tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151769012009-11-05T00:18:39.938-08:00Sharing my Sunnyvale CA garden, a <i>'potage du geek'</i> kitchen garden of vegetables, herbs, and flowers for cutting, plus a potted fruit tree or two. A voyage of discovery, with tales of storm and shipwreck as well as treasure and glory.Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.comBlogger10812537.406289-122.00838http://creativecommons.org/images/public/somerights20.gifThis is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use.tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-19918048650744220862009-07-06T11:59:00.000-07:002009-07-06T12:45:41.719-07:002009-07-06T12:45:41.719-07:00

I recently saw a great article on starting mounded raised bed gardens, but was surprised to see that one of the sample photos showed a garden only a couple of feet from the fence. Fences are an incredible garden asset, and making them part of your garden plan will really help you get the most out of your garden.Fences as microclimates: extend your garden season.Fences as a trellis: go vertical!

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com3http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2009/07/good-fences-make-good-gardens.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-45200185555962289762009-06-28T16:46:00.001-07:002009-06-28T16:58:33.125-07:002009-06-28T16:58:33.125-07:00

OK, I didn't mean to post twice in one day, but I was just reading a thread on Dave's Garden forums with this title, and was moved to reply. Reply I did, in what turned out to be copious detail (ah, when we get going, we GET GOING). Alas, I don't remember my Dave's Garden login, and I'm at TechShop laying out garden markers in Corel Draw, so I couldn't post it! As to why I'm reading Dave's

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com0http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2009/06/paprika-doesnt-work-for-me.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-1351743309394829232009-06-28T11:21:00.000-07:002009-06-28T11:54:41.114-07:002009-06-28T11:54:41.114-07:00

It's just barely past midsummer, and we're in another heat wave: time to do some summer swapping! I got outside at the leisurely hour of almost-9 in the morning, did some remedial watering, and then worked on my in-and-outs. Nope, not the burger joint! Summer crops!Out go all the lettuces bolting and going to seed, except for one or two for seed-saving, on the perimeter and upwind of where we

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com0http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2009/06/out-out-in-in.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-44357616460205593162009-06-14T23:37:00.000-07:002009-06-14T23:59:20.385-07:002009-06-14T23:59:20.385-07:00

Faithful readers may recall the earlier plans I published here for a Three Sisters garden of corn, squash, and beans. With my usual cheerful abandon, I ignored various bits of online advice on when and how to plant it. Consequently, things are now somewhat out of control. A normal day in my garden! W00t!To begin with, the vines you see creeping along the edge of the garden bed actually belong

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com0http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2009/06/sibling-rivalry-in-three-sisters-garden.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-78368880432392743562009-06-06T11:52:00.000-07:002009-06-09T11:22:20.645-07:002009-06-09T11:22:20.645-07:00

Someone browsing my FlickR stream commented on this picture of one of last year's hydroponic fence planters and asked, "what are the steps involved in starting an eggplant hydroponic growth system?" I wrote a quick answer, and then realized that there are probably readers of this blog who'd like to know, too! Get yourself a pot with a water reservoir (or make your own),

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com1http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2009/06/home-hydroponics-yes-you-can.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-71928643718005120372009-05-19T00:01:00.000-07:002009-05-19T00:56:57.332-07:002009-05-19T00:56:57.332-07:00

This is the part on Sprockets where we BLOOM!! We’ve had some chills, thrills, and most recently a little heat wave, and by now just about everything is blooming. The coriander/cilantro is going exuberantly to seed, which helps the pollinators and gives me green coriander to put in the freezer, as well as dry coriander for seed and spicing. The ‘Celeste’ sweet peas have come back for the 3rd

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com1http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2009/05/bloomtacular.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-25659242356985769972009-05-01T10:53:00.000-07:002009-05-01T10:56:09.674-07:002009-05-01T10:56:09.674-07:00

Take a 2-liter clear soda bottle, remove the label.Cut a tall cylinder out of the middle, like a belt or a collar-- a slice out of it. Optionally, smooth the edges or put clear tape over them.Make a cut so that you have a long rectangular strip. Slit halfway from the top about a half-inch from one end, and from the bottom on the other end.Get copper-foil sticky tape from the garden store or

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com4http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2009/05/anti-snail-recycling-for-your.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-22578442672426302652009-04-16T10:15:00.000-07:002009-04-16T10:37:24.445-07:002009-04-16T10:37:24.445-07:00

It's here, and it's in full swing. The past month has been kind of like that song on the radio, "you're hot and you're cold". We went from some early March days in shirtsleeves to a couple of weeks of cold-n-rainy, then some nice daytimes with back down the mid-40's at night. This weekend it's supposed to get into the mid-80's. My lettuce is CONFUSED, I tell ya. Things I've been doing, some

