Spring Garden

Just a little photo journal entry to share what’s coming up in the garden.

Santa Cruz is truly a gardener’s paradise. There’s very little we can’t grow here and the growing goes on all year long. Along with all the standard spring veggies like snap peas, spring onions, lettuce, kale, radishes and broccoli, below are some of the tell tales of spring.

I will probably miss the first ripe raspberry and the last of the radishes in the next couple weeks as I venture off with two pals to kayak some northern CA and southern OR river. Stay tuned for more on that adventure.

Aromas strawberries blushing

Iris tongue

Giant Coreopsis (aka Truffula trees) Native to southern CA and the Channel Islands

She finally learned how to hunt gophers! Actually killing them is another story.

Somehow this pasty looking vegetable has escaped my thumb, until now. My first cauliflower.

Baby doughnut peach under development. This is an iffy climate for peaches. Peach leaf curl has already attacked and we're in a race with the birds and squirrels to get to the fruit first.

Comfrey flowers

Courtesy of Shinehah, our artist in residence. The bumble bee's throne. (CA poppy)

One of my favorite garden "weeds" Cerenthe

The potted Encore mandarin was overrun with what I like to call "Circus on a twig" or Linaria.

The first blueberries!- Southmoon

Our friendly back yard pollinators get on with their morning commute. With such a mild winter this hive has doubled in size and is bursting at the seams. We'll see if their honey production is as prolific as their baby bee production.

Rainbow chard is equal parts ornamental and edible.

Somehow a few chokes survived an assault by gophers.

This spring is fixing up to be a bumper crop of raspberries. I guess all those loads of manure were worth it!

Just wouldn't be spring without sweet peas.