In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen

The calendar reminds me it is spring and the shift begins to the warm season garden. It is only a mental shift now as the weather is still cool with frequent rains. I haven’t started my tomatoes and peppers yet and soil temperatures still favor cool season crops.

Nonetheless, I’m thinking about where the corn will be planted and what can go in that space for two months. Mesclun lettuce and arugula are good options. Broccoli plants moved to the garden in October still produce many side shoots—maybe for another few weeks. Next to them, six stately delphiniums thrive in the rich soil and survived recent high winds. They’ll finish in another month.

Violas edge the front of the bed and calendulas planted in another bed need to be thinned. Perhaps a row behind the violas. There’s a preliminary plan for this raised bed until late May when the corn can be planted.

One of these three critters consumed a third of my carrots and that much of my beets in a few nights. Just chewed them down to the nub. Or maybe it was a party. I’m favoring rats since raccoons and opossums tear up the garden and would be noticed sooner.

Pelletized Bolero carrots and Pomegranate Crunch lettuce were the starting points for a lunch salad.

Friends tended my vegetable garden for two weeks while we traveled to New Zealand. In Arrowtown, we encountered this charming farm shop and purchased tomatoes, apricots, sourdough bread and local cheese for our lunch. Their summer gardens are finishing as we think spring.

We returned home to gardens bursting with color. I settled on lupines and ranunculus for the church bouquet. Check the What I’m Planting Now page as I think spring in the garden.

Head to Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Happy Acres Blog and see what garden bloggers around the world harvested last week.

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