Not much to report over the last day and a half. Pierce College reported 1.16 inches of rain on Friday, so the ground is saturated.
We moved a few containers around, hoping to plant but we judged that they need to dry out a bit. One of the pulp pots lost its' bottom and will be discarded.
The plants in the ground, however, look wonderful. All of them, without exception, are reaching for the sky and have a very good to fantastic green color.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Five More Seedlings In The Ground
Tonight I dug three holes near the lemon tree and two in the backyard cutout area.
Near the lemon tree my wife planted Nyagous(2), Black Cherry and Big Bite. In the backyard cutout she planted Persimmon and German Orange Strawberry.
I hit significant amounts of asphalt in the backyard cutout. It was harder to dig because the ground was still wet.
We were busy on Wednesday, so no planting was done.
A few days ago my wife purchased some cherry tomatoes for planting in containers.
Near the lemon tree my wife planted Nyagous(2), Black Cherry and Big Bite. In the backyard cutout she planted Persimmon and German Orange Strawberry.
I hit significant amounts of asphalt in the backyard cutout. It was harder to dig because the ground was still wet.
We were busy on Wednesday, so no planting was done.
A few days ago my wife purchased some cherry tomatoes for planting in containers.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Seven Seedlings Planted, Bricks Removed
This morning my wife planted Green Zebra, Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye(1), Pineapple, Pineapple Pig and Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye(2). The redwood raised bed received two seedlings -- Porkchop and Jaune Flamme.
My wife informed me that she ran into a brick while preparing another hole in the redwood raised bed. Yeah, yeah, whatever, I thought. I'm sure there's something there, but a brick? Nah.
I had to leave a little early at work this evening. I left at 5:15 to try to make a 6:30 meeting at UCLA. We were going to be a bit late, but not too bad. While my wife got ready, I took a look at the "brick". Well...it was a brick. In about five minutes I was able to work out that brick and a couple others as well!
We took off around 6 PM but we received a call just before we hit the freeway -- the meeting was cancelled. We quickly turned around, drove home and I worked on the bricks. Surprisingly, I kept finding bricks in the dirt! Eventually I cleared out the northern end of the redwood raised bed of bricks, but hit a patch of asphalt. I got most of it out before the sun started to set.
My wife took a picture of the bricks and asphalt pile, below.
Amazing!
My wife informed me that she ran into a brick while preparing another hole in the redwood raised bed. Yeah, yeah, whatever, I thought. I'm sure there's something there, but a brick? Nah.
I had to leave a little early at work this evening. I left at 5:15 to try to make a 6:30 meeting at UCLA. We were going to be a bit late, but not too bad. While my wife got ready, I took a look at the "brick". Well...it was a brick. In about five minutes I was able to work out that brick and a couple others as well!
We took off around 6 PM but we received a call just before we hit the freeway -- the meeting was cancelled. We quickly turned around, drove home and I worked on the bricks. Surprisingly, I kept finding bricks in the dirt! Eventually I cleared out the northern end of the redwood raised bed of bricks, but hit a patch of asphalt. I got most of it out before the sun started to set.
My wife took a picture of the bricks and asphalt pile, below.
Amazing!
Monday, April 9, 2012
3 Planted In Pots, One In The Ground, Five Holes Made
After work I had about 90 minutes of sunlight to make as many holes in the backyard soil as I could. I dug a bunch of holes underneath and next to the lemon tree -- six holes in all. I did hit some significant asphalt on the last hole.
Why the concern? It's our understanding that it will rain Tuesday evening. We wanted to get as many plants in the ground as possible before it rains.
My wife planted Taxi, SunSugar and Tolstoi in pots. She also planted Big Zebra in the first of the holes.
So only four more tonight, but we're prepped for five more tomorrow.
One thing I've noticed is a preponderance of larger tomatoes. We don't have too many cherry or "small" tomatoes. We have containers ready to accept seedlings, but we don't have the right seedlings that do reasonably well in them.
Why the concern? It's our understanding that it will rain Tuesday evening. We wanted to get as many plants in the ground as possible before it rains.
My wife planted Taxi, SunSugar and Tolstoi in pots. She also planted Big Zebra in the first of the holes.
So only four more tonight, but we're prepped for five more tomorrow.
One thing I've noticed is a preponderance of larger tomatoes. We don't have too many cherry or "small" tomatoes. We have containers ready to accept seedlings, but we don't have the right seedlings that do reasonably well in them.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Planted Five Seedlings In the Backyard Cutout
This morning I got five more tomatoes into the ground in the backyard cutout area. These five tomatoes are Giant Syrian, Japanese Black Trifele, Thessaloniki, Crimson Cushion and Carmello.
Last year I spent a great deal of time digging holes and removing rocks and asphalt from the "Far East" area of our backyard -- the area to the east of our grass area (and grass cutout area) near our eastern fence. The results of hours and hours of digging was dramatic. This area was near spectacular, and I'd argue even slightly better than our signature area, the "koi pond" in the front yard. Prior years in the "Far East" were, at best, mediocre.
So what's the point? I had realized that our backyard cutout area (where we planted today's five tomato seedlings) has done reasonably well, but nothing that has knocked our socks off. But then again, not bad either. It's my supposition that this area may have asphalt in the soil (which I knew to be true already), just not as concentrated as the "Far East".
So I dug as keep as I could go for these five holes. Two were done on Saturday, three today. And my findings were consistent with my theory. There were significant amounts of asphalt to throw away, but the concentration wasn't as heavy as in the "Far East". The soil below Japanese Black Trifele had the biggest pieces -- a couple were as wide (and thicker) than hamburger patties.
So we only planted five new tomato seedlings in this area. But note, it will be harder to plant these five tomatoes than it will be to plant the whole front yard. There's no buried asphalt there and the soil has been previously dug out and replaced.
Last year I spent a great deal of time digging holes and removing rocks and asphalt from the "Far East" area of our backyard -- the area to the east of our grass area (and grass cutout area) near our eastern fence. The results of hours and hours of digging was dramatic. This area was near spectacular, and I'd argue even slightly better than our signature area, the "koi pond" in the front yard. Prior years in the "Far East" were, at best, mediocre.
So what's the point? I had realized that our backyard cutout area (where we planted today's five tomato seedlings) has done reasonably well, but nothing that has knocked our socks off. But then again, not bad either. It's my supposition that this area may have asphalt in the soil (which I knew to be true already), just not as concentrated as the "Far East".
So I dug as keep as I could go for these five holes. Two were done on Saturday, three today. And my findings were consistent with my theory. There were significant amounts of asphalt to throw away, but the concentration wasn't as heavy as in the "Far East". The soil below Japanese Black Trifele had the biggest pieces -- a couple were as wide (and thicker) than hamburger patties.
So we only planted five new tomato seedlings in this area. But note, it will be harder to plant these five tomatoes than it will be to plant the whole front yard. There's no buried asphalt there and the soil has been previously dug out and replaced.
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