The 2010 Garden

Happy New Year!

Welcome to USMC Sis. Thanks for following my blog.

January 5th will mark the one year anniversary of the "Garden Journey". One year, I can’t believe how fast it went by. I've learned a lot this past year and hope to continue to improve my gardening skills as I move on to the 2010 garden.

I ended 2009 with a total harvest of 122.4 pounds. I'm amazed at how much I could get out of such a small space and to tell you the truth I think I can do better. Looking back now I can see I didn't use all the growing space to my advantage. I have made a few small changes to the garden and planting plan that should increase my harvest. I would like to see a harvest of 150 to 200 pounds in 2010.

This year will be a busy one for me. Outside of my garden duties at home I have been asked to take the lead in revitalizing a garden belonging to Shelter Network. A few years ago Haven Family House was blessed with a vegetable garden donated by Sunset Magazine. The staff has been so busy helping homeless families in the Bay Area that they haven't been able to devote much time to keep the garden going. Since my sister is the Facilities Manager, among other titles, she has asked me to help them get back on track. I am very honored that she has asked me to help and I'm looking forward to my first meeting with the staff a week from Monday. I will post photos and updates on this project in future posts.

Lets move on to what's happening in my garden…

Ribbit over at The Corner Yard has an offer to purchase Square Foot Gardening / Intensive Gardening Planting Templates. Well guess who got herself a Christmas present....

For those of us that are a bit challenged when it comes to spacing and lining things up straight this template is heaven sent! I orderd two sets of both the 9 and 16 hole templates. I used the 16 hole in my new kitchen bed to plant some baby spinach seeds.

Photo Below: Planting Template



For the 2010 season I thought I would post a "View from the Roof" monthly garden photo. Below is the January garden from the roof...





Not too much going on in the garden now. With the lack of sun this time of year I am very limited to what I can grow. I will be setting up the seed starting station in the pop-up green house next weekend.

Today I had Sweet Husband give me a lesson on how to use power tools to help me put up the rest of the hoop houses on beds 3 and 4. I now know how to drill pilot holes and can use the drill in place of a hand held screw driver. Every girl/woman should know how to use power tools... why should the boys have all the fun!



I was told I have good form...



Photo Below: After the hoops were put in place Sweet Husband zip tied the center pole in place.



Photo Below: Living in zone 10 I don't get much in the way of frost to really justify hoop houses, but I do have a band of ruthless squirrels that will stop at nothing to infiltrate my garden for their food storage. I have declared war and I will win! This should hold them back behind enemy lines...



If you have been following my blog for the past year and still need inspiration to start your own vegetable garden, take some time to read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver.

Hoop Covers for Daisy and Other Stuff

Daisy asked "What type of wire is that under the fabric? The wire looks white and they stand up perfectly straight. I need to do something like that. Where did you get it or what did you make it out of?"

Daisy you are going to laugh when you see this post.... I used Multi Purpose Wire 12 Gauge we had laying around. If I had to buy something new I would have gotten a heavier gauge wire that does not come rolled up like what you see in the photo below.



For this 3x9 bed I cut 5 foot lengths of wire and stuck the ends in the dirt about 8 to 10 inches down. This gave me a hoop that is a just about 17 inches high in the center. I wouldn't say they are perfectly straight. :0)



I covered them with light weight row cover material and used clothes pins to hold it in place. Wood, bricks or "U" shaped wire to push through the cloth into the soil to hold the ends down.



That's it... very easy and it held up well.



Since the corn and cucumbers where starting to outgrow the little hoops I made them new homes. For the corn I put up the PVC hoops. For this I used 10 foot lengths of 1/2 inch white PVC held in place with "U" shaped brackets.





It's not pretty but functional



Daisy, I hope the info above gave you some ideas for your own garden.

Now for some random photos I took in the greenhouse about 6:30 tonight.

Found this guy hanging out by the last two tomatoes in the greenhouse. I didn't let him stay... bye-bye moth.



The last of the tomatoes and cucumbers will need to be planted soon. The toms might go into my sister's garden... if she promises to water them. Let's just say I'm the gardener in the family.



They both have buds on them.



Pole and bush beans. I'll be starting some more seeds in a few days. The pole beans will go into the little wrought iron bed.



The watermelons are starting to get some new growth on them. They really do like warm weather.



I started a 6 pack of crackerjack marigold seeds but only three have come up. I'll give them a few more days and if the others don't pop up I'll plant a few more seeds. I really don't know where I will put these... I've never seen crackerjack marigold's so I will need to find a place for them. I understand they can get to 3 feet tall. The seeds were given to me by the instructor at the compost workshop I went to in March.



I will not be doing any gardening this weekend. I'll be hanging out with three of my girl friends scrapbooking. I'm going to make a scrapbook on my 2009 garden. My sweet husband will keep an eye on the garden for me. He'll be getting detailed instructions on how to take care of the garden while I'm away.

This weekend I will be picking out photos, resizing them and getting them ordered. I’m going to scan the seed packets and do some journaling. This will give me everything I need for a scrapbook retreat I will attend in May with about 30 women. Once the book is started I will just need to maintain it. I'll write a post on it once get the book started.