Today I had two babies sound asleep in the back of my car while we were driving to music class. I happened to stumble upon a mountain of trash in front of a house which had a perfectly usable large roll of mesh fencing, perfect for building compost piles frames. I was trying to figure out a way to get this large roll of mesh into my car (which clearly was not going to fit with the babies in the car) when the garbage truck and claw came by. The workers asked me if I wanted anything else from the pile and despondently I had told them that I didn’t think the mesh was going to fit in my car. These two men took 10 minutes of their day to fold the mesh into quarters (using their most powerful tool… the CLAW) so it would fit in my trunk. One said, “This will grow great beans!” City workers after my own heart!
Crushing the mesh with the claw!
A shout out to the great city workers who helped me make sure one person’s trash could be diverted from the waste stream into my garden! And they didn’t even wake the two sleeping babies!
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.
With wind blowing ferociously outside, I decided it would be a good time to harvest my Satsuma tree. This tree is only two years old and is really tiny but was loaded with fruit. Looking outside this morning with the impending big storm, I feared that this little tree wasn’t going to make it through the storm with the heavy weight of the fruit. So I donned my rain boots and jacket for a harvest. It is a pretty magnificent haul from such a small tree. 21 Satsumas for eating, almost 16 pounds! I lost 3 more to slugs since the tree was weighed down to the ground and the fruit was touching the soil. It is nice that even on a day like today I am able to harvest something from my garden. We probably wont go out for the rest of the day so we will hunker down with a fire, s’mores, hot drinks and a puzzle. 
If I can suggest one piece of gardening advice it is to grow your own herbs. They are so easy to grow and are pretty much “set it and forget it” plants. When not much else is going on in my garden at this time of year, my herbs still look great. Plus they are perfect for adding to Thanksgiving dinner. I used thyme and sage for my Vegan Mushroom gravy, and parsley and chives to add into mashed potato pancakes. Plus throwing a few herb plants in the ground is economical. Take sage for example. My one plant provided me fresh leaves for Thanksgiving dinner plus some for drying. The plant cost me a buck whereas a small spice jar of dried rubbed sage from the store can cost you $5-6. Even for an herb that I don’t use that often, planting your own is a no brainer.
East Sac Edible 