Although the beginning of the rainy season is still a good six weeks away, late last night we had an auspicious preview: A roaring wham-boom-bang of a thunder and lightning storm like I hadn't seen or heard for a long time, followed by about forty minutes of very heavy rain. Thunderstorms in the countryside are …
Tag: raised beds
It's raining vegetables! Hallelujah?
After two seasons of lackluster performances, this year our raised beds and the other vegetable garden at one corner of our ranch finally put on a show. It's a bit overwhelming, like sitting front row center at a vaudeville extravaganza, with chorus girls, clowns, comedians and jugglers all coming at you at once.There's been nothing …
Happy New Delusions
The new year, every new year, brings out the delusional in us. We resolve to meditate each morning at sunrise, perfect our tree pose in yoga or become devout vegetarians. Resolutions, delusions.My own and rather grand delusion, triggered every December by the arrival of seed and plant catalogs, is to plant a garden in which …
The Flying Zucchini Brothers
After many zigs and zags earlier in the year, which left several types of vegetables shriveled, withered or otherwise dead on the ground, I'm now approaching that point so familiar to many home gardeners: the late-August glut.This chaotic explosion of produce is an occurrence as predictable as the phases of the moon yet one that …
Overture to a rain dance
It is ungrateful for anyone in San Miguel to complain about the weather here, which is about as mild and even as you can pray for. No Chicago-like deep freezes or Houston-like saunas. Particularly in the past couple of years, when there have been floods, tornados, blizzards and other disasters in the U.S., our weather, with …
Midseason agricultural report
After three months of hot, dusty and dry summer days, with noon temperatures often in the low 90s, sometime in June we glided into spring, with cool temperatures, down into the 50s at night, and fairly regular rains. So this year we've gone from a clammy, unusually rainy winter, right into summer and now back …
Vegetables in exile
Among the environmentally enlightened one of the newer sects is the "locavores," folks who vow to eat food that is not only grown organically but locally too, usually within 100 miles of the consumer. Proximity to the producers, they believe, reduces the environmental damage caused by diesel trucks and trains schlepping fruits and vegetables over …
El Rancho Santa Clara 