Los Angeles Permaculture Vegetable Garden in the Winter

It is now winter but things continue to be super interesting. We planted cabbage. Not sure what to do with them once they are ready to harvest but I'll have to get creative, because, as usual, we over planted.

Kale in back, beets in the middle and gorgeous red cabbage in front. So colorful!

Before we planted the winter crop, I changed the drip system and installed flat piping. They are harder to close at the end and leak quite a bit. I don't think I like them. At least I was able to install before we planted, unlike our spring and summer crop, where I was always playing catch up, drip system-wise.

A ridiculously good-looking red cabbage.

Some kind of cabbage. Lost the tag, evidently...

"Kale bonne nouvelle!"  (only funny if you happen to speak French)

Starting to feel a little brassicaed-out if ya know what I mean.

Growing With Our Organic Garden

Everyday I am flabbergasted by the beauty of or small permaculture garden. And to think that for 10 long years all we had was an ugly, water-wasting, lawn! It's been only a year since we created our beds, installed our drip system, and planted everything we could lay our hands on. There is no turning back to the old us. We love our garden and we love gardening too much. My husband and I talk about our garden as though it were one of our children. We rejoice in it. We take photographs of it. We share its bounty with our children, our friends and our neighbors.



We nurture the vegetable garden and it nurture us, not just by feeding us organic fruit, herbs, and vegetables, but it keeps us fit and delights our senses. It connects us with nature, with outside, with the soil and the bugs, with ourselves.




We have learned to live with the seasons. (Yes, there are seasons in Los Angeles. Kind of.) There are times for planting, times for harvesting, and times for returning plants to the cycle through composting.



Nothing is wasted in the garden or the kitchen.  We wash our vegetables outside as we water, or over a large pitcher, so that the excess water is immediately returned to the garden. Food waste is down to nothing. Juicing pulp and peel go to the compost or the worm bin. It's the cycle of life and we are now part of it rather than in the way of it.



Critters big and small come to the garden and we have learned to accommodate each other.



Organic gardening also heals us. So much on this planet is messed up and cruel. There is only kindness in our garden. No rash tilling, no chemicals, no additives. Things grow and we watch them do that. The garden calms us, soothes us, and shows us what to do for ourselves and for the planet.