Garden Stuff

 Wow...how horrible has the weather been this winter?

I have read the news and emails and blogs and Oh M G

Yikes 

It is hard to imagine all of the snow and cold...but ... 

At least we all have catalogs and inspiration for spring and summer garden plans.

And spring is just around the corner!

Here are a few things we are working on this month... 

I must add that we have had lots of rain in California

 but quite a few days of unusual warm sunny weather too

These are the apples harvested from newly planted trees... last year...

And here they are this January...doing well, with the first blooms and buds.

We hope every additional year will bring more fruit.  

Most of the orchard trees are fertilized with compost from this garden.  

It is amazing how much the trees seem to benefit from the compost we add and how much we like making our own "soil" from grass clippings, lettuce leaves and the occasional "horse poop"  topping!

This year the sweet pea bed takes the place of bulbs...which I did last year.  It was pretty, but too expensive and too much work.

 The seeds of the sweet peas have just now started to crop up and will give us beautiful little arrangements in about a month or so...for pennies!

 Some of the English Roses were a mess...so a few new ones went in this weekend...

My son David was a big help...he can pull up the rocks and dig the new holes for these new bare root plants in half the time it takes me.

 The rocks are everywhere!

Lots of hand seeded lettuce is in...along with carrots...and beets

No tomatoes yet...

 but I did try the new "winter" varieties...bummer...

not a tomato in site!  

Pulled them all out.

Edible peas are up and we add a few of these to a salad..

but they are slowly growing...  

I like the way the plants look anyway...even if they are not producing peas just yet.   

The parsley beds just continue to produce...

I sometimes put the green leaves in small arrangements, 

with what ever flowers happen to be blooming 

Here is the winter broccoli...

This is a test....

Do we like broccoli?

Is it worth the trouble?

I looks pretty wimpy but I am going to let it do its thing and see what happens!

We have a few garden construction projects too...

this is a wisteria pergola at the rear of the veggie/pottager area

The gates will be at the front, just for some interest. 

We have left them out this winter to rust and age.  

I really want to get this done because 

this is the best time to get the wisteria in the ground.

This morning there was a small rain shower 

and it was nice to see the beds and pots getting some water 

from something other than a sprinkler.

Looking forward to the bulbs popping up too!  

And soon we will be here again.

Cheers 

and here's to all good things from the garden

kelley