April Happenings

Last weekend our tomatoes went in. We only have 9 plants this year. Two are cherry tomatoes and two heirloom and only one that is determinate. All but one were purchased from our local nursery and one of the heirlooms was from a local Master Gardening event I attended. I may be tempted to purchase one more this year if I can find a spot for it. I'm thinking a green zebra. We are already maxed out on garden space as I over did it with onions and garlic this year and they both have a handful of growing days ahead of them. I'm hoping to find a location for a least two squash plants and a cucumber plant as well but both require ample room to sprawl. Perhaps vertical growing is the way to go here. Our lovely rhododendron is in full bloom and putting on quite a pink show in our front yard and between our pink jasmine in the back and cecil brunner rose in front, the smell outside is amazing. Sam's lettuce is thriving and ready for harvest now and his arugula is almost there. Maggie's red onions will be the first of many harvested and her radishes are growing successfully! Our first radishes ever.  Looking forward to the weeks to come. I'm waiting patiently for the back yard to explode in color from the cosmos, zinnias and sunflowers. I have a feeling our garden will be very productive this year.

Lettuce & Arugula

Chives in bloom

Random lettuce growing between the onions

Rhododendrons

No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow. ~Proverb

Welcoming the Three Sisters at Tilden Park

 I received a copy of Edible East Bay last week and enjoyed it so much. It was full of great resources about gardening and local events and local foods, season by season. We attended one of the listed events (which was free - bonus:) at Tilden Park last Saturday and had so much fun. It was a hands on gardening event where children were learning how to plant the Native Americans' Three Sisters: beans, squash and corn.  Maggie was especially excited about the event because she had learned about the Three Sisters last year in 3rd grade. Both kids enjoyed the experience. They created mounds out of rich compost and planted away. After the event they received seeds for home and corn plants and were invited back in September to see the results of their work. It was a wonderful day for all of us.

Onions, Garlic and Potatoes

A few weeks ago I transplanted all the garlic over to the onion bed - easy job but very time consuming. I must remember not to the plant garlic where I plan to plant our summer veggies! Spring planting always seems so far out to me when I plant the garlic and I'm not known for patience. I love the look of the greens coming through the straw. I also love the fact that one bed is completely planted.

 
 Yesterday I planted about 8 rows of lettuce and 2 rows of arugula. A must have on Colin's homemade pizza - yum! Today I plan to finish planting the leeks and more onions and this weekend the composter will be converted to a potato growing bin. We have a stackable composter which allows us to achieve what they did in this great tutorial here.  We will be growing both red and white potatoes this year.

Janurary's seeds

It's always fun for us watching how fast the seeds sprout.

The September garden

The leaves are starting to change color and the smells have changed in the air. School has started and most of us gardeners are planting our fall veggies. Some of us have unsightly tomato plants with green tomatoes hanging all over them wondering when and if they're going to turn red. It was a pretty cool summer here and only now with the recent heat the tomatoes starting to turn red. Here is an article I read this morning regarding this subject. Looks like I wasn't the only one disappointed this year with our crop.
http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-living/ci_18912349?source=rss

Maggie's Chinese cabbage is growing beautifully and we have lots of red onions & walla walla onions in the ground. Carrots and lettuce are sprouting and any day the beet seeds I planted should will too.  Here are some recent happenings from out back..

Finally red

Green zebras

Rows of Chinese cabbage

Herbs galore

Colin's huckleberries

Poblano peppers

Basil

Perfect rows of lettuce

I don't necessarily buy into the whole astrological sign thing but I am a Virgo and I do happen to like most things "just so" I'm also a fanatic about things being straight and even. I know, I need to relax and undoubtedly having 3 kids is bound to cure me at some point :) When it comes to gardening though, I admire full, lush, out of rhyme & reason gardens but I do love the look of perfect rows of lettuce and I find it easy to care for the lettuce this way. My method of planting lettuce seeds has always been using a straight piece of wood to mark where I dig. This year though I am trying a technique I saw online using flour to mark the rows. I unfortunately can't remember the site where I saw this but thought is was a great idea. We'll see how it goes!