Friday, August 17, 2012

Happy Harvest!

We have a nice selection for the market tomorrow.
We have various peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and a few lemon cucumbers.
And sweet cherry tomatoes, some huge zucchini and a few Asian cucumbers

The passion fruit is so yummy and we have some pink lemonade lemons.
We'll have a variety of herbs like this beautiful purple basil.

Gidget is over it. She is just beside herself about still not having any chickens in her garden. 




Friday, July 20, 2012

Let's come together this weekend


Life just isn't going to be easy or fair. Life is really hard much of the time and it becomes difficult to keep your chin up and just do your best in the face of so much that seems to be going wrong. I walked into the corner store today and the wonderful clerk told me that he thinks we're heading toward the end of this earth age and I can't emphatically dispute his observation right now. Maybe we are coming into end times. That could actually be some sort of explanation for why there seems to be so much turmoil around the globe. I reminded him that our grandparents most likely said the same thing at one time as we smiled and I walked out the door.

We could be spiraling towards the apocalypse (preferably a zombie one because that is what Farmer D is most prepared for), but I would rather think that we are moving into a new and better era. Maybe we just need to see a lot of bad things and have our hearts ripped out of us before we really come to understand what the future needs. I do think many of the people on the planet today know that we are off kilter and that we must make corrections in order for the next generations to have any sort of life. 

I am so saddened for the people that are affected by last night's senseless shooting. Our heartfelt and deepest sympathies go out to all of them. Our prayers go out to the world. 

It feels like time to put everything aside and let the decency of human nature shine again. It feels like a really good time to get to know the people who work and live in the community. It feels like time to come together while letting go of all of the silly disagreements we may have about politics, religion or any other issue that detracts from the average person's basic desire to be good. The vast majority of the population are good, decent, hard working people and we need to come together more so we don't get too sucked in by the bad.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend in Golden Hill and I hope to see a lot of new faces from our community. I hope to share my passion while learning about someone else's. We have the weekly farmers market tomorrow on B street between 27th and 28th from 9:30-1:30 and then on Sunday there is a street fair on 25th street between B and C from 11 to 6. It will feature food, music, beer, art and more from people in the Golden Hill community. Gidget's Garden is just west of 25th and will be open with lots of plants for sale. We look forward to seeing you.

Tomorrow at the market we'll have a nice variety of extremely local produce.


Breakfast tomatoes! Grab a basket of cherry tomatoes and munch on them as you explore the rest of the market.
There are some nice larger tomatoes and some peppers.
The lemon cucumbers are huge this week and we have some  beautiful eggplant and zucchini.
Here are some jumbo zucchini and a couple more eggplant.

On Sunday we'll have plants for sale that we do not normally have at the market.
You can bring a pair of pants on your way  into the street fair and I'll plant them for you. Pick them up on your way out. Starting at $20.

We have a lot of scented geraniums. 

Some of the other various plants and plant pots for sale. 

Gidget is exhausted. She hopes to see you on Sunday.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Market harvest

It's a beautiful week at Gidget's Garden.
Even this spectacular dragonfly wants to hang out here. 
This week's harvest is very nice.

We have lots of large red tomatoes and a nice amount of red cherry tomatoes.

There's only one basket of  various sweet peppers and a couple yellow pear cherry tomato baskets. 

We have these lemon cucumbers as well as a couple of green apple cucumbers that are about the same shape and size. 

The passion fruit is starting to ripen up. 
There is an abundance if various summer squash this week.

And a variety of herbs including several types of basil , some sage, oregano, thyme and mint. 

We'll have lemon-rose geranium and some African blue basil plants for sale too. 

I'll gather strawberries in the morning. Hope to see you at the market.


This is some of Gidget's part of the harvest.
She's threatening to hold one of each of my pair of flip flops hostage until we raise some "real" food.  

Friday, July 6, 2012

Market harvest

It's a beautiful harvest for tomorrow.

We have lots of red tomatoes.

We also have some lemon and green apple cucumbers, some peppers, passion fruit, purple beans and a zucchini.

In the morning we'll grab the strawberries, plants and cut herbs. We hope to see you at the market

"My patience is wearing very thin. How many times must I tell you that cats do not eat vegetables?"

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Independence Day feast

We were sitting around the patio table the other night with a couple of gorgeous girl-friends talking about our plans for Independence Day which were exactly nothing when all of the sudden we decided we should have a barbecue at the garden.

This sounds like a good plan to me because I don't have to go anywhere or fret about having too much food that I don't feel like preserving this week because we aren't going to be at the market on Saturday. It's just going to be good friends, good food, and hopefully a low key beautiful afternoon.

I finished the harvest and I have some of the preparation for the preparation done. The produce I had to buy includes potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, kohlrabi, a couple peppers and blueberries.

The rest of the produce came out of the garden.

Garden harvest
HERE'S THE MENU:

For the meatatarians:
  • Local, Grass-fed hamburgers with fixins'
  • Organic all beef hot dogs
  • Local pastured chicken wings
  • Organic bacon on top of potato salad
For lacto-ovo vegetarians:
  • Potato salad
  • Caprese salad on a stick
  • Pasta salad
  • Buttered popcorn
For vegans:
  • Vegetable chili
  • Quinoa salad
  • Coconut oil popcorn
  • Baked zucchini chips (only because I don't have enough room for all of it in the dehydrator)
  • Steamed corn
  • Strawberry pie
  • Chips and salsa
For raw/vegans:
  • Green apple cucumbers stuffed with Gidget's Garden salad
  • Dehydrated zucchini chips
  • Passion fruit juice


"This event is okay with me just as long as there's chicken."

