wonder

"No one knows enough to be a pessimist.  Find an opportunity to observe a tiny little green sprout emerging from a seed.  When you do, allow yourself to feel the awe of what you're seeing.  A famous poet named Rumi observed, 'Sell your cleverness and purchase bewilderment.'  The scene of an emerging sprout represents the beginning of life.  No one on this planet has even a tiny clue as to how all of this works.  What is that creative spark that causes the life to sprout?  What created the observer, the consciousness, the observation, and perception intself?  The questions are endless."

-  Dr. Wayne Dyer from "10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace"




Our plants are beginning to pop up everywhere in the garden!  It is a pretty amazing week here.  We currently have radishes, cucumber, carrots, beets, turnips, beans and lettuce greens popping their heads out.  Some of these plants I seeded myself from vegetables that I bought back in fall at the local farmers market or community supported agriculture farms here in San Diego.  Others are heirlooms that have given seed generation after generation and date back hundreds of years to the first cultivars, from places far enough away that it makes the mind spin a little.  We have a variety of blocky carrot growing that comes from East Africa, onions from Italy that date back to the time of Machiavelli, potatoes that were staples in the Peruvian diet long before Europeans set foot in the Americas, and a cucumber originating from Japan that was written about in the Edo Period.  All of these, growing right here in our backyard.  Isn't life wondrous?

We got around to placing some netting over the planter box now that we have a very interested, very hungry, herd of birds.  They seemed a little too enthusiastic about those newly sprouted East African carrots for our taste.  So, a little PVC pipe and some net from the local hardware store solved the potential problem nicely, harming none in the process.

 We also took advantage of a few late hours of sun and a cancelled class on Wednesday afternoon to get seeds into the newly tilled section of the yard.  We shall soon have corn, two varieties of peas, two types of melon, one type of watermelon, squash and of course, plenty of tomatoes.  Oh, and don't forget the onions and potatoes potted up by the garden shed.

And lettuce and herbs of several varieties, of course poked away in pots and pans and nooks and crannies.  We won't suffer for the need of a salad.  We even have some volunteer nasturtiums coming up behind the compost bin.  And who couldn't do with a potted blackberry bramble?

In short, things are coming up green pretty much everywhere here, and we love what we are seeing.  And all for a little care and tending to a few seeds here and there.  Life is good.

good things growing...

Happy Vernal Equinox everyone!  Incase you were wondering, Spring is definitely stirring.  Here in San Diego, things have been popping up green... and purple, and blue and pretty much every other color of the rainbow.  The scent of the citrus in bloom is intoxicating in our front yard.  This is one of my favorite scents in the world.

Oranges and blossoms

Valencia oranges

Buddha Hand Citron

Lemons, Limes and Oranges

Mineola Tangerines

But that isn't all!  After hard pruning the apricot tree in the back yard, I think we will have more than just 4 or 5 apricots this season!

Apricot flowers and fruit

Young Apricots and windchimes

That much being said, we have more than just the fruit trees growing right now too.  Finally got the planter box planted a week or two ago and we already have things coming up there as well... though we are going to need to put up a cover on the bed real soon.  Apparently, finches cannot leave radish sprouts alone!

Radish sprouts coming up

Garden box all planted

So far, we have three varieties of carrots, two varieties of bush bean, three varieties of cucumber, two varieties of beets, sweet bell peppers and turnips growing.  Last weekend was two straight days of rain, which was perfect weather for ripping up another section of the yard and hauling in some more compost to mulch into the soil for the remainder of the crops, which we are still sorting out.  Once the soil settles up from this weekend's rain, we will putting in corn, melons, pumpkin, squash, climbing peas and beans, and of course, tomatoes, which we have put out to sprout in our high tech greenhouse system just today.

Tilling up the yard

Hi tech tomato greenhouse equipment

Finished garden space

Rainy weather helped with the digging

All in all, we are really pleased with how far along we've come to get this year's garden ready to go.  So far, the investment in amended soil, materials for the garden box and heirloom organic seed has come to about $350, which seems like a lot in retrospect but will no doubt pay off this season and in years to come.  When the crop shares and produce swaps come round this summer, it will be very nice to have some of the rare varieties that we have planted to trade with other urban farmers.  It's going to be a wonderful season!  Even our pocket gophers agree...

Too cute to harm

Been a long time...

Wow, quite a hiaitus!  Winter has come and gone, if you can even call it that in San Diego.  In the yard, our citrus trees are all in blossom and that smells fantastic!  All of the trees have been pruned for maximum yield on fruit.  As of Valentines Day, we also have a new big planter box set up in the back yard that we built and filled with a fresh load of amended soil and compost.  We placed some gopher control in the bottom of the box, and will have a cover that will keep other birds and rodents out, hopefully, for the growing season.  Seems like all that remains now is to get the seedlings planted and growing and we should be in business!  Seed from our catalog came in around December and I have already had a seed trade with several friends for veggies and fruit to grow this season, now all that remains is planning out the space and getting it all growing!  Can't wait!