Morning List

Planted in the ground:
Carrots in front small bed (too early?).
Elephant garlic in back small bed (a bit late?).
Wildflowers out in the crescent bed between the tea tree and the bay laurel.
Transplanted from 4" pots to 8" pots: 10 squash
Transplanted from 2" pots to 4" pots: 3 cucumbers
Transplanted from 2" pots to larger pots (various): 5 eggplants
Planted in containers, outside, yesterday: corn seeds (soaked overnight)
Moved compost from the big pile to various beds around the back yard.
Thinned the lettuce and made a salad.
Eating it for lunch with 1 boiled egg & warmed over coffee.

First Garden Salad of the Season

Sunshine today after heavy rains last night. Heavenly. I transplanted basil and thyme starts into one of the small garden plots near the kitchen back door, and moved others from tiny pots to larger pots, just in case I am being to optimistic. But the bib lettuce planted in January is big enough to begin harvesting for salad now, and some of the spinach and chard have 3 inch long leaves and are growing close enough together to thin. So I had this lovely fresh salad, picked a few minutes before washing & eating, for lunch today. Mmmmm. Sat in the sun while I ate it. Life is good.

Fruit and Flowers

Showers & Sunshine

Large and Small Veggie Garden Plots

The sticks are willow prunings, laid across the area to deter the cats when seeds and seedlings are planted. Seems to be enough of a hassle for them they stay out!

Indoor starts hardening up

Maybe taking a risk, but the weather has been in the 50s and 60s with rain then sun this week. Made an instant shelter with a glass topped table shoved up against the full-sun south-facing garage wall.

From Seeds in the Ground, Bib Lettuce mid-January, Chard & Spinach Mid-February

Indoor starts, week 4

These seem so slow! It's been chilly in their back room, and the sun not constant day to day...and then the one really warm day last week when I took them outside to a sheltered, south facing, sunny spot (while I went to the beach!) ... came home and took them in and dropped the whole tray all over the floor! Dirt everywhere. Had to repot everything, almost ... amazing they survived at all!

Burn Day

Last week I called the county Burn Day notice line, and it was a "go" for backyard burning! I had all these grape clippings in a couple of big loose balls in the yard, dried to crispy, so I rolled them into the middle of the main garden and set them on fire. It was sort of windy, so I started with the smaller one (a handful of dried grasses from underneath the hedgerow was the started), and when it was done, I set the bigger one off. Had to use a rack to pull the loose edges back to the middle now and again, and the fire would die down but when supplied with the fresh branches it would roar up again. Nice couple of hours, hanging out with the flames. Late afternoon, into the dusk...

Rain Rain Rain Rain

We needed it, but gee whiz!