Re-Seeding the Winter Garden

I started seedlings for a late fall harvest back in July in the hopes that I would be harvesting root and leaf vegetables around this time. FAIL! Despite a cooler summer, most of the seedlings either burned up in the sun or died during the transplant process (a temporary black thumb effort on my part). A small group of broccoli, cabbage, and snap peas survived only to be eaten by slugs. Some hardy lettuces have sprouted as well as arugula from plants I allowed to go to seed last winter. 

My next experiment in is to re-seed now and have a harvest in late winter/ early spring. Using a pen, I poked holes in the still damp dirt in 2.5 foot rows. I deposited two nursery-bought seeds in each hole and covered gently with my weeding tool. I did not water the seeds to allow them to sink and find root in the soil. I'll let the rain and existing moisture water the plants until the soil dries out completely. To top it off, I added a fine layer of nitrogen-rich vegetable fertilizer. My re-seeded vegetables are radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, red cabbage, arugula, romaine, leeks, carrots, yellow onions, and snap peas.

  For my flowers, I used seeds that I had gathered and dried at the beginning of summer. I planted them in a similar process, but instead of rows, I planted the nasturtium at random to fill in spaces in the butterfly garden. I planted the sweet peas in their own separate bed surrounding the base of over-turned round tomato cages. The cages will act as supports as the plants grow. These two types of flowers have also popped up on their own, re-seeding themselves from last year's flowers.

Season's End

I approach autumn with a degree of ambivalence that builds slowly into apprehension. On one hand, I am happy to have the opportunity to work on other projects and goals and not be so tied to tending garden. But as the golden sun spend less and less time in the sky, I grow uneasy with the coming winter: cloudy skies, shortened daylight, plant dormancy or (gasp!) plant death. As it currently stands, I only have an hour of light to tinker in the garden when I come home from work. When Daylight Savings Time officially ends in November, there will be no light left for garden tasks. Although I planned my garden’s winter dormancy ahead of time because of my foot surgery, I feel like the last 3 weeks of weather and light have been stolen from me. Tending garden is my meditation, my retreat from the world that both keeps me grounded and connects me to my roots.

Perhaps this is the time to refresh and renew, to seek out new inspirations and new vistas to help find next season’s purpose. Also, I have many other goals to complete; they cannot be neglected because they do not bring me as much pleasure as growing the perfect tomato.

Hubby contemplating the waves from Self-Realization Fellowship Garden in Encinitas, CA

October Bloom Day

Its been three weeks since foot surgery and I'm doing well all things considered - I just need to get that toe joint moving so I can avoid physical therapy. Before going out on garden leave, I planted cyclamen, sunset orange snapdragons, and winter lettuces. These have successfully taken root and are growing nicely. I can't say the same about my chrysanthemums, but I am treating those as annuals anyway. Rounding out the pictures are my Double Delight Roses, still going strong after some TLC, and Hubby's precious pomegranates.

Tomato Plant Timing or "When do I see "red". By Papi Tomato

This is a Sprite.

First of all, I wanted to thank Rosie Tomato for the opportunity to fill in while she recovers from her foot surgery. Sources close to Rosie tell me she is recovering well with a prognosis for full recovery.

My first post will deal the timing for planting tomatoes. Most varieties of tomatoes will mature and fruit in approximately 90 days. There are some fast developing varieties for colder climates that mature and fruit in 60 days or less. Other varieties that can be north of 100 days, but as a rule of thumb, you can count on 90 days as a good estimate. Any good seed catalog will provide the days for a particular tomato variety to mature.

Rosie planted most of her tomato plants from mid March to Mid April (think Clairemont Garden Show). If you add 90 days to those planting intervals you start seeing red (as in red tomatoes) sometime around mid June to mid July. However, there are other matters to consider. Soil temperature and ambient temperature in March and April are not what they are in the summer, but the temperatures are sufficient to allow tomato plants to grow, albeit more slowly. Also, this summer in San Diego was gloomy and cool. This will also affect the amount of time tomatoes will take to mature and fruit.

