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Hook
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9010
Registered: 3-13-2004
Location: Sonora
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Mood: Inquisitive
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Baja and Mainland vege gardeners; where you at??
Geographically and calendar-wise with your vegetable garden.....
This morning we had 45 degrees at sunrise, over in the Ranchitos of San Carlos, Sonora. Good, in-ground germination of seeds may be coming to an end,
if this keeps up.
We are about a mile from the coast. We live on a very wide flood plain with decent soil that has good drainage. Of course, we have amended the soil;
mostly well-rotted manure, our own compost, gypsum, arroyo sand and alfalfa, and we have removed stones.
My thing is to grow stuff you cant get in the stores down here. Why grow japapenos or romaine lettuce?
This year I got nearly a two month jump on last year. My germination rates were very low last year by starting in early December, due to other
projects around the house.
I started seeds in trays and small pots with tomatoes, chard, spinach and beets in the third week of October. In-ground planting is still a bit of a
risk at that time as the sun is still so intense. Rather than rig up some shade over the garden (to be removed later) to protect seedlings, I'd rather
move the trays from sun to shade, depending on the solar index of the day. And the soil can actually be too warm for good germination rates,
especially for lettuces. I also REALLY enjoy the whole transplanting process.
Since late October, I've begun some in-ground seedings that have done very well. This has been spinaches, lettuces, bush beans, japanese snow peas,
regular peas, mustard greens and eggplant.
We use a drip irrigation system with an Orbit 9v hose bib timer and 1/4" drip tubing. Many thanks to David K for his drip irrigation post about the
benefits of the emitter hose over the laser punched hose. The pressure is much more even over the whole grid and the holes are such that I doubt
plugging will be much of an issue.
On the "menu" for this year:
Seven heirloom tomatoes (pink brandywine, huge lemon oxheart, San Marzano, tomato carbon, big rainbow, reisentraube and costoluto genovese)
Two spinaches (Bloomingdale long-standing and Melody hybrid)
southern mustard greens
arugula
Boston Big Leaf
Bibb lettuce
Ruby red leaf
a mesclun mix
black seeded simpson lettuce
iceberg lettuce (never tried growing it!)
swiss chard
bush beans
broccoli
brussel sprouts
snow white carrots
cosmic purple carrots
icicle radishes
Detroit dark red beets
sugar sprint snow peas
tendergreen improved bush beans
listada de gandia eggplant
quadrolo d'asti rosso red bell pepper
costato romanesco squash
dipper gourd squash
And then in the kitchen garden:
majorum
thyme
genovese basil
tarragon
garlic chives
dill
Oregano grows wild here, so no need for that. Cilantro in the stores, of course.
As the season progresses, I'll begin to post some pics to show progress. Hope to get a good discussion going with others on their successes and
failures.
Here is my main garden. 20x30 with a framework of 2 inch square tubing and some 1 inch and half inch (solid) for strength. We have a thin plastic
netting over the entire thing to keep out birds, rodents and the dogs. Base is just cinder block stacked up, although I did create about a six inch
deep trench for the bottom layer of blocks to sit in.
I grow creepers like squashes outside of this as they take up too much room.
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vgabndo
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3461
Registered: 12-8-2003
Location: Mt. Shasta, CA
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Mood: Checking-off my bucket list.
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Oh Hook, you're breaking my heart. I'm just putting mine to bed for the snow covered months to come!!!
It was a great year though.
This last harvest became a dozen packages of fresh frozen salsa. (minus the carrots which grew large but lacked flavor)
Got the tomatillos the next day and did green salsa.
Just finished dehydrating tomatos!
Undoubtedly, there are people who cannot afford to give the anchor of sanity even the slightest tug. Sam Harris
"The situation is far too dire for pessimism."
Bill Kauth
Carl Sagan said, "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
PEACE, LOVE AND FISH TACOS
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krafty
Super Nomad
Posts: 1052
Registered: 8-23-2010
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We had a ridiculous amount of varying sizes of tomatoes this year in Rosarito. That, basil, and butternut sqauash. Do you have a fool proof way of
dehydrating them? We love sundried tomatoes and they are sooo expensive. Thanks!
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vgabndo
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3461
Registered: 12-8-2003
Location: Mt. Shasta, CA
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Mood: Checking-off my bucket list.
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We had a lot of "Roma" type tomatos. They sliced into 1.25" rings and dried uniformly in a little 6 tray electric dehydro unit. Most years we
dehydrate cherry tomatos which have been cut into halves. They keep best in olive oil, and are almost too sweet for many purposes. Yum Mrs. Vgabndo,
did this fine work.
