Garden 2014: Shoots and Buds

While most of our garden still slumbers under a tangle of fallen sunflower stalks and the weeds and grass that are beginning to take it over, I've been watching to see what's survived the winter. Most exciting are the little green shoots of the tarragon hedge (top photo) emerging from around the old stalks of last year's crop, promising another bumper crop of one of my favorite herbs.

Red veined sorrel.

Along with the tarragon are new sprouts of parsley popping up, as well as thyme and savory that apparently made it through the freezing temperatures. The red-veined sorrel has also come back and looks to be thriving, so it will start adding its bright color to some salads in the near future. It was good to see that the blueberries we planted last fall are budding, too, but I'm not expecting much of a crop until next year when the plants get better established. And I do have high hopes for the rhubarb, which should, at three years old, be ready to produce enough for a couple of crisps and maybe even a pie.

Come on, rhubarb!

While there's another month yet before I can start digging in earnest, I have time to think about what to plant along the cyclone fence behind the blueberries, both to cover up the unsightly metal fencing as well as screen off our backyard dining area from passersby. And then the decision about tomatoes, which were heartbreakingly unproductive last year—I'm thinking optimism will win the day and we will try growing them again.

Garden 2012: Tomatoes On Parade

I was beginning to think that, for the first time in memory, we might not be planting tomatoes in our garden. My neighbor, Susana, had planted hers a good three weeks earlier and I'd been watched them gradually pop out of the tops of their protective teepees. Plus we'd been gone for a week at the beach, losing even more precious planting time.

I was somewhat comforted when the weather took a turn for the colder, followed a couple of days later by a horrendous hailstorm that blasted through the area, leaving pellet-sized residue a good half inch deep on the ground. So yesterday we downed some coffee and headed for our favorite neighborhood nursery, Garden Fever, hoping that they hadn't sold out of our favorite varieties.

The younger starts we normally plant in the spring had been replaced by larger, sturdier plants in gallon pots that were a bit more expensive, but we decided to pay the penalty for not planting earlier and bought six: two Cherokee purples and one each of green zebra, yellow pear, Sungold and red cherry. And with the weather for the coming week predicted to hover in the 60s and 70s, and consequent warmer nights bringing the soil temperature up to the desired 60 degrees, we also invested in pepper starts: two Jimmy Nardellos, two pasillas and a Melrose.

With those and a six-pack of lacinato, we bought, we came home, we planted. Add in the tiny leafy greens, carrots and herbs in the raised beds and the pea shoots climbing up the fence behind them, and we're pretty much done for the time being. Now to sit back and pray for nice balance of sun and rain for the duration!

Garden 2012: Blueberries, Peas and Leafy Greens

The blueberries were the first to go in, a selection that included Duke, Blueray, Earliblue and a mature Bluecrop bush from a friend who was removing a few of hers. I'm hoping to baby the young bushes through the summer, though it'll be a year or two before they start to bear fruit. But we should be in for a haul assuming they all survive.

After getting the blueberries settled into their new homes, I poked sugar and snap peas along the chain link fence behind them. It took about a week, but with regular watering and a string of warm, sunny days, they began to pop out of the soil and wrap their little tendrils around the fence wire.

This year I'm dedicating the raised beds to salad greens and carrots, planting rows of individual varieties rather than combining the seeds from the packets and sowing them in large patches. As usual, I got a little overzealous in my selection, ending up with mixed mesclun, arugula, two types of oak leaf lettuce, red velvet lettuce, romaine and a fascinating sounding Australian Yellowleaf. Who could resist?

My plan is to pick the baby and mid-size greens to thin them, then let some mature into heads. About half the second bed will have eight rows of carrots, an orange Yaya hybrid that's purported to be sweet and crunchy, and a sweet purple variety called Purple Haze that grew well last year, tasted great and looked really impressive with other roasted roots.

Coming soon will be tomatoes and kale, though they may have to wait till after the beginning of June to go in. At least the soil will be warm enough by then…I hope!

Garden 2012: So Many Possibilities!

And so it begins. We spent the weekend tilling, weeding, picking up a load of compost (above) and spreading it over our garden beds. All motivated by the anticipation of the sweet taste of homegrown tomatoes in (fingers crossed) August, along with a (again, fingers crossed) bountiful harvest of carrots, peas, greens, herbs and squash.

The beds with tarragon, miner's lettuce and thyme from last year. Rhubarb anchors the strip behind.

We decided that with its full southern exposure, the strip behind the raised beds—in their sixth planting season and still going strong—would be the perfect place for some blueberries. Peas will be growing up the chain link fence behind them, to be followed by beans when the peas are done. The fence not only provides a great climbing structure for the twisty vines, but makes an edible screen between the back yard and the sidewalk.

The parking strip where the tomatoes will live.

I know, I know, it's all sounding pretty pie-in-the-sky right now, but that's just what an expanse of darkly rich, ready-to-be-planted soil does to me. So until reality intrudes, forgive me while I put on my rose-colored glasses and dream.

Garden 2011: Exercising My Options

It's been said before, but to me a garden is an exercise in hope. Especially this year, with the cool temperatures and wet weather making this the latest I've ever planted tomatoes. Though this year I didn't need the Walls o' Water to protect them from the premature planting urge that usually overtakes my better judgement in early May.

Holding off also gave me a little more time to plan, if that term can be applied to the whirlpool of vegetable-themed desire that swirled in my head, resulting in a scouting trip to the nursery to look at what was available and grab my few required starts and soil amendments, with a return trip or two to fill in.

