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 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!

A Garden for 2013!

A tiny garden for San Diego!
A tiny garden for San Diego!

Diana saw this project on a blog she followed where the person made a raised bed garden from discarded pallets. She shared it with me and I thought it was a clever idea. Unbeknownst to me she then started hunting for a pallet and contacted the manager of our cottage and asked him about putting in one of our own. Eventually, he approved the project and she found the pallet… The end result is above!

It was all very easy to do and everything cost us less than $30. If you’ve been thinking about gardening but don’t have a yard, or you rent this might be the solution you’ve been looking for. More pictures below!

The ingredients
The ingredients

One pallet, a 2×4 cut into 40″ pieces, three bags of garden soil (we only used 2 1/5.) I hammered the 2×4 pieces onto the ends of the pallet so that the soil doesn’t just spill out of the sides, then we filled the pallet with the garden soil.

We used Miracle-gro soil because it was right by the check-out counter and we were both really cold and didn't want to spend more time looking around
We used Miracle-gro soil because it was right by the check-out counter and we were both really cold and didn’t want to spend more time looking around

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After putting the soil in we watered it down to help it settle and then filled any any low spots or gaps, next came the transplanting and then more watering:

If you couldn't tell, D is super excited and happy about this project!
If you couldn’t tell, D is super excited and happy about this project!

The spot we picked was bar of grass and doesn’t get a lot of light so we decided to put plants in that like that sort of thing. We planted lettuce, cabbage, chard and kale. I’m knocking on wood that this new little garden is as successful as our old one in Davis. If not as big.

 

Spring Garden 2012: All Done

Bye, bye garden!

Last week we said goodbye to our garden. We didn’t pull it all out as the tenants moving in wanted to have a garden and they’ll be lucky enough to harvest even more cucumbers, tomatoes, and basil if the weather stays nice and they water and tend to it. Sadly, the beans were over run by the cucumbers. Our lone heirloom tomato plant has also started growing fruit, though all of it is still green. The last few weeks have been tough with packing and getting ready for the big move; they weren’t easy on the garden either an aphid and white fly infestation choked out our zucchini plants:

The looked worse when they were in the ground!

Luckily, the aphids and white flies restricted themselves to the zucchini; the tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, cucumbers, and basil are all doing fine:

Cucumbers climb up the eggplant cage

In fact, three to four times a week we’re harvesting four or five lemon cucumbers, an english cucumber, and a handful of cherry tomatoes

What are last few harvests looked like. In the end we were giving lemon cucumbers away to everyone we knew!

We’re going to miss gardening while we’re here in San Diego but it gives us something to look forward to once D’s work is done here and we move on!

2012 Harvest:

Zucchini: 20
Tomatoes: 70+
Bush Beans: 12
Cucumbers: 30+
Eggplant: 3
Basil: 60+ leaves

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