"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."
Robert Louis Stevenson




Monday, October 28, 2013

Misty Morning Rainy Day


We have a nice light rain falling.  Fall comes late in Southern California, when most of the US are enjoying the changing leaf color, we are just beginning to see them here.  Our Liquid Amber trees are starting to show the reds and yellows on the leaves.  I looked outside early this morning and they are falling with the light rain, covering the PATIO with a soft, golden carpet.  It's a good day for soup!


Joyful Rain

The clouds rejoice, merrily they pour
The waves teem, to meet the shore
Trees sway, with the whistling wind,
Birds dance, they happily sing

Pitter-patter, on the roof,
Clitter-clatter, the horse's hoof
The gush that flows down the drain,
comes clad in her blue gown, Rain

Full of joy, her mood, upbeat
Watching her, it's just a treat
Coming along, with a bouncy gait
Like she had with us a date

In our hearts she rings a bell
Whose story she brings to tell
We are happy, the mood is gay,
All our gloom, lost today

Our worries, with the rain flow
Our lives fill, with a fain glow
O Rain, may you bring Joy always
May your memories enliven our days
Vishnu Sampoorn

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Winter Garden 2013



I am late posting photos of my winter garden plantings that took place a couple of weeks ago.  Of course had I taken the pics then there wouldn't be anything in the pictures but soil!  It doesn't look like much right now but when the little guys grow up the plot will be covered in goodies for us to eat all winter.

We are still using the area along the driveway this year and probably next year, since we used the adobe bricks from the raised beds for the labyrinth; I don't have that space to use right now.  This area gets a lot of sun and I can easily work the ground from both sides.  We used one of the tomato cages for the peas and green beans; I think this will work out pretty well and I can always add a tall fence around the cage to give the peas more room to spread and hold onto if need be.  I still have another section (past the kale) to dig up and amend the soil with compost, then I will plant more of the same things but a few weeks later. This way I am not harvesting all at once. Sucession planting!

Snow Peas and Green Beans on the cage, Easter Egg Radishes, French Breakfast Radishes and Round Black Spanish Radish.
Snow Pea shoots, in the back area there are onion seedlings.  I used the seed heads and just sprinkled them along  the parimeter of the row.  I will probably need to separate some of them as they get larger.
In this area we have a french Carrot called Parisienne  from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds that is short variety.  I also planted Cilantro, Parsley and Dill somewhere in the space. LOL
Same area, with Gourmet Baby Greens, Mesclum Sassy Salad Mix, and Arugula.
Lacinato Kale
Chioggia Beets, these are the red and white stripe beets and Gourmet Blend Beets, this mix has golden, orange, dark red and stripe beets.  I will do intermitant planting of all of the beets, onion sets and radishes, watching for areas that I missed and seeds that did not germinate. 
Last seasons Swiss Chard looking sad, but it will now do much better with the cooler nights. Also a section of onion sets in the foreground.  I planted many of these a month or so ago and then more on this day.
Bright Lights Swiss Chard and More of the Red Chard.

Mesclun and Salad Bowl Blend
Pencil Pod Yellow Beans, a bush variety.


A Girl’s Garden
Robert Frost (from Mountain Interval, 1920)

A neighbor of mine in the village
    Likes to tell how one spring
When she was a girl on the farm, she did
    A childlike thing.

One day she asked her father
    To give her a garden plot
To plant and tend and reap herself,
    And he said, “Why not?”

In casting about for a corner
    He thought of an idle bit
Of walled-off ground where a shop had stood,
    And he said, “Just it.”

And he said, “That ought to make you
    An ideal one-girl farm,
And give you a chance to put some strength
    On your slim-jim arm.”

It was not enough of a garden,
    Her father said, to plough;
So she had to work it all by hand,
    But she don’t mind now.

She wheeled the dung in the wheelbarrow
    Along a stretch of road;
But she always ran away and left
    Her not-nice load.

And hid from anyone passing.
    And then she begged the seed.
She says she thinks she planted one
    Of all things but weed.

A hill each of potatoes,
    Radishes, lettuce, peas,
Tomatoes, beets, beans, pumpkins, corn,
    And even fruit trees

 And yes, she has long mistrusted
    That a cider apple tree
In bearing there to-day is hers,
    Or at least may be.

Her crop was a miscellany
    When all was said and done,
A little bit of everything,
    A great deal of none.

Now when she sees in the village
    How village things go,
Just when it seems to come in right,
    She says, “I know!

It’s as when I was a farmer——”
    Oh, never by way of advice!
And she never sins by telling the tale
    To the same person twice.