Last summer, my little granddaughter came out to visit. I taught her about the edible flowers in my garden. One afternoon was spent gathering and chopping up edible flowers to be eaten in a fairy salad. Fairies don't eat lettuce, so we could only eat mainly flowers. Calendula and Borage with a rose petal or two. Maybe a few mint leaves thrown in. I tell you, they weren't bad. And we all lived happily ever after.

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It was a beautiful day today - and not raining - so I emptied my compost bin from the back yard into the garden beds in the side yard and did a little cleanup. These are my keyhole gardens where I put my compostable scraps into the "baskets" in the middle. I just have to build up the soil around them and then they are ready for planting spring crops. Despite the beds not being very built up yet, and the baskets only about a year old, I can see that they are composting down and that there are more worms in the beds. My sad little cabbage didn't do well though. Not enough nutrients, probably. I'll be better about it next time.

I just have a bottomless 5 gallon bucket for a compost bin in the garlic bed. I'll build a composting basket after the garlic is harvested. The bucket works pretty good. I keep it covered to keep the possums and rodents out. I suppose they can get into the baskets, but so far no problems. I think the feral cats keep the vermin at bay.

 This is what happens when you run out of Sluggo. The snails and slugs go crazy on your plants. So grateful for the rain, but the little slimesters went nuts! Some of the plants were on the small side, but I got quite a bit of harvest from them!

This is the Rosemary plant that almost died after I transplanted it. It loves living next to that compost basket!

Recap from an annoying gardening summer:
Last summer's vegetable garden was not a huge success - again - but it was much better than the summer before. Partly this was due to unforseen circumstance. I had made plans to build up the beds and co-garden with a neighbor, but then she had to bail. I had planted some things that she preferred - things like golden beets and tomatillos. Im not crazy about either of those, but of course those were the vegetables that did best. (of course). I have a freezer full of tomatillos and I guess I had better make some verde sauce with them or something.  I also planted fewer of the things I love - like pole beans and eggplants. Oh well. Lesson learned.

I outwitted the cucumber beetles with moderate success by making a raised bed behind my house and growing my winter squashes in there. I got some good Spaghetti and Hubbard squash by training them to grow up my fence. I tried some Cherokee Trail Of Tears Beans which did ok, but there were not really enough of them to do anything but munch on. Not bad though! I saved seeds and will grow more this year. My Kentucky Wonder pole beans did great and I got some good seed from those as well!.

There was more water available this last summer, so my  tomatoes were better and no two legged pests stole anything out of the garden proper, although Bambi found it and ate my Valerian flowers. I did get a decent harvest of Valerian though, and it has been keeping me suitably sedated though the beginning of this new political regime. Not sure what to do about Bambi though as  the two legged pests stole the chain link fence that used to keep the deer out. I am afraid of so many things this year. Did the humans really need to steal my fence as well as my country? I digress............

A few of the heirlooms got buggy and I was always fighting those off with neem oil and soap. I even found a tomato caterpillar for the first time and made a mad dash to drown him. Never saw another one after that. I never gor those beds raised much, but I did continue with the keyhole garden idea and I love, love, love it!

Plans for the new year - and hoping to actualize them this time............

Raise my beds to cover up the compost bins in the middle. (right now, they are exposed)

Plant some things from starts and not from seed. Things like onions. I dont have great luck with onions from seed. They start fine and then they fail. Maybe I will have a chance with bigger starts.

Make more raised beds in the back yard now that I know where the sun hits best back there (there used to be a huge shade tree).

Maybe only plant one tomatillo plant. I think that will do me just fine. Two at best.

I took all those flower petals and orange peels that Ive been drying and hoarding and made myself a big batch of fabulous potpourri! I'm feeling crafty these days, so now I'm ready to fill all those little sachet bags that Ive been cranking out! Just about everything came out of my garden or was something that Ive had on hand. If I don't put those orange peels in the compost bin, I dry them for this very thing!

A Summary Of Last Summer's Garden

My summer garden was so disapointing that I just gave up for a bit. Despite all my attempts to garden effectively with specific water allocations, the garden just didnt prosper.

