California - What are you doing this month?

Do you know what our rain totals have been? We've got a couple inches puddled out back. It's been a good, steady, soaking rain. We need about 10 more of these storms to get past this horrid drought!

I have no idea what the rain totals for this storm is. You will have received more than me. The Bee wiill have the 4 pm to 4 pm totals in tomorrow's paper.

Ditto on 10 more of these.

1.22" in Fresno (Central Valley)

Total for the year: 2.73"

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:Kinda sorta have it secured - the panel we bought was supposed to be "heavy duty" but it's very thin.  It's possible it will shred in no time.  No time to worry at this point.
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I bet your DH did not flinch at the price, but probably had no idea what 7mil would have cost. If it had been labelled 0.7mil instead of .7mil  then you could berate him, a little.

Kelejan wrote:

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:Kinda sorta have it secured - the panel we bought was supposed to be "heavy duty" but it's very thin.  It's possible it will shred in no time.  No time to worry at this point.
- - - 

I bet your DH did not flinch at the price, but probably had no idea what 7mil would have cost. If it had been labelled 0.7mil instead of .7mil  then you could berate him, a little.

He showed me the packaging and there was a crease right where the decimal point was so I cut him some slack, LOL ! He said that had he thought about it he would have realized that 3 panels at 7 mils would NOT have fit in the package and that should have been his first clue.

Glad you cut him some flack. You have to live with him.

He made up for it yesterday, he ran out our local hardware store and bought replacement.  all they had was 4 mil, but that will work.  It wasn't under $2 for three panels, I liked the .7 mil price much better, LOL!

0.2" of rain yesterday!

Not sure what we got but it rained big drops, very hard last night - I know this because we were out in it having installed a brand new cat door and were trying to help the cats understand what it is for.  We're making my small barn their "escape" from the crazy dogs place.  We live in the middle of a feud that makes the Hatfields n McCoy's seem like a water balloon fight 

So the dogs rule the day and the cats the night (we lock the dogs in their run with their cozy heated dog houses).  

By the way, my current Berkeley pile is not heating after turning it (it was 150+ prior to the turn).  I'm not sure if it's the heavy rain, though it doesn't feel soaked and is covered.

Oh well... It can sit for the winter I'll just turn it from time to time.

Another 0.31" as of 4 pm Wednesday, for a year's total of 3.38". We have already passed last year's total.

Snow peas are producing! I knew the vines would grow but I didn't know the flowers would actually produce pods at this time of the year.

sanderson wrote:Another 0.31" as of 4 pm Wednesday, for a year's total of 3.38".     We have already passed last year's total.

Snow peas are producing!  I knew the vines would grow but I didn't know the flowers would actually produce pods at this time of the year.  

My peas are as well, I planted a different variety (I can't remember the name) but they have the prettiest lavender and purple flowers as well.  

I think it's the warm winter.  We still haven't had a freeze.

sanderson wrote:Another 0.31" as of 4 pm Wednesday, for a year's total of 3.38". We have already passed last year's total.

Snow peas are producing! I knew the vines would grow but I didn't know the flowers would actually produce pods at this time of the year.

What temps are they producing in? And what cultivar?

Marc, I don't know if you mean Audrey or me. Mine are Ferry-Morse Melting Sugar (Snow Peas). Temps for me have been in the 40's at night (so far).

I meant you.

I'm curious how much they'll produce. Keep us updated! I've decided to extend my pea growing season this coming year as long as possible, since growing tomatoes early just gives me months of dead time anyway.

Marc,  So far, we haven't had any frost or freeze.  Last winter, some of the leaves died from the severe hard freeze, but they picked up producing in the spring.  I have two 1 x 3 boxes with these peas, planted 2-3 weeks apart.  Only one row of 12 per box.  Normally it would be 24 per box.  The first ones are over 7 feet tall with yellow leaves towards the bottom.  The later ones are only 3' tall but producing more than the tall ones.  So far, I have harvested on woman's handful and made beef - broccoli- snow pea stir fry over rice.  Not enough for a separate serving of pods for 2.

