Friday, January 25, 2013

Rain Drops and Greens

Where I live we can garden all year long. Our summers are hot and our winters daytime temps are mild with cold nights so winter and spring are my favorite time to grow my greens.  I am able to plant all my leafy and root veggies now while summertime is reserved for tomato, peppers squash, berries and melons.

This years winter garden is off to a good start. I'm growing...
romaine and arugula
fava beans
broccolini
brussell sprouts
cabbage
spinach
kale
sweet peas
carrots
onion both red and walla walla
strawberries (from last summer not producing but still growing for spring)
garlic (waiting for a summer harvest)
potato
and cucumber seeds in house

I didn't replant cauliflower. Last year was down right ugly, they didn't do well at all and simply became aphid catchers. The vineyard likes the DG and rocky soil but my veggies definitely don't. I have spent the last year and a half building up a more friendly environment to sow my seeds and feel I've learned a bit more with each passing season.

With another year of composting my soil and a couple yards of clean fed soil brought in a couple months ago to mix in as well, I'm hoping this year will be better and I'll have a full freezer and jars in the pantry.

For me there's nothing better than a bit of dirt on your hands and clean food in the kitchen for my family.  I know how lucky I am and am very thankful I can grow food year round.
Our fruit orchard is exploding right now too. We have a huge amount of pink grapefruits, mandarins and oranges on the trees...Fresh OJ,  Greyhounds and the mandarins... Oh my... Those mandarins... What can i say they are my favorite. YUM! Three of my girls are laying again so fresh eggs and fresh fruit... Life is SO good.

The frost a couple weeks ago affected the pomegranate and guava tree but didn't seem to bother the citrus at all. Thankfully we had already enjoyed the fruit these trees offered us and they are now resting, I'm sure they'll bounce back for next season as Mother Nature is giving that way.

Are you able to winter garden, if so what do you plant?

The rain is back and expected to hang around on and off for a few days. I don't mind. I love the sound of rain drops while the water is good for the garden. The weather has been crazy lately for everyone, I've read your blogs and know some of you are having extreme weather. For the next few days here we are expected to be closer to normal. While I like to shake things up I also find comfort in the predictable.

I'll be shooting a few photos at a barrel racing event Saturday afternoon and finishing the day shooting the music man's gig, I have to say I'm super exited about that too. Sunday if not raining I'll be spending the afternoon with Chance.

Happy Friday and happy weekending!
Jen



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14 comments:

  1. Lap Dog KnitsJanuary 25, 2013 at 8:27 AM

    love the garden...good eatin' at your house!!

    happy weekend...must get our calendars together and make dates for camping soon..

    caspers,,,,anza.....soon....

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    1. UnknownJanuary 25, 2013 at 8:36 AM

      Hi Kyle
      Thanks! I would love to camp, visit and photo walk with you. I'll email you.

      Delete
  2. Our Neck of the WoodsJanuary 25, 2013 at 9:45 AM

    The garden looks awesome! You're growing a lot! We want to try potatoes this year but never have grown them before, so I need to do some research. We can't grow year-round unfortunately because it can get pretty cold here in MO. I always tell my husband if we had to move for some reason, I would move somewhere milder so I could garden all year long and have citrus and avocado trees!

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    1. UnknownJanuary 25, 2013 at 4:13 PM

      Thanks Tammy!
      We have citrus BUT you have Maple syrup :) and that is incredibly cool. I think you should definitely give planting potatoes a whirl. Last year was my first year for them and it was great.

      Have a great weekend friend

      Delete
  3. ColleenJanuary 25, 2013 at 10:17 AM

    Your winter garden is wonderful! We can plant year round here in Charleston also and for the first time I put a few things in although the results have not been very good. We have kale, collards and cauliflower. I was so excited to finally see a flower on the cauliflower and than we had the warm weather so my one plant bolted...but it's still fun to look at!

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    1. UnknownJanuary 25, 2013 at 4:33 PM

      Hi Colleen
      We are so lucky aren't we! Do you have a blog? I would love to see pics of your garden. I tried to cauliflower last year and it was a total bust so i passed on it this year. Our soil is really bad for veggies so i supplement and compost like crazy. Thanks for commenting and swinging by.

      Happy Friday Friend
      Jen

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    2. ColleenJanuary 30, 2013 at 9:11 AM

      Hi Jen!
      We are lucky especially with all the cold weather around us! I do have a blog thefrugalfoodieskitchen.blogspot.com. There are no pictures of my gardening attempts on there but there are pictures of food and Bear the dog!
      Colleen

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    3. UnknownJanuary 30, 2013 at 6:12 PM

      Hi Colleen,
      I'm heading over to check out your blog now, thank you for telling. By the way i LOVE food! I'm an Italian after all haha.

      Jen

      Delete
  4. MichelleJanuary 25, 2013 at 5:06 PM

    No winter garden for me. I would love to though. I will start my cold frame soon!

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    1. UnknownJanuary 25, 2013 at 5:22 PM

      Hi Michelle
      I just read your post definitely no garden for you guys right now. Holy cow it looks freezing, be careful and i know you'll be planting soon. If i remember you use straw bails right...

      Have a great weekend
      Jen

      Delete
  5. Optimistic ExistentialistJanuary 26, 2013 at 5:24 AM

    Beautiful pics!! Makes me want to grow my own garden :)

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    1. UnknownJanuary 26, 2013 at 8:53 AM

      Hi Optimistic!
      Thank you, I do love to garden, if i inspired you plant a seed in yours that is awesome. Thanks for swinging by, I'm off to check yours out now . Have a great day!

      Delete
  6. LeighJanuary 27, 2013 at 5:10 PM

    I too, am fortunate enough to be able to have a winter garden. Not so mild as to have a citrus orchard, but mild enough to have roots and greens all winter, assuming I get them planted in time, LOL. I was too late this year and then we had a long dry spell with erratic watering on my part. We are harvesting peas, turnips, kale, and mangels for the goats.

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    1. UnknownJanuary 27, 2013 at 5:44 PM

      Hi Leigh,
      Yeah, aren't we so lucky to be able to grow food all year long. I am looking forward to harvesting but have a few weeks still.

      Have a great week!
      Jen

      Delete

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