The Daily Garden
  • Home
  • Garden Word of the Day
  • Monthly Chores
  • DIY Chickens
  • Musings
  • Guest Gardeners

Day-to-day life in the garden

Looking Ahead

3/27/2020

1 Comment

 
Still sheltering in place and with no real idea of how long this will last, many gardeners are looking ahead to what they can grow, how they can care for what they have, and where they might find new places to grow edible plants. This gardener is no exception.
Three shelves held at an angle against a white wall support numerous small planter pots filled with soil. Wooden popsicle sticks indicate the contents of each container.
A south-facing wall and a pumpkin ladder make a great place to start seeds (Kate Russell)
In past years, spring was always a lighthearted look at what I might like to try my hand at in the coming summer months. This year, planning has taken on new meaning. I’m not a Prepper or a Doomsayer, but we’re not through this pandemic yet and some groceries might become harder to come by. I am finding myself wondering where I might add new edibles, which harvests can be canned or dried, and which Regulars are not worth the real estate. For me, tomatoes, beans, salad greens, cabbages, potatoes, squashes, melons, teas and herbs, and my fruit and nut trees will be getting the most attention and space. And protecting my crops has become more important, as well.


Beans

Even though I knew it was too early/cold/wet to start beans last week, I did it anyway. Most of the seeds have rotted in the ground or been tossed around by foraging birds. The few that germinated have been gnawed to nubs by sowbugs, with only a couple of exceptions. This week, I will be starting bean seeds again, but in small containers that I can protect and keep warmer. As they grow and temperatures rise, I will place them where I want them.
A pale green bean plant emerges next to a whitewashed wooden  trellis post. A wooden popsicle stick in the foreground identifies the plant as a red noodle bean.
A pale green red noodle bean plant emerges next to its trellis (Kate Russell)
In the meantime, I should probably make sowbug and earwig traps. The traps are super easy to make. You just take rolled up wet newspaper, held together with rubber bands, and place them in areas where sowbugs and earwigs have been a problem. Those pests will use the newspaper rolls as shelter. In the morning, just throw them in the trash. It won’t get them all, but it puts a dent in the pest population.


Compost

The compost was finally ready, so I spread it in most of my raised beds and around my fruit and nut trees. I know the compost improves conditions for the sowbugs that seem to be causing so many problems already, so I followed the compost with a light sprinkling of slug bait.


Corn

For the third time, I am going to try growing corn. The first year I did it, not a single seed survived the birds and squirrels. The second time I tried, I actually got a few measly, scrawny looking ears. Unfortunately, it was a traditional Indian blue corn variety that was probably great for grinding into cornmeal, but it was practically inedible. This year, I am planting two sweet corn varieties in the same raised bed and I have fenced the bed in, to protect against the normal marauders. If everything goes as planned, I should have a decent harvest for this year’s 4th of July picnic. [Fingers crossed]
Red wooden fence background, raised planting bed with a chicken wire cage built over top, red geraniums on the right and  white picket fence on the left.
Chicken wire sides and netting on top should keep squirrels and birds out of this corn patch (Kate Russell)
Perennials

The rhubarb is coming in, as well, but you can see damage from sowbugs and slugs already. These reliable perennials have been coming in for 7 or 8 years now. ​
Small rhubarb plat growing in bed of wood chips and some straw. The leaves show circular feeding holes commonly caused by sowbugs, slugs, and earwigs.
Young rhubarb leaves show signs of feeding damage by slugs, sowbugs, and earwigs (Kate Russell)
My giant container of purple sweet potatoes has also begun showing signs of life. I love the deep purple color of the new growth, pushing its way through its winter bed of straw. By mid summer, this planter will be a lush, draping plant with attractive green leaves. All you have to do is burrow your hand into the soil and fish around for a couple of purple sweet potatoes for supper. I think I have been growing this vine for 5 or 6 years now.
New purple sweet potato growth emerging from bed of straw. Stems and leaves are reddish-purple.
New spring growth of containerized purple sweet potatoes (Kate Russell)
Like legumes, sweet potatoes can fix atmospheric nitrogen, but they still need to be fed other nutrients, so it is time for me to top dress my sweet potato container with some of that aged compost. I might need to add a little bit of acidifier. I’ll have to check the pH first. It needs adjusting every once in a while, even in containers, because our water supply is very alkaline and sweet potatoes prefer acidic soil.