30-40 pounds of tomatos (harvested after canning was done) and stored in two quart jars!
[Edited on 11-9-2011 by vgabndo]
Undoubtedly, there are people who cannot afford to give the anchor of sanity even the slightest tug. Sam Harris
"The situation is far too dire for pessimism."
Bill Kauth
Carl Sagan said, "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
PEACE, LOVE AND FISH TACOS
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mulegemichael
Super Nomad
Posts: 2310
Registered: 12-24-2007
Location: sequim,wa. and mulege
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Mood: up on step
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we always plant a big ol garden here in mulege but have for the most part given up on tomatoes as they ripen just as we are about to leave in the
spring....but the chard, lettuce, spinach, cukes, peas etc are to die for...we provided our little community this past winter with lots of goodies
from our "community" garden, even tho we were the only ones tending it....one of our neat surprises was making pesto out of our abundant arugula,
which grows like a weed down here...basil has nothing on arugula when it comes to pesto!!
dyslexia is never having to say you\'re yrros.
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Hook
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9010
Registered: 3-13-2004
Location: Sonora
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Mood: Inquisitive
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Interesting on the arugula pesto. Will have to try that. I do know that I prefer the genovese basil for pesto over most all the others I've tried,
especially the very harsh basil they sell in Mexico. I believe it is a lemon basil but it's rather overpowering, IMO. Prefer a subtle basil flavor in
pesto; stronger basil for bruchetta or pasta alla checca. I use romano, rather than parmesan cheese, though.
When are you arriving and leaving Mulege that it prevents you from growing toms?
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woody with a view
PITA Nomad
Posts: 15939
Registered: 11-8-2004
Location: Looking at the Coronado Islands
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Mood: Everchangin'
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if any of you gardiniers! wanna try a new twist on basil/mint i have a million seeds from our second generation "Huacatay" plants. the third
generation is blooming now. we use it as pesto, mixed with 50/50 mayo and yogurt for a dip/spread for fish and vegies etc.... google it. U2U an
address and i'll send you a bunch of seeds.
ours grew 8' tall. we didn't replant this year and now the second gen is 8' tall. it grows with not too much water, lotsa sun and will drop enough
seeds to where you shouldn't have to replant. if you grow a 10' row, when they are getting large and the wind blows, the fragrance is incredible!
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woody with a view
PITA Nomad
Posts: 15939
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Location: Looking at the Coronado Islands
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| Quote: | Originally posted by vgabndo
We had a lot of "Roma" type tomatos. They sliced into 1.25" rings and dried uniformly in a little 6 tray electric dehydro unit. Most years we
dehydrate cherry tomatos which have been cut into halves. They keep best in olive oil, and are almost too sweet for many purposes. Yum Mrs. Vgabndo,
did this fine work.
30-40 pounds of tomatos (harvested after canning was done) and stored in two quart jars!
[Edited on 11-9-2011 by vgabndo] |
can i get some details on your dehydro contraption?
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BajaBlanca
Select Nomad
Posts: 13197
Registered: 10-28-2008
Location: La Bocana, BCS
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ditto on the dehydro machine info, please...
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Bob H
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5867
Registered: 8-19-2003
Location: San Diego
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This is a very interesting thread Hook. I would love to see more images of your main garden framework, different angles and more close up detail.
What a great idea.
We have problems with rodents, squirls, birds, etc. damaging our plants. We live directly on a canyon preserve here in Northern San Diego County, and
the soil is mostly clay and rocks. I have amended the soil here many times over the last 17+ years that I have lived in this house, but overall
drainage is still poor.
The SAME boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It's about what you are made of NOT the circumstance.
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krafty
Super Nomad
Posts: 1052
Registered: 8-23-2010
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Awesome, VGA, thanks for the pix-40 lbs. of toms. sounds like alot, but you have to do something with them! Love the arugula pesto idea-SO not so
crazy about the basil, and yes, we have tons of lemon basil here. Good for the fragrance in a jar in the casa. Great post, keep the ideas coming!
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Hook
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9010
Registered: 3-13-2004
Location: Sonora
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Mood: Inquisitive
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I'll put up some more pics on the framework, Bob.
I had some topsoil brought in when we first started the garden. It had a higher clay content than I wanted. Consider using gypsum in granular form, if
you can find it. Just work it in.
Gypsum is also a good additive for soils that are high in salinity. If you have been watering your plot for 17 years with hard, SoCal water, salinity
has probably been building up.
