More beans

Just harvested some beans to eat with some friends. 4 varieties of pole beans. 

Kentucky Blue

Chinese Mosaic

Chinese Red Noodle

Red Seeded Asparagus 

This is my first season growing pole beans. I grew bush beans previously to save space. I have read that pole bean plants produce over a longer period so I dedicated some trellis space to give them a try. I wanted to try multiple varieties to see which ones could handle the Fresno heat and still taste good. We'll see, another heat spell going on right now...

Serviceberry plant

This is my serviceberry plant purchased at Gazebo Gardens in Fresno. They only had 4 serviceberry plants, 2 named Smokey and two unnamed seedlings. I could only get 1 at the time. They are supposedly like blueberries so I think having 2 different varieties would improve yields. Blooms are nice.

Cheap Trees and Shrubs

A friend told me that Grocery Outlet had some cheap berries. I thought to myself, they probably have one variety of a few different types, so I never looked... Then I found myself there trying to exchange a propane tank and saw that they had some pretty good stuff. The plants are young but they seem healthy. I found a pomegranate that I have been wanting called "Parfianca" and it is supposedly the best tasting of them all. I was very surprised to see it. They had lots of things I wanted to try but I only bought this. I wanted to check out if it was a legit nursery. We will see, but not for a couple years.

Pinkerton Avocado

This is my first of at least 3 avocado trees that I would like to have. Tom Spellman of Dave Wilson Nursery told me that I could have avocados ripening year round in Fresno with a combination of three varieties planted near each other for pollination. These varieties are Pinkerton, Haas, and Reed. The tag on this Pinkerton says that it needs protection below 28 degrees, so I bought it at Orchard. OSH has a Lifetime Plant Guarantee so if it dies, they'll replace it. I immediately copied my receipt and filed it away. I was told that once it is mature it can survive the cold here and just get frost burned. I purchased it in the fall and thought that there wasn't enough time to plant it before the freezing temperatures came. It is blooming right now and I don't know if it is normal for this variety to bloom in January or if it confused because it is indoors.

Our first artichoke!

I have abused this plant for 2 years. I thought it was dead twice.

Juice crazy

Batch #4 for today,
4 stalks of celery
1 large cucumber
3 leaves chard
1 apple

Batch #1-3
2 medium tomatoes
1 large peeled carrot
2 celery stalks
1 lime peeled
1 fully ripe jalapeño(red and getting soft)
Dash of salt
Dash of pepper

Too much squash? Try this!

There comes a time when the summer squash plants produce more than you can handle. From what I have read, and have experienced, summer squash is the most given away homegrown veggie. While trying to figure out what to do with the abundance, I came across a blogger who said it can be substituted for cucumber in almost all recipes. My first thought was "That's dumb, I just ate it raw last week and thought my mouth was gonna turn inside out!". Well, maybe I will try anything but raw. Cucumber substitute...hmmm...Pickles! So I looked up a refrigerator pickle recipe and made squash pickles. I went ahead and pickled some peppers with the same simple recipe. They are delicious after just 2 hours in the fridge. What a great way to use up all of that extra squash.
The reviews I read influenced me to cut the sugar by 75%. Here is the way I made it.
In a sauce pot, add:
1 cup distilled white vinegar 5% acidity
1 tablespoon of table salt
1/2 cup of sugar(altered from 2 cups)

Boil approx. 10 min. Until salt & sugar have dissolved.

Cut the veggies and put in a sealable container:
6 cups of squash
1 cup of onion
1 cup pepper(Hungarian Wax for me)

Pour liquid over veggies(I had to make more brine to cover veggies), put lid on and refrigerate. Eat within 2 weeks. Taste after 2 hrs.
I use my passed prime giant 18" Forty Niner zucchini which turned out great. I crammed as much as I could in the jar so that it would use less brine to cover it. I think I will cut the sugar to 1/4 cup on the next batch I make.

Pepper tasting

Just grabbed whatever was ripe and gonna give 'em a try with some veggie dip. Already had a bunch of tomatoes earlier. I am enjoying the different characteristics of the many varieties I'm growing. My favorite remains the Sungold cherry tomato.

June garden pics

Some pictures of my 3 garden beds. Each one is 4'x8'. Middle one is 8" high and others are 6".

