not actually gardening.  Our planting date was May 15.  May 15!!!!  Here in So. Cal, my season is almost over by then!!!! 

In September, the Guy built me some really lovely raised planter boxes, and we placed them on top of an old picnic table and benches so that they are up off the ground, and this old body doesn't have to bend over to get to them.  We've had Kale, Collards, Mustard, Corn Salad, Radishes, Beets, Carrots and Kohlrabi growing all winter.  It's fun to keep up with.  It's interesting though, that in the cooler weather everything grows very sloooooooooowly.  It's all very healthy and looks great, it's just taking it's time. 
 



We've even hooked up a watering system for these boxes, and with a quick twist of the water spigot and a 5 minute timer, it all gets watered with minimal effort from me.  It's a win/win. 

I joined the "Seeds of the Month Club" this year, (https://www.averagepersongardening.com/seedsclub)* and it's been fun to see what gets sent out each month.  It's roughly $3.00 a month, and Gardener Mike sends out four packets of seeds each month, tailored to the zone that you live in and what you can get started, if you're in an area that can plant year round.  If not, I guess he stocks you up each month.  I started in September, and I have a nice variety of veggies and herb seed packets.  Some of them are in my garden boxes, and some are waiting for summer time, just because space doesn't allow for all of it right now. 

 

The Guy is going to build four more of these boxes, and we're going to put in a garden over there by the fence, right over the Pipsqueak's shoulder.  A little bit of fencing to keep The Trampler and the Fuzzy Digger out and we're golden.  I think this new location will allow for more air flow and more control of water and light.  I think that the side of the house that we used last year just didn't have enough light or air flow, since it was wedged in between the house and the block wall.  Also, everything was in pots last year, and I am eager to see how it will be different planting in garden boxes instead.  I have a feeling that we will have more success with "the ground" vs. "the pot".

 

So, on to the Class of 2014!  We have had some absolutely wonderful backyard weather.  That, of course, is a positive spin on things, because we have had high temperatures, low humidity and absolutely NO RAIN, which is creating a terrible drought for Southern California.  There are murmurs of water rationing coming soon, and reports that if it doesn't let up, food prices are going to soar because local farmers are losing their crops and water prices will go up.  So, if that's all going to happen, then I really need to get crackin at growing my own food.  Water rationing?  Fine, I won't water the grass, but I will water the vegetables! 

 

I saw the tomato plants at Home Depot, and I couldn't resist...  yes, I know that I joined the seeds of the month club so I wouldn't have to buy stuff...  but like I said, I couldn't resist.  They were calling me!  And so, without further delay, I introduce you to (the beginnings of) the class of 2014:

 

That's an Early Girl, a Supersweet 100, and a Bush Goliath.  Yes, they are Hybrids.  No, I did not grow them from seed.  I know, I know...  but truly, I thought that a couple of Hybrids might be a good thing this year.  Last year between blight, blossom rot, and pests, remember what happened to my beautiful tomato forest?  Hybrids are a bit hardier and more resistant to disease.  The Bush Goliath is a determinate variety.  What's the difference between determinate and indeterminate?  Well, according to Organic Gardening.com:

 

"The most simple explanation of the difference between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes is that determinate tomatoes bear their crop all at once, while indeterminate tomatoes bear fruit over the course of a season. Indeterminate varieties tend to grow longer vines and will require more support in terms of staking or caging over the course of a season. Determinate varieties often (but not always) tend to be more compact and manageable."

 

So I'm thinking I may stagger a few determinate tomato plants in the garden this year.  If they produce and then die back, I might even get several yields from the same pot, depending on the time frame.  I've never done it before.  I like the idea that they don't send out those super long tentacles that interweave all of the plants together.  I like the idea of a compact tomato plant.  It might just be my new favorite!!!  We shall see.  That's what's fun about gardening.  Experimenting! 

 

There's one other newbie that I want to introduce to you, because I have quite a few in different growing stages, so I think they are going to be around a while.  Kohlrabi.  Yum-o.  Kohlrabi has bulbs that grow above ground.  You can slice them up and eat them in slaw, or put them in salads.  They have the consistency of a carrot and taste sort of like broccoli stems, but really, they are delicious.  I got my first taste of Kohlrabi when I belonged to a crop share association in Pennsylvania.  I've been hooked since.  These were grown from seed in my garden beds, and I can't wait to eat them!!!  They still have a little ways to go.  They will grow to be a bit smaller than a tennis ball.  Right now they are about the size of a golf ball. 

