Lottie longs for her new wisteria love...

First tomatoes are in!

The chard was harvested yesterday morning, making way for the first
tomato plants. So far we have a Sun Gold (small pear shaped yellow
nuggets of sweet goodness) and a surprise plant called Sweet 100. Once
the kale is plucked from the bed I will plan three more. Next
weekend's project will be building the cages.

Jennie is here holding the last of the chard for the short 09' late winter season



It is 90 degrees in Oaktown today, so many plants are in a state of shock; lettuce in particular.
We are grilling lamb kabobs on the Kooker for supper tonight and will need to have a big salad, in addition to chard, to save the sweet leaves from perishing in this heat. Another scorcher is on tap for tomorrow. Lottie can only stretch out and nap the afternoon away....

Lunchtime view

These are the finally blooming flowering pea vines. Lottie and I are
enjoying them on our lunch break today.

Big Feast!

We had folks over for the 2009 BBQ Season Kick-off on Sunday evening, and while I smoked a brisket and made amazing baked beans from scratch (if I do say so myself) the highlight was serving chard that our guests picked! Jennie cooked them up real good and they were delicious. Add a side of cornbread and damn! Big good feast!

p.s. I had to add the pic of Fil and Lottie, cause it is so loved filled and cute, even though it is not technically about the Oaktown Farm...:)

Peas!

Death on Wisteria Lane

I am here to report that the lovely beast Lottie took out the wisteria on Friday. She willfully and with ignorant intent took the *whole* plant out of the ground! An amazing feat! So fast!

With our heads hung, we went to our favorite nursery, Yabusaki's, and shelled out another $50 for a new plant. We told the daughter our plight, as she made a comment that we had just bought another Cooke's purple wisteria last weekend. She asked if we still had the root structure from what Lottie yanked up. We did (thank you Jennie!) Simply put it in a pot with good soil, water, plenty of sunshine and it should come back up, she said. And so we did.

The lovely mason jar with beautiful flowers is the remnants of Lottie's work. And the bucket with a stick in it, is the future lovely. Perhaps if it has a Resurrection (Happy Easter!) we will give it to someone as a gift.

Wisteria Lane

We now live on it, as I have dug another hole with ye ol' pick axe and planted a Cooks Purple wisteria. Damn hard work, and *no* frosty beer afterwards.

Snow peas have flowers. The two kinds of onions have aphids. I sprayed my hippie-free love anti-bug juice on them in hopes to have a reversal of the misfortune. Please pray for our onions.

day in the life of chard

I wonder if the chard can feel my gaze; that I watch and wait for the moment of consumption. Each sunny day it seems all the plants grow a foot. Truly. I water, but the magic is the sunshine.

I am trying to visualize the wisteria growing on the fence and taking my own slow gardening philosophy to heart. We will be in this house for years; the garden will be years in the making. My basil seeds have sprouted, but seem weak, slow. The cilantro seems to be on a death march, not sure what is wrong with it. I don't cook much with it anyway..:) Also, the long bed that lives in the shadows of the yard does not seem happy. I am hesitant to replace the primroses for fear that Lottie will snack on them again, but it needs color. Some life. We have a fuchsia that Jennie bought, but it is not out of it's nursery pot yet. That may do the trick. I did fill three planting buckets with dirt and place 3 Van Gogh sunflower seeds in each. I can move them around the yard to follow the patterns of the sun. The seeds in the Buddha bed have sprouted. Photo documentation in a few days.