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!

Chapter 12 - Tornado Strikes Mario!

Since my last post, the windy weather has continued. As you might have guessed by the title of this chapter, Mario is in trouble! On Sunday I went up to the roof to find that the wind had completely blown off the top half of the pepper plant - all the leaves were gone, and the stalk was broken. Now the pepper plant is covered with half an empty juice bottle to protect it from the wind, although I fear it is too late.

The epazote seems to be doing well still - I think I need to eat it, so I should probably make some beans soon....or maybe Maria can teach me what to do with it. With everything else, it's hard to tell. Hopefully things will improve...

But this weekend I did some thinking about wind protection, and then made another trip to the hardware store. I told the man at the lumber yard about my project, and he suggested I get some 3/4 inch plywood to use to build wind barriers for my plants. I bought an entire sheet, which was about 23 dollars I think, and had it cut into 6 pieces (1 dollar per cut x 3 cuts). Then I carried all the plywood to the car and drove it home. I also bought some nails.

Meanwhile, another friend gave me the idea of using leftover juice or soda bottles to protect small plants. I am trying this for the pepper, and might try this more with future plants too.

In the past two days there were two positive developments. The kale I planted indoors has poked up above the soil, and it seems to be doing well. It looks like almost all of the seeds we planted have germinated, so that's a good sign. Pretty soon I'll have lots of baby dino kale plants! The other positive development was a bit of rain yesterday. While the weather wasn't that nice, it was great for the garden, and I didn't even have to water.

Today I finally used the plywood and nails, but I will save that for the next chapter!

Chapter 11 - A Windy Beginning

It has now been 4 days since I planted the garden, and some of the plants are doing better than others. I know many of you are eager to hear what's been happening, so here it goes:

Overall, the biggest concern so far has been the wind. Other than the wind, my roof has great growing conditions, but the wind may pose some problems. Colleen and Maria (the tomatoes) seem to be doing fine. We put them in a protected part of the roof that is blocked by the staircase, and that seems to be helping. They are also pretty sturdy at this point, and it would take a lot of wind to knock them over at this point.

Colleen the epazote seems to be thriving - I think it's actually grown in the past 4 days, and I tasted one of the leaves today and it was good (I guess). I still don't really know what to do with it. Selby (the oregano) is doing only OK. I think it's a bit too buried in the soil still, so some growth will help. All of the Marys are doing pretty well, and Cigarette (who hasn't bloomed yet) looks like she will bloom soon!

Mario the pepper plant is also doing well - standing up to the wind, and hopefully growing stronger. But the lettuce and kale seem to be not as good - the leaves are a bit fragile for the very steady winds, and I'm worried they won't be able to grow as big as I hoped - the lettuce leaves seem like they are starting to wither a bit, and the kale leaves are all stretched out horizontally. So I dunno what's up with that. Meanwhile I've been watering the dino kale 6 packs, so hopefully those will work out!

I started out watering twice a day, but this seems like too much - too much water is leaking out the bottom, and even after not watering for an entire day, the soil beneath the wood chips seems super moist. I think the mulch does a good job of keeping in the moisture. I am a bit worried that I stained my roof w/ dirty water puddles that have now evaporated....not ideal, but there's not much I can do about it at this point, so I might as well just ignore it.

That's about all for now, perhaps there will be more updates this weekend. I might build some wind barriers, and I also might do more planting!

Chapter 10 - The Big Day Continues

We arrived back at my house at 3 PM and we unloaded everything from the car into my apartment's back alleyway. The three of us used our incredible muscle strength to lug everything upstairs, even the bricks that I bought on Saturday. The stairs up to my roof are a bit narrow, so sometimes it's a bit tricky carrying heavy objects since it's easy to lose balance. But we somehow managed. At about this same time, we decided it was definitely time for some beer since it was very hot and sunny out (80 degrees, which is very very hot for San Francisco). I returned the car, and when I got back, Selby was back at the house, as well as my friend Jordan. It was time to get to work!

Colleen figured out how to set up Yph's drill, and we took turns drilling small holes in the bottoms of the drawers. This was pretty easy - Colleen perfected the honeycomb technique. Meanwhile, I started cutting tarps to match the size of the drawers. Before long, it was time to start planting!

