February

Its been a warm winter here in Northern California with just a couple storms that gave us a lot of rain. Still in a horrible drought. Still watering plants with grey-water. Still wondering how I'll keep it all alive during the summer. Still wondering how I'm going to keep the creeps out of my garden. I'll try growing squashes around them and make it harder to get in. I guess that's all I can do unless I want to invest in fencing. Which isn't an option. But on a happy note, the deer and bunnies don't bother me at all.

My peas have done well despite the soakings. Ive been having them in stir-frys every other evening and I gave a few away. And I am always walking out to the patch to graze. I don't let them get very big because I cant stop eating them! They really did get pretty beat up by the storms, but they bounced back. Tall Telephone is taller than me now (I'm almost 6 feet tall) and starting to produce. The Golden Sweet Snow Peas are doing great.  The Cascadia and other peas that I saved from last year (I didn't keep good records and don't know what exactly I planted) are doing well.  I didn't do anything special to the soil this time around. Just stuck em in the ground and they grew. But I did rotate them to a different part of the garden and next time I wont crowd them as much. They have brown spots on the bottom leaves from overcrowding. Most of these seeds were left overs from the season before and all germinated just fine.

I planted a lot more garlic this year and it is going gangbusters. Its taking up a lot of space, so I wont have quite as many different kinds of vegetables this year. But when they are done, I can plant some fall crops. I have to pare this garden journey down despite all the car washings I have seen lately. And I love garlic so much that I don't care. I don't think you can have enough!

The Calendula are still growing and happy. They never died back. Ive got nasturtiums growing everywhere, which makes me happy as I just love them. They look pretty lush in patches along the sidewalk . They are invasive, but I don't have a problem yanking out the ones that go where they are not invited, There are not as many blooms now as they have in Spring, but the leaves are gigantic. I'll probably plant them in baskets out in my back yard this year. The dead tree has not been cut down yet, so I cant really plant anything permanent until it is, but nasturtiums strewn about would be fun now that we get more sun back there.

The weather has been glorious for February, so I am outside a lot and people love to stop and talk about my garden. I love to step outside from my work in the studio and look at the natural spots of color here and there. It heals me from the pressures of modern life.

 I dug up a strip alongside the house and I'll plant flowers - maybe some vining flowers  and more marigolds. In fact, I just ordered passion flower seeds and then didnt realize that they can take a year to germinate. Big sigh. I'll just have to go visit a nursery, I guess. I want some lush, trailing and climbing stuff. I want this place prettified. I did transplant my rootbound rose bushes - and they are THRIVING now that they can spread root, get some sun, and breathe! And for the shady front of my studio, I will be replacing the roses with ferns. This is a Mother Fern. I didnt even know I was getting a mother fern or what that is. I just knew that I wanted a fern and that it was love at first sight with this one. But now I'll have baby ferns to plant in the shady parts of the back yard! Its all coming together.