Friday, January 13, 2017

Five Things Friday

The five little things that made my week…

The garden after a good rain

1. Rain, rain, glorious rain. We’ve had more rain in the last couple of weeks than we’ve had in the last couple of years combined. It’s amazing for California on so many levels: putting a dent in our five-year drought, bringing much-needed snow to the mountains and setting up for a great kayak season. Here in my thirsty garden, the sight of everything drenched in rain is pure delight. Keep the storms coming!

Nasturtium leaves getting a shower

2. I’ll never tire of seeing Swarovski-like gems of raindrops dancing across nasturtium leaves. For a fun read, here’s a post I wrote about the superhydrophobic properties of nasturtiums.

Bumper crop of winter figs

3. Almost every winter, we have a strange bumper crop of figs. There are a couple dozen of them, growing on the tips of branches even as the leaves are falling off the tree. We’ve harvested a few handfuls already, with more to come this month. Such a sweet bonus!

Serrano pepper plant in winter

4. In zone 10b, pepper plants are perennial but our serrano always looks a little spindly this time of year in our coastal microclimate. Being the scrappy survivor that it is, it’s still putting out an impressive yield of peppers this season!

Kale and broccoli plants

5. Speaking of scrappy survivors… If you’ve ever wondered what a 16-month-old brassica looks like, here you go. These are kales and broccoli that I never got around to pulling out, and they’re still giving us new leaves that are surprisingly tender and mild. If I didn’t need the space in my garden bed this spring, I’d be tempted to keep them and try to grow them like perennial tree collards.

The CSA Cookbook makes a great gift for the garden lover and whole-foods cook. Buy it on Amazon or get a personally signed copy directly from my online store!

More From Garden Betty



from Garden Betty http://ift.tt/2ircCkd

No comments:

Post a Comment