I've decided to start my vegetable garden a month later this year. Instead of planting in January, as I have in years past, I'm starting at the beginning of March. You can see the crop selection up above.
Last year's garden was the most unproductive I've ever had. The main culprit was the extreme and prolonged drought California experienced. While the lack of water was one thing (a 50% surcharge was added to the water you used over your allotment), the critters were another.
We live right up against the mountains. The very, very dry mountains. With no food and little water, the animals were pushed down into the residential neighborhoods below. This meant deer would eat my roses. Rabbits and squirrels joined the mocking birds and jays, taking turns eating the fruits of our labors, or most often just chewing up the tender new growths of the plants.
They killed our zucchini, decimated our chile plants, and took all our tomatoes.
Only the tomato plant I had in a hanging basket and our grapes gave me any meaningful crops, and not much at that.
Let's hope I can come up with some strategies of pest repellance if the dry weather makes a comeback.
In the meantime, I'm starting my seeds. It's a rainy weekend, so this is a great project to do indoors, in the garage.
I got this little 7 pot seed starter kit at Lowe's. The pots are biodegradeble, so I can just stick 'em in the ground when I'm ready.
My wife has this bag of potting mix for her euphorbias and I'm going to use a little for my seeds.
Filling up each pot with the mix, I tamp down on the soil with my fingers, pushing it down to good seed depth.
I put a few seeds in each pot, cover with mix, tamp down and water in.
Finally, I'm leaving them indoors until they're strong enough to transplant and repel the invaders. They're sitting in a sunny, southern window until then.
Darryl
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