November Gardening Notes

So far we have had some heavy rains every weekend for the past 3 weeks (since mid-October).   I have taken this opportunity to transplant a few things with the help of the well saturated soil.

Maple tree- moved from the center of garden beds to the old original square bed located to the left of current garden beds.

Unknown tree growing in one of the back beds by the recently planted peach tree- relocated to a bucket for now until species has been identified and a permanent location can be determined.

Tomato cuttings- taken from a cutting from this past spring planting, planted one in each of the garden beds.   Some basil is growing well thanks to the rain.

Mango tree grown from seed is growing well, now about a foot tall in a large pot.

Green onions are springing back thanks to the rain.


Notes for future work-

• prune front yard pear trees in late January- early February to avoid damage from freeze
• prune back yard and side yard ash trees- long branches to avoid potential damage from splitting or breaking off (fence, house, pergola)
• prune grape vines and transplant early February and transplant cuttings
• put in post and lines for grape vines
• move raised beds to make room for grape vines

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Spring break garden chores

It's that time to get the beds ready for the spring/summer garden. I decided to move my raised beds around to get maximum usage of every bed. With the old layout, two beds got shade early and provided little growth.  The new layout will hopefully allow better usage of soaker hoses and sun exposure.  I also designed it to allow a space for a plum tree in the back.

I had to transplant my onions, cilantro, and celery.  Lucked out that it rained the day after to give them a good soaking to take root. 

The Swiss chard continues to grow like its a perennial.  I have planned several meals this week to use it and the cilantro. 

I had and wanted to transplant the grapevines (only one of five didn't make it). I think the oregano smothered it out.  I had an idea to build a pergola and plant them so that they would grow up and over it. Problem is that I don't know when I will have time to build it.  I also want and need to make some cuttings to root some more vines.  

The biggest achievement was finally getting the old cedar trunks out.  I even got rid of them on Craigslist within two hours of posting it.  I moved the old grape trellis to the side and plan on using it to train future cucumbers and cantaloupe vines.  

I spread out some oregano to grow in different places and built a little butterfly garden to help with pollination and insect control. 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Prepping for the fall

So with fall weather approaching, it's about time to get things ready for my fall garden.  I trimmed my tomato plants and with their trunks a good inch and a half thick, I pulled them out I the ground and transplanted them in a different location.  Three I them went in the ground where an old raised bed was.  I dug trenches and buried them sideways.  The Roma plants, I transplanted in my front yard to test the soil and amount of sun.  Ideally I would love to make some beds for the front yard or even plant fruit trees or more grape vines.

I also removed all but about two cantaloupe vines.  The ones left still have some melons on them. 

The compost in the barrel was golden ripe which prompted me to turn the stationary compost heaps. The center was like chocolate cake but the sides still needed some more time. Hopefully it will be ready by spring. 

Since the weather usually doesn't start dropping until late October to even mid November,  I think I still have about two more weeks to get my seeds into the ground.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!