July Harvest in Southern California

Almost overnight, our garden has grown a Ratatouille...









Time to get cooking!

Oh wait. we went on a vacation for a week and look what the harvest table looks like now:

Installing a Drip System in the Vegetable Garden

So, I've already established that our vegetable garden has an odd shape. It's basically pizza-shaped. I rather call it native American medicine wheel shaped because every time I use the word pizza I end up dialing the phone for Domino's.

*** call to Domino's pause ***

So, installing a drip system is a lot like playing with Legos but with more cursing.  You get your little pieces and you push them together. Working on a hot day makes the tubing softer to work with but you sweat more.

Drip systems can become expensive but only because every time you run to the hardware store to get a missing piece you need, you end up buying something you don't need but WANT.  Other than that, the system is affordable and runs for years. I spent about $150 in all for a fairly large garden.

It took me a while to decide how to run the main line. I have one-inch drip irrigation pipes going from a faucet (to which I added a pressure compensator and a timer) running all around the outer edge of the circle.





The tubing is hidden in the wood chips that cover the paths. From that pipe, I attached elbows, risers that go into each bed.

From that riser comes another elbow and a straight line of one-inch tubing. From that tubing comes a variety of micro tubing.

I have tiny sprays for the carrots, but for everything else, I either use perforated micro tubing or un-perforated micro tubing with a head at the end.

When I have more time I might add to this post if anyone has questions.

Holy Mackerel, First Potatoes!

So, I planted some potatoes.

Or to be specific I found germinated dried up potatoes in the cupboard and I tossed them somewhere in the yard and forgot all about them.

Until I asked myself, what is that weird plant coming out of the strawberry patch?  I pulled it out, believing it was a weed ...

... And out came the most darling little potatoes I had ever laid eyes on.

Honestly, had I dug up a raw diamond I would have been less excited.



True, I have no idea what I am doing, but Nature knows, so we're okay.

The Vegetable Garden in Early June

From ugly lawn to Garden of Eden.  To think that we began the work in February blows my mind.

The joy this vegetable garden has added to our lives is hard to measure. We are always outside, gardening or picking or enjoying the many surprises the garden offers.  Is it work? Yes. But it's work in the same way that raising children is work. Enough love and enjoyments comes with it that we don't call it work.

In fact, I mostly feel that the plants do all the work and all we do is get the reward of their effort.

Garden view from above.

Bush beans in front and tomatoes behind them.

A wee watermelon plant.

Corn in back, cucumber in the center, and yet to be identified squashes in corners. We still have not learn to label things.

Everything humming with life.