Im going to get snarky here: while the city of Napa still got away with green lawns and water running freely in the gutters from overwatering, I got my rent raised with the excuse that the property owner was getting fined from all our water consumption. Seeing as I was using grey water for the most part combined with limiting my showers, using greywater for most of the toilet flushing, and using the DIY ollas that I posted about earlier, this didnt make sense. I dont know if anyone in my building was using more water, but I really dont think so.

But whatever.

The ollas worked, but I didnt plant my seeds and seedlings close enough. I had used a diagram found online, and the roots did indeed find thier way to the containers, but everything should have been planted closer to the ollas and it was just too hot.  Very little thrived. The beans were sick. The tomatoes were sick. I got blossom end rot and all the plants were stunted. My garlic was small. The bugs were out in full force. Very little had a chance out there. Oh, a few things did alright once the weather cooled down. I found out that Snapdragons are a wonderful drought flower! And my Kale and Cauliflower did alright eventually. But I was a very sad little gardener for the most part.

So "Fuck That", I said when I stopped grieving. I spent all winter researching new ways to go about having a thriving vegetable garden in a desert. What I came up with were keyhole gardens. Raised beds with a compost basket in the middle and based on permaculture. So I have been working on raising my beds with found objects and cinder blocks. Ive been collecting rocks and bricks bit by bit. This bed is ready to fill as soon as I grab a few more cinder blocks and fill in some edges..

They wont be very high to start with, but I never know how long I'll be able to garden out here. I'll raise them higher next time if I can.

 Im also making new little beds in my back yard that will have little compost buckets scattered here and there. As soon as I get my truckload of soil, my neighbor Homirah and I will be planting a whole new garden that hopefully with the use of keyhole technology, compost buckets, and better use of the ollas from last summer,  will give us way more bounty.  And she can help me rig shelter from the sun for our tomatoes. It has been raining a lot and the reservoirs are filling. So that is promising. The aquifers are not filling, though, and this will be bad.

I am a determined woman in a desert land.

The Loring Street Olla Project

My garden went from lush, green, and rioting with color, to dried up and dead. And this will happen in the summer here without a steady supply of water,

The severe drought in California is forcing stricter measures to be put into place for the average citizen while Fracking and big water bottling companies like Nestle are pumping water out of our aquifers at a terrifying rate. We're being told that we can only use 35 indoor gallons per person a day, which isn't bad, yet you can still wash your car as long as you have a nozzle on the hose that you can shut off while you soap up. Its not making sense. Total bullshit. We're watching greed and entitlement in its true colors right now. We gardeners and people really working hard to actually conserve our resources are suffering while lawns are still green, water is being bottled for a profit, our dwindling ground water is being sucked up and polluted forever, and you can still wash your car.

 But aside from all of  that, I'm managing to have a small garden this year because I did some research, thought ahead, and took some action. I discovered Ollas. (Pronounced oh-yah) The pretty, large, round ones are just too expensive for my meager budget, but I discovered how to make them myself using plain  terracotta flower pots and matching saucers. People have been using ollas for thousands of years in arid countries. So why not. I bought some pots at that big box home improvement store, but if you are good at scrounging and have cheaper places to shop at, all the better. I made the first batch by just sealing them together with a silicone sealer that comes in a tube for use with a caulking gun, I should have considered whether it was a food grade composition, but I didnt. I read that aquarium caulk is best. I dont think this is a huge deal, but I will be more careful next time.  I made another batch by gluing them together first with hot glue and then using the silicone sealer. Some swear by using Guerrilla Glue, but we'll see how these work out.They don't last forever, some will inevitably break, but it seems like such a reasonable way to conserve water and not spend a fortune.

 Unfortunately, I had  put my tomatoes and cucumbers in the ground beforehand and the plants really could have benefited from the ollas being planted closer at the same time. . I planted some as close to the tomatoes as I dared  get. You have to dig fairly deep - and of course, it depends on the size of the pot.  I had already set plastic grow pots near their roots, but it didn't seem like they were getting enough water. I hoped that this would help.

