We had a very wet December (and late November) , followed by a lot of totally foggy days, but then got some beautiful days in the 60F. Finally rained again a little last week and this upcoming week is a drencher! Might decrease the apricots yield since they are flowering but I’m seeing few bees out yet. Too bad. As always, we need the water so have to “enjoy” the wet weather!
The lettuces have just struggled this year. I had a poor germination and now something has eaten most of my Romaine heads. No evidence left behind- no holes either. Grrr. The butter lettuce has grown very slowly but three are still going. The collard greens are also slow this year but were big enough to grow a lot in these last 10 days or so of sunshine here in Wilton. The peas have also had poor germination but those that survived the rabbit (?) are starting up the trellis. Snap peas are few but the snow peas mostly didn’t make it. I did plant some more seeds this week. Peas are one of the few things I grow that I also eat! The onions and garlic in those same front bins are plugging along- they got established before the endless days of dreariness!
The permanent garden looks much better these days because Dave has been putting a lot of work into weeding it and knocking down all the grasses etc. It didn’t get as bad as last year but it was looking pretty hairy! We need to put in the blackberry trellis, a higher line on the raspberry trellis and make the strawberry “run” for lack of a better term soon. It’s going to be about 40’ long but only filled in about half this year. I plan on spreading out the strawberry plants so they can naturally fill in with runners. Then next spring we will fill in anywhere that is a bit thin. The blueberry bushes are blooming and flowering right now but I have not seen many bees so that could be a bummer. There were two artichoke plants that survived and one has 4 little heads on it. Dave took down the tarp between our back porch and the bushes so now I can see the flowers. Happiness!
The orchard still has 2 mandarin trees that are producing and one lemon tree. They sure are pretty with their bright fruit showing against the dark green leaves. The apricot and plum trees are starting to bloom, apricots further ahead than the plums, so hopefully they can get pollinated with this crazy heavy storm coming.
These lemons are sure pretty and the small tree has yellow, but firm, as well as fully green fruit on it.
The bulb flowers are growing their leaves with just the naked lady leaves as expected and the freesias showing buds. The irises have leaves across the front fence and I have some violas in bloom. It is still too early for the flowers. That is why the flowering trees are so great! I’ll try to write every couple of weeks so we can see how it works out this year! Dave has assembled 6 Birdie bins in the front yard and Matt will order soil for them soon. Then real planting begins!