 

Aren't they beautiful?  I just love them.  The leaves are big and beautiful, and they just look so healthy and happy.  I have four growing in this garden square and several seedlings in other squares.  Hopefully we're going to have a great yield soon. 

 

Well, that's the start of this years' obsession.  The thumb is feeling mighty green again.

 

See you soon, gardeners!

Green Thumb Out

*If you think "Wow, that Seeds of the Month Club sounds great, I think I'll join!" Please, please contact me first.  If I give you a referral code that you reference when you join, I get a free year.  That would be so nice!!! 

A clean slate! A new beginning for fall...

The heat here is so hard on the garden.  I found that the ideal growing season here really ends in July. Sure, the garden limps along, but come August, the heat weakens the plants and really opens them up for disease and pests. 

So today is the day I cleaned house.  Over the next few mornings, I'm going to clean and prep my garden for fall.  The temperature doesn't dip below freezing here until at least December, which means I have a growing season that is at least 10 months long.  If I build a greenhouse, I can grow all year. 

The first thing I had to do was the hardest.  Not physically, but mentally and emotionally hard.  I had to rip it all out.  The tomatoes were dead.  It broke my heart to let them go, but they weren't giving me anything anymore, and had only small patches of green left.  Several of my bush beans were all sticks with a few leaves on top, and the pole beans were done.  I managed to push the pole beans all summer.  They produced so much!  The pole beans, however, had become infested with ants, and that made taking them down a bit of a challenge.  Cut, swat, cut, swat, cut, do a little dance to get them off my feet...  you see what I mean.  Then this little orange lizard jumped out, but it looked like a snake, and it moved like a snake!  I just about turned and ran until I realized it was actually running on tiny little feet, so I shooed it.  That got my heart pumping a little...ha ha. 

So after about 40 minutes of cutting and bagging, I ended up with a former garden, that now looks like this:

Pretty pathetic, right?


Yeah, I know. 

I still have a lot of work to do, but I can't stay out past about 9:30 a.m. or it is just too hot.  Today it was 95 by the time I came in.  So I'll do a little every morning, and hopefully after my trip to Oklahoma next week, I'll build some planters and see what we can do about starting a fall garden. 

It was a little depressing at the end of the summer... everything was dying and my beautiful tomato forest just withered and died.   Although I'm sad, I'm trying to look at it like this:  I pulled 50 POUNDS of produce from this little urban side yard.  50 POUNDS!!!  That's huge.  Had my zucchini, squash and cucumbers been successful, which they were NOT AT ALL, I easily could have doubled that number.  I need to do some research to figure out how to succeed with those items next year. 


I do have a few items still growing.  I did manage to stagger plant some bush beans, and the small bell peppers are still producing, so I left them alone.  I moved everything to the front of the space, so that I can water quickly and efficiently through this heat.  This will also make it easier for The Guy to take care of these stragglers while I'm away next week.

Here's a look at what's left: 

 The strawberries are sending out runners, so I'm going to spend some time rooting them into bowls.  They can move over to the potting bench for the "winter".  By next summer these should be big producers.  This summer they were just ho-hum.







These are the bush bean plants that I have left.  There are about half dozen left that are still producing.  They are the ones I planted mid-season.  I have some even younger ones on the potting bench.  I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to do with these bushes this fall.  I may just keep them where they are.  They seem to like it there. 
   






The pepper plants are not loving the heat, either, but the yummy snacking peppers are still producing a lot!  They are coming in much slower than they were last month, but besides the nearly ripe peppers, there are lots of little baby buds there. 

I'm just going to let them do their thing for as long as they can. 



 Last, but certainly not least - - I have two tomato plants left.  I know, I know... with all my whining about losing my tomatoes, this surprises you.  Earlier in the summer, I had two plants that weren't thriving.  Same soil, same fertilizer, same amounts of water, and they just limped along, not growing or producing anything.  So I re-potted them and moved them to the other side yard, next to the potting bench.  They did pretty well, and when the spider mite infestation took hold, they were spared.  The yellow heirloom tomato is doing really well.  It gave me some beautiful tennis ball sized yellow tomatoes this weekend that were delish drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  The beefsteak is not doing as well, but it's still giving me tomatoes here and there, and it's not infested with anything, so I'm just letting it limp along, and hopefully when the weather cools it will come back to life.  I guess we'll see. 

So that's what's left for now...  We have lots of time for new beginnings...  now I'm going to go shower because EEK!  I'm still finding ants on me and it's been an hour since I left the garden.  Gross.

