Bad Blogger

I am such a bad blogger these days!  I have only the excuse that I haven't felt like it.  I have a backlog of pictures and things to post about, but for this morning I only have time to post that wedding yard progress is really moving along!  Some plants have been added to the meadow area (fully weeded thanks to Mom and D!), the trailer project in the driveway is gone, and a new retaining wall/garden bed edging is being built.  Edges are so important!  Put an edge on something and it suddenly looks better!

Some Pest Management Advice

Utah State University Extension service shares these tips for managing an invasive pest.  A "must watch" for any gardener!

Wannabe Farmers...

This video brought to you because EE thought it was funny enough for the blog!

Some of this "sh*t weekend farmers say" has been said in my yard.  Others...definitely not!  I'll leave it to your imagination to decide which!

Happy New Year!

Just a couple of photos that symbolize my wishes for the new year:
Fresh
Green
Orderly
Healthy
Abundant
Yummy!

Happy Halloween!

Besides tricks and treats, Halloween is a reminder to GET YOUR BULBS!

I usually plant them quite late (after Thanksgiving and sometimes after finals!), but if I wait until then to buy them, I'm stuck.  The online companies are no longer shipping and the stock in most stores is pretty sad by then.  I have mostly given up on tulips--like tomatoes, they are just disappointing in our climate.  But as with tomatoes, I'm sometimes tempted again!  This time I resisted, though.  I bought daffodils, hyacinths and a crocus mix at Old House Gardens.  They're having a sale and since much of the country plants bulbs earlier than us, many items are sold out.  I did better than last year.  Last year, by the time I remembered I wanted bulbs, they weren't shipping anymore. 

Magic Beans

I know why Jack traded his cow for beans!  There is something really magical about beans!  I grew Turkey Craw and Lazy Housewife beans.  Both were seeds I bought from the Seed Savers Exchange and are old varieties.  We ate them as green beans, the Aunt made a shell bean recipe from them when they were a little too old to be green beans, and now they are dry and I am shelling them and looking forward to pots of beans in winter!

Aren't they beautiful?!?

I've filled two quart jars and half a bowl and I still have lots more to shell.  That's a lot of beans!

Part Two on Succulents is Posted

I noticed that the Sassy Succulents blogger has posted her part two from the Succulent Extravaganza. Click here to check it out. This time she has some pictures inside the greenhouses. They had two HUGE greenhouses open to the public, one smaller shade house, and then another greenhouse that was closed off.
Also on my list now is a visit to Ruth Bancroft Gardens. Click here to check out their website. It is in Walnut Creek. Starting October 24th they install frost covers on the delicate plants. I'm not sure I can get there before then, but would like to try. Otherwise I would want to wait for spring. It's open in winter with the frost covers on plants, but I don't think it would be quite as interesting. The curator, Brian Kemble, gave a talk at the succulent gardens show and, boy was he interesting. I could have listened to him talk about the plants for hours. I also loved how he would touch the plants as he talked about them, like they were beloved pets!
So many gardens!

The Fifth Season

According to California native plant gardener and writer Judith Larner, California has a fifth season from August through October. The native garden sleeps. Water has run out and the plants go dormant. Only a few natives are flowering at that time. The native plant world looks grey and brown and dusty. I would have to agree! I think it is pretty in its own way, though. I also think it is perfect timing since those are the busy months with school starting up.

This year, the fifth season may have started a little early, but it is ending a little early, too. Rain the first week of October!!! Great for my natives. Spelling the end of my squash and cucumbers. There is no way they can survive the ensuing triumph of both downy mildew and powdery mildew. It is now a mildew free-for-all in the veggie garden!

Here are some pictures I took at the end of September.


Enjoy!

Succulent Gardens Extravaganza

Last weekend I had the greatest day. After a long week of people, people and more people, I went ALONE to the Succulent Gardens Extravaganza. OMG!!!!

Garden writer Debra Baldwin was the first speaker and she was great. There was a talk by a couple of garden designers who compared their styles in photos--interesting. They also did a few impromptu pot designs. That was interesting, too. There was also a landscape architect who designs gardens that fit into the natural landscape--right up my ally. It was very interesting to see the contrast between the way they thought about the design value of plants and the way gardeners think about growing things!

There were lots of plants for sale, but I didn't by anything. Just enjoyed the talks and walking around looking at everything. Take a look at this blog and see the pictures I wish I had taken! And that blog post of hers is only part 1!

The nursery is open to the public and I am definitely going back! Let me know if you want to join me!

Feed the World...

I was out in the yard this weekend and I noticed that I wasn't the only one harvesting. I was picking cucumbers and beans and apples, yes. But I wasn't the only one.

