look what I grew.....

  Yup the prettiest purple flower this side of the Mississippi. unfortunately for me , and the rest of you poor fools that actually read this, it only grows in San Francisco , California . It was going to edit my blog with her degree in Print and Online Journalism but was called back for a newspaper internship at the San Francisco Bay Guardian the day after it arrived. 

  Here's hoping this elusive purple flower has a wonderful future. I'm one very proud Mom. 

Crop Circles!?!?!?

 What the heck is that???? Well it's the beginning of my " Three Sisters Planting". As I have started to blog about the garden, it was inevitable that social media was the next step. For a month or so I had been seeing posts about "Three Sisters Planting". From what I could gather it was companion gardening of 3 items. 

   Being  a rather organized type gardener and the fact I just got back into corn planting, there was no real interest. It was confusing at best as everyone had their own bastardized version of how to do this. Then  I saw a picture on a Facebook post and thought what the heck is that ?

  I looked it up and decided to make my own "What the heck is that? " or as it is more commonly known "Three Sisters Planting".

 This is what my "Three Sisters Planting" will look like in a few months, yeah right. It is actually an interesting  American Indian form of planting using corn, beans and butternut squash . All of these items can be stored over the winter. 

  Make a four foot mound of dirt and fortify it with ash and smelly fish bits. Or if you are all out of smelly fish bits some good organic compost will do. I did use fish emulsion as it is part of my repertoire. Plant corn seeds 10 " apart in a 2 ' circle. 

   When your corn reaches 5" you plant a few bean seeds around your corn plants. They will then use the corn as climbing support and draw nitrogen from the air to fortify the soil for the corn. Damn that was a mouthful. Very interesting concept though.

   A week later you plant 6 squash seeds around the perimeter of the circle. The large leaves will shade the base of the plants creating a mulch like effect and keep the weeds down. Not only that but It might look cool between my Teepees don't you think?



 

10 week update !!!!!

  Here it is at 10 weeks already. Erik started hounding me last week for fresh fruit and veges. I never thought I would hear those words come out of his mouth as for 22 years he has been a meat and potatoes kinda guy. I explained to him that Mother Nature ALWAYS starts her bounty in June. like I said I'm not so sure planting early helped at all , they just grew a little slower. Maybe if I had a greenhouse but I'm not so sure I want or need that.

  The Teepees are doing well. Not much vining on my beans but I do have blossoms and approx 20 green beans. Not sure but I may have bought a different variety than last year. The cucumbers are going to town. Lots of little 1" cukes.

 The trees are doing well .I took care of my earwig problem and no more munching on the leaves. I read that earwigs love to munch on stone fruit so that's a good thing. Saw a bird picking earwigs out of the oil in a cat food can the other day. I guess I made "bird sardines". 

  My apple tree finally flowered. It's such a little thing I thought maybe it needed another year. I'm glad to see it flowering later as that means I will have space between the fruit harvests. 

 I had some plastic and pegboards so I decided to try burning the weeds out of this area. It is part of the flood plain and one of my worst weedy areas. After the rainy season I will move it to another part of my yard and see if it worked.  My berries are growing gangbusters. 

 As are the grapes. They were creating a grape wall about 10 feet tall by vines twining together. I retrained them and kind of wished I had done the entire middle fence in grapes.that would be a lot of grapes for us though . I guess one makes raisins ?

 The corn is as high as an elephants eye, actually not. The first section is about three foot and it is beginning to tassel. This is where the rubber meets the road. Do I spray insecticide for cutworms or go organic and put mineral oil on the tassels with my fingers crossed. I did find a cut worm in the weeds next to it while cleaning up. I'm thinking of looking for an organic product but not so sure they are out there. 

The main garden is doing middling to fair .I need to start training the tomatillos up the sides of the pens. They are flowering like CRAZY!!!! My "baby" tomatoes are really starting to grow as well. One died and something ate the top of another but I always plant more than I need to . The peppers are starting to grow. I do remember in years past they grow best in the heat of summer so I'm not really worried.

    That big black ugly thing is some old retail racks. One of of my potato conundrum fixes. It is full of straw. We shall see what happens.

