Cool ( as a ) cucumber thing.

In yet another effort to use everything that we can get our hands on Meg grabbed some plum branches that were being pruned. The idea is to strip them of their bark, sink them into one of our raised beds, lash them together at the top with the stripped bark and use them for our cucumbers to vine.

Here is how she did it.

You will need:

• branches of a sapling
• a knife
• bucket filled with water
• pruning shears

First trim back all of the leafy branches leaving the strong main branch.

Hold onto those smaller branches though. You will need them.

After scoring the length of the branch peel back the bark

Soak bark for 15 to 20 minutes

Choose your location for the tripod

Using the soaked bark lash the tops together

Using the smaller branches begin your trellis. Lashing 

sets of branches using bark. 

Plant your cukes...

...stand back and admire. 

All in all the the project took around an hour and was fairly simple to do.  Plus, it looks really cool in the garden. 

Mounds of Squash

We have a few squash going now in the lower garden ( squashes ? squishes ? what is the proper plural for squash ? ) anyway, we have some squishes growing now and I thought I would cover some squash basics that I have learned.

Fun fact : Squash are one of the oldest plants to be cultivated in the Americas. The other two are corn and beans.

 Here is a common question..Why does squash need to be planted on a "hill" ? Well, it's because they love water but need excellent drainage. The soil also warms better this way.  The mound or "hill" gives them everything they need to produce great amounts.

Summer squash can mature very quickly providing fruit in 50 days or so and the more you pick the more you will get.

It is also recommended to participate in the sex life of your squash. Don't blush now. Hand pollination to ensure pollination of the female flowers in turn ensuring baby squashes. Even if you have busy bees and butterflies this is a good idea. Simply take a small paintbrush and transfer pollen from the male plant to the stamens of the female.( Both pictured below ).

The Female

The Male

Do you have any squash growing tips? Share in the comments or hit us up on Google Plus or Facebook. 

The Littlest Potato

A recipe for one.

Not long ago Meg & I looked at our Potato Cage  and we saw a little root poking out... and there it was...

The Littlest Potato

We stuck it back in its place, gave it some encouraging words and waited... staring at the dirt gets boring after a while so we went and did some other things. 

Slightly less little potato

This stubborn potato fought again toward the surface so we plucked it, cooked it and ate it. 

Here is our recipe for one potato. It probably isn't a good recipe for a dinner party. 

First be sure to clean the potato thoroughly. It worked very hard at growing and deserves a proper death. Certainly don't yell "Get in my belly !"  at it. It's very rude. 

Boil for 10 minutes ( or until done ) 

Drain and Slice your potato

Add 1/32 of a tablespoon of butter and 22% of a pinch of parsley.

6 grains of salt and a 1/4 grind of pepper. 

Enjoy!

Pics around the Littlest Farm

Forget me not

Strawberry flowers

A buggy visitor

Cineraria "Giovanna's Select"

Poppy

Strawberry

Miner Bees ( or Ode to the solitary bee )

We've discovered a new friend in the garden, a slightly reclusive yet diligent participant in taking care of our flowers. The females dig, the males dance and everyone pollinates - it's the miner bee ! Also known as a digger bee they are very different from honey bees and just as important.
Unlike honey bees they do not form long term colonies and don't have a queen therefore they are not at all aggressive and rarely sting. They also do not produce honey.

I have used other methods to attract solitary bees but none seems to work quite as well as having flowers and dirt.

The female bee digs a burrow to rear her own young. Their holes are approximately 1/4 inch in diameter and the burrow structure is often a vertical tunnel with smaller side tunnels ending at a single cell.

The female stocks each cell with nectar and pollen she has collected (from our beautiful flowers) and then deposits her egg on the food mass. 

nomina ludo

The benefits of the bees cannot be stressed enough. As we have pointed out they are great pollinators but they also aerate the soil and add an entertainment factor when you catch the male dancing outside the females burrow trying to get her to go out for a drink. There is also varieties of wasp that are diggers and ferocious cicada killers. Remember that in 2030 my East Coast friends. 

Coping with loss

So, we are new to gardening in the Bay Area of California and are literally stumbling through this season trying to figure out what to do. We are so used to Oregon weather and throwing everything in the ground at the slightest hint of spring that we were not properly prepared for the tumultuous and unpredictable weather of our location. There was a sharp spike in the temperature with no rain and we lost several plants who went to seed prematurely.

Please join us in a moment of silence for our fallen plants.

Rainbow Chard- we hardly knew yee

Red Stalked Celery you were too beautiful for this world

Also among those lost were our daikon radishes and our snow peas are producing prematurely at a height of only 2 feet.

But instead of filling the void  on our plates with sadness we are promptly moving on to younger and better looking plants. Added to the fold are green and purple tomatillos , early girl tomatoes, piquillo pimento, orange and red bell peppers.

We are firm believers that if you don't fail you don't learn anything and boy are we learning a lot this year. It truly is an adventure in urban farming.

Chard Wars part 2

Happy Star Wars Day ! May the 4th be with you !