Raising Bounty

October fly by

glowingpearl — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 01:14:43 +0000

If September was a “slide through” then October was a “fly by,” bringing another amazingly productive season to a close of sorts, in spite of all the freakish weather in early summer; neither was it particularly warm. Spaghetti squash always brings up the rear with some added poundage, and the chanterai mini-canteloupes did exceptionally well at the end of the season.

The lettuce weathered our first frost well, which then reminded me that a hoop frame was needed pronto. So, this is our new addition to the CG, to help prolong the lettuce and greens production for awhile. It seems that here, it isn’t always the cold that rots the lettuce, but excess moisture on the leaves. We’ll see how it goes. I think there are some slugs hanging out in there.

new PVC hoop frame cover for the greens

We’ve got the final bounty tally for the season, and won’t be keeping track again until spring, even if we pull in hordes of lettuce.

October harvest tally:

Charentai melon: 13.5 pounds
Cucumbers: 3
Acorn squash: 5
Spaghetti squash: 19.5

Total: 53 pounds
Season Grand Total: 526 pounds!
About 100 pounds less than last year as it turns out. Oh well. Best tomato harvest yet!

Gratitude and blessings to all Beings who brought for this bounty! Time for devas and elementals to get some rest!

September slide through…

glowingpearl — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 04:37:29 +0000

Our beloved Bambie has become frustrated…or desperate… in not being able to eat more tomato vines, nor get into my yard; so she’s taken to eating zucchini leaves off the stalk!

Not what you'd think to be a deer's delight...coarse zucchini leaves...

Shifting weather all over….a lot of rain during the first half of the month, so all tomatoes were pulled in, as well as squash and melons. No rot wanted! So, it’s looking a bit bare as the season comes to a close. Lettuce, arugula, and leeks are doing great!

Once there was a jungle...

September harvest tally:

Basil: 18 (pounds)
Bush beans: 3.5
Charentai melon: 13.5
Acorn squash: 5
Corn: 18 (19 ears)
Cucumbers: 20.5
Delicata squash: 20.75
Margarita melon: 26.75
Scallions: 1
Summer squash: 10.5
Spaghetti squash: 19.5
Tomatoes: 131 !!!!

Total: 288 pounds….!!!
Moving the season total to 473 pounds!
We give thanks to all Beings who assisted in manifesting this bounty!
That tomato poundage is off 6 plants, and no wonder they were collapsing!

Keepin' the bounty dry...

The lurkers

glowingpearl — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:41:58 +0000

Lurkers of all sorts hidden in the CG….

Delicata squash

Stealth zucchini

Spaghetti squash bowling balls

Delicata and cucumber in the jungle

Margarita melons

Charentai mini-canteloupes

The season of transition is upon us…..Autumnal equinox…shorter days…the midway point of light and dark…in this region that is essentially the midway latitude of the Northern Hemisphere…halfway between the equator and the North Pole. The bounty continues….

Dazed and confused

glowingpearl — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 04:40:21 +0000

Hot, hot, hot…many plants are feeling stressed….what is with the high-heat wave this far into September?! Record-setting 100° on Sept. 10. Usually there is a day of moisture in there somewhere. Oh wait, that was what was happening in July, on the driest day of the year. But, seriously, we could do with a good cleansing rain…for just overnight or a day. Smoky skies have been around for almost a week, with un-contained wildfires in the Mt. Washington wilderness due east of us.

CG running rampant!

Mildew arrived in late August to pester the squash; not abated by the heat. A heavy load of acorn and delicata squash seems to be lurking under all the leaves. Tomatoes are very happy with the warm nights of the last week, ripening beautifully; fortuitous it is!

New veggies for fall crop

Breathing space exists in one area of the CG again, for some cauliflower, chard, arugula, and lettuce. A riot remains in the other half, with squash, cucumbers, and melons sprawling amongst the corn and tomatoes.

