First sprout of the summer garden!

Planted two boxes of tomatoes and peppers last Saturday. First sprout today!

Summer Feast tomatoe. 

This was late March, but failed to publish.  Just noticed it today and re-published. 

Winter garden update

Picked a full bowl of snow peas and some overgrown red leaf lettuce. Also pulled 3 heads of bock choi. 

Found a ton of bugs (aphids I think) all over the Brussels sprouts, Colliflower, and a little on the new growth of the Kale. Tons of slugs, mostly on the bock choi and butter lettuce. 

Fava beans

Cut back fava beans, leaving the roots. Plants were ~ 2 1/2 to 3 feet tall, about the same height as the fence. 

Garden update - 12/27/13

Fava Beans

- Doing well and healthy

- Growing much higher at far end (5") vs. Middle (2"), due to sun exposure

Veggies

- Doing well and healthy

- Some slugs found on leafy greens

- No yield yet other than large leafy greens picked from outside of plants

Greenhouses & Cold Boxes

Prune date - 12/25/13

Cherry tree

Grape vines

Notes from "Grow Biointensive: A Beginner's Guide in 8 Easy Sessions" DVD

Cover crops:

Fava beans

Cereal rye

Vetch

Triticale

Barley

Alfalfa

You can plant cereal rye and fava together. They last through winter and take off in the spring. 

Alternate grains and legumes YoY. 

Diakon will burrow into the soil and the roots will compost. Improves soil in addition to crop yield. 

Parsley and Celery attract beneficial bugs. 

Tree collards can be grown year round. 

Seed beds:

Can be any size, either 3" or 6" deep, depending on crops. 

First bed: scatter seeds by hand. Transplant healthy seedlings to second bed, evenly spaced apart in hexagonal (off-set line) pattern. Transplant to garden when ready in same pattern. Use a small stick to measure distance between plants. 

Prepping soil:

Double dig

Rake to level

Add fertilizer

Add compost

Aerate with rake

Water unless you a replanting right away

Nudge

British Nudge Unit - http://www.inudgeyou.com/category/posts/uk-nudge-unit/

Book

Freakanomics podcast - Fighting Poverty with Actual Evidence - 11/27/13

TED Talk - need to find the link

Rasta Elton John (signing "Daniel")

Garden update

I planted our first winter garden this year. A few notes and dates. 

Oct 26

- Pulled everything out of the summer garden

- Could have done this sooner

Nov 2 

- Planted half the garden (closest to the cherry tree) with winter crops

- Snow peas

- Broccoli

- Colliflower

- Brussel Sprouts

- Mixed Greens

- Lettuce

Nov 24

- Planted Fava Bean seeds

- Should have got these in the ground in late Oct/early Nov as sprouts

- Start germinating fava bean seeds in early Oct next year

- Used about 1.5 lbs of seeds

BART Bob Dylan

Harmonica and a bike

Young Country Guy drinking a Monster

Stand-up Bass Jazz guy

I wear my sunglasses inside...

My guitar case is just for show...

Montgomery BART musicians series - bluesy floor player edition

Everyday there's a different street performer in the Montgomery BART station. I'm amazed at how concsistent the scene is. There's never more than one performer, and I don't recall seeing the same performer twice in the two months I've been taking this route. The next series of blog posts will be a visual homage to them. 

Ken Robinson Quote

I listened to Ken Robinson's TED Talk recently and went out and purchased his book, The Element. I'm about to start reading it now so I watched his talk again. I liked this quote:

"If you're doing the thing that you love  time takes a different course entirely... If you're doing something that you love an hour feels like 5 minutes. If you're doing something that doesn't resonate with your spirit 5 minutes feels like an hour."

http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html

Vegetable Update

I harvested the first crops from the garden today. 3 hot peppers, 2 sweet peppers, 4-5 jalapeños, a bunch of green beans, and some cilantro. 

I used a jalapeño and the cilantro to make poco de gallo for the tacos we ate for dinner. I can't wait to be able to add our own tomatoes to the recipe as well. We'll eat the green beans for dinner tomorrow, and Lisa is going to pickle the peppers for me to make pepperoncinis. :)  

Harley & Aiden bonding time

Harley met Aiden as we got home from the hospital today. We went for a family walk shortly thereafter. Seems like these boys will get along well.