As you may know the last two years of living in East Sac I have totaled up my annual harvest from my garden. In 2013 I grew 425 pounds of food and in 2014 I grew (a disappointing) 382 pounds. 2015 will be no different I will continue to weigh my harvests. My 2014 goal was to grow 500 pounds of food and since I did not achieve that goal my 2015 goal will be the same. I hope with each passing year that I will be able to harvest more and more mainly with the support of my fruit trees which have yet to give me a sizable harvest. So for now, 500 pounds it is!

In January, I was busy not being in the garden but I started preparing beds for spring planting and tended to my large compost pile. I was only able to harvest kale, a few strawberries and herbs so my total poundage for January was a whopping 1.11 pounds! I was able to pick lots of fresh herbs to make vegetable stock!

I am hopeful for my 2015 garden although I was listening to CapRadio and they stated that Sacramento has had the driest January since records began in 1870s. We have not received one single drop of rain since mid-December which is really scary. I think about my dry soil and what it will mean for my garden. During the height of the summer we were regularly saving our shower water for our rain barrel but in the “colder” months we have been a bit more lazy about this. Time to save our water in earnest now and help the soil which has been parched for water… even if it is shower water.