Seedlings in hot climates

Here in California's central valley, we will probably not see much in the way of rain until fall. Our climate is very dry, and very hot. Additionally, my front yard is fairly windy from the canyon-like effect of the street we live on. So it is particularly hard to plant seedlings past early March or so. Even with my clay soil, they tend to dry out too quickly, despite getting spot-watered before and after work.

So this is a trick I've learned to give seedlings a better chance. Maybe everyone knows it already, but I've never seen it mentioned in gardening books.

When I plant a seedling, I set it more or less level with the soil, but I make sure to completely cover the growing medium with native soil. The lovely free-draining nature of seed starting mix means that it works as a great wick for sucking moisture out of the soil if it is left uncovered, which creates a bone dry pocket around the seedling, even if the surrounding dirt is damp. Covering the mix with soil and then watering well helps to seal the moisture in. Of course, some sort of temporary shade shelter can also help.

This is an ornamental seedling that I am protecting with a thin layer of my clay soil.



Hopefully this will work on my late-started tomato and pepper seedlings. The earlier set was smashed by a fallen grow light.



On a brighter note, my oca have started to sprout. I was worried that they might have rotted, but no. Each tuber is now up with a little, clover-leaved sprout.

Bunny Tales

We decided to take out the big cypress bush that separates our property from our Santariano neighbors. Matt cut down the branches, and I was up this morning cutting them into more manageable pieces. I looked up from my work to see Babs come around the corner of our back fence.

How in the world did Babs get out? So I followed her, offering her favorite foods - the thick stems of barnyard grass, the flower buds of arugula. She sniffed them, but didn't eat, didn't allow me to get close enough to pick her up. Still, she wasn't afraid of me, just led me at a leisurely hop from the neighbor's yard to their parked truck back under the tree at the property line, into our yard and back, in a little pingpong route. I could see where she'd dug the dirt up under the fence right on the other side of where her hutch is in the garden, but it didn't look like there was a hole all the way through. How on Earth did she get out?

Finally, she gave up and let me catch her. I brought her back to our backyard to put her in her hutch, but she was already there! This was another bunny, the same size, with the same black and white markings, lacking only the kiss on her forehead that the real Babs has.

So right now she is enjoying hay and water in Mya's dog crate. I kind of wish I had some emergency pellets on hand. Now we just have to find her owner.

Harvest Monday March 7

This week we harvested more of the bok choy. Matt made appetizers stuffed with bok choy, mushrooms and rice. Very yummy, but who thought of taking pictures?

I also thinned the greens in the side yard and tossed the tender little leaves with some pasta and sliced chicken. It was good, too, but not very pretty and also didn't get a picture.

This week's harvest brings my total up to 30 oz of greens for 2011. Pretty much all of it comes from a 3'x4' patch planted in November, when we first got the garden fence up. Not bad, I think. That will be the last for that particular patch, though, since I'm saving the rest of the plants for seed.

In more exciting news, my first SSE order came today, with the long-awaited oca. My phone camera does not do it justice. This is Red Bolivian, and I will plant it as soon as I can.

Harvest Monday Feb 21st

My Tai Sai cabbage is starting to bolt, unfortunately. In its defense, we have had some days up to 70 degrees. These are the fastest bolters, 5.5 oz of them (along with some green garlic). I'm keeping the slower ones for seed.


The Tai Sai went into my bento, stir fried with some pickled peppers from last summer's garden. On top is soba noodles and chicken. The sauce is for the noodles.



The exciting news of the day... We went to Westurf on a whim, since we'd been cooped up in the house all weekend. They were having a sale on their bare root fruit trees, so we came home with 11 different varieties of fruit: 2 grape vines and 2 grafted trees. The grapes are Thompson seedless and Autumn Royal seedless. The apple tree has Jonagold, Mutsu, Gala, and Fuji. The stone fruit tree has Santa Rosa plum, Fantasia nectarine, Blenheim apricot, and a yellow and white peach, whose names I'm too lazy to look up.

Fruit salad in the side yard!

Harvest Monday 2/14/11

I had to restart my garden this November. Most of last year, I had my vegetable garden in the side yard, outside the backyard fence, where my dogs couldn't dig it up. Then a neighbor complained about the messy look of it and the city made me mow it down.

So. My lovely husband made me a sturdy garden fence in the backyard to keep the dogs out, but it wasn't up until prettty late in the year, so all I have growing now is some pretty small greens. Still, there were enough to harvest this week. There was a total of 12.5 oz of mixed Red Russian kale, Tai Sai Chinese cabbage, and arugula. The bunch below went into our dinner tonight.


The next photo is a local harvest, from the orange tree in my sister's backyard. My husband estimates we picked about 60 lbs. Beautiful.



Those oranges were juiced and filtered into a carboy for orange wine. It looks dayglo orange, doesn't it?