Winter Dreams & Too Many Seeds

     It's 'winter' time here in Southern California. To the rest of the world that means 'spring'. It's the time you can plant all your cool weather crops like lettuce and peas and carrots! And friends, did I ever! I planted broccoli, purple peas, purple beans, and lettuce! I planted carrots! Heck, I planted onions! My trellis went from looking sad and lonely to beautiful and bursting with towering pea vines and purple flowers that will yield purple pea pods!

     I also have kale that I'm going to be turning into kale chips soon, lettuce that I actually had to cut back and couldn't eat the first harvest because of evil (possibly?) poisonous mushrooms that grew up against--and the died on--the lettuce leafs, beets (only 1 survived the evil mushrooms and I have to plant more), celery that's TRYING to grow, and broccoli that's FINALLY starting to grow. Sadly I have to re-start on my carrots as again, a round of huge mushrooms grew up in between the the TINY just growing seedlings and DIED ON THEM AND KILLED HALF THE CARROTS.

     I already hate mushrooms--now I have even more reason to do so!

     Yes indeed, fall is a busy time for gardening! My garlic is still growing, I planted onions and they're doing....okay(?), and even my volunteer potato plant is yielding a ton of potatoes in the raised bed it smuggled into. I know because I checked. We've been getting a LOT of rain lately (thank the rain gods above) and cold weather so there's hope that my plum tree will actually produce fruit this year! To show you the different in my garden over the past couple of months, here you go:

(Yeah, I have NO idea how I'm going to reach those)

I also got two new friends! There was a sale on blueberry plants at my local gardening store for six dollars each SO OF COURSE I HAD TO GET THEM OKAY!? I got Sunshine (right side pic), which is the one with pink flowers, and Jewel, which has white flowers but amazing taste! 

     To be honest, Sunshine is also supposed to taste amazing. I like my berries on the 'tart' or even 'wild Maine foraged' side--but I really dislike the almost overly sweet ones some blueberries produce. You know, like when they're over ripe and they're slightly mushy and TOO sweet? I know berries that are grown for that ON PURPOSE (I'm looking at you Misty!). I'm going to write a post about blueberries later, but just know that I now own two blueberry plants and they're not dead yet (like the last time I tried growing one....)!

      And now onto what you've all been dying for: What am I going to be planting for  my spring/summer garden!? What's the game plan!? WELL MY FRIENDS FIRST LET ME SAY:

     I have a problem. An addiction.

     And that problem is 'seeds' and 'no impulse control'.

     Guys, I have so many new seeds you'd be horrified.

     HORRIFIED.

     Because of course, I already have a TON of seeds. Did I need more?

     ......

     Okay honestly of course as an urban homesteader of course I'm going to say yes!

     Yes I need those seeds.

     Yes, I need to grow that much produce.

     Yes I'll find a way to grow them all.


     Where are you going to grow them all if you can't put permanent plants in, I hear you snidely remarking with your snidey voice.

     THAT.......is a good question.

     But I have a plan. Sorta.

    You see, aside from these seeds you see above, I also just got THIRTEEN OTHER SEED PACKETS sent to me from a friend in Missiouri who I did a seed exchange with! I also have 7 kinds of tomatoes and 2 other beans that I don't have pictured here (Mother Stollard and dragon tongue).

     Now, I'm building a second trellis in my raised beds that will be specifically growing corsican gourds (they're small gourds that grow 6 to 10 inches around and are good for all kinds of things like 'dip' bowls for parties, or putting plants in, or jewerly! the list is endless!), but that takes up all of my tunnel trellises and a I SUPER don't have room for all those beans, right?!

     Wrong!

     My new goal for the front yard is to find pots for the tomatoes (probably at garage sales) and buy a bunch of bamboo (it's cheap!) to build trellises for the beans, out front. I'm going to make it look pretty, and whimsy and artsy. The fact that my friend sent me BEAUTIFUL flower seeds to plant also helps! And hopefully it'll look SO pretty that my mom (who I live with) won't have the heart to say 'no' when she sees the tomatoes, trellised beans, flowers and a couple of (snuck in) melons that'll be growing amongst the flowers out front!

     My theme this year is 'jumbled color'. What that means is I'll be growing flowers among my plants and even in pots all over! I really miss flowers and putting them in vases! So this year I'm growing all kinds! Zinnias, sunflowers (that are used for cutting as they're smaller), Hollyhocks, marigolds, and of course cosmos (already blooming!)! I'd love to grow some violets, but for some reason I can't seem to get them here!

     I'll also be making a home for carpenter bees and other small pollinating insects! It's really easy to make and I'll have a DIY video for it up on my Halfway Homestead vlog channel! I wanted to make a bat box to welcome bats in, but I would need a pole and well, I can't do that. So sadly I can't attract bats. But hopefully I'll be able to attract butterflies!

     So that's it! That's the plan! We'll see how much I can get done--and we'll see how well the plants do in the summer sun. Honestly, thanks to climate change Southern California's weather patterns are becoming more and more like Arizona's. Which means that in the summer, unless you have a nice cool breeze and adequate shade, most plants fry in our extremely intense heat.

     Last summer we had a record breaking 118F (that's 47 celcius for my European friends) day that killed 30 year old avocado trees--and even heat tolerant trees. It burnt bushes to a crisp, and destroyed whole gardens. It was extremely sad to see so many trees literally fry to death. The subsequent days weren't much better, going 'down' to 110 and then 108 for several days. It was.....bad.

     But that's most likely going to be our new normal. Days so hot that it literally burns and kills trees.

     So how will my plants fare in the summer? I don't know. If we're lucky we won't have another 118 degree day.

     I know a lot of people around the US are trying to survived the polar vortex, but for those who aren't, how's your garden going!? Or are you still in the planning stages like me? What are you going to grow in your spring and summer gardens!?

MY CAT SOJI WISHES YOU HAPPY GARDENING AND WONDERS IF YOU'LL GIVE HIM FOOD