The idea behind the olla watering system is that by filling them with water and letting the ground dry out, the roots of the plants will be drawn to the water and collect moisture by pulling the water from the submerged container. It has to be a porous container so that moisture will be able to escape to the thirsty roots. Some people get all fancy by installing an irrigation system that fill the pots, but I just do it by hand with a headless water wand. You just unscrew the head. I went out and bought a funnel to make the system less wasteful as I still end up spilling some.

By trial and error, I am learning how to use this wonderful watering system! Next year, I will plant my tomatoes around  larger Ollas and use the smaller ones for the other veggies. . Ive been covering the holes with rocks and little chunks of found concrete, but next time I'll paint all the tops white and cover them with saucers to alleviate some of the inevitable evaporation. And everything will get planted around the ollas at the same time.

While I was doing my research, I saw a lot of pictures of things newly planted around the Ollas, but not so  many photos of plants as they grow with this system - or the end results. So I'll try to remedy this by showing how my garden progresses over the summer.
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Lets start with the tomatoes. Mine are all mostly Cherokee tomatoes. Ive also got a  Black Prince and an Egyptian somethingorother that appears to be a paste tomato, I started most of them from seed indoors and they just seem a lot smaller than what they should be. They are all producing fruit, but they are tiny as compared to last year. The soil should be fine and I used the same techniques that I used last year. They might need more sun - maybe they don't get enough hours of it. I think putting in a couple of Ollas and mulching with some rotting hay has helped. We have had some hot days, so all in all, the plants seem a lot happier now. Ive got more flowers, so I am ever hopeful.

The cucs, which I never have any luck with, seem to be pulling out of whatever bad mood they were growing up in. Ive been upping the fertilizer - mostly worm castings - seems like they should be bigger, but they look like they might live. I actually got two medium sized cucumbers out of this one. Maybe its just too much to hope for a healthy cucumber plant in my world of mega cucumber beetles (they spread a virus). I have one growing in a more enclosed space out back, and it looks much healthier - no cucumber beetles. I am convinced that they like the Olla watering system.

 So far, the pole beans that were planted around the Ollas are the healthiest I have ever had. (this is a photo after a long hot day - they always look a bit wiltie after the heat) They look like they are supposed to and I didn't lose a single one. Not a single one. I had saved up a lot of toilet paper rolls and gave them little collars as they poked their little heads up out of the soil. It works like a charm. There are a few that were planted a bit far out of reach of the water, but I save the watering can or the hose for the ones that wouldn't otherwise make it. More Ollas next time!

Eggplants, Zucchini, Kale, and Cilantro are all doing well. Now that they are established, I water about every two - three days and use so  little water as compared to last year. I have not planted any root crops because I just didn't have all that many pots. But Ive got more space since digging up my garlic. It would be fun to see how carrots and radishes grow around these.

The bottom line is: if you have the time and some DIY skills, you can do this as well. They do take up some room and have to be stored somewhere if you dig them out of the ground, but if you plan it out, it looks like you can actually get quite a bit  out of a small amount of space. Stay tuned.

The Flowers Are Rioting

 Literally.
 A riot of Nasturtiums. I took some seeds from a neighbor's outcrop of Nasturtiums a while back. He didnt mind as he hates them and they grow like weeds. But a pretty weed and vine creation is just what I needed. I threw these seeds out into the field and with a couple good rains - voila! They pop up everywhere!

Unless you absolutely cant stand weeding, don't plant them near your garden. But I find these flowers easy to identify by their leaves and to pull out when they stray. The bees adore them and while I cant prove it, they probably keep some bad bugs away.

Unless I can keep them watered, they will die back soon, but the aroma is absolutely intoxicating during the day and evening. I planted some in pots in the back yard for color.

Empty Nest Syndrome

My yard always seems filled with hummingbirds in the Spring. They feed from the huge Salvia bushes in the back and my neighbor upstairs has a feeder for them. They always make nests in places where we have to walk through to get from one place to another - and then they are bothered and they make a new nest elsewhere. But this year, Mama H made her nest right by my back window and made it very clear that she knows who I am and she will tolerate me. I would look out the window and she would be right there in my face, beating her little wings, and reminding me to not pull anything fancy. And she let me walk by without moving her nest this year. So I got to watch a little baby hummingbird be born and grow. I watched it groom itself and flap its wings to get  ready to fly away. And then one day it was gone. It almost broke my heart.