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com0http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2009/04/spring-garden-season.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-91461064191222733942009-03-16T12:55:00.000-07:002009-03-16T13:17:53.986-07:002009-03-16T13:17:53.986-07:00

I've planted or set aside (or both) portions of saved seeds from last year and the year before. I've been to several seed swaps and shared out even more. Now, with a bunch of seed left, I've got the radical idea to raise a little 'seed money' (get it!) for a new business and sell the rest of my goodies online. Naturally, I want to give other garden bloggers first dibs! All seeds grown by yours

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com5http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2009/03/clean-slate-seed-cleanout.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-36813388663368340612009-03-13T00:18:00.000-07:002009-03-13T00:57:30.964-07:002009-03-13T00:57:30.964-07:00

A co-worker, upon hearing I was doing garden planning, asked if I used CAD/CAM software. Nope, I told him, Powerpoint! :-)Usually I use graph paper, but I couldn't find my pad and darn it, I'd been meaning to come up with a template for a while. What I really want are Square Foot Garden colorforms (remember colorforms?!)First pass at this year's garden plan. 2008 was a disaster since I couldn't

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com2http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2009/03/early-garden-planz.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-76503802437715030292009-03-08T22:32:00.000-07:002009-03-08T22:46:42.824-07:002009-03-08T22:46:42.824-07:00

I'll try to follow up with pictures. Cilantro is going strong, all over the place. Batavian Nevada, which I'm starting to suspect is merely a fancy name for Black-Seeded Simpson, ditto. Some Merlot and Cimmaron Romaine have come up in the beds, but most are outside the beds. I'm letting them keep going, but have pointed them out to Mike as "take these first". I think I should start another

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com1http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2009/03/slackers-garden-update.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-47612658146640933312008-12-15T10:22:00.001-08:002008-12-15T11:19:20.935-08:002008-12-15T11:19:20.935-08:00

My job has nudged aside my garden to a large degree in 2008, and I've seen a definite drop in the quantity and quality of my harvests. I hadn't realized how critical it was to spend 30 minutes or so every other day in the garden, to nudge, tweak, water, etc, not to mention pick things in dribs and drabs as they ripen. Oh, yes, and as you've observed for 2008, posts to this blog, and pretty

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com2http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2008/12/slackers-winter-garden.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-70432171813015302252008-06-14T08:06:00.000-07:002008-06-15T09:09:35.208-07:002008-06-15T09:09:35.208-07:00

The corn is as low as an elephant's toe? Just 2 or 3 weeks ago, it was about 70 centimeters and still going strong!I saved a draft of this post a couple of weeks ago, and really want to get it out there for my garden buddies who may just be getting started on corn. I wish I'd known some of this stuff last year when I tried growing some flour corn in my tiny backyard garden! I didn't take the

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com2http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2008/05/our-buddy-corn.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-37209563142677853612008-05-27T01:35:00.000-07:002008-06-15T08:04:57.991-07:002008-06-15T08:04:57.991-07:00

The bee and butterfly garden is coming into full bloom, just a few paces away from our garden bed.I really love working in the community garden, and even more so now that we have our own garden bed. For the first year or two, I didn't really want a bed because I have some garden space in our backyard. But enough beds go idle, or neglected, that I didn't feel bad finally going on the waiting

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com4http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2008/05/community-garden-visit.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-25459208194475206162008-05-18T11:17:00.000-07:002008-05-18T11:56:10.650-07:002008-05-18T11:56:10.650-07:00

Nobody has moved into any of my fence birdhouses yet, alas. I will try putting a few up under the eaves in the shade. Cornflowers came up nicely this year, though!We had another of our spring heat waves this past week, with daytime temps in the high 90's (F) and daily watering to try to save young plants. The timing was spectacularly bad: traditionally US Mother's Day is the time to set out

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com2http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2008/05/springing-back-from-heat-wave.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-11671545454806038622008-04-26T09:05:00.000-07:002008-04-26T09:09:21.408-07:002008-04-26T09:09:21.408-07:00

Recently someone commented on an older posting of mine that some of last year's veggies seemed to have no flavor. I think my reply may be of general interest, so I thought I'd post it instead of just replying privately.Hi Raqui,The discolored bean leaves I would say are cold damaged. The plant should recover.For veggies with flavor problems, hmm. The seed being old is ok and won't affect

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com1http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2008/04/flavoring-your-summer-veggies-right-now.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-46873729606853503212008-02-18T12:30:00.000-08:002008-02-18T12:43:36.466-08:002008-02-18T12:43:36.466-08:00

