I’m finally getting back out into my garden. The flowers are amazing from the seeds I dispersed back in February. The sunflowers, lavender pin cushions, purple sweet peas, red clover, borage, and zinnias have come up. The apricots I was so happy about in April blew off the tree in strong winds. You just never know what you are going to get in the garden on any given year. I have a lot of respect for farmers and the unknown weather events they have to deal with each year. Here I just hope for the best. I am trying to feed myself as well as the bees, birds, butterflies and other insects.
I don’t till my ground. For flower seeds, I broadcast them and cover them with dry compost or maybe a little soil. Our spring this year was so cool that the sweet peas didn’t bloom until May. Usually they are finished in April. Our tomato plants seemed stuck in growth and only now since mid-summer have they starting growing slowly. We finally had a spike in heat around mid-summer to boost growth.
One thing we have in profusion are black raspberries. I am picking about a pint or so a day right now. The blackberries are just starting to flower now, so I expect they will arrive in July when the black raspberries finish for the season. The blueberries finally ripened too. I had green berries on plants since April, and just now at the end of June am I able to pick them. It was a very slow spring as if the garden was waiting for me to walk again.
Our avocado tree has the most avocados I’ve seen in a few years. I won’t thin them until the fall because the Santa Ana winds come then and you can lose half of your crop to the strong winds, ripe or not.
Two years of heavy rains, for California, have strengthened our fruit trees and all the trees. The only trees that suffered a bit this year were the Mexican lime tree and the Meyer lemon tree. We lost all the blooms on the lemon tree during two strong wind events.
Our wine grapes are suffering though. I am seeing a lot of mold on the grapes from the rains and damp, drippy weather of May and most of June. Because I broke my knee in March, I could not get out there to finish pruning and spraying with bio copper. The crop may suffer this year but I am thinning them out now to give them more air circulation in hopes of saving them. However, my muscat grapes that grow over the pergola on my back patio and doing really well.
Finally we are seeing butterflies, particularly swallowtails and Monarchs. I have a lot of native plants for the butterflies and hummingbirds, but both are sparse this year.
The first half of June felt more like winter; cold damp and drippy. Now since mid-summer the sun has come out and breathed life into all of us and the garden.
Reflections Outside My Window 
Your garden looks beautiful. Yes, it was a wet, cold and windy Winter and Spring. I wish I knew you had all those blackberries, I would have come over. I am so glad you are recovering from your knee injury!
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