Bees of all kinds were harvesting nectar and pollen from the sunflowers, the sedum, the native buckwheats, and the squash blossoms. The hummingbirds were getting nectar from the california fuchsia and the penstemon. The bushtits (those little birds that travel in flocks that I call "peep birds") were harvesting bugs. Many of the apples I picked off the ground had been taste tested by birds, and there were empty shells of apple and orange peels that I think are the mark of rodent (rat?) feasting. Doves are harvesting the poppy seeds from the poppy field. The chickens were harvesting bugs from the ground and have been feasting on broccoli leaves that I pick for them each morning. Leaf cutter bees are harvesting pieces of bean leaves and wasps are trolling the bean plants for prey. Then I harvested compost from one of the compost bins and noticed how many worms and sowbugs were feeding on the compost.

Wow! I'm not just growing plants here...I'm feeding an ecosystem!

The Garden in August

August is usually a difficult month in my garden. By August, even the really deep rooted plants are not getting much moisture from underground. Even the moisture from fog is decreasing--or maybe the air is more dry during the day. Things are starting to look really tired. Many years we took some vacation in August, and every year I went back to work in mid August. So neglect happened to my garden in August. Neglect made me feel guilty, which made me more likely to avoid my sad, thirsty, tired, and neglected yard.

I'd only gotten a little better about this over the past few years. This year, though, feels a little different! Even though the lawn is pretty crunchy in spots the rest of the yard is doing pretty well. (It's difficult to keep up with the summer water needs of a large lawn with gray water from the washing machine. Don't even ask about the front lawn! Besides trying to be environmentally conscious, it is just hard to remember to turn on the sprinklers!) But back to the nice things in the yard...

The vegetable garden is actually green!
No straggling ugly tomato plants, for one thing. (The three tomato plants are in an upside down planter on the patio--and it doesn't look like we will have fruit before maybe January they are so slow in this cold summer!) The plants I did put in did great. Cucumbers!!!! I had success with this prima donna of veggies! I have two huge trellises full of cucumbers (a little more crowded than the seed pack said since I planted about 35 seedlings and almost all of them made it!). I have a smaller trellis with cukes on one side, too. They replaced the peas that were pretty much a flop earlier this year.

I also have beans! It turns out that beans are a great habitat plant for the leaf cutter beas! The leaves look like lace, but the beans are coming fast and furious. They are all along the back fence, and on a branch teepee structure. They look pretty and they are prolific.

What else is there? Sunflowers! I planted nearly 100 sunflower plants (again, too close together probably) and they are just starting to bloom.
This year, there is a bright spot in the yard in August!

Still here!

Survived a jam packed week of training and team building for my new job! Exciting but exhausting. Boy do I need a weekend! I plan to get some time to put some backpacking pictures up.

Meanwhile, I picked my first cucumber from the vegetable garden this morning! It was really good in our salad tonight.

Growing Like Weeds

"One of my favorite and most optimistic gardening strategies consists of allowing strange plants to grow to maturity in the hopes that they might be desirable additions to the garden, rather than—as they inevitably become—lanky invaders with miniscule, unattractive flowers and spiny foliage."
~~Garden Ranter Elizabeth Licata on today's GardenRant post about weeds.

That sounds exactly like me! Reading the post about weeds and the new book Weeds by Richard Mabey reminded me of all the times I had let something grow just to see what it would be.

Let's see... There was the time I got all excited to have a native buckwheat growing naturally in the yard. It turned out to be cudweed. Luckily it didn't spread too badly!

Then there was the burdock plant that I planted from seed. I got them as a gift because I eat weird vegetables. I planted them in the vegetable garden and nothing happened. Long after I planted them, one of the seeds sprouted. The plant has really big leaves. I am a sucker for really big leaves! So I let it grow and never harvested the burdock root. Eventually it was about 5' x 5' and looking very cool! Then it got flowers, wow! Then the flowers made giant cockleburrs. Yikes! Get that thing out of here! It is now gone, but burdock leaves still come up from the roots periodically so it is still alive down there...

One time at the other house I planted a really cool plant that I got from Dad. He had them growing all over his yard (should have been my first clue!). It was really pretty with reddish stems and nice big leaves. It grew even bigger leaves in my yard than in his much hotter one. Eventually the plant was about 9' tall. I loved it! I found out it was Pokeweed! When we moved I had to take it out. The realtor thought it looked weedy (she was wrong about that!). When I took it out and pulled the root up I followed it about 10 feet through the lawn before it broke off!!!!!!!

Ok. So I guess I kind of understand why El Esposo is not excited when I have a volunteer that I let grow "for awhile...just to see what it is."

:-)

Be like a weed and THRIVE wherever you find yourself today!

