Ponder More Planting

3/27/2009 – On Friday evening I did some more planting in the part of the garden that is sort of shaped like the state of Florida. One cabbage at the tip with rows of carrots spreading north followed by plantings of kale, collards, ruby red beets and romaine lettuce. I also inter planted a Persian herb that tastes kind of like water crest between the potato plants and near the squash.

Spacing things out in a more visually appealing manner so that it looks landscaped rather than strait rows seems to take more space than I had originally thought. I have a feeling that next year’s landscape garden is already going to be better as I start to see how things come together. One editable beauty that I am certain that will be a recurring favorite is chard, Swiss and rainbow. The deep red, vibrant orange, bright pink and stunning yellow stems contrasted with dark (and mouth watering) green are a must for my flower beds from now on.

White House Lawn Becomes a Garden

Here is one change in Washington that gardeners everywhere will like, Michelle Obama has decided to plant a garden in the South lawn of the White House.

Here is a link to the White House Blog:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/20/Spring-Gardening/

Here is a link to the White House garden planting layout

http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/garden_layout.pdf

Here is a link to a CNN story with more details, including the interesting fact that the Obama family is the first family to plant a garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden during World War II.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/20/white.house.garden/?iref=mpstoryview

I also liked the part about the swing set being added for the Obama girls. Sign me up for a federally funded swing set and gardener too! I don't think there will be any forthcoming pictures of the president pulling weeds on Saturdays.

Ponder Planting Log

One of the purposes of my blog is to log when and where things are planted so that next year I can look back and learn from my mistakes.

3/7/2009 – I planted most of the potatoes in the front yard. The potatoes came from starts that I bought with the hope that they would do better and grow bigger than if I had used potatoes from the store. They’re planted in the softest part of the dirt in the front yard that has much more of the mulch from last year mixed in. The soil is tilled about 20 inches there because I mounded it up so there should be plenty of air space for the potatoes to grow. Potatoes can be planted here (Sunwest zone 14 or 15, we’re right on the border) in February so I’m a little late getting them planted.

3/7/2009 – I also planted four broccoli spots and two cabbage spots in the flower bed in front of the potatoes right by the sidewalk. Both of these are from seeds so we’ll se how fast they sprout.

3/12/2009 – I transplanted the two tomatoes that some how survived the kids dumping the seeds I started in the dining room window in January. We’ll see how they do. I have never grown tomatoes from seed before and had them produce much. I think both of them are beefsteak. I plan on planting two or four more tomato plants. After loosing most of last year’s crop to my son throwing green tomatoes over the fence at the back neighbor’s dogs, I want this year’s tomato crop to be huge. They’ll be growing in the front yard so my son will need to find something else to throw at the dogs in the back yard.

3/13/2009 - In the front yard in the section between the neighbor's pine and the pedestrian sign I planted our soon to be okra fence. I am looking forward to having those tall plants separate the neighbors kids and balls from my veggies. I also planted climbing peas, two I had started indoors, the rest from seeds. They will be climbing on tree branches from the tree I cut down in the back yard. I planted dill, beets, cabbage, oregano, radishes, two spots of lavender, patipan squash and early yellow squash.

As of today, 3/21/2009 the radishes are already out. My broccoli and cabbage from 3/7 are sprouting. The apricot tree is in full bloom and the cherry tree in the back yard is just starting. This is the second year for both trees so I don’t know if there will be much fruit. I can say one thing for sure, the cherry blossoms smell like a delicious blend of cherries and spring time.

2/28/2009 Ponder Sprinklers

Confession. I wrote this post about what I did on Saturday 2/28 but was waiting to load the pictures I took of the sprinkler system when I did it. Lesson learned, I will not wait for pictures to post. Here is what I wrote about that day:

This Friday afternoon and Saturday (2/27-2/28/2009) I worked on the front yard. My biggest accomplishment was the sprinklers. There were two stations of sprinklers. One of them I repaired and the other one was so bad and because of how I plan to have flower beds I completely replaced it. I also decided to add a third station for all of the flower beds. This meant running the pipe under the sidewalk and if you have never done this before the trick is to use ¾ inch pipe and put it on the end of your hose. No attachment needed. You might get a little wet but the hole will be done in minutes.

