It has been unseasonably warm and clear here this November (which does not not bode well for the drought ending) and my small winter garden and cover crops are chugging along. First and foremost you will notice the marked improvement of this batch of cover crops.
The left hand picture is from the first batch this summer and the right hand picture is from this weekend. Notice how much greener they look. I guess the compost, clover and Fava Beans had their desired effect. The dark green “grass” is cereal rye.
The timber planters (which will eventually be mostly herbs) are cranking along with the lettuce and and herbal celery taking the lead. It has been nice having a true garden salad every evening and the herbal celery and a nice taste without the extra crunch. I’m still concerned that the Brussels Sprouts went in to late and are not getting enough sun but there is still a chance they will be viable for Christmas dinner.
The biggest problem has been my toddle who is missing the construction and being able to dig anywhere he likes but the most frustrating problem has been weeds. This time of year, the biggest weed in the bay area is an invasive from South Africa called Oxalis.
Oxalis is a deep tap root weed that propagates using underground bulbs that look a bit like small nuts. pull up the weed and the bulb almost always stays put, ready to spit out another plant. Our “yard” had been infested by them before I tore it up and unfortunately I did not realize the problem they represented or else I would have used herbicide on the whole area before tearing it up. With the landscaping they were spread everywhere and are making themselves known. These things are so tough they lifted my sod up off the soil and punch through everywhere and they even punch through the plastic landscape sheeting under by landscaping (I’ll switch to cloth next year.
smallyardgardener 