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A journal of sorts

 

2024
February
2024 02-05	2024 02-10	2024 02-11	2024 02-12	2024 02-13	2024 02-16
2024 02-17	2024 02-18	2024 02-19	2024 02-21	2024 02-23	2024 02-25
2024 02-26	2024 02-29
Journal

February 5, 2024

Well, I'm a slacker. What can I say? There hasn't been a lot to do since
I got back from Sandy Ego. I mean, there's not a lot you can do when
it's raining non-stop, right? So I've just been tending to the indoor
seedlings as best I can and hoping we don't wash out. I am awfully
glad I went to the trouble and expense of getting those polycarbonate
panels for the raised beds because they double as rain sheltering
material during the deluge.

24 hours of non-stop rain and my 140 lettuces are as prim as pie. I learned
the last time that the panels need support and I was awfully glad that I had
went to the trouble and expense to acquire a number of those metal poles for
the tomatos because they make dandy supports for the panels. And, after
watching those panels blow off during the last big wind, I was, again,
awfully glad I had gone to the trouble and expense of acquiring a shitload
of bricks back in the day because this time around, the whole thing has
been just peachy except for the goddamn rain itself. The house has a leak,
and getting someone to fix it has been really a problem.
I guess there's an awful lot more trouble and expense in my future and
don't get me started on the water main out ...

Anyway, the little house darlings are prospering in their plant-like way:

Broccoli and stuff.

Cauliflower and stuff.

Buncha stuff. I believe that's a fennel plant that just couldn't
wait to flower. Hmmm.

Buncha more stuff. Some yellowing going on. I am telling you,
knowing the way to water these things is the hardest part.

February 10, 2024

Creedence Clearwater had it right. After 40 days, and 40 nights,
it finally stopped. For a while. So it was time to save some seedlings
from being cramped to death in their little pots and get some of them
out into the yard. If you want to trick artichokes into flowering their
first year you have to let them get cold and that's not easy under 25k of
light indoors. Anyway, here's my progress report:

That's 7 of the 15 or 20 broccoli plants I have to find room for.

 

 

There's about 15 or 20 spinaches. You can plant them close together and I plan to.
There are more seedlings to go into that mess.

 

These are some of the radishes. I deepsixed a bunch, and transplanted
a bunch of others to see what happens to them in pots. They seem healthy.

 

I have a strange affection for these garlics.

These are my cheater lettuces. They are coming back pretty good
from the ravaging I've given them three times now.

These are most of my lettuce seedlings. I like the way they look in the seed catalog photos when
they grow them next to each other and it looks like a solid wall of colored leaves. Another few weeks
and we might be getting close to that. I have some wheatgrass there in the background for my gesund.
There are a lot of seedlings whose identity I have lost track of. I like that. Sooner or later they will
betray their true nature, like most people, and will be dealt with accordingly.

These are some of the cheater cauliflowers, with some Rabe broccolis planted
in between the terracotta pots. I have a couple other varieties of cauliflower
in pots but this weekend they will have to go into the ground.

February 11, 2024

First good day of weather in weeks. Missed two weekends of work out
here and it felt good to get back to it. I was up against it, too. Before I
knew it we were in the middle of February and there were seedlings
to get started and I had eight trays full of stuff in the house in the
zones where all the new seedlings have to be.

So after today's work, this is how it's shaking out:

The lettuces in Bed 1. Also wheatgrass and some mystery stuff.

Bed 2 is more lettuces and some radishes (for the moment).
It's also a holding pen for some onions that need to get bigger
and some other mystery stuff.

Bed 3 is also lettuces, and about ten cauliflower plants. I'm
pushing the spacing but it's still not for certain they'll all make it.

Bed 4 is basically for garlics, eventually those onions and a shitload
of spinach. At the moment three artichoke plants are hanging out until
I decide where to put them.

Bed 5 is home to about seventeen broccoli plants and some onions.
I like broccoli a lot more than I like cauliflower but I'm willing to
see if those heirloom cauliflowers are delicious.

I do like spinach. It's a good thing. There's about 25 of them.

I know I talked tough about how the radishes which you can't see
anymore were placeholders, and would have to give it up for the team;
i.e. fall on their seed swords but the truth is I just pricked them out
and replanted them in little pots. If they make it I'll be happy.

Those are some of them; there were quite a few more.

