Harvesting

Two meals from the Broccoli Rabe, four from the peas. I took down the peas today, harvesting the last of them and throwing the stems on the compost heap. Damn slugs knocked off a crookneck squash yesterday. The sooner these plants get beyond the slugs the better.
Soon it will be time to plant the runner beans, but I'd like the corn and sunflowers to be taller before planting. Still, cant wait forever. Perhaps 2 sowings of the beans would be a good idea.

Lovely Rain

This rain we're having is a godsend - its coming about half an inch or more, about once a week, enough to slowly build up a nice soil moisture bank that should take us through the next few months. To help it along, I have been taking some water thats pouring out of the gutters and pouring it into the ground at the top end of the garden, where it will hopefully build up the water levels even more. Because the rain was so strong today, I took the opportunity to shake out some fertilizer so that it could soak in nicely and not burn the plants. Not too much though, I'm trying to keep as organic as possible. I'm not a purist though.

The photo shows my recycling plant - the compost piles. These are largely kitchen peelings, lawn trimmings, weeds and leaf sweepings. I contain these in wire mesh cylinders - easily and cheaply made with wire mesh from a hardware store. These take surprisingly long to build, as the stuff rots and compacts quickly. I turn the heaps every couple of weeks or so, to re-oxygenate the piles - more often when the grass clippings are fresh. It also helps to mix the ingredients.

The peas sown in early Feb are now also putting in their first pods, and are about 3-4 feet high. The broccoli rabe has finally taken off, and may be harvestable soon (the crop isnt huge, but I should get a meal or two out of it - it was really a test run to see how well it grows here in Almaden. Meanwhile, I have been engaging in plotting my next moves in this bed - I've planted out some jiffy-pot-grown sweetcorn (Kandy Korn hybrid, Ferry-Morse) and filled in a few holes with seed, so I should have a little-staggered crop. Corn has to be grown in blocks, as its wind-pollinated, and the bed is fairly narrow, so I've been planting through the peas, broccoli, as well as in the bare spots. The plan, when these are starting to take off - say a foot high - is to plant runner beans beside them. The beans can then climb the corn as they grow. Hopefully.

I have plans to do the same against the fence - this time with a mixture of sweetcorn and sunflowers.

So far, from the Xmas sowing of peas, I have had 3 meals - or rather, 2.5 (the first was rather thin). I have at least one more coming, and probably one after that. Then, its off to the compost with the rest - and the soil will have plenty of nitrogen added by the peas. I hope to get these peas finished shortly, so I can plant other stuff in that bed - either Zucchini, or maybe salads (its getting quite shady now that the tree above it has leafed.

San Jose Plant (Tomato and Peppers) sale

San Jose Master Gardeners plant sale will be taking place on Saturday April 10 at Kelley Park, 1650 Senter Road, San Jose 95112
A good place to source your heirlooms. I have my tomatoes out already, so I dont know if I'll be going; parking looks as if it will be tight also, and most of it is paid parking, which will add to the cost. I notice that that Palo Alto have a similar sale the next week, I think, but if this is a leftovers sale, it may not have the same selection (but parking should be easier in terms of locating free parking).

In the picture above, you can see one of my test ideas for this year - milk bottles buried in the ground, filled with holes. The idea is that this will facilitate getting water down near the roots, without necessarily splashing so much water around on top. As you can see, its already a handy place to leave the hose while you switch the tap on or off, instead of just throwing it on the lawn, wasting more water.

Also, you can see how the tomatoes are doing - some growth since they were planted, not much, and there are flowers developing on all of them.

Peas

Well, so much for 2 and a half feet. My peas, sown around Xmas, are now so high that I'm looking up at them, at least 7 feet high, and possibly higher if you stretched them out. They're still setting flowers, so I can look forward to more peas in weeks to come. For a short row (about 5 feet), I'm getting an OK yield, 3 portions so far, but I have to say that the flavor isnt what I remember; next year I'll try Hurst "Green Shaft", the variety I'm more accustomed to. Maybe I just undercooked them - I just gave them a couple of minutes on the boil. Next week I'll try cooking them a bit longer.

The big mistake I made with these peas was (a) not planting enough - I should have used the full 10-foot length of the bed, and (b) I should have planted the peas (taller) on the north side of the bed, not the south, as they are shading everything else.

The yellow and white flowers you can see at the left are some mesclun lettuce-like thing and rocket, respectively. Under the peas, you can see more salads and above those, some garlic (doing well). At the right, a Kohl Rabi from the supermarket is providing sprouting broccoli-type greens. To the left of the rocket, you cant really see, but there are 2 rows of carrots and I have planted out a green pepper and a habanero.

Zucchini ready for planting out shortly

After the slugs got my purchased Zucchini plants, I sowed some seeds in Jiffy plugs inside, where they sprouted rapidly. On the weekend, I transferred them to pots, where they are currently putting on their first true leaves. The corn and sunflowers I sowed about a week later are currently germinating, and I'm in the process of putting the corn in the bed next to the house wall at the moment. My plan is to shade my window and keep some of the summer heat out, and at the same time to use the corn as support for some runner beans I will sow later. The Sunflowers I'll put against the neighbours fence, again as support for more runner beans. At the base of both, I plan to plant other vegetables, either lettuce or swiss chard (I have transplants waiting to go of both), or the zucchini. This squash/corn/bean combo is an ancient Indian trick, as the beans fertilize the ground, the squash shades it, and the corn provides support for the beans.

Catnip sown

Sowed Catnip seeds today, low groundcover to provide some useful insect forage. A few of the broad bean seeds are emerging, but some appear to have rotted in the ground. We did have a lot of rain though...
The second crop of peas are growing like crazy lately, they're now between 6 inches and a foot high.

Mesclun growing nicely

As you can see from the picture above. We are starting to have some warm days now, although it can get quite cold suddenly in the afternoons. Still some hail around.
So far, none of the seed sown at the end of last month is up; nasturtium, borage, broad beans - so I dug up a spot and found one of the beans - its got the start of a root poking out of it, so I reburied it, and am hoping for the best. One worry though, I keep finding small white grubs in the soil that look like theyre just itching to get going eating the roots of my plants. Not quite sure what to do about that.

The slugs or something have continued on the broccoli and cress sown last month, grazing most of it now. I guess the iron isnt working as well as it might. I sprinkled some of last years barbecue ash around, and that seems to have slowed them a bit. Unfortunately, there is a limited supply.

Planted out some tomatoes, about 10 plants, a mixture of different types so I can compare them later. When they get growing, I'll take some cuttings and see if I can make more plants from those and how fast they bear fruit compared to the parents.

Some of the pots had 2 seedlings (of course, they were the ones I bought $9/5)
In order, left to right, the plants are:
Beefmaster, Beefmaster, Sweet100, Lemon Boy, Large Red Cherry, Large Red Cherry, Sunsugar red, Health kick, and Champion.
I planted these at the very front of the bed so as to catch as much sunlight as possible. Behind are the broad beans, and in the middle, I will plant the runner beans when the weather warms.