Cardiff Garden Blog

This year I'm growing a wide variety of tomatoes and peppers. This variety is red zebra and you can tell by the stripes why it's called that. I tried growing these last year but started too late in the season to get viable fruit. This year I started in April and we had an incredibly warm spring.  Here's hoping for lots of sauces and salsa

Trying to make more of an effort to grow lettuce.  I've had minimal success in the past with lettuce mainly due to slugs and moisture levels. This year I've taken the potted approach to help alleviate the moisture problems (and hopefully the slugs too). In this pic you can see some butter crunch and freckled lettuce. I've got these on my deck where they'll get lots of light. The lettuce I've already tasted was delicious (from larger plants) and so fresh. Looking forward to that first salad.

I know it doesn't look like much in winter.  Pretty scarce but this vine growing on the steps is the same one that produces bowlfuls of Boysenberries in the summer. But now it's winter and it was time for a haircut. This past weekend I went about trimming off the dead stuff from the vine and trying to remove dead leaves as well. I've found that leaves aren't very helpful to the soil because they create a barrier level blocking the healthy plants from growth. I've weaved the vines themselves in and out of the spindels of the staircase to both support and give them some direction. My hope is the healthy haircut will help inspire healthy new chutes and vines. Also in this box you can see my Elephant Garlic already looking huge and no where near ready to pick.  In the pots are strawberries I've transplanted from a garden box.

So this is the year I said I was going to be more organized in my gardening efforts.  And by that I mean both planting and documenting my crops.   In past years I've planted in a very unorganized and probably unhealthy patterns. Usually based in what areas were growing hot spots.  My yard has about 8 raised beds and all get different amounts of sun and moisture due to their location in relation to the yard and exposure.  Some were built with better soil preparation than others.  Some were built early on in my gardening endeavors and suffered from a lack of experience and knowledge on how to set a proper garden box. I set out this winter to rectify my garden boxes in a way that I hadn't done intially. I removed or transplanted all my existing plants to either new locations or pots to facilitate a soil change.  I went about digging down a few feet in each box to ensure good root growth but also to turn the soil in a way so that I wasn't just pu...

I am always looking for new vegetables to grow and eat, and this year is no exception. What you see are juvenile Kohlrabi plants.  I've never eaten or grown Kohlrabi so here's hoping I like it. Kohlrabi is supposed to be similar in taste to cabbage heart or broccoli stem but sweeter.  Sounds interesting.  I love the vibrant purple and green colors.  It's supposed to grow into a round root I'd say the size of a cantelope.  Its in the same family as cabbage and broccoli with its leaves looking very similar. I will definately have to update the blog later with the fully mature vegetable when I pick.  I think I have about 20 or so planted both in the ground and some in pots. As with most of my plants I've started these from seed.  I have some in beds outside that were started and some that I've started indoors with my indoor setup.  Both seem to be doing fairly well considering our mild winters here in San Diego. (Zone 10)

Had a lot of success this year with pepper plants. Seen at the very top was a Dancing spirit pepper mild in spicyness but tasty to add to meals. Below that is a Jamaican Scotch Bonnet pepper. Spicy and sweet. A friend wanted to grow these and was intrigued by their color.  And finally in the last shot it's a menagerie of peppers I picked from the deck garden. The little tiny bell looking peppers are Hungarian Cheese peppers. Another tasty and mild easy to grow pepper. In fact it's almost December and they are still producing.  I took a different approach this to pepper and tomato growing. All my plants were in pots. This was for a couple of reasons. One to keep them from pests. I had a heck of a bout with gophers in my garden earlier this year and wanted my stuff to survive. The pots offered the roots protection needed. Also the portability of them helped when the light was questionable.  I also was able to expand to my elevated deck in my backyard that gets much better s...

I've tried growing corn in some of my boxes in the past and had limited success. Nothing taller than a few feet and incomplete husks. So when my friend asked if we were going to plant corn this season I was a bit skeptical to give up garden space for something I knew I couldn't do well with.  My friend wanted to try anyway and planted a few rows in the alley dirt after raking it a bit. He didn't really add any extra soil or nutrients. I have to say I was pretty surprised to see it grow and grow well. We had stalks over 6ft. Most of what we planted was this type of rainbow ornamental. Beautiful color and variety and decent amount for the little we planted. 

And boy do I. It was at least 5 years ago that I planted the vine and I am finally rewarded.  As always I won't be able to eat all these so gotta share with friends. And they taste delicious. Well worth the wait.  If they look heavy it's cuz they are. 

So our new neighbor that just moved in has a job at a brewery and said he could get these whiskey barrels for free. I thought what a great planter.  So this past Saturday I set about making them into planters.  Here is how I made them. After cutting it in half with a hand saw (Didn't have any power tools and could use the exercise), we set about attaching casters to make the planters mobile.  I purchased casters from Home Depot and purposely bought one caster that had a stopper in case our planter was parked on anything with an incline.  We ended up using a piece of wood as a spacer to ensure that our casters where high enough to make clearance.  The one being drilled in the photo is the one with the brakes. After casters were installed we drilled (I say we cuz I was helped by my trusty neighbor Erik) holes in the bottom for drainage. Instead of drilling a few large holes I drilled a lot of small holes.  This way I'd ensure proper drainage and also...

So I've learned a new method of seed starting through the internet and want to help spread the word on how great of a method it is.  I learned this method from a youtube video series I saw titled "Fork to Fork" The series was done by this particular Englishman and his family showing you how to grow vegetables and then how to harvest and cook them with simple methods and recipes.  Highly informative and educational. Check it out. Anyway here is what I gathered from it: When we usually plant seeds we push them down into the soil a measure distance and then cover back up with soil. That has been the tried and tested method passed down the years. But it doesn't have to be that way. Especially when starting your seeds indoors.  Outdoors I believe the method still stands because of weather conditions and animals/birds etc. But indoors it doesn't have to be.  And one of the reasons it doesn't is because the soil that is covering the seeds often acts as a barri...

