Playing catch up on the blog. It’s late January, 2010, and I’m filling in captions and notes for draft entries for months past. Cheers!
Redoing the cantaloupe patch - getting it set up for fall crops...
I pulled this chicken wire off of the ground where I had had the cantaloupe patch. I originally laid it to deter stray cats from using my carefully cultivated beds as a litter box. The chicken wire doesn't hurt them, but they don't like walking on it. It had pretty good success, actually. That is, when it wasn't covered (and thus softened) by mulch or plants.
I layed a layer of black plastic trash bags ( just cut them along a seam and tacked them down with "earth staples" made out of coat hangers). Added mulch over this, then put the chicken wire back into place.
Kitties, pee elsewhere!!
Took some time to thoroughly weed the flower portion of this bed as well.
Getting ready to prep a couple of mounds for artichokes. Artichokes are related to thistles, which many view as weeds. They don't need rich soil or lots of care. Having never grown them before, my theory is that I can get a couple of plants going well enough that vining plants (like winter squash) can grow around them without choking them out. Fingers crossed.
Mounds of soil for the artichokes.
Running the soaker hose. See those four little white sticks along the length of soaker in the middle of the pic? At the edge of the chicken wire/mulch line, there? Those are marking 4 kinds of squash I'm trying to grow. A mini white pumpkin, a mini orange pumpkin, acorn squash, and snake gourds.
Ran the soaker all through the bed. Yay, soaker hoses!!!
Each artichoke mound got a loop of soaker hose, then a good layer of mulch.
Artichoke marker, to be replaced with a hand-stamped metal one in due time.
My squash markers, again.
Um, see? See?!
My reading tells me that each artichoke plant will grow int a big, 3'-5' bush, with the blooms/chokes growing on stalks. I can't wait to see how they do. I'm hoping the artichokes will get established enough that the squash and gourd vines can grow around them and not kill them. We'll see...
Freshly weeded and mulched. Looks soooo nice.
This bed, the one between the sidewalk and the street, is overcome! There is this insidious grass-like weed crisscrossing it. And I need to rethink the positioning of some of my key plants. People love to park in front of this and then just step out into it, so I think some rose bushes are in order. 
Chard and lettuces doing well.