Today I planted 18 white Spanish onion starts that have been waiting for 2 months.  They came in a 6 pack with 8-10 started per cell!  I had to soak, swish, rinse and tease them apart.  I don't know if they will survive but nothing lost.  I planted 2 squares worth from the pony pack a couple months ago and they are doing fine.  I also planted 9 cloves from my braided harvest from last year.  They were from grocery store garlic.  My braided garlic was in better shape than the German Red I paid for this fall!

That's all for right now.  Chard, kales and cabbage still doing good.

Looks like we'll finally get a freeze in the next week or so. Temps are supposed to start dropping tomorrow night. I'll pick the last of my cherry tomatoes tomorrow just in case.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to one and all
Audrey

Yikes!   You are right!  With today's sunshine, I didn't bother looking at an update.  80% chance of rain tomorrow?  Where did that come from?  You will probably get the actual 32*F before me but I'll be right behind you.  I've had some after thoughts about not putting up the green house.  I think I will do it.  I'm female, I can change my mind twice, right?  I have 2 buckets of potatoes, one gifted pepper plant, and some herbs.

Tonight and all day tomorrow I will be cooking.  We will be taking the Christmas dinner up to Sac for all my kids and their families.

sanderson wrote:Yikes!   You are right!  With today's sunshine, I didn't bother looking at an update.  80% chance of rain tomorrow?  Where did that come from?  You will probably get the actual 32*F before me but I'll be right behind you.  I've had some after thoughts about not putting up the green house.  I think I will do it.  I'm female, I can change my mind twice, right?  I have 2 buckets of potatoes, one gifted pepper plant, and some herbs.

Tonight and all day tomorrow I will be cooking.  We will be taking the Christmas dinner up to Sac for all my kids and their families.

Have a wonderful, memorable, love-filled Christmas with all those you love so much

I am cleaning up the large plants that are spilling out of my "inner greenhouses" so that I can button things up. My spaghetti squash in there was a complete bust. Probably won't try that again next year, or maybe I will but will start it earlier.

I just harvested about 10 lbs of green, Purple Cherokee tomatoes before the freeze. I have more types to harvest tomorrow.

I think I'll row cover my potatoes and see if I can keep them alive. I have large pieces of the row cover type fabric from a sofa we bought so I can put a couple layers on them.

Just cleared the last of my tomato plants. Debating to whether to yank the Brussel sprouts or cut them back and see if I can get a second growth- not much chance of them bolting in winter. We just got our first hard frost- 3 months early! I've had to cover my citrus trees and pray they aren't burned by the frost. Not much hope of my peppers over-wintering with this freeze, so I'll have to start some seeds indoors come February. This morning, the fountain and bird baths looked like ice rinks. The gophers are back and on the attack   My beds are protected with hardware cloth under them, but they are digging like fiends around the perimeters trying to find a way in to get the carrots, leeks, and parsnips that are still growing. I've set out traps, and caught two already, and I hope they move on back to the neighbor's yard.

YS, You don't normally get frost until February? Does this mean you can usually harvest the oranges before the freeze damages them? If so, that's nice. We are supposed to be in the 30's tonight. I just got through making a makeshift greenhouse for the handful of plants I decided to over-winter.

Yardslave, are you in Carmel Valley in San Diego? If not, where in the state are you? We used to live in Mira Mesa which is fairly close to Carmel Valley. I used to spend time hiking and painting there before it was developed :-( What a beautiful, peaceful valley it was.

We froze hard up here last night.  Bird bath frozen solid and a goodly amount of ice on the fountain.  

My last zucchini was plucked from the outside garden yesterday.  Potatoes that were growing nicely died back.  They'll come back in the spring and be even bigger.  I have row cover on potatoes near the house and they're doing well.  If we don't get too much colder they might actually survive and produce potatoes early in the spring.  I'm covering my Chinese Cabbage as well, since they're mildly frost tolerant.  Below 28 and I'll lose them.  

