Chapter 19 - Abundant Epazote

Epazote grows really well in San Francisco, even when you don't water it and don't pick it and basically stop caring about it. The problem is that I don't really know what to do with it.



I didn't even want to plant epazote - I think Colleen and Maria made me - but I guess it's nice to have since it makes me feel like I accomplished something special. It's the tall plant that's in the picture above. It is about 2 feet tall. Maybe more. Over the past few weeks, some of the leaves have started to turn a bit darker - it looks like they are browning in the sun.

Apparently I can put epazote in stews or beans. But I can't really imagine using more than a few leaves a week, and maybe not even that. I have about 200 leaves. So if you know any good things to do with epazote, let me know. And if you want any, come get it!

Chapter 18 - Struggling Tomatoes

Do tomato plants that struggle produce sweeter tomatoes? That is yet to be seen....but I sure hope so!

The tomato plants have had an interesting summer so far - the wind seems to be really tough on them, and I can't really think of anything I can do (other than build a really tall wind barrier, or bring them inside - neither of which is really an option). However, despite the harsh conditions, they seem to be surviving.

Back in early June, the leaves started drying out and turning yellow, so I went to the garden store to ask if there was anything I could buy to help them out. The knowledgeable salesperson at the store told me that she actually didn't think so - she told me that as long as they got enough water, and as long as they flowered, then I was okay.

So hopefully things are going okay. The cherry tomato plant flowered quite a bit, and now the plant is full of small cherry tomatoes. They're still green, but there are quite a few of them - probably about 20 in all. Meanwhile, the other tomato plant (named Maria I think? It's hard to remember) only has one tomato - it had some other flowers, but none of them could make the transition to fruit. So it may only produce one small tomato in the end - but I'm hoping it's really really tasty.

Here's a picture of the tomato plants in early July - notice Cigarette (the marigold) in the corner. Cigarette is doing just fine.



The lone tomato is in the foreground, and the smaller cherry tomatoes are the plant behind it.

Chapter 17 - Kale Harvest

After my first salad, there were several other successful lettuce harvests, and then in early June, one excellent kale harvest. While I was away for the weekend in mid-May, the kale grew a ton, so by early June it was ready to eat. Many of the leaves were purple, and we harvested all of these and some of the smaller green leaves as well. Maria was there for the harvest, which of course resulted in a wonderful batch of crispy kale.

My kale was incredibly sweet - it almost tasted like red cabbage once it was cooked, since many leaves were so red. I seasoned it with salt and olive oil (and I think that's it).

It was a very happy day in the garden, and here are some pictures that document it.









I realize that this took place in early June, and now it's early July....I will do my best to catch up with this blog soon, and then keep it up to date, since there are always changes happening in the garden. Sadly, some of the changes that have happened since my kale harvest are for the worst, but I will still be documenting everything here. Have no fear though....the garden will survive!

Chapter 16 - Salad!

It's been a long time since my last post, but things in the garden have been progressing very nicely! I'm happy to report that nearly everything (with the possible exception of Luigi) is doing very well. Some hot weather two weeks ago helped a lot, and the kale and lettuce are huge. Not to mention the epazote...I have too much epazote and I don't even know what to do with it, so if you want any, let me know!

So anyhow, this past Monday, after coming back from a long weekend in Big Sur, I picked some lettuce from the garden and made my first salad - also threw in some fresh Bing cherries from Monterrey, some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, shaved Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper. It was really really excellent.

There have been some other great developments, and there's more to report on, but I'll save that for another chapter when I have more time. Here are some more recent pictures of the garden, as well as pictures of my salad!


A morning in the garden.


The woodwinds with some lettuce.


Epazote, basil, mint, lettuce, pepper, oregano, marigold, chives.


My first garden salad.


Me eating my first salad.

Chapter 15 -Additions to the Family

First of all, did you know that when you click the pictures in my blog, they pop up super super big? It's a bit intense. You can see the little water droplets on the various vegetables.

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to the Alemany farmer's market with Jess and Maria. After purchasing vegetables, discussing strawberries with the singing strawberry vendor, and eating some chicharron pupusas and sweet tamales, we went to buy some herbs! Maria picked me out a nice looking sweet basil plant, and meanwhile Jess and I chose a big pot of spearmint. We carried them back to my house on the Number 9 bus, and then I left the plants in my living room until today.



