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Previous months in San Diego, California
With Bonnie Lara
2001
May
Hi
My name is Bonnie Lara. I have the privelege of being a new garden
advisor for San Diego, California. I'm still working on exactly
what dates I can get away with around here for planting. After talking
to one of my garden friends around here planting tomatoes in the
middle of winter is getting a late start for spring around here.
I am in zone 11 and some of San Diego is zone 10. We have hot and
dry summers and mild winters. I'm still trying to get my brain in
order when I read what's the haps in Australia. Gavin talks about
summer coming to an end, when I just got spring. I look forward
to being a part of the vegetable patch.
In April I planted lots of seeds for Veggies, herbs and a few flowers.
They are doing well so far, but my cats escaped the other night
and dug up a few things. They unsually stay indoors. My husband
helped me prepare some raised beds for my garden. I have one that
is a 4 foot square that still needs to be planted, so I will be
filling that bed in May. I will fill it with salad foods, some herbs
I haven't tried yet and some squash and tiny pumpkins. I found some
seeds for a pumpkin called
Baby Bear that I'm really excited to try. Since my garden is limited
in space, I grow the vine plant on a support. Well I don't know
about you, but I don't want to be out there cleaning up some 15
pound pumpkin that fell of the support. Baby Bear is a pumpkin than
is almost perfectly round like a carving pumpkin, but only gets
to about half a pound. It will be great for pies eeemmmmmmm!!
I've been trying to find a way to plant watermelon, I grew up
with them growing by our house and I really miss them. We don't
have the space in our year for them to sprawl, so my husband thought
I should try growing them on the canyon hill. Our back yard overlooks
a canyon and a beautiful view of the city. Well that's exactly what
I'm going to do, and I just got my first sprout for a Sugar Baby
watermelon today. So my May projects include filling the empty bed,
and transplanting watermelon and larger pumpkins on the hillside.
Next month I will tell you all about my garden design, and what
and how I plant.
Have fun getting you hands dirty, :)
Bonnie
Well June gloom is here. We have been having a lot of cloudy days
here. One day it's hot and the next day it's all cloudy.
For my May goals I did transplant three watermelon vines on the
hillside. I have more room though so I planted a pumpkin, a cantaloupe
and a jenny lind melon. If you haven't heard of it it's kinda like
a green fleshed cantaloupe, pretty sweet too.
I did plant the empty bed, but I'm not too pleased with the results.
Not very much has sprouted and all of it should have. The seeds
are the same as I have used in the other beds, but the soil mix
is different. Looks like that one goes right back on the to-do list.
I said last month that I would tell you about what and how I plant.
I read a book call Square Foot Gardening. It teaches you how too
make the most of your space and effort. You don't have to have raised
beds, but you can. Basically you divide your garden into squares
4 foot by 4 foot. this can vary a some. The basic idea is to plant
according to plant spacing guidelines rather than rows which leave
a lot of unused space for walking through or machinery. So if you
have one garden space that is 4x4 you don't need to leave walk space
through it because you can reach all of that square from the sides.
From any given point you only have to reach in 2 feet. so walk space
is only need between each of your 4x4 squares (blocks) and you can
have as many blocks as you have room for; I have four. This method
is great for me because I am limited on space. But you learn how
to space the plants so you can plant lots of things, but only a
small amount of each. You divide your block into square feet which
gives you 16 squares in a 4x4 block. Plant one square at a time.
Lettuce for example must be space 6 inches apart, so 4 will fit
in one square so I plant four seeds. I can have 16 different types
of vegetables, flowers and/or herbs in a block. The other really
efficient part to this method is you are always planting more off
to the side. Then when you harvest something, you have another thing
ready to take it's place. Throw in a scoop of compost, mix it in
the little square and plant. If you have questions you can read
the whole book or e-mail
me.
I went to war with the cabbage loopers this past month. They went
nuts on my peas. I think I finally won. My plants are now producing
peas. I also had some problems with the snails they really like
my spinach and swiss chard. They also ate a couple of my melon seedlings,
had to throw those out. I harvested my first salad of the season.
I took it in the house and set it on the counter. I had not washed
it yet. I came back in the kitchen a while later, and there was
a snail sitting right on top munching away. HOW RUDE!!! I'm still
trying to figure out why God made snails, maybe to help us grow
in patience.
My tomatoes are covered with little green tomatoes now, I can't
wait for them to be ready. YUM!! I have chamomile growing really
well too. I planted it last year and thought if was bad seed. Now
it is about 2 feet tall.
I planted a coffee seed on March 29th, and it is now sprouted.
They take a while to grow. I'm hoping it will flourish into a health
bush. I'll keep you posted.
This month I am planning to do garden improvement, meaning I will
be pruning, ripping out plants that are not thriving, planting the
empty spaces, and planting some new seeds in cups for later. I will
also try to fix the garden bed that is not doing well. I will remix
the soil and see if I can get better results. All in all I'll be
working on the health of my garden. Next month I will try to give
you an idea of what all is growing in my garden and some of my new
adventures.
2002
July
So what's happening in my garden?
Well I started to think my gardening days were over. My schedule
is so much busier that it used to be; and I just didn't think I
would be able to keep up. I didn't get any seed started which should
have happened back in January and February for me.
I went out in the garden to see if anything was still alive back
in April. I found an aloe vera plant doing okay, just needed a drink.
