Last minute winter crop

Sowed winter greens (kale, swiss chard and spinach), peas and beets. Kale and chard started indoor on heat mats to germinate. Peas inoculated and sowed in large 16x flats.

Made a new soil starter mix with 4 parts compost, 2 parts peat moss, 2 parts perlite.

posted from Bloggeroid

Lumercizing

More on this later. Maybe.

posted from Bloggeroid

Bean Devouring Beetle Identified: Cribrate Weevil (Otiorhynchus cribricollis)

The bean eating beetles are back and this time they're also devouring my broccoli and the new citrus I planted.  I deal with this last year and had the bug identified by my local extension office but I couldn't find the report.  Until today.

Otiorhynchus cribricollis - Cribrate Weevil

• http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r105301211.html
• http://bugguide.net/node/view/345304/bgpage

The common treatment appears to be applying a sticky substance at the base of the plant to trap the adults as they climb to feed at night.  I cut 1.5" square pieces of paper grocery bag with a slit and hole in the middle.  I then brushed on a mix of equal parts sugar, water and honey to make a sticky goo.  I placed the traps under 6 bean stems and 2 broccoli stems as a test, if it works I will put them all over the place tomorrow.

OC Agricultural Commissioner

For my records, this is where to go to get pests identified. Takes about a week and you need to leave self addressed stamped envelope.
http://ocagcomm.com

The office is very close to my work.  Fill out the PDF form and drop off with specimen.

Address:
Orange County Agricultural Commissioner
Specimen for Identification
222 East Bristol Lane
Orange, CA 92865-2714

chipper shredder

Model #247775850

broccoli experiment

I'm going to try and keep a casual log of what im sowing and transplanting right now, for my own record.

• Transplanted red onions from flats to RB1, seeds started 2/24. 4" spacing, between carrot rows
• Trans. Honey dews from flats to 4" square pots, seeds started indoors 2/24
• Started 6 pack broccoli indoors on the rig
• Started 6 pack of broccoli raab indoorz on the rig

Need to figure out where the peppers will live this year as well as additional tomatoes I have in flats.

¡Cerdo!

BTW I have two new tortoises, not sure of breed yet.  I just received them from Neighbor Frank Sunday.  They're 27 year old brothers and were hatched from eggs.  I'm unaware of their existing names so new ones must be decided upon; currently considering Jesus y Moises - Moises is the larger of the two with a small chip in his shell.

Jesus is pigging out in the below video.

Last Minute Summer Crops

I've be getting reacquainted with the garden and gardening and enjoyed success with chard, spinach and blueberries.  This success has motivated me to get a small summer crop of beets, broccoli raab, carrots, cucumber, (more) spinach and some squashes.  I'm gonna use up what remaining old seed packs I have and will sow much more dense than usual in anticipation of poor germination.  I also placed a Johnny's order tonight for some fresh seeds.

White Trash Sunday

1. Family sitting on sofa on driveway
2. Family sitting on sofa on driveway while drinking cocktails
3. Family sitting on sofa on driveway while drinking cocktails before noon
4. Family sitting on sofa on driveway while drinking cocktails before noon, some family in pajamas
5. Family sitting on sofa on driveway while drinking cocktails before noon, some family in pajamas.  Two year old little girl present
6. Family sitting on sofa on driveway while drinking cocktails before noon, some family in pajamas.  Two year old little girl present and about to witness Grandma kick Chui in the head fer' actin' up!

I love my family.

One, Two, Three

Step 1 - cut down dead tree

Step 2 - Cut to length and split (I found the cedar logs)

Step 3 - Load into truck for badass Panamint Valley trip!

BTW all work done with hand saw.  Arms and shoulders = sore.

Trailer Training - day 1

Day 1 of real trailer training with Chui today.  I'm using "cookies" (milkbone), pets and scratches and verbal affirmations and praise ("Chui' a good boy!  Such a good boy.") to make him more comfortable.  It's working I think.  I can now just point to the trailer and he gets in but he's still very uncomfortable in there, it freaks him out.  Once I give him the cookie I gently shake the trailer while scratching him.  I've also been walking around the trailer and away from it while making him stay.  If only he understood what's at stake!  Damnit, man!

