Outdoor A San Fernando Valley vegetable garden.

[R Wayne]

Hoping this is the right place to post this. If not please move it to the appropriate location.
So I have been dabbling with growing a few vegetables here and there. Usually on my porch and usually just one or two plants. This is the first year I have been able to set up a full garden with 1 hoop house, 4 raised beds, 3 in ground beds and quite a few random pots and grow bags. This post will start with the front yard.

In the front yard my wife and I built a raised bed out of some old bricks and birch tree logs that have been on the side of the house for years. Almost all of the raised beds are a mix of equal parts peat moss, aeration (vermiculite/perlite) and compost (worm castings, chicken compost, top soil, compost). There are 2 jackolantern pumpkins and mammoth sunflowers in that bed. Next to that bed is 4 ten gallon grow bags. The first is a Japanese sweet melon, then a small yellow watermelon, then a delicata squash and finally zucchini squash. Will add more pictures in the next post.

 

[R Wayne]

Next up we have the hoop house. I added a 2x8 ft raised bed on the south side and built an in ground bed on the north side. We had a lot of rain this winter. So i was keeping my outdoor girls in the hoop house. A bunch of grass and “other” weeds grew where the “good” weeds were at So I chopped and dropped those weeds, then threw a tarp over them for about a month. Here’s what the hoop house looked like before the chop and drop back in March. Lots of cold weather crops: peas, broccoli, spinach, lettuces, kale, carrots and cilantro.

After leaving the tarp on for a couple weeks with the worms doing their thing. I mixed in a couple handfuls of all purpose 4-4-4 and 2 cu ft of top soil. The soil here is a very compact clay and the top soil helps loosen it up for the roots. I also took a pitch fork and dug and mixed and dug and mixed and tried to “till”about 6 inches down. Then I put the tarp back on for another 2 weeks.

In the raised bed we have a yellow squash, zucchini, strawberries surrounding both ends, bell pepper, cucumber and romaine lettuce.

In the ground are two more cucumbers (one white wonder and one Persian) a couple heirloom tomato plants and and calabacita squash. Then one golden pear cherry tomato in a pot at the end. I’ve run drip line through everything and mulched with straw.

 

[R Wayne]

Thanks for the rep @NORBY

 

[R Wayne]

Next up are the two raised beds in the back along with a couple surrounding pots and grow bags. In front of the first bed are a couple pots, one vivacious tomato, some sweet yellow onions and a sweet basil. There’s also a small pot with a large amount of nasturtiums.

Then in the metal raised bed are some chives, sage, kale, purple cauliflower, and my only outdoor autoflower (Atlas Seeds - Grease Gun).

In the back bed made out of the same bricks as the front bed we have a diagonal row of a purple sweet corn. The seeds in the middle didn’t germ so I stuck one edible sunflower in place of them. There’s also rosemary and chives in the corners and some delicata squash on the side of the corn.

Thanks for following along, I’ll do my best to keep this thread updated as the season goes along. Happy memorial weekend!!!

 

[R Wayne]

Now to the first in ground bed. I decided to try to plant in the ground, which hasnt been done here in a long long time...if ever. With the rain we got this winter it made the ground a bit easier to work with. I used the same process as the other bed, used a pitch fork to loosen as far down in the soil as I could. Tossed in some all purpose 4-4-4 with some top soil and mixed that into the ground soil. Then put a layer of compost mixed with an old bag of potting mix on top. Waited only a couple days and transplanted most of what you see in. I tried some cucumbers in the middle row but they died off rather quickly, so they were replaced with other tomatoes and another pepper. I am using a couple different methods of trellising my tomatoes. One Florida type weave and a couple pieces of twine tied to the frame above. I also planted some different flowers in between each row, the sunflower is the only one thats really thriving,

Cant remember but I think this variety is Big Whopper (slicing)

This is the Chocolate Stripes (heirloom)

Sweet 100s (cherry)

Cant remember and the tag is gone

Marconi Peppers (all the in ground pepper plants aren't very happy)

Basil Mint (in BAS light soil)

Spearmint and Pineapple Mint

Also found a couple cool friends in the garden.
First is the predator wasp which Ive been seeing a lot of lately

Next is my favorite insect of all time. Really glad to him/her in the garden. I bought a couple egg sacs from the garden center a couple months ago and my wife and I are finally starting to see them around.

Hope everyone is getting nice and blunted/jointed this holiday weekend. Weve been smoking on some Invader Zam and Twisted Tree Freebie. Have a good one yall!

 

[R Wayne]

Some garden growth

 

[R Wayne]

Found a couple more friends on some strawberry leaves today. Starting to see these little guys everywhere

 

[DCLXVI]

The mantis! That's so neat. Your garden is way ahead of us.

 

[R Wayne]

The mantis! That's so neat. Your garden is way ahead of us.

I bought some mantises from the local garden center months ago. I thought none of them hatched, but now we’re seeing them all over. It’s awesome. And thank you. I’ve put a ton of work in this winter and spring. Starting to see the fruits of my labor and I love it.

 

[R Wayne]

Small harvest, big cauliflower.