Green thumb out.

Just when I'm about to give up altogether....

Lately, every time I go out to water the garden, I'm disappointed.  The spider mites have taken over my beautiful tomato plants.  They are skeletons of what they used to be.  The last two zukes have succumbed to blossom rot, and the crookneck squash never produced a single fruit.  Everything is burned from the intense heat of the California summer, and when I'm not fighting bugs, I'm fighting powdery mildew.  It has been a very frustrating month. 

Some days, I have been about ready to pull it all up, sanitize everything, and start planning my fall garden.  Other days, I have been ready to pull it all up and just give up on gardening. 

Until today. 



Photo credit to the 4-year old Pipsqueak.  I had to teach her to use my camera. 
There was no way anyone else was posing with this baby!

This is the one and only spaghetti squash that my plant produced.  I know it's a little green on this side, but when I read up on it, I saw that you pick it when the vine turns brown... and today, the vine gave it up.   So I'm going to eat it, and I'm going to thank it for giving me hope in my garden again. 

On the bright side:

I picked a 4 1/2 oz lemon cucumber, the first tomato since the spider mite infestation, and 12 1/2 oz of green beans today.  All is not lost. 

I also found two green bean plants that have found there way out of the pots and into the soil.  Must have been a stray bean that got away from me.  So I cleaned up the area around them and I'm wishing them luck. 

Wanna see the other little surprise I found near the potting bench today? 

Holy Halloween, Batman!

It's a baby pumpkin!  There are actually two.  This one is the size of a golf ball, the other one is about the size of a pea.  When I bought this little plant, all I hoped for was one pumpkin to carve for Halloween.  I'm not sure if we'll get it, but this is a good start.  I'm just hoping it's not too early.  That spaghetti squash took at least two months to grow, so I'm hoping that the timing is right for this little guy... and that the bugs and/or the heat don't get Jack...  my little Jack-O-Lantern in training. 

As if that wasn't enough JOY for the day, I had one more little ray of hope for the future of my garden....

One of my bowls of strawberry plants has been shooting out runners.  I decided to give rooting them a try, rather than letting them do their own thing in the ground.  That could prove to be difficult, since I have such limited space on the side yard. 

I saw an expert gardener that planted strawberries in rain gutters, and I thought that was a great idea.  I'm hoping to get some hung on the wall next season.  If I can propagate my own, that would be so much better. 

So, I was about to give up on it all, and now I've decided that all is not lost, and much of my struggle might just be the life of a Southern California gardener.  Heat and pests are the reality, and if I can just keep working at it, I might just succeed.

That's one of the reasons I wanted to keep this blog... so that next summer, when I'm feeling low, I can go back and remember these little glimpses of success! 

I'm still learning, and that's ok.  I've pulled more than 50 pounds of produce from my garden this year, that's 50 pounds of produce that I didn't have to buy. 

Take care, all... 
Green thumb (and  yes, I'm still considering it green, for now) out.

The black plague of gardening

It's such a shame...  I don't know how it happened, but my tomatoes are struggling for life.  Remember those gorgeous TREES I had?  They are nearly gone.  It's all because I have so much to learn. 
Spider mites.  I'm calling them the black plague of gardening.  I didn't realize what they were, and before I knew it, my tomatoes were infested.  The foliage was so thick that they ran rampant between plants (that's a mistake that won't happen again!)
I started by cutting off the infected foliage, but unfortunately it pretty much decimated them.
Then I sprayed, using Ortho bug killer.  I waited too long to do this, and by the time I sprayed, it was almost too late.  I hate using chemicals on my plants, but I didn't know what to do.  This is the kind that once you use it, you can't harvest anything for a week. 
Nothing happened.  It didn't kill the spider mites, and it didn't even kill the caterpillars.  Frustration. 

So I talked to my mom, who had just talked to a guy at the garden center about  her plants.  He recommended Captain Jack's Dead bug Brew  http://1000bulbs.com/product/89551/SUN-704730.html?utm_source=SmartFeedGoogleBase&utm_medium=Shopping&utm_term=SUN-704730&utm_content=Insect+and+Disease+Control&utm_campaign=SmartFeedGoogleBaseShopping&gclid=CIHz47-i_bgCFQnhQgodpj4AuA,  Ut's organic, which is good.  You spray, and you can pick the next day.  I soaked my plants in it yesterday, and I am sure hoping that they start to come back.
I have them separated so they don't touch, and they are cut WAAAAY back, so they are going to have to work for it.  Tomatoes are divas, and they don't really like the hot weather.  Well, it's August in Ontario, CA... and it's nothing but hot.  The low is 65 in the dead of night. 
Wish them luck, they are going to need it.
The good news is - - the lemon cuke is going to make it, and it's producing cukes now.  yay!
Sad green thumb out.

