Bdobs, you're in Martinez, right?

thanks,
KMama

How did your garden turn out last year?
You can email me via the link above
Yes, in Martinez, but lived in Walnut Creek for 13 years :)
Brian

I'm also trying to figure out how to plan the crops to save room for broccoli and brussels sprouts which go into the ground out here around September, right when my tomatoes and zukes are still at their peak production. Most of my gardening books say that broccoli seedlings go in the ground in July, but here in the east bay my nurseries say it's more like September, so I'm just confused.

BDobs, I can't seem to get the email thing working, but to let you know... my boxes were an almost complete failure. LOL User error I suspect. LOL

I don't know what it was but I suspect I wasn't planting at the right time (like I tried to sow Arugula in the summer, etc) and my watering wasn't steady. And I didn't really mulch enough. So all that and it didn't really work very well. For fall, I managed to get a couple broccoli to come up, but I kind of abandoned the idea of gardening when the cold weather hit. Then the rain started and some favas that I sowed last fall are now seriously 8' tall (in 6" of soil) and starting to produce pods. And now my husband and I are totally inspired again.

This spring, we jsut built 2 extra deep boxes (18" of soil) and I bought a mixed soil from American Soil over in richmond. I decided not to fuss with mixing Mel's mix again and try something different... and at about $35 for a cubic foot you can't beat the cost. So although I am going to continue doing a lot of SFG principles of spacing and watering and composting, I parted with the soil mix for these new boxes.

When are you going to plant your tomatoes? What grew for you last year? I remember your garden looked amazing. Do you have it on a timer?

I'm going to put mine on soaker hoses this year.

Happy planting, y'all.
-kmama

I'm in Redwood City right in the middle of the Bay Area.
This is my first year vegetable gardening and SFG'ing. You can check out my blog for a list of what I'm growing and how things are doing so far.

Kmama- try this link for a planting calendar for you.

Usually, I've been told to steer clear of the drip irrigation, because water drips through this mels mix like a seive and the water ends up staying only where the little sprayer is. And I've heard that in my area, it's the drip systems that clog and fail over time with our water system.

What I'm envisioning is actually combining solid with soaker (i.e. like using using the solid corner pieces to deal with sharp angles), using a 4 or 8-port manifold (don't know if that's the right name) in the center of each box to make shorter runs and some "loops" (and it'll also allow me to have a run dedicated to the borders near the wood. So I think I've thought through those issues.

I'd like to see your system, but can't find a link anywhere.

Have a nice week.
-k

I planted my Tomatoes and peppers on Saturday. Techically thats a little early for the Bay, but since I'm mostly container, it wont matter.
"They" say to plant summer crops(Tomatoes, peppers, cucs) in late April to Early May.
You should be fine planting any and all now as we wont see any frost till December :)
I wanted to get a jump start as last year my late Tomato varieties got hit hard by blossom drop as they decided to bloom when we had that horrible 110* heat wave.

If your doing beans/Peas, get the seeds in the soil now.

I manually watered last year, but I'm setting up a timer system this year.
We had our first child in October, so time is at a minimum lately :)

For my raised bed, I plan on running 1/2" mainline from the timer and I will secure it to the top of one side of the box.
I found some 1/4" hose at HD that has 1/2gph drippers inside the hose every 6 inches. I will T this line off the 1/2" feed line every six inches running the width of my box. So in theory, there will be a little dripper every 6" the length and width of my box.
You can see in the last picture that I am tapping into my sprinkler main and installing a spiggot to run my timer on.
I found a great timer setup at Costco. Its made by Orbit, and it comes with a 4 way faucet splitter, a 4 way battery powered timer, three timer valves a couple quick connect fittings for $42

In my box I have
Two Toamtoes(by far my favorite)
8 squares of various bush beans, and 4 squares of dwarf snap peas on the end.
I also have 6 self watering containers with 8 Tomatoes and 12 peppers

I have the mini in line 1/4" hose setup as well, I do worry about it just coursing straight down.... but I know I will forget to water.... so it isnt an option not to have it...

where did you find 4 legged tomato cages? for my earthtainers, I could only find 3 leggers, same brand as he recomends, but no 4 legged ones ANYWHERE! I am thinking of doing drip into my earthtainers as well... is that what I see in your pic? I am only doing 1 tomato per, as up here in Davis, they get HUGE, so I am trying to give them room this year....they say april 28th up here, but I am going to put mine in their tainers thursday

I found those cages at Target of all places. They are really nice and plastic coated to boot.
I have them attached to thread rod I bolted to the aeration bench so I actually get about 56" of cage heigth.
I am running Eartyhbox's AWS(automatic watering system) to the boxes. Its a great system where it keeps the water level at a certain level at all times. No timer needed for them.

http://s292.photobucket.com/albums/mm14/snobblet/

I think the 3's will work for me, I am doing mine next to a fence, so I am planning on stabilizing them onto that anyway....

