Last Spring Planting

One of the sweet potatoes we got at Home Depot finally started to sprout. So today I split it in two and planted them in the front yard. We haven't had any luck with anything there, so maybe that was a bad idea.

I also planted seeds of the following in the garden:

• Blue bush beans
• The last few garden beans
• The last few melon seeds
• Winter squash
• Armenian cucumber
• Dark star zucchini
• Summer crookneck squash

And in the front yard by the volunteer pansy/violets I planted some Blue flax and Showy Desert Penstemon seeds. Maybe this year they'll actually come up?

None of the tomato and pepper plants look like they're doing very well. Even though it rained last night. I switched the watering from once every four days to once every three. And it's nowhere near the heat of the summer yet.

Planted the starts

• We weren't super consistent with the hardening off, but we did get the starts outside for several hours each day.
• The peas are getting close to needing to be trellised somehow
• There are carrots and spinach and onions starting to come up
• Lots of weeding to be done, particularly in the bed with lots of sunflowers last year
• I love all the volunteer greenery and feeding weeds to the chickens!

Darren Pearce starts

Early Girl Hybrid - Indeterminate - 52 days
Phoenix Hybrid - Determinate - 72 days
2 Sweet banana peppers - 72 days
Yellow pear tomatoes - Indeterminate - 78 days
Orange sun peppers - 80 days
Italian basil

We are going to harden them off for a week before we plant.

Spring planting

From Home Depot:

• Cherry tomato
• Jalapeno hot pepper
• Sweet basil
• Green bell pepper (2)
• Fresh bites orange pepper
• Better bush tomato
• Onion set
• There were a 100 of these and I planted them all over
• Sweet potato
• Supposedly the ones in the super market are treated so they don't sprout. We put these two by a window to see if they'll start sprouting in the next two weeks.
• Raspberry
• I'm not sure if they grow in our climate, but we decided to try it.
• Grape (Tami G) Hybrid tomato
• This was a big plant in a planter for almost $20. I'm not sure if it was supposed to stay in the planter but I decided to try transplanting it.

A lady there said that it gets too hot here for the big slicing tomatoes to grow well and only the smaller cherry or grape varieties work well.

I also planted some spinach and kale and probably a few other things.

The peas I planted a while ago have started to sprout.

I don't feel like there were a whole ton of blossoms on the apricot tree so I'm a bit worried we might not get a big crop this year.

But the little apricot sapling from the seed I planted made it through the winter!

Planted

The community garden is planning to plant on Monday so today we planted two half rows of peas and onions and one half row of lettuce. The highs are supposed to be in the 50's next week.

Planted apricot seeds

Back when the apricots were ripe I saved some of the largest pits and extracted the seeds. And today I put them in the ground in the hopes they'll grow in the spring.

Fertilized the trees

I put the Fruit and Nut Tree fertilizer around most of our trees today. Even though I think it was probably a bit late in the season to do so. If I put a ton of compost/mulch around each tree would that mean I didn't need to use chemical fertilizers?

Don't pick the green onions

The onions were the only thing still left in the ground so I picked them all and covered the raised beds with shredded leaves for the winter. But I should have just left them there because I read they can survive fine in the ground whereas they'll go bad in the fridge.

The purslane is flowering

We didn't weed all the purslane because it's edible. Hopefully we don't regret it...

Pro tip: Water more when it's hotter

When it starts getting really hot (e.g. summer weather), I need to water the grass more. I'm not sure why I always forget to do that.

Apricots

Apricot Season has arrived! First pick fell May 30, 2016 in the wind.

Saturday June 4, 2016- first attempt at canning apricots (6 pints). I tried to skip the ascorbic acid/ lemon bath soak while preparing an entire batch and I put them straight in the juice (50% diluted apple juice) for holding. They got too mushy and by the end of canning were almost a puree. A good use for them is to mix into plain yogurt as flavoring. Next year tip: cut all apricots first and hold in ascorbic acid bath. Start heating canner/bottles and juice about 1/2 or 3/4 way through cutting.

We have dried 2 batches (about 1 gallon bag) in the sun using a mesh enclosed food dryer with plastic trays. 100+ degree weather (Fahrenheit); took 5 days for the first batch, second batch is still on.

We've done multiple batches of fruit leather in indoor dehydrator. 16+ trays at present.

One dryer full (gallon bag) of dried apricots using indoor dehydrator.

Made freezer jam today. Had less sugar pectin (1/2 box) that needed using so I used that with 1/8 cup sugar mixing straight into purred apricots (4 cups) mixed with 2-4 tablespoons lemon juice (just dumped, didn't measure) and heated slightly on the stove. I pureed the apricots hoping it would set more evenly and because they were in rough shape with bird pecks (cut out of course), bruising from the wind pushing them into the branches, and a few overripe from late picking. Mixed in 4 tablespoons + 1.5-2 teaspoons black chia seeds off the heat to help thicken. Used immersion blender to chip seeds for improved texture. So far it is like a thick sauce, but here's to hoping chilling will help it set and the small amount of pectin will contribute a bit of texture. Our 3 year old loves the taste!

Tiny harvest

On Sunday we had a cherry tomato, a few string beans and a little carrot from the garden.

The garden really isn't doing too well. Did I greatly deplete the soil quality by double digging and adding fall leaves and half-composted kitchen scraps?

Picked Radishes

We had a few little radishes from the garden with our dinner this evening.

Another little garden planting

We really want spinach and kale so I planted some more.

The sickliest of our pepper plants died so I took over that spot.

Only one zucchini came up so I planted three more of those seeds.

Planted two almond trees

We got a "Four in One" variety and a "Ne Plus Ultra".

Planted them in the grass so they'd get plenty of water. Hopefully if we deep water occasionally too the roots won't tear up the grass?

We don't have dirt under the sod. It's all just sand and clay. So I added a bucketful of compost in the bottom of each hole.

And I had to cage them with extra fencing to prevent the dog from eating the almonds.

Hopefully they survive and thrive!

The Irises are Blooming

Planted from starts

• Green Bell - Sweet Pepper
• Gypsy - Sweet Pepper
• Strawberries - Sequoia
• Phoenix - Heat Tolerant Hybrid Tomato - Determinate
• Solar Fire - Heat Tolerant Hybrid Tomato - Determinate
• Husky Cherry Red - Hybrid Cherry Tomato - Indeterminate
• Yellow Cherry Tomato - Sun Gold Hybrid - Indeterminate

Bought these at Home Depot. They're all from Bonnie Plants.

I planted one of the green peppers in a pot because I've heard that it'll produce year round if I bring it in in the winter.

Someday I need to take the time to look up what determinate and indeterminate mean. And what "hybrid" tomato means and if it's a good thing. And what does heirloom mean? Is that better?

Hopefully the starts work because nothing else is growing. It appears some peas came up but were eaten by something. Birds?

But we did eat a few fresh green spinach leaves for St. Patrick's day from the pot on the front porch.

Planted peas, spinach, lettuce, kale, carrots, radishes, potatoes

We planted another row of peas, and some spinach, lettuce, kale, carrots and radishes. And a row of potatoes.

Planted peas

We planted a row of peas. Maybe it's too early?

Added a Load of Compost

From the dump. Spread and then double dug.