But then a couple days later, when I was out working in the yard, both the mama and baby got right in my face and lit on a branch  next to me and let me hang out for a minute with them. It was the most beautiful thing that Ive experienced in a very long time. And with that moment came a mama sparrow with her baby - and they both lit on a branch next to me as well. I felt like the princess in a Disney movie. I felt like I had been allowed to join a special club.

Last Day Of February

February

Its been a warm winter here in Northern California with just a couple storms that gave us a lot of rain. Still in a horrible drought. Still watering plants with grey-water. Still wondering how I'll keep it all alive during the summer. Still wondering how I'm going to keep the creeps out of my garden. I'll try growing squashes around them and make it harder to get in. I guess that's all I can do unless I want to invest in fencing. Which isn't an option. But on a happy note, the deer and bunnies don't bother me at all.

My peas have done well despite the soakings. Ive been having them in stir-frys every other evening and I gave a few away. And I am always walking out to the patch to graze. I don't let them get very big because I cant stop eating them! They really did get pretty beat up by the storms, but they bounced back. Tall Telephone is taller than me now (I'm almost 6 feet tall) and starting to produce. The Golden Sweet Snow Peas are doing great.  The Cascadia and other peas that I saved from last year (I didn't keep good records and don't know what exactly I planted) are doing well.  I didn't do anything special to the soil this time around. Just stuck em in the ground and they grew. But I did rotate them to a different part of the garden and next time I wont crowd them as much. They have brown spots on the bottom leaves from overcrowding. Most of these seeds were left overs from the season before and all germinated just fine.

I planted a lot more garlic this year and it is going gangbusters. Its taking up a lot of space, so I wont have quite as many different kinds of vegetables this year. But when they are done, I can plant some fall crops. I have to pare this garden journey down despite all the car washings I have seen lately. And I love garlic so much that I don't care. I don't think you can have enough!

The Calendula are still growing and happy. They never died back. Ive got nasturtiums growing everywhere, which makes me happy as I just love them. They look pretty lush in patches along the sidewalk . They are invasive, but I don't have a problem yanking out the ones that go where they are not invited, There are not as many blooms now as they have in Spring, but the leaves are gigantic. I'll probably plant them in baskets out in my back yard this year. The dead tree has not been cut down yet, so I cant really plant anything permanent until it is, but nasturtiums strewn about would be fun now that we get more sun back there.

The weather has been glorious for February, so I am outside a lot and people love to stop and talk about my garden. I love to step outside from my work in the studio and look at the natural spots of color here and there. It heals me from the pressures of modern life.

 I dug up a strip alongside the house and I'll plant flowers - maybe some vining flowers  and more marigolds. In fact, I just ordered passion flower seeds and then didnt realize that they can take a year to germinate. Big sigh. I'll just have to go visit a nursery, I guess. I want some lush, trailing and climbing stuff. I want this place prettified. I did transplant my rootbound rose bushes - and they are THRIVING now that they can spread root, get some sun, and breathe! And for the shady front of my studio, I will be replacing the roses with ferns. This is a Mother Fern. I didnt even know I was getting a mother fern or what that is. I just knew that I wanted a fern and that it was love at first sight with this one. But now I'll have baby ferns to plant in the shady parts of the back yard! Its all coming together.

The Tweakers Stole My Tomatoes

They did. I literally walked out my front door in a rush to get to the Post Office one day and ran right into two meth heads walking out of my garden with a big bag of the last of my unripe tomatoes.  I was taken by surprise and a little intimidated by the one - who got into a car much nicer than mine, btw - but I did maneage to sternly scold them and told them to ask next time. Right. Thats gonna happen...........

