February 22, 2016

February has been a dry month this year, El Niño notwithstanding. Apparently there is plenty of activity over the Northern Pacific but a fairly persistent ridge over the past several weeks has been blocking any of it coming in at this latitude or lower. Seattle has had record rainfall while So Cal has hardly had anything. Over the past couple of weeks meteorologists had been hinting at/hoping for signs of storm activity resuming again in March but now that seems to be dissipating altogether. Oh well, still an improvement over last winter but I'm thinking we're going to just have to get used to a new warmer and drier climate overall and adapt to it.

I started up the irrigation again a few weeks ago with a short break for last week's rainfall. Now it's running again until if/when we get any further precipitation which at this point may not happen until next Autumn. I think I'm getting the idea now, letting the raised bed stations run for 60 minute 3 times a week. Since the drought-tolerant material in the yard has now been established, they'll need only infrequent irrigation if any which saves more water for the vegetables which require regular watering.

First harvest of winter peas

Cilantro seedlings in Box 5

Dill seedlings in Box 5

Isis guarding the onions and garlic in Box 3

A full harvest in Box 2 of greens and the peas

The next generation of greens seedlings coming up in Box 1

Butter lettuce and broccolini

Beets, mesclun, Russian white kale

Radish and arugula from the left

February 6, 2016 - mid-winter

Mid winter here now, just in time for the 'El Niño' rains to subside for a while perhaps even end? So far we've received about normal rainfall for this time of year although compared to the past few years it seems like a lot more. Unfortunately there is no longer any rain on the horizon for the foreseeable future and the coming week promises temperatures up into the 70's. From my experience here in the Bay Area, the chance is always open for an early end to the rainy season altogether, hope sincerely not is not the case this year. Regardless, I'm starting up the drip irrigation again tomorrow for the first time since the end of October.

Box 1

Radish and arugula seedlings in front.

Beet seedlings just coming up to the left, mesclun on the right.

Close up of the beet seedlings.

Lettuce up top, broccolini plant below

Box 2

Peas are flowering ready to set fruit

Box 5

Parsley, cilantro, chives, dill

Oreganos, thyme, chervil

January 23, 2016 - chard

First chard harvest of the year - from seeds planted in October 2015.

January 22, 2106 - pea blossoms

Even with all of the cloudy days and rain we've had for the past couple of months, we're getting our first winter pea blossoms this week. Forecasts call for a dry week ahead of the next batch of El Niño storms the first week of February. To take advantage of the break I'll be seeding and transplanting then.

January 16, 2016

I completely reworked the soil on a couple of the boxes this past week getting them ready for winter and spring plantings. As I mentioned last post, I've decided to replant an herb box as last year's plan to keep Box 4 for perennial and annual herb planting didn't pan out too well. Perhaps due to the fact that the plants were not in the ground or perhaps due to last year's continuation of the disastrous drought, the perennials mostly died back significantly. Since it is easy enough to simply purchase herb plants and restart them, it gives me a chance to rework the soil; not a bad thing.

Box 1 is going to hold another planting of broccolini but on the opposite side. I'm also setting this for seeding of greens to follow up the current autumn-planted crop in Box 2. The broccolini performed so magnificently I had to set another planting out for the Spring.

Box 2 holds the current crop of greens. The peas have been growing well, perhaps too well as they are more or less crowding out the adjacent row of chard.

Box 3 is progressing nicely with the garlic and onions.

Box 4 will continue to hold last year's herbs until the herbs in Box 5 are established.

Box 5 is the new herb box. I purchased several plants from Berkeley Horticultural yesterday which, after I reworked the soil with steer manure, I planted. From bottom: Italian flat-leaf parsley, cilantro, Cretan oregano, culinary sage, English thyme, French thyme, chervil, Greek oregano, Italian oregano. I'll probably transplant the marjoram and chives from Box 4 when I clean it out later.

January 6, 2016

We've been having a much more normal winter this year with regular rains coming since the beginning of November. The garden is also much more subdued but there's still work to do. As I learned in my horticultural experience in my few years at Weston Nurseries in Hopkinton, MA back in the 1970's, the movement of the earth towards and away from the sun between the solstices determines how vegetation grows. From the summer solstices to the winter, the sun rays move back, and from the winter to the summer, they move forward resulting in a kind of Doppler effect in terms of sunlight.
Hence once the winter solstice has passed, like it did a couple of weeks ago, the days grow longer and the decreasing angle of the sun's rays inspires the growth of plants. As it is relatively mild and (usually) wet here in the Bay Area, I consider January a prime month for getting plants started.

I usually repot all of my herb containers in the middle of the rainy season. This is one of the three mints I grow in pots getting a reboot.

Box 4, the herb box for the past year, is nearing its end. At first I was planning to keep perennial herbs going here indefinitely but in practice, I'm finding it would be better to simply replant all the herbs I'm not keeping in containers each winter. Although the herbs served me well, it's just too simple to purchase new ones and restart them fresh with renovated soil. I'll keep the herbs here until I've established new ones in Box 5 then use Box 4 for other plantings.

Box 5 is going to hold the new herbs which I plan on planting once I've renovated the soil, probably in a week or two weather permitting.

December 12, 2015

Checking in as we move into winter. I'm leaving everything alone for the remainder of the month as I'm waiting until after the solstice to set new plants and seeds. It very much looks like we're going to keep getting rain this year, such a difference from last year when we had high and dry days even into the 70's through the solstice and into January. We did have those two storms at the beginning of Dec 2014 but the storm door shut with a slam after that. This year I've shut off all irrigation since the beginning of November. Hopefully it can stay off until well into Spring 2016.

In Box 1 we're still getting broccoli florets for the dinner table. They are getting slim but I think we might be able to pull one more harvest before pulling the plants. The remainder of the box is all overgrown now but waiting until I am ready to completely redo the bed before taking everything out.

Box 2 is progressing nicely. I've been diligent about making sure we keep thinning the herds for eating so that this box doesn't overgrow like Box 1 did.

Box 3 will hold the garlic and onions through the spring and into summer for the harvest in July with some pickings for green plants in around March. All of the garlic has come up now. Took a while for many of the plants to do so.