I was out at 10 PM Christmas night cutting all of the toms I'll want to ripen in the house.  I could have stayed out all night and kept harvesting but we'll have plenty enough to share with others as my greenhouse toms are doing very well.

I think YS is in No Cal somewhat near Carmel, only inland. Maybe the ocean tempers the winter so that he doesn't get frost until Feb. YS???

It was so cold outside last night that I made a greenhouse by covering a picnic table with it's winter plastic cover. [ I cleaned and stored all the winter plastic covers during the summer so they are in great shape. I marked them with a permanent marker so I wouldn't have to figure out which plastic cover fit on which bed. ] I kept looking at AccuWeather and Weather Channel and neither stated freeze. But, DH said 30-33*F predicted so I went with what he saw.

We picked 3 5-gallon buckets of oranges for my kids. There's still that much on the tree but they are all in the upper branches!

I had some commercial frost blankets stored up for the frost, but when I got them out, the mice had re-purposed them into makeshift bedspreads. I had to resort to using some old bed sheets instead, but the branch tips on the Meyer lemons still showed signs of frost burn....oh well. Last years frost lasted from late February to mid April. It was bad enough to cause the bark on my lemon trees to split and peel. Had to keep the faucets covered to prevent them from splitting. I had timers on them and they cracked due to the ice inside expanding to the point that the devices split, so I had to remove them and put them in storage until things warm up.

Region Description: Northern California Coastal & Inland Valleys

Zone Map

USDA Hardiness Zones
7 to 9

AHS Heat Zones
5 to 8

Sunset Zones
7 to 17

Major Cities

Bakersfield, Chico, Fresno, Modesto, Oakland, Redding, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa

The Region

The Northern California Coastal and Inland Valleys points north to Mendocino, inland through the Sacramento Valley at Redding to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It follows the Central Valley south to Bakersfield, then points west to the coast at Point Conception.

The Climate

This region has two distinct areas; those affected by the coastal fog, and the dry inland and mountain areas. The coast features cool days and nights with minor fluctuation in temperatures from winter to summer. Summers are dry from March to November and may often have fogs keeping the temperatures cool, while winters feature rainstorms from November to March, and rarely receive a frost. Coastal mountain valleys are warmer and cooler than the coast, but still are moderated by fog in summer and warm coastal temperatures in winter. The coast and coastal mountain valleys receive 40 to 60 inches of rainfall on average a year. Their growing season ranges from mid February to late November, depending on your location. Inland areas are drier (10 to 20 inches of average rainfall a year), hotter in summer, and colder in winter.
The Growing Season

In the subtropical southern part of the region such as San Luis Obispo, the growing season is continuous and perfectly suited to growing everything from tomatoes to bougainvillea. The northern parts of the coast are consistently cooler and more suited to plantings such as fuchsias and begonias. The coastal mountain valleys such as Sonoma can drop below freezing in the winter, but heat up to well over 100 degrees F. during the summer months. These areas are famous for their vegetables such as lettuce and fruits such as grapes and strawberries. Further inland the Central Valley features a sunny, long (9 to 10 months), growing season with temperatures around 100F in summer and into the 20Fs in winter. In southern parts of the valley such as Bakersfield and Fresno are not affected by the cooling marine influence, but are in the thermal belt, meaning that cold air flows from higher elevations into the low lying valleys. This area is great for many growing fruits, from apples to oranges. Trees and shrubs range from the subtropical oleander and acacias along the coast to the redwoods and pines in the valleys to the oaks and in drier valleys.

Yardslave,  your incident with the mice reminded me that for anyone needing frost cover cloth, try upscale furniture stores.  Regular stores may use the same stuff, but if not check higher end outlets.

We bought a corner sofa set and it came wrapped in a very wide, row cover like cloth.  I'm fairly certain it's the same stuff and it certainly is working very well.  Most throw it out, so I bet you could grab a bunch of it.  

The create heat seams to go around the corners that you can simply cut or tear for a large flat sheet.