About a year ago, I moved one block from the Ocean Beach Community Garden.  I called to see if there were any open plots but there were none.  I was put on the waiting list and finally received a plot in late September.

This is the entrance to the garden.  It has a nice archway to go through before getting to the locked gate.  There are 51 plots in the garden, but 2 are used for chickens and ducks.  I have received plenty of chicken eggs and 2 duck eggs from the garden.  The eggs are tastier than store bought eggs.  I used the duck eggs to make some Christmas cookies and they were uber tasty.  To get to my garden plot, you go through the gate and make your first left and walk past two gardens and it’ll be on the right.  Most of the plots are 10 feet by 20 feet depending on where the plot is located.

The picture to the right is the plot that I have.  This picture was taken a few days after I started to weed out the plot.  The plot was completely covered with weeds, along with those flowers, some carrots and beets, and an artichoke plant.  My plot receives full sun and I can’t wait to grow summer crops!  The garden has a bunch of garbage cans for green waste.  I think I loaded three of them after all the weeding.

Speaking of weeding, here’s a picture of me digging into the ground to loosen them up before pulling them out.  It’s been a while since my last post, but you can tell I haven’t upgraded my wardrode…still rocking the sleeveless Corona shirt.  We had some really nice weather out here in San Diego last fall which really made it easy to get out there and churn through the plot.

So after weeding was completed, it was time to plant.  There is a fence that wraps around one end of my garden.  I decided to plant peas along the fence so that they can climb up it.  The plant on the far right is an artichoke.  The previous owner had dug out the artichoke and left it in a garbage can.  I pulled it out and replanted it since I had never grown one before.

This is across from the other peas.  You can see the rest of the fence and more peas next to it.  I decided to plant broccoli in this corner and a brussel sprout plant is on the far left.  It’s fun seeing these pictures now because these plants are monsters now.  I have been eating broccoli pretty much every day for the past two weeks.

I planted 2 purple and 2 yellow cauliflowers, some romaine, and a dinosaur kale plant.  I didn’t know there were different colors of cauliflower until I found these at the nursery.  Kale was an experiment and it turns out that it is super healthy for you and doesn’t taste bad like I imagined.  You should check out this recipe if you like kale.

Here’s a picture of some of the beets and carrots that were in the plot when I took it over.  My dad hates beets so I’ve never eaten one.  As you’ll learn, we ended up having gopher problems and were unable to eat any of the beets.  We got a couple carrots, but the gophers got the rest… There is also some swiss chard growing here too.  The gophers will eventually eat 5 of the 6 plants…

In this corner of the garden, I planted a bunch of ever bearing strawberries.  They taste great straight from the garden.  Eventually I ripped up the flowers when they were dieing and planted 6 more strawberry plants.  I have been pulling the flowers since I have planted them in order for them to grow a nice root system to supply me with bigger/more berries this summer.

In the corner opposite of the strawberries, I planted some herbs.  I planted sage and lavender next to each other.  We used some of the sage this past thanksgiving.  I was told that sage and oregano are good things to plant to bring in the beneficial organisms.  The lavender flowers are now blooming and I need to learn how to use it.  I have seen a lot of drinks that had lavender in it so I’m interested in harvesting it.  After ripping out the flowers, I additionally planted oregano and some dill in this herb corner.  I would like to use the dill this summer when we are making pickles.

So that was all of the planting I did after weeding.  The picture on the right is the garden after planting.  I must have been shaking when I took the pic because it’s pretty blurry.  Ill post a few more pictures below for you guys to check out.  One is of the chickens and the one turkey, another of me bending over and weeding, and lastly a close up of the artichoke.  I can’t wait to post the most recent pictures of it…it’s taking over the plot!