Onions

Out in the garden the other day I noticed Cindy planting some onion sets among the beets.

I thought they looked very interesting, so I asked Cindy what the differences were between the red ones and the white ones.  She said, "Well.... some of them are red... and some are white."

Oh, duh, red onions and white onions.  Got it.

After The Rains

We've been getting decent amounts of rain from several El Nino systems, and Cindy's seedlings are loving it.

However, along with the rains come the weeds, and we have a bumper crop of those coming in, too.

Oxalis and Dandelion

And fungus, too.

Mushroom

And Borage, again.  

Borage

Not Sure What This One Is

Some of these are probably edible, although I draw the line at eating unknown mushrooms.  

Spuds!

I do love potatoes.  Yes, I do.  So I was very happy when Cindy harvested these out of one of the grow bags out behind the fence.

New Crop of Potatoes

She initially left them on a tray on the ground outside to dry off, so that it would be easier to brush the remaining dirt off, but I've seen Big Mama, the matriarch of the California Ground Squirrel colony, busily scarfing up bird seed under the bird feeder recently.  She's obviously bulking up in preparation for delivering her next litter.

I'm not sure how Big Mama feels about potatoes, but we decided to move them into the garage to dry; she's not getting these spuds.

A Perfect Day

Today's a perfect day for sitting by the fire, reading a book and watching the RAIN fall.  This is supposed to be the first of several El Nino rain storms this year, and so far it has been producing pretty well.

We'll probably never make it up past Level Four on the Irish Rain Scale, but that's fine with us; a soft, gentle rain for a couple of days is just what we need.

All Bundled Up

Cindy put the corks in place to support a protective cloth covering for the vegetable beds about a week ago, and when temperatures dropped into the mid 30's the last couple of nights, she covered them up to protect the plants from frost.

Shhhh, The Veggies Are Sleeping

She's not about to put all that work into raising the plants from seed, preparing the beds and transplanting the seedlings to have them nipped off by frost.  As a bonus, it makes it harder for the ravenous California Towhees to get at these plants to do the same kind of damage they've already done to the tender young Sugar Snap Peas.  

We're really pretty lucky that we live in a place where it is possible to start growing veggies in December, but they still have to be protected to keep them growing.    

Cork Farming

Using the wine corks as mulch for container plants has worked out pretty well for us (see: "Showing Our Dedication To A Noble Cause" ), but what do you do when you don't have enough corks or can't drink the wine fast enough to accumulate all the corks you need?

Why, of course you plant a cork farm and grow your own corks!  

Corks Up!

Actually, Cindy had intended to use these corks to support some shade cloth to keep the emerging vegetable plants safe from bugs and other veggie predators, such as the California Towhee or the Lesser Goldfinches, who like to nosh on our plants.

She had to quit for the day before she was able finish, but left the corks in place with the shade cloth over the top of the anti-varmint panels.  

 It's more fun to think of it as a cork farm, though.  

Nobody Told Them

I guess nobody told these green beans that they aren't supposed to want to grow at this time of year.  We didn't even plant them; they came up from this summer's beans that had dried out on the vine and fell into the bed.  So when we got some rain, the beans just sprouted and began to put down roots and develop leaves.

Volunteer Green Bean Plants

Although the freezers are already stuffed with the beans we grew this summer, as well as some from years past, Cindy decided to put up some strings for the bean plants to climb, since they appear to be thriving.

Sugar Snap Peas

The Sugar Snap Peas at the other end of the bed, which are supposed to be growing at this time of year, have been having a harder time of it.  Cindy put hardware cloth cages around some of them to keep the varmints, especially the feathered California Towhee type varmints, from eating the emerging plants.

The snap pea plants without cages have been stripped to the stems, so I guess the Towhees are hungry.  They don't seem to fancy green beans at this time of year, though; I guess they know they're out of season.