Weather

It's been cold here – we had several nights in the 30s, with a low of 31. I know, my friends in Boston don't feel sorry for me, but for my baby citrus trees, that's cold! While I was away this past week in San Diego Wolfi got lots of things done. One of those accomplishments was setting up our weather station. We have 3 spots we monitor - indoor (kitchen), outdoor behind house under the back covered patio, and about 20' lower elevation down where the stone fruits are going in. I wanted the latter

because when we go down the hill we almost always notice how much cooler it is, and it is interesting to me to keep track of the difference. I am curious why we have these temperature layers. The reading I've done so far leads me to think that the canyons channel the colder air down from the mountains (or in this case hills). Often in the evening we feel a real stream of cold air rushing out of the mouth of our canyon. The 31o reading was in the low spot; the low at the house was 39. It seems I am fortunate my greens germinated before this cold spell.

 

House is above to right, stone fruits are down the hill, right side of driveway

As for other weather, we have had several lovely rainstorms. I don’t have exact readings on those but will keep track in the future on the rain gauge Wolfi installed for me. Becki and I sowed our wildflower seeds on the hill above the house by sprinkling them down from the top, so I have faith that they have germinated and will establish themselves with the winter rains.

This week we got the Cara Cara orange, royal apricot and Santa Rosa plum in the ground, and the holes for the persimmon and peach are dug. A friend told me of these fruit tree planting instructions

from the late 1800s:

The instructions were to “dig a deep cavity in the ground, then put in rich dirt, then stones, then rich dirt. After this…put in layers of earth and dressing [compost] until the hole was filled.” (Ellen White, 3SM 328)

Yes, this was describing trees in Australia, but she had also done it that way in “the rocky soil in America”. This advice evidently pertains to bare root stocks, and our trees are in 5 or 15-gallon tubs, so I will be leaving the earth intact as much as possible (except for any ingrown roots, which will be gently pried apart). Even more details with instructions from the Rodale organic gardening book can be found here.

Thus I may plant these last 3 fruit trees a bit differently than the first. Until now I have been following Mike McGrath's instructions not to amend the hole at all, so that the tree's roots will enter the soil surrounding the original hole. Hopefully whichever trees were planted sub optimally will forgive and grow anyway!

Planting...and tough decisions

My first gardener left much too soon, but lucky for me Becki stayed over a week. We were eager to get some plants in the raised bed so the harvest would be quick. We planted lots of lettuce (I cannot fathom buying lettuce plants but it sure is fun to have an instant garden!), radicchio, arugula, broccoli, Swiss chard, and Chinese cabbage.

Most herbs went in their own pots – peppermint all by itself so it doesn’t have a chance to take over; thyme, oregano and basil in a pot together; but chives and cilantro are in the raised bed.

Once the plants were in, we could seed to our hearts’ content. Mostly I used old seed – some from as far back as 2007 (Nuesslisalat) and many from the years since. I finished up the Fedco Chioggia and root grex beets, mokum carrots, and added to the salad section with buttercrunch, arugula (wonder how Ice-Bred will do in SoCal?) green deer tongue, lollo rosso, and petite rouge lettuces (several from Baker Creek). We need LOTS of greens, so added tatsoi, blues Chinese cabbage, spinach (again a cold weather variety) and Fordhook giant chard. Topped it off with Zefi Fino fennel, Afina cutting celery, and cilantro.

You have no idea how luxurious? Counterintuitive? Just plain backwards? It feels to be planting all of these things at the end of November! I was getting better at cold frame gardening in Boston. If things were at the right stage, I could harvest kale into December, and the dormant spinach would revive in April, so I was learning how to extend the season. But to be warm while planting the seeds and plants, to actually see them germinate, and to not worry about basil being nipped by the cold – these are truly wonders of the South. Granted, I am not yet
so secure in these cozy warm thoughts – the basil is in a pot that I will bring inside when the weather forecast threatens. Becki and I also made a raised bed in the back yard by putting hardware cloth on the ground, then mounding up our 1:1 mixture of compost and dirt. We then put the brussels sprouts and tuscan kale there, and a few arugula plants. At the end I made a home for the Heuchera 'Wendy' - coral bells.

I also splurged and bought a 6-pack of pansies! They are providing a splash of color to several corners and are super cheery.

I am thrilled to once again have a compost pile, since I got an Earth Machine at the county, and 4 wonderful bags of leaves from a nearby yard.

Becki and I kept digging tree holes. But before we tucked the Gold Nugget tangerine and the Moro blood orange in for the winter, we built cages to protect their delicious tender roots from the evil gophers. We chose a design basically consisting of an ‘L’-shaped piece of hardware cloth, so that the four sides and bottom are each about 10” x 10”. By cutting close to the intersections, we had long enough pieces of wire ends that we could pull them through the adjoining sections with needle-nosed pliers and twist, to form a sturdy box.

We managed to plant the above citrus in the previously planned spots without incident, then added the

Sweet pomegranate. However our tree-planting progress is at a standstill due to an as-yet unresolved conflict between the powers that be, one of whom prioritizes Fruit Trees and the other of whom does not wish to compromise his View. Soon the remaining trees will not doubt find a home, but for now they remain above ground.
I did transplant the Meyer lemon and Mexican lime into bigger pots; their home for now is as part of our patio border.





We planted the bigger Mexican fan palm, and one we moved from next to the driveway, up on the hill close to the Queen palms.

Little avocado grew from one we ate from Jean Hildebrand's tree, and I've just put it in soil.