First frost

Yesterday morning was the first (light) frost of the year. I was not even aware it was going to get that cold! I guess I was just not paying attention, i.e. watching the news. The temps officially got down to 33 degrees F, which to me means in some areas it did freeze.

Happily, it didn't do too much damage to my more tender plants at home. Just a  twinge of grey and wilt on a few spaghetti squash leaves. The tomatoes stayed relatively unscathed.

However, my tomatoes at the community garden raised bed (ORB) were affected. When I visited I noted a good amount of dieback in the outermost, newest leaves.

So, last night I was paying attention, and I laid protective sheets over all my tomatoes last night -- both at home and in the ORB. I'm going to do what it takes to shield my tomatoes through the winter this year.

Anybody know the right thing to do with dead/frozen tomato leaves? Remove or let remain?

Time for a visit

I did not want to plant any tomatoes in the Original Raised Bed (ORB) this year because I wanted to be able to give them close attention for frost, bugs and disease.

But then I was given some extra tomatoes as a housewarming gift the day after I'd just bought a bunch of seedlings. Therefore, I did end up planting two tomatoes far, far away (a 5-minute drive) where I will not be able to care for them as well as I may like.

Not that they've needed any help so far. They are doing just fine on their own.

This was the ORB when planted mid-September. I guess I did have a little bit of trouble with bugs eating the pepper and the 'Dark Opal' basil. I sprayed both plants with a 1-to-10 solution of dish soap and water. No more bug bites.

This is the ORB a month later. I'd actually trimmed the 'Mortgage Lifter' tomato (on right) a few times. I've surrounded the tomatoes with protective shields of sweet alyssum, chamomile, thyme, basil and oregano.

Unfortunately, the seeds I planted did not do as well as I would have liked. It may have been a little too hot still mid-September. I planted from seed some turnips, 4 to 5 lettuces, carrots, arugula, leeks and all kinds of onions.

One last look ...

In support of community gardens

Didn't seem like much. Just two acquaintances who decided to form an alliance and grow vegetables in the same raised bed.

But since January of this year, when a fellow plant-lover and I started a community garden in our homeowner's association, I have had a great time and I've learned so much from him.

His one tomato plant has been a star, pumping out huge fruit for months, while 3 feet away my three plants have *ahem* produced some fruit. What's his secret? He pruned back a good portion of the foliage and didn't let the plants go all leafy. My plants are too vegetative; his plant's energy went to the fruit.

He turned me on to delicious banana peppers, which I plan to grow every year.

I was simply blown over (with admiration) by his guff ... he planted 5 or 6 raised beds at the other end of our community ... without permission from the HOA. His response: "It looked so ugly over there. This looks better." No argument from me. And the HOA retroactively approved it!

Always happy, always had a great outlook on life. Definitely an attitude to emulate.

Community gardens are the best way to meet people who share a love for horticulture -- even if it's just one cool dude. I'll be sorry to leave the raised bed we started here when my family moves, but I hope it will be a way for others in the HOA to have the same social-gardening experience that I did.

Will he notice?

I pilfered a banana pepper from my raised bed gardening cohort. Hid it in my kitchen. Think he'll see it if I keep it camouflaged right here?

Just kidding. He said I could have as many as I want.

Recharged and ready

Returned from northern lands this week to *surprise* find these poking out under leaves in my original raised bed (ORB):

Beautiful long yellow, purple and green beans ready to eat for dinner.

I've got some new ideas and plans for the coming months. Thanks for bearing with me while I went through a little funk!

Ongoing fresh food

By the way, as the CRB (condo raised bed) is being built, my ORB (original raised bed) is going off! Had broccoli (in front corner), peas (tall growing) and lettuce (all over) with homemade pizza tonight. Yes, indeed.
Just for fun, this is a picture of the same garden three months ago.

It's happening!

The raised bed is being built today for our HOA's first community garden. Win!

As soon as this week?

It made it easier for my community-gardener partner and I to split up the cost/time/materials of the raised bed by contracting out the work.
The HOA's gardener will get the materials, truck them over and construct the garden bed -- including bubbler irrigation -- sometime this week, maybe even tomorrow.
Sure, I'd have liked to do it myself, but the reality is I don't have the tools, truck or talent.
And now the HOA has more confidence in the project because the board knows it won't look shoddy.

