November 4, 2015 - winter is coming

Just as we passed into November this past weekend, we are suddenly leaving summer, hot weather, and forever drought. We had a substantial (for the Bay Area, anyway) rain (almost 1") all day Monday and the nighttime lows have gone below 50°F for the first time since April - not too shabby. Forecasts call for more rain the next two weekends and then some after that so maybe El Niño is finally kicking in.
After 4 dry winters, the rain was so glorious it was amazing. The plant material in the yard immediately perked up and I was able to kill the irrigation, at least for a while.

Meanwhile the garden beds are being reworked to meet the new season.


Box 1

I planted everything way too close and didn't keep tabs on it. The broccoli has done very well but the beets were buried, the greens overgrown, and the kale and chard got moldy from a lack of air circulation. My wife has been picking from the greens regularly though so we've had plenty of them for salad every night.

I've gotten 3 harvests of broccoli for dinner and there's more on the way. Now that I've removed the kale and chard, I may replace them with a few more broccoli plants to get us through another month or so. Box 2 has a fresh seeding of greens, beets, kale, and chard which should keep us good for a while.

 Box 2

I planted a couple of rows of peas along the eastern edge and seeded the rest of the box with radishes, greens, beets, kale, and chard. I'm keeping a close eye on everything to keep them from crowding as happened in Box 1. I've also noticed the problem with the pea sprouts that I had in the spring (someone is snacking on them) so covered them with netting to keep them protected until they've grown a bit.

Box 3

The garlic and onion transplants are progressing nicely. The only question is about sunlight as this box may get as little as 4-5 hours near the solstice.

Box 4

The herbs are holding their own for the time being. The cold temperatures will eventually get to the basil but they're still doing ok for the moment.

Box 5 

I pulled the remaining carrots last week. The basil and peppers are hanging in there for the moment. The only row left that needs to grow is the fennel which has been coming along.

Citrus 

There are hardly any lemons remaining. I've cleared out the rotted ones and there's only a few that are still usable. There are quite a few flowers and green fruit but may not be reliable for picking for at least another month.

The satsumas are close to being mature. The tree looks a little straggly but considering they've only received the piddling from the irrigation all year, not doing too badly. Hopefully a good wet winter will revive the tree for next year.

I was able to save the persimmon tree using the large green bags for watering twice a week along with the stakes used during irrigation. This is the first of 5 fruits the tree was able to produce. Hopefully more next year.