Planning for fall: When does Fall Start in Southern California anyway?

In the book "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew,
 (http://www.amazon.com/Square-Foot-Gardening-Garden-Space/dp/1579548563/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1374863110&sr=8-3&keywords=square+foot+gardening)  I found a fantastic table that details growing from seed, transplanting and planting seeds, growing time and weeks of harvest, when to pull and replant with something else, all detailed by weeks before and after the first and last frost. 

It got me thinking:  When does fall really start in Southern California?  We don't have defined seasons like other places in the country, or even here in California.  Northern California has much more defined seasons.  Here in the desert, it's just hot, then less hot, then hot again.  I don't mind it.  I lived in Southeastern Pennsylvania for seven years, and I got my fill of seasons.  Just think of how long the gardening season is here!!! 

I did some research and came up with this:  We don't really have much frost.  Last Fall/Winter, the first date that dropped below freezing was January 12th, at 28 degrees.  It never stayed below freezing for more than a night.  This says to me, that with a couple of floating row covers, I could grow fall and winter veggies until the spring!!!  There isn't a sleeping season at all here. 

But in terms of planning, I wonder at what point to plant stuff - - there isn't a "first frost" marker to go with. 
Historical temperature averages: (as detailed for Ontario, CA by Accuweather.com)

October:  HI: 77-80  LO: 50-60
November: HI: 68-74  LO: 45-50
December: HI: 68-78 LO: 45-55

Hmm...  I'm going to have to think on it a little, and work out my own chart.  More to come.

Green thumb out.

Preserving seeds for next year

I've been doing a lot of thinking about next year's garden.  Next year is going to be tricky, because our lease expires in September, and although I do not expect to move, it is always a possibility.  So I need to make sure that everything that I really love, like my tomato plants, have the possibility of being mobile before the season is over.

The other thing I have been thinking a lot about is WHAT is going to be included in next year's garden.  I don't have a full plan, but I do have a small list of definite do's and definite don'ts. 

• I am not enjoying gardening with cucumbers.  The mildew takes over, and I have spent more of my time spraying the homemade non-mildew spray and trimming leaves, and watching the baby cucumbers dying on the vine.  I am not amused.    They are a definite DON'T!!! 
• I am not enjoying the squashes either.  The crookneck squash plant died on me, and the spaghetti squash has one beautiful spaghetti squash that I am waiting to ripen, but the rest of the plant is riddled with mildew.  It's so frustrating!  It could be the corner that I put it in, or it could be the lack of sun, or the climate here, I'm not sure.  They are a definite DON'T!

I also have a MAYBE... I'm going to watch the Zukes for the rest of the season and then decide.  No one but me eats them, but the one that I did eat was soooo good.  If it starts producing and I can keep the mildew away, then I'll move it to the DO list.  If the blossom rot or the mildew gets it, then I'm going to move it to the DON'T list.

My definite DO'S are the Mortgage Lifter and Yellow Heirloom Tomatoes.  I'm going to plant a lot more of them - like 3 or 4 each - and give them a lot more room next year.  Tomatoes are good producers, and they require very little maintenance.  Caterpillars are my biggest problem, and so far, I've been handling them without chemicals.  They can't escape me...  (insert evil laugh here).

My mom and grandma are also eager to try the Mortgage Lifter tomatoes.  They are so large and beautiful and tasty. 

That being said, I started looking in to how to preserve some seeds from these plants.  Ultimately, it's because I'm so cheap.  The ML plants was $1.99 each at my favorite nursery, Louie's Nursery in Riverside (http://www.louiesnursery.com/), and the Yellow Heirloom was $3.99 at Home Depot (which is highway robbery!), and although they have more than paid for themselves in crop, I would like to keep that initial investment paying me back.  Really, why should anyone buy seeds or plants year after year, when they have literally thousands of seeds outside in the garden.  It just requires a little technique and a little planning ahead.

I haven't ever done tomato seeds before.  They require a fermentation process, as detailed here: http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/seedsave/2002084456024410.html.

So my little jars of tomato glop are sitting in the window, covered with plastic wrap, and hopefully moving on to the next stage by Monday. 

Anyone want a tomato seedling in the spring?  Mom, I'll have a few set aside for you.

Green thumb out.