Garden
Keyhole Garden Progress – March 17, 2020
Warm weather followed by a week of rain has really kicked the leafy greens into high gear. On the front left you can see the remainder of the romaine heads giving one last push. Meanwhile on the right, it's a motley assortment of loose leaf greens, spinach and cilantro. One head of broccoli remains as does the red cabbage (back and center right). The dill I have planted around the perimeter of the compost bin (center) is thick, leafy and deep green. Way in the back is the garlic and cucumbers now in need of trellising. If you look at [keep reading...]
Hummingbird Sage Colony
I started with two small Hummingbird sages (Salvia spathacea) in March of last year, planting them in my native garden on the south side of the house. This particular spot happens to be in the shade of a pine and a large blue gum eucalyptus, two tress notorious for their ability to keep other things from growing under them. Fortunately, Hummingbird sage is a California native that thrives on the floor of oak forests, so the pine and eucalyptus were no problem. Over the winter the sages have taken the opportunity to colonize the whole area and are now producing [keep reading...]
Keyhole Garden Progress – February 26, 2020
Winter crops are petering out in the keyhole garden. Broccoli is heading out, cabbage is ripe, peas have been picked and the Romaine lettuce is about done. Just in time too. Cucumbers, more lettuce, tomatillos and tomatoes are all waiting in the greenhouse for their turn in the garden.
Time to Tally the Bananas
Nights below freezing has fried my tropical plants, including the Ice Cream (aka Blue Java) banana, so I cut the bunch and brought them indoors to ripen.
Happy Valentine’s Day – Have a Tomato! (Video)
Last spring I planted a grape tomato variety from Johnny's Selected Seeds called Valentine. A definite 5 out of 5 stars. Here's a short video from the garden
Rain Barrel Follies Part 3
A couple of weeks ago I was all proud to show off my newly installed rain barrel. However, I forgot to close the drain valve, so when it rained. it dumped 55 gallons of water directly under the rain barrel, causing the ground to sink and tipping the barrel to one side. Then it rained again and re-filled the now heavily listing barrel. I thought I was going to have to dump all that water as well, until I figured out a better method that let me save the water and empty the barrel at the same time. Here's the [keep reading...]
Mid-winter Garden Tasks for Spring
Spring may be a ways off, but there's still plenty you can do to get ready. Here are 8 things you can do in mid-winter to make sure you're off to a fast start in spring.
My First Rain Barrel
Water can get expensive here in San Diego so I've been talking about getting a couple of rain barrels. Then my wife gave me a couple for Christmas. Nice, big 55 gallon barrel kits with all the hardware needed. All I had to do was hook them up to the rain gutter and, boom, free water. So I cleared out an area under the eaves by the back of the house and got the first barrel set up on some cinder blocks. Then it rained a little the night before last. Not much, maybe 1/3rd of an inch, but, as [keep reading...]
Sneaky Gopher Got My Aloe (Video)
As I was touring the yard yesterday, I noticed a large aloe vera tipped over on its side. I knew the dogs couldn't have done it, so I decided to take a closer look. Here's the video of what I found. I've seen gophers pull plants into their burrows, but I've never seen one burrow into a plant. Time to find the gopher traps.
My Keyhole Garden is Amazing
Keyhole garden winter progress as of January 10, 2020 Cool weather has turned it into a nutrient rich kitchen garden like no other! It's hard to overstate how awesome a keyhole garden is. If you’ve ever thought about building one, do it. I built one on a whim for about $100 early last spring and was amazed at how it pumped out vegetables and herbs from spring all the way into mid-autumn with basically no effort from me -- no weeding, very little watering, easy harvesting. Definitely $100 well invested. Turns out, that was just the start. I [keep reading...]