Quinoa Harvest

This season I planted quinoa seeds for the first time.  They grew into plants with bunches of red and gold flowers.  Yesterday I cut off the flowers and threshed them to release the quinoa seeds.

I winnowed away the chaff and critters.

The harvest yielded 3/4 of a cup of quinoa!  Very exciting :)

first pepper and other updates

A sweet Italian pepper, the first one I've ever grown:


I ate an avocado, sprouted the seed in a jar with toothpicks and water and then transplanted the seedling into a pot. Seems to be doing well. I find the plant quite stunning:


Fixed up the backyard pots with flowers, two types of mint, oregano, basil, avocado, parsley, lavender, rosemary, epazote, purple sage and thyme. Everything besides the basil seems to be doing well.

This is not from the backyard, but I couldn't resist taking a picture of this flowering artichoke plant growing in a yard in the neighborhood. Artichokes are becoming really popular plants around here, but they take up a lot of space so I haven't planted one yet. Maybe next year.

curing garlic

A couple weeks ago I harvested my first crop of garlic. The rafters underneath the staircase make for a cool, shady, breezy place to cure the garlic. Curing dries the garlic for better storage.

With the garlic harvested, space in the bed opened up to plant a couple of zucchini plants, some dinosaur kale and I added some green beans.

with the rabbit gone, the bed is planted

The rabbit problem has been resolved (the neighbor caught it) and I finally was able to plant my garden bed yesterday. I planted a couple hot pepper plants, some lemon cucumbers, a dozen salad starts and some carrot seeds. I used my homemade compost to surround the roots as I transplanted. It rained today so that was good timing. The garlic is looking good as well.

composted soil!

Last year I began a compost pile in the backyard. I tossed vegetable scraps and fallen leaves into the pile, watered it and turned it every once in a while. New to composting, I was doubtful that I could actually make the process work. But low and behold, I checked the compost bin today and there was some sweet smelling compost all ready to go! I sifted the compost using a makeshift contraption, collecting the sifted compost in a wooden box. It looks so nutritious!



The sun has finally returned to half of the raised bed, right up to the garlic section. So I cultivated the sunshine half, mixing in the crimson clover. I saw lots of worms which is a good sign. I hope to plant some starts soon!

two white bunnies

The neighbors in the house behind the backyard recently got two white bunnies. These bunnies like to come into our backyard and eat from our garden. They particularly enjoy the bolted lettuce.


Not a big deal at the moment, but if they continue to visit the garden and eat my spring and summer vegetables, I will not be a happy gardener. I warned the neighbors that this would be a problem but it seems that the bunnies are incorrigible. They spend a lot of time in the front of our house and in the street. Two random passersby have knocked on my door to let me know that there are bunnies loose in the street. I tell them that they are not my bunnies, that I'm much more concerned about my garden, and that I'm not going to go too out of my way to protect the bunnies from passing cars. Harsh, I know, but I refuse to experience another Pedro episode.

shady garlic

During the winter, the sunlight in the backyard changes radically. The raised bed, which typically gets a lot of sunlight in the summer, goes into complete shade. The north bed gets more sun in the winter than it does in the summer. It's taken me a while to get used to the changing sun/shade patterns.

I've debated about what to do with the raised bed when it gets full shade in the winter. I decided to try planting a crimson clover cover crop to fix nitrogen over winter. The clover has sprouted and looks like it's doing okay without sunlight:


On November 26, I also planted 15 cloves of garlic. Checked on them outside just now and they have all sprouted. Need to keep the garlic weed free, because as my friend says, "you can grow garlic or you can grow weeds but you can't grow both." Given the relatively narrow rooting of the garlic, it doesn't compete well with other plants. Garlic is planted in the fall/winter and won't be ready to harvest until July. Big commitment but I think it will be worth it. I planted a variety that we received in our CSA, from Riverdog Farm in Guinda, California.