Garden is Going

We got a bit of rain this last weekend, not nearly enough to make a dent in the drought but it gave the yard a little boost. I have been taking pictures of the progress but failed on the posting them part. The weeds also got a boost so don't mind them in the photos.

 Here is the peach tree, it had a few peaches on it! Katie is keeping a close eye on them.

Here are the rows of beets and kale.

Here are two rows of tomatoes, that is the artichokes there on the end. We already harvested those a few weeks ago.

Here is the side yard, our new addition this year. The hoses show where the rows are. Today the corn and popcorn seeds were planted.

There are still a few shelves of baby plants growing in the garage, they will be moving out to the yard in the next few weeks.

Side Yard

This year I want to expand the garden to my side yard, we have been working on cleaning up the branches that were put there when removed a few years ago. The branches are almost gone! With the recent rain storm the weeds grew like crazy, some were over a few feet tall. This weekend was time to mow and weed whack to clean it up. Here is a look a little over half down. 

I moved the remaining branches and wood near the house to get everything down. I had a helper from the window.

A look at the finished mowing. There are still tree stumps here from the cottonwood trees that took forever to get rid of.

My brother happened to show up so he started tilling it.

Here is the finished tilled area, cant wait to get some plants in here!

Speaking of plants here is a look at how they are doing.

Pruning

It is that time of year again although the weather is definitely not cooperating. California is facing a third year of drought and by far the worst year on record for rain. Along with the lack of rain is a lack of winter. We had about one week of actual cold weather, other than that it has been quite warm. This means that the plants have not gone dormant like they should. Usually you want to prune just after the coldest part of winter and before spring kicks in. This is the time of year it would usually be done so I went ahead and pruned. I did not take before pictures this year but caught the after.

I went drastic on the pomegranate, cutting it more than I have in the past, especially with the height.

The grapes were trimmed back to leave a main stalk and a few off shoots to train along the wires, they are almost done in this picture. 

Finally there are the roses, I went easy on them this year, mostly just trimmed and cleaned them up.

Fall into Winter Yard

My garden was cleared out early this year and I am still getting peppers and tomatoes, the artichokes, garlic and beans are still going strong.

The beans are going crazy, we put many plants in so there is a lot of variety and figuring out what the beans are is an adventure.

These long ones are dried out and were ready to pick.

We didnt get many beans... but we did get some. I will probably mix them in with other dried beans to cook and eat them.

My peach tree was thought lost at one point but is still hanging in there. The rhubarb that I had planted next to it did well while the corn was there around it but died as soon as the corn came out, perhaps too much sun. 

The pomegranete tree is still doing well. I will be pruning it even more this winter as it just keeps getting taller. We got a good crop this year which we finished off a few weeks ago but you can still see some empty red husks there at the top of the tree, way out of reach.

Here you can see what is left of the lawn that I planted. Most of it did well but there are bald spots. I reseeded and fertilized last week, if it sprouts before it freezes there should be an improvement in the Spring. The grapes are losing their leaves and we will be doing some structural work on the trellis when they get pruned.

In the mostly cleared out garden we have finally planted a winter crop. This is a mix of seeds for plants that are beneficial to the soil. The idea being that you grow it over the winter and in the spring you till it into the soil and do not have to add fertilizer or mulch. I have very healthy soil due to the addition of large quantities of mulch over the years, we hope this will keep the quality ip with a lot less shoveling. 

The next project in the yard will be to finish clearing out the garden once it freezes, surprisingly this has not happened yet. Until it does we will keep picking tomatoes and peppers from the garden. 

Grape Trellis

Last year I planted two grape plants. We built them a simple trellis last year that consisted of two posts and some line. The grapes did very well and over grew what was built. This year I knew they needed a larger trellis and pruning them was a good time to do it. Our primary source of information on how to prune them and different types of structures to build was The Grape Grower which I easily found at my library. We started with a trip to Home Depot where I bought two 8 foot 4x4's and a roll of 12 gauge tension wire. I use the term we loosly, my brother actually did most of the actual work. He dug two two foot holes on each side of the existing trellis the put the posts in at an angle.

