A Greener Thumb than Mine

I can NOT grow plants.  I grew up in Oregon where you put seeds into the ground and shortly thereafter you have a plant.  That doesn't happen here.  Mother nature doesn't work that way in Southern California.  Plants must be nurtured, fed and protected.  I do not have the attention span for that.  Luckily my son does.  Here he is with the fruits of his labor, grown from a seed in his kindergarten class.  Well done buddy!

Farmer

My little farmer is proud of himself for the sweet and delicious carrots and tomatoes he has grown this year.  We are also growing beans (from 15 bean soup) and basil and mint and watermelons and cilantro and apples and raspberries and strawberries and pears.  In any greater quantities, we might be considered a farm!  It makes up for those pesky ground squirrels eating all of the cabbage, beans and sunflowers.  Stupid ground squirrels.

The Trench in My Driveway

Don't blame me.

Okay, DO blame me but it's not my fault.

Okay, it IS my fault, but my husband made me do it.

Well, to be honest, he didn't MAKE me do it - per say - but he wouldn't do it himself and he had the diamond blade power saw...at the least he's an enabler.

Our 20+ new cedar trees will thank me though and in 10 years there will be a wall of trees giving the house privacy from the road so all's well that ends well, right?

That's what happens when you tell your wife you aren't going to do it, presuming that it won't get done. He should have known I'd take matters into my own hands. He had it coming.

Mayday

Uh oh.

The summer squash didn't like being put back outside. Neither did the basil. I guess it's a bit cold out there at night still. Do you think my little man will notice if I get new seeds and replant them? Rats.

On a brighter note, today we have about 10 bean sprouts and at least 10 pea sprouts popping up. I may need to get a bigger pot.

Garden Update

We currently have 10 peas sprouts, five bean sprouts and three summer squash sprouts. All of those pots are starting to show green! Now if I could just coerce up the carrots and flowers....

We Have Sprouts!

The peas have sprouted - The peas have SPROUTED!
Okay, there's only one, but it's sticking up out of the dirt and promises that it's friends will be here soon. If you look VERY close at the bottom of the picture in the center of the rectangular pot, there's a little green sprout. Look very VERY close....

Looking for Sunshine

In hopes of harnessing any rays of sunshine that might be falling our way, the kids and I have planted a small "garden" of vegetables. Okay, so we can't plant it in the ground, you saw what happened LAST summer with those pesky ground squirrels, but we planted them in several pots and put them up on the deck. Right now they're just a bunch of pots of dirt, so no pictures yet, but there hopefully will be some coming soon. On a related note, since I moved the roses off of the threshold to the deck and further up away from the dirt they have quadrupled in size, which is saying something since the stupid ground squirrels ate every darn leaf off of them last fall. We might even see flowers this year if I can keep them away long enough.

Why buy the ___ when the ___ is free?

No, not milk & cows....I'm talking about green onions! I'm sure you read my post from yesterday and know by now that I grow my own green onions (aka chives), but did you know that you can do it for super cheap and SUPER easy? Here's what you do:

Buy a bunch of green onions from your local grocery store (stay with me here), use what you want of the tops for potatoes or salads or whatever and then when all that is left is about an inch of green above the bulb, bury it somewhere so that the greens are all that stick up from the ground. Water regularly. As anyone who knows me already knows, I HATE to water things and in fact, am worthless without my sprinkler system (with the few exceptions of plants on my deck that stare at me every morning). So I just put my chive bulbs in a small planter and plopped it down in the middle of my vinca (which is already on sprinkler timers) and VOILA! I bought ONE bunch of chives last spring and have not had to buy another since. They grow back super fast so you always have a plentiful supply and we should know because we use them on everything. I just go out and harvest some with scizzors any time a recipe calls for them and it regrows itself for the next recipe. Why buy chives when the ones in your garden are free?

Standing Guard

This is a warning to all of you stupid ground squirrels who feel the need to eat my watermelon plants, basil, strawberries, beans, pansies, etc etc.... My garden is not your salad bar. I saw one of your buddies today gettin' into my roses for his meal and fed him a lead after dinner mint. One shot suckers. I'm watchin' so stay off of my garden!

Those Stinkin' Squirrels

I was so proud of my sugar snap peas that were growing so fast that I had to put up some sticks to support their long stalks...then this morning I came out to find that those darn squirrels had eaten virtually every leaf on the plant! I've moved the pot to my deck in the hopes that they stear clear of it but chances are they will still get to the peas because last summer they ate a flower I had in a pot on the deck as well.

The same horrible fate came to my ten watermelon plants this week. They had sprouted a couple weeks ago and were about 2-3" tall. Now they're just little stubs (if that in most cases) sticking up out of the dirt. If anyone out there knows of a good way to discourage those rascally varmints from eating my plants I would love to hear it.

Mail order tests my faith

We ordered eight hydrangeas via mail-order catalog recently and when they arrived they looked like this:
I was frustrated but planted them immediately and the next day they looked like this:
That wasn't very promising but a week later it was even worse:
I figured I would give the poor guys a break though and keep some faith. Soon after, they were nothing but sticks poking their little brown stubs out of the dirt. I have been watering them diligently and though virtually everyone told me that they were goners, five of the eight now look like this:
So 5/8 isn't too bad of a ratio (there's a guarantee on them just in case) but really, after all of that, how could I give up on the other three yet? For now I'm keeping the faith.

Mary Quite Contrary...

How does my garden grow? Very well, thanks for asking!
Here's some sugar snap peas that have sprouted...
And some strawberries that are beginning to show fruit...
I even have some raspberries springing up in my vinca! Watching all of this happen makes you really appreciate the magic of sunshine & water.

Spring is springing

***********Insert deep, content sigh here******************

We are pretty lucky to live in such a beautiful area. A few weeks ago we had so much snow that my minivan was buried to above the window line. Today there is not a speck of snow on our property (nor to be seen from it except the beautiful mountain line in the distance). The great part about our location is that we get the cold winters and change of seasons but not so much rain that you spend 2 of the seasons (spring & fall) indoors trying to stay dry.

Today is a complete 180 from the weather a few weeks ago. Today we have sunshine over sunshine with an extra dose of sunshine. It's about 80+ degrees and all my flowers are peeking up out of the ground. We spent the last weekend doing some yard work and planting of seeds and general spring clean-up activities.N ow I am loving the feeling content, happy feeling. These pictures were both taken at our house this morning. Don't you just LOVE changing seasons?