Kaffir Lime In Zone 9

I'll be heading to Southern California tomorrow morning to spend some time with my sister and her family, enjoy my nephew's first birthday party (the theme is Uno...cute!) and check out my sister's first big garden project. I'll ask her if I can take some pictures to share. She has a lot of interesting plants, trees and shrubs in her yard because the previous owner was really into horticulture.

She has the most amazing lime tree in her yard. I think we've narrowed it down to a Kaffir lime (Citrus hystrix)- the rind is pocked and a yellowish green in color. The flavor of it was familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it. I kept tasting it and still couldn't figure it out until I squeezed it in some water. Ta da! It tastes exactly like a green Skittle and smells even more like it. I brought some home and put them in my disposal - the oils are so aromatic it worked out great. Apparently the leaves are used in Thai cooking and the fruits have medicinal uses. I'll snag some of those leaves while I'm there and try them in a recipe of my own. I just zoomed around online and found that Citrus hystrix is a Zone 9 tropical! Maybe there is one for me in my future.

The plants in my apartment are at the mercy of Demeter for the next few days while I'm gone. I'll cross my fingers and hope that they don't get too dry and my cat Charlee doesn't get too interested in them.

It will be a beautiful weekend in Zone 9 but I'll be in Zone 22. The garden will have to wait until next week. This is fine because with all of the rain we've had in the past two days, the clay soil will need to dry out before we can amend it. I'm hoping that my solarizing sheets of plastic are helping this process.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Daphne

What's Your Zone?

Today I found a seedling with its roots up in the air and the leaves were under ground. That was interesting. I had to fix it but now I'm wondering what would have happened if I left it. Would it right itself? Oh well, that’s not the focus of my entry today.

I'd like to take a moment to talk about zones. There was a lunchtime discussion today and to my surprise only one person was familiar with climate zones. I thought that this was something that everyone knew but I think that it's my fault for making that assumption. It's a simple concept but very helpful in finding plants that will do well in your garden. In most cases a number is assigned to show what a particular plant will be hardy to - example, some tropical plants that prefer zone 24 may be hardy to zone 9. In general the lower the number the colder the zone is. However, zoning factors in a broad range of factors such as winter and summer temperatures, elevation, coastal influence, mountains, rain, aridity, humidity and length of growing season. So a plant that requires, zones 8, 9, 12-24 means that it grows mostly in warmer climates but it can accept the thermal belts of zone 8 and 9 (hardy to zone 8-9).

I can see how this might get confusing because I happen to live in Sunset zone 14 but my garden is in Sunset zone 9. This may seem like a big jump but coastal influences and terrain can really affect a growing area. I actually only live abut 20 miles away from my garden but it seems like oceans away based on the number. I acknowledge this confusion and try to simplify by only using one zone directory (there are others such as the USDA zones) and that is the Sunset Western Garden zone chart. If you don't have this book, I really recommend it (if you live in the West). It is so useful. I've read it like an actual book cover to cover more than once. You can imagine how that could be possible in plant identification classes. As I'm flipping through the pages now I've just discovered some old plant lists from class. Loropetalum, Myoporum, Callistemon, Pandorea, oh and Tamarix...these bring back great memories and I'm surprised I remember them. My point is, this book is great and if you love to work in the yard, you will use this bible over and over again. You may not find it as helpful for your vegetable garden but I think it will get you thinking about fundamentals of plant identification and plant needs - oh and of course it will be most helpful for your landscape plants. I just noticed that a new edition is out. I haven't seen it but I've loved all of the previous ones.

I would do a zone specific exercise but I don't know who would benefit from zone 9 analysis. So it would be interesting to know, what zone are you from?

If you are interested in finding your zone, check out the USDA Zone Finder and/or Sunset Climate Zone finder. These will probably be different numbers. As you know, I prefer the Sunset zones. 

Daphne

Butterflies and Dampness

Miracle granted. The tomatoes came up today. Now I'm getting ready to search for branches that will soon fall. A big storm is on it's way to California right now so I'm hoping in a few days I'll have plenty to choose from. I'm going to used the branches to build supports for cucumber vines and beens. I'm a little worried about taking branches from the park accross from my apartment - not sure if I could get into trouble for that. Afterall, I suppose it would be stealing potential mulch.

