Redux

Been cooking the same olds: sweet potato and kale hash, beet burgers, oatmeal souffle, etc. Also just swapped out the carrots, beets, and arugula... and put the tomato starts and summer seeds in. The snow peas were given a reprieve because they are still blooming.

Arugula plus

Third #arugulachallenge meal was arugula salad with cranberries, goat cheese, and almonds. Made a dressing with garlic in balsamic and olive oil. Super yummy! And separately, I had this fubar while trying to get an egg from the pack.

Abundance of arugula

The rainy weather has been kind to the arugula, so it's time for me to join the pup in eating it (she likes kale and greenery more that I would ever have expected...). Which had me searching for arugula recipes, and I landed on  this yummy one. Of course it's modified, I super thinly sliced some yellow onion since I was lacking in chives and omitted the rosemary. And we don't typically have bread, so this was loaded onto some naan leftovers. Yummy. More different arugula experiments tomorrow hopefully.

Sauté onion and arugula in butter. Add 2 eggs and scramale them in. Salt and pepper to taste, serve on toast.

Winter veggies and volunteers

This is before and after I pulled out all the volunteer seedlings. I left the arugula, beets, and carrots (later found some tatsoy). And pulled the tomatoes, cucumbers, and grass that had sprouted illegally. (Plus a week passed between pics.)

Winter tomatoes

Two of the tomato plants are going strong, but I have to bring the fruit inside early because some critters are having a feast. I should probably take the whole thing down in a few weeks (I also said this a few months ago...).

Trees

Wanted to mark the size of the fruit trees that were all planted either 1 or 2 years ago... Can't wait until they are huge and producing so much that I have to make jam or give away. Also picked a ripe and super yummy fuji apple yesterday. Those white lattice fences are doing their job of keeping the dogs out of the crops.

Adios to the agave

This guy was starting to tip over so we took him out and planted something new. The tap root was strong so it was no easy feat. And I processed a ton of the pups (cleaned them up and removed any bugs) so that I could give away as many as possible. Last pic is the hesperaloe that took its place.

Invertebrate fauna

The bees are loving the pygmy date blossoms, and monarchs abound. I have my eye on four chrysalises including this guy. It tested out the back plank, but settled for in between. Which is good and protected, but I'm not sure theres enough room for it to spread its wings when it emerges, so I'll need to move the plank in a week to open up space.

What's ripe now (last day in April)

Had my the fruit tree specialist over today to re-stake the avocado trees which are growing up big and strong. He pointed out the navel oranges are ripe, which surprised me because they're still quite green. But they passed the taste test with flying colors. And lots of little fruit seem to be set on the tree for next year. Also was overjoyed to have a pair of cherries ripen two weeks ago... The bloom was amazing and seemed like I'd get hundreds, but I'll take the two that made it. They tasted great and the first home grown cherries we've ever had. Some of the peaches are big and colorful and I'll need to keep my eye on them as they seem like they'll be ready in a few weeks. Also learned the Lamb Haas is estimated to ripen in July, so the one I picked 2 weeks ago was way early... no wonder it hasn't ripened on the counter... So glad to have the expert over to impart wisdom. Oh yah, the other thing he said was to wait to thin the mandarins until they are nickel size. That was one of the trees already at this house and it's got a healthy crop ready to eat now and what seems like thousands in line for next year (and the tree can't hold up that much fruit), so I will likely need to do some thinning. We lost a branch to heavy fruit about a month ago; makes me want to get ahead of that happening again.

In the meantime

I've been lax to update about the bloom of the giant agave that must be about 12 feet tall: eventually the blooms opened up enough for the bees to enjoy. It seems like the bloom will last 6 months... And then the Aloe ferox with orange blossoms has bloomed and gone, but it had two separate stalks that were each multi-branching. Pretty awesome of a show!

April is for Avocados

Early April has some blossoms hanging on and the Lamb Haas fruits are darkening. I've got my calendar set to remind me to do a test pick of one in a few weeks. They're supposed to ripen in your house a week or two after picking... and with only 4 or 5 on the tree I'm for sure not picking them all at once. Will do some testing...

