Summer Garden

My spring garden turned out rather disappointing- heavy rains and a lack of gutters colluded to drown many of my seedlings. Then, last two weeks of 90-degree temperatures finished off the survivors. Such is the life of a SoCal gardener- the average is 70 degrees but we seem to just swing through the extremes, rarely sitting at "average".

So I threw up my hands and started my summer garden. It's been 90 after all, right?  I had given an earlier start to my zucchini plants in the hope that they'd establish and bear fruit before being overwhelmed by the tomato plants like last year. The plan appears to be working- I already have one little zucchini. There are currently three plants- I'll see how crazy that is I guess. I also started snow peas earlier, and after a very slow start, they appear to be on their way to productivity. We had our first tasty, small batch this weekend.

For the rest of the garden, I put in the following this weekend:

The peas & zucchini have a good start.
Debris is from work on the front yard. 

3 kinds of tomatoes:
- Sweet 100 (Returning this year after a spectacular crop last year)
- Hillbilly (Jon wanted an heirloom variety- this seemed appropriate)
- Pantano Romanesco Italian Heirlom

3 varieties of peppers:
- Golden Bell
- Purple Beauty
-Giallo di Cuneo

And the following:
- Kentucky Wonder string beans
- Little Leaf pickling cucumbers
- Little Finger Carrots
- Tatsoi (spring garden)
- Golden beats
- Pak Choi & Gailan

Updates to come. For the moment, the garden is enjoying rain and 49 degree temperatures. So much for summer...

Yard Begone!

We've been working to get our yard landscaped and renovated for about a year now.  As with all home projects, its taken way longer than I would have thought. But we're on our way- at least with the front yard!

Until now, we've been "that house" on the block- the one that clearly needs some love and care.We've done a lot of great things on the inside, which frankly is where we spend much of our time. Sadly, that left the outside mostly neglected except my veggie garden and an occasional clean up from the neighborhood gardener. The first step was to install and paint fences, which we did last summer.  We also got a landscape plan made, but when all was done,  Fall had come and we decided to wait.

While winter has tried to keep its clutches on us this year, it is technically spring and we decided to get the front yard tackled. Our gardener has the plans in hand and he's been working in between the rain squalls to get the job done. The plan for the front includes ripping out all the grass and replacing it with wood-chips and drought tolerant, native plants.  The move towards low-water, native landscaping is slowly taking hold in LA, and is especially working its way through Altadena. After living in Flagstaff for a summer, I know beautiful, environmentally-friendly landscaping is possible, and I'm thrilled we're making it happen in our own smidge of land.  So far, the grass and the awful brink-lined flower beds are gone. Irrigation is coming next week. I'll post more pictures when we get the plants and ground cover it.

Spring Garden

After a long hiatus, I'm back to gardening. My fall garden didn't go well- we had a lot of rain and the lack of gutters (normal in CA) resulted in a flooded bed. Thanks to la Nina though, we're now having a dry, warm spring.  After spending the morning de-weeding the neglected bed I put in the following seeds:

• Choi Sum (like baby bok choi) from in-laws
• Pak Choi Mei Qing Choi
• Gai Lan? The package is in Chinese
• Te Yu gai lan
• Hatakena
• Snow peas from in-laws
• Purple Dragon carrots
• Golden Beets
• Little Finger carrots

You'll notice a theme with the garden this season. I promised Jon that I'd try to grow some Asian veggies for him. It didn't go so well this fall, so I'm giving it a second go now.  Its definitely an experiment- I'm not totally sure what some of these plants are suppose to look like. It makes weeding a little more adventurous.