Maria was a great garden teacher and taught us all a bit about planting - I was very glad to have her there helping, since she actually knew what she was doing. We started with the tomatoes - at first we put them on the west side of the roof, but then we decided it might be a bit less windy over in the southeast corner, which is partially protected from steady west winds by the staircase and door. We put about 1 inch of mulch at the bottom of the pots, then put in soil and the booster so it was filled most of the way. Maria showed us the proper technique for transplanting tomatoes - the stems had little fuzzy whiskers on them, and she said that each one of these had the potential to turn into a root. So as we "put the plants to bed," we made sure to bury them pretty deep so that the root system could develop properly. For the first tomato plant, I dug a hole, then "massaged" the roots of the plant to loosen the roots before putting it in the hole and patting down the soil all around it. Next, we watered it. Maria advised watering close to the base of the plant and keeping the leaves relatively dry. Next we covered the surface with some more mulch, and the first plant was in! I had a garden!

We continued this process for the other tomato plant and the four dresser drawers. It took a little while to plant everything, but with the help of Maria and Colleen (and also from Selby and Jordan) we got everything done by 5:30 or so. I ended up planting everything that we bought at the garden store, as well as my garlic chive seeds. In addition to what we planted outside, we also planted some dino kale seeds in our leftover 6-packs. Maria suggested that I let these start growing indoors, then transplant them later on. This sounds like a good idea, and we'll see what happens. After the gardening was over, we had a few other friends over for a BBQ. The garden looks really nice, and I hope it can survive the wind (which has already picked up tonight!) and the sun. I guess only time will tell.

So as of now, my garden includes:

The cherry tomato plant, which is named Colleen. Apparently I am supposed to name my plants and talk to them. She is in her own biodegradable pot.

The early girl tomato plant, which is named Maria. She is in her own biodegradable pot.

Drawer 1: the epazote, which is also named "Colleen," not to be confused with "Colleen" the tomato plant. Also oregano (I will name it Selby), two marigolds (named Mary and Mary 2) and the Italian pepper plant (named Mario).

Drawer 2: four lettuce mixes (I don't believe in naming lettuce), garlic chives (ditto) and another marigold (Mary 3)

Drawer 3: four Russian red kale plants - named Oboe, Clarinet, Flute and Piccolo.

Drawer 4: two Russian red kale plants - Bassoon and Saxophone, two lettuce mixes, and two more Marigolds (Mary 4 and 5).

Finally, there is a small pot that had some old cigarette butts in it that I cleaned out and planted the last marigold plant, which hasn't bloomed yet. I will name this one Mary 6, but her nickname will be "Cigarette."

From now on, I might refer to plants by their name (if they have one) - so you should probably bookmark this post for future reference. In fact, I should probably do this too.

The four drawers are all planted on the edge of the roof, but spread out. Maria made me a bit nervous today since she was often very near the edge - perhaps I'll end up moving things inward a little bit so people can access all sides of the drawers without making me feel terrified. But for now it's okay. Maria and Colleen took some great pictures, which I'll put in their own chapter, but here are some of mine!


Maria carrying soil to the roof.


Colleen is armed with a drill and a beer!


David with his first plant!


Colleen and Maria planting tomatoes.


Planting tomatoes

David drilling holes in the drawers.


Watering the plants.


Planting Red Russian kale.


Colleen, Selby, Mary 1, Mary 2 and Mario.


The first four dresser drawers.


Maria, Colleen and Cigarette


Side View of Garden


Fog rolling in.


BBQ!

Chapter 9 - The Big Day Begins

Today, after a nice brunch and a quick visit to the Civic Center Farmer's Market, I came home and got started on the big project. The first step was to go over to Yph's house to borrow his drill - I needed this to drill holes in the dresser drawers to allow for drainage. I went over to Yph's house just before noon, then headed home w/ the drill kit and bits.

