There's no better way to keep your produce fresh than to keep it in the ground until you're ready to eat them. I built these raised-bed gardens in the spring of 2009 during the whole week I was unemployed between Makani and Meka. The weather in Oakland is mild year-round allowing me to source nearly all of my vegetable needs from these gardens. If I were to move outside of California I am sure I would be up for a rude gardening awakening.

I have a number of garden projects that are slowly being widdled away at. I recently installed the OpenSprinkler arduino based and wifi-enabled watering system. This is now coupled to a four zone drip irrigation system. Right now I am trying the Square Foot gardening technique to maximize production density and which also conveniently compartmentalizes plantings into cells, perfect for recording in a google doc - for sharing/updating plantings with roommates.

• In the spring, once the rains stop, I plan to close the watering loop with soil moisture sensors such that the garden will be nearly maintenance free (minus weeding, harvesting and planting of course).
• Eventually, I will setup a solar battery charging system as an excersise in power electronics management.

I also planted Hops on the side of the house back in 2006. We brew lots of beer at the house. Originally we had 2xHallertau, Cascade, and Fugle hops, but they seem to have hybridized. So at this point, the hops are only used for the Compound House Ale. The last picture shows them drying and being harvested.