So I neglected the front yard for sometime.  And without my neighbor's taking on the task, it would have probably never been done. But now that we have started on the front I'm glad that we did. This is right outside the neighbors picture window in the living room.  It used to be a sandy patch of dirt with nothing going on. Now it's full of life. The plan is to add some more rocks and more plants to fill it all in with growth.  Since this picture was taken we've added moss and more seeds for wild flowers.  Also we've since added pebbles and stone to the artificial river bed.

This is one of my first Ronde de Nice squash.  As I blogged before this is a french variety that grows like a mini pumpkin.  It has nice yellow stripes that come in and the inside tastes amazing. I've grilled two of these so far in a vegetable medley and they came out tasting delicious. Buttery smooth in texture and taste.  It melted in my mouth.  Really tasty vegetable and I look forward to enjoying more and sharing with friends.  Maybe I should plant a few more seeds to get a later reap for late summer.

So this year I've vowed to grow more of a variety of fruits and vegetables than the standard heirloom and regular store found items.  Like this plant above is a Pineapple Tomato plant. And I have to say this plant has some of the biggest tomato flowers I've ever seen. You can see two flowers in the pic above and they are huge like little sunflowers. I just recently staked this plant so that it can support the heavy fruit I expect very soon.  I can't wait to see and taste this new variety.  I'll keep you posted on the other varieties I am growing like; Zebra tomatoes, Pineapple Tomatillo, Mammoth Basil, Corno di Toro Peppers, and Sweet Italian peppers.  It's an exciting time to garden with perfect weather and ample sunshine.  I'll try to post more pictures of this plant as it progresses with large fruit.

So we had be dragging our feet on creating a compost bin but we finally got around to it.  We used old shipping pallets and just secured them together.  All the straw you see is just from raking the alley and yard.  The one ingredient we don't have a readily available supply of is manure. We are talking about either getting rabbits or chickens. Both have waste that can be composted and used in the garden as fertilizer.  Also you can use the garden scraps to feed the animals creating a recyclable life cycle. We are thinking about creating more for the compost bin like individual areas to store each ingredient before adding it to the compost heap.  As you can see behind the bin there is plenty of materials ready to be composted. Black Gold here we come!

This year as a change of pace I've chosen to go with different varieties of vegetables that you don't traditionally see in supermarkets. In this case in growing Ronde de nice squash which I think is a French variety and it grows to in a round ball instead of the sausage like summer squash. Looking forward to tasting and cooking with and telling you about the other cool varieties I have growing in the garden.  More to come!

So everyone knows tomato plants grow big and bushy and usually need support. Seen above is the typical cage most use to support tomatoes. But what if you grew a plant that was tall and very sturdy that you could use to support a tomato plant and would beautify your garden in the process. Sunflowers are the perfect person for the job. In this case I'm using mammoth variety that can grow over 6ft tall and produce a beautiful yellow face that attracts lots of bees to the garden.  Very soon I'll remove the cage and tie the  tomato plant to sunflower stalks. This is my first attempt at trying this but I think it should work fine. I've always grown sunflowers to attract bees but what better way to use the for another purpose. 

Been noshing on this blue beauties as of late. This year the bush seems to be doing ok. Picked about 6 berries today and hope for more tomorrow. 

A month or so back I posted about trying indoor lights out along with a heat pad to start seeds indoors. After a month or so I've transplanted most of the seedlings to the garden. But not before I hardened them first. And by harden I mean slowly introducing them to the natural sunlight and wind.  See grown indoors they aren't exposed the UV rays nor are they exposed to breezes and wind.  So the fragile plants must be introduced slowly. Starting out just an hour and day and working up the time incremently. You can see some of the tomato plants in this shot with some pale leaves. That is because the UV rays have sunburned the leaves.  This happens when they get too much sun to early. I am learning this process as I go so I'm hoping the next batch I will get them out sooner so they can be stronger plants earlier. That's not to say that sunburn will just kill your plants. So can be resilient and come back. Since planting these, very few have died off. My sucess ra...

So if you've seen some of my past posts you know that I've had encounters with possums and raccoons in my backyard garden. I've trapped 3 raccoons and eliminated 2 possums but gophers had been a problem in the past I wasn't really willing to tackle. At least until recently. The gophers in my backyard alley were ruining plants and soil everywhere. I'd had enough. So after some serious research I chose my weapon.  A Victor Black Box Gopher trap.  The amazon reviews were great and it was under $15. Now as you see the trap here it's set and ready to go. You would just point that end (the open end) towards an open tunnel.  It works like a reverse mouse trap, instead of pinning a rodent down it pulls them up and pins them to the roof of the trap.  The trigger is that coat hanger looking metal piece in the middle.  It packs quite a punch when triggered. Now you can't just look for an open hole and stick it in front of it. I watched YouTube for about an ho...

 In an effort to grow more sooner I recently purchased a heat mat and seed starter kit. The heat mat helps regulate the soil to the correct temperature required for germination.  The plastic dome over the seedlings helps regulate temperature and humidity. It holds 72 seedlings and fits the heat mat perfectly.  The above picture was taken approximately 5-7 days after planting. The column A and column G where both squash/pumpkin vines.  I've labeled each row to easily identify each seed/plant.  I've also documented on a journal what date each were planted and their germination times.  This picture was taken 3 weeks after planting. I've already transferred the pumpkin/squash vines and the 6 packs in the foreground are tomatoes and peppers.   I'm using a tupperware container to make sure I don't spread soil and water all over my living room. The two lights I am using were bought at Home Depot.  Each was $50 and ca...