A couple weeks ago, I was taking Goliath for his evening constitutional and I noticed a robin hopping his little reddish chest around our front fence. For a minute, I gandered, pondering the oncoming Autumn weather, the change of seasons that would bring sweaters and all things holiday. Le sigh.
And then I realized that little flying beast was pecking at my peas! Whether he was trying to eat the seeds or simply scratch around them for bugs, I don't know. What I do know is that like a possessed person, I lunged up the yard, flailing my arms and swearing shouting, trying to save my tender seedlings. Yes, I'm that neighbor.
As the author of "Trying not to hate my winter garden," it surprises me more than anyone that I'm attempting cool season crops again. For some reason, despite the Season 3 disaster, it sounded like a good idea last month, so I picked up seeds for multi-colored beets and carrots, purple and white cauliflower, blue kale, snow peas, English peas and sweet peas. And I threw in some arugula, thyme, cilantro and Italian parsley for good measure. Last time, only the peas grew so I quadrupled the amount of seeds sown. (Ha!)
As with my Summer seeding, I delight in the tiny sprouts that have emerged, fighting against the daily dusting of oaks leaves for sunlight. (Seriously, I don't have to weed much, but I must rake off leaves and pull out acorns just about daily.) Without the promise of tomatoes and basil, I'm less engaged with the crops but still excited to see what survives. With luck, prayers and (organic) pesticide, I have half a chance of pulling in some harvest in a few months so do send me your green thumb vibes.
Here's the progress so far:
 |
| Visit actual nurseries for seed diversity. Much more selection than the Lowe's and Home Depots of the world. |
 |
| Itty bitty arugula. Even the tiny sprouts smell spicy. |
 |
| Bane of my existence, about 10,000 of these suckers have rained down so far this Fall. This means I'll be deforesting come Spring time! |
 |
| Pea sprouts! I planted English peas, sugar snap peas and sweet peas. |
 |
| The process of growing beets has made me actually like them now, but I maintain, they still taste a lot like dirt, ahem. |
 |
| Oak leaf mulch? |
 |
| I planted trellising and bush sugar snap peas. So far I can't tell the difference. |
 |
| Ever the square foot gardener! |
 |
| Insidious acorns. |
 |
| Front yard peas, site of the dancing robin earlier in September. |
 |
| Can you tell I'm enamored with these suckers? |
 |
| Cauliflower. It did occur to me to thin and only keep the purple ones... |
 |
| Jewel beets. |
 |
| The bush sugar snaps. |
 |
| If I were a better neighbor, I would have made a pretty trellis. Maybe next year! |
 |
| Cauliflower! |
 |
| Bonus, pretty front yard flowers including these monstrous mums who have decided to turn purple after blossoming white. These surely compensate for the ugly trellis, right? |
 |
| Happy violets! (Not pictured: The completely mowed down friends next door, thank you snails.) |
xoxo,
shawna
National Blog Posting Month:
Day 1- National Blog Posting Month on BlogHer: I'm inLabels: arugula, beets, BlogHer, cauliflower, front yard, garden, Gardening, greens, home and garden, NaBloPoMo, peas, personal, Sacramento, snow peas, sweet, violets, winter
