Garden Chronicles :: Chapter 8

Garden Warfare

Every thing was pretty standard, or so we thought, in our yard and garden for the past month. All of the vegetables and animals seemed to be living and growing in harmony with each other. The western garden plot continued to thrive with tomatoes, peppers & eggplants while the newer civilized eastern plot was doing well with larger plants like corn, pumpkin and some artichokes. Everything was growing and budding at what seemed to be an accelerated rate until the day our garden was infiltrated by a foreign substance.

A few weeks ago one of the pumpkin plants decided to take a different path and surpass all of the other plants. Not only did it take over most of garden plot number 2, but it expanded outside of the garden territory and began taking over parts of the yard and walkway as well. We got excited thinking about all the pumpkin pie we could make in November if it continued to prosper, so we gave it more attention and began arming it with every thing it needed. Two large pumpkins started to develop near our walkway, we call them the survivors, and we watched their every move. Shortly after three other baseball size pumpkin buds started to appear on the opposite side of the plot.

We let the pumpkin take over the garden, arming it as it invaded and at times even demolished other plants and their plots. With the help of the crazy hens and their daily invasions of clearing out insects or any other foreign invaders, the pumpkin continued to grow at such an accelerated rate that we didn't even notice the trouble developing in one of its new regions. Some of the smaller, younger leaves started allowing mold, like a new ideology grow on their leaves. The mold became aggressive and shortly after, some of the older leaves were under attack. Within a few days the mold started to take over the entire plant. Not knowing what it was, we thought the leaves were drying out due to a lack of nutrition and did exactly what we should have not done. We began arming it with more nutrients and supplies by watering it more. Unfortunately for the plant the mold was able to ambush much of the nutrients, making it stronger and more aggressive, while the plant got weaker. With its supplies cut off it was nearly impossible for the plant to fight off its new friend turned foe.

It took about two weeks before every melon origin plant in both plots had taken to the mold. This included the cantaloup region, the cucumber, of coarse the squash and zucchini, even some of the younger tomatoes got involved. Once the mold takes over it pretty much cuts the life supply to the fruit. All of the new buds on the pumpkin plant with the exception of the survivors fell in battle. We continued to let the pumpkins grow for another week before admitting that the mold had changed the rules of garden warfare. Soon both plots looked like a war zone and our once beautiful edible landscaping started to look like Baghdad 2003. Finally after coming to the realization that the mold had won, we decided to pull the plug and harvest what we could.

This wasn't a total disaster, all of our peppers, corn, artichokes and greens seemed to survive the attack. Some of the stronger older tomatoes did as well. I think they have more acid in their leaves which helps fight it off. Our egg plants survived the mold also, but their leaves look like Swiss cheese after an entirely different attack from a swarm of terrorist bugs of an unknown region. They seem to be strong and grounded so they continue to put out fruit. We will continue to keep supplying them aid on a close watch.

After spending time educating myself on the habits and nature of our new enemy I have learned that mold is pretty common adversary to the Pumpkin plants. Since this happened we are taking steps to avoid it coming back. One of the first things we are going to do is start watering our garden from the ground and not from above with sprinkler. Not only will this help conserve water by reducing run-off, but it will help the leaves stay dry, and not give the enemy the ideal environment it needs to spread. If we see any signs of the mold returning in the future, which we most likely will, we will remove it as soon as possible. They also have organic sprays that claim to kill the mold if we can catch it in time. I don't know if they work but I will find out next season.

Garden Chronicles :: Chapter 7

Garden Plot Numero dos is taking off.

The pumpkin plant has gotten ridiculously huge, it has moved on past taking over the garden and now it taking over the yard. That is just fine with Blanch as she loves to get out of her pen and go to work looking for bugs or worms.

The corn is also going off in the second plot. Looking at this picture I now understand why the straight edgers and skins called me and my surfer/skater buddies 'corn heads' when we were younger.

Garden Chronicles: Chapter 6

Casualty, Men Down! I have been watching my two celebrities coming in for two months now. They have even been featured in two posts with their magnificent girth and beauty. Apparently I wasn't the only one keeping an eye on their slow maturity. Four days ago they started to turn orange. No Bugs, No Worms, No cracks. Three days ago they started to get rosy cheeks as the orange began to slowly change to a red. Two days ago they began to turn almost all red, with another day left of maturity. I watered the plot with worm tea, brewed from worm castings, just to give the roots another boost of energy to focus pushing nutrients on to their fruit. Then yesterday we went to pull them and STOP.



What was the mysterious creature? Did it just happen into them at the perfect time? I doubt it. That means that this was premeditated. Which would most likely mean it will come back.

Was it skunk? I didn't smell anything out of the ordinary.
Was it a Possum? Chickens didn't make as sound
Was it a raccoon? Chickens didn't make as sound
Was it gofer? No trace of gofer holes anywhere.
Was it a chupacabra? Hmmmmm

Garden Chronicles :: Chapter 5

So far all of our garden plots are doing great. The celebrity tomatoes in our first plot are getting huge.

Our second (new) garden plot is taking off as well. It is hard to believe that we planted it only two weeks ago. We have a pumpkin plant that is taking over the entire South West wing of the garden plot.

Because we decided that we wanted to do an organic garden, we have yet to use any insecticides or growth hormones on our plants. Nor have they needed them. We just open up the chicken coop and let the girls do their thing.

They know how to climb in and out of their coop when the door is open to make their way into the garden.

Once they are in the garden the start foraging around for worms and insects.

When they are all done gardening they will make there way back their coop, climb back in and relax.

 

Garden Chronicles :: Chapter 4

Well allot of growing up has been taking place over here at casa de Coburn, or at least we tend to think so. Things have been growing fast. Every day we are having meals from our garden. Sometimes it might just be some greens for a burrito, other times we will have a entire meal.

