After the Rain
After the rain, the Late Bloomer Garden comes alive! You may have heard about the drought in California. Well, we got a proper hosing the past few days. It coincided with cool season crops mature and lush. My new rainwater barrel is full along with several overflow trash cans, and the soil got a deep soaking. Here’s how the garden looked the morning after.
Late Bloomer Garden after the rain with freshly dug pea patch
Potted plants
The red voile really saved my brassicas from cabbage moths laying eggs. This idea came to me from Sumi, an amazing food grower!
Back 40 with beets, chard, Savoy cabbage and quinoa
Lettuce box with Tatsoi and arugula bolting
Covered purple broccoli
Purple Sprouting Broccoli head
Red Acre cabbage head
A few new things are blooming!
Holiday Cactus bloom
Sparky Mix Marigold covered in rain
Cilantro blooms
Quinoa seed heads
Agapanthus bloom
Chive bloom head opening
German Camomile blooms
Other things were pushing out of the ground.
3rd year asparagus spear sprouting
Asparagus stalk
A patch of this fungus keeps popping up in my California native bed. It was identified as a Stinkhorn. Sometimes the shoots have a white cap on top, which is the egg sac it bursts from. The underside of these five fingers is black. You can see a photo here on Late Bloomer Show Facebook page. Please “Like” our page, and share your garden photos!
Lysurus mokusin Stinkhorn fungus
I pulled out a handful of carrots to see how they are doing. The tops of the heads were large, but they were short, probably due to my not thinning enough.
Stubby mixed carrots
Cyclamen blooms
Nothing is more regenerative than a good rain, especially when you are in a parched area. One of the many rewards of gardening and growing food is observing the garden come alive after a good rain (especially at sunrise). I hope there are a few more before the long, dry summer.
Are you buried in snow? Is your garden coming alive? Do you have to worry about the lack of rain, and have to depend on city water to grow food? Are you filtering your water? I’d love to know.
Do you have a rain barrel? If you are in L.A., did you know you can qualify for a $75 rebate on your rain barrel? Read about conserving water in Los Angeles here.
Ivy Rain Barrel with overflow
Thanks for reading, and I hope you will comment and share. It’s possible to grow a lot in a small space. Happy gardening! – Kaye
Category: Cool Season, Flowers, Fungi, Rain, Urban Gardening
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Yes we have snow. I actually scoop snow into a bucket to let it melt in the garage to use on my seedlings. I use it to stat seeds but once they are growing, I use city water unless my rain barrel is full. We can’t use a rain barrel between nov and April because the freezing would crack them. So, six more weeks until I can collect rain water again. Sowing potatoes this weekend as well as kale and cabbage
Sounds like you’ve got it down, Lynn! Good luck with your sowing!!