Kate's Garden

Everything was swell and then...

2008-09-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago we finished the beds and planted the seeds. A week after that everything started sprouting and was looking fantastic. But this week we had a terrible setback. We noticed on Wednesday afternoon that the leaves of the beautiful little Chard sprout were gone! That day we came home from work to find that the chicory and brocolli were gone too. So we made some little cloches out of plastic water bottles and spread diatomaceous earth over everything--thinking that might deter whatever pest we were dealing with. That day we came home to find that the cloches that were firmly in the ground were untouched, but the cauliflower's bottle had been knocked over and the little cauliflower sprout was...of course eaten. Over the weekend, while we were exploring the desert, this same pest knocked over the onion bottles and ate the remaining two onion sprouts.

So we plan to fortify the plastic bottle cloches with stakes. We've replanted all the seeds.

Whatever this is seems to have no interest in the radishes, carrots, beets or peas and the brussells sprouts, arugula and spinach are doing well in their little bottles...so at least we've got something going. But the whole experience has been rather disheartening. Nevertheless, we and our vegetables shall prevail!

Big changes

2008-09-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

So we ripped out the summer garden. It had been conquered by powdery mildew anyway. And Gordon built these boxes. We are trying square foot gardening and I'm excited.

Look at this neat spider

2008-09-03T21:59:00.000-07:00

It was hard to get a good picture, but doesn't it look like a face with a hat and legs coming out of it? Very tribal chic, no?

No, they're not vegetables!!!

2008-07-22T09:22:00.001-07:00

The garden is going along fine--despite a nasty case of powdery mildew. I have big plans for the autumn though, when we'll try Square Foot Gardening (more on that soon). Until then we've turned our attention to other parts of the garden. I had all of these lovely pots in clusters on the ground, which was admittedly quite cluttered. So Gordon came up with a lovely solution. Now the pots can be seen, decorate the ugly cement wall AND the ground space is opened up for our next project. More on that soon too. Until then, I am delighted with my pot wall.

Today's bounty

2008-07-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

This is what we took out of the garden today. Gordon thinks we should make a three bean salad. Squash is very happy--beans, not doing so good.

Pumpkin model

2008-07-13T22:06:00.001-07:00

This is the season's newest pumpkin. Oohlala! Notice how round and orange it is. So divine. I grew it myself you know! Soooo sexy. MMMMM.

Hi we need haircuts!

2008-07-10T09:25:00.001-07:00

Whazzat Gordon's bizzy up to?

2008-07-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

So while I've been vegetabling, Gordon has been landscaping the dirt patch next to the front door. It's looking splendid.

More garden mysteries

2008-07-10T09:05:00.001-07:00

Ok, so this appears to be coming from the spaghetti squash vine, and it started out looking a lot like the other spaghetti squash. But now it's looking like a pumpkin--sort of. Did we plant another squash-type thing we forgot about? Could it be a spaghetti pumpkin? We've tried to follow the vines, but it's pretty difficult to tell which starts where.

That's a BIG Spaghetti Squash

2008-07-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

I think this is supposed to turn yellow when it's ready... But it's hard to say if it's yellow or not...

Oh THAT's not suggestive

2008-07-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

First cucumber today--although something isn't quite right with it. I think it'll be ok on the inside, but I'm not sure what is crawling all over it and making it ugly... Lucky I ordered the Sunset Western Gardening book yesterday.

Woop there it is!

2008-07-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

Eggplant with miso sauce

2008-07-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

The Mark Bittman book said that Japanese people traditionally boil the eggplant for this tasty dish. Naoko says not so, but it was still quite tasty. Next time I'll grill the eggplant and add a little tofu. Poor Gordon.

Ah HA!

2008-07-01T15:21:00.000-07:00

Gordon's mom, Karen, solved the bean mystery. They are yellow beans! We ate them last night for dinner and they were sweet and delicious. We also ate one of the radishes. It was too spicy for me, but Gordon liked it. Now we're down to one radish. Karen says we can plant more. Maybe I'll look for a milder variety.

OOOH Labels!

2008-07-01T14:40:00.001-07:00

The labels for the plum preserves arrived today! I'm so pleased with them I have to share--even though they were supposed to be a surprise for Christmas. Now I want to order labels for everything. I'm mobbin' tha niznext set wizzy be fo' tha pumpkin chutney we makes wit our lovely pumpkin.

The unvegetable garden

2008-07-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

Gordon and I spent a couple of hours working in the rest of the Garden on Sunday. It's looking quite lovely. We're making big plans for the upper deck!

Beans and Radishes

2008-06-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

I still don't know when to pick my radishes...

