All winter we were wondering when we would see seasonable January temperatures. Now we know the answer - May. Temperatures have been averaging in the low 60's for a few weeks now with almost constant overcast skies that break in the late afternoon, very much a June pattern. "June gloom" is now "May gray". With hopes from the warm evening lows the past two years I was going to go for another bumper crop of peppers with an idea to try my luck with eggplants but now those hopes seems dashed. The latest predictions are that the cooler weather will continue to prevail with a look towards a very wet winter come next year from a very large El Niño currently forming in the Southern Hemisphere. At least the coming summer should give us better sleeping weather.
We've harvested quite a bit and cleared space for new plantings since the last post. I've learned that due to my initial exuberance from the new raised beds and planting area I had crowded to much into to little space so am planting this time with an eye towards better spacing.
The two planting of peas had good production. The shelling peas need time to mature, I should leave them in a bit longer. For some reason the snap peas didn't look all that good, not as green as I expected with a good amount of mildew on the plants, but the yield was good and tasty all the same. Apparently the best protection against mildew is to wet the plants a bit more - who knew?
Box 1
We pulled the radicchio which had stayed in the ground too long and lost their flavor. I had seeded some basil and mesclun but neither really ever came up. I reformatted the irrigation to only soak the east end of the box leaving the garlic to mature dry until I harvest them next month. The garlic never sent up any flower stalks I think due to the regular watering from the irrigation. Apparently consistency in the watering schedule is a primary factor when trying to inhibit blooms.
I seeded radish, lettuce, mesclun, and beets in between the irrigation lines this week.
The peas have been harvested. Next time I'll try to make sure the seeds produce a more consistent crop as many of them never came up this time. There are still a few lingering beets which are growing well so as long as they do I'll keep them in.
The first squash from Jeff is starting to grow and bloom and I added a crookneck yellow on the west end of the box. Once they are growing, the beets should be done leaving more room for them.
I set the north end of the box for two staggered rows of beans including a Romano, a couple of French bush beans and the tricolor pole beans - the layout follows the stakes in the photos with about 5-6 seeds surrounding each one in a circle. I planted four then will do another two successive plantings about 3-4 weeks apart.
Box 3
The tomatoes seem to be growing nicely, there's even a few fruits on the Sungold already. I removed the 14" stakes and laid the shrubblers on the soil, 2 per plant pinned opposite each other at the edge of the plant's leaf spread. I'm considering replacing the stakes in a few weeks after verifying that they work as expected. We may not have quite the yield as we have from the past two summers due to the cooler evenings but we'll see what happens.
Box 4
The herbs have really been spreading out and I'm wondering how many of them I want to keep in the box. Those left in the containers have been doing very well so not sure how much space I want to devote in the box to the tarragon, thyme, and oreganos. Both of the original parsley plants I put in back in January are gone as they got huge then died back. Since having a constant supply of healthy green parsley is important to me, I'm willing to take back some space from the tarragon as I don't use it that often and the one remaining in the container is doing well.
Oregano is key but I have two Italians doing well in containers. And the thyme is thriving in containers as well - not sure I need to have two in the box either.
I cut back the second (2/16) seeding of dill and cilantro with the 4/16 seeding having sprouted. Once they are usable, I'll remove the second seeding. I've scheduled their next seeding about 6/1 since 6 weeks seems to be the best length of time between.
The snap peas have been harvested. In their place I've seeded another row of carrots and a row of basil. The celery has done well but not sure if I they justify the space and nutrients they take up to plant them again. It's turning out that I haven't really made use of them. The kale and chard are just too crowded in - I added them just to have an idea of how a seeding would do. The greens, radishes, and beets are too crowded as well. The lettuce has had a good yield though, the radishes performed very well, and I've been getting quite a bit of beet greens for salads and sautéing all along.
The peppers have been pretty blah no doubt due to the weather. There are a couple of fruits coming and I'm going to add a couple of more from the Jimmys I've seeded but this just may be their year.
Containers
These all have been doing spectacularly well especially considering I've only really been watering them once a week, less than that for the rosemarys. They started to fade when I returned from NY a couple of weeks ago as they hadn't been watered for 10 days, especially the mints, but they perked right back up once I resumed watering them.
Citrus
The lemon has been doing very well, large fruits and many of them. Even though we had less than normal rainfall, I think the large storms in December and February made a real difference.
The lime is still green and has some small fruits but no leaf growth yet - it may take a couple of years for it to adjust to its spot.
