Winter garden is in. Finally.

So I'm happy to report that I found time to get my ass out of my chair and into the garden. Things have gotten very busy at work, which is good for the wallet but certainly puts things behind in the garden. That said, everything is still well within schedule. The weather is holding up nicely here in Southern California and I have high hopes for a good showing in our boxes. 

This winter planting marks our first full year of the Alcone Garden.  If you've been reading the blog you know summer did not go as well as I had hoped, while last winter went better than expected. So I guess it all evens out, huh?

This year I'm going to make a few adjustments while trying to not mess up the goodness of last year. Spinach went like crazy last time so I'm doubling up and going with a 8 feet of it this time around. Broccoli and cabbage did well but the space that it needed compared to the return wasn't that great so I'm scrapping them. Instead I'm going with things I can give out to people around the office more easily, like onions, leeks and beets. The radishes were very well received so I'm expanding that section as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens out there and hoping I didn't just get lucky. We'll see.

Winner! Winner! Pumpkin dinner!

Congrats to Christina Caluda for winning the Alcone-grown pumpkin.

They seem very happy together.

I've had better summers.

Better in the garden anyway. We had a lot of pollination issues this year and it turns out that sort of thing is pretty important. The best we can figure is we don't have enough bees in the area. I'm going to blame it on the fact that we're in a business park. If I were a bee I'd certainly find another place to do my thing.

Unfortunately I didn't figure out the bee thing until pretty late in the season. So a lot of stuff never came to pass. The cucumbers and squash didn't amount to squat and I only had one monster zucchini. We did have quite a few tomatoes, although I thought there would be more.

I was able to scrape together a pretty sweet pumpkin. And when I say scrape I mean it literally. It turns out when there are no bees around to do their bee thing, you have to do it yourself. I did a little research and figured out that pollinating is nothing more than rubbing flowers together.

I'll leave it at that...

As I said, I figured all this out a bit late and only ended up with two. I'm having a drawing at the office for the big one and keeping the other one for my troubles. Breaks my heart, I could have had a dozen of these beauties had I started earlier. Next year I suppose.

Oh well, live and learn, and on to winter.

Happy home for Monster Zucchini

As I wrote in the previous post, Whitney Lum was the only one in the agency with the moxie to take on the giant zucchini. I'm happy to report she's done us proud. She took it home and fed the whole Lum family at a weekend gathering.

And she was nice enough to get some great photos of the whole process. Thanks, Whitney.

Back to Market

 
It's been a while since we've had a World's Tiniest Farmer's Market, but it's back on. And it's back to earning its moniker after the comparatively giant harvests of late winter. But there's nothing tiny about that zucchini, though. That bad boy is not messing around.

 

I'm curious if it's still going to be delicious at that size. But as Scott Littlejohn says, "Fry that sucker up. That'll make it good." Delicious or not, it's damn funny looking.

Fortunately Whitney got the guts to step up and take it to her family reunion. Warms my heart to see it go to good home. Let us know how it works out, Whitney.

ASSASSINS!!

I've been noticing chunks and chews being taken throughout the garden and now I know why. They are called Tomato Hornworms, but they are actually caterpillars, go figure.

I found a website telling me as an organic gardener I should put in companion plants that would attract a certain type of miniature parasitic wasp. (Click on that, it's pretty awesome.) I'm not sure if there's room for anymore plants, so I'm just going to put a 25¢ bounty on each of them and let Julie Stone's kids make a little extra cash.

Potatoes fulfill their destiny.

And their destiny was delicious. On Friday I dug up and passed out most of the potatoes for people  to enjoy. Not sure what everybody else did with theirs, but mine were damn tasty.

These will not be my last crop of potatoes that's for sure.

This is what 32 Southern California days will get you

We're 32 days into the summer planting effort and it's pretty fair to say things are exploding. I went out of town for a week ( thanks for the coverage Shannon) and came back to a lot of green stuff. It shouldn't be long before there's a lot of red, yellow, and orange stuff to go with it. Stay tuned.

Looks like there's gonna be jack-o-lanterns for the whole office.

The beans are going bonkers. I might should have put in a taller trellis.

The potato confusion is now behind us. You're welcome.

For those of you who have been holding your breath wondering when I should pull the potatoes, you are now free to exhale. I'm going with the wait-for-the-stalk-to-die method over the wait-for-the-flower-to-die route.

This is a potato from a stalk that has dead flowers yet still green. The color looks good and all, but it's pretty dinky compared to...

...a potato from the dead stalk. It's definitely bigger and more ready to be smothered in butter.

I love the smell of fresh mulch in the morning.

As much as I love the garden, I can understand why it hasn't been as inviting to others as it could be. It's on a slope, it's a bit out of the way, and it can get pretty muddy.