And I have a lot of yellowy beans that are the right size but not turning green. Not sure when they'll be ready.

CRAZY Spaghetti Squash

2008-06-26T19:38:00.000-07:00

I am gonna have a lot of spaghetti squash. Not only did I plant like six plants--because I had em...but each one is doing really well. Happy Spaghetti squash birthday to EVERYONE I know!

It's a REAL pumpkin!

2008-06-26T19:36:00.000-07:00

This guy is amazing. I love to see him look more and more like a pumpkin every day. How exciting. I'm already thinking of what I'm going to do with him.

Other vegetables are looking quite mature as well these days....

Garden News

2008-06-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

On Friday I tried to trim back some of the monster vines, and for about a day it seemed like I had them under control, but two days later and it looks like nothing happened.

On other fronts, I harvested my first lovely deep purple Japanese eggplant today. Gordon won't be thrilled, but I am!

It seems I'm going to have a bumper crop of spaghetti squash. And the yellow zucchini appears to be dying, but I have no idea what to do about it. Maybe I should take it out before it affects the other plants...

Look at my Pumpkin!

2008-06-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

Is that a nice looking pumpkin or what?

The Radish Nation

2008-06-23T09:43:00.000-07:00

The Radish Nation is small and strong. Really small. Ok, there are only two radishes. I started out with four... Note to self. One radish plant equals one radish. Oh well, my two radishes are lovely. I have no idea, though, when they are ready for plucking.

Canning Part 2

2008-06-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

So the idea was for the second batch to be plum preserves. According to the canning book, the plums in the preserves were supposed to hold their shapes in the jar. Haha. Well, we started out with pitted plum halves, but ended up with plum jam. I'm a little disappointed, but this second batch of plum jam is even more jelled than the first batch, so at least we made an improvement. I still love the idea of a beautiful jar full of plum halves, so if anyone has any thoughts--or knows how we might accomplish that next year, please do comment.

Plum Canning Part 1

2008-06-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

Last night was plum preserves night. I picked the "old fashioned" jam from the Ball canning book, which could also be called "takes forever" jam. It's also very hot here, so "old fashioned" meant stirring the plums over the hot oven for TWO HOURS! Gordon and I were very hot and tired by the time the spoon test sort of worked. We liked the plate test better. I have a feeling we could have stirred all night and the spoon test was never going to look the way it did in the book. But grumpy moments and near melt-downs aside, we woke up this morning to 11 1/2 jars of very lovely, perfect jam. We opened the half jar to have on our toast, and I must say, the suffering was worth it.

But we're not done yet! Tomorrow we do the plum preserves.

New babies

2008-06-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

These babies are really tiny...can you guess them?

Cucumbers! They look like mini dill pickles.

Something's amiss in Zucchiniland

2008-06-17T13:48:00.001-07:00

I don't know what's happening. But in the last two days the larger leaves have started to shrivel and dry up. Yes, it is getting enough water...Hmm a mystery.

Novice Gardening Lesson #1

2008-06-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

Vines get BIG

Ok, I knew we were pushing it on the space front...but in my special dream garden I imagined the vines would wind their way around everything and stay on the ground. My plan didn't include the fact that they actually grow UP too--and they send out wonderful little wrappy fingers that attach to everything in their paths--including eggplants and artichokes. We'll see how it goes, but it's not looking great for the artichoke, eggplants and peppers. Not to mention that the beets down in Beetton have enormous sun shades covering them. Well, at least the Radish Nation seems to be escaping the encroaching giants--so far.

Next year I'll get a permaculture book. Until then, we'll keep doing our best!

Shady days in Beetton

Artichoke and eggplant in a sea of monster vines.

New Arrivals!

2008-06-17T12:11:00.000-07:00

Can you guess these baby vegetables?

Haricots Verts

a teeny weeny bell pepper

And a wee baby pumpkin!

So very cute!

This is just to say

2008-06-12T12:23:00.000-07:00

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold.

--William Carlos Williams

First Harvest

2008-06-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

These guys appeared overnight. We're gonna be eating a lot of squash this summer! Ratatouille anyone?

Jon's plums are in!

2008-06-12T09:55:00.001-07:00

Jon gave me this Santa Rosa plum tree when he moved away from LA last year. How lovely to have so many beautiful plums! Now I'm deciding what the best way to preserve some will be. I'm dreaming of a plummy Christmas...

Watch my garden grow!

2008-06-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

When I first met Gordon I told him that I wanted to plant a vegetable garden. The next day he came over with a tray full of little vegetable plants. Very romantic. We spent the next two weeks weeding and getting my little patch ready. Here it is two weeks ago and today--my first harvest!