Everything is coming in just perfect.

I think that one of the funniest things about our edible landscaping, is that we actually do not have that much room work with. I mean our yard is half the size of other yards that we have had in the past, but for some reason it just works out so fine. So fine that after enjoying the first rounds of the fruits of our labor, we decided to set up another garden plot.

The new garden spot we put where our wild flower mix was growing. All of the wild flowers ran their coarse, so when they started to fade out we began making plans for what we would do next. We decided to extend the planter into the yard almost doubling the original size of the planter for another garden. Then we worked the soil. Worked the soil some more, and then added the compost to the soil. We worked the compost about 6-10 inches into the original soil, and then toped it off with 4 inches of straight compost.

We ended up enclosing our entire garden with a 16" chicken wire fence to keep out the predators. We also added a brick around the entire garden for eye candy.

This is a view from our roof deck looking down into the yard at the two garden plots. In another month and a half it will be time to start turning over the first garden plot. At that time the second plot will begin yielding its veggies. We are hoping to work both plots simultaneously giving us a continual supply of vegetables throughout each season.

This is what the view from our front door looks like.

We also cleaned out a plot across our yard that has some nice succulents and palms. This spot gets minimal sunlight however these plants do well in the shade and need only a little water to survive. Leaving most of our watering for the edible plants.

We decided to use the scraps from one of our palms to finish off a hanging basket in our hanging garden. Then we planted basil in it. Yummy.

 

Garden Chronicles : Chapter 1

This year we got out garden going a little late in the season, fortunately in San Diego, Ca you can get away with that. This was our first year in our house so the fist thing we needed to do was pick out our plot. TIP: Choosing a Location -- Select a plot of good, well-drained soil near a water supply. It should be close to the home for convenience, but should not be shaded by tall buildings or trees. Enclosing the garden spot with a fence is usually profitable.We chose a spot next our south west fence that gets the most sunlight, and acts as a natural barricade against critters. After we chose a spot, we spent the first week tearing up the soil and getting it ready for a garden. It s a little back breaking work, especially if your use to being on a computer all week, however the reward of yard work is always beneficial.

We decided to do an Organic Garden for a number of reasons. Organic gardening differs from "conventional" gardening mainly in the areas of fertilization and pest control. The organic gardener prefers to use natural and organic materials and methods, and avoids using practices and synthetic chemicals that may be detrimental to his health or environment. In order to this much attention is put on the soil you use, to maximize the most nutrients getting to your plants from the soil alone. A major basis for organic gardening is the use of abundant quantities of organic material applied to the soil. Usually, it is in the form of animal manures, plant manures, cover crops, compost, or mixed organic fertilizer. We purchased a composter at our Neighborhood Gardening Store to start our composting. The model we purchased is great for making compost as well as making compost tea. This batch will not be ready for another 3-6 months, just in time for our winter garden.

We also started a Vermiposter with worms. Worm composting is a method for recycling food waste into a rich, dark, earth-smelling soil conditioner. The great advantage of worm composting is that this can be done indoors and outdoors, thus allowing year round composting. It also provides apartment dwellers with a means of composting. In a nutshell, worm compost is made in a container filled with moistened bedding and redworms. Add your food waste for a period of time, and the worms and micro-organisms will eventually convert the entire contents into rich compost. We got our started and then were able to go by a friends house and pick up some worms. This will kick start our batch in time for next season.

Because we needed something a little sooner we went to out local Land Fill and picked some of the good stuff up there. Fortunately for us, residents of San Diego get can get their compost for free at the Miramar Land Fill, as long as you are willing to scoop it up for themselves. We undershot our first load, so we had to make an extra trip to make sure that we had enough for both of our plots. We even had enough after our second trip to stoke out one of our neighbors with some our extras. TIP: Compost can actually get rather expensive if you are purchasing it at a Garden Store. We estimated that we saved around $400 right from the start picking ours up at the land fill.

The Garden Design -- Many gardeners find it helpful to draw out on paper the location of each row and the crop or succession of crops to be planted. We did this as well. We separated our garden into four separate plots and grew plants that are good companions together. TIP: There are two types of companion plants: those that compliment the nutrient needs of other plants, and those that insects do not like. Plants that insects do not like, make great companions to other plants in your organic garden. Planting onions and garlic amid your organic vegetables, will repel a variety of insects. In addition to providing insect protection, you can harvest the onions and garlic, too. Marigolds are another great companion plant. A companion plant can also be one that insects like. In South America, coffee growers plant banana trees around the coffee crops. Insects like the sweet, banana plants and fruit, much more than coffee plants.

To avoid walking on the soil and compacting it down which can be damaging to plant roots, we laid planks across our garden to act as a natural barrier between plots, as well as give us access to all areas of our growing plants.

As an extra bonus for our garden we water it with our house plants and garden with our dirty fish tank water. We keep a basic gold fish tank that sits in a window seal between our patio and living room. Each week we need to clean out the tank and replace 1/3 of the water. That dirty water is full of amino acids and nitrogen that plants thrive on.

one week later.

Keeping out the Predators can be basic or extreme depending upon your situation. To keep out our land shark we put a basic garden fence. This way he can't roam around the garden covering our garden with his markings, and eating our ripe harvest. We are hoping the combination of the fence and land shark will keep out the raccoons and skunks. We also built a simple frame to lead our vine vegetables, and added an old disco ball that helps keep out the birds.

We started growing natural wildflowers about a month before we planted our garden to deter predators of the vegetables.

our onions are kicking in as to be expected.

Some nice spots that we found to grow herbs are in hanging baskets.