I saw it coming and I was warned. They made off with my biggest pumpkin and the one tweaker was always making comments on the garden when he walked by. He was, in an off-handed way, telling me that he was about to steal from me. Thats how it often works. But in broad daylight. In front of people. Nobody lifted a finger to stop them or tell me.  I know the one guy and see him around a lot. I doubt that I will be able to not say something to him in the future. I called the cops and felt like an idiot for doing so. But when I went to the last police liason meeting, they did express the need to know every little thing that these guys were up to. Its just tomatoes, but they were my tomatoes. And I was so very proud of them. :(

I either have to find another place to grow tomatoes or I have to build a fence that I cant afford. Its always something, isnt it. But I grew some damned fine tomatoes and I can now take that knowledge elsewhere.


On that note, the plants were shutting down and I recently pulled them up, dug in a bit more aged chicken shit, tore down and built back up my bean poles, and planted peas and garlic. Lots of garlic. Im just going to plant things that have worked for me in the past and keep my fingers crossed........

The Summer Of My Deep Content

The link to my blog was broken this summer and I didnt have the patience to fix it. So I gardened and focused on other things instead. All that double digging, chicken, and rabbit manure, and burying fish under my tomato plants did its' magic for me. I got 5 huge tomato plants - two Early Girls that I bought at Whole Paycheck, and three that my sister had given me (I dont know where from) - with loads of the most delicious fruit that I can remember eating in a long time.

Not only did I eat lots of tomato sandwiches, but I made sauce, shared with my friends and neighbors and my freezer is full of tomatoes and green beans. The beans are still blossoming and growing and  producing. I might get enough to can a few jars before the plants shut down, but I can officially say that I am sick of green beans.

I grew another fairly large french pumpkin that someone stole. And I have a rogue spaghetti squash that I never planted - it just came up and gave me a huge baby.

I grew some delicata that didn't seem to have any bug issues. It could have used a bit more water and fertilizer, but I was happy with the yield. I will definitely be planting more of those next spring. The other squashes didn't do great this year. But they might have been planted too close together. I tried a new one - a lemon squash that was a disappointment. But I had lots of carrots, turnips, Kale, radishes, and the most amazing garlic Ive ever seen.

I saved some of that crop to plant after I pull up the beans. And I have lots of new Kentucky Wonder pole bean seeds for next year.

I planted a lot of onion starts but most of them disappeared. They didn't die - just disappeared. And I grew a great Habanero  bush with lots of peppers. 

So for the most part, despite the drought and using most of my grey water, I did pretty good.

I had a few heirloom tomatos in bins and pots that were moderately successful. Nothing to write home about. Things just do better in the ground for me. But Im still eating from them. Cherokee Purple for the most part. And there a few rogue cherrys that did pretty good and will produce til frost.

I tried growing some things in the backyard, but they still dont get enough sun hours out there.

That powdery mildew struck in full force while I was on vacation and I couldn't get to it in time.  And the cucumber beetles and stink bugs were insane. I just let them have their way this summer. But next year will be a different story.

After the beans and tomatoes are done, I'll put in my garlic and peas. Ive got two kinds of kale, some chard and bok choy. And more carrots.

I just dont know whats going to happen with this drought. I seriously cut back on water and let everything by the street die. I save probably 90 % of my grey water and use if for flushing the toilet and watering plants and garden. I never once let the hose run unattended for for very long. I didn't do much watering in the back yard. And still my landlord called to tell me I'm using too much water. WTF. I used way less than last year. So we'll see. Its about to be a disaster out there - no water - no crops - no food: not pretty.

A Friend Is Dying

 My old Elm tree in the backyard is dying. It has the blight that has killed so many elms in this country. It was sick and we knew it wasnt going to live forever. Some elms down the road had to be chopped down last year,  but this die-off happened suddenly. The leaves came out at the start of Spring as always, and then all of a sudden, it's leaves started turning brown and bit by bit, all the green disappeared and dropped to the ground.

 Ive kind of been in shock. When I moved here, the backyard was a huge selling point with its shady overgrown landscape. You couldn't really grow much underneath it, but  the tree offered a refuge from the summer heat. I have no windows - only doors and no insulation.............so the shade cooled off my house. Now its all bright and dry back there and my home and workshop is like an oven. I'll have to get a patio umbrella and some hefty fan action. I'm raking leaves in June, which feels kind of eerie.  The tree is going to have to be chopped down and Im going to be staring out at a hideous wall. Right now, I feel as if I might as well be living back in the city with its bare walls.