No covering for my babies, maybe because I am close to the water in Marinez we were a degree or two warmer and avoided the hail.
My guys are looking great!!
Soooo excited

Hope you're enjoying the warm weekend.

-km

Good thing I got my tomater's planted yesterday.

Yeah, that harvest supreme is awesome stuff. I used it this time and mixed it almost 50% into my previous mix (I also made several boxes double depth so now they're 20".)

Since I'm new to the area (and west coast), I was wondering if y'all could tell me when I should plant the following. I only have seeds, so let me know if I should wait until fall too.

Carrots
onion sets (for onions, not scallions)
onion seeds
bush green beans
potatoes (haven't been able to find any sets tho)
Broccoli (already have seedlings, but don't know if I'm too late/early for these)
Lettuce vaireties, cool weather

I already have bell & hot peppers and okra going in containers that I plan on moving to my bed once it's complete. I'll have a 2'x8'er.

Lastly, does anyone know where I could find Harvest Supreme in the Tri-Valley area? Where do you like to get your supplies/seeds/sets? I'm still pretty timid about driving too far away from Pleasanton...

Thanks for your feedback!

Don't know anything about onions or potatoes.

It says you're in the Tri Valley area?

I just discovered Sloats in Danville... they may be able to tell you about timing for your area.

Green beans... go for it now... either seedlings or seeds. They're gonna love our heat.

I think most lettuces will be fine right now, and wouldn't mind some afternoon shade. Once the really hot weather is here, I think you'd have a hard time unless you have good shade in your yard. So in my garden I have them in a few places, with the intention of switching them out with a bush bean or carrot in a couple months.

For Harvest Supreme, BDobs I think said he got his at Navlet's but I could never ever find it there under that label. (There are lots of things that have similar ingredients that will LOOK the same as harvest supreme, including one called "Bumper Crop"... but trust me that there's something in the harvest supreme that is really really rich and works so well.)

There's a navlets in Pleasant Hill and Martinez. The other place I know that does stock it is Berkeley Horticulture in Berkeley... might be a trek for you but well worth it. They also have lots of fun organic starts, lots of heirloom varieties and stuff geared towards the bay area climate.

Also Orchard Nursery in Lafayette does NOT stock Harvest Supreme (they have bumper crop and a great Dr. Earth potting soil) but they have a great mix of seedlings and a lot of knowledge about growing in our climate out here.

Sorry to hear your container gardening experience isn't working so well for you.

Good luck with SFGing.
-k

I see Berkley Hort. mentioned on craigslist ALL the time, so I think I'm going to have to check them out. They always have wonderful looking things for sale...

For broccoli, do you start your indoors in summer? When do you start them?

Thanks for the welcomes! Everyone is so kind out here--I love it! I think the sun and perfect weather makes people relaxed and happy. hehehehe--certainly helps me! ;-)

Thanks for any help,
Marcia

That said, it didn't work for me. But I live out in Walnut Creek where stuff just got hotter and drier faster and I couldn't deal with watering twice a day. Also, mine are on a hot concrete patio so that heated it up even more.

Personally, I found the my lettuces and other short things are now doing great in about 8-10". My tomatoes right now are growing in about 20" and I simply cannot believe they can grow well in 6". And for my raised beds, I just got American Soil (richmond) their "Local Hero" (which is a sandy loam). And last time I was at Berkeley Hort, one of the guys there was saying I should get American Soil's "Wondergrow Compost" instead and grow in 100% compost. My mom prefers the compost over at Acapulco. So I think what I'm learning is that gardening is very individualized. So go figure. I always talk to the people at the nurseries... see what they do.

One thing about mel's mix that I do like is the vermiculite component, which seems to both provide drainage and aeration, but also hold onto some of the moisture for the plants to access it as they need it. And things seem to germinate especially well in mels mix.

But then again, I'm no seasoned pro yet. Still, this is only my second growing season so there are better folks here to talk about it all.

Good luck!