Going Off Da Grid, Janice: March 2011

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Front Yard update! We dug a "trench" on the side of the house we share the lawn with our neighbor. This trench is for 12 Asparagus roots. Unfortunately, there's a LOT of tree roots in this area, and our neighbor asked us not to chop up the roots of their tree, so we have to work around that. The round hole in the back left is where the peach sapling is planted. We intend to incorporate that area into this newly dug trench. More food, less lawn!

Here is the trench from the neighbor's sidewalk

This is from our side of the sidewalk, you can see the neighbor's tree with

Fragrant Mandarin blossoms, unfortunately, there are very few bees to pollinate our trees this year. It's rather worrisome...

Rain...over 5" in one day!

More pics of rain

There's a beeeeeee!

Carrots in the middle bed, in the left bed, there's cilantro and black radish flowering. The right bed(back) has the broad beans and we're preparing the bed for potatoes.

Strawberries are really thriving

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Harvest Updates

Seri(Oenanthe javanica), Shungiku (Chrysanthemum coronarium), baby carrots and strawberries

Cilantro to be frozen

Getting lots of Beta Carotene: Baby carrots and Kumquats

They're bigger than last years'!

Thinned out more baby carrots... they are growing thicker every day

It's glorious Strawberry Season!! We're covering the berries to prevent waterlog from the rains.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Harvest Updates

Cabbages, Snow Peas, Garlic, Cilantro, Lettuce and a bit of Strawberries

Lettuce, Snow Peas, Peas, Strawberries, Orange, Lemon, Pea Shoots, and thinned out baby carrots

"Wakegi"green onions, strawberries, and baby potatoes

Garden Updates

Front Garden Updates: We moved the peach tree from the parking belt area where the ivy is and planted it where the Papaya tree that perished with the frost was... :-( The tiny peach tree is in the lower left corner of the pic. The very green tree in the middle is the Mikan (mandarin) tree

Close-up on the Mikan Tree, the buds ready to burst into blooms. I've noticed that there are very few bees this year and I'm worried for them because of CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) and for the trees that need pollinators to set fruit.

Here is the front garden Grape Trellis in the works. There needs to be some design revisions, but slowly we are seeing it come together.

Haas Avocado in it's 2nd season here. It has blossomed profusely and we've had to support the heavy "head" with some thick stakes.

Fuji Apple showing some new growth

This is the new buds of the Persimmon tree in the front garden

Now, we go to the backyard. This is our make-shift greenhouse to start seeds. We've covered it with plastic during the coldest months to keep it warm and frost free. These past 2 weeks have been warm so we haven't closed the plastic.

The fig tree took a relatively short break and is already leafing out with vigor. It even over-wintered some figs and is growing quickly. This little fig is about an inch long already!

Celery inside the bed, on the upper right outside of the bed is Shungiku (edible Chrysanthemum)

Green Table Grapes are energetically sending out new growth. There's quite a few flower clusters too :-)

Just cleared the Peas, and in place we're getting some potatoes ready. I'm slicing them up according to the nodes on the potatoes, then letting them dry a day. The nitrogen from the root nodes of the peas should help the potatoes nicely, and we'll amend with compost from the bins as well.