Unusual for this time

 Our Meditteranean climate means that we get the bulk of our rainfall during the winter months, peaking in January. The "golden hills of California" are from grasses that green up in the winter, and then get dry, very very dry, all summer.

Imagine my surprise when Eric told me this morning that it was raining, and I'd need a jacket to go and exercise. Not pouring rain, really. . . more like very wet fog, with tiny droplets sheeting down. But enough to add up to a bit of water for the plants.

Still, what's good for the plants was slightly less good for my laundry.

By the end of today, I hope it's dry. If not, I'll bring it in the house.

Watering System

Heather asked for an overview of the watering "system." So, a little tutorial on the easy-peasy, hardware store-parts irrigation method I'm trying with the new garden.

Currently, the source is the pressurized water from the city. This should hopefully be a temporary situation, since we're harvesting rainwater. At least I'd like to be dependent on non-gray or -rainwater for much less of the year.


The pinkish hose then runs out to the master pipe for the whole garden.


It took me some time to get that to stop dripping. I had to buy aftermarket rubber rings. I think it's done the trick. We dug a ditch, starting at this point, and running along the middle of the new beds, and over to the existing ones, where a ditch then ran the length of those, in between them.


At the corner of each bed, about 1.5' from the center pipe, we laid a cross connection. That led to feeder pipes and then up to the stand pipes with valves. We got good at glueing up elbows and ts and cross pieces. The valves are simple ball valves, but I can adjust the flow using those. We tried to get them sitting right at the top edge of the bed.


But, as you can see, a couple were too tall. I may take the time to lower that -- some time. They're just that much more vulnerable to breakage sitting up like that. In the picture above, you can see the remnants of the drip system installed by professionals with an automated timer and everything. It never, ever worked well.

One drawback to this post-hoc construction is beds like these.


This year, I may just have to remove those cross-pieces and deal with the slope. On the bed closest to the chicken coop, there's a double spigot so we can theoretically have water all the time to the coop. So far, I haven't left the pressure on, regulating it instead from the house, so I don't know how that would work. We did do our best, but I haven't felt up to testing it yet.


In the future, I'd like to have it set on a timer, so that I could leave it for a week or so and rest assured that each hose would deliver water to each bed. I'd also like to install a pressurizing water pump so we could use those rain totes to water with, even going so far as to put the recycled bath water in them because it would be used so quickly. This will take not only time but money.

When our children make it big as rock stars, though, you can bet I'll get that rainwater system working really well!

Everything but the kitchen sink update

We were out of town this weekend, and while I was away, I was wondering what the garden was doing in my absence. It took me about an hour after I got home to get outside, just for a "hello" walk around. However, it took two days to finish the laundry.

After it was all done today, I grabbed a camera and my youngest and we headed out, so I'm going to do a "wander through the yards with the camera" kind of picture-heavy update. Thanks in advance for your patience!


The helper herownself, with the inadvertently-pole beans she planted a few weeks ago. Oh well. She's the only one so far who keeps wanting to plant things and keep up with them. Her little bed is getting very full.


Mostly-tomatillos, with some sunflower accents, this bed is doing very well. The two on the left were transplanted the day before we left. I jury-rigged a support by bending a long piece of 6x6 mesh in half. So far, so good.


The purple tomatillo is way ahead of everything else.


These are Sungolds.


And a Principe Borghese peeking out.


The Haricot Vert beans came up in four days.


Scarlet Runners are way ahead of all the other beans, and so very pretty.


They are, however, over their supports. While I had contemplated lashing an extension on the poles, the top of the string is the top of my reach, so either my neighbor is going to get to pick these or they'll hang back down. I really thought I had them at six feet -- apparently it's ten or so.


Three sisters doing pretty well. I haven't grown corn here before, so we'll see. I may have to do some raccoon-proofing. And the squash (Lakota, I think) is leaping around so much that the beans may get shoved aside.


First little peppers. I think these might be chili piquin.


This indigo is about ready for its first cutting (right above the jointed nodes). When the yarn for dyeing shows up, I'm going to set up a little dye studio and see what I can get.


Yellow Finns are really and truly (okay, eleven of twelve of them are) up. I hope by next week to have to put more soil around them. This is the most fun experiment I've done in a while.


And I have to remember to cut some examples of the apple trees and take them to the nursery. I don't think this is fire blight, but something is killing my apples, twig down. Since these are espaliered, there isn't much there to lose without losing the entire tree. Eeep.


Out front, the first pumpkin. Last year the front yard pumpkins were show-stoppers. I hope to repeat that this year, with different varieties. This might be a blue one. I have GOT to find my copper plant tags, since both my brain and my garden journal appear to be missing.



Too late for Garden Death Day, but the Charentais melon kicked the bucket in my absence. It was only one leaf, but still . . .


All is not serious around the Sicilian Sisters. We take good time for garden silliness.


Yellow crookneck and parseley, out front. The leaves are a bit spiky compared to the almost-downy feeling butternuts near them.


This is the reason I want to live to be a hearty old woman. It will take me that long to pull every last bit of Bermuda grass out of my yards. Bad weed! Bad weed! I muse longingly about Roundup in a squirt bottle when I'm out front.


Another thing I have got to get together is a low-pressure gravity watering system. Even with my helper, it took about an hour today to hose water everything from the rain bins. And I worry that it's not going as deeply as of course a drip system would. Hopefully before next summer!


These are the 275 gallon totes I was using today. The one on the other side of the house is 2/3 empty after a long soaking of each tree and vine out back.


The Purple Royalty rasperries, put in this spring, are going to have at least a tiny harvest. Yum! I can't wait until the whole wall o'berries fills in. With the butternut squashes near them and around the persimmon tree, it's going to be quite a sight.


Caterina was wielding the camera today, and these rasperries out back (terribly infested with weeds -- I'll clear them out after pruning) in front of the beehives are one of her favorite garden destinations. They're very carefully checked every day.


Her rocking horse is another. You can see the former lawn future garden bed space well in this picture.


The bee fountain is just past the pepper behind the volunteer bachelor's buttons. I'm keeping it topped off, and they visit a lot.

Laura, over at the Modern Victory Garden, made a point that it's time to start thinking about putting seeds in for winter's crops. That's true, and it also gives gardeners like me something to do instead of obsessively wandering around our happily growing summer gardens. So maybe I'll get to at least thinking about that while I'm watering these days.