This post covers December as well as part of January. It’s winter here on the N CA coast and things are definitely taking a rest, it’s wet out so I have been avoiding stepping on the soggy ground or doing any digging. I have ordered some poppies to plant and they will be arriving later this month, so I will need to get out there to get them into the ground. Meanwhile things look a little sad except for the vegetable garden which is producing lots of healthy greens.
The Aussies love this time of year because it is cooler and they can run around without getting too overheated, not to mention all the puddles to jump in.
Most plants are sleeping, waiting for warmer weather. I cut back the spring and summer blooming perennials so the garden is looking a bit empty.
This time of year slugs are a big issue…and big is the word. We have banana slugs here and they can actually grow to the size of a small banana. I have to keep a close watch on things and check the garden each day for signs of damage.
A few things are still blooming and/or starting to bloom.
The Cuphea is in bloom all year.
The rain has brought mushrooms, lots of mushrooms of infinite variety.
Some of them are huge! I don’t know enough about them to name the species so I won’t be eating any of them.
At the end of this month I will plant more lettuce and a row of snap peas.
With the storms the ocean has been wild, we’ve had big waves and I am enjoying walking on the bluff and ocean trails to view them. 
I climbed to the top of a small sand dune to take this one and was almost swamped.
I hope you are staying well. The end is in site with the roll out of the vaccine. I personally can’t wait to get back to a restaurant and the gym, not to mention gathering with friends. This has been a long period of isolation. I was ever so happy to see the end of 2020.
Happy New Year!
You are so lucky! I love seeing all of the green! The mushrooms, not so much… my mother had a terrible reaction once to some she picked. It was totally her fault, cause she knew better.
I worked for many years as a Microbiologist at the State Department of Public Health in CA. The Mushroom poisonings were the worst, we would hear of entire families poisoned. I am glad your mother was ok, it’s sometimes not a good prognosis.
Those mushrooms are beautiful even though I don’t like them! No worry about me getting poisoned. When we had the 75 acres people were excited about the puffballs in our woods which are apparently safe. I always enjoyed our trips by the ocean – loved the sound of the waves as they hit the rocks and came ashore…
That’s one of my favorite sounds as well! Most of our beaches are sandy but there are a few inlets with rocks, it’s a wonderful calming sound.
At least there’s still some green there. I am so ready for spring and planting. Have a few plants arriving in March that I’m super excited about. Those toadstools are beautiful. I wish I knew about foraging
Foraging is something I would also like to learn more about. It’s really not something you can learn in a book. I need a friendly someone to hold my hand through it.
So much to love. Your vegetable garden and view to the back of the house looks wonderful. It’s so nice to get a glimpse of other’s spaces… especially while we’re not getting out much courtesy of Covid. I think the mushrooms/toadstools are interesting but I am confident identifying and eating only field mushrooms.. my grandfather taught me when I was a child. Not to love is… slugs. During our rainy winter tiny slugs eating the green vegetable leaves was such an issue… at least if they were the size of bananas I could pick them off and feed them to the chooks.
I would love to have chickens again, I envy your own. They used to follow me around the garden at our old house, knowing I would feed them the slugs and snails I found. We have so many predators here that I am afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep them safe from the foxes, hawks or bears.