I know I mentioned that our weather here in California has been wildly unpredictable this year. It still is. If this is winter, I’ll take it. For people, this is great. My winter garden, however, just isn’t happy. I had a similar problem last winter. Every so often, the temperature goes north of seventy-five degrees. The strawberries don’t mind. The leaf lettuce is also hanging in there, but everything else? Forget about it.
Since I enjoyed the fresh broccoli I grew last year, I purchased two transplants for this year’s garden. Interestingly, although they are fairly near each other and receive the same amount of sun and moisture, one is doing better than the other. Well, I should say, one did better than the other. Then spring arrived, or so it seems. Before the head of the first plant was even five inches in diameter, it started to bolt. I chopped it off, and enjoyed what little there was to eat. It was really yummy, but there was only enough for one portion.
I didn’t remove the plant right away because the side shoots last year gave me more than the main head. I was hoping that this would happen again, but now I’m not so sure. The plant sent out several shoots right away, but they look like they want to bolt too. They aren’t even two inches across! The main head in my second plant bolted two days ago. It wasn’t even worth putting on a plate. I rinsed it off and called it a snack…a very small snack.
Now for the peas. I planted two pots last year, but spring arrived too soon. Disappointing harvest. This year I used seeds I was given by a gardening friend. Since he had a fairly good harvest last year, despite the weather, I was hoping for a good showing. Right. I have one pot of snow peas and one of sugar snap. The first container has plants that are about ten inches tall, and look weak. Poor things. The plants in the other pot aren’t even doing that well. They are only six inches tall and starting to fade to a light yellow. They really didn’t like the eighty degrees we had last week. Water didn’t matter, neither did shade. It was almost hot. Peas just prefer the cold.
Looks like the harvest in my winter garden is going to be rather pathetic this year. I have carrots, leaf lettuce, strawberries, a very little crop of broccoli and a tiny cherry tomato plant that keeps hanging on, giving me a little round gem from time to time. Oh, well. Things could be much worse. I could live in Europe where they are having a brutal winter. I may not harvest much this season, but at least I’m not up to my ears in snow!
Until next time,
Elizabeth