On a separate note, I read a great tip on how to easily but properly space small seeds. Take a length of toilet paper (organic would be best and not multi-ply), wet it and place the seeds onto it based on the spacing requirements. Fold the toilet paper to sandwich the seeds - you should now have a long thin "tape" of seeds that are perfectly spaced. Plant underground or at the surface as required. The seeds will germinate and grow through the paper.

It's official, I have blossoms on a squash plant. If this weather doesn't get better soon, it appears I will have a full blown garden in my apartment. These seedlings aren't waiting for me.

Today it was blue skys, flowers and butterflies. Tmorrow it will be wind, fallen branches and dampness. It makes me wonder where the butterflies go during a storm.

Daphne

Catching Up

Tomatoes have germinated! I hope they make it. These are my last chance because I've now run out of the precious heirloom seeds. I just planted them a few minutes ago and I'm hoping for a miracle tomorrow. But as for today, my apartment smells like fish emulsion. It's isn't so bad for me because I've gotten used to it but every time I come back home I have an eeewwwy reaction and I'm sure my guests secretly do too. However, I'm sure my cat Charlee doesn't mind. As I'm writing this she is going to town chewing in-between her toes so I'm sure the fish emulsion is a step up for her.

I haven't tried this fish emulsion business before but I remember my mom using it when I was a little girl. I stayed very far away. The smell is rather sickening and I'm the type that gags easily with gross smells. I'm hoping that it's worth it in this case because I read that this smelly brew is good for seedlings and that it should be administered before transplanting. I'm hope that transplant time comes soon because I have some crazy seedlings right now. Here are some pictures:

And then I have my new seeds that I hope come up quickly and catch up to these big guys:

I think it's pretty clear that I have my hands full. As of right now I think I'm looking like a nut. If you were to visit my apartment, you will see this craziness. I hope that I can transplant soon just so that I can reclaim a good portion of my apartment and maybe not gag when I walk in the door.

In this picture you can see some baggies and note cards on the table. I used the baggies to start my tomato seeds. Because I have so many varieties, I labeled each baggie with a number that matches the number I designated for each seed pouch. This is how I'm keeping track of them. I have numbered trays, numbered note cards and numbered seed pouches, and none of which would make sense to anyone but me. It's worked so far! I even have most of the numbers memorized so that I know what heirloom tomato corresponds with each number.

This was a low-key weekend as my parents were out of town so instead of going out to their house to work in the soil, I took the time this weekend to work on projects that I've neglected like my jewelry design and getting out on my bike. It was beautiful this weekend - the weather was perfect, the plants in the yards and boulevards are lush and green, the air is heavily perfumed with orange blossoms and seasonal flowers, lunch in outdoor cafes and there was even an opportunity to buy lemonade from two sweet little girls while on a leisurely walk. Today I felt like I was living in a different era, a more simple and pure time. It made me remember how much I love my city but it also made me think about my gardening goals and how just getting your hands in the soil can give you a new perspective.

I hope everyone is getting the opportunity to get outside in any shape or form and get a renewed perspective. I know that many start new goals in January but to me, the beginning of the resolution season is in the spring just as the plants start to wake up and show us their new shoots. I like to think that I too come out of dormancy and it's time for me to realize my goals for the year.

Daphne

Things are Starting to Realign

A few good things came out of yesterday. First things first, it was my adorable little nephew Matthew's first birthday. I didn't get to see him but I did get to sing to him on the phone. I'll get to celebrate with the little uno next weekend.

On the garden and bee front, things are much improving. I've noticed that some of my seeds that never sprouted in the "dead" tomato tray came up! I have three new seedlings...I swear it's when I just start to give up they surprise me. I also have what I call my two Jack and the Bean Stalk seedlings. They are less than two weeks old and they are probably a good 15 inches of bean stalk. They look pretty funny but I'm happy that they're happy.

Speaking of happy, the bees are doing so much better. We've installed a new type of top feeder and the bees seem pleased. It looks ugly and if they weren't doing so well with it, I think that I would veto it right away but I'll let it go for now.

