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