The Backyard Progress Report: December 2014

Happy New Year to all my friends out there on the Interwebs. I thought I’d take the morning to snap a few photos of random whatsits around the yard. Of course, Mia was out and causing trouble. Luckily the cold weather hasn’t done any noticeable damage to any of the plants. I’m leery of complaining about the cold weather living here in SoCal when compared to the rest of the country. So I won’t complain, I’ll just gently and softly mention that it’s been a wee bit chilly. Why just the other night, I had to wear a coat!! The very idea! Anyway, here are some nice photos to gaze your eyes upon… Continue reading “The Backyard Progress Report: December 2014”

Planting a Winter Garden: Status Report

It’s been one week since I sowed the seeds for soil repair. I’ve been watching closely hoping for some green sprout to push its way through the rich dark top soil. Well, get your machete and your local trail guide ready, because the brush is getting thick my gentle readers! Continue reading “Planting a Winter Garden: Status Report”

Planting a Winter Garden: Soil Repair Time!

Late as usual

Hello dirty minded peeps! Well, as usual, I’m a bit late in my planting schedule. I was hoping to start my winter garden last month but have been swamped with other projects. This would be a poor time for most of you out there to start with the impending frost heading your way, but to folk living in SoCal it’s a moot point! This will be the first time I’ve ever tried doing a winter cover crop that wasn’t specifically just for the dinner table.

What is a Winter Cover Crop?

A winter cover crop consists of plants that are perfectly designed to repair the soil after all the leaching of nutrients that occurred during your spring and summer growing season. Not only do they add precious nitrogen to the soil, but many of the plants roots are perfect for reaching deep into the earth to break up the soil that your normal crops can’t reach. They then pull up the nutrients to make them accessible for the next spring/summer growing season. Then all you have to do is turn everything into the soil for a perfect green manure. It’s a win win situation! For more information on nitrogen fixing plants, check out my article on legumes!


Prepping the space

So the first thing I needed to do was to get the garden ready. I was getting tired of the many rows I made before and how inaccessible the whole garden was when everything was growing madly. I decided that I wanted to consolidate everything into one, easy to get around, raised bed. I had a bunch of scrap cedar planks left over from an exhibition at The San Diego Museum of Art that were used for our Piranesi exhibit as rustic wood flooring. I used some of it to build my chicken coop, a compost staging bin as well as other yard projects. One of the many perks of working at the museum is repurposed materials!

I began by pulling all the weeds out, removing the spent summer crops and raking the soil into a pile instead of the 4 rows it used to be. I had to move the micro drip irrigation in order to do all of this.

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Continue reading “Planting a Winter Garden: Soil Repair Time!”