Gypsum is pretty inexpensive and, from what I've read and been told, you cant really burn your plants with it.
Coarse sand is also a good way of breaking up clay. It must be coarse or you can end up with something akin to cement.
But the best additive is organic material, compost, etc. One of the cheapest ways of getting organic material into the soil is to use alfalfa. I
bought bales and ran it through a small chipper/shredder to get it into a form that is easily worked into the soil. It helps separate the bonding
characteristics of clay and it provides a ready source of nitrogen, almost immediately.
I'm no expert on all this. A fellow nomad gave me much advice.
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krafty
Super Nomad
Posts: 1052
Registered: 8-23-2010
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Our garden is seriously mud when it rains-we do compost but have not tried the alfalfa route-may have to try that next year!
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Hook
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9010
Registered: 3-13-2004
Location: Sonora
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If possible, get the alfalfa into the ground NOW, so that it can begin to do its work before next year's planting.
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mulegemichael
Super Nomad
Posts: 2310
Registered: 12-24-2007
Location: sequim,wa. and mulege
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and fresh cut alfalfa is best...one of our workers here in mulege brought us a couple of truck loads he had harvested that morning and we chopped it
and dug it in....like the plants were on steroids!
dyslexia is never having to say you\'re yrros.
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dtutko1
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Posts: 341
Registered: 8-26-2009
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Hook
Why grow jalapenos and romaine? Maybe because they are two of the easiest to grow and the market produce were most probably sprayed w/poison. a
20x30ft garden intensively planted should be enough space. Good luck dealing with the quantity of you varieties. Someone said, You are what you eat!
Good eating!
Dorado Don
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64854
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Free advice on setting up a drip irrigation system for your gardens... just ask! 
Past thread on irrigation: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=31858
[Edited on 11-10-2011 by David K]
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shari
Select Nomad
Posts: 13048
Registered: 3-10-2006
Location: bahia asuncion, baja sur
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Mood: there is no reality except the one contained within us "Herman Hesse"
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oh man, I sure miss arugula...hey woody, can you remember to save me some of those seeds if you ever get our way again....or drop em off with you know
who...you know where  and someone could bring them to us
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rob
Senior Nomad
Posts: 509
Registered: 10-19-2004
Location: Pacific Coast, BCS
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Garden on the ranch
Geographically, we are on Pacific west of La Paz, Baja Cal Sur. Calendar-wise it doesn't really matter here as the climate is pretty mild by Baja
standards - we grow vegetables year-round with the exceptions of spinach and the leaf lettuces which don't like even our moderate summers (max 86F).
Soil here is arroyo valley sand - lots of minerals, very little organic matter. There isn't much to compost, so we grow crops of alfalfa and plow them
in with the tiller. Also spread a little (expensive!) high-quality nitrogen when we put in the tomatoes. A 2-meter high cyclone fence surround the
garden to keep out the locals - deer, rabbits, hares, coyotes etc.
We DO grow stuff that you can buy in the stores - if you saw what the market gardeners around here pour onto their vegetable crops, you would too.
Most everything grows here, our tomatoes are famous - but there are failures too. We have never been able to grow good broccoli heads - the plants are
big, green and luxurious - but the heads are little buttons - even after adding (in desperation) boron as suggested on the web. Chard, cabbage,
squashes and cauliflower grow well - go figure. Most herbs (exception rosemary and basil) do not thrive either, still trying to figure that out.
All irrigation is computerized drip. We tried pressurized sprinklers for the alfalfa - but power is expensive and ultimately unnecessary, we now use
T-Tape for everything except the trees where we use 1, 2 and 4gph drippers.
We generally have 3 gardens (7x30ft rows) going at once, planted about a month or two apart and rotating new gardens around the fenced area. The
tomatoes are covered in bird netting as the carpinteros (shrikes?) like to puncture the T-Tape for a drink. Lettuce and spinach is grown in
square-foot gardens (4'x4') where we can give them personal attention.
We also have a carneceria (butchery) - one day I would like to have a cooler for ageing meat.
Life is good.
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Hook
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9010
Registered: 3-13-2004
Location: Sonora
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Mood: Inquisitive
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| Quote: | Originally posted by dtutko1
Hook
Why grow jalapenos and romaine? Maybe because they are two of the easiest to grow and the market produce were most probably sprayed w/poison. a
20x30ft garden intensively planted should be enough space. Good luck dealing with the quantity of you varieties. Someone said, You are what you eat!
Good eating! |
I grow this kind of variety for swapping with other growers in our area.
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