Our little garden is growing really well right now. This is a great time in San Diego County for plants. The sun shines for well over 12 hours a day, and the temperatures are generally mild. We did have some fairly extreme temperature jumps this week. Last Wednesday our high was only 67 degrees, but by Sunday it was about 95 degrees. I had to make sure I kept the soil from drying out and allowing my seedlings to die.
I also had a problem with something digging in my garden beds. I have some sort of beetle grub that lives in the soil. The grub seems benign, but occasionally there will be holes dug all over the garden beds when some animal decides grubs are on the menu. At least I think that is what is going on. When I find dug up spots, I just attempt to put the dirt back in place and resettle the plants. Generally, the plants do OK, but I do miss out on seeds sprouting when they are disturbed.
Our lemon tree is growing and putting out many lemons. Three years ago the lemons looked diseased and were inedible, now there are more lemons then we can keep up with.
I think we might actually get blood oranges for the first time. The fruit seems to have set and is growing larger right now.
The key lime tree I bought at Costco has blooms all over it. I planted it near the end of the summer last year, and got a few limes off of blooms that were on it when I bought it. I think we will get a lot of limes this year.
My Anna Apple tree is blooming again. I was surprised to see more flowers on the tree. It is the first year I have this tree, so I have no idea what to expect from it.
The almonds continue to look good. They really don’t look like almonds at all though. The part we eat is safely protected inside of its large fuzzy shell for now.
I really hope this plant is an artichoke and not some lesser cousin. I think the seeds blew in from my neighbors yard, but I haven’t been able to ask them yet.
This garden bed has a large cauliflower plant in it that I think is finally going to give us something to eat. There are also green beans, carrots, Desi Squash, Patty Pan Squash, Long Beans, Pok Choy, and Swiss Chard. I had some Kale plants, but lost them when that part of the bed got dug up. I might have a couple pepper plants going, the seedlings look like peppers, but I planted the peppers so long ago that I am not sure.
The large plants you see in the bed are New England Sugar Pie Pumpkins. We grew this type last year and got 19 pumpkins out this small area. There are also 3 kinds of peppers in the background, and green beans in the foreground.
The brown plants in the back of this bed are my garlic. They look bad, but seem to be growing well. There are also three types of flowers, mustard greens, kohlrabi, and some kind of cauliflower.
This is my long bed. It has a number of things planted in it. Unfortunately, this one got dug up pretty badly twice. I probably lost the carrots I planted in here and some of the green and wax beans.
My 7 year old’s garden bed is growing like mad. Some of his corn plants have corn on the stalks already. Earlier this week I harvested two of his beets to make room for the other beets. One of his cauliflowers was eaten by caterpillars so I replaced it with two chard plants that I bought. His other cauliflower is getting chewed up by caterpillars too, even though I try to look for bugs to kill on it every day.
My thirteen year old’s garden bed is also growing well. His corn is also starting to have fruit on it. His cilantro didn’t like the mid 90s temperatures from the weekend and looks like it wants to bolt. Cilantro is very heat sensitive, which I find interesting because it seems only be eaten in places where it is warm. His Black King Pansies have started to bloom a little.
Here are some pictures of a tomato plant since that is what my mom and my wife really want me to grow.
There isn’t much growing right now that we can eat, since I didn’t do well in the transition from winter to spring. There are a few things that I was able to pick.
This afternoon we had a decent sized California Kingsnake on our driveway. I wasn’t able to get much pictures or video of it since it quickly slithered into our ivy. There are a number of gopher holes near the snake, so I really hope the snake slaughters some gophers.
I hope that everyone that read through all this enjoyed the pictures, and I hope your planting endeavors are doing well.
-Joshua