The bad news is that we haven’t had any rain since our early December deluge which has folks all over worrying that that was it for our rainy season. The good news is that there have been plenty of lovely days to get outside and prune. Each and every day I get out and I do prune. At least as long as I get that flower pot (that you can see above) filled up a few times with twigs. As I listed out in my garden bullet journal, I’ve tackled all the back roses. Now it’s onto the lilacs. Lilacs aren’t supposed to be pruned until after they have bloomed in spring. They flower on last season’s growth, so pruning now will severely limit my blooms come spring. However, this ‘wall’ of lilacs is so thick and forest like, that it’s virtually impossible to get in there once it’s fully leafed out. This year I might miss out on a few blooms, but next year will be glorious…hopefully. It’s a lot of work. I mean, where do you even start?
I should have put some sort of object in this photo for size reference, but this unknown variety of bok choy grew much bigger than any of our heads!
Radishes, kale and spinach, all planted on Veteran’s Day are making their way into our dinners lately.
And the bread seed poppies and snapdragons that I started from seed back in August are just revved and ready for spring to shoot up and bloom. I can’t wait! I’ve been trying for years to grow bread seed poppies and the seedlings keep getting eaten. This year I think I found success! The only other time I grew them was about 11 years ago and they were so generous with their poppy seeds that we just recently used the last of them up in the kitchen.
This row of onions needs to be weeded along with the two rows of asparagus. They are long rows and take forever!! It’s easy to procrastinate. Oh and would you look, a little bit of broccoli is growing in the galvanized bins.
Tell me what is going on in your garden this month!
p.s. A few fun links:
- Interesting article on 7 world wide cultural concepts that are perfect for winter
- How to easily put on a duvet cover (totally changed the way I do it – thereby increasing how often I wash my covers)
- A tiny jungle house built by a woman and her mom in Hawaii that has inspired Scott & I to make/build things more creatively
- A song I can’t get enough of. Morning Time by locals Nicki Bluhm & The Brothers Comatose
Enjoy your day!
We’re in Southern Indiana so the ground is frozen here, which means nothing is going on in the garden yet….but I’m SO ready! I’ve been planning and looking at seed catalogs. We are going to put up a picket fence around the garden when it warms up. I’m also making plans for row covers for next winter to extend our growing season. Thanks for the photos! The broccoli is so cute! The kale and spinach are lovely too. And I think my new favorite band is The Brothers Comatose — LOVE that song!!!! Thanks! Have a great day!
Wow–11 years worth of poppy seeds: I’m going to have to grow some!
Some plastic allows us to garden year round (southern California)– so: lettuce & herbs (except basil) are still producing; broccoli is winding down; carrots are ready to be picked; peas are out of control; kale is slow but growing. Also, my compost should be perfect for spring planting.
Also my theme for this year is Kaizen and hope to practice a new idea every 2 weeks that aligns with my fitness goal for this year.
In my garden??? Snow. :>D We are just about 30 minutes south of Chicago, so the garden is under the first ‘good snow’ of the year and waiting for the deluge of snow during the rest of January and February…which is about when my snow crocus start to pop up and raise my spirits that SPRING HAS OFFICIALLY SPRUNG! :>D and I can start to think about getting carrots and peas into the ground…
I like to think of this time of year in the ‘upper Midwest’ as God’s giving us a little vacation and sending us out in search of hills so the kids can sled and the moms can ‘congeal’ before the work of spring is upon us! :>D
We have family that lives in your area of CA, so we love all that you share! It helps my kids connect with their cousins and know what their life might be like….
I’m so worried about the lack of rain, and I haven’t been able to prune the roses because they never went dormant!
My roses never have gone dormant, no matter what kind of weather we’ve had. I have to force them into dormancy by pruning them. And yes, the lack of rain worries me too!