The weather continues to be absolutely wild. Cool nights still, with the occasional 70 degree day- and no rain in sight.
Even the Brassicas that are bolt resistant are having fits, and I don’t blame them.
But there are some good signs too.
The Rosemary is in full bloom- always a sign that Spring is here, and a good first food for the bumbles and honey bees waking up from the cold.
Though dear god do I need to trim this thing. There’s a reason Rosemary is a great hedging plant.
The blackberry vines have been more that a little scraggly- but all of a sudden they’ve woken up.
Which is encouraging and terrifying in equal measure. I have a feeling my pie dreams will be fulfilled.
Tarragon is proving to be a real champ- not only is it regrowing, it’s super tastier then last year!
My shungiku is proving that it is in fact a chrysanthemum, but for it’s bug repelling prowess I suppose I’ll let it be.
Also you know, yerba buena is a mint. uh… It’s really doing it’s mint thing here god bless it. (send help).
Oh and I identified my mystery sprout- it’s not a squash volunteer- it’s borage!
Borage, it just keeps going and going.
As you can see my Alpine strawberries are doing great, and the soil’s healthy enough that the worms have made themselves at home.
While one bowl over the quinalts are also happy as clams.
mmmm I see you berry- you’re gonna be juicy!
Now while the napa cabbage may be (disappointingly for my dreams of kimchi) bolting- the curly kale keeps on trucking. I have a lot of work to do, but the re-sprouting of things thought dead and the rebirth of dormant plants is really invigorating.
And tonight as I type this it’s raining.
Never a dull moments in the city by the bay that’s for sure!
The Neanderthal Gardens 
Yes, I was about to say that it should be raining. It would be odd that we got some if you didn’t.
Blackberries start out this way. Those shoots will grow into lateral stems that bloom and produce fruit. While they do that, new canes that emerge from the roots get trained in to replace them. The old canes get pruned to the ground as their last fruit gets harvested. New canes will repeat the process next year. The mistake I commonly see with those is that the old canes do not get pruned out.