On Harvest Mondays, I tally up what I’ve picked in the garden from the previous Monday through Sunday. Here’s my last harvest for January this year from my coastal southern California garden.
Jan. 25-31
2 Meyer lemons (9 oz.)
bok choy (2 oz.)
chard (4 oz.)
lettuce (1.5 oz.)
savoy cabbage leaves (4 oz.)
sorrel (1 oz.)
parsley (1 oz.)
1 lb 6.5 oz. of produce
I made a stir fry of the chard and bok choy. My cabbage wasn’t ready to harvest, so I just picked a few of the outer leaves closest to the head and used them. They worked just fine, not at all tough. The sorrel went into a tomato bisque. I’m not sure what I did with the Meyer lemons, but my last key limes harvested last week went into a key lime pie.
It’s also planting time here. This week I planted snapdragons and pansies in the flower border along the Garden of Infinite Neglect, along with 45 onion sets. They should have been planted in fall, so I have my fingers crossed that these onions aren’t fussy about whether days are getting longer or shorter.
True confession: We have a gardener who visits us four hours a month to trim hedges and rake up debris. We have no grassy lawn (just Zoysia, ie, Korea Grass), so there is nothing for him to mow. He planted a Chrysler Imperial rose and five golden yarrows for me this week. Digging is hard on my old knees, so I appreciate his help.
Our gardener’s name is Jesus (Hay-sus), so I like to say that I’ve been saved by Jesus. Because of arthritis, yard work was becoming difficult for me and I just couldn’t keep up with all of the chores. We were even considering moving to senior housing. Then Jesus came. He was doing cleanup in a neighbor’s yard and my husband asked him to come over and rake up the leaves one fall. He just kept coming back. We joked that we’d been adopted.
Of course, eventually he wanted to be paid, but it’s worked out fine for all of us. He’s made it possible for this old granny to keep on top of garden chores, because he does the basic maintance and tree/shrub planting, leaving me the fun things like planting veggies and harvesting. Now we have no intention moving.
I hope to have an egg report to add to next week’s Harvest Monday. Visit Daphne’s Dandelions to see what others harvested this week.
(To read more of Lou Murray’s environmental writing, see her weekly column, Natural Perspectives, in the Huntington Beach Independent at www.hbindependent.com /blogs_and_columns
Lou Murray's Green World 
I love the way you detail up the harvest and total them up. I haven’t done that so far…. You grow cabbage, and that’s the one I really want to give a try……..
~bangchik
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Hi Bangchik, so good to hear from you. I love your “little vegetable garden” in Malaysia. You can post your harvests on Mondays at Daphne’s Dandelions. Her blog has really helped me improve my record keeping, and has added a lot of fun to my gardening hobby.
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Hi Lou,
Cute hens and nice harvest.
I hear you about grassy lawn, we don’t have one at this house, dh refuses to deal with lawns and trees at 2 houses (can’t blame him, I don’t want it either). I would love to have some hens, unfortunately we live in a gated community and I’m the only one with a vegetable garden, it’s a no go. I could raise hens at the old house, but driving back and forth to care for them is not my cup of tea either.
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Hi Mac, thanks for stopping by from your High Desert Garden. Hens aren’t for everyone.
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I’m starting to get very jealous of all you people with Meyer lemons. You know, before I began seriously gardening, I ate much fewer greens. Nice harvest!
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Hi Ottawa Gardener, thanks for stopping by. Gardening really does change what you eat, doesn’t it? I didn’t have an appreciation for my Meyer lemons, preferring the more sour taste of my Eureka lemons. Thomas at Growing Tradition changed that for me. From reading his blog, I gained an appreciation of the unique taste of Meyer lemons, and am enjoying the Meyer marmalade I made following his directions. Not only do gardens change one’s eating habits, sharing gardens through blogging can change how one feels about one’s own garden. Blogging has added an extra dimension to my gardening activities.
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I used to have someone do what I consider my non-gardening yard work (ie leaves and mowing). I gave them up when they ran over my plants with the lawn mower and the weed whacker one too many times. Now I do it myself again. I’m not fond of mowing, but I put up with it.
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Hi Daphne, I hear you about gardeners whacking everything. I’m fortunate in that Jesus can tell one plant from another and that he “gets” my odd style of gardening. The only problems I have is when his brother joins him. I can lose coveted new seedlings on those days because his brother dutifully pulls them all up. Still, it’s worth it to me to have Jesus.
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