Garden plan

Plans for Gopher Feed 2009

Apurva's Gopher Feeding Planning Guide! No shrubberry indicated. Just need to add a few gopher holes!

This website talks about pruning tomates. Graeme mentioned doing this as a kid. We should try this on a couple plants this year. Maybe plant two mid-size tomato bearing plants of the same type & prune just one of them for comparision?

http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/pruning-tomatoes.aspx

D1 PLOT

Erik wrote:

Hi everyone

I just planted some rows of lettuce seeds in the remaining 4x4 box in the D1 plot. Starting from the side closest to the hose faucet, the five rows planted are:

• 1 row Merveille de Quatre Saisons - Heirloom lettuce
• 2 rows Renee's Caesar duo - mix of Red and Green Romaine lettuces
• 1 row California spicy greens - mix of Arugula, Curly Endive, Mizuna, and Red Mustard
• 1 row Monet's Garden Mesclun - a mix of mesclun lettuces

I covered the box with some fine grid fencing and held the ends of it down with rocks from the rock garden.

Allyson knows what to expect from her SunSweet Tomato plants in July & August! This is just the beginning!

Graeme is helping to water recently planted seeds. Behind him is the 'Rock Garden' area where we will grow perennial herbs.

Start of this BLOG!
Planted Purple Tomatillo and Ambassador Zucchini in Allyson's plot today.
Very warm, but not the record-breaking heat of yesterday!

SLAC, Team Green Photon Garden

"This may be a bit anal, but I am a Capricorn. :-) This is how the three rows are laid out" - Graeme

This 3x5 box in my plot, B7, was recently 'gopher proofed' by buring a wire mesh underneath. Last year, our only eggplant was the first target of the gopher! The two 4x4 boxes in same plot were gopher-proofed a couple years ago.

In previous years, the gophers got to the pole-beans, broccili and all my garlic! This past year, one tunneled all the way around a 4x4 box but couldn't figure out to hop the border! Industrious, but not smart. I don't care what anyone says, gophers are not cute! Squirrels are an issue too, but thank goodness we don't have deer or raccoons!

TOMATOES
Yesterday, Tax Day, was wildly windy and cold! Tax day has been a good milestone for planting tomatoes in our area. Maybe May 1 would be better. The growing season in the bay area is long. The main difficulty is the cool nights. The area is exposed with no nearby buildings or 'city' heating. We are also near the top of a hill which can get strong winds in the late season. Large tomaotes and mellons tend not to do as well as cherry tomato type plants. It is still worth while to plant mid-size tomatoes & maybe reserve the larger ones for areas like somewhat warmer Milpitas Community Garden or in sheltered suburbs.

Planted in Allyson's plot, B9
(2) SunSweet Tomatoes
(1) Celebrity Tomato
(1) Roma Tomato

This is the first year we are growing SunSweet. From what I gathered, the main difference between a SunSweet and SunGold tomato is that the SunSweet has a thicker skin. SunGold does tend to split open after picking - but, boy, they are tasty! Roma and Celebrity have done well in other people's plots. One can get an early harvest from Celebrity.

To be added to this blog: how we plant tomatoes.....