Giant Rock - night 1

Chui' in that warm coziness in the truck

The fourth different flying insect I've seen is crawling across the top-right quantrant of my screen as I type while a stupid, stupid moth smacks it's stupid little face into the light glowing above and in front of me.  Here I am again, in the "great outdoors", technology, truck and dog along as always.  North of Landers, CA I've been here for hours ahead of my friends that are still en route after a days work; a perk of self employment that I still manage to take for granted.  Somehow.

The feeling began to come over me before I even boarded the plane last night, west bound from Atlanta after a week of tradeshow... show.  What was home now feels like a house, demoted to a simple structure or place that feels broken.  It's difficult to describe.  I know what triggered the change, what pulled back the scab on the fact that living in a house designed for a family, as a bachelor is not a great feeling.  Or maybe it's the recent renewed feeling of what it could be but isn't?  Whatever it is, it sucks and I don't like being in my house right now.  That's why I'm in the desert.

It's beautiful out here.  A perfect 60 or so degrees with Mogwai on the radio, a fire burning away in preparation for dinner and sky full of stars.  In a few moments a good friend is about to walk through a door to a poor choice of venue for a first date.  The guy seems to make sense on paper and I'm excited for her, I hope it goes somewhere.  I miss the feeling.

Aphids have been Neemed

Just in from spraying corn with Neem II from Green Light, about $8.50 from Orange County Farm Supply.  Two things:

1. It's difficult to spray the tassels and upper leaves where the aphids are the worst
2. Lady bugs have arrived and are eating and mating - thanks for coming, but you're a bit late.  I regretted spraying with the LBs kicking it all over the place but a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do

Also plenty of ripe tomatoes and beans that need harvesting.  I'm off to go see Seanna in SF today so this will need to wait until I return tomorrow night.

Corn Aphids & The Compost Burnout

I've been away from the garden for about a week or so, busy with work and all that.  Went out today and gave some much overdue attention to the compost operation.  It was a chore, I didn't enjoy it, each fork load felt heavy, the mess annoying... the work just plain unpleasant.  This is odd, working with my compost is one of my favorite ways to spend time in the garden, I hope this is just a temporary funk.  Bitching aside, I did toss one pile into the third bay and wet it down, hopefully it fires up. Lots of grubs for the ladies, it so great to hear their little feet beating it across the dusty yard to get the grubs.

Inspected my corn which it appears I've finally figured out how to grow correctly, at least to get it to the expected height!  Upon close inspection of the silks and tassels I found them to be infested with aphids and to a lesser extent some other pest.  I'm in the middle of pollen shed and this is the worst time to have an aphid problem, but that's what you get when you ignore your garden for a week.  I'm going to pick up some neem oil tomorrow and get in a quick treatment before it gets too hot out.  Hopefully I can knock this problem down and still have successful pollination of this crop.  Great information on pollen shed at this site:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/agf-fact/0128.html

To do:

1. treat corn for aphids
2. Harvest last of bush beans and preserver (freeze)
3. Rake up straw and newspaper so I can torch the vetch infestation in EW4 and EW5 - it's crazy!
4. Start fall crops, sow in flats where appropriate
5. Shred tree trimmings
6. So much more...

Melon Success

I think I mentioned at some point that I had volunteer cantaloupe and water melons growing, I dunno, I can't remember.  But I do and after researching a bit I was confident the cantaloupes were ready to be harvested. I only had 3-4 that weren't rotten or undersized so I grabbed the closest one, took it inside and cut it up.  Holy crap, really good!  Very crisp with a mild flavor that intensified as the fruit cooled off (I picked them around noon on a 104° day).  Next day it was much sweeter and I later heard from friends and family that it was some of the best they've had.

So the plant that I don't actually grow on purpose, give no water to for the first 8 weeks of it's life and generally ignore turns out to be one of the best things to come out of the garden. - god hates me, or maybe he's trying to teach me something?  No, he hates me.

