November Garden: What a Busy Month — Then I Had to Rip It All Up

28 Thursday Nov 2013

Late October and November have been wonderful for gardening. Our weather is perfect and now is the time to plant perennials, vegetables, annuals and just about anything. I have accomplished a lot in the garden, which has been wonderful: a new watering system for the veggies, courtesy of my husband; pansies planted; new perennials on my blasted hill.

These two photos above are my front yard….I’m posting them for a reason, which I will explain soon…

These are pansies (above) that I dug up one fun Saturday at Weidners Garden Store in Encinitas. The first of November, they open up their pansy fields and you go and dig your own. My kids love it and it is our tradition. Last year, deer and rabbits ate the pansies so the crop wasn’t very good, but this year it was great.

My only problem was I have to share my pansies with my budding gardeners–a fact I forgot when we brought our wagon full of pansies home and I planted them all in the front yard. My little one came outside and had a fit that I took her pansies. Really, I didn’t realized I had to share! Okay, bad mom. I know. So I dug up what I planted in the front yard to give to my youngest daughter for her fairy garden. I really didn’t realize she was counting on them like that. She knew exactly which ones she dug up at the pansy farm! Here is part of her garden…

Here she is at pansy field; and there’s more of her garden below:

Here is my new watering system:Unfortunately, just as you accomplish something in one area of your garden (or life), the other parts of it can take a dive. Early November, just after I planted all the pansies, just when my first sweet pea seeds came up, we learned our main plumbing line was busted up heading across my front yard to the street! (I am waiting for the plumber as I write this on Thanksgiving Eve–long story.)

Well, that was three weeks ago. We spent a painstaking weekend digging up all the plants in the front yard and moving them to the back yard — to the hill and the fairy gardens, pots, and anywhere.

Now my front yard looks like this!

So sad. But you know what? I had a lot of overgrown plants in there! Plants growing on top of plants, giant hills of society garlic and Santa Barbara daisies that were dry and brown. Day lillies with monstrous tubers. For days, the yard smelled of sticky, odorous garlic from hacking those plants in half. My dirt, I was happy to re-discover, is fantastic–like rich coffee grounds.

My hill looks better and I know I will enjoy re-planting and re-designing my front yard when I can. Right now, I just hope the plumber comes to fix things up temporarily before I host Thanksgiving feast for 15 friends and family members tomorrow!

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Here’s what Cleo ate today: one pair of American Girl doll snowman slippers (mauled but not ruined)

Here’s what Cleo ate yesterday: 1) Christmas Fairy (destroyed, plastic, belonged to older daughter)

2) one squinky (destroyed, belonged to younger daughter)

3) a tiny baby doll from the 80’s (destroyed, no one claimed it) — no one liked it anyway.

I am going to start documenting what she chews up every day to see if I can learn anything from it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cleo, the Great Chewer, Strikes Again

08 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by ninagarden in Australian shepherd

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Australian Shepherd

Australian Shepherds love to be the life of the party. They are all about having fun. And when they are not feeling entertained, they let you know.

Like today, when I came home from taking the kids to school and Cleo greeted me at the door with a few of my things — my leopard print slippers that I really like, and a strainer, swiped from the kitchen counter. She didn’t chew up my slippers, but she let me know that she could have. Instead, she chewed up the wire mesh strainer and its plastic rim.

Good choice, Cleo. Otherwise, I would have been really mad at you!

So I took her for a walk, like I had promised before I drove away for fifteen minutes, leaving her alone with her thoughts, which must have turned to chewing up things very quickly.

You can always tell who she is mad at by what she devours. Usually, on Monday, when the kids leave her, she goes into each one’s room and finds something to bring to the door– a stuffed animal or little toy–one for each kid. Then she chews the eyes off, leaving them blind and most miserable for little girls to find when they get home and demand their mother gets out a needle and thread and buttons to sew on replacement eyes. She never eats the whole stuffed animal so it’s usually something I can fix.

Cleo is clever that way.

Anyway, here she is sitting innocently in my office, waiting by the door for her little kids to come home. Soon when she is rested, she will come and look in my garbage can for Halloween candy wrappers to munch on. She will make her fun however she can.