First Day Garden, 10 March 2012

I think I’m going to call today the official first day of the garden, 2012. Here it is, in all its burlap glory.













Here’s a closeup of the shabby result of my attempt at lasagna gardening (also known as sheet mulch).














And here are the Zambian Greens that I’m going to attempt to transplant into the lasagna. Maybe next week.














The Greens did pretty well over the winter, I think. They got these pretty purple edges, so they probably have to be picked down. But the little seedlings did great. I’m really hoping they transplant well, because I might not be able to get any more if they don’t. I might leave the entire row on the east side of the garden alone for now, just in case these don’t survive in the burlap.
































Next weekend, if the weather cooperates, I’ll transplant these and also plant potatoes. I hadn’t planned to plant potatoes, given the failed, stubby carrots of last year. But apparently potatoes are one of the few things you can plant right on top of the lasagna, under a layer of straw. Gee, I wonder where I’ll get straw?

We’d like to plant peas this week too. The tentative plan is to plant peas, arugula, and spinach soon – around the middle of March. If we’re going to do tomatoes from seed, we’ll also need to sow those inside right about now. Kale and chard will go into the ground around April 1, the same time as we sow peppers inside. Then things will ramp up in May, with tomatoes, peppers, purslane, cucumber, and parsley. I still need to look up dill, basil, and possibly a few other things.


But the exciting news of the week is that Vince’s fruit trees are already budding! I can’t remember which is which, but one is plums and the other is… something else. Enjoy the buds.

September 2011

Today's Garden Delight

We've roasted a lot of tomatoes over the last couple months. Today's garden delight is masala chana with chicken, made with our own beautiful tomatoes. This selection was paired with one of my fermented concoctions, ginger/lemon sparkle (with a whey base).

21 August 2011

We got rain this week. It has made all the difference.








I hate to confess that I've had a bit of garden fatigue this week. Maybe this is where it's important to have more variety of plants, because it's just a little boring to go out and harvest the same ol' tomatoes again and again and again. It's fun and boring at the same time. I think I wish I had 3-4 more things out there to keep track of.
The every-day water was getting pretty oppressive, especially when we go to the pool every evening. But this week's rain was a godsend.


The greens really respond to rain. We just harvested a batch on Monday, and here they are again a week later.












































But now, I'll need to air some dirty laundry. There's some kind of plague affecting the big heart-shaped tomatoes. For the last few weeks they've been growing with a funny, spotted color, and the bottoms of them rot while they're on the vine.





























Yuck.










The regular round ones continue to get some kind of ring around the top, and a slit down the side.


















Lots of dead leaves, but the tomatoes continue to grow.











The plums have been fine, but the leaves seem to have some kind of problem.














Sad little carrots.









Basil's fine.

























And now, more of these awesome red plants. I can't stop taking pictures of them.
















































Keep the rain comin'.