Some of the seedlings that had to get out of the house were marked with
little signs so I know what they are, but in the initial shuffle some got mixed
up and some lost their ID cards. The result is a bunch of mystery plants.
It's not hard to tell a broccoli from a cauliflower, but they really don't look
that much different when they still only have 3-5 leaves. It's exciting to
watch them begin to present their true natures but we're not there yet.

The contents of Coldbed 1 for tonight.

The contents of Coldbed 2.

Some of these defy classification at this point. Since the raised beds
are starting to fill up it's a good thing quite a few of these are flowers.

This oregano is quite fetching. It's a few different colors.

I'm pretty excited about next weekend; that's when I will be starting
my main crop, which is tomatoes, along with a bunch of other stuff.
I really don't have a great deal of space for my garden so I am trying
to limit myself to 4 or 5 seedlings each of most of the varieties of
vegetables and herbs. I know, I went a little crazy with those broccolis
and cauliflowers... Some of them, which serve multiple purposes
(herbs which double as companion plants to draw pollinators or repel
predatory insects, etc.) will be started every couple of weeks to keep
them coming. Today's planting was basil (2 varieties), bee balm, borage,
cardoon, celery, chervil, chives (2 varieties), cilantro, oregano, parsley,
rosemary, sage, tarragon and thyme. I had some bad luck with some stuff
from a couple of weeks ago so I restarted my golden beets, some Matador
shallots and some Tokyo white onions. All that looks like this:

 

Can't wait for next weekend.

 

February 12, 2024

Doing a man's work requires a man's breakfast.

Enough said.

Got up early and did some more improvements on my raised beds' waterproofing
system. Cross-members and the like. Before I'm done they will be rain-proof. Also,
having enjoyed my breakfast, I gave the worms theirs. Yum!

Took a trip to Home Depot to buy supplies and came home to finish up the raised
beds before the big rains hit again next Sunday or Monday.

Oh, sorry, lost my reading glasses.

That's much better.

Bed 1 has a proper setup now. Even though I have green panels I wanted
to see how clear panels worked out. I will use the green ones to create
a covered work area, maybe even tomorrow. It's hard to believe it was
only four weeks ago that those lettuces looked like this:

Nature is great. Let's protect ours !!

Okay, back to the journal:

So, finally all tucked in and ready for the rain. They are a bit higher
at the back so the rain should run off at the front. Next step is doing
up some proper collection barrels for the rainwater. My man Bobbo
tells me the rainwater has perfect pH balances. I believe him. Now
that guy has a green thumb. . .

February 13, 2024

Today was a slacker's paradise, in terms of gardening. I didn't actually
make it outside until after 4:00 PM. All was well; nothing needed water,
nothing needed pricking out, nothing needed transplanting.

On the other hand, it was a great day to get my 20-something varieties of
tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers etc. organized and ready for the coming
weekend. Even though it's going to rain I can start the seedlings inside
where they will spend their first month anyway.

So it was with a certain amount of pleasure and satisfaction that
I looked over the burgeoning garden outside my kitchen.

I can almost taste that broccoli !!

February 16, 2024

Very relaxing couple of days. Monitoring the garden, tweaking this or
that, nothing much. Must stay up late and find and kill whatever's
chewing on my cauliflower leaves. Those seedlings I started on the 11th,
only five days ago, have already begun to show results.

A bunch of basils and golden beets and some Brussels sprouts.
Some of those beets are already nearly an inch tall - in four days...

February 17, 2024

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall. But I'm ready. Excited, actually. Got my buckets
out to collect a bunch of it. Got my raised beds set up for efficient coverage and
protection. Got my cold beds empty and ready for the overflow trays. It's gonna be good.

Beds 1-3. Cauliflowers and broccoli, artichokes and peas off to the left.
They're going to have to fend for themselves in the deluge. Oh well.
I've really savaged those starter lettuces on the right; had 4 big salads
so far and they're still growing their leaves back. It's hard to believe how
tender those leaves are. I actually prefer a bit of crunch in my lettuce, but
there a couple of romaine varieties starting to fluff out.

I picked my first radish out of the ground yesterday and it was delicious.

About 3 inches long, the thickness of my right pinky.

Garlic to the left, a few radishes in the middle and spinach on the right.
More spinach in the middle right, then 16 broccolis and some onions.

All five raised beds, water buckets standing ready. Covers for all
raised beds.

This is a Laeta viola. The damn plant is about two inches tall and it's
already flowering. These are short, chunky plants. They'll go into the ground,
or terracotta pots in a few weeks or so.

