March Garden Update

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What follows are some notes, mostly as reminders for to my Future Self.




California is finally getting some much-needed rain.  This current storm system will not come close to ending our current drought conditions, but it does help.




I've got scarlet runner beans sprouting, as well as some unknown beans that I grew last year, saved seeds from, and somehow failed to document at all.  Medium sized, speckled, and a total mystery.  I'm also trying to germinate Cherokee trail of tears beans and royalty purple beans.  We didn't bother growing fava beans this winter, because neither Robb nor I particularly like how they taste.

We can grow beans fairly easily, but for some reason, I have no success with peas.  I can grow sad scraggly plants, which mostly become fodder for garden pests, and rarely produce any pods at all.




The garlic and kale are doing very well.  I've started seeds for magenta and orange chard.  The various dye plants are chugging along.




The rain has knocked off most of the blossoms from the pluot and plum trees.  Oddly, the plum tree produced very few flowers this spring.  Was it the lack of rain over the winter?  Or do plums take of year off, from time to time?

The massive bush that's bisected by the garden fence is our rosemary.  I used to try to grow these in pots on the east coast,  and now it's a challenge to keep this one plant from taking over the garden.




The orchids are all doing quite well, as is the lemon tree.




This was the first year that we didn't use up all of last season's lemons.  I suppose I need to get inside the tree, to clear up the over-ripe lemons.  Leaving them on the tree can't be a good practice.  Actually, I lie. The lemon tree is covered with mealy bugs, and the black crud they produce.  I'm going to need to figure out what to do about this.  It's disgusting, and is surely hurting the poor tree.  We've tried washing with soap in the past, but only did that once or twice.  We've got to step up our game, somehow.




The figs are starting to sprout leaves.  The pomegranates are doing well. My various grafting attempts seems to be doing all right.





The orange hose sprawling across the yard is part of our grey-water system.  We use the waste-water from our washing machine to water the lawn.  I still want to dig a well, but I think that's a crazy dream, given that we're in the middle of the city.  Robb and I conserve water like crazy people, and I'm somewhat worried what this will mean if water rationing is instituted.  Will we be able to reduce our usage?  I'm not sure...


 

Comments

BOOTY said…
At last! I have something to contribute to your blog!

It's perfectly fine to leave citrus on the tree, even with blossoms, and baby fruit also growing. The people in my neighborhood do it all the time with lemons, oranges, and grapefruit. Doesn't hurt the tree, and doesn't really seem to change the size of the new crop by much. Although, some varieties of lemon will continue to grow larger until they look like grapefruit, but that's a story for another time.

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