Another Day at the Office

The sun was out all weekend, once the Saturday fog burned off. This is what Bay Area weather should be like all the time!

Emily and I made a couple of trips to the nurseries and got our goodies. Then came all the work! I spent about five hours in the yard on Saturday and four hours on Sunday, but I got a ton accomplished. With Winter hanging on for so long and Spring starting so suddenly, it seems like everyone is frantic to get all caught up as soon as they can. It's especially bad for us, since we're taking off to Hawaii for a week- there are plants that absolutely need to get in the ground and some other tasks, like setting up the sprinklers, must be done before heading out.

Today, I got the tomatoes in the planter box, along with the pepper plants. This year, we're growing Serranos, Habaneros and a new one (to use) called Pimentos. For tomatoes, we're growing two cherries and two medium tomatoes. We're growing two plants the traditional way, except I did a raised bed, to increase the deep root watering. The other two, we'll be trying the Topsy Turvy upside down planters. They have yet to arrive, but they should be here by the end of the week.

I also planted the rest of the herbs and integrated the Soil Moist into the dirt, then covered the ground with cocoa mulch. Now we have a dozen different herbs! Along with our longstanding sage, rosemary and chives, we have thyme, spearmint and oregano (that survived from last season), a couple of varieties of basil, some parsley, cilantro, majoram and green onions.

Today, I also managed to squeeze in ripping out the geraniums and installing four new gerbera daisies, as well as spray and fertilize the roses.

Yesterday, I did a lot of routine maintenance like lawn-mowing and weed killing, as well as mulching the wild backyard portion. The latter part of my day was spent on the veggie planter box, transplanting all the salvagable strawberry plants, so we can give them away. Afterwards, I turned the soil and started getting it prepared for the new crops. I've since read that it's best to prepare the soil a couple of weeks before planting, but sometimes you just gotta say, "What the hay!".

Next week, I'll finish the veggie box by (hopefully) having lettuce to plant, as well as finishing the hanging tomato plants and setting up all the sprinklers.