A few days ago when things just weren't going very well I also lost my camera. I found it last night. I'll load up some pictures tonight. See things are getting better all the time. I need an astrologist or someone like that to tell me what on earth was going on for the past week.

The sun is shining, it's Friday, hallelujah.

Daphne

Quick Tomato News

As I mentioned before in a previous post that I...ehem...the sun killed some of my precious and very rare heirloom tomato seedlings. I am confirming that yes, over half of them are dead and they won't be making an encore appearance. Luckily I had a few seeds of each variety left so I decided to try the old first grader method of starting them in a damp paper towel. Here goes nothing! I'll cross my fingers and give a shout out to Demeter. I hope these babies germinate. Please, I need some good luck...things are just not going right at this point in my adventure.

This is random but I read part of a book called Beekeeping for All by Abbe Warre today and there was a section that all of us who value working in the outdoors will apprieciate. There were so many meaningful things in it but I've pasted a little of it here. This is something that I think everyone that is interested in this blog can relate to:

"For the human being is a composite being. The body needs exercise without which it atrophies. The mind needs exercising too, otherwise it deteriorates. Intellectuals deteriorate physically. Manual workers, behind their machines, suffer intellectual deterioration.

Working on the land is best suited to the needs of human beings. There, both mind and body play their part.
But society needs its thinkers, its office workers and its machine operatives. Clearly these people cannot run farms at the same time. But in their leisure time (they must have some of it) they can be gardeners and beekeepers and at the same time satisfy their human needs."

Daphne

You may think it's trivial but I'm in a tailspin!

I've been living in a busy bee nightmare. I should just expect that things are not going to go as expected. Building the screened bottom with inspection tray and the hive top feeder took WAY longer than I anticipated. It took the entire weekend. That meant letting the epoxy cure in the top feeder on Sunday night and going back out to the apiary on Monday after work to switch out the new screened bottom and feeder system. I wasn't very happy about that because it was so darned cold but I moved quickly. This time without a veil or gloves and still no stings. I'm starting to think your attitude has a lot to do with how aggressive they are towards you. So far they have been just as gentle to me as I am to them. After placing the new components we took peek...OMG!! We built the top feeder wrong. Argh! To make a long story short for those non-beekeeper readers, we build the slat in the center of the feeder the wrong way so that the slat went perpendicular to the frames. It is supposed to line up with the center frame. Panic mode central. We didn't have any options so we quickly built a riser for the feeder so they would have enough room to at least get into the thing. We left them but we were worried and anxious and were unable to do any more.


This morning I called my parents and asked for an update on the bees. The news was grave. There was only one bee in the feeder but that bee was kept company with a bazillion ants. To make matters worse, it was below 60 degrees and pouring rain. What to do? I spent the afternoon reading bee blogs and websites trying to figure out a solution. I got conflicting information because some of the sites said that ants are a huge problem and that bees will bail when ants join in on the fun. Other sites said that ants and bees live harmoniously together and bees benefit from some type of acid in ants. I wasn't sure what sites to believe but I'm going to try to get rid of the ants as best as I can without using pesticides. I read that cinnamon works.

After work today I had my first beekeepers association meeting. I'm so glad that I went. There were lots and lots of friendly and helpful people. The energy was great and I was glad to see a few respectful and well behaved children there.

Here I am at 11pm with a sink full of dishes, tons of plants that need to be transplanted, friends and family to call, books to read, a cat to be brushed and played with...and in a far off land I have bees that are being terrorized by ants. But I’m tired and have a long day tomorrow. I feel like my world is in a tailspin right now. Pictures will have to wait until next time. I know you will understand.

Daphne

Bees, Bees and Hopefully More Bees

With baited breath I buzzed over to my beehive. It was finally warm enough outside to open the hive and transfer the frames to their new and permanent home. I was terrified but of getting stung – I was scared that with this invasive inspection, I would find evidence of disease, pests or maybe an unproductive queen.

I went gloveless. I figured since this was my first time opening the hive, I might as well get stung to just get it over with. Because really, how many beekeepers are out there that haven’t been stung hundreds of times? I’m not a sicko or anything but I was curious about it but also worried about it a little.