After all the digging for the trenches I looked at the line coming from the house and saw there was a splice in the pipe exactly where I planned to add the new station. Seems I’m not the first person to think of using a separate station for the water beds. When I went to cut at the splice and install the new valve I realized I was one T short for what I wanted to do so I called it quits on that for this week. I also spread 12 bags of steer manure on the yard and roto tilled it in so it was a day well spent.

One of my neighbors came over and I told him about how I learned how to do sprinkler systems working alongside my dad for a few summers when I was a teenager. After he left I remembered the most memorable sprinkler system at Cove Fort for Byron Hinckley, brother of Gordon B. Hinckley, 15th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Anyone traveling through the I-70 to I-15 junction or past it should make the time to stop and see this old fort and hear the story of the early settlers who lived and worked there. More information about Cove Fort is available here. So there you have it, I worked on the sprinkleres and 'pondered' about Cove Fort.

Some other pictures of plants today

A look at a flower bed

Some beautiful swiss chard

Spring Raindrops
I dug up the sprinkler system last week

And many fruitless mulberry roots

This morning I woke up bright and early to the pitter patter of rain. I stayed in bed. I woke up later to more rain. I stayed in bed. I woke up again to pitter patter patter patter. Happy Washington's Birthday (observed) everyone, my plan for fixing the sprinkler system and getting some seeds in the ground was rained out. Everything is mud, so I decided I could take some pictures of the mud and dream about what will happen in the front yard with a few more sunny days.

To start off, here is a picture of grandma in the front yard when we bought the house. A week or so after we moved in the next door neighbor was mowing his lawn. When he was done I asked him if I could borrow his lawn mower to mow the weeds in the yard. He enthusiastically let me use his mower. When I was done he told me he had lived there eight years and no one had done a thing to the yard in that time. As you can see we started with not a blank slate but a slate that needed clearing.

Items removed: the weeks, the dead grass, the out of control bush at the corner of the house and the biggest weed of all, the fruitless mulberry tree that had sent its roots all over the yard including into the sewer.

This is the front yard today. The fruitless mulberry tree has been replaced with a dwarf lemon tree, an avocado tree I started from a seed, and an apricot tree.

I'm looking forward to how it takes shape. I'm planning circular planting beds around each of the trees with row plantings along the borders. I'm looking forward to the fun.

My Third Garden

This is the third year I have planted a garden. In 2007 I planted a garden at my in-law’s and had some success with squash, suzhini and green beans. I from my failures I learned about plant placement and soil amending with compost and manure.

In 2008 I planted my second garden in the back yard of the house we moved into in Concord, CA at the end of 2007. I selected the sunniest spot in the back yard, tilled, amended and waited anxiously for my harvest. I did and enjoyed a fairly good harvest of my newest favorite squash, patipan squash. The other squash did not do good compared to my 2007 garden and I only had a few tomatoes while my in-laws had enough for 10 families. I planted some cucumbers in the back yard and had too many growing so I transplanted them into the front yard and there they did extremely well. I also planted some pumpkin seeds in the front yard on a whim out of a pumpkin that was left over from my in-law’s garden the year before. I didn’t think year old pumpkin seeds left in the pumpkin would grow but grow they did and we had many pumpkins in the front yard, the biggest of which was 47.5 pounds. Lesson learned from garden #2, things grow better in the sunnier front yard.

Now, 2009, I begin my third garden and it will be in the front yard. I researched landscape gardening and plan on creating something that is appealing to the eye and the summer vegetable loving palate. I hope to document my experience here. I’ve thought about what to call this blog and as I’ve been thinking about it I realize that I am generally doing some sort of thinking while gardening, either about what I’m doing or other things that have gone on.

From www.merriam-webster.com, “Ponder implies a careful weighing of a problem or, often, prolonged inconclusive thinking about a matter (pondered the course of action). Meditate implies a definite focusing of one's thoughts on something so as to understand it deeply (meditated on the meaning of life). Muse suggests a more or less focused daydreaming as in remembrance (mused upon childhood joys). Ruminate implies going over the same matter in one's thoughts again and again but suggests little of either purposive thinking or rapt absorption (ruminated on past disappointments).”

So I begin my first blog, Ponder Gardening.