Tilling the Earth

So I've always wanted to grow my own vegetables. Every week I head over to Whole Foods where I pay exorbitant prices for produce; some of which I eat fresh, some I cook, and some I put through my juicer







Our small yard was initially planted with grass







But with our drought this year, we've stopped watering and allowed it to go fallow. The only water it gets is the occasional times when I rinse off my spearfishing gear or hose out my fishy coolers







A "slash and burn" approach was used to get rid of the remaining stubborn bushes and shrubs






Then off to Home Depot to pick up some Mendocino redwood






I had no idea how expensive lumber and deck screws could be.





Laying out where the beds would go






Impact driver was absolute money. I can't imagine using a screwdriver to put these together





Started out with some peas, both snow and sugar snap varieties






Into the seeding tray they go




Picked up 6 different varieties of potatoes for a Pepsi challenge and the two that won were the Russian Fingerling




and German Butterball




Kind of ghetto, but I didn't buy seed potatoes, but instead picked them up from the market




Within a week and a half, I had chitted my potatoes and they were ready for planting






My first bed consisted of sugar snap and snow peas, gai lan (aka Chinese Broccoli) and a few marigolds to attract bees for pollination and give the bed some color. I even put in a trellis for the peas to climb






Within a day, Finn had ripped out my plants and devoured the broccoli




The garden wrecker!




Anything else I should put in for my fall planting? Any tips for growing in the Bay Area?

Anyone else have vegetable gardens?
 


The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.
-  Thomas Jefferson





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No chilli peppers? 

Hell yeah, that's awesome ! Sorry to see the damage from your dog but don't let it discourage you.

I manage a few elementary school gardens as well as help with a sizeable garden for a youth agricultural non-profit. We have all sizes and shapes of tomatoes, all kinds of hot and sweer peppers, eggplant, tomatillos, string and dry beans, cucumbers, okra, onions and leeks, potatoes, melons, corn and popcorn, squash, beets, carrots, herbs, and even a mini pumpkin patch. I'll post a picture of the garden next time I'm out there.

Fall and winter are a great time for broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, onions and leeks, carrots, radishes, beets, any form of greens (lettuce, kale, chard, spinach, mustard, etc.), bok choi, peas, etc.

Thats funny you mention Gai Lan. A friend of mine randomly gave me some extra seed for it and its on my list to try this winter. I'll get it started in pots in a week or so and they'll be ready to plant out in October.

Nice harvest you got there but yup, definitely peppers.
Here are mine I planted in 2014 then kept in the garage for the winter and brought out again for this year.  Asked peppers from some of my customers and dried them myself.

Love the look of your new yard, and it's going to produce some healthy foods!  Good work! 

As it is now I just don't have time to do the garden anymore.  Sara got some tomatoes from her brother and we have them going, but nothing like what I was doing the previous two years.  Corn, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, squash, rosemary, chives, green onions, strawberries, and some other stuff I cant recall. 

I will say that the next one that I start I'm going to try and not buy a ton of starters or seeds to get it going, but rather try and make/collect my own.  It was very simple to harvest tomato seeds for example.  Just scoop the insides of any tomoato in the store you like, put in water and slosh it around a bit and let it sit.  Bad stuff and bad seeds will float to the top in a couple days.  Dry the rest of them out and re-use!

Well done brother, my entire front yard has been a garden for the last 7 years. It's fantastic what you can grow in a small space as far as varieties, I don't know, I live in Sacramento

That looks awesome.
If Safeway wasn't so close..............
Strong work.

I quit trying seemed to cost me more than it was worth.

Sweet work man.  The first step is dog proofing.  I found that out the hard way too!  Then gopher proofing, make sure to put some hardware cloth at the bottom to keep the little bastards from eating your whole crop, ask me how I know  . I'm building some raised beds out of broken concrete right now, and supposedly they get super hot in the sun all day and radiate heat all night, should make for some good grub.  Get the book golden gate gardening on Amazon used for like a dollar.  It really targets our micro climates.  For fall, try bok choy, broccoli, leafy greens, cabbage, beets, taters, carrots.  Just be careful with our usually hot September's.  Fall doesn't really start here until late, so a lot of things will bolt to seed if put out to early.

After years of veggies, we got chickens about 5 years ago, and a bee hive this year.  You can espalier fruit trees along your fences and water them with your laundry water.  The possibilities are endless, I'm at the point where I'm eating full meals from only stuff I produce.  It's a good feeling.  Good luck!

We have potatoes, sweet potatoes, 4-5 kinds of tomatoes, bell peppers, yellow zucchini, and garlic going.  Will plant artichokes and beets come fall.  I love beets cuz you can use the greens, too.   

Victory gardens are the best! Nice job.


I'd garden a lot more if I didn't fish so often.
 

as it is we are limited by the altitude at my house. It isn't consistently hot enough for peppers, but it is too hot for chard in the summer.
currently I've got 4 tomato varieties, bush beans, 3-4 types of squashes, lettuce, herbs, and some potatoes. These all are doing well. We're harvesting beans right now, with the first tomatoes ripening in probably another week.

The only fruit being produced from the orchard right now are figs. Just not enough water for the apples and stonefruits this year.

I'll say that the biggest improvement I made in the last 5 years was setting up a drip irrigation system. I simply zip tied the main line to the perimeter of the garden fence, and then run 1/4" lines to the raised beds and 1/2 barrels. I put adjustable valves on some lines like the tomatoes so we can cut their water as they fruit. The main line is hooked to a timer, so all I have to do is plug in the hose, set the timer, and the entire garden is watered. It has worked out really well.

Very nice.  I garden in raised beds too but added a Harbor Freight Greenhouse last year.  It's probably the best couple hundred bucks I have spent.  I'm getting bigger tomatoes and cucumbers than ever and my growing season is nearly all year long for tomatoes. 

It's been a weird gardening year for me, while trying to save water.

My squash and cucs aren't getting enough water and in their stressed state, have succumbed to powdery mildew, which has been particularly bad the past couple years for me.

I've had decent harvest so far on most things already, and am now letting some die off and just keeping the tomatoes and peppers going.  Just waiting for September to get the fall crops in.  In addition to what some of the others said, I'll add that fava beans have been a favorite over-winter crop for me.

I had some peppers and eggplants overwinter from last year.  The peppers have produced ok, but the eggplants, while looking good and strong, are just producing a few small fruit.  I thought for sure with the strong root systems these guys must have had after over-wintering, I was going to have a banner year.  But again, it's probably the reduction in water.

It's been an interesting experiment in watering this year.

-Allen

Gardening is my passion. I like it even more then fishing. Some NCKA peeps have seen how I roll. Next chance you get stop by my place. Some pics from last year.

   
  Living in a Redwood forest, our available sun is spotty at best.  We determined that the are where I put the new bed seemed to get the most consistent sun. So in went the cinder blocks to build up t back to level the area off.  Was planning another curse of blocks but wife said she was good with the height so that's where it ended.  Cleaned up the front line a little, cut some rebar, called it good.  The soil level is about 4" below the top now, and she has it planted with a few tomato's, (One or two "Cheery" tomato's) some kind of bean, some old strawberries I've had for 25+ years and they love it in that bed!  Some corn stalks, but there not doing so well, (Maybe not enough total sun for them?)  So far the minimal plastic "Deer" fencing we put up seems to be doing its job or the deer haven't been around.