Category Archives: gardening

Pumpkin time

19 Monday Sep 2011

Posted by in gardening, pumpkins, Uncategorized, vegetables

≈ Leave a comment

Now I planted seedling pumpkins in July. I know this was late, but I am always hopeful. I hope I will have Thanksgiving pumpkins. But again I had problems. Some little baby pumpkins came but fell off. Some plants had only male flowers — how in the heck is that possible? Anyway, while I was discouraged, I was happy to find some real little gal flowers with baby pumpkins at the base along with some male flowers. Now that I read about fertilizing them myself, I decided to get on it.

That sounded wrong…what I meant was, I was going to have to cross-pollinate my pumpkins. First of all, I probably planted too few and too far apart.  I had to plant them in the front flower beds because we are going to re-do our backyard. Since I bought them late, I only bought one of each variety–a Cinderella, a baby bear and a Jack be Nimble (or something) plus a loofah gourd. Don’t ask me why I bought a loofah. I don’t really like them, but I was fighting some lady at Walter Andersens who was also there buying late pumpkins. We were helping each other, sort of. I got the loofah.

Well, I used a Q-tip. That seemed scientific. I stuck it in there and got as much pollen on it as I could and then I ran around to the Cinderella, the Baby Bear and the loofa and rubbed pollen in all the lady flowers. I thought maybe I should have on some Marvin Gaye. I felt a little embarrassed, like I was doing something naughty.

But you know what, I got a pumpkin. See the one in the photo! I hope it makes it. I hope I don’t get some weird loofah pumpkin hybrid. I’ll keep you posted.

P.S. I went to Olivewood Gardens last week in National City. It is a really neat place. More on that later.

Oh yes, plant your sweet peas and wildflowers now. I started. You can do it in ten minutes if you have a prepared bed, or if you don’t, sweet peas and wildflowers will grow just about anywhere there is sun and water. I don’t have much room for planting right now (plus the pumpkins are taking up a lot more space than I anticipated). I had to find little empty spots around the yard.

Compost Thrills

17 Wednesday Aug 2011

Posted by in compost, garden, gardening, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

All the talk of composting made me want to try, too. I didn’t want to buy one of those $100 composting bins and growing worms isn’t for me. I came just imagine my eight year old walking in the house holding a hundred worms in her bare hands. (She loves any creepy crawly thing.) No, I can’t grow my own worm castings. I prefer to buy a bag of them when I can afford it.

So back to composting — I found this video on Sunset Magazine’s web site:http://www.sunset.com/garden/backyard-projects/chicken-wire-compost-bin-video-00400000037005/

This was cheap, fast and easy to make. The problem was that this method took me a year to make compost!

Also, if you do this method, you had better have a lot of space because you should start several of these bins at once or over a series of months. That way you would have continuous compost and when one bin filled up, you could start another. Also, it was very hard to stir and turn the compost the way you were supposed to because the sides were too high. Maybe my husband and I made it too high to begin with, but you might want to consider how tall you are (and how strong you are too.)

Now in the Vegetable Gardner’s Bible by Edward C. Smith, it shows this type of chicken wire hoop as the perfect tool for making “leaf mold” compost, which is supposed to be one of the best composts. But he tells you it takes a year. So start now!

The compost I eventually made ended up enriching my vegetable garden but was nowhere near what I need for my whole yard. I am still trying to figure it out. Send me your ideas!

Now if you have a very short attention span, need instant gratification and cheap thrills (and can’t wait for compost to decompose), try this soil amendment recipe from my favorite San Diego gardening author Pat Welsh.  In her Southern California Gardening book, she writes about harvesting seaweed from the beach. Stuff it in a black plastic bag, take it home and chop it up with a machete and mix it in the soil. All this sounds really funny to me. I don’t think I have a machete. I guess I could use a meat cleaver. I am not sure that would be safe for anyone.  But if you really want to try that go for it. I may do it one day just to amuse my husband or my niece –she says all I blog about is fertilizer, anyway.

Please send me your composting tips. I need help!

Too Much Squash: an Overabundance of Vegetables

09 Tuesday Aug 2011

Posted by in eggplant, garden, gardening, grilled vegetables, grilling, recipe, squash, Uncategorized, vegetables

≈ 2 Comments

Thanks to a few days at BlogHer, I have some new ideas. First of all, after being inside for three days, I really need to get out and garden!

At the beach on Sunday, I realized most of my friends — most of whom are gardeners too — have too much squash right now. We can’t give squash away to each other anymore!

My friend Rebecca brought zucchini muffins, which we all ate, expect my husband because he thinks vegetables disguised as desserts or breads is trickery. (I could write a lot about his food habits, but will spare you.)  I planted only yellow squash, and I don’t think that is good for fried squash blossoms or muffins but heck, I may try it soon if I get tired of eating it with my dinner (or lunch as I did today). Plus no one else in my family will eat it — back to the weird food habits story that I haven’t written about yet. I am the primary squash eater of our household. Yay for me!

Anyway, one recipe that my friend Julie  suggested was very delicious and simple. You can use the grill or roast the veggies in the oven. It feels very summery and even my husband tried it! Here goes:

  • Squash (any kind, sliced thin, vertically)
  • Eggplant (Japanese, slice vertically)
  • Red peppers
  • or any other sturdy vegetable
  • Pesto (can purchase from the grocery)
  • Olive Oil

Slice vegetables 1/4 inch thick and dilute the pesto with a little olive oil. Toss vegetables and add salt and pepper to taste. Grill or roast in oven.

There you have it. Thanks, Julie!  Something else to do with all that squash (and Japanese eggplants, too!)

Eat well tonight and garden until the sun goes down.

