Winter crops are petering out in the keyhole garden. Broccoli is heading out, cabbage is ripe, peas have been picked and the Romaine lettuce is about done. Just in time too. Cucumbers, more lettuce, tomatillos and tomatoes are all waiting in the greenhouse for their turn in the garden.
About a month ago, my wife said she felt like this Pride of Madeira (Echium candicans) was looking at her so I gave it bottle-cap eyes. I went outside yesterday morning and noticed that our peeping friend had his hair color changed courtesy of the recent freeze. Very stylish.
Temperatures have been well below freezing at night for the past week, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the keyhole garden. It continues to produce like there's no tomorrow. We've been harvesting lettuce and cilantro all week and it just seems to grow right back. Garlic, broccoli and cabbage are thriving as well.
80 degree heat earlier this week forced me to actually water the garden. It's quite full now. Time to start harvesting some of that lettuce and cilantro for Super Bowl snacking tomorrow.
A bit of rain followed by warmer weather from what I call our "fake spring" (it always gets really warm here at the end of January, then snaps back to cold) has the vegetables in the keyhole garden growing like crazy. All the garlic is now well along and the romaine lettuce, cilantro and dill are getting close to harvest. Maybe another week or so.
Cool weather (frost overnight and daytime temps in the upper 50s / low 60s) has slowed, but not stopped, plant growth. Lettuces (particularly the romaine) and cilantro are doing quite well, and the garlic I planted several weeks ago has now all sprouted.
Cool weather has turned it into a nutrient rich kitchen garden like no other! It's hard to overstate how awesome a keyhole garden is. If you’ve ever thought about building one, do it. I built one on a whim for about $100 early last spring and was amazed at how it pumped out vegetables and herbs from spring all the way into mid-autumn with basically no effort from me -- no weeding, very little watering, easy harvesting. Definitely $100 well [keep reading...]
No rain but close to freezing temperatures has the broccoli confused about what to do. Fortunately, the lettuce (front left) has no such problem.
Rain and wind make for terrible growing conditions around the acre for everything but the citrus. For the first time in several years it looks like all the trees -- navel orange, grapefruit, mandarin and tangerine -- will be full of fruit this winter. All well and good. Not only do us people enjoy the fruit, but the ducks are big fans too.
Winter is a great time to propagate plants from cuttings Salvia Pozo Blue propagated from another in my yard Mid winter is tough. If you’re anything like me, right about now you’re itching to get back outdoors, clear some garden beds and get started on planting for spring. The problem is there’s still weeks of cold, wet, frosty and unpredictable weather ahead that all but guarantee anything you try to get started will be killed off by the [keep reading...]
