The seed catalogs are starting roll in and with it comes the need to organize and figure out what next year’s garden is going to be like. So with that, I think right now is the prime time to repost some of my garden planning techniques. This first one is how to create a schedule…
Every year I take a look back on the varieties of plants we grew and how they did. Some years I’ll grow multiples varieties of one plant so I can choose the best one for our area. Other times I’ll just switch to a new variety completely to see if will work better. I’ve learned…
The seed catalogs are coming in! I always look forward to my two favorite ones – Seed Savers Exchange and Baker Creek – which are where I buy 99.9% of my seeds. I’ve been experimenting with different heirloom varieties to see which ones do best here. I’ve also been trying the seeds of the same varieties from…
You’ve probably seen our little blurb at the top of the page about our consulting services. I figured I should probably explain that a bit more. Just so you know a little bit about us, both my husband and I work in the construction industry. He works in electrical supply wholesale and I’m a landscape…
Looking back on this past year I feel like I once again don’t know what I’m doing. Of course that’s not true, I at least have some sort of idea, but we had a lot of failures. I could blame Mother Nature for a lot of it though that doesn’t mean I can’t take some…
Next to our patio we have a fairly large landscape area and it was made up of ornamental plants – penstemon, daylilies, lavender, ornamental grasses and wild lilac. While it was blooming it was gorgeous, but that was just a short period of time. Since I’m a landscape design consultant, I am always specifying ornamental…
We made a mistake by scheduling a trip in September. September is not only our biggest season for harvesting, but also the month we have to do all of our planting for Fall. After mid September plants will just languish and not grow enough to be harvested. Needless to say, we’re behind. The spinach and…
One of the biggest mistakes I did this year was not keep the pepper tags with the peppers. I have over a dozen varieties planted out there and most of them I have no idea what they are. I’ve looked online and attempted to match them up, but really I’m still not positive on what…
I’m a huge proponent of heirloom and open pollinated (OP) seeds. The difference between them and F1 hybrid seeds is that heirlooms and OP seeds can be saved each year and the offspring will be consistent with the parent plants. F1 hybrids cannot produce similar offspring the following year. Heirloom and OP seeds help keep…
January King Cabbage It’s that time of year again! I know, it seems really early, but I’ve found that fall and winter crops do so much better if you start them early so that they are in the ground by August and no later than mid-September. Of course if you live in colder zones than…
Dog Island Farm is a small urban farm in the San Francisco Bay Area.