Trip one was for tomatoes (Sungold, Cherokee Purple, a black cherry and Green Zebra), peppers (ancho and Jimmy Nardello), lacinato kale and collards, which went in our parking strip bed. Trip two was for seeds (arugula, French radish) and herb starts (French tarragon, savory). I also had the brilliant idea to grow vegetables up the chain link fence behind our raised beds both for space considerations and also to screen our outdoor dining area on the other side. For that task I chose Kentucky Wonder green beans and a green cucumber. Again, hope is the operative word here.

Then trip three was for carrot seeds to fill in some space left in the second raised bed, a mix of red Nantes and a packet labeled Carnival Blend guaranteed to grow "red, purple, white and yellow" carrots, and which claims "Kids love them!" in cheery italics. I also picked up a few squash plants to grow down the slope in front of the beds, a trick I tried last year but one that yielded miserable results for some reason I've never figured out.

I'll be posting occasional photos of the progress of this yearly experiment in optimism. Oh, and for those keeping track, Dave's 20-year raised beds are in hale and hearty shape in their fifth season. Only fifteen to go!

Download the plans for Dave's raised beds.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Sometimes there's a pony or a shiny bike under the Christmas tree, and sometimes you get socks instead. Expectations are like that and, as hard as I try to cultivate that "que sera sera" attitude, the fact that last year our tomato plants looked like survivors of a nuclear blast (and produced about as well) was, frankly, a big disappointment.

And knowing that even the pros, and I mean some large-scale farmers, here in the valley had an equally crappy season didn't make me feel any better. I mean, I wanted my heirloom tomato salad to be made from my heirloom tomatoes. Is that too much to ask? (The answer, apparently, was "Yes.")

But because home gardeners are an optimistic, some would say delusional, lot, this year, dang it, is going to be different. This last weekend we hopped in the truck and drove to our neighborhood garden center, picked up some seeds and soil amendments and got to work. Within a couple of hours Dave's most excellent raised beds (in their third year and sturdy as ever, thank you) were weeded, amended and planted with what, I hope, will be a productive and delicious crop of:

• Carrots (Parmex) - an orange variety from Nichols Garden Nursery; 1 row
• Carrots (Atomic Red) - red, Nichols Garden Nursery; 1 row
• Carrots (Purple Haze) - purple (is that cool or what?), Nichols Garden Nursery; 1 row
• Radishes (Crimson Ladyfinger) - New Dimension Seed; 2 rows
• Mesclun Salad Mix - Seeds of Change; 3 rows
• Arugula (Apollo) - Seed Savers Exchange; 2 rows
• Snap peas (Sweet Xing) - New Dimension Seed; 2 rows
• Chard - three volunteers from last year
• Rhubarb - a cutting from my pal Lindsey

The rest of the story is that the hedge of arbor vitae (on right in photo at left) that has screened our back yard "dining room" is going to be torn out with plans to replace it with an espaliered black mission fig. And the ash tree in the parking strip that is buckling the sidewalk and, worst of all, shading the boxes for a few hours a day, is going to come out this year.

I'm hoping to do (mercifully short) weekly reports on the progress of all these grand schemes, and I'd love to know what you're up to in your gardens this year in your part of the world. So let's start talking!

And So It Begins

There's nothing like a little competition to get you inspired, is there? It happens to Dave whenever the neighbor next door gets out and mows his lawn, making ours look like it just got out of bed after a night of hard drinking. I'm susceptible to the green meanies when it comes to the garden, and this year was no exception.

One morning a couple of weekends ago we casually looked out the back door (not snooping, not at all!) and there were the neighbors, sneaking around putting in their tomatoes. GAAA! So, of course, we had to run to the nursery this last weekend. Now ours are comfortably ensconced in their Wall-O-Water jackets, basking in their little red greenhouses and, hopefully, growing like weeds.

We decided on just five this year, since last year's bed got a little crowded by harvest time. There are Sungold and Sugar Lump cherry tomatoes, a red Siletz, a Green Zebra and our perennial fave, the Cherokee Purple. We'll be planting lettuce and arugula around the bases while the baby bok choy grows in the second bed.

Oh, and you can still download the plan for Dave's raised bed here. I'll keep you posted on how the competition goes!

Making Our Bed

Ya gotta love a guy who gets all motivated by the activity next door and decides to build a raised bed for our tomatoes this year. The local paper had an article about how to build one, but no, that was pooh-poohed as not being sturdy enough to last his minimum requirement of twenty years.

This, of course, necessitated getting out the computer and drafting a plan of his own, which translates into the opportunity to use as many saws, drills, planes, levels and other tools as he possibly can. After myriad trips to the hardware store to get the cedar, screws and any new tools that might come in handy, he got down to the business of cutting the wood and assembling the materials to make the frame.

We had to wait a week or so for the weather and our schedules to clear, then we dug up the lawn, put the frame together and hauled in multiple bags of compost and manure, a solid afternoon of hard work that was rewarded with a very dry martini and toasts to the eventual harvest. The next day I planted two Cherokee Purple tomatoes, a Brandywine, a Green Zebra, a Black Plum cherry and an Isis Candy cherry, then surrounded them with their red Wall O' Water tomato teepees. The bases were scattered with basil and arugula seeds and watered liberally.

There's room for another bed next to it, which fits nicely into my plan to eliminate as much grass as possible and turn this patch of southern sun into a productive terraced garden. That and get rid of the arbor vitae and replace it with...oh, well, you don't need my whole list. I'll save that for another post!

Details: Dave's 20-Year Raised Bed plans available here.