Harvest Monday 12/26

Lots of citrus, the counter is starting to fill up.  Picking 4-5 avocado every week, they usually take 2 weeks to soften up.  High 70's on Christmas day, Southern California, can't beat the weather. 

The boys, eating spinach off the counter.  Good thing I have plenty of greens going on in the garden.  Radish, lettuce, chard, kale, beets, and the turnips should be a few more weeks.








My brothers neighbor has two great Hass trees.  Picked a few when we were over there to add to the collection.  Still trying to keep the squirrels away from mine. 

TPW made a frittata with some of the eggs, and spinach.  2 of the ladies are laying, one is just finishing up molting so we should be getting 3 eggs a day in the near future.

Harvest Monday 12/5

Last of the basil, as well as other greens.  Still harvesting at least a bowl of lettuce a day as well as spinach and a few radish, salads everynight.  Finally picket a bucket of oranges and squeezed some OJ for the family. 

 We had a pretty major wind event over the past few days, I have been picking up avocados all day.  A couple of casualties pictured to the left, should be ripe in 10 days.  Notice the brown markings on them?  The squirrels like them almost as much as we do. 

 The youngest member of the team holding two of the  grapefruits that we picked today.  For such a little tree it sure is putting out a lot of fruit.  To bad I'm the only one that likes them.

Looks like I'll make it another year without scurvy.  The fruits of the families labor,  literally.

Harvest Monday 11/28

A sad day on the farm.  We lost out Barred Rock, Princess Laya.  Not really sure what happened, we left for a couple of days, they all had plenty of food and water,  The Princess was just laying in the middle of the the coop, no signs of trauma, no feathers scattered around.  TPW was pretty bummed as it was her second Barred Rock to die.  On a more happy note, I have expanded the garden some, see pictures below.  More room to plant.   Warm weather low 80's.  All of the citrus are looking good.  The Grapefruit should be ready in a week or two.

Boysenberry bush.  I have not had much luck with the berries. I planted 2 Raspberries as well asthe Boysen.  Maybe the spring will be better

Had to add some color to all of the leafy

greens.  Fresh OJ is only days away
Planted a new olive tree.  TPW has agreed to cure the olives when they arrive, probably not for a year or two.  Apricot tree losing it's leaves in the background.  See there is such thing as Fall in Southern California.  Well sort of.

Lots of leafy greens.  The little guy just can't get enough of the spinach.  I guess I should be happy, he could be drinking my beer.  Still getting tons of lettuce as well as radish, can't pick'em fast enough.

A couple of shots of the avocados.  Both trees are pretty heavy, not pictured is the Fuerte, like the Hass it's fully loaded.  Now if I can just keep the squirrels away.

Two new areas that I have opened up for planting.  I have planted the lower section with onions, lettuce, turnips, garlic and carrots.

Come on rain!

Got another inch of rain today, so much for La Nina.  Hope I didn't just curse myself.  All of the seeds that I planted a couple of months ago are doing well.  Had my first radish, pretty good.  Beets should be along shortly as well as turnips. 

Put some purple kale with one lonely chard, they all seem to be getting along.  Harvested 2 of the plants, hence the open section up front.  TPW makes killer Kale chips. 

Spinach on the left with lettuce next to that, beets in the middle, radish on the right with more spinach,  2 artichoke.  I have to keep the boys out of the spinach because they like to pick it right off the plant and eat it.

 All of the citrus are turning.  Fresh OJ is not far off.  The Blood's as well as the Navel will probably be first, followed by the mandarin, then the grapefruit, then Valencia. 

Harvesting the last of the Basil, I think.  I have a few plants that were able to over winter last year.  We'll see what they can do.  TPW has been drying some of the herbs in her very Brady dehydrator.  It always seems like I have so much, however when she is done it looks like so little.

Harvest Monday 11/7

Lots of leafy greens.  The Kale that I put in has gotten HUGE, below are three leaves that I cut along with a sample of the lettuce.  All of the seeds that I put in are looking good, and the citrus is starting the change color, well at least the Navel's are.  Had a pretty good storm blow through here this weekend.  About an inch of rain, some of you may be laughing at the fact that I am even mentioning that small amount of precipitation, but we usually only get 14-16 inches annually.  So it's a BIG deal! 

Lot of basil still going. 

Another look at some of the lettuce, I have been able to cut a pretty big bowl of lettuce every day for the past week, along with a variety of herbs. 

 

Harvest Monday 10/31

First harvest of the greens.  Three different kinds of red lettuce as well as oak.  Four different types of basil.  TWF made some killer pesto.  Weather has been warm in the 90's for the past few days.  However, things should be cooling down soon,

Below is the problem, asked some of the local nurseries, and they said spider mite?  Not sure.  If you know please help!  To the left is my newest toy.  I have been spraying the trees with neem oil, we'll see.  The oil is supposed to get rid of the ants that are attacking the natural predators of the mites that produce the white fluff on the leaves of the citrus.

Maggie Dog

Quick update.

Just a couple of pics of the garden from the past few weeks.  Fall wants to start, but the summer heat just keeps on keepin on.

I didn't have the heart to tell this guy that things aren't going to end well. 

Ahhh, nature. Gotta love it.  

   

                              

 Just got the third barrel, 150 gallons, now 250 gallons total between the 3 barrels.  Now if it would just rain! 

 Finally dug up the summer crops.  It was hard as there were still a few green tomatoes.  Planted spinach and lettuce 6 packs for some quick greens, and carrots, spinach, lettuce, radish, beat, garlic, chives, from seed.  It's still pretty warm, 95 degrees yesterday, had to water the carrot seeds twice.

Lot's of seeds, we'll see what comes up.  The radishes germinated in 2 days!  The carrots are going to take a while.  Never had much luck with the carrots, maybe I'll do better this year.  Stay tuned...

Pooptastic!

TPW was not happy that I moved this load in her car, but when all was said and done not a trace of poop remained.  The plants are going to be happy!

The waiting, is the hardest part.

Things are kind of in between seasons right now.  I find that this is the hardest time of the year for me.  The summer crops are on their way out, and it is still a little too warm to plant the winter crops and the new trees that I wat to put in.  So... I have been doing a few odd jobs around the ol farm.  This was probably my last tomato harvest, the boy seems to be caught in the tomato trance.  The sweet peppers never really got started, squash are done, pulled all cherry tomaotes, no pumpkins this year.  Only had a few female flowers appear, sadly they bit the dust.

Dug up the first bed, it was painful.  It's never the perfect time to start pulling the summer veggies, but I finally jumped in.  The picture below is the area that I took out an old diseased orange tree from.  Now what to plant...?  Grapes, blackberries, veggies, natives, another fruit tree.  I am going to have to pull the trigger on this area in the next couple of weeks.

These pomegranate are the last three.  I planted 2 trees in the fall.  Each tree had 3-4, the other one which is outside the gate lost all of it's fruit to some ^*)_% vermin.  Hopefully I can keep these 3 safe.  I have 1 milkweed plant that has literally exploded in the last few weeks, we have seeds flying around everywhere.

 Have spent the last few weeks digging up Iris, dividing them and replanting them.  I must have dug up hundreds of them, the lady that lived here before us was a card carrying Iris club member, we have them in all shades.  Spring should be interesting

More Iris's under the avo trees and the random Crape myrtle.  New plum tree in the background, I put it in last fall.