I remember the last time I was stung by a bee. I was probably eight or so. I was in the back yard with my siblings playing on a Slip 'n Slide. Of course we were running around like maniacs and I’m sure my ribs were red and bruised from throwing myself on the ground in anticipation of a fast and cooling ride. After sliding to the end, I got up and started running back for another turn and POW! I stepped right on a bee. I saw the stinger in my heel gyrating back and fourth pushing more and more venom into my foot. I just sat down and whaled, waiting for my mom to save the day. I think it hurt pretty badly but I don’t know if it hurt just because I was a kid. And then I start thinking, I was a pretty tough kid and I know that things that didn’t faze me then would be a big deal to me now. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m a little confused on what to expect, hence the feelings of curiosity and fear.

When the cool but thick smoke of burning burlap entered the hive the sound went from a steady and quiet hum to a frenzy of buzzing. Bees came zooming out of the hive like warriors called to action. Other bees stayed inside and dove into cells of the comb head-first. I was told that the smoke makes bees eat their reserves. They think their house is being burnt down to the ground. I had my bee veil on of course and I’m glad that I did – I learned that they like to go straight for your face to defend their hive.

We had one super with all of the frames in it and the top super had their feeder in it. One catch was that the current supers weren’t ours so we had to move all of the frames to our new hive. After moving all of the frames over to the new supers, the plan was to move 2 of the eight frames up to an additional super and then add 4 more frames to that making a total of 6 frames in each super. After things calmed down (probably 2 minutes or so), we started removing frames from the old supers and placing them in the new ones. As we worked in a calm and fluid motion the bees flew around but not aggressively. I wasn’t sure what to expect in this case either so I was pleasantly surprised.

The frames were absolutely covered in bees and we worked diligently as not to squish any of them. Mission accomplished! The bees lined up out in front of the hive with their rears up in the air and fanning their wings. That was a great sign. When they do this, they are releasing pheromones into the air letting all of the other bees know where their “new” home is.

I’m excited to see them again tomorrow. We will be adding a new top feeder and screened bottom board. And this time I will remember to charge my camera. Pictures to come this weekend!

Daphne

Spring Killed My Babies!

Despair to the tenth degree. I have been nursing my precious heirloom tomato seeds to health since the day that I received them in the mail from their original home in Pennsylvania Amish country. When the envelope arrived, I literally gave it a hug. I planted my new seeds with care and affection, waited and waited. Gave up but still waited. Then I gave up for real. Then I came back to remove the dead seeds...or so I thought! I had sprouts!!!! I was so excited I can't even tell you. Ever since the day that I got my first two sprouts I've been taking what I like to call as "roll call." I've kept copious records of how many seedlings I had in each cell each day. Everyday there were more and it was something that I really looked forward to. It symbolized progress.


One night I heard my cat Charlee crackling around on something. When I saw that some of my delicate tomato seedlings were broken and dangling from their dismembered stem, I felt pure rage and Charlee knew it. I just had to walk away from her because as other owners of mischievous pets may feel from time to time, I didn't want to do something that I would regret. In the morning I reevaluated the sad situation and decided to leave the broken stems on their side and burry them under soil just leaving the leaves exposed. By the next day everything was back as it should have been.

The buried seedlings looked healthy and happy and then I was happy. It has been about two weeks of only good news on my daily roll calls. Until today when I came home from work.

Literally the sun was only out for about two hours today. Spring had sprung. Jasmines were in full bloom and fragrance clung to the air just as their tendrils clung and draped from fences. I smelled honeysuckle for the first time in a year. That is one of those special smells that instantly brings me back to my childhood, at my grandma's house, pure joy. We used to pick the flowers and then gingerly pull out the stamens drawing out the single drop of nectar to place on our tongues. That taste is amazing and the smell of the flowers brings it all back. It was a good day but then I was thrown back to reality. I found some seedlings lying down in their soil as if they were ready to be thrown into a grave. The leaves were wilted in some cases and in others it was even more dire, they were crisp.

What to do? I just want to give up. Start over? Or, I can just wait, wait, give up, wait, and then be pleasantly surprised. Naw, that doesn't happen more than once. Back to square one.

