Alpine strawberries

I picked a small bowl of alpine strawberries.

These are small strawberries packed with a concentrated strawberry flavor. These are a real treat to eat, and grow in part shade and take summer drought (the plants go semi dormant) and will produce all summer with some water. I grow them back under the big oaks and with the fig trees. Not very filling, but very delicious.

Garden walk with insects

I took bumpy walk through the garden last week and found some insects in various places. Lots of chard is in this video, and ants on the fava beans at the end.

Currants & Gooseberries

currant

gooseberry

These gooseberries and currants bloomed early this spring, and we had lots of rain and cold during and after their blooming so I was worried the berry crop might be compromised. Same situation for the peaches and apricots, all were rained upon during bloom. I went out today and lifted a prickly branch of the gooseberry (last year's wood) and found a lovely row of berries filling out quite nicely. On the black currants I found clusters of the immature fruit here and there. I still won't have enough for jelly this year, but I'll eat them out of hand when they are ripe. In the fall I made a few cuttings of the black currants and put them in the front yard, in the berm and basin area. I just stuck the dormant wood into the soil. They seem to root fairly easily, so I will continue to increase my stock that way. They don't seem to be bothered by the walnuts either, so they will make a nice addition to the walnut guild.

Ants

Warmer weather means ants in the garden.

The image on top shows the ant on a leek leaf. The image on the bottom shows ants on a swelling flower bud on a peony plant. I expected to see aphids in association with the ants on the peony, but since I noticed them I've been looking every day and do not see any aphids. Perhaps the peony is secreting something the ants are harvesting? I'm just not sure.

Ants spend a lot of time moving material in the garden, they are an important part of building soil. They aerate the soil, add organic matter, move seeds around, and eat plenty of fallen fruit.

Strawberries

The strawberries are starting to ripen. I picked this group this morning. Everyday brings more sweetness to them. I've yet to taste from today's harvest but I'll eat them even if they are a little tart. It is the first fruit from the garden.

Lovely Chard

Various chards I harvested and washed. The ones with the wide stems and pink streaks are likely a cross between some red chard and some Glatter Silber chard. Chard will cross readily with other chard. I generally cut the thick stems out and cook them separately from the leaves. They can be blanched in water with a little lemon added, and served on their own. Sometimes I chop and sauté them with onions to add to soups. The leaves are delicious steamed or sautéed with a little garlic and olive oil, or with a little bacon, wine vinegar and red pepper flakes. Chard is very versatile and its mild flavor makes it very pleasant to eat frequently. It is also extremely easy to grow, and if let to go to seed (in its second year, it being a biennial) many delightful variations can occur. When it starts to send up a flower stalk, it can be cut and used as mulch too, which is handy when transplanting seedlings that might like a little mulch.

Spring Rain

Rainy day today. We had a good downpour for a while. Rain delays turning on the irrigation. I wish I had installed my rainwater tanks last fall. Big projects take time and money though, so I'll get to the tanks when I can. I've calculated the amount of water I can harvest off my roof by using Brad Lancaster's books Rainwater Harvesting vols. 1 & 2.

They are both filled with excellent ideas for using water more efficiently and valuable information on how to harvest water. I checked the average annual rainfall in this area (26 inches or 2.16 ft) and measured my roof area. I'd be harvesting water from less than half the roof surface, since I'd put larger tanks in the back of the house and probably no tanks in the front of the house. The formula is catchment area (sq ft) x rainfall (ft) x 7.48 gall/ft x coefficient (80%). Two downspouts in the back of the house would put out approximately 16,500 gallons per year, much more than I could reasonably be expected to store in tanks. That's why Brad Lancaster says "the cheapest place to store water is in the soil," and he advocates the generous use of mulch, and turning one's garden soil into a sponge of organic material - roots, organic matter, organism, and more.

I'm looking at getting two 1550 gallon storage tanks, which would make a tiny dent in my watering needs during the summer, but those drops add up. One of the main issues in this climate is we get our rain over half the year and then no rain during the hot half of the year. Until I get those tanks, I'll be working on building the sponginess of my soil.

