You probably think I have dropped off the earth. Nope. Just the Winter slump. Every winter the garden and I go into hibernation . . . sort of. My garden has winter produce growing and other than watching it grow (totally boring) I am simply waiting out the season. Winter is different here in the central valley of California so you can grown a completely active winter garden. I have Broccoli that is beginning to 'flower'. Not with real flowers (that comes later) but with the green flower that we all eat. I have cauliflower too plus beets (golden and red), potatoes, onion, mint, lettuce, spinach, kale and Swiss chard. All up and going.
Do we do anything during this season at all other than just watch and wait? Gosh yes. There is clean up from the summer still going on. Leaves to be raked and composted. Pulled out my Bell Pepper plants just last week and believe it or not I still have jalapenos and tomatoes on the vine. Really. In December. I'm trimming back the runners on the strawberries too. All ready for next years bursting forth :) Spraying for leaf curl has commenced with the first spraying of copper. You're supposed to do it right after the leaves fall off. Still waiting on the Almond tree to give up its leaves. The Elberta peach did it in one night. Went to bed one night with full leaves and got up the next morning to a bare tree. Shades of Harry Potter's whomping willow.
We do get freezes here too - but they are so rare that you need to daily keep track of the weather. Missing an alert will totally mess up your sensitive trees and plants for a long time. Missed one last year and it took my hibiscus till the end of summer before it started looking happy again. Cover everything with old sheets or special landscaping cloth. Old sheets are cheaper (try 2nd hand stores for cheap ones). Make sure you go out first thing in the AM and remove them. You don't want them to damage the plants. Helps if you have a way to hold them away from the plant too. Where the sheet touches the plant will often times freeze but if that is the worst of your damage then hooray for you. You can also use my Dad's trick and put a light bulb (lit, of course) under the sheet to create just enough heat to keep the plant from freezing.
And you still need to be fertilizing - December is mostly Citrus and shade plants (like Azaleas and Camillas) use a 0-10-10 fertilizer and Flowers need 5-10-5 and your veggies still need stuff too 5-10-10.
Of course next month the real work begins with roses that need to be pruned. Grapes and berry plants to get hacked too. Then all the trees need to be opened up for the light and air to get in. Gonna be a busy January.