Stewart avocados ripen in Nov/Dec

Peeked into the side yard to admire the progress on rain barrel installation, and noticed something that looked like a black ball under the Stewart avocado tree. This tree used to have 3 fruits, but now has none. I pocketed the one that looked like a ball and noticed 1 clean pit, and one half eaten fruit which someone had scraped the green flesh off the skin pretty carefully. Suspicion is laid on one of the dogs who don't usually have access to this area, but were in and out a lot yesterday during rain barrel installation consultation sessions. And I bet they were on the ground already, not stripped be the dogs.
The skin was black and the fruit partially brown but I was able to eat about 1/3 of it and it was darn good. Next year I need to pick them in October or November.
The Lamb Haas has 5 fruit on it - they are giant and green and lovely. I plan to follow the timeline of this document, which says they ripen in May in San Diego and start testing them in early April.
Both of the trees were planted in approx April 2015 and had small fruit on them when they were planted. Fingers crossed that they bloom well and set fruit for next year! The trees definitely grew bigger in 2015 as they required re-staking in fall (they had grown taller than their supports) and were also pruned for shape and future growth.

Oranges

I'm still new to citrus trees, and a few weeks ago I noticed a bunch of the navel oranges were split. So I pulled them, set them in a bowl, and got to googling. It sounds like this happens because of uneven watering, they shrink when it's dry, then swell with rain/heavy watering and explode. Just realized today I can use the non-yucky half for cocktails, so that's good! Next thing to figure out is when to pick them... there's still a decent number on the tree (non-split).

Chaos gardening

It's quick and easy to not keep records or label things or track what's where... but then you have those times when you take a cactus leaf you bought at the garden shop - a plant described by the staffer as christmas cactus on crack - and just set it in an empty pot. Water it for a few weeks, then realize... it's not an empty pot! Accidentally I've forced these bulbs into coming up in November, although they were probably meant to wait until Feb or March.

Sharing

Been happy to have milkweed popping up around the yard. This one is growing between the brick pavers. Caught the butterfly and bee both partaking.
Managed to get some more milkweed seeds to sprout in pots, so hopefully we'll continue to have more of these kinds of visitors frequenting the yard.

Backyard gardening and fruit trees

We had a few rains this summer and early fall and every time every thing starts to bloom. Right now in mid-October it's the plums that are blooming like crazy. Hopefully they'll drop but if not I may need to get out the ladder and pull the blossoms off... The puppy let me have one fuji apple. She pulled it down October 7th, I let it wait a day or two then ate it and it was sweet and perfect. There was one of the other variety that survived the puppy rapture and until October 12th, but it was no where near as sweet. It either needed way more time or it's not my favorite kind.
I've been planting seeds directly in the planting beds for about a week, and planted them in egg cartons about 4 weeks ago. Still trying to get the seedlings to take, last time it was bugs that ate them when they were a few inches tall and nothing made it. Its time to thin the seedlings but I'm hesitant in case the bugs do their thing again... Planted the regular So Cal "winter" crops: broccoli, cabbage, kale, spinach, carrots, beets, green onions, tatsoy, and snow peas. Fingers crossed.

Front yard blooming

Now that it's mid-October, I've been watching to see if the plants that were blooming when I bought them last November are happy enough to bloom again this year. One of the aloes is up for the job, but it doesn't look like the Ferox Aloe is going to do it this year... but taking it's place is the Agave that was offered by the landscaper. It's going to be a tall one! More updates to follow as it progresses.

Fall harvest

Yesterday I took out all the summer crops except the jalapeño and a few garlics. Should be planting for winter but it's so unseasonably warm I've been hesitant.

August garden report

The veggies were slow to get going but now doing what's appropriate. As for yield, about 50 cucumbers, 15 tomatoes, 6 butternut squash, 1 spaghetti squash, and one jalapeño pepper. The beets and garlic are still going from winter. But for august, the fruit trees are going crazy. The apples, peach, avocado and citrus are all blooming. Totally off season and crazy.