The plants grow while you're not looking!

 Juan Rapido and I made a getaway to an even hotter part of California for 5 days and when I returned I was astonished to see that the winter squash vines are creeping under the orange tree and towards the edge of the upper terrace. They are huge! And there are a few squashes forming under those leaves, which is even more exciting. 

Meal planning has started to revolve around what's ready to eat and has included fava bean and mushroom risotto, Caldo Verde, Tahini dressed roasted squash and green beans over salad greens, and a tofu + shiitake stir-fry of carrots, green beans, and kohlrabi with Thai Basil pesto. 

Eggplant flower and tiny Chaterais melon

Native flowers in the garden

I'm so excited to plant wildflowers native to our area in the garden and plan to collect seeds from them to sow in the front yard this fall. Here are the flowers!

Baby blue eyes
Nemophila menziesii

Tidy Tips

California Buttercup

Gilia tricolor 

Veggie garden update-harvests and pests

lower raised bed on 4 May 2021

The first plantings have been harvested and I've turned over a few areas of the garden beds. We had a good crop of turnips, only to learn that Juan Rapido is not a fan of the turnip or the (I think, tasty) greens. The kohlrabi is doing well and has been incorporated into coleslaw, stir fry, pan-roasted veggies, and crudite. Also in the harvest basket: lettuce, dill, arugula, basil, cilantro, peas, kale, radishes, and a few strawberries plus Alstroemeria flowers which have been blooming since we arrived in November!

green cabbage white butterfly 
caterpillar & damage

The pea plants are looking a little wan and I think it's time to start more seeds. Lest you think that seasoned gardeners don't have their challenges: the neighbor's cats who use my newly seeded beds as a litter box, cabbage white butterfly larvae chewing their way through the Brassica patch, and aphids on the greens. I started checking the undersides of leaves several times a week to remove pests. I'm also getting used to how often and how much water the plants need- certainly more than in foggy San Francisco. In this year of serious drought, we are capturing water from sinks and showers inside the house as much as possible but I do still need to supplement with irrigation and hose water regularly.

It's exciting to watch the first zucchini, peppers, cabbage, and cauliflower emerging and it seems as if the melon vines grow overnight! I also thinned the swelling apples from the backyard tree leaving only 2 per spur. More than that will result in smaller fruit and be too heavy for the branches.