The February Garden

Our garden is full of life right now. I’m really enjoying it since I know that when the heat gets here the garden will be mostly brown and dead and what isn’t will be struggling to survive. We’ve been harvesting our cold weather crops for quite a while and a few have even bolted. We’ve had a couple of 80°F days but we’ve also had few freezing nights.

This is the month I really want to plant everything but we’re holding off a few more weeks to let the soil warm up some. I know some of you are covered in snow, I hope you’ll enjoy seeing our garden in February as much as I’ll enjoy seeing yours in August. 

This is our most used bed all winter long. I planted this kale and Swiss chard in October and we’ve been eating on it since November. We pick from it almost daily. If you live in zone 9 and you aren’t growing kale and chard during the winter you’re missing out. 

This is the last of our first planting of broccoli. As you can see, some of it is going to seed. It’s ok. We’ve harvested all the other big heads and regularly cut the small heads that develop after the first cutting. The bees are going to love that I let a big head go to seed for them ;-). 

This is our second planting of broccoli, we’ll still have plenty of broccoli to last another month or s (until it bolts). 

I know, I’m only supposed to share pretty pictures in blogland, but I feel a need to keep it real – especially in the garden. That’s lettuce in the back that is about to go to seed. We have a some small lettuce plants hidden back there that will be ready for me to start harvesting soon. In the front is Chinese cabbage. We have one head left and I’m hoping to make kimchi with it. One head bolted and that’s what all those yellow flowers are. 

Phoebe took this photo the other day for a photography project she’s working on for her photography class. She’s doing a photo-journal of our homestead. I can’t wait to share it with you when is all put together but in the meantime I wanted to show you why I don’t mind that some of our greens bolt. 

We should be able to start harvesting our second planting of cauliflower in the next week or so. 

Here is a big view of part of our garden. Ignore all the grass. We’re mowing our walkways every two or three weeks but we’ve had a very mild winter and the grass is going crazy. We’ve also had normal rainfall which has been very helpful to the plants. 

The first of our spring garden. I planted sweet peas on each end and some pole beans in the middle. I also planted some bush beans in between. 

The moringa trees are putting out new leaves. We have four trees that we planted on the south side of our garden shed. I’m excited to see how these do this summer. 

Our first plum blossom. Last year we only got two plum, I’m excited to see how these trees do this summer.

The pomegranate tree is full of budding leaves. We planted this tree three years ago (and had it in a pot for a year before that), I’m hoping this is the year it starts producing. 

I’m super excited to see all the blooms on the Cara Cara orange tree.  We planted it three years ago and last year got 4 oranges. And that’s the thing with fruit trees, it takes several years before you even get one fruit but it’s an investment in the future. These trees take very little effort (especially compared annual fruits and vegetables) and will bring our family amazing food for years to come. 

The Meyer lemon tree has lots of flowers also. Last year was an off year for this tree but the year before it produced well over 200lbs of lemons. 

We’re starting to see some wildflowers (and flowering weeds) pop up all over our property. This one is pretty prolific. I really love the shape and colors of the flowers. 

I know for many of you, your gardens are under several feet of snow, but spring will be here before you kn it. What is going on in your garden this month? 

This post is shared at Tuesday Garden Party and Maple Hill Hop.

Thanks for sharing with your friends!