What's in your garden?

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Permalink Reply by Frank on September 26, 2008 at 6:56pm

Where is your garden located in Ca

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Permalink Reply by LisaLu on September 26, 2008 at 11:05pm

I live in Wildomar, about 1 hour north of San Diego, zone 10. My garden started out 400sq ft.....then it grew to 800sq ft, and I'm very proud to say it is now over 5000sq ft!

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Permalink Reply by MotherLodeBeth on June 17, 2009 at 4:31pm

I live in the Mother Lode in Calaveras County and have a wonderful garden going. Seems there is nothing we dont grow. Have various varieties of heirloom tomato,two types of corn,two types string beans, various squash as we love the blossoms tempura fried, leeks, celery, carrots, beets, radishes, french greens, sunflowers, two types cucumber, peppers, eggplant. I know there's more but this is all I can remember.

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Permalink Reply by gardenhoe on December 27, 2008 at 11:41pm

I live in San Ramon. I have planted broccoli, spinach, buttercrunch lettuce, chives, and mint and all are growing and we are eating them. I planted strawberries, garlic, peas, onions, carrots, and are waiting for those. Our garden also has a lemon, apple, plum, pomegranate, lime, orange trees but haven't gotten anything since they are young. The rosemary and thyme does ok and the basil just died off but did well this year. It is SOOO cold in the garden and we have to turn on the LCD lights on the trees.

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Permalink Reply by Joy Williams on January 27, 2009 at 7:16pm

Well, I was just outside planting, and started a bunch of lettuce, radishes, onions, both scallions and regular, and snowpeas. I have some watercress that needs to be planted too. I also planted a bunch of seeds that I have no idea what they are, so we'll be surprised, I guess :)

Too cold for tomatoes for me, the night time temps aren't over 50 degrees yet.

Our hops are coming up already, yes it's too warm!

Wow, I just noticed that you posted this in September! Lol. Well this is January, so it's a totally different season.

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Permalink Reply by MaryRose on March 20, 2009 at 11:38am

Hi All! I'm in Central California - and new to gardening.... and very excited! I've purchased about 10 plants for my first garden and will also try to plant some seeds too. I've purchased some 10 ft long galvanized steel piping. I have varying diameters from 3 ft to 1 ft. My hubby is going to cut them in varying heights so I can place them around the yard in groupings. Anyone have any experience with this? I am also going to post this in the raised bed section so pardon my duplicates if you see this question over there too. Thanks!! MaryRose

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Permalink Reply by Avegail Colegado Bottoff on April 18, 2009 at 12:25am

It's mid-way through spring and it's still getting < 50 at night. Greetings from Bakersfield, CA. Trying to get everything in the ground to beat the heat of Summer this year. Well, I have quite a few variety of stuff and I'm running out of space. In the main garden raised beds I have summer squash - green & yellow; 10 asparagus, lots of fava beans, cabbage; bok choy; basil, blue berries, Romanesca (Cauliflower); Elephant garlic; Brussell sprouts; a variety of onion: red,Egytian jumping onions, shallots; chamomille; Corn: Mirai, Baby & Honey/Pearl; 12 Broccoli; Swiss Light Chard; spinach, collards, strawberries, Oregon giant snap beans, soy beans, kentucky wonder beans; japanese eggplants & tomatoes; more tomatoes; celery safir; spinach malabar & carrots; On the sides of the house: pet grass, artichokes; winter squash; black berries; cucumbers, golden raspberries; containers: variety of bell peppers, ultra dwarf cherry; eggplants and now they are sprouting: Beans: Hestia & Nash, Eggplant Twinkle and more spinach malabar, herbs from last year that are still alive: mint, lemon balm, rosemary, lavender, chives, cilantro, spanish dancer & lemon grass. I can't wait for my most recent order: Skyscraper corn (16 ft); King Kong Strawberries plants; Giant Blueberries; indoor tomatoes, hanging strawberries; spacing saving zucchinis; top hat blueberries. Today my Stevia herb seeds just arrived. I need to get started working on the front lawn plan. I wish I have the land space.

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Permalink Reply by Sharon on May 12, 2009 at 12:11pm