The warm weather continues to draw up delicious flower stalks from my Asian greens. I harvested a large colander full of tsatsoi leaves and flower spikes, as well as spikes from my joi choi in the hydroponic fence planters. The choi in the ground-level planters is barely starting to form central buds, as it gets less sun.I did a very nice stir-fry with some Trader Joe's gyoza (they have both

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com7http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2008/02/more-stir-fry-spikes-and-pleasant.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-47622488175958161642008-01-26T21:47:00.000-08:002008-01-26T22:19:09.762-08:002008-01-26T22:19:09.762-08:00

Welcome, Weekend Herb Blogging readers!Not only are winter greens easy and fun to grow, they like to surprise you now and then by deciding that Spring must be here. With all the recent (relatively) warmer rain, some of my asian stir-fry greens seem to have decided to Go For It and see about flowering. Hmm, can you spot the joi choi who is thinking it's Spring?Fortunately for us, these flower

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com7http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2008/01/winter-greens-getting-spiky-about.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-10248022265852608842008-01-13T19:25:00.000-08:002008-01-26T21:43:13.829-08:002008-01-26T21:43:13.829-08:00

The recent rain has been bringing all kinds of things out in the garden, including our little buddies, the Western Spotted Salamanders.The ginormous green thing is a standard garden hose. Yes, this is a teensy weensy salamander. We wondered if we still had a breeding population of these little cuties, and apparently we do! I've been laying down pavers with hollow places and bark under them,

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com0http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2008/01/rain-and-little-buddies.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-3618149892405976002007-12-02T00:30:00.000-08:002007-12-02T00:45:07.553-08:002007-12-02T00:45:07.553-08:00

Welcome, Weekend Herb Blogging readers. Doesn't that look scrumptious? A crisp, shiny rosette of tsa tsoi, a tangy Chinese green that makes excellent stir fry material. The best part is that I'm getting these delicious winter greens with almost no work, and I won't be composting them or digging out the planters to refill them with dirt for a second crop. I also don't have to worry about

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com6http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2007/11/easy-fall-greens-via-hydroponics.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-5629846310589615652007-11-25T14:50:00.000-08:002007-11-25T15:26:13.951-08:002007-11-25T15:26:13.951-08:00

This week's Garden Desktop doesn't amount to a hill of beans. Well, actually, wait, it DOES. Several hills, in fact! This past weekend I finally shucked the beans I had drying on a table out on our porch. There are big white and brown Painted Lady beans from the side yard. These did so well, and are so delicious, that I will grow them on ALL the carport pillars next year, rather than on just

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com1http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2007/11/garden-desktop-full-of-beans.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-6448388498263302882007-10-27T20:54:00.001-07:002007-10-28T11:33:39.912-07:002007-10-28T11:33:39.912-07:00

Just in time for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by the talented Pille, we celebrate the beginning of the fall and winter greens season with some heirloom lettuce and a great salad greens that is often overlooked: mustard!The cool weather coming in is the best time for growing delicious green things for salads, sandwich layers, and garnishes. Our lettuces, which hid from the summer

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com2http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2007/10/heirloom-lettuce-n-early-girl-tomatoes.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-10371792127119513112007-10-18T21:35:00.000-07:002007-10-18T22:09:09.602-07:002007-10-18T22:09:09.602-07:00

Most commercial strawberry growers rely on heavy applications of methyl bromide or similar fumigants to combat black root rot, an endemic problem for strawberries. New agricultural research shows that growing strawberries in compost medium can substitute for soil fumigation. Fumigants, in addition to their toxicity and negative effects on the soil ecosystem, are increasingly expensive. Many

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com0http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2007/10/compost-vs-black-root-rot.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-17442058592161086522007-10-17T20:15:00.000-07:002007-10-17T20:52:07.319-07:002007-10-17T20:52:07.319-07:00

We're starting a new series, the "Garden ABC". I thought we'd begin with a little scary information about ways that arsenic could be getting into your garden. That may sound bizarre, but actually arsenic is dangerous at very minor levels. The amounts to which we're exposed, from sources as diverse as coal-fired electrical plants to pressure-treated lumber to municipal water to chicken

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com0http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2007/10/is-for-avoiding-arsenic.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15176901.post-61877006756409227042007-10-15T10:40:00.001-07:002007-10-16T01:04:46.701-07:002007-10-16T01:04:46.701-07:00

Take a little patch of earth and make it a garden. Even if you only grow one thing. Even if it's a hardscrabble piece of bare dirt along the side of a wall, or a pot on a balcony, or a milk carton in a windowsill. That's what I'd like you to come away with, today on Blog Action Day, when we are all talking about the environment. Because WE are an integral part of the environment. Our human

Stratahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04217871224233497984noreply@blogger.com1http://mybayareagarden.blogspot.com/2007/10/gardening-as-environmental-stewardship.html