Lots of Rain!

We're still far from recovering from three years of drought, but it's a great start! It started storming here in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday. Lots and lots of wind, rain, thunder, lightning, downed trees, flooded streets, hydroplaning down the freeways, ...

That first day of storming blew over my rain gauge to almost horizontal, but it still collected about a half-inch of water by noon Monday. I emptied the gauge, righted it into a sturdier location, and left it to collect.

As of mid morning today, Thursday, it has collected about 3.25". YAY!

And, of course, when it rains, "things" grow.

I usually let the mushrooms grow. They're doing a job. They're breaking down dead things and turning them into food for the live things.

As for the rain, it's supposed to continue through today and probably tomorrow. We're supposed to be getting a bit of a break over the weekend (so I can go out and RE-clean out my gutters), but it's supposed to start raining again on Monday. Yay!

Paper Whites Catch Up

Last week on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day I wrote that the Paper White Narcissus that I had been forcing in pots outdoors were only at the bud stage, but that soon they'd be blooming. Well, now they're blooming quite nicely.

The poor pot on the right end took a blow last night when the wind flipped a board onto it in the storm.

Lettuce for Everyone

If you've been reading this blog, you know that I planted lettuce as part of my winter vegetable garden. The other evening a friend asked, "Ooh! What kind?!?" I started to explain and, having barely started explaining one kind, I decided that a picture was worth a thousand words.

I was trying to explain that I planted from two different packets. One packet was an heirloom "bibb" type lettuce called "Merveille De Quatre Saisons", that was all burgundy around the edges. It was like the red-leaf lettuce you buy at the supermarket, but it made a small head in the middle like butter lettuce, but it was more savoyed (crinkly, puckered) than either. And on and on.

The other packet contained a mix of "loose leaf" lettuce called "Heirloom Cutting Mix" that contained several varieties. First there's a lime-green variety called "Sucrine." Apparently, Sucrine is becoming popular in the higher-end, foofi restaurants.

The mix also contains a very narrow-leafed Romain-type lettuce called "Blush Butter Cos."

But the most interesting variety in the mix is called (really) "Speckled Trout Back" lettuce. It turns out to be an Austrian heirloom and it's very pretty!

As you might guess, I'm eating plenty of salads and they are quite colorful... even without adding tomatoes or other veggies for color.

January GBBD, part 2

As promised in this morning's GBBD post, here are a few photos of January in California. To start, these are the flowers outside my dining room window.

These are related, but they're in the front yard.

Flowers are not what most people think of when they hear "Jade Plant."

Calendulas offer the nice warm touches of yellow and orange to often-gray days.

While the rest of the country has pruned their roses a-way back, wrapped them in burlap, and covered them in leaves or straw, this one is blooming in a back corner of the yard.

Usually, winter gardens get their bright reds from berries.

And, around most of the country, snow-bound gardeners get their winter blooms indoors by forcing bulbs like Paper White Narcissus. Mine were started indoors, but moved outdoors once they were well-sprouted, so they are only now starting to bloom.

But then, out in the yard, their "naturalized" counterparts -- the daffodils I planted almost a dozen years ago -- are already sprouting nicely. (But it looks like "someone" needs to get out there and pull some grassy weeds!)

Nearby, the grapefruit tree is laden with vast quantities of (truly nasty, wretched, bitter) fruits.

And out back, the flat bowl of strawberries I planted last fall have gone nuts blooming and putting on fruit (that may or may not ripen fully before desiccating).

And, since we quit having so many freezing nights, the Super Sugarsnap Peas have started growing and blooming again. (Yay! Snow peas for salads and stir-frys and snap peas for stir-frys.)

So, that's what it's like in January in Silicon Valley.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - 15 January 2010

Yes, it's that time again! And not much blooming out there, but what's there makes my life cheery.  For example, outside my dining room window that white-flowering solanum is blooming nicely and vining wildly. (Sadly, I have a hard time seeing it because all of my "houseplants" that normally live out on the deck are all clustered around the dining room window getting that northern exposure light. It's a jungle out there!)

So, here's the list of what's blooming in my yard today, in the middle of January, in the middle (ish) of California (some photos to follow in a post later today):

• white-flowering solanum
• impatiens (quite a few, but not exploding like in summer)
• jade plant (simply covered!)
• calendula (many small flowers)
• rose (several smallish flowers)
• purple potato plant (just a few flowers)
• sticky monkeyflower (just a few flowers)
• super sugarsnap peas (quite a few now that the freezing temps have left)
• strawberries (quite a few berries coming on along with several new blooms)

I'm not going to include it on the official list, but the paperwhite narcissus that I'm forcing in pots are fully budded-up and about to open... maybe even later today! But, like I said, not much is blooming. The creeping plumbago was frozen almost to the ground and the vining plumbago has given up on blooming for now.

Photos to come...

Harvest on New Year's Day

Despite some plenty-chilly weather and several overnight freezes, the vegetable garden continues to produce. Currently in abundance are bok choi and a wide variety of lettuces. But, because they are in such abundance, I'm tiring of them and went for some alternatives. Today I harvested a half-dozen carrots, several beets (with greens), some young scallions, some spinach, and because the cherry tomato has met its doooooom, I stripped most of the remaining tomatoes.

I'll be roasting the roots and sauteing the greens (with the scallions). The ripe tomatoes will go into a salad made with lettuce harvested earlier. (The green tomatoes will sit in a basket on the counter with a ripe apple while they learn how to be red.)

You know, it's been a long time since I've done serious vegetable gardening. Sure, most years I've planted a vegetable -- a tomato or two or a row of beans or peas or cucumbers -- but not multiple vegetables nor over multiple seasons. Not in at least a decade, closer to two.

One of the things I used to do back when I was vegetable gardening on a regular basis was order up all the seed catalogs I could find. I haven't ordered a seed catalog in eons. It turns out that they have been multiplying while my back was turned! This came as a big surprise to me, but I suppose it shouldn't.

You see, I've been working "in tech" for a couple of decades, so most of the folks I associate with don't "do garden." But, outside of those folks, I've also been becoming aware of a movement toward simplifying, going more organic, and "eating local." "Eating local" means buying your produce, eggs, and even meats that were grown within a short distance from where you live. You can do this by buying at your local farmers' market, a grocer that specifically buys local produce, subscribing to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), or growing your own and/or sharing with friends and neighbors.

Anyway, since I started raising veggies again, I decided to go scouting online for a couple of vegetables that I always liked, but wasn't finding in my local seed racks. I found one source that had both of these veggies, so I decided to order their catalog and see what else they might have to interest me.

Wow. The flashbacks of reading the seed catalogs through the cold of winter, dreaming of planting in the spring, and of harvesting all summer! It was amazing. Especially since I actually found seed for the two cover crops that I can grow to get those Root Knot Nematodes (that I wrote about in October) in check! Wow!  So, I ordered seeds for the two veggies and for the two cover crops.

But this time I ordered via The Web, not by mail-order! That's different. I also ordered the catalog via The Web. I used to order by mail using ads, inserts, and interest cards in Organic Gardening magazine. But today, even that venerable publication is available online.

I guess "tech" and gardening are quite compatible, no matter what my coworkers say.  :-)