Think good thoughts,
 
Daphne

My Food Choices Have Me Guessing

Is it winter or spring? The sun made an appearance today but I don't know if I was convinced that it’s feeling like spring yet. However, I’ll take anything that I can get at this point. Everyone is craving the warmth, the freshness and rejuvenating qualities of being in the outdoors. While missing the sun, I crawled back into my winter ways and made cozy food as soon as I got home from work. Yesterday I made a batch of butternut squash soup and tonight I made a roasted chicken with braised cabbage. It's April 13th! Isn't there something wrong with this picture? Normally I would say yes, but on these past two chilled days these soul warming recipes felt so right. Enjoy the last harvests of these winter vegetables while you can.


Butternut Squash Soup with Labne

- 1 large butternut squash (about 6 cups)
- 2 ribs of celery
- 1/2 yellow onion (diced)
- 3-4 tbsp. olive oil
- 2-3 cups chicken stock (use vegetable to make this vegetarian)
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup cream
- 1/2 tsp. cumin
- 1/4 tsp. ginger
- 1/8 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
- dash of ground sage
- salt and pepper to taste

Peel at cut butternut squash into cubes. Some people bake the squash to make this process a little easier but I think that some of the flavor is lost by doing this because you end up cooking the squash twice. Do as you must though. Cook the cubed squash, celery and onion with olive oil in a stock pot or large heavy bottomed pot over medium heat. Cook until well caramelized and soft; the squash should have browned a little and the bottom of the pan will have browned bits that you can scrape up. This will take about 20-25 minutes. Add your stock and stir to make sure the bits are off the bottom. Add the milk and cream and seasonings. Taste and add salt and pepper. Turn the heat down to low and gently simmer for 30 minutes. Puree the soup and run through a fine sieve. Heat the soup back up to temperature and serve with a dollop of Labne (kefir cheese), sea salt and a fresh grinding of pepper.

Roasted Chicken with Braised Cabbage

When I roast a chicken it really depends on my mood as to how I handle the process. Sometimes I fill the cavity of the chicken chockfull of fresh tarragon and lemons and stuff butter and garlic cloves under the skin. Roasted chicken really doesn’t need all of the fuss so tonight after a long day at work I did a simple self-basting roast chicken. Just as delicious in all of it's simplicity. Enjoy this recipe to accompany your spring, summer, fall and winter vegetables. It is just as great with a nice fresh and crisp salad as well as a hardy vegetable casserole.

- Organic or farm-raised chicken
- Olive Oil
- 1 lemon
- salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Remove the giblets and neck from inside the chicken. Wash the chicken under cool running water and dry well. Meat will not brown or get a nice crisp if it's not dried. Pull the extra fat pads off of the inside of the neck (these will be right in the opening of the cavity). Run your hand just under the skin of the breasts to loosen the membrane and center connective tissue. Place the fat pads under the skin so that the fat melts as the chicken cooks. This makes basting unnecessary. Slit holes in the lemon or fork the peel several times and place it inside the chicken. Pull the wings up and under so that they are secure underneath the chicken. No need to truss. Drizzle some olive oil over the bird and generously sprinkle kosher salt and a nice grinding of pepper of the whole thing. Rub it in a little and pop the chicken in the oven. I used a broiler pan tonight but I've used roasting dishes or casserole dishes.

You should allow for 20-25 minutes per pound. My 5 pound chicken was finished cooking after 1 hour and 35 minutes. You will know it's ready when the temperature is 180 degrees, when the joint of the thigh is pierced the juices run clear and the thigh joint easily moves around in the socket. Don't overcook - dry chicken is just as useful as undercooked chicken...both are inedible.

Time the chicken cooking so that your cabbage will be ready when it is. Keep in mind that the chicken will need to rest for 10-15 minutes and this cabbage will take about 25 minutes.

Braised Cabbage

Now this is definitely a cozy dish. Save this one for a chilly evening.