Salad greens

At a time when I have no desire to go to a store (or anywhere else), I am so glad to have a garden at home! Our salads are abundant and diverse, with red leaf lettuce, radicchio, baby beet greens, butter leaf lettuce, kale, arugula, chicory, spinach, and curly endive free for the picking. They are all coming up nicely in raised beds and containers. Having let the endive and lettuces go to seed in previous years, I am also finding these plants growing on their own, wherever it happens to suit them. I should probably plant more this week.
A variety of fresh salad greens are spread out on a cutting board. Going clockwise, starting in the upper left: red leaf lettuce, radicchio leaves, baby beet leaves, curly endive, chicory, arugula, kale, and butterleaf lettuce.
Salad greens are easy to grow (Kate Russell)
Speaking of planting more, I spent yesterday afternoon filling flats with potting soil and seeds, enjoying the sunshine and the promise of future harvests. I ended up planting peas, sugarloaf chicory, more beets, arugula, Swiss chard, and some sunflowers. I also transplanted several cabbages and some early cucumbers. I think I'll start some tomatoes and eggplants this weekend. And those beans.


I gave the Barbary doves a reason to ignore me and my dogs by tying a nesting basket in the corner of the pergola where they have been hanging out. They still fly away when I walk by, but I keep seeing their lovely gray heads peeking out over the rim of the basket. I love the way they sound!


All this new growth and bird courtship reminds me that everything will continue. Life goes on. Hopefully, we will get through this quarantine with a greater respect for getting by with less stuff, staying home more with family and friends, and recognizing that we are all in this together. Globally.
1 Comment

Hunkering Down

3/20/2020

0 Comments

 
Wow. What a surreal time it is.


Today is the first full day of spring, but I just learned that day and night are not actually equal on the equinox, that the sun we see each sunset has already dropped below the horizon. The more I learn, the less I know…


The rain has come and we are grateful, but the streets are often empty. The sky is cleaner than it has been in decades. Neighbors I have never seen in the 8 years I've lived here are out walking and chatting (from a distance). No stores. No errands. A friend texts and asks if I have any eggs available. I am happy I can tell her I do.
Picture
Chickens make good use of a skinny side yard (Kate Russell)
Suddenly, my hens and my garden have taken on greater meaning. Being older and immunocompromised, going to a store is too risky. My husband is willing, but we both know he might just as easily bring COVID-19 in with the groceries.


​Luckily, I was very poor when I was young. I learned the importance of shopping wisely, buying storable things on sale, and always making sure you had beans, rice, lentils, flour, sugar, and canned vegetables on hand. We are, for the time being, self-sufficient in San Jose.



None of us know how long this will last. A month, two months, a year, forever. We simply do not know. My guess is that we will have this under control before summer. In case I am wrong, I am shifting my garden design to be more in line with a survival garden than just a fun thing to do.
Picture
Artichokes are sturdy, productive perennials (Kate Russell)
But gardening is fun and that’s where a goodness equal to the food I harvest comes in. Gardening in these uncertain times provides me with a grounding, a centering, a wider perspective. Summer and autumn will come. The trees will produce sweet juicy nectarines, crisp apples, and delicious almonds. I will plant seeds, pull weeds, and repair a patch of netting. I will clean and sharpen my garden tools, toss my compost pile around, craft the shape of ornamental and edible trees and shrubs, and collect eggs.
Picture
A freshly tossed compost pile steams in the cool, early morning air (Kate Russell)
I will, as I always do, can tomatoes and green beans, and make marmalade, fig jam, and nectarine preserves, regardless of whether or not it’s safe to go or be anywhere else. The plants don’t know or care about COVID-19. Either do the bees and other pollinators.
Picture
Clusters of fuzzy, immature almonds are a common sight in spring (Kate Russell)
It is spring and the cycle of life is continuing as it always has out in the garden. The artichokes have started to come in. My almond tree is covered with baby almonds. The lettuces, chicories, kale, and chard are gearing up for heavy production. The compost pile is cooking itself into an excellent top dressing for my raised beds. A pair of Barbary doves are considering building a nest under my pergola. Everything is going to be alright.
Picture
A pair of Barbary ringneck doves survey the yard from on top of a raised garden bed (Kate Russell)
Stay home. Be well.

