GROW FROM SEEDLINGS

Since my last post I have accomplish alot.  I've turned over the soil (no tiller for me, it was all shovel), planted three different onions, beets, lettuce and chard, started seedlings for cantelope, honeydew, basil, chives, cilantro, pumpkin, bell peppers, stevia, tomato and tomatillo.

What I have to show, at this moment, with respect to the seedlings are baby plants for the pumpkin, bell pepper, cilantro and basil.  As to all the others, it looks good but hard to tell until something sprouts.

I'm using egg containers to start the seedlings.  They are the type of containers that are biodegradable and each carton is either twelve or eighteen plantings.  I ordered, from Burpee a package of 72 growing pellets, the seeds for the stevia, tomatillo and tomato.  The other seeds I had purchased from SafeWay or took them from the melons I had purchased, as in the case of the pumpkins, catelope and honeydew.

All in all, I hope to be planting the seedlings in two to three weeks (keep your fingers crossed for me).  In all, if all sprout I will be planting in my little country garden another 72 plants.

Ya know what else?  I have about twenty small plants coming up in the garden on their own.  I believe they're melons.  Why?  Because with each melon we ate last season I threw the seeds into my garden.  The leaf of these small plants look alot like the leaf of the small water melon leaf I planted last year.  That would be nice,  those small melons were very sweet and tasty.

Until next...happy gardening!

From Anthony

2011 Garden

I have now turned over an area of 30 x 30 feet.  All the compost I threw in over last summer has made a big difference.  Last year I didn't see alot of worms in turning over the soil.  This year I have three to five worms with each shovel of dirt I turned over.
The artichoke plant is now three plants; two new plants grew from the original plant.  I plan to dig two up and seperate them off the initial plant and replant them far enough apart to hopefully get another split this year. The sage is doing great and I transplanted the chives and thyme from a somewhat sunny spot to a sunny spot.  I'm planning on planting more herbs, oragano, rosemary, dill.  In addition this year I will be planting several different chiles, including sweet small bellpeppers.  I will also plant tomatos and melons.

I'm thinking of planting a thornless black berrie plant just because I like black berries.  Because these plants can get out of hand if not cut way back, I'm having second thoughts.

Three weeks ago I planted Wala Wala onions (6 plants), red onion (6), chard (6), white onion (6), lettuce (6) and spinach (6).  The birds ate two of the chard plants and one of the Wala Wala plants.  I learned and covered the remaining plants with mesh wire.  So the remaining plants are now doing better.

I planted two new fruit trees; one elephant plumb and one newhaven peach.  I pruned my palmagranite tree that looked like a wild bush, back to two main trunks (down from ten).  This tree (bush) is a great producer, I hope cutting it back ultimately greates even greater production.

n January I was given a plant native to El Salvador by a good friend from ES.  It produces a flower-like fruit that looks like a flower.  This fruit is tasty when pickled.  I like the plant because it can grow like a tree to be tall but not too tall.

I put in a crude pit so that I can have a small camp fire near the garden.  I've already used it several times.  Though the nites were cold, I was warmed with sweet memories.  Why does a campfire always have that impact on people?

I asked my son for a suggestion for the garden and he suggested Stevia; it is a small plant who's leaves are very sweet.  Compared to sugar they are sweeter.  This came up when I shared with my son that Ana and I have changed our eating habits; we are now officially cave people (the cave man diet).  Basically we are limiting our intake of carbs to 15% or less.  I mentioned that what I missed most was the sweetness in my deserts.  That's when he suggested I look up Stevia.  Well, I looked it up and I intend to add it to my garden.  It's a perineal, though the reading suggests its hard to start.  But once started it does well.

I'll try to remember to take recent photos of my garden for my next post.

Hope all is well with you and your family.

Things are growing

Well, since we last touched basis I've turned the soil in my garden in St. Helena at the Little Ranch for two more beds.  Two weeks ago I planted corn, peas, radishes, two more tomato plants, onions and in addition I dug up and replanted the chives, dill and cilantro in a larger area. 

The artichoke has five artichokes almost ready to pick (I picked one a little over a week ago--Ana barbecued it and it was fantastic!) and I'll probably pick two this weekend. This week end I will plant the watermelon seeds and the cucumber seeds.
Of the seeds I've planted what is coming up?  Glad you asked.  The corn is about 1/4 " high and the radishes are about the same.  There was no sign of growing from the peas or the onions.  I'm anticipating that I'll see something this weekend.

I was able to get through most of the book,  "Home Vegetable Gardening-a Complete and Practical Guide to" by F. P. Rockwell.  It was a book I got from Kindle Books and downloaded to my Kindle for free.  It's one I wouldn't recommend (don't tell me you get what you pay for. You also get what you order free).  Actually I'm a big fan of Kindle.  There are sometimes problem with charts and that seemed to be the problem with this particular gardening book.

Does anyone know of a good book on vegetable gardening?  If so let me know.

