February 22, 2015

Added a few more plantings and seeds since the last log. After the rains a couple of weeks ago, the weather has become warm and dry again. Last week we had several days in the mid-high 70's and until a couple of days ago, the nights and mornings seemed more like summer than like February.
The graphs of temperatures in California the last several years have been showing a steady climb of averages with this winter being the warmest to date. It may be that we've hit a warm spell of a few years but if this is rather an indication of climate change, it's a little scary to see what will happen here just over the next several years. With the persistent warmth of the evening temperatures all last summer, the healthy dose of summer humidity, and the drastically warmer ocean temperatures in the Pacific since last summer, who knows what's down the road for us.
I really hope I'm freaking for no reason and that things will calm down soon.
Some indications for rain as the persistent high over the eastern Pacific may shift somewhat next week but that keeps moving further back on each 10-day forecast.

Box 1:

Garlic

Garlic, lettuce, radish, lettuce

Lettuce, radish, lettuce, radicchio, arugula

Lettuce, radicchio, arugula, mesclun, broccoli raab

The garlic is coming along.
I've been picking whole plants from among both rows of lettuce rather than snipping them.
The radish is just now getting ready to be pulled for salads.
The radicchio is probably about ready but this time I'm more interested to see what happens.
The first seeding of arugula either died off completely or I never planted them - the latter is the most likely scenario as absolutely nothing came up over 2 weeks. The seed package was open but I may have simply never did the seeding.
The mesclun is another later seeding, may be ready to be thinned later this week.
I've already snipped one collection of broccoli, waiting now to see if it grows back at all or if I should pull whole plants in subsequent harvests.

Box 2:

Back row: peas Progess #9
Lacinato kale, Rainbow chard

Rainbow chard, Puntarella cicoria

Puntarella cicoria, Gourmet Blend beets

Gourmet Blend beets

The pea germination was definitely hit and miss, not sure if something was picking out the seeds before they sprouted, if some are still late due to the early planting, or if many simply never made it. It seems there are now a few stragglers popping up so time will tell.
I planted another row of the same variety last week and those are already starting to show.
The kale and chard are coming along, may start pulling some chard as early as this week.
Of the 6 cicoria, I pulled a couple last week for a sauté and they were quite good. I cut them in half then parboiled them for about 4 minutes. After draining them I sautéed them in oil, garlic, and peperoncini. Very tasty - a good amount of bitterness as in Italy. One plant per person seems about right.
The beet seedlings are on their way, maybe another month before I can pull anything there.

Box 3:

Celery, broccolini

broccolini, cauliflower

Cauliflower

Cicoria puntarelle, cicoria Blanca di Milano

The celery is growing. I've pulled a few leaves and stalks here and there but not sure how much like store celery either will ever look. A couple of the broccolini seem to be ready to bolt from the warm temps this month so may start pulling the top blooms soon for dinner.
The cicoria may be ready for me to start pulling within a week or two.

Box 4:

Herbs: tarragon, dill, cilantro, parsley

parsley cilantro chives, Mexican oregano, sage

Mexican oregano, Greek oregano, thyme, marjoram

Thyme, marjoram, Italian oregano

As the dill and cilantro seeds are now starting to make true leaves, I seeded some more for a next batch. The parsley has grown a bit and I've been pulling branches to use in the kitchen for a while now. I've been snipping chives and thyme and even took a few leaves from the sage.
The Italian oregano has been somewhat temperamental, though. The closest one lost a branch as it withered then the other lost one as well. I'm keeping an eye on these. I got these from Berkeley Hort as plants in separate pots. Not sure if they've been getting too much water or if they take a while to adapt to the new location.
I'm going to re-configure the irrigation line soon so that their end of the box can be split off later this year and I'll just keep it watered manually so that it can stay drier than the other end.

Box 5:

Celery, mesclun, lettuce

Mesclun, lettuce, radish, beets

Sugar snap peas Amish Snap

I finally got the remaining soil into the box and added some plants.
The celery is the same as in Box 3: Giant Pascal and Redventure. I added a row of lettuce plants, radish, beets, and mesclun seedling. At the far end I planted some sugar snap peas. Today I added a couple of half rows of kale and chard seeds.
I hope to be using this box for summer plantings of at least peppers and eggplants. Maybe a squash plant as well if there's room.