Today it is a beautiful sunny day here in the San Francisco East Bay. It's a chilly 57 degrees, but sunshine is streaming through the windows and the furnace is humming away. Outside, the hummingbird feeder is full and attracting a lot of visitors, and the sunlight is filtering through the pittosporum leaves in the side yard. The sunny weather looks inviting from inside, but it's not quite warm enough to lure me out of my sunny, cozy office.
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| Planning in progress! |
Instead, I'm spending time on the University of California Master Gardeners of Alameda County website, specifically the Your Alameda County Garden, Month-by-Month page. My mission is to see what garden activities I can be doing in January, February and March, until the warmer days of spring. Activities listed for the winter months include planning the summer garden, and starting seeds indoors for cool season leafy vegetables and warm season crops. Two especially useful resources for the East Bay include:
- Lake Merritt Trials Garden - see the historical "Recommended Veggies" and "Spinach Trials" articles for specific varieties that do well in our area.
- Plant Recommendations West of the East Bay Hills - see when to plant cool and warm season crops, and herbs in our cool coastal climate.
In the spirit of "homesteading in the city", I've already procured seeds and supplies needed to sow seeds early. I've set up a spreadsheet with seed information, and room to record notes and observations. I admit that I'm not very accomplished at growing vegetables, but I enjoy the process of trying. Plus, it makes me grateful for the bounty at Safeway and Lucky down the street, and the weekly Farmer's Market in Montclair (all worthy food sources for homesteading in the city)!
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