November's a good month in the Vegetable Garden

My garden is growing beautifully. I've harvested 2 zucchini squashes and my son hasn't been patient with the carrots, so we have pulled a few small (and delicious) purple, yellow and orange carrots too. Cabbage, brocolli and kale plants have needed extra care with removing caterpillars regularly, mostly about 1 month ago, it has become less of a problem now with only an occasional caterpillar. I have been fertilizing about every two weeks with Miracle Grow and the soil structure seems to be improving with the straw mulching and other organic materials decomposing. The weather has been perfect and I deep water every 2-3 days. The garden gets nearly all-day sun.

What's growing: green cabbage, purple cabbage, brocolli, leeks, kale, lettuce varieties, garlic, green onions, basil, cilantro, snap peas, cucumber (volunteer), petunias, marigolds, nasturtium, zucchini, green beans (stunted growth), purple, yellow and orange carrots.

Gardening Group Meeting #2

We held our second gardening group meeting this past Saturday!

You can view a summary of what we covered HERE.

We detailed several popular crops and you can view the information on planting, nutritional needs, pollinating and watering of tomatoes, green onions, garlic, lettuce, kale, spinach, herbs and zucchini HERE.

And in case you need our desert planting calendar again, you can view that HERE.

August & A New Gardening Group

vincas, sweet potato vines from Shirlee (garden group)

I decided it was time to gather some neighborhood gardeners together as I had in my last home, so we met together the first Saturday in August and discussed many topics about getting our Fall gardens started. We range from brand new gardeners to long-time gardeners, with much knowledge to share with each other. We will meet about once a month. I'm excited about it! 

This past week, I planted microgreen lettuce variety, lettuce, spinach, more carrots (my previous seeds didn't sprout), more corn around my pumpkin plants, cilantro and green beans and zucchini around the existing corn and at the base of a trellis.

Pumpkin plants, corn, cucumbers, basil, 2 tomato plants and bell pepper plant are still alive and well.

I also purchased steer manure ($1.50/bag at Walmart) and some organic soil bags ($3/bag) and mixed those into my existing soil to give them a boost in nitrogen and to improve overall soil texture and nutrients. I also purchased a bag of peat moss that I used to cover my newly planted seeds to help retain moisture.

Soil, manure and peat moss to improve my soil, purchased at Walmart

I take a quick photo with my phone when I plant seeds so I can refer back if I no longer have the seed packet later.

Many lettuce and spinach seeds in the tortoise-food garden and in our raised beds

Corn seeds I planted this week and my planting record

Corn

Papaya Tree (started volunteer in my compost)

Cucumber

Pumpkin plants

In the Edible Garden - May 2017

My four garden beds are mostly occupied with tomato plants, but I have one bed dedicated to cantaloupe melons and several other crops going on currently; trellised Armenian cucumbers, multi-colored carrots, bell pepper (no fruit yet), pole green beans, luffa squash, zucchini squash, green onions (always), basil (always) and garlic (I've harvested several small bulbs). Strawberries are still growing in a pot near my porch where they get morning sun only. 

Armenian Cucumber

Armenian cucumber

Cantaloupe melon (aka muskmelon)

Cantaloupe Melon (aka muskmelon)

Rosemary (finally growing well with partial shade)

Basil from seeding mother plant

The New Year's Freeze 2015

So late December and surrounding the start of 2015, we had a dip in temperatures. A few garden plants suffered mild freezing the night before the official "freeze warning", but I covered the tender plants during each night of the freeze (air temps below 35-ish). Here's how my garden fared:

Plants that were not damaged:
Lettuces
Cilantro
Sweet Peas
Carrots
Cabbage
Spinach
Green onions

Plants that were damaged but salvageable:
Tomato plants
Marigold flowers

Plants that were killed:
Zucchini
Younger tomato plants
Green Bean
Potato (an experimental planting)

I picked a decent harvest of zucchini before the plants dying off. Tomato plants had not provided many ripened tomatoes, but the cherry tomato had hundreds of green tomatoes. I used them as an experiment and my results were very interesting. The tomatoes continued to ripen off the bush and also a few that were on a low live stem on the bush after trimming away almost all of the plant. New growth is filling the bush in and I still have hope for the plant for this season.

All the fallen green tomatoes off the frozen cherry tomato plant Jan 9, 2015

The same cherry tomatoes several weeks later, many ripened and taste great. Jan 30, 2015

A fraction of a very abundant and enjoyed Sweet Pea harvest

I chose a few plump pods to try drying the peas for planting next year.

The cherry tomato plant after the freeze, Jan 17

The zucchini plants post freeze

The cherry tomato plant after I groomed away all the frozen leaves and branches. Just a glimmer of hope in it living. Jan 17.

Caught a Caterpillar

Lots of holes in the leaves of green bean and cabbage plants. I caught one little caterpillar mid-feast, but I didn't have it in me to kill him after his photo-shoot. So, he was placed in a leafy plant in my yard that grows wild and has plenty to spare. Hope he likes it there.

In the past weeks, I gave the green bean plants two tomato cages to help keep them up. I also had a friend give us some mulch/wood chips and I layered them around the larger plants to help keep in moisture.

Everything is growing so fast.

Green Bean plant eaten by caterpillar

Other green bean plant with first bean

The hungry one

Zucchini and cherry tomato

Compost Cantaloupe

Green Bean Flowers

Zucchini

Carrots

Lettuce Varieties

Cilantro

Snap Peas racing upward

Marigolds

Tiny green onions

Butterfly in flight from citrus tree to citrus tree

First day to see both tortoises out of their hole in a few months

Replanting Seeds, Flooding & Growth

In the past few weeks, very few of my planted seeds grew, maybe I let them dry out, I didn't think so. The cabbage and green beans grew fine.
So I re-planted lettuce, spinach, cilantro, green onion and peas. I planted my tomato transplants as well as a purchased cherry tomato plant. I also planted zucchini and carrots, but that same day the heavy rains came (Sept 27th) so I'm not sure how the seeds will handle the flooding. We have had record breaking rains this September and the citrus trees are happy, but the gardening has been tricky. Cats pooping in my garden has also caused me some frustration. With my garden area larger than previous years, I don't have netting large enough to cover it all and keep them out.
My compost has some lovely plants growing with yellow flowers.
Today I planted Marigold seeds in two sections of the garden. The estimated days until bloom 30-50 days. We'll see how they grow!
Our family is getting excited as our citrus grows larger, we know that citrus time is only a few months away!
Here's how our backyard is looking.

Bush Beans

Compost Pile

Grapefruit