Sabine

Communal Garden Bed Progress

SabineJune 30, 2024Leave a Reply

It has been about a month since we started planting the new communal garden bed outside of our community garden. The area was cleared in early May, the Southwest Corridor Park crew built the garden bed border, and we spread compost. Planting for this season is now pretty much completed. We mulched the left side of the bed (native perennials) and the blueberry bush (very accessible on the very right of the bed close to the path) with bark mulch and will now mulch the rest of the bed with hay. We fertilized once and will fertilize a second time in the next few days. The plants are coming along nicely, even though we had to relinquish some plants (mainly kale, but also Zinnias, marigolds and other flowers) to the resident rabbits.

*Shadier left side of the bed planted with mainly native perennials (New York aster, goldenrod, coreopsis, bluestar) but also dahlias, calendula, marigold, annual asters and creeping thyme*.

Right side of the bed, more accessible for people as it is close to the walking path. Planted with a blueberry bush, lavender, sage and Black-eyed Susans as well as annuals: tomatoes, chard, squash, basil, hyssop, marigold and many dahlia, zinnias and daylilies.

Red Currants

SabineJune 28, 2024Leave a Reply

The red currants are ready, so I harvested around 4 cups this morning. Cleaned them (which despite using the speedy fork method seemed to take forever) and froze 3 cups in a Ziploc bag to be turned into red currant crumb bars later. None of my kids are in town at the moment, so I will make the crumb bars later this summer. I will enjoy the remaining currants macerated over yogurt or ice cream, or eat them fresh.

*… and the stems are ready for the compost*

There are still tons of currants waiting to be harvested. I will harvest and freeze more in the next few days.

Midsummer Plot

SabineJune 22, 2024Leave a Reply

*Left side of the plot: calendula, kale, Swiss chard, leeks, winter squash, tomatoes, basil, flowers*

Today, I spent three hours weeding my plot. Way overdue. I kind of had neglected my plot a bit in the past few weeks as I was more focused on the communal bed outside of the garden. It was a cool (70F) and overcast day, a welcome break between the heatwave that ended yesterday and the upper 80s predicted for the next coming days. Perfect weeding weather. Things are coming along nicely with the hot weather and now with a few days of showers and thunderstorms. I had fertilized the tomatoes with banana peel water last week, and they seem to have doubled in height since.

*Right side of the plot: garlic, beets, zucchini, Thai basil, cucumber, cucamelon, rhubarb, flowers*

*Swiss chard, still fenced in together with the kale to fend off the rabbits*

*The holy vegetable garden trifecta: tomatoes, basil, marigold*

First Day of Summer

SabineJune 20, 2024Leave a Reply

June Harvests

SabineJune 20, 2024Leave a Reply

Earlier this week I harvested my garlic scapes and turned them into garlic scape pesto. I (loosely) used this recipe, but omitted the cheese as I plan to also use the pesto on fish or for other purposes where cheese might not work. I am loving the sunflower seeds in the pesto. They made it super creamy and tasty. As always, I froze the pesto in ice cube trays and transferred the frozen cubes into Ziploc bags for storage.

I also had several harvests of rhubarb, all of which were turned into strawberry-rhubarb compote to go over vanilla ice cream. The rhubarb plant is still young, so I did not want to over-harvest, but I got quite a good amount of stalks.

This is the first year that I did not get to harvest a single pea. I was very successful in protecting the peas from the rabbits by fencing them in, but they sadly were no match for the birds. I ripped out all plants this week. I will need to think about what I want to plant there now. Beans? Beets or carrots? More greens?

