Tomatoes

Some of the tomatoes I started in pots have sprouted their first true leaves.
I'm growing several different kinds of tomato plants this year. I'm trying for a major haul in tomatoes this year, some to dry, some to can, and many to eat fresh.
Last year I got some seeds from other members of the Seed Savers Exchange. They are Black Aztec and Capuchino. I'm also trying German Pink, which I got from SSE when I renewed my membership last year. I'm growing Corne de Bouc, Siberia, Tropic, Glacier, Amish Paste, and San Marzano. I started them in pots on the sunny side of the house, in a garden wagon that I covered with row cover.
I've also rigged up a trellis I've never tried before. Two 2x2's pounded into the ground about 15 feet apart, running north/south, garden twine running horizontally between the two posts, approximately 12 - 18 inches apart. I'll plant 8 or so tomato plants under the garden twine and hope the whole thing doesn't collapse when the plants get big.
The set up will also shade a young apricot tree from the low, hot evening sun in the summer.

Patio 2010

After hacking out some more ivy and wheelbarrowing-in some more decomposed granite, there's a nice, big patio with planting beds that will get morning and late, afternoon sun, but mostly shade throughout the day.

I've sown the bare soil with daikon seeds, and other various cover-crop seeds (they're growing now but that isn't shown in this photo). I transplanted a few strawberry plants there and a lovely red chard plant too.

We got a lovely north wind today, then some rain tonight. I was hoping for a little more rain before the dry season sets in, if only to delay the need for irrigating from well water.

I envision currants and perhaps edible honeysuckle in these beds, also alpine strawberries, which take some shade, and even more blueberries (I can't get enough!).

Food Forest

I just watched Geoff Lawton's Food Forest DVD again. It is so packed with information, especially just being able to see his designs at different ages and the close spacing of the trees, shrubs, and other plants in the designs. I'm slowly incorporating those concepts into my own half acre. I worked on the shrub layer last season, and now those shrubs are breaking dormancy and offering examples for good and less good placement. I'm also noticing my zone 1 is a little lacking and will be building that up in this season. Zone 1 is especially important to me during the winter, and my lovely red romaine lettuces were planted too far from the kitchen last season. This coming lettuce planting season (late summer) I'll plant a larger quantity of lettuce and have it closer to the kitchen.

But spring-like things are happening around here now, and though we've had a cooler end of winter than we'd like, the promise of abundant harvests is here. I've started many different types of tomato seeds under agribon, on the sunny-side of the house, and they've popped up their cotyledons. I'm starting to see shrub cuttings I put in the ground last fall starting to grow (some figs, lemon verbena). I've noticed some peach seedlings popping up where I put pits in the ground in the early winter. I'll be able to try my hand at grafting on those seedlings. The chard is exhibiting perfect eating characteristics, since we've had such a lot of rain and a little bit of warming a couple weeks ago. The parsley (of which I have many plants) is starting to bolt, and the strawberry plants are starting to bloom. The cherry tree has broken dormancy as have a few of the figs. Both of the older peach trees are blooming, the yellow peach and the white peach.

Many of the bare root trees I planted are breaking dormancy. The pear, quince and pomegranates are all pushing out buds. The plum and apricot have not pushed out yet.

The berm & basin in the front yard, which the gophers worked to make less basin-like, is bursting with daikon blossoms and the Spanish lavender is blooming too. The Ginkgo has not yet broken dormancy, but I think it waited til April last year.

Great progress was made on the ivy-removal project in the past few weeks. With more ivy gone I extended our patio space by moving in more decomposed granite. The DG is a great surface for a patio, it allows water in, it wears well, and is easy to touch up. It is also a regional resource since the Sierra Nevada mountains are made of granite and are fairly nearby.
Ivy March 2010

Ivy May 2009

The first section of patio was done in 2008, and covered bare soil where ivy had grown. That first section was just big enough for a few chairs and two small outdoor tables, but we spent many hours out there after putting down the decomposed granite. It made a lovely outdoor space in which to spend time.

Patio 2008

More blooms

The return of flowers to the garden brings a hurry up and wait feeling. Plants are breaking dormancy and blooming, offering the possibility of future fruit. When I look at the flowers of the nanking cherries and the edible honeysuckle I wonder if they'll fruit this year and then I get hungry thinking about eating delicious fruit from the garden. That activity is still a few months away, but the promise is present in those blossoms.

Edible Honeysuckle - yellow flowers
I ordered these plants from Territorial Seeds and also Raintree Nursery, both in Washington state. The first plants I got are two years old now and one of them made a single fruit last year. It was a small, droopy purple thing, about the size of a single peanut. They like it a little less hot that this climate, so I have planted them in a microclimate in my garden that gives the idea of a long, cool spring. They grow near the raspberries and the currants, both of which dislike hot summers. It is worth trying to grow such things, though, for I love to eat fresh raspberries and currants. They grow in a place that gets only early morning sun.

Nanking cherry - soft pink flowers

I first saw nanking cherries at Mary Zemach's permaculture garden in Los Alamos, New Mexico while on a field trip during the permaculture course. They were big bushy things, laden with red tart fruit, about the size of a large blueberry, but with a pit inside. My climate is a little hot for them, so I planted them in a spot that gets some shade in the summer afternoons.