 Poor Pierre needs a makeover. Erin will be home soon for a visit so I'm making her fix him. Maybe this year he will have a little "post punk" revival. All three of my squash varieties have squash babies on them. I have zucchini, patty pan and spaghetti squash. I'm just waiting for them wiley critters to come munch on them. It seems they always get the first ones. I'm going to put some bird net on them today.

 I planted watermelon, cantaloupe and the pumpkins in the tree rounds. I lost 3 watermelon plants to some kind of bug , probably earwigs as the can under that tree is mega full. looks like they will do well.

My eggplants have started to flower. They are  a later season producer however.

My citrus grove is kind of status quo but the little trees are working on growing fruit so plant growth is at a minimum.

Artichokes anyone? This plant is on steroids. Currently there are 4 chokes. The big one is just in time for Erin's visit. My artichoke eating partner.

 My avocados have made it!!!  Woohoo!!!  I really thought the frost killed them. Very frustrated however as they were prime for their first year of fruit. I think this is going to be a year of regrowth. Behind them on the fence are my Mothers Day kiwis. Cross your fingers for me as I'm thinking they will be very high maintenance and may not live.

Onions are growing great guns.

My Roma tomatoes are finally catching up with their onion partners. No white fly yet.

Finally my cilantro in the pig trough is starting to grow. These are from seeds saved last year. Its the first thing I have grown from seeds I have saved . I'm a proud Mama !!!!

I ate a goose egg !!!

   I have had geese for about 12 years now. Geese are nasty mean critters but we love them . Best security ever , no ones coming in my yard if the geese are near. I even have golf clubs placed through the property just in case they have a feisty moment. 

    Mrs Gooserson had a mate for the last nine years. Come spring time she would lay her eggs in the dogloo, approximately 12, and she would brood. Rarely coming out for 2 months she would finally emerge looking worn and torn. No babies ever followed. 

   Her man died some 6 months ago. Not sure why as his body was intact with no damage. Geese can live to be 20 years old so I'm assuming being a captive goose 9 years was pretty old. 

    Springtime came and Mrs Gooserson started to lay. Knowing there was no way the eggs were fertile I started to collect them. No use in letting her go through the two months of torture as it is very hot in that dogloo in summer. As they started to build up I wasn't quite sure what to do. 

   It was around Easter so I started to give them away to people who still dyed eggs. I gave them to anyone who would take them from me. Satisfied that her 12 eggs were laid and gone I figured I had dodged  that bullet until next year.    

  I went on vacation and came back to four eggs in the Dogloo. come to find out a goose can lay up to 100 eggs a year. Not so sure Mrs Gooserson has that in her as she is 9 years old but she is still laying. 

      So I did it. For the first time in all of these years I ate a goose egg. Scrambled of course. eating a raw yolk of the goose egg was too much for my first time. As you can see by the picture on top it was about the same amount as three regular eggs. 

  Not bad. A little dry as I scrambled it to death but like a regular egg. my husband however is a different story . I guess I will be eating goose eggs alone as he has made my pinky promise NEVER to feed him goose eggs. Hee Hee.....


    

My Moms Garden

  
  My Moms garden is a special place . The cool tranquil tropical beauty beckons you  past the worn kitchen door. You step out and instantly the stress rains off your shoulders. It is my mothers trophy , her Magnum Opus. 

   My best memories of my mother are her in a pair of old capris, ratty t shirt  and blue keds sneakers. Her long black hair in a messy bun on top of  her head. A trowel in her hand. The smell of fish emulsion wafting in the air. She is a connessouer  of fine soil. She taught me what good dirt was all about. How it felt, smelled and what you did to make it better. 

    At 84 she's still at it. Pouring over catalogs. Finding the perfect plant to fit in a rock crevice. Reshaping and reworking her Magnum Opus.  

         My love  of gardening is due to her.  Thank you Mom for giving me this wonderful gift.

   
     

My first harvest.....

  My first harvest. A green bean. Now begins my journey into cooking , canning, and freezing my bountiful rewards. What to do with this beautiful specimen ? 
  
  Why eat it raw of course !!! 