El Esposo's Project

The current backyard project is edging a planting bed under the Japanese magnolia. When we moved in this was a rose garden with about ten roses and what looked like a florist hydrangea struggling along. I'm not sure how long the roses had been there, but roses in the shade...in a coastal climate... Not a good combination! Then this area was dug up for the electrical conduit to the garage during the remodel. The birds were there for awhile--until the wind knocked the aviary over and we moved it to a more sheltered place. It also held the brick pile --which has now been moved to the bottom of the yard to join the broken concrete pile! Most recently this area became the home for the two Japanese maples that needed to be moved out of the wind. There were some other miscellaneous plants there (two sages and four rhubarb plants--all just temporarily placed because it was an easy area to water).

Doing something here has been on the list for awhile. Periodically we have outlined the area with blue spray used for marking water lines and such. EE finally decided to use some of the broken concrete (urbanite, they call it!) to edge the area and create a bed. He is almost done. As of yesterday all but the Japanese maples and the hydrangea (now starting to flourish) are now gone and the area will be a blank canvas! We are mixing compost in with the dirt and EE thinks he will finish the edging on Wednesday! Exciting!




(Don't worry--the rhubarb and the two salvias will find a new home in a more appropriate place!)

Gotta Love Vacation!!!!!

This is the first week of summer break and I am treating it as a vacation! We have been to Giants games, slept late (8:00!), eaten lots of hot dogs and burgers, and cracker jacks!

I will be working half time on the grant this summer and I did work a few hours yesterday and today, but overall--a vacation! Next week, I have some things on the to do list at work and I will be getting ready for my interview. (Yes, I got an interview for the dean of nerds position! Friday morning!!!)

On another note, the seeds I planted last week are all up! I will have to get the spent fava beans and not quite spent sweet peas out of the beds this weekend so I can plant all the beans and cucumbers that I have coming up!

And for those of you who aren't on facebook and haven't seen this video on my page--take a look! This will make you smile! These kids are darling!!!

Memorial Weekend Garden Update

It is always strange when Memorial Day weekend falls during finals week. It is an extra day to the weekend, but during a week when there aren't regular classes it often doesn't feel that much like a day off. Also, with grading and preparing finals, it sometimes isn't much of a day off. This year DID feel like a long weekend. By Sunday morning my hands were sore from yard work and by Sunday night I was sleeping with my hands elevated on a pillow--probably should have used some ice, too, now that I think about it. Now that is a sign of a weekend where a lot of work is being done! The wonderful steak dinner made by the Aunt on Sunday night undoubtedly helped them heal!

Then, El Esposo had Monday off so we both tackled yard projects that day. He continued with more yard work yesterday, using a trailer to take away some accumulated brush. Here are a few pictures I took with my phone while working.

I started by cleaning up the artichoke plants, cutting them back and giving them a boost of fertilizer so that I can get a fall crop maybe. In the process I harvested the last of the spring artichokes. This is about half of what I took off!
In the process of cleaning up the veggie garden area, I also harvested the garlic that I planted last fall and some stray volunteer potatoes that had been growing all winter.
Then I took a break from the vegetable garden to plant some seeds. I LOVE these seed starter trays! I got them from someone who runs a native plant restoration project. They were well used and ready to be replaced, but perfect for my non-industrial needs! You may not be able to tell from the picture, but there are 98 little tubes there! This tray is planted with sunflower seeds. Yes! Ninety-eight of them! I have to find a place to grow a sunflower forest. I have always wanted one and this year I will have it!

I also planted another tray(98 seeds!!!) full of cucumbers (Poona Keera and White Wonder) and beans (Lazy Housewife and Turkey Craw). The beans can be used as snap, shell or dry beans, but I think I am most interested in shell and dry beans. These seeds said they would be good as any type. Maybe that's why the name Lazy Housewife! She could be too lazy to harvest the green beans and still get shell or dry beans!

So then, back to the vegetable garden area. EE transferred a bin of compost from my beloved compost bin (thanks Aunt and Uncle!) to the unused bed. I dug it in, et voila!
A lovely soft bed for the upcoming cukes! Beans will go in the back where the favas and sweet peas are now. The waiting bed has been covered with rice straw and everything looks neat and orderly in the garden. This is an ABSOLUTE first for me, I tell you!

Finally, those of you who have been here have seen the brush pile. Those of you who haven't--I try very hard to keep it out of the pictures! It was a good idea gone wild. A small brush pile for the wildlife and for continual composting near the vegetable garden. Spread it out every spring and start over. Well,...no... It was huge. It was unsightly. But thanks to El Esposo, it is now gone.
The pile of dirt there is a combination of mostly the decomposed brush from about 3 years. It also includes some sod that he dug up from the front yard beside the driveway. But all the brush is gone!!! This will be spread out later, but for the summer, I think I will make it a squash/pumpkin patch. I may have to throw in a few sunflowers, too!