-1 large head of cabbage (tough outer leaves removed)
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 carrot, peeled and diced
- 1 onion, peeled diced
- 2 celery ribs, diced
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- 2 garlic cloves, rough chop
- Salt and pepper

Cut the cabbage into half and then in quarters. Remove the core and then cut each quarter into thick strips. Season the cabbage with salt and pepper and set aside. In a heavy pan, heat oil and add the carrot, onion and celery. Cook until soft, about 8 minutes. Add the bay leaf, thyme, garlic and salt. Add the seasoned cabbage and combine with the other vegetables. Cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute. Now add about 1/2 cup of white wine and cook covered until the wine almost cooked completely out. This will take 7-9 minutes. Add more liquid, either 1/2 cup water or stock. Bring the liquid up to a boil and then turn it down to a simmer and cover. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt or pepper before serving if necessary.

I hope everyone is just as anxious to get out there and dig in the garden as I am. In the meantime, I'm inside cooking but I'll give that up in a heartbeat to be in the fresh air with soil under my nails and the sun pouring down on me like warm honey.

Daphne

Vermicomosting and Garden Planning

Yesterday I had the composting class in my community garden. As I already know the basics of composting, I was mostly attending the class to try to schmooze with the garden director and try to get my name further up the list. That didn't work. However, there was one portion of the class that I wasn't familiar with - Vermicomposting. There were two special guests from a company called Worm Fancy. They are semi-local business women that are spreading the word about reducing our compostable food waste through vermicomposting (worm composting). It was very interesting and seemed easy to implement. Unfortunately I do not have the space to do this in my studio but I may set up a bin out at my garden location.


If you have a few feet to spare, I would really recommend trying this type of composting. There is little work involved and you will not only be producing compost but you will also have new worms and worm casting and the leache (worm juices) which are all wonderful for your garden. Plus you'll be helping the environment by reducing your waste! The best worms for this project are Red Worms (Eisenia fetida). Apparently the worms you find in your soil aren't happy being confined to a box. For more information about this process, check out Worm Fancy's comprehensive website. You can purchase worms and worm bins on their site.

On a separate topic, I headed out to the garden after the class to check on the soil and bees. It was awfully cold so I couldn't open the hive. It must be at least 65 degrees in order to open the hive and not make life difficult for the bees. These hard working creatures have to keep their hive maintained at 93 degrees at all times so I really didn't want to kill eggs with the cold or make them work overtime trying to heat the hive back up.

The soil is drying out nicely under the plastic. If it doesn't rain this weekend then we should be able to till. I'm looking forward to doing that and lining out the beds within the 24' x 45' garden. I set up a garden plan and placement of the vegetables.

Tip to work on for the week! Sacramento Area Community Garden Coalition provided an All Season Planting Guide. I'll share the current planting recommendations. Sacramento and Yolo Gardeners you should be planting these things now (I'm not going to plant anything in the garden until May but I either have plants already growing or I'm starting seeds indoors):

Tomatoes (plants)
Beets (seeds)
Carrots (seeds)
Peppers (plants)
Eggplants (plants)
Corn (seeds) - I'll just sow these outside when I plant
Snap Beans (seeds)
Lima Beans (seeds)
Zucchini (seeds)
Cucumber (seeds)
Cantaloupe (seeds)
Watermelon (seeds)


If you would like a quick glossary on composting terminology, I found one at: OrganicGardening.com.

Daphne

What I've Done and Where It's Going

So this is a rundown of what you've missed and I wish I would have started this blog earlier because now I'm losing track of what happened when but I'll do my best. This is going to be a long one.
As I mentioned, I live in a studio apartment in a metropolitan area so gardening and beekeeping was just not an option for me. Being number 200 on the waiting list to get a plot in the local community garden wasn't going to cut it either. I'm lucky because I live on the top floor of my apartment building and have great skylights and I also have tons of natural light and two huge greenhouse windows. Yeah, that didn't work because the sun just blistered everything. I never knew that too much sun could be a problem but I'm guessing they got too hot and the soil dried out before I knew it. There is one other problem...my cat. Her name is Charlee (named after Charles Ingles from Little House on the Prairie). I just figured I should introduce her now because she is a slight issue for my seedlings.

Something had to give so I asked my parents if they would let me build a garden out on their property. They were enthused so I then asked if I could have bees too. Yes!! They were still on board. I told them that I bought 21 varieties of tomato seeds...they were not on board anymore. "Are you nuts?" Maybe.