I guess on the upside, there will be enough sun to grow  things out there now. To everything it's season, but the whole vibe and beauty of the yard has been destroyed. A friend is dying Im so sad. I'll have to adapt, but it wont be easy.

Thinking of Cabbages

So now that there is actually hope for me and my little garden,  Im thinking of starting seeds soon to plant for Fall and Winter. I want to try cabbages and broccoli as soon as I put my current seedlings in the ground. I also want to look like the girl in this Barbier print - but I would need to lose a few pounds.

I dont know if I'll have time or room for all of these - but some are spoken for. I just start them indoors and they always come up. I put them outdoors instead of under my skylight this year because I have a new kitten. They seem to be doing just as well. Ive got several different kinds of peppers and tomatoes - with lots of onions.

The Garden Is In

I got a late start on putting in my garden this year. I was extremely busy again - business-wise - and all I had any time to do was to double dig and amend my soil. I shouldnt put that down, as I was doing all of that using a foot that was recovering from some hefty surgery last fall. But I did want to be further along.

HOWEVER, by not planting so early in April, like I did last year, I avoided the hungry bug invasion and cold wind from off of the straits. I have some holes in the first crop of bean seedlings, but they are all thriving at this point in time. I have only found two cucumber beetles so far - as opposed to a bazillion. And they were off in the field somewhere.

I planted pumpkins from last year's large pumpkin. I have been putting empty  plastic planters in the middle of the squash hills and over the roots of the tomatoes. This is enabling me to save water by using more greywater. But now that Ive dug and double dug, amended with compost, fresh soil, and aged chicken manure, the water is soaking into the ground a lot easier and the soil isnt caking as badly in the sun.

Im going to let the pumpkins and other squashes climb over the compost pile in the field.

So this is what Ive got planted thus far:
5 tomatoes
Zuchinni
Yellow Crookneck
A French Pumpkin
Dellacata Squash
Lemon Squash
Three kinds of cucumbers
Garlic that will be ready soon
Carrots
Radishes
Turnips
Beets
Kale
Chard
Various Lettuces
Cilantro
Chives
Dill
Bee Balm
Marigolds
Valerian
Calendula

Ive got more tomatoe seedlings that I started from seed, but will go in pots soon. Ive also got peppers and lots of onions.

We'll see how it goes. Im saving as much water as I can for this. Im saving my dish water, anything that I wash vegetables and my hands with.........Im not doing as much laundry as I was. Not taking as many showers.

Lavender

 I have no idea what type of lavender this plant is. I inherited her from the previous tenant. They had left it out in the shady backyard and it was drying out in it's pot, so I moved it out front by the Studio door and it got a bit more attention. It still wasn't happy, so I dragged it out to the side of the house in the garden. This is now one happy lavender bush! She gets plenty of sun and water - and I just cant help but stop and pinch off a leaf or two and get the benefits of her fragrance.

I cant say enough about the benefits of Lavender. Its so easy to use. I use in in a diffuser, I sleep with it under my pillow. I love it.

Its Officially A Drought.........Even Though We've Been In One - WTF

I think California is generally dry anyway except for an occasional La Nina or heavy snowfall in the mountains. Ive lived here most of my life and there is always some kind of problem with water. Its also true that as California's population continues to rise, the less water there is to go around. People talk about how much water agriculture takes up, but nobody wants to talk about how much water it takes to keep a lawn and golf course green. And all those swimming pools to fill on top of that! Now we have fracking to contend with..............and whatever your opinions and facts are about global warming , the world is in a heap o trouble. I take that back. The world will always be fine without us. WE are in a heap o  trouble. I really don't know what "normal" is because Ive seen dry and wet and in-between, but this year is gonna be bad. So Ive been doing my part to keep my water consumption down. More than usual - except for accidentally leaving the hose running a couple times last year. And by mistakenly allowing a neighbor to work in my garden when he had no respect for water use or my landlord's property. ( I kicked said neighbor to the curb very quickly) Ive been saving all my grey water and using it to flush the toilet and water my garden. This is still winter, so while it is fairly warm outside, the sun isn't drying out the soil quickly. My grey water is doing just fine. I'm finding that aside from some loads of laundry and dying  my hair on occasion, I don't use as much water as I thought I did. Which is good, but I don't know what this will mean for the garden when it gets hot. I do know that produce and everything affected by produce consumption is going to go sky-high in price!

