Christmas Update

I wish everyone who reads this a happy holiday season.

The winter garden continues. I have picked two cauliflower within the past few days. These were from the plants nestled among the pole beans on the previous post. Above is a picture of how those plants look now. You will notice that those in the back have cauliflower almost ready to pick. Those in the front were just set out, and in between plants are at various stages of maturity. I set cauliflower out about once every two weeks from September through May. This results in fresh cauliflower from December through July.



We are now also entering into peak fava bean planting season. I have favas coming up all over the yard now but have to protect new plantings from squirrels. The squirrels in my yard have learned that if they dig under a newly emerging fava bean plant that they will find a swollen seed which they snatch, destroying the plant in the process.
This year I am planting deeper, around two inches, hoping that the squirrels can't dig that far down. Even if they break the plant off, it will come back provided the roots aren't disturbed. I used to plant 1/2 deep and didn't even bother to pack the soil. The squirrels learned to detect loose soil and then follow the row, taking all the beans before they have germinated. Packing the soil by walking firmly on it solves that problem but protecting the emerging plants is more of a challenge.

This year I planted some favas in August. I have two good things to report about this and one not so good result. The not so good result is that black aphids attacked the plants. Favas are hardy and have outlasted the attack. But the plants were ugly for a couple of months. But the squirrels didn't bother them at all (guess they had better things to eat in August) and now I can harvest a handful of favas per week in December. Usually one doesn't get any fava beans until March or April. The following picture shows new favas which have emerged over the past month (netting has now been removed) and an older plant with a bean on it.

Notice the tall Fava in the forground. It is an August plant and if you look closely, you will see a couple of beans on the plant almost ready to pick.

The mustard is coming up from last year's natural seeding which happened when a few bolted last spring. I let them produce seed. Now numerous mustard plants are emerging in the area. I started my first broccoli last week in the greenhouse. They will be set out in February.