All the Volunteers I Can Get

My new compost bin!


What a glorious weekend. The sun and breeze cooperated with me and I was able to accomplish a lot. Last week I was just about ready to throw in the towel and decide to go to the farmers’ market instead of doing my own garden. The hail and rain and treacherous wind seemed like it would never end.





Volunteer Tomato



I was surprised to see that half of my garden was already planted for me. I had over 20 volunteer tomatoes and probably about the same amount of tomatillos. The hairy vetch came in and did its job while I was missing in action. Sadly, the weeds did their job too.

 To start off the day in a positive fashion, I installed a new compost holding bin by upcycling pallets. Fortunately someone abandoned some in the garage of my office building and I was granted new ownership. All that you need are three pallets and six t-posts. I also used two screws for a little added support. Voila! I have a new bin and I think it’s pretty cool. My dad has been juicing so he had a lot of carrot pulp to contribute to the pile. By the end of the day I had a lot of green stuff so I added a bit of dry hay to the mix. I’m going to be better about this composting stuff this year.

Weeding was another story but I got it done. I saw one weed that I’ve never seen before and that is pretty amazing because as you know from my Demeter 101 post, I spent a lot of time out playing in the weeds. This weed was quite beautiful and reminded me of something you’d see near the water’s edge. If you can identify it, I’d love to know what it is.

Once the weeding was finished, I started planting my volunteers in appropriate places. The sole purpose and plan for the hairy vetch was for the tomatoes. Tomatoes love vetch – the hairy vetch adds nitrogen and acts as a mulch for the soil. You can review my previous post for more information on that. I simply ripped the vetch down to a workable length as the vetch is probably five feet tall if you straighten the vines out. Then I stomped them down flat and pulled back 20 circular areas to dig holes in. Once those where ready, I searched around in the garden for my volunteer tomato plants. I have no idea what varieties I’ll end up with but I’m up for a surprise. I’m going to start a few seeds and buy a couple hybrids as well in case all of the volunteers are cherry tomatoes.

   

Hairy Vetch before pulling and trampling.




20 newly planted tomatoes.

 

One little tomato volunteer in his new home.

 


Tomatillos

Tomatillos were transplanted as well. They look really sad in this picture but I’m hopeful they’ll perk up.
 

Three rows of potatoes and one row of sweet potatoes.

 The potatoes and a few sweet potatoes also found their new homes. I took a cue from where some volunteer potatoes were growing and made a few rows of my own.


Ladybugs love my fava beans!


The fava beans look great. They have a zillion aphids on them but there were plenty of ladybugs working on them. From this picture, I spy with my little eye 10 ladybugs and one fava bean!



Beets! They were horribly tough becuase the bolted but they make a nice picture.



Garlic with artichokes to the right.



Pretty little hairy vetch flower.



Blueberries

Freshly weeded area ready for my new seeds and starts.

I’m wondering how everyone else’s gardens are doing. It’s a little early (at least for me) as I’m a late planter but I know some folk are gung-ho in April.

 

Seed and starts planting will continue next weekend. I can’t wait!

Hope everyone is doing well! Welcome to spring!

Daphne 

Thankfully I'm Tall Enough

Life is a roller coaster that we’re all so lucky to have been allegorically tall enough to ride on. There are ups and downs but in the end we all are thrilled to be on it – or we should be. The ride stops and some have to get off and new ones come aboard. We can’t keep everyone on the ride forever.

This is the circle of life. The garden is a rapid representation of this ride – the seed, the fruit the dormancy or death. My personal roller coaster has kept me away from my garden although maybe it’s just what I needed. Since I’m direct sowing this year maybe I required something to distract me while I’ve waited for the sun to heat up the earth.

Mother’s day has come and gone and that is usually my cue to plant the summer garden. Spring is calling my name with the rich aroma of orange blossoms and honeysuckle. I made a browned butter syrup for some Meyer lemon ricotta fritters the other day and it was really the best thing in the world when I came home from a walk of smelling the piquant and fragrant scents of spring and then walk into the warm smell of browned butter at home. There’s really nothing better than that.


I watched a video from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply on setting up a more sophisticated irrigation system and it brought back memories of my old days in irrigation class. I love that stuff! I’ll be setting that up sometime this month.

A few weeks ago was the last time I was out at the garden. It’s been dismal since the bees have been gone. The garden was full of weeds again and the cover crops weren’t looking too pretty due to the major storms we had. And yes, it's storming again. I feel as though my city has been picked up and moved to Seattle.



But now I hear there are blueberries on my freshly planted shrubs and I’ve been told that hairy vetch is in full sprawl. The next step is to turn over the new soil that I’ve worked so hard to enrich and then I’m two weeks away from planting.

I took some pictures.

Beet Greens

Crimson Clover cover crop mixed with Winter Rye



Fava Beans



Early picked garlic is called green garlic and it is lovely to eat and cook with.



Lettuce - Can't remember which kind.



I had to add a picture of a ball of onion blossoms because they are one of my favorite things to add to a salad. Sweet, slight onion flavor and a fresh floral essence.



And I've slipped in one picture of the Amgen Tour of California international bicycle race that came through my town yesterday. Wow it was fun! What amazing athletes.

 

Hopefully I'll get my tilling done this Friday night...that's the plan!

Daphne