More water around the house

The trees in the vases around the house seem a bit dry. It was only being watered 6min once a week so we increased it to 15min three times a week.

Vegetables need more water

Apparently our vegetables suffered a bit with lack of water while we were traveling. We increased the irrigation of all vegetable beds to 20min per day, every day.

Compost and Planting

We had a busy morning:

1. We emptied the compost and fertilized one half of a backyard vegetable bed in preparation for some planting (more on that below).
2. The "juice" from the compost went to the blueberries that are looking quite sad.
3. The blueberries also got some E.B. Stone organics Cottonseed Meal fertilizer,  at about 3/4 of a cup per plant. After that we added a layer of pit moth.
4. In the back of the 2nd backyard vegetable bed, we planted the following:
• 1 1/2 rows of green bush beans (front)
• 1 1/2 rows of purple bush beans (back)
5. In the corner of the front yard vegetable bed that is further from the house, we planted the following:
• 1 row of mixed green and red Shiso (closer to the garage)
• 1 row of basil Greek Yevani 
• 1 row of cilantro/coriander (further from garage)
6. After the planting, we mulched (happy frog) and watered.

Irrigation seems better

On 6/9 Giovanni found that the grasses are wet, but suggested no changes to the irrigation, other than canceling further irrigation for the week-end.

Irrigation: too dry

On 5/26/2012, Giovani found several plants very dry, including

• Frontyard plant
• Sidewalk sedums
• Citrus pots

So we made the following changes to our irrigation schedule

• Frontyard: Tue and Sat, 30min 
• Sidewalk: every other day, 30min 
• Stone fruits: Sun and Wed, 30min

Cytrus tree fertilization and compost

On 3/11/2012, we applied Dr. Earth Organic 9™ Fruit Tree 7-4-2 Fertilizer. We followed the instructiond and applied roughly one cup per inch of tree trunk diameter. We also took this opportunity to put compost on the soil under the trees. This was done to the following trees:

• Orange and tangerine tree in left-hand side of our backyard and tangerine tree by the house: I removed the mulch, spread the compost under the canopy, sprinkled the fertilizer on the soil, and watered the trees generously.
• Four citrus trees growing in pots in the backyard: I mixed one cup of fertilizer (per tree) with the top soil, poured some compost "juice," and watered until the soil was soaked

Winter vegetables planting

Today we planted the side-yard with a new set of vegetables. We started by dumping a barrel of compost and mixing it with the soil with the rotor tiller. We then planted the following (from North to South "approximately"):

1. one row of artichokes,
2. two rows of bokchoy (two different varieties),
3. two rows of spinach (two different varieties),
4. one row of green onions.

Then, after the tree,

1. one row of green onions,
2. three rows of peas (these will need some structure to support the plants),
3. three rows of spinach,
4. one row of yellow onions.

 For most of the plantings,

1. we made a grove with a small shovel,
2. dropped the seeds (a little closer than what was recommended in the instructions),
3. hand-covered with a thin layer of potting soil,
4. hand-covered with a thin layer of soil till the surface was all level,
5. watered with rain water.

Now we just need to wait and see.