Category: hobby

Summer Garden 2013: An Update

Everything is looking good!
Everything is looking good!

It’s been a few weeks since the garden went in, and a few since the heat wave that nearly killed it all. With everything thriving it seemed like a good idea to post an update.

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Do you know what type of peppers these are? If so please let me know in the comments!

After the heatwave things actually cooled down quite a bit. Maybe too cool as out tomatoes stopped flowering and the green tomatoes just seem to be hanging out. The weather has started to warm up a little though and the two plants now seem to be budding again. Our jalapeno peppers are producing slowly as well, I think this is related to the weather as well. Our little red pepper plant is quite happy! The plant hasn’t grown any but it continues to pump out peppers at a rate of 4 or 5 a week! Everything else is slowly coming along. Beans are starting to vine, squash and eggplant are blooming, okra is doing its thing… We also planted some oregano and basil today (you can see them in the very first image.)

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These tomatoes have been green for too long! I’m hoping the rising temperature turns them red!

Continue reading “Summer Garden 2013: An Update”

Gardening! Summer 2013 Edition!

Before we could garden we had to clean up...
Before we could garden we had to clean up…

Our new place has its problems, we’ll talk about those some other time, but it does have a nice backyard with multiple garden beds. But before the backyard was nice we had to clean it up. I think the previous tenants only used the backyard for drinking booze and the beds for ashtrays. So, nature had been allowed to do its own thing. Meaning the beds were full of weeds as was most of the landscaping… It took a good 12 to 20 hours cleaning up the yard before we could begin planting grass and vegetables.

Just a small sample of the weeds that had to be pulled and dug up before we could get started.
Just a small sample of the weeds that had to be pulled and dug up before we could get started.

This garden is almost solely the work of D. She has spent the past week working on the yard and beds while I was at work. But, the work has really paid off the backyard looks amazing and the beds look great as well. (Thanks D!)

Turning over the soil in the other bed
Turning over and working in new soil in the one bed
The bed with vegetables planted
The bed with vegetables planted
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The other bed with vegetables planted. Also note along the fence more vegetables

We’ve got banana peppers, jalapenos, summer squash, eggplants, green beans, melon, tomatoes, and okra. We’re hoping to get some pumpkin in as well. Our big worry right now is that this week it’s supposed to get up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit this week. That is not typical for this time of year in Davis and our transplants might not survive the heat… We’re doing everything we can to try and mitigate the heat. Including watering up to three times a day and covering the beds in straw to reduce evaporation.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed!

2013 Garden: Harvesting!

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Look at all those greens!

A few more weeks have passed and the greens in the garden continue to thrive. What we first believed were slugs preying on the greens we now think it is birds. Tiny thrushes, if you can believe it! The pallet is below a towering bougainvillea plant that is home to, what sounds like, dozens of the little things. On numerous occasions we’ve seen them hopping around on the pallet tearing at the greens! When I catch them I go out and shoo them off. But, their home is right there and they and I know that they’re safe in there.

Despite the little things predations we have more lettuce and cabbage than we know what to do with. I see a lot of salads in our future! D started picking leaves off of a Chinese cabbage and some of the green leaf lettuce. Neither one of them has a lot to recommend in the taste department, they are leafy greens after all, the cabbage has a little spice and a little bitterness to it.

I wish these kale had a little more leaf on them...
I wish these kale had a little more leaf on them… I also wish it wasn’t so blurry!

We never harvest a whole head of anything. With just the two of us things often end up wilting or spoiling before we get through all of it. By just tearing off the leaves we will use for each meal the plants keep living and we don’t have to worry about spoilage. I think now that we’re harvesting and eating the veggies that we can call the pallet garden a success. I’m tempted to try and grow more appealing vegetables during the second half of the summer. Maybe we can get some tomatoes or squashes out of this as well?

That Chinese cabbage I was writing about.
That Chinese cabbage I was writing about.

I’ll have to remember to take pictures of the food we use the vegetables in next time!

2013 Garden Update

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The little pallet garden is doing great! Mostly! There were a couple days after we transplanted where everything looked pretty bleak. And, as you can see some of the chard still isn’t doing well. But the lettuce, cabbage, and kale all seem to be happy. There is still some space on the sides and where the sick chard is, if we pull it, so some time this week I’m going to be stopping by at Ace for some herb seeds and see if we can put them in. Fresh basil and thyme sound nice.

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Anyway, it’s going to be a month or so before we can eat any of this but I’m excited for it anyway!

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