Clamoring for space

Bambie has earned her own private gate now….to look through. The portal is now closed every night. She isn’t bothering the veggies much, save one night of pruning beans when the netting wasn’t anchored, but she occasionally wants to sample inside the house yard.

Gate at the Portal

We also say goodbye to Jessie today, as she moves to her own new home, where she’ll have her own garden. Congrats, Jessie! And, thanks for being an enthusiastic part of this project. Keep checking in on the bounty this fall!

August harvest tally:

Basil: 9 (pounds)
Bush beans: 23.5
Beet roots: 29
Corn: 11 (9 ears)
Cucumbers: 12.5
Endive: 2
Lettuce: 7.25
Scallions: 2
Summer squash: 9.5
Swiss chard: 4.5
Tomatoes: 5

Total: 116.25 pounds
We give thanks to all Beings who assisted in manifesting this bounty!

Near riots in the CG

glowingpearl — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 04:48:04 +0000

Now that real summer has kicked in this week….YES!….
Lettuce is really starting to bolt; this is the longest we’ve had it last in good condition into summers. Impending harvest this next week, so the giant squash can can room to roam. A first perfect zucchini is waiting for an owner, with more little ones behind. (How fast will it become a bat?) One spaghetti squash plant is decommissioned, as it was crawling over the lavender, nasturtiums, and into the street. Squash, cukes, and melons starting to crawl everywhere.

July 31 jungle in progress

Once again it looks like we will have bush beans maturing at the same time, even if strategically sowed 3 weeks apart. At least they are a variety of greens, yellow, and purple. The pole beans growing on the corn stalks looked like they were going to bind any emerging ears, so they got pulled. We haven’t got this bean and corn cohabitation figured out yet; last year the beans grew too poorly in the shade of the corn, while this year they outgrew the corn.

Color riot in progress!

Passersby by want know how come we can grow tomatoes that are nearly 6 feet tall AND have tomatoes forming? I smile, shrug my shoulders….”We don’t try; it just magically happens!” (It’s the energy flowing in the CG vortex!) That said, it will be interesting to see how well fruit ripens “in the jungle.” Yet, we have our ways..

July bounty:

Beet roots: 11.25 pounds
Basil: 2.5
Lettuce blends: 13
Spinach: 7
Blueberries: 4.5

Month’s total: 39.25 pounds
Thanks to all Beings who assisted this bounty!

On the driest day of the year…..it rained…

glowingpearl — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 04:12:29 +0000

Yes….the garden is growing! In spite of very inconsistent spurts of summer! The almanacs show that on July 12, typically the driest day of the year (.001 inch of rain in the records) we received about 0.7 inches overnight, setting a record. Didn’t need to water for a few days!
Tomato jackets came off July 3rd….and they are now doing wonderfully; many blossoms and a few small fruit on one plant. A plethora of beets, spinach, and lettuce have been pulled, and the inconsistent warmth we have seen has allowed a prolonged lettuce season.

July 4: starting to kick in for biomass

A bright sunrise....tomatoes love it!"

Oodles of Chiogga beets (red and white interior; almost like radishes)

A most inconsistent corn stand emerged, and there was no way that the corn was knee-high on the 4th of July; but now there are some plants that are waist-high, while others are shin-high. Crows picked off some squash seedlings, so had to replant at a late date, and slugs knocked off a couple of melons. So, we feel behind in some aspects, and yet catching up very quickly during this last week. An overnight rain just left us 0.5 inches of rain, when we normally see none at this time of year; everything is different!

July 16: Lush greens

July 16: Growth in full swing!

June harvest tally:

Beet shoots: 3.25 pounds
Kale: 9
Lettuce: 14.25
Swiss chard: 4.75

Total: 30 pounds
And on we go….with gratitude to all Beings involved!

