All Be Damned...

Capturing rain water actually makes sense, I was able to collect more than 35 gallons from a combined 2/5th of an inch of rain off of one small patio cover.  I figured out the math to determine my total potential based on my "collectible roof area" and my region's annual average rainfall.  For this post I will just use said patio cover for the  example.

• The patio measures 17'W x 11'D for an area of 187 sq. ft. or 26,928 sq. in.
• The average rainfall in my zipcode (92866) is 12.6".
• 1 gallon is equal to 231 cu. in.
• If you take the roof area of 26,928 sq. in. multiplied by the average rainfall of 12.6" you get a whopping 339,293 cu. in. of annual water hitting that roof.
• Divide that by the 231 cu. in. in a gallon and you end up with a juicy 1,468.8 gallons a year off that one little patio cover!

Using the ~2/5" of rain in the last 48 hours, I can plug that into the formula and get 46 gallons which isn't too terribly off from the 35 gallons I claim to have collected.  Factor in that I'm not collecting 100% of the runoff and I consider that to largely be a validation of the formula.

Based on that I think I may just rig up some tanks and gutters for next winter.

In other news, I harvested a couple handfulls of beans and they taste alright, nothing too exciting to be honest.  I'm hoping the cool weather is contributing to bland flavors.  I read that you should try to harvest everyday to keep the crop producing, so like a good student I'm doing as I'm told.  The tomatoes that I put in the ground look quite healthy, they've perked up a bit and, now this could be in my head, look to be deeper green in color!!

Planning, Prepping and Harvest

basic plan for my two biggest beds, the tallest crops are on
the North edge and the space between the beds is actually
larger than it appears.  I will do a shadow test first to
make sure the pole beans aren't going to shade out the
carrots and peppers

For lunch I walked over to the Japanese restaurant sporting a backpack stuffed with bags of Johnny's seed packets, my garden log, my Vegetable Growers Bible and a Johnny's catalog - The mission at hand was to plan my summer crops in the main EW beds.  I ordered my Hamachi sashimi, Unagi sushi and iced tea and got to work taking seed inventory, drawing the garden layout, listing what I wanted to grow and laying out where each crop would be located.  People were looking at me, I could feel their eyes... they were maybe suspicious of my bags of small white packets and my repeated action of peering inside with one eye closed to guestimate the seed count.

I left lunch an hour later with my plan drawn up and a short list of additional seeds to purchase.  I decided to try and eek one more round of beets, carrots and chard before it heats up too much.  I figure with some appropriate mulching I should be able to keep the soil cool enough to pull off another round.

I asked Vinessa to take a picture because
I was proud of the produce - thanks V!

When I got home I took 30 minutes to spread another 35 gallons of home made compost on the first EW bed, cultivate it in and water thoroughly.  The beds look great, I need to rig up some taller trellises for the tomatoes and poll beans, but I should be ready to sow seeds this weekend.

Vinessa stopped by to grab a harvest box of the usual stuff.  I also took the opportunity to thin my current spinach bed and beets to make a salad for Tonight (and a few more nights).  Compost is heating up well again and everything looks pretty good.  I could have spent the whole day out there.

Monster compost pile temp: 135°F

usual suspects with a bit more escarole than usual...

Easter Veggies

I've been resorting to dumpster diving for the produce boxes.  I probably
shouldn't have said that out loud.

Was heading to parent's house for Easter dinner with family and decided to use the opportunity to bring along some home growns.  I took enough spinach, swiss chard, escarole, endive and beet tops for salad.  I also pulled some carrots for fun.  Bunching the spinach around the stems works much better than around the leaves.

I was surprised that the "touchstone gold" golden beets were MUCH smaller than the red beets - they went in the ground at the same time, received the same water and nutrients and there is nothing on the seed packet that suggests a different maturity time.

(too) big red beets and the inexplicably smaller Touchstone Gold golden
beets on the right.

The salad bombed and was a disaster due to a botched dressing I made.  Oh well.  The roasted beets and sauteed beet tops went over well though!  Beets are one crop that I will grow much more of in the future, it seems that everyone likes (and wants) them.  I apologize for the coors light, it's not mine, I mean... I'm drinking it but it's all I had in the fridge.  Someone left it at my house, I swear.

I think I've said it before, but I REALLY prefer whole plant harvesting over cut-and-come again.

The two times I've presented my twinewrapped produce I've received
positive comments; it's nice to know that people appreciate small
details like that, makes it worth while.
Here I have two bundled bunches of  "Red Cardinal"
spinach, some swiss chard and more spinach in the background.

First Harvest Box

I've been chatting about gardening, ag chemicals, organic methods, etc. with my physical therapist that is helping me with my back correction, actually there are two PTs but Steve is the one that I spend the most time with.  Anyway, I mentioned I could bring him in some stuff as I was already planning to harvest this weekend.  With my appointment in 1 hour I went out and harvested some whole plants, rinsed and bundled them up.  It's the first time I've been through this process and I really enjoyed it, much more satisfying than cut and come again techniques.

I can see myself doing this on a larger scale.

Observations:

1. Bundling with twine looks cool, but is more time consuming that twist ties, plus I can't brand twine!  ;)
2. The spinach leaves want to crack and break when I wrap around them, consider bundling around the stems instead
3. I need a washing setup out back, I'm thinking an old stainless washing station from a restaurant then collect the rinse water and use to water plants and or hydrate the compost
4. Need boxes to place produce in, don't want to use bags as I think it looks cheap.  I think I can scavenge boxes from produce markets, edible arrangements, juice stop, etc.
5. Escarole harvest nicely as a whole plant