First Monday in Spring

Another productive Monday with Anthony and Donna. We planted 4 apple trees in the front yard. Rubinette, Hawaii, Wickson Crab and Williams Pride. These 4 TINY trees all came from Kuffel CreeK—our SoCal apple expert (see link at right). I am finally following through with the idea of putting my apples on the east side of the house, where they will receive plenty of light without the blazing late afternoon rays that can burn the fruit. I plan to add 2 new low chill cherries to the same area next spring: Minnie Royal and Royal Lee. I think cherries will benefit from the same treatment. My Stella cherry in the back orchard has succumbed to borers which entered (as they often do) through sunscald wounds.

We spent the remaining hours weeding one of the veggie gardens and refreshing the paths with a thick layer of newspaper and straw. The plant that took 99% of our weeding time was Oxalis, the eradication of which former LA Times garden editor Robert Smaus said was his single most time consuming garden chore. I think I would agree. At this time of year these devil plants are busy forming little bulblets underground that will stick around to annoy you again later. I dig them out carefully— trying to get the bulblets and smashing the loose ones between my fingers. Squish squish.

We also prepared the pumpkin bed- an area between 2 rows of trees in the orchard where I loosened the soil with a garden fork and then papered and mulched. When my pumpkin seedlings are strong I will punch holes in the sheet mulch, plant four hills and lay down a drip line. I was happy with the way the vines wandered through the trees and near the beehives last year, but was disappointed in the number and size of fruit. I will adjust the drip lines so they get a little more water and try to feed them more.

We are eating from the garden this week: cabbage, lettuces, cilantro, arugula, Fuerte avocados, thyme, Bay leaves, tarragon, green onions, leeks, snap peas, kohlrabi, Swiss chard, beets, curly endive, tangelos, tangerines, lemons, oranges, grapefruit, limes and undoubtedly something else.

One of the lettuces I planted last year reseeded itself all over the yard- I love the way it looks in and around my roses—bright green and ruffled. Yesterday I noticed it coming up in cracks in the driveway. Hardy and determined. John asked "what kind of lettuce is it? It must have a name— like Farmer's Joy or Pride of the Driveway?"

Finally, for anyone who wants to read a witty, informative and humorous food growing adventure I recommend "Farm City" by Novella Carpenter. Her successes and failures squatting on an abandoned lot in west Oakland shed an interesting light on food growing in the city. I loved her story of dumpster diving at upscale East Bay restaurants to feed her two pigs, and was touched by her beautiful wording of a belief and experience I share with her: that you can love your farm animals, treat them with respect and care and then eat them.

http://www.amazon.com/Farm-City-Education-Urban-Farmer/dp/1594202214/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269321879&sr=1-1

It's spring crunch time. Time to prepare for the biggest garden season, mulching, feeding and seed starting. How many tomatoes will you grow???

Back to the Blog....Happy Spring

After a 5 month break from blogging I am back at it, sorry to have let so much time slip by. These months were somewhat discouraging, having lost the garden help I had, and it's interesting to note that my lack of enthusiasm for writing lasted as long as it took me to find the right people to join me in my work. My big yard is more than I can do by myself, but gardening in a non traditional way makes it difficult to find energetic and open minded workers. The average LA garden worker does not want to work side by side with me, and follow my specific methods. I work hard at adding organic matter to my beds, rather than sweeping or blowing it away and I do not like straight lines or shrubbery forced into geometric shapes. I aim to remove lawn and blacktop and I hate and I mean HATE people who do not treat my dirt with respect. These things are not normal. The woman who for 10 years helped me one day a week moved on in her life, and the crew that came a few hours a week for clean up turned out to be ignoring my rule of "No Chemicals" and was shown the door.

I was lucky enough to find Anthony's Green Gardening service. Anthony and his wife Donna are just getting established and they join me Monday mornings for 4 hours. We work hard! They are sweet, energetic and conscientious and I feel very lucky to have stumbled into their world. They understand. The garden is catching up to where I want it.

This week I have herb seeds in the light table. I'll be moving the Basil seedlings outside to acclimatize and filling that spot under the lights with a tray full of tomato seeds. I have pared it down to just 16 tomato varieties - not easy for the likes of me. One of the first things Anthony, Donna and I worked on was redoing the big herb garden- adding irrigation, digging out over zealous plants to move to confined areas, giving everything a haircut and relocating certain plants to better locations in the bed. It looks a little sad right now, but as the weather warms and I fill in the gaps it will be beautiful again. Over the next weeks I'll be scanning the farmers markets and nurseries for herb plants, in addition to the unusual things I am starting- Culantro, Papaloquelite, Vietnamese mint, Thai Roselle, Shiso and many more.

Here are a few photos from the garden this week. The Apricot tree with the beehives in back. Rainbow chard. The chard bed with garlic behind. The last of the male turkeys. He is a "Sweetgrass" and very beautiful. Behind is a "Royal Palm" hen. I'm glad to say that he grew out of humping a pumpkin and has found solace and satisfaction in the 3 hens that are his for the taking...