 Who cooks one green bean...Sheeesh...

Excuse me while I postulate.....

 Every morning I walk the garden at sunrise. Birds sound the new beginning of a day. Walking  through the mist the grand possibilities of what lie ahead inspires me.

   Then I come to the Anaheim chills. I can hear the deafening scratch of the recording in my head. SCREEEEEECH !!! If you are over the age of 25 it should be a familiar sound. What the hell is up with these peppers !!!!!! 

    All of them have a pale greenish yellow gross death look. They are ill. Nitrogen ill, too much water ill, the rare Anaheim Chiliosis Rot Fungus Virus, hell I don't know... Why I'm stressing over $3 worth of plants boggles my mind even more. The rest of my peppers, the potatoes, and of course the zucchini are fine. 

    This morning it hit me. I'm blaming the Mother Earth news. Why because I'm kind of embarrassed to admit its probably my fault. I followed their no till advice.  Not that it was bad advice but in the past I have always supplemented each plant with a bit of organic planting mix. I like the one with  bat guano. Just because I find it odd and kind of funny they make such a big deal about having bat guano in the mix. 

   Well just because they told me not to till, I should have given my plants a bit of bat guano. So that's what I postulate..It's off to the nursery for bat guano and $3 worth of Anaheim chili's. 

My Potato Conundrum ....

  Late last summer I came upon the concept of growing potatoes in a large box, bag ,or even stacked tires. Before this growing potatoes had never crossed my mind. In fact the only person I had ever heard of interested in growing potatoes stayed up late at night to listen to conspiracy theorist / survivalist radio. Honestly if we have global anarchy  potatoes will be the last thing on my mind. Get the gun Erik were shootin our way out !! I watch way too much TV.

   I decided potatoes would be my winter crop experiment. I chose three spots for my boxes and planted Yukon gold and Red potatoes just for kicks .I had more Potatoes so I planted a row in the summer garden spot. Well they all started to grow , slowly I might add, then died in the "Great Freeze of January". Maybe I would try again in spring. 

  Honestly the potatoes were the last thing on my mind when they started to grow. And grow. And grow. Being an adaptable kind of gal I worked them into my plans. Gardening should be a static kind of thing. Now however the box concept did not work into my plans. In my research I came across an article that stated hilling with dirt and straw were the most effective methods. I had lost my box building mojo anyhow .

  So here's my conundrum. I decided to dirt mound my potatoes in the summer garden and straw mound some I planted in the winter garden .

 
  Let me tell you hilling with dirt is not as much fun as it looks. I'm up to almost two feet in the front of the row and the hilling is giving way to gravity. I still have another 1/2 row to go. Plus I am running out of dirt. No I don't want to dig up the yard somewhere else. No I don't want to buy bags of compost. Putting 60 to 100 dollars worth of dirt on  the possibility of  getting a $2 bag of potatoes makes no sense to me.

   I will probably continue on with straw. My main conundrum is where to put the drip line ? Do I keep it buried near the bottom of the roots or do I put it on top of the mound. I am guessing the potato vine grows roots in the covered area and needs water also. Maybe bury the line and give the hills a good hand watering now and then? Help would be appreciated. Ah the conundrums of a modern woman's life.......

My Hillside Horror....

  And my battle with the ugly hillside rages on. 23 years ago a single working woman craving a space for her horse and maybe some gardening , bought a little home on a half acre in the country. lets just call it the unincorporated slums. It's ok by me , I have learned to appreciate the unincorporated slums and all it has to offer. 

 

  Except  for "The Hillside". I HATE THE HILLSIDE !!! At first it was a non issue. Being a young single working woman I could not afford much. The general property and house were in shambles so the hillside was the last thing I had on my agenda. lets just say I found a dead cat in a bag alongside the garage. Yup I had more problems than just the hillside. 

 

    Well after having the septic tank pumped, the yard leveled by some old local man and the gross crunchy three tone brown carpet expunged , it started to feel more like home. Then I noticed the tumbleweed hill side. 

