I had a very busy day today and only a few scant morning hours to work in the garden. But I got a lot done.
I didn’t have to do much in the way of watering, as one can see from the rain water on my Tokyo market turnips.
It rained in the night which is… really stressing my tomatoes.
What I did today was rip out most of the plants that had gone to seed, and fertilize.
And weed. So. Much. Weeding.
The pea plants are completely taking over the fence- and they’re starting to bear peas.
I probably should have put in a proper trellis instead of relying on stakes and the fence and the eyelets and wire I put on the fence. Either way the purple peas are a huge success.
Speaking of purple produce- in a few days it will be time to pick my not-a-romanesco.
I’ve had quite a bit of harvests lately- All the viable romaine were eaten, as well as the Bok Choy from the fabric bed.
In the place of the Bok Choy I sowed some beets, which are starting to come up. Beets are interesting- the seeds you get are actually like a little ball of seeds- so you always have to thin them, no matter how far apart you sow them.
I made a start on ripping out the carrot bed. I definitely sowed it too thickly, lots of big woody inedible carrots mixed with little squashed babies.
I got one last viable one though.
The stem hadn’t gone to seed so it’s probably a good one.
I’m gonna re seed the carrot bed once I pick some neem seed fertilizer from work, along with some more soil.
And I’m going to re seed a little thinner so I don’t end up with dodgy carrots.
In other fantastic news- looks like I’m getting a blackberry! Not only are the blackberry plants growing like mad- I looks like the first flower I got is turning into an actual fruit! The smaller vine will probably not bear fruit until next year but it looks like the larger vine is going to bear this year.
The plants in between the two blackberries are comfrey. I put them in a week ago or so. They’re an old style herb that like a lot of the herbs grown by our ancestors for medicine, are super duper toxic. But! It’s a documented if odd fact that comfrey salves used topically can help heal bruises. I… could use that. Not to mention supposedly comfrey can be used as a green compost- it has a lot of nitrogen in its leaves and when steeped you can water other plants with the comfrey tea to help them grow.
Sounds good to me.
The sun gold is looking more than a little rough. The ladybugs definitely are going to help- but it looks like the infestation in the sun gold tomato particularly was so heavy I’m going to have to move the few ladybugs that remain in the plant and spray the crap out of the sun gold with neem oil.
It’s got so many baby tomatoes- I’m just waiting for summer and the heat that will hopefully ripen them into beautiful gold goodness.
As much as I’m loving the ladybugs in the garden…
As you can see on my baby basil- they’ve brought quite a few flies. The problem is- out of 1,500 ladybugs- yeah a few were dead. Maybe more than a few. Dead bugs equal flies.
So. Many. Flies.
Ugh.
My cucumber seedlings were absolutely gasping to be planted so I obliged.
Just around the stake trellis. This picture was taken before I mulched it. As you can see the radishes in the center are almost ready to pick.
Speaking of radishes-
So this is where the romaine was. There’s one left as you can see- but the rest were eaten either eaten or pulled as icky. In its place I sowed some extra big radishes. Crimson giants to be precise. They’ll grow quick enough so that in a month I can put something else there- maybe some more green or bunching onions.
The borage is starting to flower. This is nothing- borage flowers are some of the most beautiful herb flowers you can grow. Honestly they’re one of the most beautiful flowers period.
Of course- also a contender for best flower…
Yay! It’s the most perfect little sunflower! The best part is it faces my window. Summer is coming!
The sunflowers demand it!
The Neanderthal Gardens 
That is impressive that you got berries in the first year. That just doen’t happen. The whole garden is impressive.
We had drizzly fog here, but no rain. San Francisco gets more of that sort of thing anyway. It ended up getting pleasantly warm today, and will be warmer tomorrow.
Oh yeah it’s gonna be hot tomorrow at work for sure. I’m shocked about the blackberry too- this was the bigger plant so maybe it was already over a year old? The little guy isn’t gonna produce til next year for sure. Anyways the fact that the first blackberry got pollenated definitely proves that the local feral blackberries are numerous enough that you don’t need two plants. I just, you know, *wanted* two plants so there XD
They are two different cultivars . . . . aren’t they? Most are self-fruiting, but I believe that cross pollination helps.
Lol no they’re both Marion berries because I love Marion berries with a passion. Cross pollination does help BUT since blackberries are basically feral all throughout San Francisco it’s almost 100% a traveling bee will have supped at some other blackberry and do your cross pollination for you. Anywhere where blackberries aren’t feral you are correct- two or more varieties will help with yields. But here- grow what you want to eat the most of. And I am looking forward to gorging myself on the best of all blackberries.
Well, I sort of figured that there would be plenty of others, but by the way you mentioned it, it sounded like you expected them to pollinate each other. I did not remember anything more than ‘Marion’ blackberry. (Marionberry).
Well two of the same variety do cross pollinate- just not to the same level of yields as two from separate cultivars. What’s really funny is the guy who helped me find the second smaller Marion is now my co-worker! He was all- you know, considering how common blackberries are here, you might as well get a second of the type you like… and I was on board the Marion train.
Mine were different cultivars to spread the season out slightly. It did not work. They all ripened at the same time anyway.
I think blackberries are like the chaos agents of fruit- they do what they want and us humans just have to enjoy their bounty when they deign to give it to us. I acidified the soil when I planted them and I use the acidic maxsea when I fertilize but besides that I figure I’ll get what I get.
‘Marion’ should be rather consistent. The timing changes with the weather, but the characteristics of the fruit should be very similar from year to year.
Here’s hoping! My love of Marionberries goes back to my dad who would sometimes pick up Marionberry pie as a treat on his way home from work when I was a kid. I use to pick and eat wild blackberries as a kid of course as they grew feral near my local park- but I always thought the pies dad bought were just so much better. Now that dad’s retired he’s really looking forward to the marionberries from the yard. The look on his face when he realized we’d be getting some this year as opposed to having to wait a year… it made the whole thing worth it.
Oh, I know how that goes. I still grow the same rhubarb that my great grandfather gave me before I was in kindergarten. My Mother grows it too, and makes pies for my Pa when he comes down from Washington. He totally swoons for my Mother’s rhubarb pie, made from his Grandfather’s rhubarb!