From boom to bust on backyard plum trees

by: mental_masala

Sat Jul 24, 2010 at 08:31:27 AM PDT

A few years ago, one of the plum trees in my yard had boughs that were so heavy with fruit that the they were in danger of breaking, as the photo below illustrates. 

But this year, almost nothing, maybe two or three plums on the whole tree.  The larger tree to its side was also mostly barren. 

I don't do anything to care for the plum trees -- no pruning, fertilizing, extra watering, or whatever. The bee population in my neighborhood is pretty good, as far as I can tell, since there isn't much pesticide use, there are a wide variety of flowering plants and probably some backyard beekeepers.

So what is going on?  Do plum trees go through cycles of fruit production? Do they burst forth with lots of fruit at a certain age, then slow down?  Or is weather the critical factor?  I suppose that most of the fruit production 'knobs' are outside of my control, but I'm still curious to find out why this year is so terrible.  

(There is a third tree on the other side of the house that had so-so production; I harvested about 8 pounds of fruit, which I will turn into plum-honey preserves and standard plum jam.)

Seed Saving: Lettuce, Arugula, Beans, and Calendula

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Jun 28, 2010 at 06:27:00 AM PDT

Arugula, lettuce, and yellow eye bean seeds

Seed saving can be complex or it can be very easy. It depends on the type of plant. It also depends on how many varieties of a given species you have in your garden (or other nearby gardeners have in their gardens). I'm starting off with the easy stuff. Details below. (And if you want full information on saving seeds, I recommend the book Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth.)

My Homegrown Garlic Braid

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Jun 27, 2010 at 20:06:19 PM PDT

Other than planting my garlic WAY too late, I followed all of the other instructions: Plant your garlic away from your other plants because at the end of its life, you need to stop watering it. When several leaves of the garlic plant die, that's when you stop watering. The entire plant dies - and forms the bulbs with cloves that we know as garlic!

Here's a pic of my homegrown garlic braid:

It's not very big, but that's mostly because I accidentally broke the stems off of most of my bulbs so those bulbs aren't in the braid. And the garlic itself isn't very big either, but that's because I planted too late (or maybe it's because the soil was so bad). Whatever. I grew my own garlic and I'm happy.

Garden Update: Slowing Down

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jun 15, 2010 at 13:44:43 PM PDT

Here's what I did.

Almond Curry Stew (I Ate the Squash That Ate My Yard)

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Jun 06, 2010 at 00:18:30 AM PDT

Every day when I wake up, the leaves of this monstrous thing are drooped over as if it has not gotten a drop of water in weeks. I bring it a watering can-ful of water or two, or perhaps just give it water straight from the hose, and in a few hours it perks up again, only to repeat it the next day. At the same time, this stupid thing is growing so fast you can almost see it happening. It's actually two plants, not one, although I had already named it "The Squash That Ate My Yard" before I found two stems coming out of the ground. Each day, these plants are longer and thirstier than before, and San Diego won't get a drop of rain for months.

I had been watching the formation of two squashes and finally, when one threatened to grow as big as a pumpkin, I cut it off the vine and began to eat it. I was going to roast it, but then the almond butter caught my eye. And I remembered that my boyfriend just bought some new curry powder... The resulting recipe is below.

My huge squash, with Meg the Fat Kitty posing next to it

Water Efficient Irrigation with Clay Pot Ollas

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Jun 02, 2010 at 15:27:04 PM PDT

My ollas

Garden Update: Lots of Tomatoes and a Squash That Ate My Yard

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jun 01, 2010 at 22:08:21 PM PDT

Garden Progress, Pests, and Disease

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Apr 07, 2010 at 00:33:32 AM PDT

The tomato patch

OK, so it doesn't look like much yet. But it will! Around the border, I planted borage, calendula, and marigolds, and I left room to plant lots and lots of basil. In the far right corner, I planted German chamomile and some leeks. And near each of the large poles, I planted tomatoes: Glacier, Green Zebra, Eva Purple Ball, and Matt's Wild Cherry. I plan to add 2 more tomato plants - Brandywine and Black Prince. Then I'll put my Romas elsewhere (for canning) and my sungolds will go in a container - I think.

More updates on my garden are below.

Flower Power Update: The Ladybug Patch

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Mar 28, 2010 at 11:24:38 AM PDT

Flower Power Update: Weather Change and Plant Mortality

by: Jill Richardson

Sat Mar 27, 2010 at 14:10:37 PM PDT

Then a few days ago, I went out to check on my lettuce. I had just planted a few lettuce plants and, to my surprise, they were gone. I looked closer and then found them. They were dead. In fact, they were positively crispy. It looked as though they'd been fried. What had I done wrong? I'd been so careful! Was the soil the problem? I don't think I forgot to water them. And then another gardener mentioned the few hot days we'd had recently. That was it! We had a few unseasonably warm days - just a few - and that's all it took to kill my lettuce.

In fact, all of my cool weather crops are having trouble. Some of the brassica plants got infested with aphids. Some of the pole peas began to flower early. So did some of the favas (which - despite their efforts to reproduce quickly before they died - were droopy and near death). I sprayed the aphids off my cabbage with water, but I tossed a few of the infested plants into the compost bin, since they were too small to realistically produce much before the weather warms up anyway. I also composted the favas, and I might do so with the peas as well (we'll see). As for the rest of the cool weather plants, I've been watering them at mid-day so they are cooled as the water evaporates.

