Winter is breaking our California Hearts

We empathize with the East Coast in the midst of this year’s snow storm. That is, when we’re not busy planting heirloom tomatoes, mixed lettuce and herbs.

Okay, I’m sorry for rubbing it in. When I moved to California, after living in the Midwest, the Big Apple, Savannah, Houston and several other places in between, I was afraid I would never get used to the cultural distance. I love the beach, but it doesn’t replace political conversation, live jazz, dance companies, creative theatre or good restaurants. Little did I know that I would find the love of my life here.

The sunshine tax overwhelmed me. A cottage worth about $75,000 in the rest of the country costs half a million in most of southern California, or did up until last year. When it rains here for more than 15 minutes, you watch your money flying around with the drops on your windshield. Yeah, we know the rain is good, we don’t have any water.

I missed the changing seasons, the snow, crisp fall evenings, the first signs of spring. Then I bought a bungalow in the city on a half acre of land. The backyard was covered with Bermuda grass. You’ve all heard me on that subject. Slowly, but surely, we are getting rid of the BG and planting an organic garden.

I am totally in love. I ooh and aah over the first little green shoots of lettuce. Cry over apricot blossoms. Drool at the thought of heirloom tomatoes. Become orgasmic when the okra blooms. Who would have thought this Midwestern, Northeastern, city urban sophisticate (well that’s the way I think of myself), is at heart just a little old farm girl. Comments from the monkey gallery are not welcome. Food not Lawns!

Bermuda Grass

I spent most of the day working in the garden. The rest I spent, as all sensible human beings do on weekend afternoons, taking a nap.

For those of you facing wind chill factors and nine-foot snowdrifts, I know it is difficult to believe that fall and winter are the best vegetable growing seasons in southern California. I also know that you think all southern Californians are spoiled ninnies who are nuts for complaining in valley girl voices about the two days last week when the inland temperatures were over 100 degrees. Yes, it will soon be November in the land of the sun-damaged brains.

Here in America’s finest city we have a back yard that we refer to as a garden. In reality it’s a third of an acre of bermuda grass. I hate bermuda grass. One of my favorite organizations is “Food not Lawns.” They get it.

We’ve battled the bermuda grass for three years. The first year, the owner of our local gardening store, came out to consult with us on the yard. City Farmers is a wonderful place. We like them because they are on the correct green path. Organic and drought resistant plants, organic soil and amendments. When the City Farmers’ guy saw the bermuda grass, he suggested we buy lots of Roundup. Just kill it.

Of course, my sister the former organic cow farmer wouldn’t hear of that. So, we bought all of this black plastic and anchored it into the ground on top of the bermuda grass in a benign effort to do what the Roundup would have accomplished.

In small areas where we planted vegetable and flower beds we used recycled white wood chips from the county dump. Someone told us the white chips were from a wood that prevented the growth of the bermuda grass. That’s what they think.

Bermuda grass has what I call the mother lode. If you mow it down and then hoe the remainder out, you may have to go down a foot or so to find the mother lode. But there she will be in all her glory. Lovely ivory roots spreading out in every direction with brown wiry stragglers bunched into a knot. The stragglers are totally resistant to being dug up and tossed away. Sometimes the roots spread out for several feet. It’s like entering a maze.

I’m a large woman and I’ve learned to place the hoe under the knot and use all of my body strength to pull it out. I think to myself, I just lost five pounds. What I’m losing is the bermuda grass battle.

Note: Gardening is one of the great joys of homeownership. This is one in a series of articles on gardening in southern California. For more information on purchasing a home visit My Home Down Payment.

 

 

 

 

A California Fall Garden

Well I’m down to okra, eggplant and basil in the garden. The Organic Cow Farmer (OFC) planted some heirloom tomatoes, a gift from the favorite realtor, late in the summer. She now has beautiful pink purple and green softball size tomatoes.

Sooo good. The (OFC) shares, so I’ve been eating onions and garlic softened in a good olive oil, tossing in some okra and eggplant, and then hitting the skillet at the last minute with the tomatoes and basil. Unlike some people, I can eat the same thing every day, so figuring out how to use the over abundance of produce each season isn’t a problem. (Except zucchini, enough is enough.)

Anyhow, I took out the seeds, jumped on the internet to take a look at a southern California extension program planting guide and started preparing the beds for fall and winter.

We’re not organic, but as close to it as we can get. Every season, the first step in planting is to get rid of the bermuda grass (see “Bermuda Grass”). Next I go on a coffee grind run two or three days in a row. A good run may produce twenty or so bags of used coffee grounds from Starbucks.

There are six Starbucks in the neighborhood. They all seem to do pretty good business, and this is not by any stretch of the imagination what you would call a chichi community. I think Starbucks serves a need for a place to just sit and contemplate the world in a pleasant environment where you can invite folks in or not. I should admit that I’ve been known to go on a Starbucks binge – venti Pike Place with half and half – until my heart starts palpitating and I’m running around like a crazy woman, and then remember I’ve been drinking Starbucks every day for the last two weeks and stop.

Let’s focus here.

I cleaned out a new bed for lavender, lantana, bougainvillea, some tall grasses with shorter ground cover grasses and small succulents in front. This is a curved border. I decided to plant green onions in the center of the bed. Worked the soil, added the coffee grounds, some compost from the dump and chicken manure to the old soil, mixed it all together, put the plants and seeds in.

Next, pulling up the squash. The cucumbers this year had a leaf mold and it spread to the squash. Those beds need to be cleaned out and amended. No cucumber or squash family members can be planted there this year or next. Gardening is a win some, lose some proposition. Teaches you to just get over it and move on. The strawberry plants and the basil appear to be happy, they’ll stay them where they are.

What am I planting? Carrots, beets, turnips, broccoli, squash (in a new bed), brussel sprouts, onions, kale, collards, chard, winter tomatoes, lettuce mix, herbs, cauliflower and garlic. The OCF is planting potatoes (several varieties) and garlic. I like the garlic from our seed source – Peaceful Valley – but the OCF doesn’t and is looking for another source. Garlic is grown from the cloves of the bulb, not seed.

Gilroy up the road (ok, a far distance up the road, but in California) is famous for growing garlic but even our local organic food co-op carries garlic from China. I don’t know why.

The pomegranates should be ready for picking next week. The navel oranges are turning from green to pale orange. The Meyer lemons looked liked they weren’t ever going to ripen, but finally they are showing some yellow. A lemon fell off the bush last week and was it was delicious.

If you can’t plant now you’re welcome to enjoy my garden.