Jef's Garden

06/08/2023

After hours of work I feel happy that my tomatoes are in the ground, one bed of Black Crim and one of Beef Heart . I mulch them with dry chopped bamboo leaves

05/03/2023

It is spring time in Jef's garden that
means flowers and weeds are thriving .
I don't have any bed ready for transplanting my seedlings
and I am not sure I want to put the energy to deal
with mulching for the many hot days, heat waves, and water
restrictions ,I am still preparing my 40 tomato
plants,making new compost for each of them . I will make comments on each photo .
Even if the garden looks terrible I love it and I love walking in it every day .

03/17/2023

Time to plant I planted seeds of Beets,Kale,Fennel, lettuce and Tomatoes, I don’t cover my seeds with much soil but I always pack them to be snug in it . I believe it is very important.

02/27/2023

02/13/2023

12/01/2022

Got in the ground my two beds of garlic, each bed was about an hour and a half of work . I don’t bury it to follow my family’s tradition . I planted around 200 pieces of garlic always choosing the biggest pieces, over the years I noticed that bigger garlic pieces produce bigger cloves NINE MONTHS LATER. My kale seedlings are under large cut plastic bottles to protect them from the birds who are crazy about the leaves.

10/09/2022

Already October , I am happy to still have a few Zucchini ,with our nice Mediterranean climate they keep flowering , I am hoping that the big Zuc will have seeds for next year .
Meanwhile I extracted seeds from my last Beef Heart tomatoes , close to 10 years I grow them now . Tonight dinner was a big tomato salad with blue Cheese and my wonderful vinaigrette . ( See post from February 12 2019 )
Full moon always push me to plant something , I bought Detroit Dark Beets seeds today , to eat late winter early spring.
We still have a lot of hot days , that's not encouraging to garden everything is so dry .

09/18/2022

Today’s harvest .The heat waves are very hard on the raspberries , when ready to pick they only last for 2 days and shrivel .Thanks to Rebecca for a fantastic pie

09/16/2022

Today’s harvest,,tonight’s dinner

07/21/2022

It is harvest time

Even with very few things growing I am so glad to have something to harvest .
I feel like I am continuing a family tradition. Planting in the spring growing in the summer and harvesting for the months to come , over 30 years of gardening I figured what works best for Northern California hot Mediterranean climate .Cool dry places Garlic hanging ,Herbs in tin can ,Prunes also in tin cans ,I also freeze cooked
dishes like Ratatouille , or Tomates Farcies .

06/06/2022

After weeks of delaying the transplanting of Zucchini , and Tomatoes I finally did it . I will have a second bed soon .
The soil which is thin and rich compost is already so dry . The plants need lots of mulching to keep them wet.
And I don't feel motivated to do all this work except for my dear Tomatoes and Zucchinis .
the Artichokes did well surprisingly tall .
Composting kitchen scraps is a long process with wonderful results I really try to sort the worms for stating a new batch .