Most of my tomato plants went into the garden around the June 1st. I started seeing ‘red’ on some plants mid August with good overall production at the end of August and first part of September. As of this post (October 5th) I still have two or three tomato plants producing tomatoes. The plants look rather ‘long in the tooth’, but they will maintain tomatoes for some time if you continue to water. I was able to pick over two pounds of red San Marzano roma tomato this past Sunday to make spaghetti sauce. Yesterday I picked nearly a pound of Sprite, Fiorentino and Black Pearls.

Normally, I plant about 1/3 of my tomatoes April 1st, May 1st and June 1st respectively. This usually gives me three months of garden tomatoes for consumption, cooking and gifts. The photos below were taken in my garden toward the end of September. As you can see, there is still a lot of ‘red’ there.

Miscellaneous plants.

This is a Fiorentino

Black Pearl (I am so a fan of Pirates to the Caribbean)

Introducing my Guest Blogger!

I will be unable to tend garden for the next couple weeks due to foot surgery and consequently, it is time for me to hand over blog writing to my very worthy proxy. He has over 30 years of lawn and garden care experience and approximately half of that time has been spent growing and tending heirloom tomatoes, peppers, and other assorted vegetables. His other specialties include care of citrus and avocado trees and cymbidiums (orchids). He has successfully amended poor clay soil into fertile vegetable beds, keeps a seed library to continue the propagation of old heirloom lines, and cooks gourmet cuisine from home-grown fruits and vegetables.

Welcome, Papi Tomato! I look forward to your insightful contributions!

Flights of Fancy

My dear friend, Kelly, inspired me to start a butterfly garden. I already had the beginnings of one with butterfly friendly plants such as lantana and lavender, but I wanted to have more and better selections for monarchs during their annual migration. Selfishly, these beautiful and perennial monarch-friendly flowering plants continue to bloom through fall and live through the seasons, providing my garden with some much needed color and filler around my brick patio lounge/ entertaining area.

Hubby helped me clear out my overflow vegetable bed of long-in-the-tooth cherry tomatoes and dig holes for the incoming plants. We then placed our compost green machine in a corner of the bed so it will get full sun and will be closer to the kitchen for green waste dumping. This amended re-placement will help me start another goal for next season’s garden, composting kitchen and yard waste and using the compost to replenish nutrients to the soil in my main vegetable beds.

I placed the two Echinacea (orange and pink cone flower) nearer to the compost machine, the Purple Salvia, Dark Knight Bluebeard, and Starla Pink Pentas in the middle nearer the Anna Apple, and three Achillea (Yarrow) closer to the Mexican Sage. Interspersed between the plants are six deep pink alyssum for ground cover. Lastly, I placed a small, shallow dish of water on the ground as a butterfly bath. It looks a little thin right now, but it shouldn’t take long for the plants to fill in beautifully. The welcome mat is out! Hopefully the guests will show up soon!

September Bloomday

As we head towards true fall, the garden continues to both burst with color and begins to fade into the obscurity of impending winter. My list of garden clean-up chores from last post is nearing completion. I am so excited to have a guest blogger recruited to carry the torch of garden writing while I recover from foot surgery. Look for his posts towards the end of September!

All my tomatoes are gone, except for the cherry and Sprite plants. I don't even like cherry tomatoes; I grow them to give away to Hubby's co-workers. They can't get enough of them; it is such a simple thing to garner such good will.

The lantanas are attracting the Monarch Butterflies, but I wish there were more of them stopping by. Time to plant a true butterfly garden?

The final surge of rose blooms

Coleus, cool season greens, and lemon verbena

More Plumeria - I know I always include the plumeria, but I am so proud of it. I have never seem such specimens in any other private garden. I know that the former home owner, Mildred, used to sell their cuttings to people as far away as Japan! 

I consider the plumeria good luck and their scent reminds me of a dear fried who has passed from this earth. I miss you, Jack: I know you are swimming to the quarter mile buoy in the next reality.