Baja Gardening

We told our realtor we wanted a small home with nice views of the mountains, walkable to the beach where we would be able to have a nice vegetable garden. It was a tougher task then we thought but we got what we wanted. Perhaps it was even more gardening than we bargained for! Leaving our friends was the hardest part about our move but leaving our garden in Shingle Springs was second for me. Most of the year our vegetable and fruits were supplied by our garden.

When we arrived in mid December I worried we would not have time to get a vegetable garden in. The 2 large raised beds had not been planted in for about 2 years. We dug out about 4 inches of what we though was well solarized soil. We added about 4-6 inches of compost. The compost is made in a neighboring town in 50 lb sacks. The maker prides himself in it being organic but obtaining it was an interesting process. We drove to the town square of Santiago where someone met us and said, “Are you looking for Kirby? Follow me”. And so we followed her out into the desert on a dirt road for many miles until we came to a small home with goats, chickens, acres of Mango trees—–and many many sacks of compost. There were also a 3 dogs who very sweet—each one, he said had been rescued from the side of the road. One had a buzzard on him on the day Kirby found him; he and his wife did not think he would survive. They have had him for about 8 years now.

We were to quick to get the compost in, fix the drip system then plant a handful of “leftover” tomato seedlings (obtained by meeting the grower on the side of the road), eggplant and peppers.

I had my doubts that seeds would do well in this strange sandy soil but I went ahead and added seeds for lettuce, broccoli, basil, parsley, cilantro, zucchini, kale, beans and arugula. It was reassuring to see the gardens of our neighbors. One neighbor inspired us to build a compost bin. Brant cleverly took the wood and framed a bin. The sawdust Brant has generated from planing rustic wood to make kitchen shelves have made a great carbon base. We are fortunate to be on a street with great organic vegetable gardeners, they have been quick to give good advice, neem oil, more seeds and even produce. Our former owners left us a powerful blender and I whip up green smooothies for the pile. Already I am getting good compost.

It is surprising how little time I have for working on the garden. The days fill quickly with so many projects, events, pickleball games, and beach time. As they say, poco a poco!

I guess then it shouldn’t have been surprising to watch the rapid growth of the garden. Lettuce and radishes germinated in days–all less than a week. All the seedlings have survived and flourished. We have already eaten many salads, radishes, eggplant, kale and cilantro. Soon we should have had red tomatoes. There have been caterpillar issues but nothing like a glass of wine with a caterpillar mushing session. I was going to put them in a bird feeder but that seemed more cruel.

Now I am trying to decide if I should plant another bed. It seems that I should be able to but I am warned once it gets hot I will get little produce. This doesn’t make sense to me given the heat of our Sacramento summers but we will see.

In the mean time, I am having fun trying my hand at propagation when I see a plant I like. I have stopped short of digging up stuff in the dessert as we are told this is illegal.

I have enjoyed going to nurseries (viveros) where some are so crowded you can not walk through. No prices or labels on any plant! So very hard to sort out. We did a buy a papaya which looks very happy in our yard. I think it’s happy because its getting plenty of water from our gray water system (another wish list item we had hoped for).

So we are back to getting all our salads from the garden and hopefully will be able to switch back to homemade tomato sauce soon.