Garden Updates: January 17, 2012

Spring is just around the corner and we have a NEW raised bed!!! This is the 5th bed that has been completed in the expanded 20x20 area. We're thinking of growing some Burdock here since the soil is very soft because it was double dug.

Here I planted some Peas and Pole Beans. The reason why we did both: Mom thought that since the weather is so erratic, we should try to do both types in one bed, one that is heat tolerant (pole beans) and one that is cold tolerant (Peas). Then, if the weather leans to one way or another, we'd have something growing instead of nothing (in case of a crop failure from either too hot or too cold). I said, "What the heck, let's give it a try". We're always experimenting with things, to learn what works and doesn't work. Last week was hot, now this week has been cold and we had a bit of rain.

Mitsuba grown from last year's seed. It's self sown, see the larger Mitsuba on the left side (the pot is barely in the pic) That's the parent plant and it dropped it's seeds on the pot centered here.

Daikon Radish on the side of the Broccoli plants are starting to mature

Found a chrysalis on the broccoli leaf! I snagged the leaf and took it indoors and placed it in an aerated jar, as a Biology instructional tool for homeschool!

Loquat blossoms, it's really early this year

Kumquats just about ready

The "Chard that won't quit", Daikon Radishes and some Spanish Black Radish in the pots

Diseased Tomatoes

Of course, our garden isn't perfect. Especially the new raised beds, the soil there is new and there are still a lot of nutrients missing from it. These tomatoes are suffering from blossom end rot. It's a common disease and the only problem is the lack of calcium in the soil.  I'll grind up some calcium supplements to amend the soil for now. Grinding up egg shells will take too long for the calcium to leach out at this point. Sea shells ground up will work too but it will also take time to leach into the soil. I use Calcium Lactate, it's much more soluble than Calcium Carbonate, and it's better for your own bones too.

Garden Updates

Our son is learning to be the right hand man to his Dad. Helping measure!

Sanding the posts

Here's one bed that's almost done

Cherry Tomatoes were mostly cleared and the Chinese Chives and Bunch Onions trimmed

Our messy parts

Lots of pots

Exciting new bed! Raised bed that is...

Raised bed #6 is being made right now. We decided to postpone the bed going in right now because, we have Cucumbers that are still growing strong right where the soil needs to be dug up to fit the raised beds. You can also see the Sun Oven on the left, cooking something.

Father and son working together. Power drills are fun toys for boys

Busy, busy, busy!

Here's both of our SunOvens. One is roasting a whole chicken, then other is baking some yams for snack-time.

Here are some of the plants that have moved FROM the HH house in the front rows, the back rows are plants that are supposed to go TO the HH house to fill the spaces of the plants we dug up. Why the swap? The front row plants are all edibles, the back row plants are not.

We're making room for 6 raised beds that are 3' x 8'. There will be a seventh bed that will be about 2' x 12'. Here's the first of the 6 that are going in. T is digging the ditches to make space for the second one. Thank you T for working so hard. (He had sore leg muscles the next days from digging so much!)

Here's another angle

In order to make room for the 6 large beds, we decided to move the Kumquat tree after much thought. We hope it will survive the transplant as it is getting warmer already. Dig, dig, dig and dig some more... whew!

Yes! We did it!