If you have even the tiniest space that gets a few hours of sunlight, plant a seed. Watch it grow. Care for it. You’ll both be better off.
0 Comments

Saving Daylight

3/13/2020

1 Comment

 
Daylight saving time messes me up. I don’t like it and I’m not even on a clock. Each time it changes, it feels as though the world is off kilter for a couple of weeks. The plants and chickens don’t seem to notice, so I should probably just follow their lead, and leading they are!
Small pear tree with whitewashed trunk and covered with white blossoms. Circular red scalloped brick surround the trunk and a piece of rusting yard art in the form of a red heart and a silver treble clef are next to the tree. A concrete birdbath and lawn can be seen in the background along with two orange trees.
Young pear tree in bloom (Kate Russell)
Close-up of a cluster of white, five-petaled flowers with several white anthers with dark tips in the center of each flower. Leaves can also be seen.
Close-up of pear blossoms (Kate Russell)
The young hens are laying blue eggs every day and even one of my older girls has been giving me lovely brown eggs. Things are blooming everywhere I look. The nectarine and pear trees are covered with lovely blossoms and the honey bees are all over them. ​
Despite the concerns of several visitors, bees and other pollinators seem to have no problem getting through the tree cage netting. Of course, that also means codling moths can get through, as well. But the birds can’t and the rats and squirrels haven’t yet tried. I guess we have to pick our battles, eh?


​My 
apple and fig trees are just about at budbreak and there are even some tiny figs starting to form! Did you know that the only way a fig can form is if a little wasp gets trapped inside? The fruit of a fig is actually a cluster of flowers that form on the inside. How weird is that?
Close-up of fig stem with unfurled leaflets and marble-sized new fruits on a blurred background.
Fig leaflets and new fruit (Kate Russell)
Anyway, the almond tree is in full leaf and our daily salads have been full of delicious variety with sugarloaf chicory, radicchio, Swiss chard, beet and kale leaves, and red leaf lettuce, along with baby purple broccoli shoots. We have even gotten our first taste of this year’s purple asparagus. [Can you tell we like purple food around here? Wait until it’s time to harvest the purple sweet potatoes!]
Single thick stalk of purple asparagus emerging from wood chip mulch.
Purple asparagus (Kate Russell)

The compost pile is coming along nicely. Following the USDA’s guidelines for safely using manure in compost, I am checking the temperature every day and flipping the pile most days. If you look closely at the image below, you can see that the center line of the pile, which has had its top removed, is nearly white, while the rest is yellowish-brown. That white is made up of fungal filaments that are decomposing the bigger bits into smaller molecules that can be used by plants as food. The steam that comes out in the morning when I flip the pile is a pretty impressive sign that chemistry is actively taking place in my simple pile of chicken bedding and yard waste!
Overhead view of compost pile with the top layer removed to show white fungal filaments speeding decomposition.
Compost pile actively decomposing (Kate Russell)

A couple of weeks ago, I posted concerns I had for my California poppies. I have been diligently removing stems that show signs of fungal disease and have been brutally thinning plants to provide better airflow and it seems to be helping.
Thick greenery and bright orange California poppy flowers peppered with some large rocks.
California poppies in bloom (Kate Russell)

Temperatures have been so high lately that a renegade tomato seedling emerged in my front yard. It must have been dropped there last year by a bird. I wonder which variety it is! I decided to follow the rouge tomato's lead and started a bunch of different bean seeds. Hopefully, the soil is warm enough. This year I am growing red noodle beans, wax beans, stringless beans, purple pole beans, lima beans, red swan bush beans, and a few others. I guess I should call this my bean year. I figure beans are easy to store dried and I can do some canning, as well.
Young tomato seedling growing out of wood chip mulch.
Tomato seedling (Kate Russell)
My biggest pest this week seems to be sowbugs. I decided to give this little Gerbera daisy a manicure because it was looking chewed upon and congested. What I discovered was that it was thoroughly infested with sowbugs! Check out this little bugger, tucked comfortably into a new leaf, munching away to its hearts’ content.
Clustered greenery of Gerbera daisy plant.
Gerbera daisy (Kate Russell)
Close-up of Gerbera daisy leaves with center leaf rolled up and  filled with a sowbug.
Sowbug feeding on Gerbera daisy leaf (Kate Russell)
Needless to say, I cut out most of the damaged leaves, pulled the mulch away from the whole thing and thinned out the center a fair bit. Let’s see if I can get more blossoms and less bugs.