Missed It!

Did you know that Saturday was World Naked Gardening Day? Yes. And I missed it. I'll bet you did too. I was gardening, but believe me, I was fully clothed. It was cold!

Check out this link if you don't believe that there is such a thing.

Mark your calendar for next year!

A Few April Lose Ends

I have a batch of pictures that have been sitting on my camera for awhile and need to be shared. Between baseball opening week activities, fretting about the trip to DC, the trip to DC, and then Easter, April just kind of got away from me! April? I think they cancelled April this year and just went straight from March to May. Sorry John!

To prove that April actually happened, here are some photos from my busy month!

Early in April (or maybe late March) I picked the last of the cauliflower.

Dad and Marlyn stopped in for a visit on their way to pick up her grandson who was home from Afghanistan. We had a great lunch at the British Pub where the CC niece works. She wasn't working though.
Here I am at the Public House at 4:45 am waiting to get into the Murph and Mac show!
And here is EE at the show wearing the gear that got him noticed--Stanford hat and "old school" Giants jacket.
It really was fun to be there! These guys are a mile a minute!
The games that week were great and the ceremonies were spectacular. Especially Brian Wilson running with the flag. Exactly at the moment that the flag reached the top of the pole a gust of wind hit it and it unfurled perfectly. The same thing happened when I took this photo from outside the stadium!
I didn't bring the camera to DC and there wasn't much to take pictures of anyway. Here is the view from my hotel room though.
I also don't have any pictures from the SD niece's visit. I only got to see her briefly for a dinner at Phil's but she was here all week and had a great time.

Then Easter! Look at EE and the Easter Egg sisters! Aren't they cute!
We had a fun group and a great HEALTHY dinner made by the Aunt.




And then it was all over but the clean-up!
Happy May!

The Quintessential California Vegetable

"The quintessential California vegetable" is what Nicole Spiridakis of the Kitchen Window calls them in this story. (With recipes--check it out!) I love them and we have been eating them like crazy.

Artichokes!


The plants came with the house. They were planted in an awkward spot--in the lawn between an old apple tree and the back fence. (What was she thinking????) So we moved them to a spot in a newly created bed. When we first moved here I tried to keep the plants that would need watering somewhat together. I killed a few things that I put in a new spot and then forgot about. One of the dangers of a large yard is that you have to get used to paying attention to where you planted things. So we put them in a spot near other plants. They produced and thrived and had babies and took over too much space. So they were split and moved again about a year ago. Babies went to my Master Gardener class raffle and cutting days. One vegetable I can really grow is artichokes! Actually, they seem to grow themselves, if I am honest about it.

This year they are the best ever. Lots of artichokes and all have been super tender and tasty! Even the big ones are really tender with the inner leaves being completely edible. In the first year they were really bitter (from lack of water when we first moved in?) and in other years they have been overtaken by ants. This year we don't seem to have either of these problems. The ants may come later in the year when things dry out a bit, but maybe not. Right now we are in artichoke abundance!

More Veggie Garden Planning

About two weeks ago I harvested the first cabbage from the garden and made cole slaw. I make it with a combination of mayonnaise, olive oil, and vinegar as the dressing and El Esposo really likes it. This cabbage was so beautiful! It was a little too young, so it was less crunchy--a little more like lettuce in texture than it will be when it is older. The cole slaw got a "two thumbs up."

I also got my seeds ordered and they arrived! In fact, some of the veggie seeds have been planted already (peas and more broccoli and radishes), but those were all seeds I already had. The ones I ordered will be planted a little later and put in the ground in May or so. Here is what I ordered from the seed savers exchange catalog.
Two kinds of cucumbers, two kinds of beans (one called Lazy Housewife!), onions and radishes. It might be a little ambitious for someone who has just recently started to have veggie garden success. Oh well, that's the good thing about seeds. They keep for awhile. If I don't get them all in this year, it isn't a waste!

I also ordered the sunflower combo, tobacco (what a beautiful plant) and a mallow.
Here is what is in the sunflower combo.


If I can keep the seedlings protected from slugs and snails I plan to have a large mixed sunflower patch using ALL the seeds. The location I am planning is now part of a large brush pile so I have some work to do (and so does EE) to haul away some of the brush pile to become mulch at the Last Chance Mercantile.

A brush pile is a wonderful idea, but the brush from this yard collects faster than it can decompose and now it is about 20 x 8 and about 4 feet high. The idea was to have a small brush pile next to the veggie garden that would be ready to spread as compost each year. Ha! Nice idea, but the reality is an ugly brush pile that just keeps growing!