In the meantime, my warm weather plants are loving the warm weather. The next 3 days will be close to 80, and then the weather will go back down into the high 60s again (and we might even get some rain). Today I went outside and killed my cover crop (purple vetch) in an area of the garden and then mixed it in with the soil along with some sand. We've got clay soil, which forms a hard cap on the surface, so hopefully the sand will prevent that from occurring. In that patch, I set up a trellis and then planted beans (pole and bush) and 4 types of cucumbers - pickling, slicing, Persian, and Armenian. I also planted a few nasturtiums and a watermelon.

I realize that my problems are all weather-related but it's taking a toll on my ego as my poor little plants wither up and die!

Celebration: Carrot Cake!

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Mar 22, 2010 at 23:47:40 PM PDT

The recipe (below) was actually pretty healthy - except for the massive amounts of sugar. Other than the sugar, it was carrots, whole wheat flour, homemade yogurt, local organic eggs, and applesauce. Not too bad! Too bad that there is so much sugar in the cake that you can't eat it and consider it a health food.  

We Have Peas!

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Mar 22, 2010 at 23:25:58 PM PDT

It's amazing to think about how far I've come since I first planted the peas. I didn't know the difference between pole and bush varieties then. Pole varieties get rather tall and must be supported by poles, as their name suggests. They take longer to produce peas because they spend so much time just to reach their full height. In our case, the peas were expected to reach over 6 feet tall and they did. We measured and graphed their growth and they reliably grew about an inch a day until they reached their full height. Only then they began to flower and, later, produce peas. The peas develop a few at a time. As you pick the ripe ones, new ones form. The upside to this is that you get peas over a long period of time. The downside is that you don't get many peas at once unless you planted an awful lot of plants. Bush varieties produce peas quicker, and they produce the peas all at once.

As you might notice from the pictures, I did a silly thing by going cheap on the poles. At first it was hard to believe the plants would actually reach 6 feet or more. I put a few branches in the ground and hoped that would take care of things for a while. When the sticks were too short, I began tying the peas to the fence. Then I purchased 1 set of 10 bamboo poles (6 feet tall). Except I probably have about 50 plants. The peas were far too heavy for the poles, which are all leaning over, weighed down by peas. I've got a big tangle of peas in several spots, and while trying to untangle them and help them each find supports, I bent several plants. Not to be deterred, one of the bent plants actually continued growing til it reached the ground, latched onto a cabbage plant, and then started growing up again. In another part of the yard, the pea plants took over the lemon tree. Next time I grow peas, I'll invest in a trellis. Or several.

A New Garden Pest: Cabbage Butterflies

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 21:05:16 PM PDT

Cabbage butterflies are easy to spot. They are white butterflies with two dark spots on their wings. It's not the butterfly that's the problem - it's their larvae, the imported cabbage worm. These are green caterpillars that hang out on the underside of brassica family plants, feeding on and damaging the plant leaves. Then they chew their way into the cabbage heads.

Parasitic wasps will prey on imported cabbage worms, but I don't know that we have any parasitic wasps in our garden and I'd rather not assume that we do. You can buy some but I don't plan to at this point. For now, I made a pepper garlic spray and sprayed it on the plants (including the undersides of the leaves). To do this, blend 1 qt water with 2-6 cloves of garlic and 1-2 tsp of cayenne pepper. Let your mixture soak overnight if you have time. The strain it through a cheesecloth, put it into a spray bottle, and spray your plants. Re-apply about once a week or as frequently as every 3 days. You can also check the undersides of the plant leaves for the caterpillars and remove them by hand. This is easiest if you plant purple cabbage (which I did) because the caterpillars are bright green.

While I do not like having these pests around, I am glad that I've been able to spot and recognize them so far. Pests are much easier to deal with when you actually know which pest you're dealing with.

Profiles in Fertility: Maintaining Garden Soil Organically

by: euclidarms

Mon Mar 15, 2010 at 04:36:46 AM PDT

For 4,000 years prior to the advent of factory-made fertilizers, the Chinese used every bit of organic matter they could lay their hands on--including their own excrement--to return to the soil the nitrogen and other nutrients their vegetable crops removed. It was only through meticulous attention to the cycle of terrestrial rot upon which new life depends that Asian cultures managed to cultivate the same land intensively for centuries, and thereby sustain themselves.

Americans have never been quite so industrious. In colonial days, raising livestock and growing vegetables went hand-in-hand--but not always. Farmers who applied manure and cover crops to maintain fertility were called "improvers." Other farmers, citing a shortage of labor for soil husbandry, simply tilled their land until the soil was exhausted of nutrients. They then moved to greener pastures, something the western frontier seemed to offer in infinite abundance.

Today the frontier is long gone and modern "improvers"--otherwise known as organic gardeners--are left to ponder where to get the materials they need to maintain soil fertility. I should know. I go to great lengths to make the compost I use to feed my hungry kitchen garden here in the District of Columbia: snatching leaves my neighbors put at the curb in the fall; begging grass clippings from landscaping crews; hauling bags of coffee grounds from Starbucks; shoveling buckets of horse manure from a riding stables; religiously collecting our own kitchen scraps. Yet, it never seems to be enough.

Our Post-Harvest Celebratory Dinner

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Mar 14, 2010 at 22:50:23 PM PDT