Community garden ... in my "backyard"

I've been loving my raised bed in the community garden over in Palm Desert. Plenty of posts here are testament to that.

But the stars have aligned, all my ducks are in a row, the ink has dried, the dishes are done ... and there will soon be a 5-by-10-foot raised bed about 20 feet from my back patio door. Just in time for end-of-January planting.

Long ago (last August), at a homeowners association board meeting I asked if the HOA could spare a small space for residents to grow things. The board told me to gather some other interested folks and come back later. I posted a few notices and sat by my computer waiting for the excited emails to come pouring in.

And ... I heard from one guy who wanted to build the garden with me. Better than zero! But then right about that time I got into the Palm Desert garden, so starting a my own community garden from scratch quickly lost its appeal.

Fast-forward to this month when I happened to attend another board meeting, just to see if they were still considering letting me do build the garden.

Surprise! Before I could really say anything, the board voted to let me try a test garden right by my home. Here is what it looks like now:

Frost. The cold, not the poet

While I was away for four days during the Thanksgiving break, my community-garden bed was visited by nights of bitter cold. For the Coachella Valley, that means low 40s, high 30s -- maybe even juuuust dipping down below freezing.

I experienced this cold firsthand in a nearby desert campground, sleeping in a tent. It was pretty brutal, but at least I had a sleeping bag, longjohns and two pairs of socks on. Without protection, my garden's tender tomatoes and young eggplant suffered even a bit more than I did.

I returned yesterday to a garden bookended by wilted, brown-leafed tomatoes and eggplants. Owen decided he would help by pulling off the only good unripe tomatoes I did have ("I'm going to bury these for you, mom." Thanks.). So far I haven't decided if I am going to trim back or pull out my warmth-loving plants.
This was an earlyish cold snap. I recently learned that the frost time for this region is Dec. 2 through early January. So it's likely that my less cold-hardy plants will be stricken yet again.

See, the good news is that my greens are going super-bonkers. I've been eating fresh salad now the past few weeks, and loving it. I may just pull out those tender veggies and put in some strapping ones. These greens (below) are mine.

Gilding the lily and troubleshooting

Still perplexed that no spinach has sprouted. And something ate the pepper plant baby seedling!

My good bud (and excellent gardener) Lorraine lent me two tomato cages. We visited the raised bed today and she helped me to install them, one over the pea sprouts and one over a newly transplanted pepper plant seedling. (I had started a number of plants from seed -- peppers, lettuces, even artichoke -- two months ago at home when I first learned I would get in the community garden.)

If I am going to be a good gardener, I've got to grow some patience.

Planted!

Got all my vegetables and seeds into the ground yesterday at my community garden plot! I forgot to take a picture, unfortunately, but I'll take a shot today when I head by there to make sure everything is going OK.

Can't remember the last time a hobby made me so excited and happy.

I'm using the Square Foot Garden method, which my mom told me about. Pretty easy! I checked out the book from the library. The gist is to set out square-foot grids across your gardening area, with one crop grown tightly in each section.

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

I bought very inexpensive redwood slats that a Lowes guy split for me. The slats ended up measuring about 1/4 inch by 1 inch, with two of them 8 feet long and six of them 4 feet long. I braided them in the raised bed to make the grid. The 4-foot-long ones were a bit long, so I snapped off 4-inch pieces that I'll use later as stakes.

Looking around the rest of the community garden, it will be interesting to see how everyone's plots turn out. Seems I am the only one using this style, so if my experiment doesn't work out, I'll keep track of whose garden does work!

I'm in

Wow, so excited! I just found out that I got a plot in the Palm Desert Community Garden for this season. I initially applied for a spot almost 2 years ago, so this is huge. Non-city residents get low priority, of course.

Unitl now, I thought I was going to miss out on this season too, so I'd been working toward getting a CG started inside my homeowners association. Now that project is on the back burner. Might be better to see if I can even grow anything before trying to start a whole new endeavor.