Back again and still Optomistic

I've been away from this blog for as long while so Google closed it down and I now have it back online once again. This past summer I had loads of tomatoes from the previous years' plants but I have not been happy with them.  I wish I know which tomatoes are best for growing in the San Fernando Valley.  My soil is really bad and I have to continually add compost and whatever to it.  We have little or no rain in the summer and it garden has to be hand watered.  I try to keep it as organic as possible and encourage birds to come and eat the bugs and other critters.  Back to the tomatoes--I have not liked the way any of them tasted--either too sour or too thick skinned.  All very disappointing. I have not tried growing any in the greenhouse this winter.  Maybe I will next year if I can decide on a good variety. I would be very happy if I could get a good crop of tomatoes and cucumbers. I hope to start them in  March or maybe earlier in the Green house.

Right now it is early January and my garlic is coming up nicely and I hope it does not get too cold for them I have quite a few beds of garlic growing-- hard neck and soft neck, early, middle and last season so I hope that they will last through the summer. I need to find out when is the best time to fertilize them.  We are having unusually cold and wet weather here so I don't know how this affects garlic plants.  I did notice that some of the leaves are getting a bit  yellow so that is bothering me.

Fall Planting--Onions and Garlic

It still feels like summer here in Southern California with its hot and dry weather but it is still time to plant stuff for the fall. Today we are planting garlic and onions in some brand new raised beds that Nick must made over the weekend. It doesn't really get cold in this climate but we hope that it will be chilly enough over the winter for the garlic and onions to make a good showing. We also put in a bunch of new tomato plants and hope that they will produce through the fall and perhaps over the winter.  While the greenhouse is quite big there is never enough room for all the plants that we have. The banana plants take up so much of the space that we are considering keeping some of them outdoors for the winter months.