sb country n news-my gardens

SB COUNTRY N NEWS-MY THREE GARDENS
i garden in three places now here in sb

the first is our front patio or porch as we call it
in the south

i started out putting a lot of stuff on the porch
but now have whittled plants down to

some herbs
lavender rosemary basil thyme mint oregano

a jalapeno pepper which we use fresh in margaritas
and in cooking
a dinosaur kale
a sweet 100 tomato

a citrus called dwarf satsuma

ive moved everything else to my garden at the community
garden where i have my two plots

at the community garden it was so great to be able to grow
things in the winter and not have to worry about things freezing

i still have some dinosaur kale and curly leaf kale
and beets and sweet peas and carrots and onions and garlic
and lettuce and a strawberry

looking out how well things did this last winter here
i plan to plant more broccoli and more cabbage next winter
i didnt plant cabbage this year since i was limited on space
but now with my two plots i plan on adding those

i will grow the sweet peas again since ms b and my wife she
love to pick and eat them
the lettuce and arugula and spinach and bok choi all do well
here so i will do a better job of doing serial planting of those
using the cut and go method of harvesting
the beets and the carrots can almost be planted all year here

i had a strawberry that was being thrown away by another
gardener so i just stuck it in the ground
it has done well so i plan on planting more of those
plus ms b loves them also

since i got my second plot i amended the soil
well with compost and organic fertilizer and liquid
molasses
as it warms up i will add a thick layer of pine straw on the
beds if the weather gets hot like it did last summer
hot doesnt mean like hotter than hell texas
but
we did have a lot of 90+ days and a few over 100 degree days

the climate here is mediterannean
in austin the average rainfall is 35+- inches a year
here the average rainfall is 13+- inches a year
with it being more -inches in the last few years
as there has been a drought here for several years also

so the veggies that i grew at the texas country n
are about what i can grow here
so i planted

10 tomatoes
almost the same i planted in texas
sweet 100s celebrity early girl black krim brandywine
a black heirloom cherry tomato a mexican heirloom cherry
and a russian one
i know trump will like that one

3 peppers bell jalapeno poblano
bush and pole green beans
basil
malabar spinach

zucchini squash which was hard to grow in texas because of
the squash vine borer
enough that i quit growing them
okra
japanese egg plant
armenian cucumbers
cantelope
ms bs big pumpkin

christmas lima beans
purple hull peas they grew well here last summer
a few leeks that were given to me by another gardener

my one garden plot butts up to the work area for the garden
so i put up a rustic looking structure from ole poles and
twine to remind folks there was a garden bed there
on the structure i planted my pole beans
and my malabar spinach

i also planted some cover crops oats and hairy vetch and some
unknown bean and some unknown pea
folks can crush those and i dont care if they do

in those white pots in front of the beds i planted rosemary
lavender and borage since they would grow too big if
planted in the ground

i try to water at least once a week real deeply only by hand
i dont use a drip system
it makes me come by frequently to keep an eye on the garden
when i plant new transplants or seeds i come by daily to water

as it gets warmer or hotter i change that to twice a week
half of the stuff is watered via buried black 10 inch pots
with holes in the bottom
this provides water deep into the soil so the plants can run
their roots deep also
this allows me to water less often
then
i have a 1 foot trench around both beds and crosswise through
the beds that is filled with mulch
this provides a large moisture holding capacity for the garden

this year i planted a russian tomato ive never heard of
into this trench to see how it will do since
the mulch i put there last summer has decomposed a lot

i also separated a 4 ft square section of my new bed
for ms b
she planted with my help all her stuff
she likes sun gold the yellow cherry tomato
juliette a pear shaped cherry tomato
french green beans
later we will plant carrots when the tomatoes
and beans get larger and provides some shady areas

i also set up her a little bench and she has her
garden tools and her purple watering can there also

the central part of the community garden has a kids section
and a large section for growing food for local food kitchens
a large food harvest including ms bs chicken eggs
are made each week

they really arent hers but she thinks they are

i volunteer to work in this section one half day a week

eg
i built this structure in the kids section using old mulberry
limbs so the foot long green beans can grow up them
the kids apparently love the long long green beans

recently i planted a long bed of basil on either side
of a long bed of tomatilloes

we also have 8 bins of compost that we maintain
each gardener has access to this compost

so these are two of my gardens
my front porch garden
the community garden

the other is the school garden i will write about later

the organicgreen doctor