Chinese Five Color Pepper

It is a heirloom pepper that I grew from seed. Two of them survived the move. The peppers are supposed to change to five different colors as they ripen. The package didn't say that it had purple flowers. So far, it's the only pepper I've grown that doesn't have white blooms.

We've moved!

We have moved into a home built in 1913 that now sits on a decent sized lot. While working on the house and moving, I lost about half of my seed starts. There just wasn't enough time in the day to do it all. The good news is that I can try again next year. I have big plans on expanding the new garden which is already larger than last years. This is a picture of my new layout and land. Three raised beds that were double dug. Each bed is 4 x 8 feet.

Japanese Long Cucumber

I read today that these should be harvested at 1" thick, and not by length . I will update this post after I eat it tonight or tomorrow.

Back at it, my first cucumber this year

White Wonder cucumber from my garden. I wasn't sure when to pick it, I just went for it because it seems that it is better to error on the side of underripe. I have let some cukes get too ripe on the vine and they get bitter. I did some research and people say that once the plant produces bitter cucumbers you should just pull/cut the entire plant out because that will be all you get from then on. This was true with my plant. I tried to wait it out but it produced loads of inedible cukes. Well this one was a little further along than I like and I did spoon out the seeds but the flavor was great. I was waiting for it to turn white, but it was still light green when I picked it. Skin is too tuff for me so I peeled it.

Get it started!

Check out this video made by someone who spends lots of hours trying to help gardeners like us grow.

This should help you get growing without spending too much.  I'm not sure if the Home Depots near me have them.  Please comment on this blog post if you have seen these products or something similar in the Fresno area.

Goji berry sprouts!

I purchased these seeds online from bontifulgardens.org for $2. A three year old plant costs $25 so I will be saving lots of cash if I can keep even just one alive. They ship you the dried berries, and I received 10. The first berry I opened had 13 seeds in it and the second had 51. So two of the ten berries gave me 64 seeds. The six pack pictured has 24 seeds in it. They are perennial shrubs that I intend to use as a hedge in a couple years in my attempt at an edible landscape. They are also a superfood!

What can I plant right now in the Central Valley?

     I have found lots of sources of info on what to plant in our climate zone.  Most of them had similar planting dates, but for different veggies the start dates could vary up to 2 months.  I had already spent hours trying to merge these sources to create my own simple version.  At a community garden conference, there was a class about what to plant and when taught by a Master Gardener.  She move to the Central Valley to grow year round and has been doing just that for years.  She gave out handouts titled Vegetable Gardening at a Glance and here is a link to its source.  She was very clear in stating that these dates are "direct sow, when you put the seed in the ground."  Her class was very helpful and she taught with a confidence that I have been looking for when asking gardening questions.  She also shared some varieties(listed below) that she grows every year and has always had success with.

• Spinach - Bloomsdale Long Standing
• Tomato - Supersonic
• Eggplant(aka Aubergine) - Japanese
• Lettuce - Red Sails
• Pepper - Sweet Italian Frying

     I also came across this more simple classroom education version called Crop Circles.  I really like this layout and could have benefited from this when I first got into growing.  Hopefully someone will remake the more complex Veggie at a Glance table in this circular layout and sell posters for a couple dollars.
So... this is what you can plant in Fresno, CA in February according to California Master Gardeners.
Asparagus
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Chard
Chives
Leeks
Lettuce
Onion(bulbing)
Parsley
Peas
White Potatoes
Radish
Rhubarb
Turnips

Where can I get these?  There are thousands of sources of seed online, but my favorites so far are: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Bountiful Gardens, Park Seed. Orchard, Home Depot, Lowes, Fresno Ag, Riverside Nursery, Belmont Nursery, Whole Foods, and many others sell seed year round.  Home Depot, and Fresno Ag have plants already.
There are other things like fruiting trees and berries not on this list, and I haven't done much research on these because I don't have space to plant them.  Have fun!

Sugar snap peas!!

Fresh sugar snap peas for tonight's stir-fry.... CAN'T WAIT!!

Christmas Eve

Well, I think I've held on to my pepper plants long enough. Just pulled all of the underripe peppers off to dehydrate. Wanted to check if the habeneros were hot so I tried a green one and yep. If they survive tonight, and if I have time, I'll overwinter the plants in pots in the greenhouse.

More December peppers.

These are from some plants that just died from last nights freeze

Greenhouse Pictures

Inside the new greenhouse at night. Starting lots of lettuce and peas to give away.