Oh how I wish I had the space to grow so much more than I have but am content to have a decent sized plot in a community garden. I'm in Santa Monica so a few veggies will get a later start because of the off and on coastal fog and coolness. I have an Early Girl and Celebrity tomato I puchased from a nursery which are doing very well. When I took over this space last year the soil was in such poor condition so had to do a lot of soil amending. What a difference it's made! I can tell just by the way things are growing and the lack of bad bugs, aphids,etc., and increase of good bugs. Last week I rescued a couple of orphan tomato seedings, don't know what kind, a friend gave me in tiny little pots and they are really taking off already. So happy to stretch their little legs! I also started two heirloom tomatoes from seed in a quality potting soil bag right in the garden, Genovese and a large grape. The seedlings have done so well I transplanted them in the soil just yesterday. Last year I had a beautiful Brandywine Pink tomato in the ground that developed Root Knot Nemetodes. Horrible sight when I finally pulled it out. So thought I'd play it safe and try the bag trick. With all the amendment and compost now in the soil, I'm hoping for the best. Also planted Black Beauty and Rosa Bianca eggplant seeds and a variety of pepper seeds same way in a bag. It's warm enough now for them to germinate right out in the garden so it's a wait and see. Also with a late planting of those I hope to avoid flea beetle damage. My June bearing strawberries are doing nicely in their raised bed as well as regular, pickling and Armenian cuke seedlings in another bed. I've decided to let things sprawl a bit this year over tomato cages to keep them off the ground. I'll see how that goes. Also sowed some Cantalope seeds in the ground that have germinated and will grow up a trellis I've rigged up. Artichoke is already producing. They love the coastal climate. Even my brussel sprout plant is doing good. In and along with all of this are a good variety of herbs, flowers, bulbs, carrots, leeks, onions, lettuce, fennel bulbs and whatever else I can fit in there. I already harvested a lot of wonderful beets but will wait for the cooler season before I plant anymore root veggies. For now the bee's, ladybugs and me are very happy in the garden.

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Permalink Reply by Gardener Kahn on June 17, 2009 at 5:13pm

I live in the Oakland Hills on a west-facing downslope lot. We're replacing the retaining walls this spring so my garden is in containers on the deck and the front patio. The Early Girl and Siletz tomatoes have lots of blossoms and a number of little green fruit. Sun Gold and Yellow Pear went in later but are catching up. I also planted a Fireworks tomato, which sulked and then died on me. Also growing Japanese eggplant, zucchini, cukes, snow peas, basil, and salad mix. We had a hot spell right after the first tomato plants went in, which helped to give them a jump start. Now back to typical Bay area summer weather pattern--overcast mornings and no sun until about noon. Two of my six tomatoes succumbed to verticillium wilt last year so it's probably best to grow them in containers this year. As part of the garden project we'll be putting in raised beds, which should help to avoid the wilt problem in the future. Any suggestions about good organic fertizilizers for container gardens?

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Permalink Reply by Catalin on June 18, 2009 at 11:24am

My garden is in the Bay Area: central Richmond. I have fruit trees: lemon, peach, fig, apple, pear, persimmon, pomegranate, strawberry guava, and what I think may be a young avocado (we just moved here in March and didn't plant any of these). I have planted a variety of heirloom tomatoes given to me by my neighbor, plus some ordinary varieties. Also crookneck squash, cucumbers (a couple types), bell pepper, bush beans, corn, muskmelon, butternut squash (just threw some seeds in the ground from a squash we ate) Some herbs: basil, dill, parsley, cilantro, rosemary, oregano, hops, mint. Inherited flowers: roses, calla lillies, camellias, nasturtiums and have planted some other flowers including sunflowers, hollyhocks, sweet peas, and some drought tolerant natives whose names I can't remember right now. This is my first season of gardening in the Bay Area and it's very exciting to be learning as I go, but also a little intimidating to have so much going on already due to buying a house with existing fruit trees that I have to learn to care for. I am eager to learn from others with more experience.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Taylor on November 1, 2009 at 11:02pm

Hi, Lisa

I'm a UCCE Certified MAser Gardener and live in Camarillo, north of L.A. We are in the foothills above the coastal plain, with a climate probably similar to your area. We also have about 5,000 sq. feet of garden, plus various fruit trees (citrus, avocados, loquats, macadamias, pomogranites, cherimoyas, sapotes, guavas, bananas, jujubes - the usual stuff). We also have a large area devoted to native habitat and are home to about 100 quail, a bobcat (maybe mated now), roadrunners, hawks, owls, and falcons.

Tomatoes did well this year with several weeks where we got 2 to 3+ pounds of tomatoes per plant per day.Garlic did real well this year for a change. I discovered that garlic, like any other bulb, needs to be refridgerated for 3 to 6 weeks before planting or it won't form bulbs...

We had good luck with melons - 'Yellow Doll' and 'Sugar Baby' watermelons were superb. 'Swan Lake', 'Zatta;, 'Halogen' all did well where there was lots of reflected and retained heat (would do better inland I think). Charentais remains the best cantelope-type melon, and the Ananas melons that matured in the hot spells where the best green fleshed melons.

FYU, I have a page on recommended vegetable varieties for southern Cailfonia, and another on when to plant veggies in southern California. Information is approved by the Master Gardens and includeds my pwn recommendations and observations,

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Permalink Reply by Kimberly on November 4, 2009 at 8:45pm

Hi Mike:
Wow! you've got a great website. I have giant eggplants still blooming in Pasadena. Is there any point in keeping them in the ground? Or, are the days too short and temperature too cool for them to mature and I should just take the plants out?
Thanks.
Kimberly

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