Winter Garden 2014 More Photos!

The garden has once again taken off after the recent rains.  This is the second week in a row that I have not had to water, and that is so good for us CA gardeners.  Normally I would water at least once a week.  The purple cauliflower plants are in the foreground, then to the right is the San Marzano tomato plant that is still thriving.  I only pick a tomato now and then even though it does have many on the vines, they just aren't getting ripe; not enough heat I would guess.  This week we should see a couple of days close to 80 degrees so I may be able to find a few red ones.

On the left of this photo is Lacinato Kale, about 6-8 plants and lots of green onions.

In the center beds are kohlrabi, turnips, beets and swiss chard.  The bed toward the top of the photo has 6 Brussel Sprouts plants, radishes, rapini and some more lettuces. Against the back fence is a Chinese cabbage called Michihili,  I planted a lot of this and harvested that tall one after taking the photo.  I made a really good soup with it and some potatoes and onions.  YUM!

To the right of this photo is Buttercrunch lettuce and Rouge d' Hiver, a romaine lettuce.  Snow peas at the top right of the photo,

Winter Garden Update 2014 December

My community garden plot is growing! After that first rain, everything really took off.  This group of photos was taken on Dec 8.  Today we are getting that Pineapple Express rain storm that you may have heard about on the news.  I know when I go to check on the garden tomorrow I will no doubt, see muddy plants.  The rain has been really coming down, I don't think it has let up since it started early this morning.  I am so grateful that we are finally getting significant rainfall.

On to the photos!

Garlic in foreground, then Russian Red Kale, and Lacinato Kale

Ruby Red Swiss Chard

Sorrel and Michihili a Chinese Cabbage

More Chinese Cabbage

Snow Peas

Purple Cauliflower

Tatsoi

Lacinato Kale and green onions

This bed has Green Chard, Beets, Kalette's, Turnips and Kholrabi

Rouge de Hiver a romaine lettuce

Buttercrunch and Arugula

more Arugula, Oak Leaf Lettuce, and hit and miss of Mesclum mixed.

Radishes, Brussel Sprouts, Broccoli Raab and lettuces in background

Winter Garden Update 2014, Lots of Photos

 The garden at 5 weeks.

Here we have Kohlrabi, Red Beet, Chioggia Beet, a blend of Gourmet Beets and Kalettes, a hybrid plant that is crossed with brussel sprouts and kale. San Marzano Tomato plant in the back, getting huge.  I will need to put a fence around it soon, or it will move into the bed.

 Red Russian Kale

 The larger plants in the center are Brussel Sprouts.  Back row is Easter Egg Radish, White Icicle Radish and French Breakfast Radish.  Front row has Freckles, a Romaine lettuce and also some Broccoli Raab plants that are not in the picture.

 Lacinato Kale plant is a real workhorse.  I pick from these two plants each week.

 Sorrel, one of my favorite greens to add to soup and salad.  It has a wonderful lemony flavor.

Some backup Lacinato Kale plants.  I think I have 6 of these growing in a few places around the garden.

 This is Michihili, a Chinese Cabbage; off to the right are more smaller seedlings of the same plant.

 More Broccoli Raab or Rapini plants, planted just a couple of weeks ago.

 Marvel of Four Seasons lettuce

 Snow Peas

Now for some bad news!  A gopher moved in overnight and took down one of my Graffiti Cauliflower plants.  I have 6, and I hope to get him before he moves on to more and damages or kills them as he did this one.  We set a trap here so hopefully...

 Buttercrunch lettuce, and more holes from a gopher.  We set two more traps here so keep your fingers crossed that we get it.  Friday Tony will dig down 18" all around our garden, and put down a barrier of wire mesh to keep them from getting in again. Lots of work and we should have done that before I planted.

 Speckles lettuce

 Graffiti, a purple Cauliflower. The five remaining plants that the gopher didn't get to.

 Ruby Red Swiss Chard

 Augula, Oak Leaf and a butter lettuce.  Also seeded a blend of mesclun that is beginning to come in now.

I will leave you with a photo of Garden Party, my pretty rose in my front bed.  She is all covered in raindrops from the few showers we had last week.  All of my roses are blooming again!

Pretty Sunrise for Wordless Wednesday

Cool morning

Winter Garden 2014 Update

Here is the garden after 18 days.  Things are looking pretty good.  I did lose a few seedling of Buttercrunch lettuce; I guess they were just too tiny when I planted them.  I have seeded the empty spots with more.

Healthy looking Sorrel and a few of the Chinese Cabbage plants to the right, I have 12 of these planted.

Freckles Romaine Lettuce

Here are 6 Brussels Sprout plants.  Tony put these in and should have given them 2 feet between each plant; I will move some of them this week. 

Kohlrabi seedlings will be thinned out this weekend.

Graffiti, a purple Cauliflower 6 plants

Purple Russian Winter Kale.  6 plants

Lacinato  Kale 6 more plants plus the big ones below.

I will probably pull on the taller kale here as it is starting to fall over.

My beloved San Marzano Tomato plant still growing and even has a few tomatoes on it.

Lots of lettuce plants!

More lettuce

And more....

a few more

,

and yes, still more! We eat a lot of greens

Snow Peas

Ruby Red Swiss Chard

That's it for now, I will post again in a couple of weeks.  This week we have Santana winds and high temperatures.  Today was 89 and tomorrow will be 90!  Welcome to winter in San Diego County!