Today I got a City Car Share car and bought three of the biodegradable pots that I am using for the tomatoes. For the herbs I got the smaller 8x8 size. While at the checkout at the garden store, I started talking to another woman about the recycled paper pots, and she ended up going to buy one too! She's going to plant carrots.

Anyway, I eventually came home and did a bit of planting. The mint (which cost 4 dollars) was big enough to separate into two different pots, and the basil went in the third pot.




The basil is going to be named Jessica, since she helped me carry it back to my house and there are no plants named after her yet!




The mint that is next to Jessica is called Mojito.




Jessica and Mojito are positioned between two of the drawers.




Here is a close-up shot of Mojito.



Meanwhile, the other mint plant is named Julep. Julep is between the other two drawers, near the woodwind section. Notice in this picture that the woodwind section is starting to get big!


Here's Julep and the woodwinds from another angle.



Meanwhile, inside my house, the dino kale is doing well! Almost all of the seeds germinated and sprouted - the leaves that are visible now don't look like kale yet, but the next round of leaves will! Once those are up and starting to get big, it will be time to transplant! In the meantime, I need to find some more dresser drawers.



At the garden store I also bought some wooden stakes (29 cents each). Maria has one, as does Colleen. (Cigarette is looking great in the corner!)



I broke the other stake in half and put it next to Luigi, so he can climb up the stake once he gets bigger.

That's about all for now! This concludes the fifteenth chapter - things are going well. There's some warm weather coming this week, so hopefully that will be helpful for the garden.

Chapter 14 - Goodbye Mario, Hello Luigi

Selby had a dream last week that we had huge pots of kale in our apartment. "It was the first time I ever dreamed about vegetables!" he said. I think this is a good sign.

This weekend I went to Santa Barbara, so Selby watered the garden for me. Thanks Selby! Things seem better with the new wind barriers. The woodwind section is doing well, and actually starting to look healthy. Lettuce is looking a bit better too, but still not great. The epazote is OK, but I can't really tell how it's doing since I'm not sure what it's supposed to look like. The oregano seems to be dying maybe.

The tomatoes are okay, but I think they are struggling a bit too. Mario, sadly, is dead, and today I pulled him out of the drawer and thew him away - without leaves, I don't think there was much hope.

After returning my rental car today, I quickly stopped by the garden store to buy a new pepper plant. I brought this pepper plant home and named it Luigi. I dug up the epazote and moved it to the opposite end of the drawer where Mario had been, then planted Luigi where the epazote had been. It takes about 70 days to get peppers, so hopefully I'll have some peppers to eat by July!

The kale that I planted indoors is doing well, but the chive seeds I planted haven't come up yet. Hmm. That's about all for now.

Chapter 13 - Hammer Time

Today was the day to build wind barriers for the garden. At about 6:45 PM, Yph and Erica came over from across the freeway so they could help me. Yph brought his saw, which we didn't end up using. We could have used the drill/screwdriver, but we didn't have that, so we did things the old fashioned way with a hammer and nails.

To sum the experience up, I am not good at hammering. Luckily Yph was there to do most of it. I ended up successfully hammering one nail, and Yph did the other 8. The one nail I hammered into the plywood took me about 10 minutes....the wind was blowing, the nail kept slipping or flying off, and I hammered my fingers one or two times. But I was determined to at least do one nail myself, which I did! The nails were really thick and the plywood is pretty tough....I feel confident the wind won't break it though, since I couldn't even get a nail in!

By the time we finished, it was cold and windy and we were all happy to NOT be on the cold roof anymore. As can be seen, the arrangement on the roof is different now, but I think that by pairing the drawers I will help them all stay protected from the wind. It would be nice if someone could paint stuff on the plywood - maybe I'll hire one of my painter friends to do that for me.

Here are some pictures from today's work.



Yph with the hammer.


Erica on the roof.


Yph attaches the plywood wind barrier.


David attempts to hammer.


David behind the wind barrier.


David continues his attempts to hammer.


Erica tries hammering.


The finished wind barrier.


Victory!


Victory Jump! This picture really just sums it up...

Thanks again to Yph and Erica for all the help!