Next I went to the parking garage and picked up a lovely Scion from City Car Share and began the adventure. I picked up Maria, then Colleen, and we drove across Bernal Heights to Flowercraft, a nursery/garden store on Bayshore Boulevard (see link in links section). I had been to Flowercraft twice already (see previous blog entries), but today was my first time spending money there....though fortunately (or unfortunately) I think I spent enough today to make up for my other visits.

Colleen and Maria were a big help at the garden store, and I was glad to have friends there to help me out. We started by perusing the selection of vegetables ready to transplant - I looked into several options, and in the end, chose the following:

Early Girl Tomato - 1 plant
Cherry Tomato - 1 plant
Sweet Italian Pepper - 1 plant
Epazote - 1 plant
Oregano - 1 cluster
Lettuce mix - 6 pack
Red Russian kale - 6 pack
Marigolds - 6 pack

I didn't know what epazote was until today (although Colleen claims that I did know), but it's a Mexican herb that apparently helps with digestion and adds a nice flavor to foods like black beans. We shall see I guess. I mainly bought marigolds for decoration sake, since I don't think there will be too many bugs on my roof (it's too windy). This was a good idea, cause it's nice to have a bit of color in the garden already.

After choosing vegetables, we went inside and bought two biodegradable planting pots - they are pretty large, and I got them for the tomatoes. They were only 5 dollars each, a pretty good deal considering the size of the pot. As Colleen pointed out, they look pretty cool too - nicer than a normal ceramic or plastic pot.

The next task was to speak to someone at Flowercraft to get some advice on soil and fertilizer. We located one of the head staff members at Flowercraft and told her about my roof project - she seemed to really like the dresser drawer idea for planting vegetables, and was excited to help us out. She suggested that I buy planting mix (soil) and add a product called "Soil Booster" to add nutrients. I can't remember all of the things that are in "Soil Booster" but I think it includes some less-than-appetizing things like blood and chicken shit (her words, not mine). She said to use about 1 part of this with every 5 parts of the regular soil. She also suggested buying some bark mulch to put at the bottom and tops of my beds - this will help keep in moisture. This is going to be pretty important for my garden, since it may not rain at my house until November, and the roof is very exposed to sunlight.

Before leaving, I also bought a small shovel and a watering can, which I continue to call a watering barrel because it's hard for me to remember the word "can". This has already caused some confusion when I was on the phone with my Dad and when I was trying to describe it to Maria and Colleen earlier today.

Eventually I paid and we loaded everything into the Scion, which happily was parked right outside the gate. Before going home, we stopped by Avedano's butcher shop in Bernal Heights, where I bought some Italian sausages for grilling, some pork butt for tomorrow's dinner, and some carnitas tacos (Sunday is special taco day). I know this blog is supposed to be only about my garden, but since this happened on a garden-related outing, I thought it was important to mention. After Avedano's, it was time to head home and start planting!


Maria checking out the herbs and vegetables.


Our wagon.


View of Flowercraft (I don't know the person in the picture)


Colleen in the car with the garden supplies!

Chapter 8 - Bricks

Today (Sunday) was a super busy day - the garden has been built (or at least the first sections!). But more on that in the next chapter. This chapter is dedicated to Saturday.

On Friday my seeds arrived! They came in a small manila envelope - garlic chives and dinosaur kale. Sweeeet. I put them aside to save for planting on the weekend.

On Saturday morning I got a car for an hour and drove to Discount Builders Supply (a local hardware/lumber store) to buy some things I knew I'd need for the garden. The main thing I needed to get here was bricks, which turned out to be pretty cheap, but kinda heavy!

I ended up buying 12 bricks, as well as a small garden rake and two tarps. The bricks were out in the lumberyard, so I had to haul them in a little wagon to the cashier, then out to the car where I loaded them up and drove home. At home I backed into the garage and put the bricks in the little back alleyway behind my house.

That was about all the garden work I did on Saturday - after this, I was off to Golden Gate Park to enjoy the beautiful summer weather. The big task of putting the garden together happened today, and it's going to take at least one whole chapter (or maybe more!) to cover it all.

