Remember that onion bed that the bermuda grass ate up? I cleaned it out and put some grass-supressing hay all around the outsides of the bed. I also added a little cardboard to the back side where the grass is the most aggressive.

Hopefully I’m able to keep this bed from returning to the earth this time!

I also added a new row of logs to the bed to keep the fresh compost in there. Last summer we took out 3 trees back behind the avocado tree, so as a result I have plenty of small logs and branches to turn to for whatever I want.

The coolest thing about it? Discovering how they’re decaying in the wood pile.

It’s was a wet and rainy end to 2021 in southern California – so there’s some exciting (to me) mold happening under the bark of this log. At first I thought I was disrupting a lil spider bro, but nope! Just a colony of fungal mycelium. (Is it still mycelium if it’s not a mushroom? Wikipedia says yes.)

I also discovered a few root shoots from the now-gone Brazilian pepper tree that was back there. I’ll have to head back out with a shovel and see if I can dig up more roots before that takes over the world.

Anyway…I planted two kinds of garlic in the refreshed bed – one hardneck and one softneck. Last year I tried to do the same thing, but only the California Early softneck came up for me. This year I got my starter heads from the San Diego Seed Company, so I’m hopeful I’ll see both types pop their greens up in the coming weeks.

I also threw in some zinnia, nasturtium, and borage seeds. If I’m destined to be fighting this rhizomous grass forever, I might as well get some help from some nigrogen fixing self-seeders, right? And the garlic won’t be stopped by a little greenery over their heads.

It’s also about time for me to pass along these potted up Brussels sprout seedlings I started for a friend. I can’t seem to get the seasons right for these bad boys, so I’m not sure how they’ll perform in Shawn’s garden, but we’ll find out!

And lastly, a little outdoor-couch time with my sweet boy Bruiser. Now that he’s old (14) he prefers the cooler weather of winter. I’ve caught him outside on this sofa in the middle of rainstorms, the middle of the night, and often during the day. I think he just likes letting the smells come to him now.