something coming soon.
When I can figure out how to get a list of the other posts in this category here, it will be. For now, just some pictures. =)
flickr stream.
Gardening Update
I’m working on the “Unnamed project” with most of my cooking and writing energy at the moment, but I wanted to write a gardening snapshot with how things are going. Let’s review the scenarios.
Garden Space One : The Front Yard
The front yard consists of a U-shaped raised bed, about 17ft long on each side, with a 2ft base. The bed is about 15” wide. It gets about 4 hours of afternoon sun right now, but also gets the winds off of the ocean at that same time. We’re about 250-300 yards from the water, and there is a lot of salt in that wind. This is also the bed I am worst about watering ( trying to be honest with myself here. )
The Italian Parsley, Curled Leaf Parsley, and Rosemary are flourishing. The Tarragon is undergoing rebirth, and the thyme is hanging in there. The Chards are surviving, but not thriving, and most of the brassicas bolted rather quickly. The beds do have thriving Mustards, and thriving volunteer Nasturtiums and Tomatoes. The Key Lime tree is quite happy, covered in blooms.
It has been relatively disease-free, but under constant siege from snails. I do get lots of Parsley from out there, but all in all not a successful bed at the moment.
Garden Space Two : The Front Door Side
This space consists of a 12” wide bed along our front walk and some pots along the house. This area is up to about 4 hours of morning light for low plants, and a solid 6-7 hours for taller plants. I’m pretty good with watering this side, but it does suffer a little bit from “out of sight, out of mind” since I don’t always go out that door.
Currently there are some happy Chards, a Habanero ( a perennial, who knew? ), and a beautiful climbing Nasturtium in the bed. These are all doing well. The rest of the bed is currently cleared, awaiting some worm castings and planting.
In the pots I’ve got happy carrots, lettuce, and Citrus. The greens I’ve tried did not get enough light early on to make solid foundations, and are all very leggy. They are improving though. The herbs are doing ok, except the Lovage and the Majoram which completely gave up due to lack of sun.
In the winter disease and pests have been a non-issue.
Garden Space Three : The Patio
This is the tiny patio off of our “big” room. It gets some morning light, at most 4 hours or so for plants on the ground. It has some happy Mizuna, happy mints, and now my hanging Tomato bag ( to be described in another post. ) There are also a bunch of beans planted in places to get them more light. Of course there are all of my bamboos and orchids and other ornamental plants that can thrive in lower light. This space could be hopping in the summer when it starts getting full sun.
Garden Space Four : The Roof
The roof of the garage. All various pots and tubs, with my experiments. This gets full sun, wind that isn’t quite as bed as the front yard due to building blockage, and a very attentive watering. It’s my “zen” space so I like to go up and check on things.
The Successes: Radishes do great, as do Lettuces, Tuscan Kale, Cilantro, Spinach, and Nappa Cabbage. My Rustic Arugula is coming in nicely, and the Chinese Kale is growing well too. The other shocker is “Early Wonder” Beets. These things are living La Vida Loca up there. They have grown almost as quickly as Radishes, and don’t mind the shallower soil.
The Failures: Rapini ( aka Broccoli Raab ). Bolts well before it has developed much of anything. The Chard is also not doing well in the containers. Very slow growth; nothing harvestable.
Other Notes: Don’t use terra cotta on the roof. Dries out really quickly. Galvanized Steel tubs work great, as do plastic containers. One of my ideas is to use one of those big folding top plastic tubs from Home Depot ( $6, roughly 2x3ft and about 18 inches deep ) but I haven’t tried it yet.
posted to In the Garden, at 09:37 AM. permalink
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