January has started with high winds, high waves, but not much in the way of rain. This El Nino year is turning into a bust so far. Last year, during La Nina, we had 12 or 13 atmospheric rivers that drenched the state and replenished our extremely parched earth, even in the desert area. It was beautiful but oddly, not great for farming. The weather continued cool all the way through the summer months. And then in August, we had a hurricane that gave us another 3-5 inches of rain. Unheard of in August, yet much welcomed to keep our plants moist going into the fall Santa Ana winds. I can say, most of us looked forward to another year of rain to keep the drought at bay. But here we are in January when we get most of our rain, with next to nothing so far.
Still, I am ever hopeful we will get more, so with rain in the forecast, I broadcasted some red clover seeds. I like the ones from Botanical Interests the best. They grow to a beautiful deep red crown, and the bees just love them. Plus, they make lovely tea. Their collections of flowers to plant for bees, butterflies and birds are also wonderful. I broadcasted more of the butterfly/bee seeds as well. I do have borage coming up and a few sweet peas from last years crop. The nasturtiums I planted last spring and summer are finally taking off, and I can see I will have to prune them back a bit to control their spread.
We had a warm heat wave in December that made the fig tree throw out more figs, in spite of its leaves having fallen off. I still had tomatoes in the garden with new yellow flowers in January! It was down to the 30’s at night last week but the tomatoes persisted. Same with the peppers in my garden. I finally decided the tomatoes needed to go. It was just not their season and I wanted to plant peas, beets and carrots. So cool was the summer that we didn’t get any tomatoes until late August. The cherry tomatoes grew strong but never flowered, a lament I heard repeated by others in this area. The kale which I always pulled out in summer as it attracts aphids, grew well and had no aphids. Its still growing.
The lemon tree suffered the most. Last year’s hurricane rain and hail destroyed all the blossoms on my Meyer lemon tree. Now is their season to fruit and I have none; not even flowers on the tree. My Valencia oranges are a season behind and are becoming a winter crop. Our pomegranates weren’t ready until mid-December. Everything is just off and I can’t imagine the challenge of depending on this food crop for a living.
I am not thinking of starting seeds for summer yet, in spite of all the catalogs that arrived in January. They will have to wait. Now I need to prune back my wine grapes and berry vines to give them a rest. Its January, after all, even here in southern California.
Reflections Outside My Window 