I have the most wonderful gardening companions. More and more, they're ignoring me and coming to visit even when I'm out there.
I have been wanting to go back to a very important event several weeks ago, just after Becki & Heidi left in fact. I got a mysterious package, and was instructed to make sure I was the one to open it.
Within a box and a padded envelope and a plastic bag and a ziplock was what looked like soil. On closer inspection, it was soil - but it was mostly worms!
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| Lovely, no? |
Missourian worms at that, lovingly dug by Becki out of her bountiful (worm-wise) compost. Under cover of darkness, they were unceremoniously buried at strategic points in my heretofore worm-barren raised beds. (I hoped this would decrease the chances that they would become expensive bird food!) At the last moment I remembered to save a few for my own compost. Fortunate indeed that Wolfgang wasn't the one to find that package!
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| first salad harvest: 12/17/13 |
There have been frequent harvests of leafy green veggies, and we are enjoying them so much. The Chinese cabbage produces generously, and we have as much salad as we can eat.
Tatsoi is one of my favorite Asian greens; it matured from seed in about the same time it took for radishes to grow. I wondered how ice-bred arugula would do, and until now it seems to like it just fine! Cilantro that we bought as a plant has done well, and lots of babies from seed are following.
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| Tatsoi and cilantro |
We (meaning Wolfi) have had quite a battle with the gopher (s) and at present are admitting defeat. He seems to take great humor from our feeble efforts to outsmart him. After one particularly grueling day (involving repeated attempted smokeouts) I was sitting in the back yard reading when I heard a scratching noise by the fence. His head popped up not 4 feet from me and I swear there was a smirk on his face. Until now he has not done any obvious damage, but let's say I am glad for our wire baskets.
On a recent hike up Mt. Baldy, I very much enjoyed the yucca growing there. They are numerous and perfectly round and symmetrical, with so many spikes that they make the coolest 3d effect as you walk or drive past. I haven't been a fan in the past, but these guys convinced me I'd like to try to grow a few here. They will be well out of the way - those spikes are SHARP!
I am forcing some paperwhites, which just means having them indoors (though watering is done outdoors, as seen here) so that they bloom
unseasonably early. Well, I have seen paperwhites blooming down the street since late December, so forcing loses much of its value here. In New England, seeing the stalks shooting up, and blooms in February or so, helps convince us that there is hope for winter to one day be over.
I also planted several amaryllis in the ground. I may regret it, as we do get frost, but I decided to try. One appears to be alive.
Our drought is really critical; you may have heard that our governor declared a drought emergency this week. The satellite images below are revealing: snowpack in the Sierras is so much less than a year ago. The more startling thing is that 2013 (the left photo) was the driest year on record until then. Sure would be great to get some rain.
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| http://paloalto.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/satellite-photos-show-california-drought |