February 18, 2024

Great day for gardening. Warmish, dryish and only slightly breezy. Joe came by
to help out with Biscuit and he picked some weeds from the raised beds
while Biscuit terrorized the squirrels. Very helpful, they both were,
and while he was weeding I was starting my favorite crop; tomatoes.
And some peppers, squash and cucumbers and a few other things.
They are all tucked away now, on mats in humidity domes under light.

Pictures of soil blocks without any growth are kind of boring so we'll skip them.
Endless pictures of the same raised beds, however, are exhilerating, since every
day brings changes. With that in mind, here we go:

Raised bed No. 1, with six or seven varieties of lettuce and an
out-of-control 5 trays of violas, snapdragons, and god knows what
in them. They will all need a place to settle and, um, I am not
sure where that will be. I may have overplanted a little.

The Caseloads are doing pretty good, the King Tuts are malingering.
We shall see who wins in the end. Days to maturity for the Tuts seem to
be about 13-15 days longer. Hopefully that's the reason they are lagging.

Meanwhile, on the west wall, the first cauliflower head has appeared.
It's small and looks like an albino brain but it's there! Very exciting !

This could be dill and it could be fennel. It has no particular smell to
it. The fennel that flowered yellow smelled strongly of licorice and
didn't look anything like this. The rest of the fennels don't look like
this either. On the other hand, I only planted my dill today so how could
it be dill? Again, the fullness of time will be our friend.

So ... the weather forecast is for heavy, heavy rain for 48-60 hours
straight starting in about 2 hours from now (it's 6:36 pm pst) so it was
time to hunker down. Everything is put away, all of the seedlings that
aren't in the raised beds are in the cold beds and all of the covers are up.

There are 4.5 muck buckets out to collect rainwater (perfect pH), and,
except for the poor cauliflowers, some broccolis and the peas, just about
everything is snug and secure. Until some unexpected disaster strikes ...

So, with the weekend ruined by the weather again, but with all of the
scheduled seeds started (including the chervil) I will give up my days
off and head for the shoe store to organize the shelves and catch up.

Toodleooo.

February 19, 2024

So not much today. It rained all day, I think. I was at the shop doing some
much needed catching up with inventory and the like. Took a look at the
garden when I got home. Everything was snug.

Very satisfactory. I created some files of the seed structure in
the trays so with any luck I won't get them confused as they grow.

Five of each in .75" soil blocks. Hopefully they will sprout and all will
be well. If they're not up and bushy in a week I'll start them again.
The idea of the little blocks is that as soon as the plants start putting
out roots they will be moved into 2" square blocks for the next phase.

I wasn't really paying attention when I bought those Johnny's Seeds
tomatoes. I didn't notice that they are 'greenhouse' varieties.
I assume that means they won't grow that well outside in the real world.
I'll be sad if they don't make it but them's the breaks. Who knows?
Maybe they will be robust enough to survive the brutal weather here
in West Hollywood.

Three of each (except for the superhot peppers, which are 2x) in the
1.5" x 1.5" soil blocks. These soil blocks will be moved to 4" pots when
the roots start to air prune.

It's probably a waste of time but I have a lot of amazing varieties of
tomato seeds from a long time ago. They are probably not viable any
more but it doesn't cost anything to find out so I will be starting a bunch
of other varieties to see if anything grows.

February 21, 2024

So the rain finally stopped falling (for 5 days, then it starts again ...) so it
was time to denude the raised beds and take stock. The good news is that
another cauliflower head has emerged! The 'bad' news is that some evil-
looking mushrooms appeared in raised bed 5. They were quickly dealt with.

After the deluge:

The East Peas, some of them.

The West Peas, started a few weeks later.

Fledgling artichokes.

These are my border Caulis.

Herb Alley starting to fill in a little.

Bed One.

The other side of Bed One.

Bed Two.

The spinach made it through the storm.

Back end of Bed Two.

Some of the overflow.

They are oddly evil, don't I think? They dig out very easily...

February 23, 2024

Where does the time go?

Friday's Snapshot

This little bit of castings fell out of the bottom tray into the catchtray.
Looks like a worm fell out too. I will rescue him shortly.

This is 'worm tea' - what drips out of the bottom of the trays.
This liquid is very nice for watering plants.

