Category: Our Garden

  • Confession: I sprayed for bugs tonight

    After 3+ years of growing vegetables in our backyard I used my very first pesticide tonight. As I write this my arms arms are still burning from some of the toxic chemicals that must have gotten on my arms. OK, so that’s most likely psychosomatic, but I’m feeling burning and tingling.

    We panicked

    Last year we had a very successful spring but later lost most of our summer tomatoes to mites. It was a royal bummer and it put us in a bit of a gardening slump.  Back in 2010 we had a bumper crop. Literally, every day I picked 1-2 pounds of yellow cherry tomatoes. We had so many that I even began sun drying them on the patio. And 2011 started off the same way but slowly the mites won the battle and we lost all of our plants right in the middle of high-yield time. We set a record with 42 red tomatoes in one day and within 3 weeks had zero.

    So today, when Kristen sent me a text that she had found some mites on a plant and that they had done a great deal of damage to a specific plant, my instant response was to say “Let’s go to Home Depot tonight and spray them before sunset.” 

    Two hours later and we were wandering up and down the fertilizer and pesticide aisle. While we regularly use a mixture of our own compost, commercially available organic fertilizer, and fish meal we buy from our local nursery… we’d never bought a pesticide for the garden.

    It was crazy how fast we went from recognizing the problem, to buying a chemical, to actually spraying our garden.

    And we didn’t buy a soft little nice pesticide. We bought a mean one with red labels, an included electric sprayer, and we were careful to make sure it was designed to kill hundreds of special of pests.

    It took about 10 minutes. (Per the directions I will repeat it every 3 days for at least 2 more treatments.) And I felt that type of guilt one feels when you have to have a pet put to sleep. There’s no joy in it but you know it’s the right thing.

    Bug management

    For some reason the other 2 growing seasons in San Diego don’t trip us up. We grow big, healthy stuff in January and October. It’s not that we don’t have bugs then but it is that we don’t see them destroy everything in sight. But for some reason bugs are worse in summer and maybe we just needed to take this stand?

    Well, that’s the guilt talking. At least I’ll get to wash down that guilt with some fresh tomatoes soon.

  • June Bloom!

    San Diego is known for it’s June Gloom season. The combination of a cool coastal current and northerly winds this time of year result in a strong morning fog that often lasts until late in the day. While most of the country soars into summertime temps, June is traditionally a chilly month here. It’s actually more consistently in the 70s in January than in June!

    But with all the gloom I was surprised to see lots of blooms in the garden!

    What’s blossoming in your garden? 

  • A growing addiction

    I’m almost ashamed to admit this, but my gardening bug is now starting to spread to other spaces around our house. So far, I’m slowly taking over our porch. It’s not much but it’s a start. We’ve had this little bench on our front porch that a couple friends gave us when we lived in Michigan. (It sat on their front porch for years, too!) And I’ve slowly added repotted house plants and succulents to it.

    My home office looks directly onto this porch. So it’s nice to look out of my window all day while I work and see things growing.

    But yesterday we decided to take it to a new level by adding three herbs. Basil, sage, and thyme. I think it’ll be nice to catch the occasional whiff of fresh herbs while I work, kind of like gardener aromatherapy.

    More plans for this space?

    I’m thinking of adding another bench or small planter against the far wall, too. It might be fun to add other succulents or even a few chili plants. This space gets is mostly shaded and I have it hooked up to the drip system that waters our front yard.

    It’s a fun small space experiment. And since the backyard is just about all I can manage, it has to be low maintenance.

    What else do you think would work well here? Orchids? 

  • Today’s harvest

    20110731-103727.jpg
    This is what we are getting daily in mid-July. Too bad we lost our beans earlier this summer.

  • How do you like them tomatoes?

    20110730-090236.jpg

    We are getting about 25-30 red tomatoes this size per week right now. This has Kristen making lots of bruchetta and salads and anything else with tomatoes. We love it!

  • Summer babies

    There’s nothing quite as fun as new baby plants and their fruit. Here are three plants from our garden right now.

    20110721-083017.jpg

    20110721-083031.jpg

    20110721-083051.jpg

  • Summer Garden Tour

  • First artichoke

    20110503-063909.jpg
    We are very excited to harvest our first 3 artichoke today.

    I have a feeling some delicious dip is in our future.

  • Garden Birds

    As much as we like gardening, we also love the ancillary things that a garden attracts. One of those things is our hummingbirds.

    There are three birds living in a nearby tree. The male sits on his perch most of the day, observing the garden.

    Besides watching them feed from my morning writing spot– I adore watching them swoop in when I turn the sprinklers on. As they fly in for a drink their lightning-wings spray water in a thousand directions.

    It makes me giggle every time. How awesome is nature?

    Pests?

    I’m sure some gardeners have birds who are pests. Maybe eating the crops or digging where they aren’t supposed to. I guess we avoid all of that by having a very prolific hunting cat. Lovely seems to keep all unwanted critters at bay.

  • Late Fall Planting

    The eggplant harvest continues

    Admittedly, we’ve fizzled in both our zeal for gardening and our zeal for blogging about our garden in the last couple of months. Life got incredibly busy and we kind of went on cruise control in the backyard.

    Truth be told there hasn’t been a lot to report. As early Fall rains came, the weeds grew fast and furious. Likewise, the bugs came and ate our bok choy and broccoli.

    Today, I spent a couple hours weeding and planting two types of lettuce. One, a red, is called “Incredible.” Who wouldn’t want to eat incredible lettuce? The other, a green, is just your standard bread and butter meat-n-potatoes lettuce.

    There are three surprises in the garden right now.

    1. Apparently jalapeño plants don’t die in San Diego. We have two very strong plants that have continued to grow and get stronger after their initial harvest. I was surprised to discover a plethora of little white flowers yesterday. The first batch was super hot… it’ll be interesting to see how batch two produces.
    2. The same is true with our eggplant. As I picked five good-sized, deep purple eggplants today I saw several more blossoms. I’m looking forward to more eggplant all winter long.
    3. The last surprise is that our cucumber plants have regenerated! I was just about to pull these baby plants out of the ground as weeds when I recognized the long tentacles and a distinctive yellow flower. I’ll give them a few weeks to see if they will mature.