Reskilling Expo Fall 2012

Potato pot ready for harvest

Today will be a second look at gardening in small spaces.  I'll have an emphasis on in between crops and what to grow during the fall and winter. Click on the links to take you to the documents.

What Size Pot?

• A summary of the minimal size pot for a particular type of vegetable. Also there are resources that recommend specific varieties for containers. Renee's Garden lists varieties they sell that work well in containers. Follow this link to see them.

In Between Crops or Catch Crops

• One way of making the most of the in between stages of container gardening. Whether you're waiting for the soil to warm up in order to plant summer crops or the summer crops are winding down and you have spare space to squeeze something in.

Renne's Garden is a great resource for seeds, and I find they work well for gardens in the Santa Cruz and Monterey areas. Below is a link to her When to Plant Guide:
http://www.reneesgarden.com/hm-gardnr/resource/whentoplant.pdf

Good harvest and easy to do!

To see post on growing potatoes in pots see my post Potato Experiment

Pepino Dulce

I'm experimenting with a new plant - Solanum muricatum. I picked it up at the Cabrillo plant sale (along with many others). I transplanted it into the greenhouse on 17 June 2012. A couple of fruit had set, but I felt it wasn't thriving in the cool foggy breezes. 

Plant as it was on June 17th.

 Now it's looking quite lush and the fruit that is in the above picture is now about 1-inch longer. It's also putting out another flush of flowers.

Same fruit on 7 July 2012.

Plant on July 7th.

I was thinking I should call the greenhouse "Nightshade House" as that seems to be it's main purpose. Tomatoes are big (I'm growing German Strawberry) but there are only 2 fruits - and they are both on the same plant, further away from the door in the greenhouse. The fog has been keeping the nights too cold and I'm having blossom drop like crazy.  I guess I won't have to worry about fitting canning into my schedule.

Resilence

What startles me most about gardening and plants is what survives. My poor neglected garden still hangs on. I spent last weekend poking through the empty pots and tall weeds to see what I could find.I was astounded to see my comfrey poking up young leaves. One of my lavenders (I think it's a Lavendula stoechas) has seeded itself in funny little niches here and there. Native irises are blooming as well as the heucheras. Native plants are tough as nails, thankfully. I'm also thankful for the tough herb plants. I'm resigned to the fact that I lost the stevia, but glad to see the hyssop sending up young shoots.

Pictured above is my re-configured front bed. My husband pulled out the last of the dying lavender. And as much as I hated to see it go, I got to rework this little corner and I'm pretty happy with the change. The blank spot will get some re-located Lavendula stoechas seedlings.

Luckily for me the bones are there, I just need to do lots of cleanup.