Like my garden that's growing I wanted to share with you the fact my grandchildren are also growing.  Here is a photo of my oldest grandson Fred.  He's reached 6' and he's only 16.  That's me next to him and I'm standing on a chair.

Having Little Space for your Garden

This last week I ended up doing a little gardening in San Francisco and over the weekend, a little gardening at the Little Ranch in St. Helena.  Both gardens are very different.  Different in what I plan on them looking like, different in lay out, different in area size and different in climate.

In San Francisco I have a small raised planting box roughly 3' by 20'.  I planted a single fruit tree (a Mandarin-Kumquat hybrid) and three Heirloom tomato plants. I haven't yet decided what else to plant. I purchased all of the planting at Costco in San Francisco.  It's been roughly 5 days since the planting and the tomato plants don't look like they're going to do much.  I'm not sure if it's because I watered them too much after planting them or they just don't do well in the cold (though sunny) weather here.

Over the weekend we were at the Little Ranch and I was able to create a total of eight beds.  That sounds better than saying I overturned the dirt with a shovel.  I will be planting (it's my plan right now) one Heirloom tomato plant, one large tomato plant, one small tomato plant (the small/large describe the size of the fruit);  that take up three circular beds.  I am going to plant four rows of corn (I like corn in my garden.  It brings me luck.).  That will take up two additional beds, each 3' by 20'.  I have three other beds.  Those three beds are 2' by 10'.  In these three beds Ana wants me to plant herbs, the names of which she hasn't given me yet.

In addition to the beds that I've already created, I have a small patch of earth I plan on turning over with my trusty shovel next weekend.  The area is roughly 12' by 12' and I plan to plant at least three different melons.  Last year at the Little Ranch I turned over about half of the area I'm planting this year.  Everything I planted did well, corn, chillies, radishes (two types), tomatoes (two types), cucumbers (two types), water melons.  At the end of last season I planted an artichoke plant.  I didn't get any artichokes off the plant last year but you should see it now.  It has six artichoke on the single plant.  The photo at top shows my artichoke plant.

I'm going to look for something else to plant in my San Francisco garden pictured below.  For those of you who are familiar with the City, my garden is in the St. Mary's Park subdivision.  If you have any advise on what to plant, let me know.

Hope everything is growing well in your garden.  Adios.

PS:  Here is a book that might interest you, "Fresh Food from Small Spaces" by R.J. Ruppenthal.

Introduction

I was born and raised in the small town of St. Helena, California, with three brothers and my sister.  Most of that time growing up, we as a family were always involved in growing things, mostly grapes.  Now in my later years, after college, grad school, practicing law for twenty seven years, I have found that I am drawn back to those earlier times and nearly every weekend I find myself in my garden located at the Little Ranch in St. Helena.  I've found myself reading more, writing more and dreaming more about those things we did as youngsters though not always appreciating them in those early years. 

I hope to share with readers my inroads into gardening and what it means to me and my children and grandchildren.  No doubt at times I will likely regress and tell of memories growing up in the Napa Valley; how it was growing up in a small country town and how it compares to now.  For those of you old enough (like me) I hope these anticipated writings might be a catalyst to your own memories.  And for those who possess lesser years, I hope this provides some insight into a slower paced life style, one a little closer to the ground.

I see this as an opportunity to share with you photos of the Little Ranch, seasons, animals, birds, snakes, coyotes, rabbits, lizards and family members who now and then find it a momentary reprieve from life's problems.  My wife Ana and I have found it a place to rejuvenate our souls after a long week in San Francisco, with its hustle and bustle.

In part the thought of this blog came from my blog on amateur wine making called wine neophyte.  There were many times when I thought about writing something that was not so much related to wine making as it was to just being at the Little Ranch and gardening.  Now I shouldn't have that excuse.

I'm hoping I will be able to share something on a weekly basis.  My target day will be on Monday or Tuesday as I will usually have something to share from our weekend at the Little Ranch.

Let me tell you about this last weekend.

On Saturday I began to clean up the garden area by cutting down the tall grass and wild flowers.  I then turned over the soil for four garden beds.  That took me about four hours and I'm still aching from the physical labor.  Later that evening Ana fixed a great steak and artichoke dinner that we cooked on the barbecue.  It was seven o'clock when we sat down outside and began to eat.  It was still warm with a slight breeze.  We had our family Zinfandel (2004) along with our meal.   We talked about the following day (Sunday).  

On Sunday there was no gardening because we needed to begin preparations for our two youngest grandchildren's birthday party.  Rick, Carolina and Omar (birthday boy) arrived first and Carolina set up all the decorations, Rick worked on putting up the sound system and Omar, was Omar.  Ana finished the fruit salad and the salsa.

Soon Zeke, Kim, Lee and Arabella arrived and not long after everyone was there.  Aunts, uncles, grandparents and even a great grandfather.  Photos were taken, food consumed and beverages were enjoyed.  The weather was the best, cool morning that graduated into a pleasant warmth in the afternoon.  Perfect for growing children and gardens.