​
I hope you are all able to spend some time in your garden this weekend. What’s keeping you busiest or bringing a smile to your face out there?
1 Comment

Marching Towards Spring

3/6/2020

2 Comments

 
Spring is getting closer by the day and my fruit trees are in full bloom.
Small tree with trunk and branches whitewashed and covered with bright pink blossoms. A pale yellow sun face with rays in the foreground and trees and shrubs in the background.
Abundant pink nectarine blossoms indicate a good harvest this summer (Kate Russell)

Raising chickens creates a lot of really good compost, but it only works if you have enough green material to mix in with all that dirty straw. This week, I collected all the straw from my chicken run and used it to create a new compost pile. Then, I took all the bedding from the coop, moved it to the chicken run (for my next batch of compost), and gave them fresh straw in the coop. They don’t seem to care, but it makes me happy!


Then I took lawn mowings, fava bean trimmings, and some other green materials to mix into the pile. I mixed it all together, watering each layer as I went, to give those helpful microbes everything they needed to get the job done. It must be working because the compost pile heated up to 154°F yesterday morning and there had even been patches of frost on the lawn! Yay microbes!
Pile of straw bedding on cement patio in the foreground. Blue plastic trash can used as a rain barrel and a metal covered trash can used to store chicken feed, various gardening tools and planting containers in the background.
This new compost pile needs more green materials (Kate Russell)

Bird battles

The netted panels I put on my raised bed have worked wonders at keeping birds away from seeds and seedlings. ​
With lawn on the left, and a sidewalk and some low-growing plants on the right, the main image is a 25' long, 3' wide, and 2-1/2' tall raised bed made with weathered redwood boards with new pine wood frames covered in netting used to protect the seeds and seedlings.
Netted panels between the post of my raised beds keep birds, rats, and squirrels out (Kate Russell)
​There have been many battles over the birdhouses that I mounted on my tree cages, however. The original holes were the right size for indigenous bluebirds, finches, and wrens, but a Nuttall’s woodpecker kept making the openings larger, so English sparrows claimed all four boxes.
Sparrows are loud and aggressive toward the native birds, so I installed shower rod holders onto two of the openings to block the sparrows and now two Nuttall’s woodpeckers have claimed the other two boxes. I’m still waiting to see if the smaller native songbirds will have a go at the other two boxes. Occasionally a male sparrow will try and commandeer one of the woodpecker’s boxes, but the woodpeckers are quick to reclaim their territory.
Homemade rustic birdhouse mounted on tree cage pole has shower rod holder attached over the opening to keep out larger birds.
A shower rod holder keeps sparrows out of birdhouse (Kate Russell)
It’s feeding time!

Since my soil tests indicate I already have too much of everything besides iron, all my compost will be used to top dress the raised beds, once it has been properly aged, making the manure safe. This will add nutrients, shade the soil, and increase soil organic matter. The actual soil on my property got nothing but nitrogen and iron, since that’s all it needs. I gave my roses and fruit and nut trees their spring feedings of urea, an excellent source of nitrogen.


​
Lawn leanings

I’ve given up on removing lawn grasses with a spreading habit. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to be that picky. I’ll just have to keep it mowed as short as possible during the cooler months and remove only the most obnoxious specimens.


​
Weed report

Hairy bittercress has begun to appear, so I am diligently removing them every time I see them. You know what they say, “One year of seeds, seven years of weeds.” Last year was my hairy bittercress weed year and I was not as diligent as I should have been. Bermuda buttercup is trying to invade, as well. I actually like the flowers, but I know how invasive these plants can become, so I hoe them down every time they come under the fence.
Close-up of green hairy bittercress, a weed with rosette growth, rounded leaves, and purplish flowering stems supporting tiny white flowers growing in mixed mulch, dead leaves, and grass blades.
Hairy bittercress (Rasbak) CC BY-SA 3.0

What weeds cause you the most grief in your garden? How do you deal with them?


​Let us know in the Comments!
2 Comments

    Author

    Kate Russell, writer, gardener, and so much more.

    Archives

    August 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Garden Word of the Day
  • Monthly Chores
  • DIY Chickens
  • Musings
  • Guest Gardeners