And The Plot Thickens

So I’ve been reluctant to post lately.  This was partly because my garden was doing so poorly, and partly because I read an excellent book.  So I’m going to spill my guts and then move forward.

The garden’s soil was delivered and it was very poor.  Weed-ridden, completley lacking in Nitrogen, and totally anaerobic.  At least the lack of Nitrogen kept the weeds from showing for a while.  By the time I figured out that the beds needed N, the plants had already been stunted.  I felt so bad!  So then we had stunted plants… and the weeds were coming in.  Argh.  

Add onto that the horrible weather.  We officially have the wettest, coldest May and June on record. No wonder all my summer plants are sulking.  I used to live in the Urban Island: warm, not much wind, Summer is nice and wide and fat in eight months of glorious mild warmth.  Now I’m 500ft higher, and the winds sweeping in from the Golden Gate mean that it gets FREAKING COLD and VERY WET.  No more ripe tomatoes in May.  Now the tomato plants should be freakin’ planted in may.  *sad sigh*

I took on all the guilt for how bad my garden was.  But it was the soil and the weather and, frankly, the fact that I was a newbie.  Now that I understand the weather better, and have fixed the soil, I can get over being butthurt about that.   If I can keep from planting summer plants in wet, cold April and other similar stupid mistakes, I can get over being an idiot noob. 

I’m used to being a dork.

I started this blog to be about the best products and techniques… and then I read Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre.  Guess what?  Someone kinda did most of the work already.

So, um, until I get a better idea, this blog will be a chronicle of how I worked to change this barren plot into an oasis.  When I get a break in the unceasing To-Do list, I will try to fill in what Mini Farming did not have answers for.  But until then, I have peas to stake up!

Fun Fact for today: Adiabatic Lifting means if there’s anything more than a 20% chance of rain, we’re getting drenched.  *sigh*

They’re a little brazen.  Can you see his tongue hanging out?  Not exactly in his right mind.  Do not mess with a deer with the tongue hanging out, it means ‘crazy’.

Fortunately, the little black fuzzy dog’s barking scared him off.  16 lb dog VS 100 lb deer… that’s got to be good for a canine’s self-esteem. 

Fun Fact: now that the deer are down from the hills cuz there’s nothing else green to eat, it’s definetly time to fence up the orchard.

I look at these every day and wonder if the plants are growing at all!  But it turns out that they are — most of the tomatoes have blossoms, we’ll harvest a little dill tonight to go on some fish, and the lettuce are almost ready for…

…drumroll please!…

our first homegrown meal.

WHOO HOOOOOOO!!!!

Fun Fact: the bees love to come by and drink from the water on the leaves: dew in the morning and beads after I transplant.

It’s been a little busy here!  At least I took pics.

Fun Fact: Uh… I can’t think of one.  Uh.  Um.  Total brainfart.  Uhhhh… bananas and peanut butter is a tasty breakfast?  And banana peels compost GREAT?  Okay, yeah, that’ll do.

I bought 9 cubic yards of soil.  It was… um… not cheap.  Around 500 dollars to have it delivered.  Then I worked for weeks to finish prepping the beds and cart in the soil.

Had to have been lovely, beautiful stuff, right?  Well, IT SMELLED LIKE POO.  

It was anaerobic, full of fungus gnats, and so lacking in nitrogen that now everything is refusing to grow.  I’m trying to remedy the situation, but this is ridiculous.  I’ll be making my own beds from now on, thank you. 

*grumble grumble grumble*

Still happy to play in the dirt, though.

Fun Fact: Asparagus and celery and other bog plants like water, so put them downslope of your garden (in well-draining soil) and they’ll happily us up any runoff so you won’t have to water so much.

Seedling sprouting time!  Yeay (and) argh.

I made labels.  They faded in the sun.

Then I started more seeds so I overwrote the useless blank labels, and went to buy more labels and made more of them and it was expensive and they faded too. 

So I got disgusted with the whole idea and made diagrams.  That’s not working, either.  You’re looking at a tray of stuff.  One of the cells is barren.   What’s that?  Why isn’t it sprouting?  Where’s the diagram?  (20 minutes later) I found it!  Okay!  Uh… which end is up?

Dammit!

So now I’m making a Veg Taxonomy list.  Every plant gets a number, all markers are METAL with NUMBERS and can be reused, and the Master List will get put somewhere very secure.

*swoons with delight*

Fun Fact: Bee pollen is collected by attaching a cubby-hole-screen for the bees to crawl through.  The pollen falls off their back legs and into a collecting box.  The bees will then work even harder to get pollen.

Our very first compost pile.  Kitchen scraps and shredded newspapers, first laid down about five months ago.  Should be ready to sift over the beds here quite soon!

Fun Fact: Aerobic composting will produce less compost quicker; Anaeorbic compost will produce more compost with a higher nitrogen content in a lot longer time.  I’d be happy for more compst, but wanted it quickly… so did it this way.

It’s been a little busy lately.  The rotational beds are in!  I’m hoping to fill in the things that I missed posting about but got pictures of soon.  In the meantime, let me kvetch.

COLD WEATHER SUCKS.  I never had to worry about this when I lived down in the Urban Heat Island.  Tomatoes could go in the ground in February, and we’d get ripe maters in May.  It got warm a couple of weeks ago and I set the plants out to acclimitize and they just rolled their eyes.  Cold, rain, and *ahem* neglect made most of the melons and all of the cukes bow out.

So I had to restart the cucumbers and melons yesterday.  And the Tarragon, cuz I loves it but forgot it first time around.  This is from the new page which will document the progress of 2011’s vegetal progress.

1. Veg: Cherry Tomato: Gardener’s Delight (my favorite cherry)
2. Veg: Watermelon: Sugar Baby
3. Veg: Watermelon: Crimson Sweet
4. Veg: Cucumber: Tendergreen
5. Veg: Cucumber: Armenian
6. Veg: Bell Pepper: California Wonder 300TMR
7. Veg: Hot Pepper: Sweet Banana
8. Herb: Tarragon
9. Veg: Bean: Pole Runner: Scarlet Emperor
10. Veg: Bean: Pole: Trionfo Violetto
11. Veg: Bean: Edamame: Glycine Max

Fun Fact: Succession planting of beans is a great way to keep from being overwhelmed in the summer.  Hopefully.  Maybe.  Cross yer fingers.