Progress

27 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by in garden, gardening, roses

≈ 2 Comments

I lied. Here is another way I fill those empty holes -- potted plants!Wall in garden with rose Okay, so I noticed this old picture above in my “No Holes” blog. Now look at the area. That makes me feel pretty good!

Back to the scale, here is a better picture of the white armored scale. It lives with ants and eats their honeydew or something. It also makes black soot on the branches.

armored scale

 

 

 

 

Summer 2011

27 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by in garden, gardening, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Now, the gophers are gone, the roses are blooming again, a few Dahlias have sprouted.  Now is the season of dead Alyogenes (blue hibiscus) and my time of painting rubbing alchohol on the branches of my one tree to kill the white  scale. Here is a picture–the scale looks prehistoric. You can take a toothbrush and dip it in alcohol to rub off the bugs, but it takes time and patience.

Some happy things: lots of yellow squash from the vegetable garden, green beans, eggplants and sunflowers, too.

Diseased branch

 

The dreaded late summer scale

Spring 2011

27 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by in garden, gardening, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Well, this is a little late, but spring was beautiful in my garden. Easter was the best time with Austin roses blooming so much that I got sick of making bouquets. The lavender was thick and the bower vines blossomed. Everything was beautiful. For the first time, did not plant Sweet Peas. That made me a little sad, but I ran out of steam, I guess. I’ve planted them for eleven years. My sweet pea patch grew shaded so it wouldn’t work for planting and I had no will to find another. It’s a pattern of these years, to be so passionate about something and then drop it. Anyway I got sad at the end and bought a six pack. They were measley little things.

But I still love roses. They lasted until May-ish. Then died in a huge way with caterpillars, rust and wilt. Not sure if the copper spray did much (but maybe I didn’t put it on right.) This was the first year for that. I revived them and have blooms now in July. First with Ada Perry’s Magic Formula, then pruning, then a fertilizer and Grow Power. Two died, though, when I went on vacation. I think the Ada Perry’s was too much for the type of watering my housesitter did (spraying not soaking.) They may have also died from the gophers. We had an infestation and my husband tried to gas them out. Gasing them is not a good idea for your plants–they can die instantaneously like the poor little gophers!

Garden Philosophy: No Holes

30 Saturday Jan 2010

Posted by in garden, gardening, roses, Uncategorized

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

I lied. Here is another way I fill those empty holes -- potted plants!

I have been meaning to write this for a while. This is my garden manifesto and the one overarching philosophy I seem to have for gardening—-no holes.

What does this mean? Well, sit back, and I will tell you.

Wherever you see dirt, plant something.

That is it. That is my big philosophy and design mantra. Plant things where you have holes.

The most fabulous way to fill a hole is with a rose.

Ta da.

New Austin Roses

30 Saturday Jan 2010

Posted by in garden, gardening, roses, tomatoes, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Niece and nephew helping ( I think.)

Niece comes to visit for an afternoon, but I have to plant the roses. She doesn't garden. But she says she will help even though she is wearing white pants!

Nephew soaks the roses in a bucket. You are supposed to soak the roots a few hours prior to planting.

My new Austin Roses arrived in a box today. They are three of them, bare root, scraggly ones, but large like they usually are. They are in a box in the garage until I can plant them tomorrow. I wonder how they will grow. Where will I plant them? I will probably dig up that Terrible Tomato–yes, it is still alive. My brother explained its unbelievable lifespan as “determinate” vs. “indetermiate” plants. This must be an indeterminate tomato because it has never died despite the winter. It even had three tomatoes on it, but they just now rotted and erupted. Weird. Anyway, I will rip it up and plant the Queen of Sweden there. Oh no, I didn’t buy that one. I bought, Jude the Obscure, Harlow Carr and James Galway — I love those very British names. I love Thomas Hardy so Jude the Obscure was a perfect rose. (Queen of Sweden wasn’t recommended for my climate. Oh my!) Anyway, too bad they didn’t have Tess of the D’Urbevilles or Charlotte or The Lady of the Lake — I’m sure I would have bought those too.

P.S.  As you can see from the above photos, I had some help planting the roses. That was very nice since i did not want to leave them in the garage in a box any longer than I had to. I think my niece and nephew survived. I hope my rose did, too!

Today in the Rain

20 Wednesday Jan 2010

Posted by in garden, gardening, roses, Southern California Rain

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Today my garden soaks up the rain. The palm trees whip the sky and the cold drizzle shines the leaves of roses and society garlic, pincushion flowers and pink pom pom flowers on groundcover that I can’t remember the name of — sea foam, maybe?

It is a good day for the garden.

The old dog dug a gigantic hole in an unused bed. (Smiley face.) Still a good day for the garden.

Millions of little seedlings mass in the outside-the-wall flowerbed. These will grow to fringed purple poppies, orange mariposa poppies and Toadflax–all spring favorites. Right at the lamp post six or seven daffodil shoots are now pushing through the once dry dirt, enjoying the rain, I am sure. The Hollyhock I planted where my Blue Hibiscus tree  died is revived, tiny knots of buds forming along its stem. I hope it grows tall as the tree it replaced, one giant HollyHock as tall as the sky.

I want to buy fertilizer and sprinkle it everywhere. I am waiting for a break in the rain. When this happens, I may try to clean up my vegetable patch, now overgrown with Swiss Chard I’ve never eaten, spinach the snails have indulged in, six or seven snap peas straining to grow upwards. I have only supplied a few bamboo sticks that haven’t been supportive enough to keep them safe from this wind.

El Nino? La Nina? The weatherman says this rain won’t be enough to make up for three years of drought. But let’s not dwell. Let’s watch the garden and say, 

Hurray for the rain!