Here it is mid January with no extreme cold in the coming forecast. It's time to really dig into gardening plans in my area.
I planted small portions of all of the more cold tolerant plants. Just a little because most of these are either fall planted or spring planted. So that's turnips, carrots, poppies, spinach and favas. It is still the middle of winter, even though we're in the 80's today. It's so hard waiting for the last frost for everything else.
I've gone out and reseeded where I lost favas to these last two cold snaps. Turns out I had twice as many survivors as I thought in the crimson fava variety. I planted the last few seeds I'd held back, so that's it. I'm still holding out hope of a decent amount of seeds for replanting.
My kale, collards, and swiss chard all survived without any covers so I'm not replanting now. I may replant later in the year just to have a succession when these plants finally play out. I'm up to year three on kale.
I'm still waiting for the pistachio seeds. I typically don't have good results with growing things in pots, but it's looking more and more like I'm going to have three kinds to take care of this year. There's the sunroots, the pistachios, and the dahlia. For one reason or another each of these will better suit my needs in a pot.
I'm not planting new onions this year. I'm going to try to be better about using the perennial onions in our cooking. Just a little better because they really need to multiply more to meet our needs, but we've got to start somewhere.
I did have a garlic that I thought had died last year come back up and it's looking very healthy. Depending on how it grows this year, I may eat it or save it for replanting.
I don't want to disturb them too much, but since I was digging in the ground anyways... There is what feels like a thick woody, healthy root at the base of where my runner beans were growing last year. I mean connected to the old vine not just in that location. I expect to see new vines sprouting in a few more weeks. Fingers crossed.
If the runner beans succeed then I have a paltry total of four perennial/naturalized vegetables so far. That would be beans, sweet potatoes, greens (kale, chard, collards), and various onions. I'll keep experimenting and maybe I'll start getting the kinds of yields that make a real dent in the grocery bill.
Somewhere around here I have seed that I saved, also, but I can't seem to find it. I literally held the basil seed in my hands, for one. I don't know where I set it down.
I'm hoping the amaranth will join the Siam basil and the cilantro in reliably self seeding. Right now one corner of the back lawn is half covered in self seeded cilantro.This year I'm watching for amaranth to pop up on it's own in the front garden. I scattered the flower heads at the end of the season.