Chapter 7 - A Visit to the Neighbors

On Wednesday night my friend Melissa came over for dinner - we had a nice meal that we whipped up quickly and then ate. As we finished cleaning up, the sun was just setting. With my camera in hand, we grabbed a bottle of wine and headed across the freeway to the house of my friends Erica and Yph. It was time to pay a visit to their tomato plant!

I was planning to create a movie in iMovie that documented our entire visit, but sadly iMovie is too annoying to use, so I am only including a short video of Yph. The image quality isn't great, but it's the best I could do. I think I'll stick to photos from now on.

So I had talked to Yph and Erica about their tomato plant, so I wanted to go visit and take a look. Their tomato plant is indoors, in a special pot that they got at a garden store in the Castro. It looks very nice and is pretty large, and I realized that I too would need to buy some pretty large pots to plant tomatoes in - my dresser drawers wouldn't cut it.

From Yph and Erica's window, you can see my roof - they really live just a block away, right across the freeway (good old 101). So they'll be able to keep an eye on the progress (lots made today - see the upcoming chapters for detail!)

We had a nice time chatting, and Yph told us about some other gardening adventures he's had recently. Watch the video to find out more!

Chapter 6 - A Famous Friend

I just ordered some seeds for my garden from Seeds of Change - dino kale and garlic chives. They should be shipping tomorrow or the next day from New Mexico, so they'll arrive sometime late this week or next week.

When I went to the Seeds of Change website (see my links section) and clicked on "Garden Seeds," I saw my friend Becca on the magazine cover. She's in the bottom left corner. I haven't spoken to her yet, so I'm not sure why she's there. But it was cool to see someone I know on the website!

Chapter 5 - A Lucky Find on Noe Street

Since my last post, there have been some exciting new developments in my garden project.

Early in the week, I spoke to Dan (the brilliant-civil engineer) and Sean (another brilliant civil engineer). It’s a good thing I know so many civil engineers. I talked to both of them about my plans at this point – instead of making large garden beds, I want to make several smaller beds so that the weight isn’t too concentrated. I am going to raise them above the roof slightly so I can put a tarp under them – I’m thinking of doing this with bricks, but as Sean pointed out, I need to use several bricks, since if I only use one in each corner, the weight will all be concentrated on those bricks. I think the tarps might be a good idea since if there is a lot of soil spilling, or if the beds break, it will be easier to clean up the mess from my roof.

On Thursday, I went again to the garden store on Bayshore Blvd. to check out the different pots and containers available for planting. The ceramic and wooden planters are nice, but kind of pricey, but on this visit I came across some biodegradable pots and planters that are cheap and lightweight. Here is a picture showing the material – they are made out of recycled paper, and they come in several sizes.

I spoke to a woman at the garden store about these containers, and she said that if they are raised off the ground, they should last an entire growing season. So growing lightweight crops like herbs, chives, lettuce, etc. would work in these, and it would be an affordable alternative to the more expensive ceramic and wood. So my plan on Thursday was to plant in these, which I thought would work pretty well.

 

My plans changed on Friday though when I had a lucky find on Noe St. in the Castro. I was walking down the street at 10:00 PM and came across a nice, wooden dresser discarded on the street. One of the drawers was missing, but there were still four left  in the dresser and that was all I really needed. I immediately called Selby and Anne who came in Anne’s car to pick me up! It was very exciting to find these, since this goes back to Maria’s original idea for my garden. They’ll also look a lot nicer up on the roof than the biodegradable pots.

 Here are some pictures:

 

David on Noe Street with the dresser

 

The dresser drawers in Anne's car

 

The dresser without the drawers

 

The drawers on my roof.

In other news, I joined City Car Share this week. Check out the link to see what this is if you don’t know. There are a few cars parked very near my house, including one or two SUV-type vehicles that will be helpful for carrying soil, pots and plants.

As of now, I am hoping to plant the following:

Definitely: dino kale, lettuce, chives, cherry tomatoes, mint, basil.

Maybe: another type of kale, arugula, spinach, marigolds, another type of flower, another type of tomato, chili peppers.

While Courtney was visiting last week, we prepared some crispy kale for our her to try. Apparently some other readers have tried making it too. Any reports? Here's a picture of Selby and Courtney enjoying kale.