Sowing, Staking and First Harvests

SabineMay 31, 2024Leave a Reply

This morning, I sowed more flowers in my flower patch (Zinnias Queen Lime Blush and Queen Lime Red, and Cosmos Rubinato and Sensation mix) plus nasturtium (all over the plot) as well as a row of Golden beets. I also staked all my eleven tomato plants. I noticed that one (Black Prince) had a broken stem. It looked like it was cut in half. I will replace it with a new Black Prince seedling that I still have on my back porch. Luckily I had started two seedlings for each variety, and all germinated. A few days ago, I harvested a few of my overwintered leeks (which I roasted for dinner last night together with carrots, Brussels sprouts and potatoes and served with a bright Chimichurri) and some rhubarb (which I turned into a strawberry rhubarb compote and enjoyed over vanilla ice cream). I need to harvest the remaining leeks soon to prevent them from flowering.

Planting the Outside Bed

SabineMay 27, 2024Leave a Reply

*From this (weeding and removing shrub roots from the ground) …*

Yesterday, my daughter and I spent two hours planting the mixed communal flower and vegetable bed outside our community garden. The Park took out some old overgrown diseased shrubs three weeks ago, built a cobble stone border and added a layer of compost. Now it was (is) up to us to fill the bed and take care of it. Our vision is to create a bed for the community that is both beautiful and useful, so we are planning a combination of flowers, herbs, vegetables and fruit.

Towards the left, where it only gets morning sun, we planted native perennials (New York Aster, Sweet Goldenrod, Lance-Leaved Coreopsis, Eastern Bluestar), and creeping thyme. In the center, we added Swiss chard, planted squash against the fence and sowed sunflowers directly behind the shed.

In the right section, close to the border, within reach for passers-by are small-fruiting and cherry tomatoes and a blueberry bush. Plus Black-Eyed Susan, marigold, lavender and annual asters, as well as daylilies against the fence.

There is still a lot of space for other plants, and the bed will be filled over the next couple of weeks with dahlias, other flowers, strawberries (hopefully) and more squash and other vegetables and herbs.

*View from the side showing the space that still remains for more plants*

Planting My Plot

SabineMay 27, 2024Leave a Reply

Yesterday, I finally had time to plant my plot, after I planted the new flower bed outside our community garden. I put in calendula, kale, Swiss chard, leeks, two each Delicata and Butternut squash, tomatoes (11 plants total, which is way more than I need but, as always, I could not control myself), Italian basil, pinwheel marigolds, one cucamelon, three Tokiwa cucumbers (none of my pickling cucumbers germinated), Thai basil and zucchini as well as dahlia tubers and Zinnia seedlings in the back towards the fence. I also rabbit-proofed the kale and chard with chicken wire and came back this morning to rabbit-proof the flower seedlings in the back. Not taking chances with my dahlias and Zinnias.

All that is left for now is to sow some flower seeds, beets and perhaps some slow-bolt cilantro. And stake the tomatoes, of course. But I still have space for more seedlings. Hmm …

*Planting tally for the day: 6.5 hours of planting.162 plants (some for the communal bed, some for my own plot)*

Front Porch Preparation

SabineMay 18, 2024Leave a Reply

Today, I finally transplanted the asparagus. It was very root-bound and definitely ready for a larger pot. I planted it in three large grow bags and sowed Zinnias (small mixed, and Giants of California mix) and cosmos (Rubinato and Sensation mix). I also planted one Dahlia tuber each (Top Mix Purple) into two medium pots and surrounded those with Nasturtium (Alaska mixed). Those five containers will go on my front porch, which I plan to revive this year. I put them on plant caddies with casters for easy moving and to prevent the floor boards from being water-logged.

*Nicely germinated a few days later (May 27)*

Mid-May Back Porch

SabineMay 14, 2024Leave a Reply

*African daisy, mint, ginger (from the supermarket, I am very excited about this experiment) and lavender*

Nice and sunny and warm today. I took an afternoon break to transplant some Salanova lettuce (4 tiny heads) from their peat cells into their own bigger pot. I planted the Thai pepper (from Neighborhood Farm because my seedlings strangely never set true leaves) with the radishes, and two basil cells (5 to 6 stems each) plus leaf lettuce mix in the large pot with the flat parsley. I also planted two Topmix dwarf dahlias (one purple, one salmon) in the pot with the fading tulips and sowed small mixed Zinnias and Alaska nasturtium in the same pot.