Monday, July 2, 2012

Plant propagation

I cannot believe it is July 2nd already! I said that on June 1st too, time seems to be going at warp speed which I've been told is a sign of aging. Oh well, I'm going to choose to believe I am like a very fine wine that just keeps getting better but I do feel like I need to catch up with myself because this year will be gone before I know it if I don't get in gear.

Last year we acquired a minimal nursery license that will allow us to sell up to $1000 in plants each year and while I don't think I will sell that many plants, I do want to start propagating and selling plants from Gidget's Garden. I refuse to let the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing slow me down in any way and so far that plan seems to be working. I've successfully propagated lots of basil and some scented geraniums but those are easy. 

This weekend I decided to try something slightly more difficult. Lavender still falls in the easy category but it's not as simple as just putting a cutting in well drained soil or rooting in water like some other plants are. Everything I read about it indicated that a rooting hormone would be required to have success. I also read that well draining soil is essential which I have already learned from previous attempts to propagate plants. Some suggestions were to use straight perlite until your cutting develops roots but perlite can be expensive so I chose to mix perlite with cactus mix which also drains very well. A heavy soil may cause your cutting to rot rather than root.
Here's the Cactus mix and perlite I used. 

And the container I used to mix the two.

This is a rooting hormone powder
I hacked the heck out of the huge lavender plant that is taking over the front yard and the next morning I started cleaning up the pieces and choosing the right ones to try and plant. I took pieces that were about 3-6 inches long and cleaned off the lower few leaves leaving a stem that I could dip in rooting hormone and then plant in my soil mix. The nodes where the leaves were should create roots if all goes well. I tried a mix of woody pieces and more tender ones because I got mixed reviews about which would work best. 

Some of the lavender hopefuls. 
We have lots of lemon rose geranium ready to sell.

We also have some variegated geraniums and succulent cuttings that we hope will be ready to go soon.

Basil is easy to propagate by placing cuttings in water and planting them in good soil after roots develop.

Gidget wonders if it's possible to propagate more birds. 



Friday, June 29, 2012

Market Harvest

We have a beautiful harvest to bring to market tomorrow. 

There are lots of large red tomatoes and some lemon cucumbers

We have a variety of different zucchini and some cherry tomatoes. 
We'll also have some strawberries, basil plants, cut herbs and some baby Swiss chard. We hope to see you at the market!
Gidget isn't happy about this feast so she's hoping to catch a bird to eat instead.


Friday, June 22, 2012

Market harvest

We have a tasty harvest this week. 

There are a variety of tomatoes, lemon and green apple cucumbers, and some zucchini. 

Not pictured are strawberries, baby Swiss chard, cut herbs and basil plants.

Gidget doesn't understand how anyone could eat this stuff but she hopes you'll come see us tomorrow. 

Friday, June 15, 2012

Market harvest

The harvest is small but yummy for our first week back.

We'll have basil plants for sale as well as some cut basil, thyme, mint and oregano.

We have a couple baskets of cherry tomatoes, globe tomatoes, a few round cucumbers,  tomatillos and zucchini.

Gidget seems alarmed at the small harvest.

We'll also have some strawberries, baby Swiss Chard and possibly some carrots.
This week may be small but there's lots of stuff growing on that we'll have in the weeks to come. Hope to see you at the market.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Time to recertify

Gidget says, "You're late!"
Our annual certification is due so I've been working on making sure the 14 pages of paperwork  the San Diego agriculture department sent out were completed and I finally got the packet sent off yesterday. I'm slightly late but I'm hoping there will not be a lapse in our certification and if there is, it will only be for a week.
The most intensive part of the paperwork.
The thing that takes the longest is going through each species of plant and then the specific varieties that I want to sell. Tomatoes for example have 6 sub-categories so I have to report not only tomato but break it down into Misc. cherry tomato, orange/white/misc. cherry, pear cherry, red/pink globe, heirloom, or roma/oval and then report how many of each plant I plan to grow throughout the year and how many pounds of each I plan to produce and sell. The same applies for peppers, cucumbers, eggplant and nearly everything else we sell.

I also have to have seeds on hand for all of my winter crops and actually have one of each seed planted for the inspection. It's a lot of brain damage but once it's done, I don't have to worry about it again for another year. For those who are wondering the annual cost to be certified to sell at the farmers market is around $120.00 for our garden. 

We'll be at the market again on Saturday and I'm really excited because I've missed it. Hopefully we'll see you then.


Looking through the passion fruit into the front garden







Friday, June 1, 2012

June 1st

It's hard for me to believe June is already here. The garden isn't as far along as it should be but we do have some stuff growing on and with San Diego's favorable climate we'll be caught up in no time. Today's post is just a photographic tour.


Gidget loves giving tours
This is the back garden looking south - we have potted eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers, some beans and flowers back here.

This is looking east at the banana tree with some of the potted vegetables in the foreground. 

The roof just got pressured washed and will be repainted soon.

The avocado tree is looking very happy

And starting to produce the avocados that we'll have in winter
This is one of my favorite new flowers, I forget what variety of fuchsia it is though


I used my old red wagon as a planter bed for some succulents

The roses in the front garden are gorgeous and the sweet peas to the left are oh so fragrant

We'll have plenty of passion fruit for the market this year, I hope people still want it.

I just love these Mr. Lincoln roses

Here we have a tomato plant and non fruiting passion flower vine that are colliding.

Northwest view of front garden from the back, lots of zucchini this year 

I've never had luck with a topsy turvey but they were giving them away free at the nursery so I decided to try again. 
Frijole asks, "Is it time for lunch yet?"