I also found that my dwarf lemon tree was alive but not great. So
I decided to just concentrate on caring for my lemon tree. Actually
all I did was start watering it on a regular basis. It is sprouting
out lots of new leaves and has flower buds all over it. It's happy
now. Now if it can give me some lemons I'll be happy too. I was
just going to take care of my tree but I wanted some tomatoes. My
tree is in a container and I have two raised beds that are 4 feet
by 4 feet. that get full sun and an area about 7 feet by 3 feet
that gets morning sun only. I bought a variety six pack of tomatoes
and planted them in one of my sunny beds. 5 of the six are doing
well, almost 18" tall now, the sixth didn't grow much. I wasn't
going to plant anything else but my garden was so bare. I resisted
the temptation to plant more veggies and got some flowers for my
flower boxes and some roses. They look really pretty, but that empty
garden was still buging me. I bought a six pack of chili peppers,
and put them in the bed with the tomatoes. I also got 1 each of
sweet basil, french parsley, cilantro, and dill. I planted only
one plant each per square foot in the sunny bed. Now 15 out of 16
squares are filled. I have one square left where the sixth tomato
wimped out on me. I think I will try to sprout a small melon seed
for that spot and grow it up the supports. We shall see. The other
sunny bed is empty at this point.
The bed that gets morning sun, I decided to turn into a pereinnial
bed for herbs and others plants. It is not great for veggies and
stuff that needs lots of sun. So far I have planted 1 plant each
of tarragon, chives, lavender, marjoram, meadow rue, thyme, rosemary,
sage, and savory. I have room for around 10 -12 more plants in that
bed, but have not decided what else to put there yet. I know I want
to add oregano, the rest I will have to figure out as I go. As you
can see, I caught spring fever and got bit by the garden bug. I
should know better than to think I can stick with just growing 1
or 2 things.
And that is my humble garden.
Bonnie
August
Last month I told you about my humble garden of 2 - 4’x 4’
beds for veggie, a 7’x3’ herb garden and containers.
In the containers my mini lemon tree has dropped all of it’s
blooms and is making some lemons, I can see a few of those tiny
little balls (left after the blooms drop) that are getting bigger.
It took at least a month just too be able to tell if any were growing
bigger. I also have a volunteer tomato (I think) in a container.
I want to see for sure, and watch and see what it does. I sprouted
a yellow pear cherry tomato that I hope to transplant in August.
It is a couple of inches high now. I also sprouted a micro tom tomato.
What a tiny plant. It is mostly for fun. It only gets around 8 inches
tall and makes crouton size tomatoes. I also added a coffee plant.
It is maybe 6 inches tall right now, just a baby.
I did plant a melon seed (a Charentais) a French melon. It is now
a few inches high. I planted it in the empty 4’ x 4’ bed
along with a Baby bear pumpkin. Now two of 16 squares are filled.
I also have a baby bear pumpkin in the last corner of the other
bed, which is now full with 1 plant in each square foot. (5 tomatoes,
1 pumpkin, 6 peppers, 1 parsley, 1 basil, 1 cilantro, and 1 dill.
The herbs are all about 10 inches high or so. The tomatoes all have
green tomatoes on them. I have been spraying a couple of times a
month with BT so I can keep the horn worms from eating them all.
My peppers are about a foot or more tall and are just beginning
to set fruit.
To my perennial herb garden I have added greek oregano, which was
interesting. I bought oregano labeled greek oregano and then did
some reading; the one I bought was ‘origanum vulgare’,
but the one that is suppose to be great for cooking is (origanum
vulgare heracleoticum) these are not the same flavor. So I went
out hunting the nurseries until I found the right one. Now I have
both. I added some flowers for now and, I also added another sage,
catnip for my kitties and echinacea (not sure yet what I’ll
do with this one, looks cool though).
In August I want to transplant my yellow pear. I will also start
planning for my fall crop that will follow the tomatoes. I want
to plant some seeds for beans & broccoli so they will be ready
for transplant when the tomatoes are spent. I may also fill the
rest of the empty bed with seeds for lettuce, but I will wait until
the end of the month so the weather will be hot only when they begin
to grow, and then cool down a little.
I've been a busy bee, but I find it really hard to pollinate.
More adventures next month,
Have fun in the dirt oops (soil)
Bonnie
September
In the containers my mini lemon tree has about 8-10 baby lemons.
They are about as big around as a quarter. My volunteer tomato is
about 2 feet tall now, and the yellow pear tomato is transplanted
and about 18” tall. Both are looking good so far. I have them
staked and have decided not to prune them.
My most exciting news is a little hummingbird that has set up camp
in a flowering tree we have. We have a small tree that we have no
name for but the hummers sure likes it. We gave him a name “Chase”
because every other hummer that comes near he chases off. He is
so cute. We also added a glass bottle feeder; he uses it often (always
keep in mind, don’t use red dye and clean often but be careful
of soap. I use a tiny bit of bleach and rinse really well). I also
added a salvia plant that hummers
like. I’m trying to learn more about attracting birds, but
hummers are my favorite.
My herb garden has not changed much. I did however lose the Greek
oregano that I was so excited to find. It did not make it through
the transplant. So, I bought seeds and will give those a try this
month.
In the 4’x4’ beds the tomatoes did terrible and I removed
them. I'm not sure what the problem is but I pruned them and later
read some information that says don't. Still checking on this one.
My peppers are not doing much better than the tomatoes. They are
getting blossom end rot. I am working on mulching to see if they
will improve. I bought these plants instead of starting my own seed
and they have been disappointing. My 2 little pumpkin vines are
growing okay, but are having a hard time with the heat. It has been
really hot this past week. My melon vine is trying hard if I can
get it through the heat. And I added a lemon cuke vine, which seems
to be doing good so far. It is just about 6” tall and hasn’t
branched out yet. My annual herbs are just about spent. It is definitely
time to start planting seeds.
Keep you hands dirty.
Bonnie
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17 January, 2003
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