Garden Start 2009

From April

From closest to the house to furthest away.
The peas didn't make it. Planted to late. I think that is my problem with peas... I never plant them until April :eeks:
The lettuce didn't make it... could be the age of the seeds.
Or it could be that the palm tree next door has grown enough that the bed is not getting adequate sun light.
The radishes are doing fine and the slugs are enjoying them. I've been concentrating on keeping the slugs out of the tomatoes and forgot to protect the radish.

From April

The watermelon didn't make it but that could be 'cause the hose I was using had holes in it and the watermelon was right next too it. A week later the soil still has not dried out ... oops.
Then again it could be the lack of sun problem.

From April

The nasturtiums are all sprouting.
The tomatoes are doing fine. A few little holes here and there. I forgot to protect the back side when I first planted.
I'm using egg shells and coffee grounds as barriers.
The dill and the basil in this bed is due to sprout any moment so we'll wait a bit to see what happens with those.

From April

Dh's jalapeno plant from last year. Lots of fresh/new "fruits" on it. I took one of the dried out pods from last year and planted it a foot the right just to see if something happens.

From April

The corn has sprouted. I plant the corn each year for dh. I've had some success and some failures but it thrills him so I continue.
The following are due soon but there is no sign of them thus far: sage, marigolds, lettuce, and zucchini Another week and I'll start looking for the onions, cilantro, parsley,crookneck squash and nasturtiums.

From April

Zucchini and nasturtiums. No sign of anything yet.

From April

More zucchini and sunflowers. On the left is the way I plan to compost this summer. We'll see how it goes.

Some general notes:
I was out of commission February and most of March so my planting is running later than I like this year.

What I did plant I found out that some was too late in the season due to our Zone. Of course I've never bothered to look that up before. We have the privileged of being multiple zones :) The seed packets I have indicate we are an 8. By zip code we are 9b. By city we are a 10! Woo Hoo! I knew I was a 10 but is was nice that the gardening community thinks so too. Based on average average minimum temperature my guess is that we are a 10b. Of course since I did the research I found a quote by a semi local "forget about this and other gardening instructions, because they are inevitably associated with the "norm" We are not the norm, but the exception." Lovely, so much for my trying to follow the rules again. :) Following the rules so rarely works out for me.

The fence is being push over worse than before by palm trees planted too close to the property line and out of state owners who won't even fix the leaky roof for the tenants :/

All in all gardening is an excuse for me to be in the sun and fresh air. Time for relaxing and meditation. Grow or no, I still derive pleasure from the experience.