Winter surpise harvest

I am sorry if I have been a downer about winter's kiss on my Temecula garden. I made a day trip to my Temecula home today. Winter rains always brings an onslaught of weeds so I was not too surprised or upset. I did lose more of my succulent plants to frost- again, not upset as they extra plants that I was planting to test their suitability to Temecula climate.

It was raining so I was not able to garden. The garden looked lush, although mainly with weeds. BUT, not all were weeds, there were some tasty delights that flourish in the cold and rain. I did some harvesting when the rain stopped.

Chioggai Beets lush green tops covered half of this planter bed! NO, those greens on the ground are not beets but weeds. Lots and lots of healthy weeds which I have to remove as aphids are started to feast on them. Chioggai Beets are those beets which look like a bull-eye. It has light red skin and when cut reveal pink and white rings. Will post pictures of them when I harvest them.



Mom, if you will reading this, I planted special varieties of broccoli this year. I was pleasantly surpise by how big the very pretty purple sprouting broccoli was already. I harvested some....wonder if they will stay purple when I cook them?

The Romanesco Broccoli also fare well. I love the taste of this broccoli, milder and sweeter than the regular green broccoli. The almost look like a unusual spiky cauliflower but is actually a broccoli.

I do not have pictures of the Broccoli Raab as we had harvested and eaten them already. What remained had set seeds and I am letting them self seed for a bring crop. Will take pictures of them the next time I am there.

I harvested some lemons and was happy to see that frost did not harm the plant further. Was also very happy to see that the lemon tree was flowering once again, meaning that a fresh crop of lemon is on the way.

Encouraged by the blossoms of the lemon tree, I headed to the Blood Orange tree. Many ripe oranges were ready for picking, indicated by the red splotches on the fruit. They away easily form the tree when pluck. The Blood Oranage tree was similarly dotted by flower buds. The tree is happy.

The Vadalia Onions seem to be doing well.This is the first time I am planting them. I have never eaten them before but been told they are sweeter and milder than the regular onion. I have some head of cauliflower growing in this bed but did not take any pictures of them. As you see, culantro have naturalized in this bed as well. The colander contain my harvest of lemons and blood ornages.

Our planter bed of Artichokes is doing well. The plants are huge but so far no artichoke yet. Artichokes are biennial and general fruit the second year. I transplanted a baby plant from my Chula Vista garden while the rest were purchased from a local nursery.