I've been gone for about three weeks and am SO HAPPY to be back. I'm looking forward to spending this spring in the yard, getting my hands dirty, and just healing from a tough period. So let's show you around what a garden in San Diego looks like this time of year.
0:39 Importance of systems
2:45 Garden trouble
3:26 Tour
8:25 Growing garlic
Right off the bat, I'm just glad to see the plants are doing well. Because of our infrastructure & systems (irrigation, mulch, planning, soil, etc.) and our awesome farmhands, the farm hasn't missed a beat.
Even though I was gone for the better part of a month, plants continued to grow well. We do have some plants - like this cabbage - that are really to get harvested. The cabbage is too far gone for my kitchen, but it's perfect to chop up for the chickens or save for seeds. Similarly, my cilantro is a few feet tall now, and it's gone to flower for seed production (and maybe a vase or two). This was planted in the fall, so this is right on time as the days are getting longer and soil temperatures rise. It's such a versatile herb that produces so much and is so good for the garden that we grow it every year.
Moving down the row of cilantro, there's one plant that's leaning a little bit more than it should be. Looking down at the base of the plant, this mound means a gopher is hanging around. We'll leave the farmhands to deal with that one.
We're wrapping up cool-season production, so we're seeing a change in the garden as well as a change in the season. We have the last of our broccoli, and our kale production is slowing. If your plants are struggling from disease, pests, or just natural cycles, it may be time to move on.
On the northern edge of the garden next to our rainwater capture system and overflow area, our mango tree is absolutely loaded. Although it's a small tree and only produces a handful of fruits, they're delicious and worth the effort.
The sweet peas (remember, the flower, not the edible kind) are looking gorgeous! I planted these in September so they've had almost six months to get to this point, and they're exploding now. We'll have flowers until April and then use these for seed production after that.
Next to that trellis, we have a ton of Ethiopian kale that's going to seed for production as well. This is one of my all-time favorite greens, and we're expecting to harvest the seeds in late summer.
Moving to another section, we have a monster of a borage plant! It's taking up a ton of space, but I'm going to let it do its thing because it's really healthy and is so good for the pollinators especially during a time of the year when not too many other flowers are around for them. I'll eventually pull this to make way for my tomatoes to grow up these trellises.
Returning to brassicas, this cauliflower is my last round of succession planting. With the broccoli and cabbage wrapped up, this cauliflower will be done in just a couple of weeks which is perfect timing to transplant tomatoes.
I LOVE garlic, and I've packed this patch full of elephant garlic. It has a fairly mild flavor and is easy to peel. You just want to make sure to keep the soil moist so I lay down straw. If it dries out, your plants are going to suffer. These will be ready about mid-summer.
In one of the newest parts of the garden, we have a medley of crops (red fava beans, lettuce, onions, cilantro, and a ton of dill) going. Even though we just planted in November, we had been building soil health before that. We also used a row cover to hold in moisture and keep out harmful insects. We can also get some temperature swings of thirty or forty degrees with hot days and cool nights, so the cover helps keep things a little more even.
That final area looks really great, but that's definitely not always the case. Regardless of how your garden looks right now, there's always the next season to learn & apply new things!
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#Gardening #Flowers
5 окт 2024
