February 2021 In The Garden - Beautiful Lettuce

Late winter garden here in southern California has been beautiful for us.  So blessed indeed. The raised beds of lettuce, other greens and herbs have done a fantastic job.  The main seed mixes I have use this year are the  "sassy salad" mesclun mix and "Gourmet Baby" greens mix, both from Botanical Interests.  

Yes, I do add cilantro and a few nasturtium and pansy flowers into my salad.  

This bed here, I have some leeks (still in the baby stages), lettuce mix, carrots, larkspurs (I thought I lost them), Nero Kale and pansies.  

 

These beauties are from the seed packed called "carnival blend, Botanical Interests seeds. I do not have great success growing carrots, but I keep trying and what ever I get is good enough to me.  

This is what the red carrot looks on the inside.  So pretty.

Again, I love growing the mixes.  You get so many beautiful colors, shapes, textures and flavors. I will be sad to see the season end for growing lettuce, but I will start sowing them again in September.  

Nasturtium in a large container along with some scallions that just sprouted and a cilantro plant.  

Early in the morning I uncover the beds to get the nice early morning sun.  But once the sun becomes to intense I will cover them.  The covers also protect the tender greens at night from other pests.  

Thank you for your visit and hope to post soon.

Have a wonderful day!

 

February Gardening 2021

I do have better luck with sowing my seed into cells or peat pellets.

A few photos to share of what I am growing at the moment.

This bed has a lot going on but I love it.

I have one of my favorite lettuce mesclun mixes called "Sassy Salad" from Botanical Interest, cilantro, Lavewa Spinach, and snow peas in the background.  I had to take the peas out.  They were too tall and the winds we had last month pushed them over.  I should have done a better job of thinning the vines.  

Beautiful!  I also add some cilantro to my salad, not too much.  I love the extra layer of flavor it gives.

My new favorite greens to grow in the garden is the Nero Toscana Kale

Kale Ialian Lacinato "Nero Toscana" Botanical Interests seeds

Blanch or saute 

What do I do with excess cilantro?

I made a delicious sauce, Cilantro-Jalapeno Adobo Sauce

I found the recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, Christopher Kimball "Milk Street"

So good too and I have used over eggs and as a pesto for my pasta.  It freezes well too.

Bok Choy and Nero Toscana Kale

Another plant I love to grow is bok choy.  I like the baby choy because it grows in quicker. Here in my So. California garden it bolts so fast.  This year I have used garden shade cloths and seems to have helped.  It is very sensitive in warmer climates.

The garden cloth allows the plants to get filtered sun and also helps with the white moths and other things that like to nibble at your garden.

Thank you for visiting.  I hope to post more soon.

 

Hello Summer

Fist day of summer.

Here in zone 10a we are having a grey day and its perfect for working in the garden.

This is my second attempt here.  I sowed my first set of corn back in April.  They did not do well. These in the photo were sown on May 19th and so far so good.  In between the corn rows, I sowed two types of carrots, why not.

I did not realize that corn produced suckers. I carefully cut them away and I read they may grow back a few times.  I will keep cutting them away.

I sowed two more rows of corn and they have already sprouted, just in 5 days.

 I transplanted the last three bush beans "French Mascotte", seeds from Renee's Garden. Also in this bed is a zinnia plant called "Dancing Girls", seeds from Burpee.

 In this bed I had three large Sweet William plants that were sown last fall.  They were transplanted into the rose area. I needed to make room for the Roma tomatoes and basil plants.  I will also plant one of the Roma tomatoes in a large container.  Not a lot of different summer vegetables this time around, but I plan to start cucumbers and squash in late summer.  I am trying something new.  I will post my alley way bed next time.

Tomato RomaVF - seeds from Ferry-Morse

From zone 10a in Southern California, have a great summer and thank you for visiting my blog.

New In My Garden?

First time growing Sweet Corn in my garden.

Seeds packet: Botanical Interests

Buttergold (hybrid)

Sowed directly into my raised bed on April 14th

So far a few have spouted and they are about 2 inches tall.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I have netting over them to keep the crows out.  They love to mess up my beds.  According to the seed packet, I can continue to sow them thru May and the next round in July - August too

Next but not new in my little garden, Larkspurs.

Seeds packets: Renee's Garden

Heirloom Imperial "French Alouette"

Heirloom "Parisian Pink"

Sown late summer 2019

 You can click on to the photos to see them larger too.

 You can never have enough of these beauties in your garden.

Some container herbs 

 Sage and Chives that wintered over in the same container.  I added top dressing of compost.

 A favorite herb of mine is tarragon.  This plant has been in this container for a couple of years.  Wintered over and I also tilled in some compost around the plant.  Alyssum and tarragon do well together.

This is my raised bed set up. I use either small gauge chicken wire or PVC pipes and add netting over to keep the birds out.  So far so good and once the plants mature, I will take them off.

 Here is a Sweet William for you too.  Thank you for stoping by for a visit.  Have a wonderful day.  Blessings to all.

Changes In The Garden - Summer 2019 (Raised Beds)

BEFORE (2018 SUMMER)

AFTER (2019 SUMMER)

The raised beds make a difference in my garden.  A lot more easier to garden too.  Not so hard on my hand and back.  I was not sure what I wanted my garden to look like or what I wanted to grown. But so far, I liked how this past summer turned out.

Showing the rose area in this photo and an area that I'm still working on.  Lower part of the photo shows Borage.  Oh my what an amazing plant and it was the first time growing it too. 

But I want to share some winners for Sumer 2019

These are called "Minnesota Midget" melons.  Fun to grow and they produced well in my zone 10a here in Southern California.  Towards the end of the growing, I had to deal with the powdery white mildew.

So tasty and sweet.  These are my Husbands favorite fruit.  You can see the powdery mildew on the leaves.

The next surprise that grew for me were the mini eggplants called "Little Prince" container eggplants.  Seeds from Renee's Garden.  

They grew well in large containers and amazingly well in one of my raised beds, huge as a matter of fact. They were great producers.  I had to stake the one in the bed because of all the fruit it had on the plant.  First time growing this variety  of eggplants and I had much more success. 

It seems last year, I did not grow as many flowers.  This year I plan to not have that happen.  That is depending what type of summer we have here.

Yarrow, Gina Lollobrigida and zinnias.  

First time growing cover crop.  This is a beautiful and fun cover crop called "common Buckwheat", seeds from Botanical Interests.  Love the tiny little flowers. The plant is good for soil conditioning and attracts bees.  A warmer type cover crop and it will reseed itself.  Need to be careful, it will take over.

It makes great filler to flower bouquets too.  

This is one amazing herb, Borage and it is still growing in my garden.  It loved the summer heat and it really attracted the bees and lay bugs too. Not the most attractive plant but if you need to attract pollinators, this is the plant.  I think I will always be somewhere in my garden.  It has many good uses too.  You need to make sure you wear your garden gloves. A very prickly plant and may cause irritation to your skin.  But it is always good to wear glove while working in the garden.

The long hot days of summer along with the humidity bring this interesting insects, dragonflies.  They were in abundance in summer 2019. 

I could not have done it all without the help from my Husband and my garden buddy Opie.

I hope to post some of the fall and winter garden soon.  The lettuce has been amazing.

Thank you for visiting my blog and have blessed day.