Well now there's one less excuse for not taking a visit. As of yesterday there's a fresh layer of shredded bark to help keep your fancy work shoes looking spiffy. So have at it people, a few moments in the garden can do wonders for a heavy head.

That was fun. Let's do it again.

It's that time (actually it's past that time)! Out with the winter/spring, in with summer/fall. Other than a couple of late blooming Integro cabbages, everything has been pulled out and given away. And hopefully eaten, btw.

So, what's for summer? Let's take a look at the planning wall shall we.

For summer the plan is to share. So I have a lot of sharable things: more carrots and radishes, squash, two types of cucumbers, pole beans. And lots and lots and lots of tomatoes. 6 varieties and 14 plants to be exact. See below for the actual planting map. You can tell it's real by all the dirt.

Funny thing about the tomatoes. I started one set at home several weeks ago and they moved very slowly. Image above contains said tomatoes.

Another set I started more recently in a little greenhouse kit and they exploded over a long weekend. Height-wise they were right there with the first group in no time, but not nearly as girthful. (Is that a word? Should be.)

Regardless, I put them both in the ground and have high hopes for big juicy tomatoes in 70 - 80 days.

Carrots out the wazoo

Today is 91 days in and the carrots look pretty good. In fact I think I'll take another shot at it - very few of them got a big as I expected and I think I can do better.

But they are tasty.

Who knows potatoes?

Seeing as how potatoes do most of their business underground I'm having a tough time deciding when to pull them up. I looked for answers on the Google, but I got conflicting reports. A few sources say to wait until the green tops die off before digging them up. And just as many sources tell me to wait until the flowers die, cut off the tops, and then wait 7 days before digging.

I guess I could try a little of both. But I hate to waste even one precious, delicious spud.

Any thoughts from my millions of followers?

Who you calling tiny?

 Looks like I may have to retire the name "World's Tiniest Farmer's Market" soon. The garden is producing at an impressive rate. There were a lot of comments like, "You grew this?" Which is a compliment, right?

The word was getting out pretty quickly so the 1st floorers jumped in before the 2d floorers could respond. Looks like Griffin recognizes the Oscarde Lettuce she put in.

There should be a couple more rounds of Farmer's Markets before the season is complete. The next one should include carrots and the final installment should provide tons of potatoes.

Garden 2.0

We're 71 days in with about another 30 or so to go, but I'm already thinking about what's next. I haven't made a full plan but I know it will include tomatoes. More specifically these tomatoes. I have high hopes for these. Last year's crop did not go so well. (They were not Seeds of Change tomatoes btw.) I think it just didn't get hot enough last year to really explode like the ones the year before.

 I started these at my house last week and I'm planing to put them out in about a month when they are nice and strong.

Any thoughts on what I should put in next? Besides tomatoes of course.

Garden to the rescue

I'm working late and suddenly I realize I haven't had dinner yet. Since most places are closed by now I start scrounging around my office for change so I can hit up the candy machine. And then it dawns on me. Who needs candy or quarters when I've got a big pile of food growing in the back? It's salad time.

So with high beams blaring I fight off the bunnies, and the security guard, and make myself a little something the candy machine could never touch.

Most creative idea I've had all night, by the way. I'll get it though.

Today's word is "Legit".

And it's being brought to you by the Alcone Organic Garden. We're 53 days in and things are getting fun out there. 

 I'm looking forward to eating this flower in about a week or so. Of course it'll be a pea at that point, but still.

I was getting concerned about the potatoes. They weren't doing a whole lot, but they are making up for lost time. As you can see the Desiree's are doing much better than the Yellow Finns. But that one Finn in the front gives me hope. It's almost time to put the second layer of soil on the Desirees.

And the carrots are being carrots. Silently doing their thing underground.

At this rate the World's Tiniest Farmer's Market won't stay that way for long.

It's not much, but it's delicious.

If Radish was first, Spinach was a pretty close second. So with that, the World's Tiniest Farmer's Market is born. If you're in the office and lucky enough to be checking the blog, come on down to the fun zone and have at it.

I fully expect the market to not stay tiny for long as a lot of the lettuces are coming in fast.

Radish for the win

Looks like we have a winner in the "First to be edible" race. Okay, I realize gardening isn't a competitive activity. But if it was, Radishes would rule.

Admittedly I'm not a huge fan of radishes, but these might change my mind. Besides being gorgeous, they're nice and mild tasting. They're pretty juicy too. Which may mean I'm watering them too often.

Chime in if you're a radish connoisseur and can tell me what I should be looking for.

Behold the Immaculate Germination

Turns out I'm an amazing gardener. I show up to check on the garden this morning and I have grown a couple cucumbers from a lettuce seed.

I even managed to get an artichoke to grow from nothing.

Pretty unbelievable, huh?