Most of the water in the front of the house goes into the soil. The driveway and sidewalks drain into garden beds or to the ever-shrinking lawn. Some water from the road runs into the berm & basin I put next to the pavement, watering the plants in that garden system.

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.

Wheat

My second crop of wheat is really starting to grow after slowly hanging out through the cold weather. I have two little patches growing this year and I wonder how much harvest I'll have upon maturity.

insects

The rosemary was buzzing with bees.

This bee at a borage flower has big yellow pollen packs on her legs.

The first almond blossoms opened today and I found this little insect visiting the stamens of one flower. I'm guessing it is a Dance Fly, Empis, but I'm not totally sure since my insect book image shows it a different angle.

Mid-Winter treats

Days are getting noticeably longer. Various plants are showing signs of breaking dormancy, while others have been blooming through the fall and winter.

Almond buds

Rosemary blossom

Bare Root planting day

My order of bare root trees came yesterday from Trees of Antiquity, and I planted them today. I ordered a plum called Bavay's Green Gage from Belgium circa 1832, an apricot called Pink Ume from Japan, a Quince developed by Luther Burbank circa 1899 called Pineapple Quince, and two pomegranates – Sweet, and Kashmir.
I went out to photograph the plantings and noticed I received a pear tree rather than a quince. Both are called Pineapple.
I talked to the dude at the nursery and he was super nice and said he'd ship out a quince right away and that the pear is a good one, is self-fertile, and that I should grow it if I have space, or give it to a friend. So, I think I'll grow it and then plant my quince, when it arrives, in a different spot.

I've ordered trees and berries from this place before and the plants are always in great shape and thrive when I plant them. They have a huge selection of certified organically grown apple trees (I have three different apple trees from them), among other fruiting trees and bushes. Their website is loaded with lots of good information and photos.

Old Olives at Mission San Miguel Arcángel

Olive trees at the mission.

On the way to the central coast of California for some exploration of the oceanic portion of the hydrological cycle we stopped at an old mission site. The Mission San Miguel Arcángel is in a state of restoration and we were able to visit inside the adobe structure. The old kitchen and living area were open to the public, as was the church. The interior courtyard garden was not available to walk in, only view from a roped-off area. I was hoping to see some old fig trees, but saw none. They had olives though. Some had been cut to the ground and were re-sprouting, others were still large and producing fruit that the birds were enjoying.

Exploring the hydrological cycle

Leaves through the frost

The lovely leaves of red romaine lettuce made it through the frost, totally unprotected. Seen above, with some leeks growing nearby.

The collards, below, seem happier than ever with the cool weather. The frost seems to have sweetened the flavor of the leaves some too.

Both plants provide delicious leaves to eat in the winter.

Preparing for a Freeze

We're expecting temperatures in the mid 20s and rain mixed with something called snow. It won't stick, I've read, but it doesn't usually come down to the valley. When we want to see snow, we drive up to the mountains.
Anyway, the citrus plants need to be protected from such cold temperatures, so I went about the garden putting frost protection on the lemons, oranges, and limes. I still have to rig up protection for the mandarin and the kumquats, which I'll do tomorrow.
I thought my lemon tree looked as if it had a visit from Christo and Jeanne-Claude after I wrapped it in its blanket.

Salad season

In late September the weather was so nice and warm I thought summer would never quit. Still, I planted some seeds for the winter garden. Lettuce mainly, and snow peas. I have lots of chard and collards growing here and there already, but those leaves need to be cooked. The late fall and winter weather is the a great time for salad leaves. I forage for tender dandelion leaves, picking only the smallest and most tender (in winter the leaves are not bitter). I pick arugula and lettuces that I've planted in various spots, and pull up a daikon radish and a scallion for good measure. This year I planted red romaine lettuce for a change (I've planted various green lettuces too). The red romaine was brilliant in the sun this morning and could be part of a delicious salad this evening.

Remnants

Temperatures are starting to drop into the low 30s at night.
I found a few green tomatoes, hanging on to withered plants, and glowing in the sun.