Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Urban garden work

I don't have a specific topic coming to mind today so I think I'll just show you what is going on around the garden. Maybe you'll learn something, maybe you will know something I don't and offer your expertise, and if nothing else, the garden is always a nice escape.

Yesterday was my first day as an intern for Urban Plantations, and I had a wonderful day. Yael taught me so much, and was just a pleasure to be around in general. I did not take any pictures yesterday but I will. The place looks way more incredible than it did about a week ago.

Cherry Tomato volunteer
One of the things I learned from Yael is that you want to reduce water on your tomatoes when they start to ripen so they don't taste watery when you harvest.

Our 3x 10 foot banner for the market
Other than beginning the internship, my mind is on preparing for our first week at the market. We have all of the marketing materials we need, including this awesome banner that Farmer D designed from a photograph of the incredible sign our friends at Sonny San Diego made us.

I think we are as ready as possible for the market. We hope to have some cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, and possibly some eggplant for our debut.

The unruly squash plant
This squash in our front garden area just popped up several months ago, I tried to let it live, and help it grow but in the interest of maximizing space and minimizing extra problems with fugal disease, I reluctantly took it out today. It was taking over the garden, and is not the best use of our limited space.

"You should listen to me and Farmer D(ad) more often - we've been telling you to get rid of that thing for months!"
Farmer D was happy when he walked in the door; "Yay! No more squash!"
Bye Kabocha squash!
"Give me a break. These are unlikely to attract rabbits or chipmunks...or birds!"
Roses 
The roses seem to be coming back nicely after I cut them back a month or so ago. They were severely infected with rust mildew. Hopefully the powdered milk solution I am using to control fungus will prevent that from happening again.

Corn fed cat? She thinks not.
We had some things that needed to be harvested, I am trying to wait to have a good showing at the market on Saturday but some things are ready now and won't be good by the time Saturday comes, so I harvested our dinner.

3 cucumber varieties; Space Master, Japanese, and Heirloom Lemon with Roma tomatoes. 

Sunflower
I hope to be the only vendor with raw sunflower seeds for munching at the market but we'll see. We're awhile away yet - maybe a month - or more.

The strawberries are multiplying
Our peak strawberry season was about a month ago. We're still getting berries but the plants want to multiply.  It's a good idea to propagate new plants at this point, or cut the runners off. I am going to get more of these plants to root. The ones I started a couple weeks ago are doing well.

We added a sign to let people know we'll be at the market. 
These are my neighbor's miniature sunflowers, looking glorious.
Passion fruit vine finding its way up 
This Passion fruit vine is behaving perfectly but several others need some training around the frame of our gate. I am going to take Farmer D's advice and use eye screws to create an anchor to tie the vine to. It will look cleaner than wrapping the entire post with our plant tape.

We have lots of beautiful  passion fruit blooms, but little fruit.
One of our Passion fruits but I have no idea when it will be ready. 
In San Diego we are lucky enough to get 2 rounds out of our warm season. Many people across the country are already thinking about getting starts going for their Fall season but in San Diego, you can still start with warm season plants like cucumber, tomato, beans, corn, and peppers, so if you've been wanting to start a garden but haven't yet, you still can. We currently have warm season plants in several stages, from ripe and ready to eat, to almost fruiting, to just barely getting started.

1 comment:

  1. Looking Soooo Good! Heidi and I just spent the last 20 min perusing your blog. Can't wait to see you at the market this Saturday!

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