A Long Hiatus Ends

Two years have gone by and we've scarcely stuck a trowel into dirt.

I blame these fallow periods on California's lack of seasons. It's even worse with a four-year-old drought on. Planting time seems to begin earlier and earlier and there's always something else to grab our attention.

The oregano, thyme and mint that we moved away from the main vegetable plot are still going. There are brown paper bags hanging from my balcony with drying herbs. They should be ready to put into jars tomorrow. The biggest challenge is harvesting before they go to flower.

The mint died off and has now come back. It's indestructible, it seems. It makes wonderful tea when added fresh to black tea. We need to work harder on summer recipes that use mint with yogurt, quinoa or cucumbers. Perhaps with the Fourth of July holiday coming up we can spotlight some dishes featuring mint.

All that's left in the main vegetable patch is a tenacious yellow chard. We cleared away the knitted trellis and put it in storage for awhile. The bamboo stakes that make its framework were splintering and breaking. The vivid colors of the construction twine have faded, but it's still functional.

Our big challenge in restarting the garden is water. There's some irrigation in the vegetable plot, but not enough. We've always used soaker hoses to good effect, but one has now sprung a leak and with the addition of the herb garden, we need to branch the hoses to hit different areas.

There's always the possibility of doing a drip system, but it takes some expertise in making sure you don't have backflow of water if something gets stopped up. It's labor-intensive and is best done after you have a plan. That way you know where the drips should be. We tend to be more impulsive gardeners.

Karen spent a lot of time digging, which means the plot is cleared of a lot of tree roots and we didn't have to resort to mechanically tilling, which disrupts the creatures great and small in the dirt.

Comments

Hand-Knit Trellis Now Ready for Climbing Foot-Long Beans

Just as the "June" gloom is starting to burn off, I finished my knitted trellis for the garden. It completely surrounds one of our bamboo tripods, with space at the bottom for tending the romaine lettuces growing within the tripod. It's knit out of nylon twine on US 35 needles. While the nylon has no stretch (the way a wool yarn does), the huge gauge has loads of give. The piece was knit flat with ties attached along one edge. It is tied to the tripod along one leg. One some early samples for a knitted plant trellis, I experimented with lace patterns. They look lovely, but I realized two things. One, once the plants grow up the trellis any knitting pattern is lost. Secondly, the plants and leaves need space to grow in and out of. I used a pattern for a shawl: k1, yo, k2tog and then repeat. I got lost a number of times: the yarn-overs drifted over other stitches on occasion. As this was a speed project that won't be visible ones the beans grow over it, I didn

Know Your Soil For Best Garden Results

I've always taken soil for granted. It was there. You put seeds into it. You put water on it. Plants grow and produce flowers, fruit or vegetables. Gayle Weinstein, author of Xeriscape Handbook; A How-To Guide to Natural, Resource-Wise Gardening , takes a different view: “Soil . . . acts as a highway between life and death, land and atmosphere, plants and animals.” It stores water, air and nutrients and makes it possible for an exchange of elements and chemical reactions to occur, she adds. She describes soil as being animal, vegetable and mineral combined. Here are six tests Gayle recommends for getting to know your soil. Grab a shovel and a quart jar. Dig up two cups of dry soil two-to-six inches deep from the areas you want to test. Gather a glass of water, dish washing detergent and paper towels. A soil pH kit, a meter or litmus paper will be needed for the final test.

Determinate vs indeterminate: why does it matter?

When Karen and I planted our 2020 garden, we made the one mistake you never want to make with tomatoes: we didn't check whether the plants we bought were determinant or indeterminate. Our assumption that the cherry tomato plants would be small (small tomatoes means small plant, right?) and the romas would be big, was 180 degrees wrong. The Great Green Goddess of Gardening was on our side, however. Karen has been able to stake up the indeterminate cherry tomatoes -- and the determinate romas have plenty of string fencing to grow on. I've been asked to write more about the differences between indeterminate and determinant tomato plants. Since I clearly needed to review, I'm glad to do so. In simple terms, determinate plants are like bushes or shrubs; indeterminate plants are like trees. Determinate plants are genetically set to grow to a certain size and stop. Indeterminate plants will keep producing stems, leaves and fruit as long as they get enough water, light and warmth.

The Fink Farm Dirt

Search This Blog