24 12, 2019

Keyhole Garden Progress – December 24, 2019

By |2019-12-30T13:59:41-08:00December 24th, 2019|Projects|

A Pacific storm rolled in giving us about 2 inches of rain and considerably colder temperatures. Our mountains got snow, we got frost, but the keyhole garden doesn't seem to notice. The lettuces and Chinese cabbage are really leafing out and the broccoli and red cabbage are getting tall. Even the cilantro, which is kind of picky about too hot or too cold, is growing well.

21 12, 2019

Christmas Rescue 2018

By |2020-12-30T15:48:05-08:00December 21st, 2019|Photos|

A white poinsettia one year after being rescued My wife likes to justify her post-Christmas bargain hunting by bringing home an abused and deeply-discounted Christmas plant for me to save. Sometimes it's a rosemary trimmed in the shape of a little Christmas tree, an easy save, sometimes it's a spruce, a plant wholly unsuited for San Diego's desert climate and therefore a hard save. Usually though, it's a poinsettia, which is an easy save unless you make it  [keep reading...]

20 12, 2019

Found an Aloe Forest

By |2019-12-20T09:37:34-08:00December 20th, 2019|Garden, Photos|

For the past week I've been cleaning a long neglected section of the Acre in preparation for a chicken (and duck) friendly Mediterranean garden. To clear one area I had to chop down a rogue oak sapling and cut out a tone of dead brush below it. When I finally did get the area cleaned up, I discovered a rather large patch of aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis) growing quite happily along the fence line. I vaguely recall planting  [keep reading...]

17 12, 2019

Hot Pepper Sauce Batch 19 – Entry 9

By |2019-12-17T08:55:11-08:00December 17th, 2019|Projects|

Rain and persistent cold weather have slowed the peppers to a crawl. There's still a few left on the plants, but not enough to hold off on moving the hot sauce to its resting stage. To enhance the flavor I add a couple of oak staves to the pepper brew and let it sit for another 8 - 12 weeks. American oak happens to be high in a compound called vanillin, which is why things that age in American oak  [keep reading...]

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