Red coats are back!

glowingpearl — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 18:46:23 +0000

Finally! The CG is officially planted! It seemed to be taking eons to find the right combination of time and weather (mainly) to put the bed into action. A week’s absence in May provided a view that the greens had indeed grown to thinning size. Our beloved deer took advantage of my roses and apple buds in the house yard while I was gone. Good thing two of us had a hunch he might show up, and we netted the greens before I left.
Memorial Day late afternoon and a subsequent evening accommodated all the corn, squash, melons, and beans sowing we desired, along with tomato transplants. Red jackets a must for the tomatoes, given our constantly-shifting weather.
Six pounds of overwintering kale and chard was harvested and cut so new could be seeded. Most went to the food bank.
A recent hot-spot weekend had us configuring grabbing and connecting the water hoses. Soaker hose layout coming up soon.

Red coats are back!

Anybody feeling time compression? I can’t keep up!

A spot of spring……

glowingpearl — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 05:08:57 +0000

If the chairs are out front, then it is officially the start of our CG! We were granted a brief reprieve on April 3rd, from any significant precipitation, and were able to spend time seeding various lettuces, spinach, scallions, and mesclun mix. I was contemplating doing a “sun dance” to invite the solar rays to part the weather system.

Chairs are out...the CG is in session!

As beautiful as the soil is, it is still so wet, that turning fertilizer in by shovel was a bit more than our bodies wanted to deal with. For now we scratched in some 6-4-2 organic blend in the planting area, and will side-dress more as the plants become bigger. Hopefully, before mid-May, we will dry out more, so the rest of the area can be turned before warm weather veggies are brought in.

Really, there are seeds in the ground.

We take the sun when we can get it! Many locals are feeling like it would be good to have much more….SUN…..please! In the last couple of weeks there have been a few 1-shot days scattered amongst the confusion of rain, drizzle, and hail. Even a little more snow in the foothills. Hail? That means it is spring.

Brightest color spots to herald spring...

Today there are a couple of rows of “green” showing, so our little seeds are responding to the call of father Sun and mother Earth. Hooray!

Still slumbering in the CG

glowingpearl — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 23:53:06 +0000

This is why it is so quiet around here….

If you want to turn soil right now, be my guest...

Mild January and a relatively mild February, except to have a pile of snow fall on February 24th. Not quite gardening weather yet, you think? Just as well, since my brains have been busy elsewhere, trying to get indoor projects taken care of before “gardening season” takes hold.

The CG Ladies had a lovely afternoon tea however, providing us a chance to review our garden favorites and less-favorites, the yay’s and nay’s. Sounds like we will skip lemon cucumbers and patty-pan summer squash for another type of cucumber (English type, maybe), and an extra delicata or acorn squash.

Just to remind us it is still winter...

The wood iris thought it was time to show off in mid-February

So we dream on a little longer.....

Solstice solitude

glowingpearl — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 04:40:42 +0000

Solstice greetings of increasing Light to everyone!

Whew! November and December have flown so fast! Some well-meaning friends are already asking if I have ideas for next season. No, not yet; it is really the season of rest right now, for both humans and plants, and soil.

Although I do think it is time to consider a cold frame of sorts to help weather some lettuce and spinach a bit longer. If California starts to have climate trends tending to flooding (or interspersed with droughts), produce prices will skyrocket. Fortunately our local producers are doing well, given their newer methods of winter gardening, but demand sometimes exceeds the supply in our locally-supplied markets.

The older kale plants are looking a little wobbly from wind and soaking rains a couple of weeks ago. Some of us will probably pick off one plant at a time and pull it out when used up. The crop planted in fall is surviving very well, as is the chard, but they are both small. Older chard seems to have survived the cold frosts of earlier December, but is in a “holding” pattern, not looking particularly anxious to grow! Who would, on the shortest day of the year?

But now, the life-stimulating energy of the sun starts to expand just a little more each day, though our coldest days have yet to come.

Happy holidays! I’m hoping that some magical elf will bless me with the gift of a hori-hori knife (Japanese multi-functional gardening tool, meaning did-dig).

Yule-tide resting time....Where's Aspen?