Garden

  • Fish Fertilizer, Tilling, Composting

    Fish Fertilizer, Tilling, Composting

    I fed almost everything again with Alaska Fish Fertilizer. Might be too much at this point. I got my soil test results back. I probably didn’t collect the soil samples perfectly. I may not have dug deep enough, and I suspect some recently fertilized soil mixed in. I’m planning a boron foliar… [more]

  • Borax

    Borax

    I mixed 1 teaspoon of Borax into a gallon of water and used it as a boron spray. I hit the established tomatoes, tomatillos, pumpkins, and the spaghetti squash on the arch. I gave light sprays to some younger plants and a few spots on the hill. [more]

  • Insecticidal Soap

    Insecticidal Soap

    I hit the overhanging tree on the southwest side with insecticidal soap. It’s hosting a heavy whitefly population. [more]

  • Calcium Nitrate

    Calcium Nitrate

    I mixed 4 tablespoons of calcium nitrate into 1.5 gallons of water and used it on about ten tomato and tomatillo plants, plus several pumpkins. I also used the spray to knock aphids off the big eggplant in the strawberry patch. That plant might be the biggest one I’ve grown. The pumpkin… [more]

  • Fertilizing and Transplants

    Fertilizing and Transplants

    I fed almost everything except the green beans with Jack’s 20-20-20. I wanted to switch from fish fertilizer and give the fruiting plants more P and K. Only the older cherry tomato is producing well right now. One Roma near the roses has a lot of green fruit that won’t ripen, and… [more]

  • Fertilizing before rain

    Fertilizing before rain

    I fertilized nearly every plant with Alaska Fish Fertilizer on the 17th. Everything in the ground and all containers got a dose, though amounts varied. Earlier that week I planted potatoes in a mix of containers and a few in-ground spots. I’m curious how they’ll handle pests and how the different locations… [more]

  • Tithonias

    Tithonias

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  • Sunday Planting with Ivy

    Sunday Planting with Ivy

    This morning Ivy dropped some California Wildflower seeds all around the south side of the house by the AC units. That narrow strip of dirt is often shaded, so I’m not sure what will grow there beyond some native weeds. I’ve been dropping pruned tomato leaves and other things for weeks. And… [more]

  • Corn, Eggplant, Tomatillos, etc

    Corn, Eggplant, Tomatillos, etc

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  • Shadecloth, Cucumbers, etc

    Shadecloth, Cucumbers, etc

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  • Cucumbers, Tomatoes, etc

    Cucumbers, Tomatoes, etc

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  • Losing a Tree, Planting an Avocado

    Losing a Tree, Planting an Avocado

    A peaceful moment working in the garden, interrupted by a loud cracking, I look over to see this huge branch falling towards me. I was out of range, just. Later we had someone look at it who was able to point out some dead parts of the tree, and the recommendation was… [more]

  • Tomato Progress, Flowers, etc

    Tomato Progress, Flowers, etc

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  • Starting Plants From Seeds

    Starting Plants From Seeds

    In April I planted seeds for the first time: bell peppers and onions in small plastic cups with drainage holes, and a few in small square ceramic pots. The ceramic pots were a bad choice. We bought them on impulse because they looked nice. At that point, I didn’t understand up-potting at… [more]

  • Wildlife, Flowers, Tomato Progress

    Wildlife, Flowers, Tomato Progress

    In April and May we began to notice more wildlife. It was always there, we just noticed it more by spending more time outside. But I think there has been a real uptick in pollinators with the new plants we introduced. There are a lot of lizards sunning. One in particular we… [more]

  • Painting Fences and Gates

    Painting Fences and Gates

    It had been a long time since I painted anything outside. It’s satisfying. Tough work scrapping off the peeling paint. I did some light sanding on the gate. [more]

  • Weeding, Mulching, Maintenance

    Weeding, Mulching, Maintenance

    I buried the pvc pipe that was exposed, removed some weeds, and aerated the soil a bit. I used landscape fabric and put cedar mulch down. It looked really nice for the first couple of months. I don’t think I’ll ever use that fabric again where I will be planting stuff. Too… [more]

