Thursday, May 29, 2008

I'm back!

Sorry for such a long delay in posting, my life got suddenly very hectic in the last month with some family issues and a sick relative in the hospital taking all my time and energy when I'm not outside in my garden.

Life is falling back into a rhythm again tho, and I am proud ot say my garden has shaped itself beyond my original expectations. This weekend I finished adding mulch to the yard, so now a good 80% is covered in mulch, which should cut the weeds alot. Purslane is the weed thats most vigour in my garden right now, and even tho I know its edible I dont want it competing with my other vegetables/herbs for water so I keep pulling it out every chance I get get. Luckily when its small the roots arent deep so it pulls out by hand easily, its harder on the knees and wrists then anythign else.

We also got the posts and trellis netting for my cucumbers and bush watermelons. Sometime this week I need to find some 6ftx15ft netting for my planned double row of pole beans.

My garden has already started to share a nice little harvest with us. I got a few handfuls of blueberries earlier this month from my tiny bush, as well a couple pf strawberries from the runners my sister in law sent to us. I have started cutting broccoli, and the kale is a nice size to start using as well. My swiss chard is going nutts and growing faster then I could use it, so I'm planning on cutting it back to all but the youngest leaves and taking it to the inland empire organic produce co-op meetup I just joined.

I had to pull out all the spinach and lettuce that bolted in the sudden heat wave we had earlier this month. The spinach was disappointing, it barely had a few tiny true leaves before it bolted, even tho I planted it back in December and the winters here are mild, it didnt seem to thrive in either of the 2 places I had it.

I have tiny roma and beefsteak tomatos I am drooling over everyday, and today harvest my first summer squash, YUM! I have a japanese eggplant with a couple of fruits I can harvest by this weekend and the bush beans are really taking off and looking wonderful.

My peppers are starting to flower and I see a couple of tiny chilles on some plants, woot!

I'll try to update with photos in the next few days, I just didnt want anyone to think I gave up :)