These are the creatures that were wriggling around at the top of
bin number 3. If there are this many on top, can you imagine how many
are buried under the surface (and in each of the other three trays?
These puppies are hard at work digesting my banana peels and my
eggshells and other kitchen refuse so I can grow more stuff with
butt-ends I can give them.

This is the 'city' compost I got from Santa Monica. It's really only
good for laying on the ground to soften the footfalls.

This is the developing compost made from my ficus leaves and coffee
grounds. It's gonna be a long while before it's usable unless I can
find some grass clippings. Which, so far, I can't.

February 25, 2024

It was great to have a nice sunny Sunday for a change. There was a lot
to do. Almost all of the seedlings had to be worked on in some way or
another. Some were planted, some were transplanted into different
pots, some were ... deepsixed. Yup, the weakest plants inherited
the earth today. The good news for them is, they get to feed the worms!

I have some batches of plants that I can't identify. I am working on
systems to eliminate that problem but I'll probably forget to employ
the tactics occasionally. Don't get old. . .

Like these; I don't have a clue what they are, except it's possible they
are Wasabi radishes.

Some more stuff I don't know what it is.

This might be Romaine lettuce; maybe more of that good Yedikule.

But this:

The pot was marked Snapdragon Lantern but ... we all know this
is a weed, right? Even if it looks like it might be something good.

And this one is marked "oregano" but I think it's that Yedikule.

This is what Yedikule looks like:

This green one is Landis Winter lettuce:

But this one on the bottom left is Yedikule:

We'll see how the stuff at the top grows in. It's probably more Yedikule.

Flower Island got it's first transplants. Violas and short Snapdragons.

A lot more Violas and Snapdragons. Today was plant flower seeds
day, so there is agastasche, celosia, craspedia, gaillardia, marigolds,
nasturtiums, poppies and zinnias on mats under the humidity dome.
Pretty sure I'm going to run out of pots pretty soon.

There's a new border cauli, a sweet little one. It's cousin is looking
more and more like an albino brain every day.

Hard to believe, but the smallest and youngest of the peas, a purple
king Tut, has flowered first. Looking forward to some purple peas.

Herb Alley is starting to fill in. L-R, it's probably not fennel, then
fennel for sure, then wheatgrass and a couple of cilantros. My dill,
sage, thyme, tarragon and some other herbs are coming along too.

These are some of the extra broccolis and cauliflowers. They'll be
going to Princess Laurel and Dr. Metz, hopefully before they're too rootbound.

So it all begins again. Four trays of goodthings. I forgot to start the
corn last week so I'll have to do it tomorrow. After that, the only new
things left to start will be a couple of honeydew melons and the beans.
Of course, there will be some succession lettuces to start, and in about
six or seven weeks I'll start a whole new round of tomato plants. This
time around, I will start my cauliflowers and broccolis and spinaches
and stuff around the first of September, not the middle of November
so I can be eating the stuff at this time. A late start is better than no
start but it's gonna get REALLY crowded in the backyard shortly.

Well, in the guitar-building room there's a bunch of stuff under the lights.
A lot of golden beets, a lot of 2 kinds of basil, 2 kinds of cucumbers, squash,
tarragon and thyme, dill, cardoon, onions, brussels sprouts, shallots,
cilantro, chives, borage and sage. Whew!

February 26, 2024

Lazy day. Got a late start, eventually went out and organizized a bit.
Distracted myself from replanting some of the failed seedlings by
really wasting time starting 9 varieties of 10 year old seeds.
We'll see how that works out. Then it started to drizzle. That was
good because I like free watering of the plants. After a while I went
out and put the green covers over the raised beds. Don't want too much.

Of course I took a picture of that but I've already seen a lot of similar
photos so that's about it for now.

February 29, 2024

It's a free day, an extra if you will. Lazy days, garden-wise I guess.
I cheated again; went to Armstrong and bought some starters. Rosemary,
because it's so hard to start from seed. Catnip - ditto. Lastly mint, because
it's even harder to start from seed. While I was there I grabbed some
starter bunching onions because they take so long to grow and I needed
something to fill in the gaps between the garlic.

So when I got home with this stuff I got to work.

That mint got turned into 12 plants; so I can spread it around for pest control.

These will make fine additions to Herb Alley.

Cluttering up the garlic patch.

A little luck for the garden.

Back in the guitar room and the laundry porch, the nine trays of
seedlings are coming along. These are the ones from the guitar room:

Very encouraging. The laundry room is doing good too. Photo update soon.

On to March