Category: Spring

Communal Garden Bed Progress

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Zinnias and daylilies

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.

The blueberries are starting to ripen
There will be lots of tomatoes
Daylily border at the fence
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.
Calendula (pot marigold)

June Harvests

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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.

Last leeks plus rhubarb

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.

Peas 🙁

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?

Planting the Outside Bed

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

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.

Left section

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.

Right section

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

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Almost fully planted plot

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.

Same plot, different angle

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 …

Pea flower
Siberian iris

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

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Container asparagus

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

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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.

“Little Beauty” tulips on April 28
Current herb situation: parsley, cilantro, rosemary, chives and thyme.
Radishes, spinach and Thai pepper
Salad mix, transplanted from the tiniest seedlings on April 19th
Hardening off tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, Thai basil and flowers (night temperatures are now consistently above 50F). The spikes are to deter the birds from digging in the soil 🙂
Hardening off basil, Swiss chard, kale, marigolds, Zinnias; and for the community garden in the cardboard tray to the right: native perennials from City Natives (New York Aster, Goldenrod, Coreopsis, Black-Eyed Susan, Bluestar) plus fat-spike lavender and thyme from Neighborhood Farm

Spring Preparation

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I spent three hours this Friday afternoon weeding the plot and spreading manure before replacing the hay. A lot of work, but I am very happy with the result. The peas have been growing well under the fleece tunnel, and since I saw a happy and very fat rabbit hopping around our garden this afternoon, I am glad I decided to protect the pea seedlings. Time to put a trellis up soon. The garlic is big, and the rhubarb and the strawberries are also doing well. Spring.

Re-Potting Zinnias and Kale

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Today, I repotted the Zinnias I started on April 19, and the kale. I had sown a handful of Zinnia seeds (three different varieties, Queen Lime Red, Queen Lime Blush, and Giants of California) into three different pots and today just isolated them into separate cells.

Zinnias before …
… and after
Most of my seedlings. Still to come: cucumbers and squash.

Re-Potting

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Today, I re-potted my tomatoes and the Swiss chard. I have 16 tomato plants total (two each of eight different varieties) and eight cells of rainbow chard, two seedlings each. In other news, my supermarket ginger in the blue-green pot (in the back of the picture) is finally waking up. You can see the big long shoot. And there is another one. I am sooo excited! The Zinnias I sowed three days ago are starting to sprout. And the sun is shining. Spring!

Yesterday, I cleaned my back porch, rearranged furniture and planted some herbs (parsley, chives and cilantro) and flowers (osteospermum and violas) to get the porch ready for spring. The intermediate state before full-time summer use.

Viola “Tiger Eye”