To tend to, and start part of my garden. After days of rain, the soil was more or less mud, but the crocs with their extra surface area and plushy-ness was able to walk on it without creating holes in the mud – the mud being displaced on to my shoes. When I usually walk onto mud in my flip flops I usually end up with about 3x the height of the sandal in mud under the sandal. And why does this all matter? Well because I made a new years resolution to only wear crocs where they were ‘meant’ to go : ie. garden, cook, possibly gym and … whenever I forget this rule.
Anyways. In my garden I planted some fava bean seeds — its probably entirely too late to be planting these suckers in California but oh well. I also planted some artichokes. Note on artichokes: some take 180-240 days to develop an artichoke ready to harvest. I believe my artichokes are very late in being planted as well.
To make some room, and check that the vegetables were not rotting in the ground, I dug up some burdock, pulled up some daikon radish and dug up some sato-imo potatoes. Let me tell you my kitchen sink ended up full of mud too. One day I will learn to pre-wash things that came from the ground in a bucket of water or at least running water from the hose. Oh well.
My chinese snow peas are doing well… we’re picking them every other day and there’s lots. I hope the harvest doesn’t last more than a month though, as I’m already a bit sick of them…
Mexican Guavas are falling off the trees left and right along with the cherimoyas.
I know its supposed to be winter, but I feel bombarded by the fruits and vegetables in my garden. BOMBARDMENT
Oh yea, and the plum blossoms have nearly finished blooming. Its like a little slice of Japan. Except in Japan plum blossoms and cherry blossoms happen toward April, not January. California is so great in its non-seasonal kind of way.
I think tomorrow I will plant my basil seeds to start indoors. I bought an heirloom multi pack variety of seeds, so I don’t know if the result will actually be edible. I don’t really trust herbs like lemon basil… I think this is because lemon thyme reminds me of pledge and orange mint tastes bad.
Lots of things to try. Lots of things to plant. But I must be patient because even though this is California, any way you think about it, January is entirely too early to be planting anything (unless its meant to be planted in cold weather). To put things into real perspective, March is generally too early to plant things. Lots of instructions say plant after the danger of frost has passed – this is never here- but warm weather really helps plants to grow. If you plant them in cold weather they learn to grow slow and will continue to grow slowly even when temperatures warm up. Its usually better to just wait until the soil is warm, then plant. I am impatient and usually plant several cycles of plants… I like to see sprouting 
But this is not what is best for your soil, as it will get depleted of nutrients quickly this way.