Next we packed the dirt in tightly around the posts to hold them at the angle.

Next two 10 inch anchors were placed outside of the posts.

Next the old posts and cord were removed.

My brother then drilled holes in the posts for the wire.

A length of wire is attached to the post and the anchor. More wire is pulled through the holes then tightened to created the needed tension. 

Next we used some pieces of wood I had in the garage to stake the grapes and train them up. Once we had selected the branches that would be attached to the stake the others were pruned off.

And here it is, my new completed grape trellis.

Seeds, Strawberries and Rhubarb

This winter I have purchased seeds from two companies. My first choice is the Sandy Hill Preservation Center this group provides heirloom seeds and work to preserve genetic diversity. They are a very interesting company from whom we have bought seeds before and been successful. I also support their philosophy and where their seeds are coming from. The second company I purchase from (when Sandy Hill doesn't have one I am looking for) is Johnny's Seeds, they are a traditional large seed company not quite as embroiled in the GMO madness that is out there. The final company I have purchased from this year is Gurneys. I went to them to get the plants I wanted, strawberries and rhubarb. I have found it difficult to find anything other than mainstream items at the local stores and there are very few actual nursery's around any more. 

This last week my package of strawberries and rhubarb arrived. I also ordered some of their strawberry food, a fertilizer designed specifically for strawberries. I selected two types  of strawberries Eversweet and Everbearing. Both should be successful in this climate. I have not had a huge amount of success with the strawberries I have purchased from stores, most have died.

One type of strawberry has been growing but I do not remember what type it is. We did get several small strawberries last year.

The strawberries are under the rose bushes, while some are growing I want to fill this area in and have some diversity.

Each package of plants had about 25 strawberries, so all together I planted around 50 plants in this planter.

Rhubarb is something I have wanted to try to grow, I have heard it will grow out here and there are a lot of foods that can be made with it. I planted the plant between my new peach tree and the pomegranate. If successful these plants can grow fairly large.

In other planting news I did pick up some succulents to replace what was lost this winter. I have four different plants that I have put into pots. I will be keeping them close to the house till the last freeze has passed just to be safe.

Getting the garden going

This year I want to use the unused side yard for some planting, probably corn and maybe some squash will go over here. First though it has to be cleaned up. The very tall juniper trees that were in my front yard when I moved in and were removed as well as the cottonwood trees that were growing here have all just been stacked in this area. 

It is sort of a brush pile.

We began by using loppers to cut some of the smaller branches so the would fit in the green waste bin.

Of course moving all this stuff around unearthed various bugs that needed to be examined.

The larger branches are going to need to be sawed down so for now I pulled them into a separate pile.

Meanwhile the tiller has come back out and the main garden area has had its first tilling. The soil is nice and dark and smells great. The work put into in over the last two years had definitely paid off.

And how can any four year old resist a whole lot of fresh dirt.

Katie ran around in it for quite awhile, exposure to dirt is supposed to strengthen a child's immune system  plus this exhausted her so it was a win win.

In the garage this is happening

Seeds have been planted for broccoli, kale and cauliflower. So far so good....

Yard Prep

This Wednesday was my day off and the weather was not too cold so my brother, Katie and I went to work on the yard to get it ready for the garden. My camera stopped working so now I am taking pictures with my phone until it gets fixed. Here is the yard before we got started.

Katie got ready with her hat and gloves, ready to go to work with Olive's help.

Katie grabbed some branches from the pile.

And carried them off to the side yard.

Soon Katie got bored and went on to picking up rocks. This area of the yard is full of sand and gravel from the pool that used to be there. 

Once Katie was done with that she tried out a little raking.

When we were done it looked like this.

We are going to  have to remove most of the sand and try to get the gravel out next. To improve the soil I am going to be ordering a delivery of compost to till into the ground.