Broccoli Picking

I've had a pretty paltry broccoli crop this year. The chickens took out
a plant or two and for some reason others didn't survive to adulthood.
I think I've got some cauliflower coming along - we'll see what my
teenage plants produce. Here's two broccoli photos.

One shows a big sprig that I should have picked sooner (see the buds starting to bloom).
The other shows a plant that was moments away from getting picked.

Some of these plants will keep putting up small sprigs and can continue
to be harvested for a few weeks. The amounts are good for salads or, I
suppose, omelets. Some plants will produce a huge, several-pound head. I
don't think I'm getting any of those this year.

- Bruce

Garden Frames and the Peril of Floating Row Covers

It's survival of the fittest out there, and in our California garden, plant seedlings are not the fittest. Slugs, snails, birds, cutworms, wind, cold, and weeds all take their toll, with the pests probably doing the most damage. Floating row covers are supposedly the way to go. I got some of that fabric a few years ago, and, let's say, the results were mixed. I don't have the patience to deal with lightweight fabric, finding the hoops, and weighing down all the edges (which somehow get caught in my shoes and ripped out of the ground the next time I go in the garden) the way you're supposed to with those covers.

So, I had a great idea. I'd make wooden frames, attach the floating row cover fabric to it, and just lay it in the garden over my seeds. I got some 2x2 redwood, along with some 1x2 (or so) redwood, built a bunch of frames, carefully put the row-cover material over them (wrapping it around the 1*2 sections and nailing them down so there'd be good strain relief on the fabric), and then planting some seeds and putting a frame over them. It looked great, that frame did, out there. It even worked! I got a great patch of lettuce and beets from seed, without having to sprout indoors and transplant.

Sadly, I think the reason the frame and fabric worked is I put it out in winter, and the fabric only lets rainwater through. It doesn't rain here in the spring, summer, and fall, and the fabric doesn't seem to let water from the sprinklers through. I kid you not - I even took some photos to show the frames on our driveway (above) and how dry the driveway was after I sprayed the frames from the hose. If you care, I could explain why the frames don't let sprinkler water through (at least my theory), but the bottom line was I had a lot of seeds that weren't sprouting under the frames. Sometimes, the garden would be wet everywhere except where the frames covered it!

Time to turn to the neighbors. I decided to replace the row-cover material with window screening. I figured someone would have old window screens in their garage that no longer fit any windows on their house, so I asked around. Well, a neighbor had a roll of screen tucked away. He traded it to me for some lettuce (I'll drop some eggs by, too) and I've started upgrading the frames. One photo shows a frame with the screen next to one with the row-cover after both had been sprayed by a hose. Low-and-behold, the frame with the screen (on the left in the photo below) lets water through and the row-cover didn't. (If that's not science in action, I don't know what is).

I'll keep a few row-cover covered screens for winter, when they should keep the soil warmer and rain will keep things damp. Otherwise, I'm converting most of my frames. They'll keep the pests away and should really increase the number of plants that survive childhood.

- Bruce

Planting a Tomato Plant, Fending Off the Chickens

Here's how I planted a tomato plant today. Basically, I dug a hole, filled it with water, and poured in homemade potting soil (our soil has a lot of clay in it, so I want something that provides drainage around the roots). Then I plucked the leaves off the bottom half of the tomato plant, pulled the entire root-mass out of the nursery pot, and planted it as deep as I could (the top leaves are just at ground level). That lets the plant develop roots along the buried stem and makes for a
stronger plant (or so they say). I sunk an empty flower pot next to it that I'll fill with water periodically. That pot will deliver water deeper into the soil and hopefully reduct the amount of watering I need to do. I finished filling in with soil.

The photo above shows one chicken keeping an eye on the hole - there's no telling what the shovel will turn up. You can see the plant-protection devices next to the chicken. If they weren't there, the young tomato plants would turn into chicken food.

I dug the hole, now I'm filling it with water to give the plant something to drink when it goes into the hole.

I put in homemade potting soil (only because that's what I had quickly available). I didn't want to reuse the soil I dug out of the hole because it has so much clay that it doesn't drain well. The photo shows that the potting soil is suspended in the water, which hadn't drained out of the hole yet (due to the clay). That pot comes off before the plant goes in the ground.

When I take the plant out of the plastic pot, I'll bury the stem in soil all the way up to the bottom set of leaves. I'll pinch that bottom branch (or two) off to put as much of the stalk in the ground as possible, so it can all form roots. The plant will grow just fine.

Now I'm putting the plant in the hole, so the leaves will be just above surface level. I'll fill the hole with more soil, so there's still a bit of a depression to collect water. I'll also dig an empty flower pot into the ground next to the plant so I can fill the pot with water and the water will trickle deeper into the ground.

Here's the pot going in.

The final planted plant, under the empty milk crate the keeps the chickens away.

As I planted, I fended off the chickens. They love when I garden.
Henney Penney knows the best pickings are in the fresh dirt, so she's
underfoot always. The two Ameracauna's have a real taste for tomato
leaves, so I have to protect the plants (you can see them next to the
caged plant). They all love to scratch in the dry soil around the
tomatos, so it's become a real challenge to keep the plants alive.

Photographer: Anya

Author: Bruce