In and About the Garden. . .

Hello, gardening friends, I hope you’ve answered your garden’s call to come outside and play in the dirt this month.  I have finally begun to emerge from gardening hibernation and have been planting, tidying up and fertilizing.

I spent a productive afternoon last week at the Walter Andersen’s Nursery in Poway (12755 Danielson Court Poway, CA 92064; browsing through their wide selection of vegetable seedling six-packs and 4″ pots.  There are lots of different varieties of tomatoes, both heirloom and modern, plus herbs, peanuts, asparagus, beets, eggplant, pole and bush beans, potatoes, onions, garlic, leeks, shallots, and just about anything else your heart desires to put into the ground right now.  I brought home a good selection of plants and am now trying to find space to put everything.  Since most vegetables require at least six hours of sun, my limited full-sun garden space is filling up fast.  I sorted out my front square-foot bed as you can see from the before and after photos and am getting ready to tackle my back s-f raised bed.

 Today I fertilized all my citrus again, i.e., two Washington naval oranges, a Late Lane, and a Valencia, two kumquats, two tangerines, three lemons (Eureka, Improved Meyer and Pink Lemonade) three limes (Kaffir, Key and Bearss) plus my two cherries (Royal Lee and Minnie Royal; they have to be planted together to cross-pollinate), two apples (Golden Dorsett and Fuji) and one nectarine (Necta Zee Miniature) with Dr. Earth Fruit and Citrus tree fertilizer.  All these fruit trees are in a postage-stamp sized yard.  If you are wondering how I’ve done this, go to the Dave Wilson Nursery web site and look for backyard orchard culture.

To close, I want to tell you my two favorite gardening books:  The Sunset Western Garden Book(ninth edition) and Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening.
______________________________________________________________

Stevie Hall is President of Gardeners 92130, a 501(c)(3) non-profit garden club affiliated with California Garden Clubs, Inc.  “I am a California native, born in Santa Monica.  My husband, Ned Hall, and I  moved back to California from Connecticut in 1987, living first in Rancho Santa Fe, then Solana Beach and, in 2000, moved to the St. Augustine section of Torrey Hills.  My very first interest in having a garden and my very first garden was when we moved to our home in Torrey Hills.  Along the way I’ve become a certified consulting Rosarian and belong to three rose societies.  My rose obsession began to wane a few years ago as I’ve become more and more interested in growing fruit, vegetables, herbs and now succulents.  I am an obsessive reader and whenever a new gardening idea begins to beckon me, I head to the (Solana Beach) library for whatever books they have on the subject.  I am eager for every growing season.  The thing about a garden is that plants just want to grow and if they get the food and water they need, the possibilities are infinite.  Just thinking about it makes me want to get outside and get my hands in the dirt.”