I will have to do my best to keep on with the plan of double-digging and amending the soil. My sister with chickens brought me a bin of chicken poop last week and it is composting nicely in my tumbler bin! Its hot! Ive never had hot compost before! My plants are going to be soooo happy!  But this small amount is not enough. Ive started another pile out by my garden and I'll be collecting more manure and aging it until it can be used. I'll have to go buy a few bags of some organic chicken poop in the meantime. Its pretty cheap.
































 I'll be more selective about what and how much I plant. I'll mulch, and I'll do some kind of bucket irrigation system. I sent away for my 2014 seed catalogues and I drift to sleep dreaming about heirlooms and flowers for the bees.............no, I really do............

Fingers crossed that all of this will work. Of course it will mean more work, but I need the exercise, Hauling that water around is going to be great for upper arm strength!

So far, the backyard has been ok without a lot of water. I give it some now and then, but I keep it to a minimum. So far so good.

 And my peas are very happy. These are Tall Telephone. Flowers, but no peas yet. I'm not sure that I really care as I didn't realize that they are a shelling pea - and I just don't think I'll get enough to even bother. But I like looking at them!

Strategy For The New Year's Garden

The first step in the strategy for a better garden this year is to get more compost - from my compost bin and other sources - and to get a lot of aged chicken manure. And then I'm going to re-dig this garden up and get that clay soil all nice and crumbly. It was better by the end of summer because the top dressing of compost helped a bit, but it really still needed to be mixed into the dirt. I don't have time for all that double-digging, lasagna, and other soil treatments that I've read about. I'll dig as deep as I can and just mix in the good stuff. Ive done some work on this soil already and whatever else I do to it can only make the plants happier. I don't test the pH and all that. I suppose I should, but at this point, I know that this is bad soil - anything is going to improve it.

(I did see this cool LINK on how to run a test to see what kind of soil texture you have!)

I also know that I'm going to have to do something about the cold wind that whips right through this field from off the water on the other side of the sugar factory.  I'll put my cages and stakes in right away when I plant my tomatoes and then wrap some plastic around the cages. That should keep them warm until they can handle the cold. I'm also going to add fish heads, aspirin, crushed egg shells like Love Apple Farms writes about HERE. I don't know how anything grew in my garden at all last year. It must have been a miracle. Now when I look at it, all I see is bad soil.

I do love my garden though, so that probably helped. I really needed to do this. It has kept me sane.

I'll rotate my crops too. I'll be more mindful of spacing and companion planting.

The bugs are going to be a problem again - I can see that already. I have some peas and Calendulas that are still blooming. Ive found some spotted cucumber beetles on them already. We are having a dry, fairly warm winter, and these guys are not dying off. I'm pretty sure they helped kill my cucs with that mosaic virus. I plan to try growing some cucumber plants along side the house this summer. I'll put them in some Smart Pots ( or make my own) and cloche them until they take off. I hope this keeps the bugs at bay. I used to think those little green and black beetles  were cute like I used to think raccoons were cute. 

So the bottom line is that with some amending , better nutrient and bug fighting strategies, I'll get a lot more out of this project. I am bound and determined to make this work.

And I hope to install a drip irrigation system. They are not too costly. And since it looks like we are going into a major drought, I am already cutting back on my water consumption. I save the water from the shower in a big bucket while I wait for it to heat up. Its amazing how much water we waste.

These are some Golden Sweet peas that Ive got growing right now.  They taste ok. They are probably not going to get much higher than 4 feet. But I wanted to see how they would do. The flowers are fun to look at, if nothing else.