I'll justify my insanity by saying that on the heirloom seed supplier's website there were probably at least 50 or more different varieties so I narrowed it down by less than half!!! They all sounded so delicious and fun I just couldn't help it. After I pushed the "order" button on $63 worth of tomato seeds I started biting my fingernails and wondering what I was going to do but we shall overcome! As of right now, I have 67 tomato seedlings...two days ago I had 29 and tomorrow I may have over 100.

I realize there is an issue of spacing to maintain the integrity of each variety and prevent cross-pollination. I believe they say at least 5-6 feet between plants. Does anyone know about this? Can I push this envelope a bit?

In regards to the seedlings, I was a bit worried. I totally flubbed on the 100 eggplant seeds that I sowed - I know this because only one came up! Yes, a solitary eggplant. I'm starting to wonder if it is actually just a weed seed that made it into the potting soil. I'm keeping it hydrated and it's growing at a VERY slow rate so I'll just have to exercise some patience. Since that disaster I switched over to a seed specific potting soil and I've had great success. The mixture I'm now using is the Jiffy brand Organic Seed Starting Jiffy-Mix and I've been pleased (I purchased mine at Home Depot). I learned quickly that you must pre-moisten this mix before you do anything otherwise when you pour your water into each well, the water just rolls off like water on a duck's back! I poured my mix into a huge mixing bowl and then added water and mixed it together with my hands until it was nice and damp but not soaking wet.

Another product I can recommend is a product from Lee Valley Tools. I love them, you must sign up for their catalog immediately. Great, great company to do business with. The particular item that I'm loving right now is their Self-Watering Seed Starter. It is amazing in so many ways: it waters from the bottom so this reduces your chances of dampening-off from a fungus, it lets you know with an indicator when you need to refill the reservoir with water, you can push the entire soil pod with seedling out from the bottom of each cell as not to disturb the tender roots, the containers are made of a good quality Styrofoam (I know oxymoron) so it insulates the seeds and seedlings, and the clear lid is a lot stronger than any other seed starter I've found. I know this because I have a volunteer willing to test this out for me, i.e. Charlee. I've had mine for at least 10 years and I've used them for 4 seasons and they still look great and perform just perfect.

I have some squash, lemon basil, salad bernet, melon, and pepper seedlings growing as well. I'm running out of safe seedling space in my apartment so I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm staring at a stack of seeds that I just bought last week that need to be planted. They may have to get the direct-sow treatment.

As for the direct-sowing...I'm not ready to do that. The garden plot has been tilled over once and then we covered it with clear plastic to start the solarizing process. I know it's not the optimum time but I was hoping it would benefit from at least a few weeks of solarizing. We laid the plastic probably 3 weeks ago. I'm going to remove some of it and see what we're working with. I'm not expecting to have all of the weeds and diseases killed but maybe I'll have less to deal with. If the soil has dried out a bit then we can till it again and work some organic amendments in and then recover. I'm not going to add any compost until the plastic is removed because I don't want to kill the worms in the compost.

Speaking of compost! I'm going to a composting class tomorrow at 8am at my local community garden so I better get to bed. It's going to be long day of composting, soil prep, adding more frames to the beehive and building supers (outsides of the bee boxes). I'm also going to measure the space that we've tilled and start working on a garden design. I just bought a book tonight called, "Starter Vegetable Gardens: 24 No-Fail Plans for Small Organic Gardens." It seems like it will be helpful and the author's last name is Pleasant. I like that.

Happy solarizing!

Daphne

Daphne 101

Hi everyone! I'm new to this and never thought I would be a blogger but life continues to be full of surprises. It is important to prepare the soil before sowing the seeds and harvesting the bounty so I'll follow that example in this blog by sharing a bit of my background, goals and upcomming topics. Hopefully we can all use this platform to learn, share ideas and reach success together.

