In a normal year, there’s a routine to our summer vegetable garden. It starts around January with the soil preparation and weeding. Then, as March arrives, there are trips to tomatomania and Lincoln Nursery where we pick up what looks good.
It’s a lot of fun. There’s the planting and the harvesting and the eating and the inevitable surprises along the way. I enjoy enjoy the whole thing and like posting about it. In fact, this is my 50th garden post.
No surprise, but this is not a normal year. January’s Eaton Fire and the evacuation and clean-up that followed all but eclipsed any chance at a summer garden. By the time we got into planting it was May. Then there were the hornworms in the tomatoes and a gopher took down one of our best tomato plants. And, it wasn’t very hot this summer and I broke my toe, and, and, and….
We did get some tomatoes and peppers. Kale hung in there. But, all in all, a bad year for the vegetable garden. It just wasn’t meant to be.
On the plus side, our stone fruit did well. We enjoyed plums, peaches, nectarines and apples too. A bonus were the berry bushes. We’ve had potted blueberries going for some time, but this year also enjoyed blackberries and olallieberries.
Of course, we still have the avocado trees and the old Fuerte avocado produced like crazy. We still have alot of Lamb Hass fruit to pick. But, I don’t like the Lamb Hass avocado as much as I like the Fuerte and Reed.
So, now its time to move on to plant a winter garden. There certainly won’t be much of a summer garden to clear, so that’s nice. And, we have some citrus coming. Limes are already here and the Meyer lemon is about a month out.
And, then, around next January, the oranges will be ready. And right about next January, it will be time to plan our next summer garden.
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