Early February in my garden...

Very glad that I got the new scaffolding in for the grapes before they woke up. Those white frosty nubs on the grape vines will soon spit forth fresh growth. I'm looking forward to that!

I found the purple bird in a dumpster. Kind of enjoying having a harmless bird in my plot. Most of them eat my plants, but this one just casts a shade puddle.

Some of the stalks on that plant have sprouted yellow flowers. Virginia showed me that they are tasty flowers that are a pleasure to eat fresh off the stalk. I'm hoping it goes back to producing leaves after the flowering is over. I'm worried that might be it for this fine plant. It has given me many meals over the past year and a half or so.

The old collard plants continue to produce lots of huge leaves. Most of them are showing signs of bolting, but I'm hoping they get over that soon enough.

The cuttings I planted last fall are coming along nicely. Wondering if I should worry about the fact that potato volunteered to grow right about the same place. Hopefully the potatos will be over before the collards really get going.

I still have a few cauliflowers growing in the garden. I started with a six pack of purple cauliflower and a six pack of white cauliflower. All except that last couple of white cauliflower have been harvested already. I'm tired of eating cauliflower right now!

The kale plant was growing so tall that I was getting tired of it shading other plants. Not only that but it was starting to bolt. I chopped off all the arms way below the top leaves, so that only stubs remained. Looks like those are developing new stems out of the centers of each of the leaves I harvested last year. If those grow in I'll get a nice kale bush in that spot!

My beet patches have been giving me a good sized beet every few days for quite a while now. I always use the greens in the next bowl of soup I make. Bake the root the next time I use the oven to make supper. 45 minutes at 350 is fine for a delicious beet. Goes in with the rest of the meal just fine. Usually lately that's a couple of beets and a potato with some chicken and broccoli.

I think of her as "the cat lady". There are some sort of ferel cats that stalk birds in the garden. She feeds them and fixes them and chases them around and tells me stories about all the things she does for them. She also tells me stories of the people that gave her the plants in her plot. Sometimes she just tells me stories about taking someone else to the doctors or something like that. I've known her as a neighbor for almost as long as I've lived in Mountain View. Even back in the '80s she was the cat lady for the nieghborhood.

The raspberries are coming back. The conventional wisdom is "cut them down to ground level after they die back." I did that and now they are starting the next growth season.

You can't really tell yet but that's a dark purple chard on the left, followed by a pinkish one, an orange one, and a yellow one on the right. I'm going for a rainbow of different compatible plants. :-)

That old broccoli plant took a big hit from the frost. Now I'm wondering if it's getting old and tired. For sure I have young broccoli plants that are doing a lot better right now. Maybe that one has about done all the growing I can expect from it.

I thought when I planted that pair of plants they were collards, but broccoli is what came up. Must have been a local hybrid. It happens in this garden sometimes.

The tulip is in Karen's plot. A beautiful and fragrant flower!

The city replaced the wooden board fence on the property line with this chickenfoot thing. Makes the place feel a lot less like of a private place.

My property goes up to the yellow bucket. Beyond that is a path and Leslie's place. Those two kiwi bushes give a good harvest every year or two. The first year I was here it was great. Last year was not so good. I don't know if she doesn't know how to prune to get good fruit every year, or if it's because we don't get good winter chill for kiwis every year. Whatever the fruit bearing reality is this year, it's nice shade for those chairs once the leaves come in.

Looks like my cabbages are ready to harvest now.

Marci looked at my greens and said "you planted them too close together and didn't water them enough."

The first day of rain (Feb 26) we got less than half an inch. The next day it was more like two inches. Love seeing my "sink" capture all the rain it can hold in one day! So far this is the only time I remember it happening. We still need more rain though...

This is what a typical harvest looks like nowadays. Some collards, maybe a couple of beets, and an onion or two. I've had this kind of food every couple of days for weeks. Loving it!