My adorable nieces in the background

FYI, this is what fly poo looks like

I watched a fly poop on this leaf then fly away.  Huh!...

The greatest compost manager that has ever lived

... at 350 N. Maplewood St., Orange, CA 92866

My recent compost adjustment has resulted in a SHATTERING of my previous puny record of 164° to a new high of 168°!

A strange emotion has swept over me... a feeling of emptiness or a pit that can never be filled - now that I have achieved the highest levels of supreme excellence, what else is there?

Spirit Crop - can you steal from the dead?

Family came over today for Dad's birthday.  Nieces were slip-n-sliding on the lawn, dogs were chewing on each other's necks and adults were sipping my fresh squeezed Stoli screwdrivers.

Of course I grabbed oranges from my buddy Chris' house as per usual however today he wasn't home and his gate had a new padlock on it.  Hmmm...  Chris mentioned that his next door neighbor had recently passed (he was old) and that I could gain access from his back yard and hop the fence.  On my return hop over I noticed a Spirit Crop - a few tomato plants and a chili that were, I hope, lovingly cared for while neighbor was still kicking but now looked terrible and neglected.

The key to extra sweet tomatoes is stress by water reduction (the plant focuses energy on fruit production because it thinks it's dying - you get to play god)  and these things looked hella stressed!  Long story short I nervously pilfered everything that was ripe or even a little overripe, added to my oranges and got the fuck out of there before lightning struck me down!

I expected more in a week

3rd corn crop this season - third times the charm

I was away in Miami for work all this past week.  My Mom stopped by Wednesday and watered for me as we were having a hell of a heat wave.  This morning when I finally walked out to the yard I was expecting... something more than what I saw - things just didn't grow as much as I had hoped.  But... everything looks good and healthy.

I love amazon and blue stripe 1/4" emitter line

I also had my Amazon order waiting for me.  This was a shipment of Toro blue stripe 1/4" emitter line on 6" spacing.  Home Depot used to carry this stuff but I tried to buy some a couple weeks ago and was told they no longer carry it.  I tried a local commercial irrigation supply company, "HydroScape" and while they were able to finally locate it from a distributor the price was something stupid like $48 per 100' roll plus shipping and tax (<-- this will make sense in a moment).  So I left and I was irritated (ha - irrigated, irritated...).  Good ol' Amazon to the rescue! - note that the picture shows all black tubing but I verified the PN and it was the right stuff.

This was a chewed up, leafless
stem last week (check
older post).  It bounced back
well!

My PVC collars worked perfectly so I'm hooked on that solution.  Pole beans look killer, tomatoes are shaping up nicely and my watermelons and cantaloupes also look good.  I flipped my entire compost pile (which is huge) and watered it, expecting it to spike back up to 150+.  Fertilized and watered the lawn, heavily watered the Carolina Cherry trees and pruned my navel orange trees.

I just lost interest in writing anymore, I'm tired and have to get up early.

Red Noodle beans

This is one of the sickly looking tomatoes
that Seanna planted when she was here.
After some manure and fish emulsion
they are responding well

Stupid huge compost pile

Lots of different things taken care of today, best of all was getting caught up on my composting.  All ingredients I've stored up over the past few months have been shredded, mixed and in the pile.  I broke my rake I've had for years and drove to the store and found the exact model for $7.59 - sold.  Installed another section of trellis and sowed a run of red noodle and fortex poll beans.  I also sowed a row of bush beans on each side of the poll beans as an experiment.

Bean seedling that was devoured last
night.  I want to see if it will fight back
and send out some leaves

Re-sowed the areas that haven't emerged yet and cut some PVC collars for seedlings that are being targetted by pests - If this is effective then it's a nice little method to keep the bugs off.  Problem is you can't install these until the seedlings are a certain height or else you'll make them leggy which is a whole new problem.  It's also tempting to drive the collars down into the soil but that will shear off the roots or at a minimum damage them.  I'm leaving them floating to see how it works out.

Cool spider hanging out on my glasses