Haven Garden Update

Yesterday I spent most of the day over at the Haven Garden with a group of volunteers from Symantec.

You can see and read all about it here...   

Great Day in the Garden

As for my garden all the Spring crops are doing well with all this cool weather we are having. It has been much cooler than normal for late May. All the Summer crops are in and growing but not much in the way of "fruit"

How is your garden growing?

I'll be in the Garden

Hi All! I just updated the Haven Garden Blog. Go have a look and post a comment. If you have not yet signed up to be a follower be sure to do that as well. I'll be out there tomorrow morning and then in my garden in the afternoon. So much to do! Looks like we are in for a little rain on Sunday... yay! I need some more rain water for my seedlings... I just ran out today.

Still here.....

Hi All!

Nothing worth posting going on in my garden. I have however been working in the Haven House garden. I finally posted photos of the new raised beds that VISA built for us back in July. Be sure to go check it out at the
Haven House Garden blog

We have had two more groups come out to the garden in the past few weeks... I'll be posting photos soon so make sure to sign up as a follower so you don't miss any of my updates.

Happy Autumn

Haven Garden Project Blog Update

Click on the link for a quick note on the Haven Blog

If you are following my progress over at Haven be sure to sign up as a follower so you don't miss anything.

Happy Gardening!

End of July Garden Review

There is something about July where I just don't feel like posting. Same thing happened last year. I know it's not the heat because we are not having any. The temps have been in the 70's for the last two weeks.

The garden this year is not doing as well as I had hoped for. The cucumbers are only putting out one or two cucumbers at a time and the plants are really small. The mini bell peppers are loaded with fruit but are taking a long time to ripen (they're red and yellow). The full size bell peppers only have two or three per plant but are still pushing out blooms. The crookneck squash just can't seem to get the timing of male and female blooms right. I get all male or all female. I'm having to pick male blooms and put them in the refrigerator until I get female blooms and then hand pollinate (Thanks Granny).

As for the tomatoes, the brandywine has no flavor but I did hear they do better in areas with high humidity which we don't have. The Cherry and the Roma's on the other hand are doing well. Loads of fruit but are taking their sweet time ripening. Early potato yields were very low and the main season potato plants died off early. I haven't dug around to see if there are any potatoes in that bin. As for the mid season potatoes they seem to be doing better than the others. I'll let them go until Sept as I'm getting a second wave of vines and flowers on them. The sweet potatoes are looking good but what do I know, it's my first year growing them.

The acorn squash has one nine inch fruit on it and a few smaller ones. I don't think I will get more than three or four out if this one plant which is OK with me. Again my first year growing them. I think I will grow them again next year. Bush bean did OK but now that I have grown pole beans I don't think I will waste the space with bush beans. I'm harvesting one to two pounds of pole beans every two to three days with about 20 plants. I'm having to freeze them since there is just the two of us we can't eat through them fast enough. I'm giving away some to my sister and mother.

Garlic was a bust for me this year but my onions are bigger this year than last year. I still have not pulled them but will most likely do so tomorrow as they are not putting on any more size. There are onion fields not far from where I work. I can always tell when it's harvest time as the air is filled with the scent of onions. That time was about two or three weeks ago... I think :-)

Since the weather has been so cool I think I will try a late season sowing of lettuce. I will only have sun on my bed for another three months so I might as well give it a try. I have some carrots planted but think I will plant some more.

The Haven Garden is doing well and looking great. VISA had a team of volunteers build us four raised beds for the expanded garden I planned out earlier this year. As soon as VISA gives me permission to use the photos I took I will update the Haven Blog. If you have not yet signed up to be a follower be sure to stop by and do so. I have a few more plans I'd like to put in place but don't know if they will happen this year.

Below are some random photos I took on July 24th. Be sure to click on them for a larger view.

Haven Family House Garden Project

The Haven garden project is coming along nicely. The beds could use some more plants but you have to work with what you get in money and plant donations.

Photo below: The garden when you first walk in...

Photo taken June 19th

On May 15 the Eagle Scouts alumni volunteered to build a much needed shade structure over the sitting area.

Photos below taken May 15 2010

They really did a great great job!

Photo below taken June 19, 2010

Jenn, these next few photos are for you....

Pumpkin Hill June 19 2010

Click on photos for a larger view
The pumpkins are doing much better than I thought they would with the cooler weather that we are having.

Photos below: Next to the pumpkins the bush beans are thriving. Monday we have some volunteers coming to do a little weeding as well as harvesting the beans. They will also be planting some more squash and tomatoes.

Photo below: The bell peppers are struggling in this cool weather.

Photo below: Out of the nine bell pepper plants only one has fruit on it so far.

Photos Below: The fruit trees on the other hand are doing great.

Photo below: There is also a group coming this week to put the final touches on a new children's play house.

Now I need to start thinking about the Fall garden!

Haven Update May 1 2010

Haven Family House Garden

I spent a few hours at Haven this morning with a young man who needed some community service hours for (high) school. We put down some decomposed granite between half of the raised beds. We also installed tomato cages and planted some summer squash and more pumpkins to replace a few that didn't make it from the last planting.

Below are some random photos I took today. Click on photos for a larger view.

Pumpkin Hill now has water.

Photo below: Tomatoes.

.

Photo below: Summer squash.

Photo below: Strawberries and it looks like someone planted some basil in there too.

Photo below: Bell peppers.

Photo below: The lettuce will need to be harvested soon.

Photo below: Plums.

Photo below: Fruit trees.

Photo below: I think this is an apple tree.

Photo below: The picnic area is looking much better.

As for my garden... I'm brewing a batch of compost tea as I type this. It will be ready tomorrow. The patio furniture is out and I will be enjoying a glass of wine sitting out in my garden tomorrow afternoon. I have some more seeds to plant and I'll take photos of each beds.

The plan in my garden is to

Plant out the rest of the seedlings that are in the greenhouse.
Take down the greenhouse.
Re-pot the mint.

Water

And anything else I see that needs doing.

I'll post photos of my garden later today or tomorrow.

Haven Family House Garden Update

Yesterday I spent the day at Haven with my son planting out 10 pumpkin seedlings and 2 crookneck squash that were taking over my green house. I hope they do well.

Here are a few before and after photos of Pumpkin Hill. Click on photos for a larger view

Time to get out into the garden...

Haven House Garden March Update Part 1

Saturday March 6th we had a great group of Stanford Students come out to the the garden to help pull weeds and do some general clean up. A big Thank you to Kiana for organizing her friends to spend the morning with us.

Click on photos for a larger view.

Photo below: Group shot.



Everyone busy working...



Photos below: Kiana and two friends weeding the picnic area.



Looking Good....



Photos below: A team of three went through the big pile of pavers to see if any of them were usable.



After all that work they found three of four usable pavers. The rest were broken. I must say the area looks much better. The photo below is the before...



Here is the after... Nice job!



Photos below: The garden shed needed to be reorganized.



So these ladies got in touch with their inner Martha Stewart!



Looks wonderful. Thank you!



Photos below: My son Ryan...



and his girlfriend Annie pulling weeds.



Photos below: One of the younger residents helping Annie pull weeds.





Thank you Stanford for all your help! We hope to see you again real soon!



Fruit trees at Haven....