Brussels sprouts update

Now we're talking. Here are some photos taken last week of the plants just prior to the rain we had over the past few days.

And here is a harvest that we'll use for dinner tonight.

Meanwhile here's a photo of the Satsuma with some of its flowers.

And peeking through the foliage is - voila - an actual fruit. And unlike the couple we picked last winter, this one was quite sweet and tasty. With all of the flowers we're seeing this year, we should start having decent harvests starting next winter.

Why No Rain?

I found this article on the Scientific American web site to be of some interest regarding the lack of rain we've had here in the Bay Area. Apparently the entire nation has been affected this year.

Garden at New Year's 2012

The Brussels sprouts are getting close to picking. I took off the fencing, pulled off some of the bottom leaves, and did some weeding today to clean up the box a bit.

The sprouts start developing from the bottom up. I've read that they should be picked from the bottom if they are not coming out full in order to allow the ones further up to grow to harvest size.

Looks like there will be enough for a dish later this week.

The garlic is still growing and the ones I planted in the inner alternate rows later are starting to come up.

And here's the bay laurel really starting to take off. I'll be transplanting this to a larger pot next month.

Meanwhile, other than a couple of damp days, there has still been no rain for several weeks now and, according to the weather reports, none in sight for the next 7-10 days yet. As I've seen a few winters with no appreciable rains after Jan 1, it's completely possible we may not see any for the remainder of the season. But then I've also seen other winters where we've received over 75% of a year's precipitation between February and April, so who knows at this point. Undoubtedly this will be a below normal year but it'd be nice to get at least 10 inches before the season is over.