Seed Starts

Started 2 flats of seeds in wet seed starting mix today. Picture shown before I covered these seeds with a layer of dry seed starting mix (it wicks up the wetness from the bottom quickly, without disturbing seed placement).

One flat contains the hearty melon type plants. They will sprout over about a week and be ready to transplant into the raised bed by the end of March.

The second flat contains less hearty tomato type seeds. They will grow a bit slower and need to be transplanted into larger containers before being transplanted outside, probably in mid to late April.

Here is how the seeds are laid out in two small flats:











Roughly going left to right, the first flat contains:

1. Watermelon, Sugar Baby (1) from Bountiful Gardens 2008.
2. Honeydew, Orange Sorbet Hybrid (3) from Burpee 2008.
3. Crenshaw, Early hybrid (3) from Burpee 2009.
   
4. Butternut Squash, Butter boy hybrid (1) from Burpee 2006.
5. Cantaloupe, Honey Bun hybrid (1) from Burpee 2009.

Again, roughly going left to right, the second flat contains:

1. Eggplant, black beauty (2) from Burpee 2009.
2. Cherry Tomato, sugar snack hybrid (2) from Burpee 2009.
3. Tomato, Roma VF (2) from Burpee 2009.
4. Red Bell Pepper, Chinese Giant (2) from Burpee 2008.
5. Tomato, Brandywine (2) from Bountiful Gardens 2008.
   

Weeding

Trying to get ready for the planting season by pulling weeds. Sigh, this picture is just one of about 5 loads of weeds I pulled. Still plenty more.

On the positive side, it appears weeds have not flowered or gone to seed yet. Also, dirt was still soft from the rains. So the time is/was right (first weekend in March).

Also put copper spray on the nectarine tree last week. I think it's a little late though because there were flower buds on the tree already.

Lawn seed

We pulled up sod, roto-tilled, and raked-in Eco-Lawn seed on a 10x20ft strip behind our house around November 28. Here's a picture of our first watering.

We hope that this lawn will be weed resistant and require less water. If it looks good this Spring, maybe we'll use it in more places of our yard, along with native and drought resistant plants.

Guavas

We have a pineapple guava bush growing next to our fence. Thought it was just a hedge until these things started to fall off into the lawn around mid November.

This year, the individual guavas are pretty large and sweet. One was about the size of a lemon, but sweeter, of course.

Garden Wrap Up

Still growing some Arugula in the Earth Box. I expect I can continue through November, until we have frost at night. But the patio is warm in the mornings, and may be protected from frost, so I'll give it a try as far into the winter as possible.




Here is my last tomato plant. We ate all those red tomatoes in arugula salads during all last week (October 25-30). Some animal (raccoon?) helped finish off some of the tomatoes we didn't get to.





Today, I pulled up the tomato plant and chopped it up for the compost bin. I was so happy and excited to see actual compost in the bin! This is the first time I "turned" the compost. It is not a "hot" compost pile, but it is still compost never the less!

Fall Clean-Up

The small garden boxes did well this year. There is still asparagus growing in the back planter, but the front two are cleared out for next year.

I raked into the front two planter boxes some compost crop mix seed from Bountiful Gardens. It is a mix of wheat, vetch, rye and fava beans. It is supposed to fix nitrogen into the soil.

The large planter box did poorly. This is the second year in a row. I pulled up the plants and, again, there is a grub infestation. It seems the Japanese beetles will reproduce here every year. However, I cannot blame the grubs for the poor spring, because they were not there until August this year, because I manually picked them all out before doing the spring transplant.


I suspect the soil is diseased (blight?), because of the black spots on my tomato leaves. But just to make sure it is not lack of nutrition, I tested the soil today. The pH test reports the soil is still 6.5 (slightly acid). That is the same pH I measured in 2005, which was one of my best years.

My plan is to bring in new dirt and rebuild the planter box this spring. No sense in putting compost seed into this dirt.

Canning

Cooked down the last two to three weeks of ripe tomatoes to make 6 pints of marinara sauce. My own recipe simply adds onion, olive oil, garlic, red wine and spices to the tomato sauce. I like to reheat it with sliced mushrooms and use it over pasta with Parmesan cheese.