New and improved blog with photos

This is the garden, my best garden to date... i have tweaked some things from last year on the power of new knowledge and the simmering rage of last years defeats.   Speaking about defeats... perhaps i should have titled this little post "new and improved blog with Pics".   By using the word Photos and not pics, i am dating myself as an old school, out of touch and un-hip type of chap and that's no way to blossom a writing career... one needs to identify with the lingo of the kids today... do u hr me?

Houston we have a problem.   I could have started this blog with a nice fuzzy little statement about how many people have commented on how nice the hops look, and how every morning a hummingbird sits up there and sings... quite a nice song by the way.  But that didn't happen... i had to take a few shots and now we are here.  Keep on going... as a leader who leads by example i will now argue how proper gardening mindset states that it is the only option.

Obviously i could just delete and start again, but then where am I?  Paralyzed in fear on what to do and how to continue... IS IT THE RIGHT WAY????   The thing is you can't take back the past... you can only learn from it and presenting a false and calculated image of what you are doing deserves a serious kick in the balls.  If that's your game go get in the entertainment business where every pile of manure is polished until it's shining like a new dime.  In gardening manure is free fertilizer... food for the prize... not decorated like the prize. 

OK lets get serious... i have a new Garden neighbour... a plot mate so to speak... and the good news is she is aware of this blog and as a result of it wanted to be next to me.  Her style is what she calls "free gardening"... anything that is free.  This is the way it should be... people should never have to go to the nursery to buy plants because plants make seeds which make more plants.  To make a long story mid sized i have been deputized "plot manager in charge of errant brainstorming operations, seed distribution and orphan tomato relater".  I know it's a long title, but we revel in being weird here in Portland... for me it's kind of like taking candy from a baby.

 I'm kind of like a plant broker in many circles... i find spots for free plants.  How does one become a plant broker? Let me put it to you this way... i have my ear on the ground and my finger on the pulse of the neighbourhood.  I know what's going on... i know who's doing what... I'm not afraid to ask or tell it like it is.  I have about 20 people around here i keep up with on recurring gardening talk... always looking for a tip... always willing to give some advise.   Good times for comedy too... For example you can be in the school and see Ramsey and yell "what the heck are you trying to disguise your garden as the Sahara desert Ramsey!"  Next thing you know other parents are looking at Ramsey talking under their breaths about the total lack of plant stewardship as Ramsey sweats and tries to utter an uncomfortable and lame excuse.

Check out the beets... a nice cool wet spring has been good to our little red friends at the community garden, and with the absence of the ass hole squirrels (that i have at home) one can actually grow beets. I see squirrels as a notch more annoying as waving inanimate cats... at least the cats can only look annoying as something that is totally useless can.   The squirrel is an oily little devil of a nuisance destroying all kinds of things just in the simple manor of existing.  I like this idea but i imagine the appetite for a venture of this sort will be strong and unfortunate. 

The carrot patch next to the Walla Walla onions is finding it's groove.  Make sure you really soak the soil so the water gets deep so the carrots will reach down to get it.  Of course the key to gardening is good moist soil and full sun.  Now we get full sun at the Mt Tabor community garden, but the soil that is there is a little heavy on the clay which will really interfere with your ability to get the water deep. You really want the clay under your good soil so that your moisture is retained.  I am getting to the point in my garden where the plants are putting up some shade on the soil which really helps to keep the moisture in the soil.  It's funny, in all this talk of global warming and CO2 levels there is so little emphasis on the re greening of the earth.  Think about how much a road or a roof heats up in the sun over what a forest might.  The forest absorbs the light energy and uses that energy to turn CO2 into growth.   Obviously I'm for reducing CO2 production and usage, but there seems to be a rather large other thing we could be doing... but who makes money off letting a forest grow?

I put 2 more panels on this potato box the other day and filled the space with good soil.  I'll take a pass on the straw dream this year... i got about 7 potatoes in the straw box last year, while my man down the street got about 50 lbs out of his dirt box.  Now one test does not make a conclusive experiment... unless you are a corrupt government looking for an answer to support you ideology... in that case it should be fine.  I am careful not to choke out the plants this year... perhaps last year i put too much straw at one time and then went away on vacation in the heat of the summer.  It's important in Gardening to be honest about everything going on... it's the only way you can learn to get it right.  Just another one of those fine life metaphors... maybe you are lucky things are working out... or maybe you have all sorts of little micro adjustments dialed in... ahh the plot thickens.

This is a silver fir tomato in front of a kale and beside the carrot patch.  The silver fir is a unique tomato plant, defined by it's sharp narrow leaves, and the tomato itself is a thing of beauty.  My neighbour turned me on to this variety a few years ago... as a result my plot neighbour has a few in her plot.  Now you won't beat the taste or the elaborate beauty of a slice of this tomato.  This years exercise will be to pinch off all of the early flowers and lower leaves to allow the plant to grow large and strong for the July -August- September tomato season.    Sometimes it is hard to cut back plants... you think you are doing a bad thing when in fact you are actually doing a good thing.  I'd say most gardens i have seen are an overgrown mess of tomatoes rotting come harvest time, and that's not good... it's like parenting where a little tough  love can go a long way.

And now for the peas... i have 4 batches of peas going this year, three are in circular cages like this and one is in a linear trellis.  Now i have always been a linear trellis  kind of guy but i have to say in the circle the plants have an easier time climbing up.  I seem to spend a lit of time coaxing the plants to not reach for the sun and stay on the trellis when it is linear, and when it is circular these problems don't exist.  Now i imagine the linear trellis would be better for the plants getting more exposure to the sun, but it all comes down to yield of course.  I also imagine that the linear trellis might be easier to harvest from, but if there is a will there is a way.

Now what about the home garden? Well there is one king hell strawberry harvest going on now... i can't really measure the load with the kids constantly feasting all afternoon but i know it's a big one.  Between the gardens we have had fresh spinach salad and kale every night for the past week or so, and the peas and raspberries are coming in.   My kids had a bowl of strawberries, peas one blueberry and some raspberries for a snack after school yesterday... and that's why we do this.