I was raised in a rural area on the outskirts of Sacramento County. We had acreage, a fort with a seasonal pond full of all types of interesting creatures and wildlife. The pond and fort were at the very back of the property so my older sister and younger brother and I could live out our wild imaginations and make crazy recipes such as alfalfa pellet cakes and proceed with our harebrained ideas without much interference from our parents. I remember spending countless hours digging up soft grasses that grew naturally on one side of the field and carefully transplanting the tufts along the banks of the pond. We were trying to create a picnic area on the waters edge - needless to say, it didn't take. Green pastures surrounded my life and they were brimming with interesting native plants such as ground cherries and Western chamomile. Pigs, cows, horses, chickens, ducks, goats and dogs with their own unique personalities and egos meandered around the fields and yard.

Long after my sister and brother had tired of the fields I would continue to sit in them, and observe. I would literally stare at the ground and leaves and pull seed pods apart to inspect them. I would look at the way the plants were constructed and sway in the same way that they did as the breeze moved through their stems and leaves. I tasted everything. I clearly remember running into the house and telling my mom how terrible a particular weed tasted and then ask if it was poisonous. My poor mom would always say, "These are questions you should ask BEFORE you eat something strange!" I ate things straight out of the garden too. I gobbled down at least two handfuls of corriander seeds in one sitting. No wonder I now have a stomach made of steal.

My mom loved her garden and working out in the yard. This must have been passed down to me in my DNA. She would spend hours either tending the garden or planting something new. She is the queen of transplanting. One day a shrub would be on this side of the yard and the next it was on the other. I always had an interest in what she was doing out there and I probably annoyed her to no end with my endless questions about plants and soil and worms and bugs. What's good, what's bad, what's happy, what's dying, who's moving where, what are you getting next, what's the name of that, how can you tell, and why on earth are you doing that? These were just some of the questions, I'm sure.

I continued to have these questions and as a young adult I decided that I wanted to become a landscape architect. I studied plant identification and I still have binders and binders with thousands of actual clippings from plants that I carefully and painstakingly pressed and preserved along with notes on their behavior, needs, dislikes and pests. I took soil chemistry classes and irrigation classes, propagation classes and nurserymen classes. Then I hated it. I was just "planted" out and I couldn't bear the thought of doing this for the rest of my life. I would think, "What happened to my passion?!" These plants are just not special anymore or at least they weren't treated that way in class or by me anymore. It was all about keeping things alive and finding things that didn't need much attention. Everything that I found enchanting about these living things was stripped and I was commingling with people that just didn't get it. I had to get into something else school-wise so I did and that's a whole other story that has nothing to do with this blog so I'll just leave it out.

My days of not caring about plants were numbered and I've cared very much for a few years now. I missed the act of growing and nurturing plants and this just had to be the year that I made room for them in my life once again. Luckily I have and I'm thrilled to share my passion, triumphs and moments of despair with you. I'd love to hear yours as well!!

However, I've also thrown in a few curve balls- well, maybe two. Besides my garden I'm also making time to dive head first into something that I've always found fascinating, beekeeping. I currently have one colony - I've had them for about two weeks. I'll share more information about this another time. OK so here is the kicker, I live in a metropolitan area in an awesome studio apartment - but yes, it's a studio and I'm on the fifth floor. I'm sure that you can see my challenges so if I can make this work, I know you can! I'm going to share my seedling stories in my next post but I'm going to be up to my eyeballs in seedlings soon. As I type this I have 61 heirloom tomato seedlings, 18 various squash seedlings and one eggplant seedling.

My goals for this blog are to:
1) document my experience as a learning tool for my future use and yours;
2) provide a safe environment for sharing ideas and tips for the home gardener and beekeeper; and
3) I'm a foodie so I'll love to share recipes that I either come across or create with my homegrown vegetables.

Upcoming topics/posts:
My plans for the garden: what I've done and where it's going
Beekeeping - why, what, when, where and how!
Organic gardening: tips, tricks and worries

I hope this introduction expresses my passions and lets you know where I'm coming from. I know enough to get me into trouble but by no means am I an expert and I certainly hope that I never come across that way. If I'm doing something stupid, please let me know (gently if possible).

P.S. The name, "Calling Demeter" is to pay homage to my love of the ancient Greek culture and of course, I'll need all the help from Demeter (the goddess of the bountiful harvest) that I can get. : )

Happy planting!

Daphne