  • Fixing The Strawberry Patches

    Fixing The Strawberry Patches

    One of the first things I tackled in the backyard was figuring out why the two strawberry patches were holding so much water. The left patch was empty. The right one held a dense stand of strawberries that Bryon has kept going for years. Long before I started gardening, he would pick… [more]

  • How It Started

    How It Started

    In February, we got a couple of coupons in the mail from a local nursery. We thought it would be a good outing for us and the kids. The plan was: eat lunch at a place we like close to the nursery, and then get some sun and maybe some flowers for… [more]

Compost

  • 108°F – Yesterday I added another small bucket of kitchen scraps and some watermelon rind, along with some cardboard. Gave everything a good turn. Glad to see temps still rising.

  • 98°F – Rising.

  • 90°F – Rising.

  • 80°F – Added a bunch of torn up and shredded cardboard and paper packing, used coffee grounds, kitchen scraps, and a couple of old bok choy plants. Added water and gave everything a turn.

  • 80°F – Over the last few weeks I’ve been adding kitchen scraps 1 or 2 times a week along with 50% shredded cardboard. We’ve been putting that at the bottom of the little compost bucket we have in the kitchen so we don’t have to measure too hard brown/green all at once. I’ve also tossed in some plants we’ve let go, lettuce and the like. Alena did get some used coffee grounds recently and we have a ton of cardboard to chop up so I will try to get a hot pile going again soon.

  • I’ve used most of the previous pile, and the pile currently in the Geobin has been curing for a few weeks now. The kitchen scraps we collect each week, I’ve been burying with some shredded cardboard underneath various garden beds. As I understand it, buried deeply enough, it’s ok to plant right away things like beans, peas, radish, etc. Other things that want to root deeper, or would be hindered by a likely nitrogen tie-up from the browns, should not be planted for at least a couple of months.

    Going forward, I’m going to be adding our kitchen scraps along with some browns to the Geobin pile, right on top. Did that today, lightly mixed and covered with the curing compost. Once I have a big enough mass, I’ll cut out some mustard, radish, and other plants at the end of their lifecycle, and make sure I have enough browns to turn it really well and see if we can get a hot pile again. But for now we’ll just do gradual, small additions for a bit.

  • 86°F – With the drop below 90, I decided to give this pile a good turning and consider it in the curing phase now. I’ll likely move this to the curing pit in a couple of weeks, and then not touch it again for months. It looks good already, darker than the previous pile. But of course I can still see plenty of fall leaves mixed in still as those take a long time and a different kind of microbe to break down.

  • 103°F

  • 113°F

  • 112°F

  • 110°F

  • 94°F

  • 102°F – TURNED

    I gave the pile a good turning today and added about 3 cups of coffee grounds and a gallon of kitchen scraps, with a little bit more water. Little bit risky here without some more browns to add but I’m treating this like an experiment. If it starts to get smelly, I know to add browns.

  • 106°F

  • 112°F – The pile seemed a little too dry so I added some moisture in the form of urine diluted with about a gallon of water. I also added some chopped up, undiseased plants: two pea plants and a few small pole bean plants. That was not quite a bucket all chopped up.

    On the old pile, it’s looking fine but in order to help it cure faster, I added some coffee grounds and water. There is still some recognizable garden straw, cardboard, and leaves needing to be smaller. So I sharpened the shovel with a file and then chopped up the pile a bit. I also added some charcoal that I’d sifted out of grow bags recently used. I let it soak with some compost in a bucket so it was very wet. I then mixed it into the pile a bit and watered to make sure there’s plenty of moisture.

  • 102°F

  • 113°F – Added about half a bucket of kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, and 3 buckets of shredded cardboard. I turned it into the pile, spraying with water along the way.

    In the 2 and a half weeks since I started this pile, it has shrank in size about 25%. These new inputs and the turning puffed it up again.

  • 122°F

  • 131°F

  • 135°F

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