 

   It was not just one layer but three . Every tumbleweed in all of  Riverside and its unincorporated area had come to rest on this hillside. How do you expunge 150 feet of pure tumbleweed?  You burn it!! So off I went to the Fire Station. Burn permit in one hand and garden hose in the other I commenced to burning. what fun that was. I was the envy of rednecks far and wide. 

 

   With my hillside cleared I vowed never to let that happen again!! Yeah right. At first I decided to plant wildflowers and have a beautiful hillside all would admire . Well it was a huge amount of work and the weeds just took over again. 

 

  My neighbor showed me how to plant Poplars by rooting sticks in the ground. I must have looked crazy watering sticks for 2 months but it worked. I had trees lots of trees. The hillside was gone from sight. The tree leaves would fall on the hillside creating a mulch. No more weedy hillside. 

 

  Fast forward 16 years and I had Poplars overrunning my property harboring tons of evil ants , bad bugs and fungus and spores and molds , Oh My !! Menacing roots slowly winding their way to my foundation and septic tank. It was only a matter of time.....

 

   The County of Riverside did not like them either. I had planted these trees directly under the Electric wires. Every year they would come out and top my trees. All 22 of them. Yes 22. I'm not known for doing things small that's for sure. When I screw up it's BIG. 

 

  Last December I got a note on the door. The county was tired of trimming my trees. They would gladly remove any trees under the electric wires. At that moment the heavens opened up and I heard the Angels sing. Sure I had some misgivings. No one really likes to cut trees down. Especially ones they rooted from sticks. It was sad but necessary.

 

   Once again I was faced with the horrid hillside. Something had to be done. A local nursery was going out of business .There I found five gallon vines cheap cheap cheap. Normally I don't buy things that aren't blooming. According to the worker they were purple Trumpet vines. Well I did have 150 feet of hillside to hide from view so I gave them a shot.

 

 

 

   

Woohoo!!! After going dormant in "The Great Freeze of January" the vines are slowly returning to life. YES beautiful purple Trumpet flowers . I cant wait for them to cover the fence. Now about that hillside.... I know its a dirty word but can anyone say Roundup....

Artichokes already !!!?

  Very surprised to look down and find this artichoke . I have grown them in the past and it usually takes a full year for them to produce chokes and that is usually in February and March. 
   In California they are usually grown as a perennial. I had my Four plants for over  two years  then the gophers flattened them. and when I say flattened them that is exactly what happened. they ate the entire root and my plants deflated. Where the hell was that cat?
   Well this year I moved them over a bit and bought bare root plants instead of 4" pots. I guess that would make them over one year old. I haven't thought of it much but when I purchase plants bare root they do produce right away. I was surprised though as this baby is only about two foot tall. 

What the hell is it.........

   During my morning garden walk I noticed these puppies growing up through my mulch. they were easy enough to remove and localized to one spot but what the hell were they. Having studied Agriculture 30 years ago I pride myself on my knowledge of weeds. I may not know botanical names anymore but I know their growth habits and how to control each one. 

  It definitely looked familiar but why was it growing in my mulch. What could break through the 3" layer that was never on my property before. I went to go plant some small perennials I bought for the hummingbird garden and there they were again. WHAT THE HELL WERE THESE THINGS ????

  Then it hit me. They looked like palm tree seedlings . The mulch I used was from the trees they cut down on the side of the property. There was a 20 foot tall dead Palm tree in the mix. these seeds must have laid dormant for way over 10 years just waiting for some water to sprout. I believe I will pot some up. Anyone need a palm tree in about five years?

And BOOM out of nowhere...cherry tomatoes EVERYWHERE!!!!!

   Yup happens every year. The cherry tomato wars begin. As part of my quest to garden as organically as possible and of course my loathing of cleaning up, I pull my plants at the end of the season and leave them there. After they are thoroughly dried and I cant stand to look at the mess anymore, I discard the stems. My way of "kind of "
composting.

   Last year as my nutty sister helped me weed, I was informed that Daddy told her never to pull a volunteer tomato as they grew the best. Yes even though we are in our 50s he will always be Daddy.  I explained to her a weed is technically a plant growing where you don't want it to grow. It took her a while but towards the end of the weeding she understood. Trust me I would have a forest of cherry tomatoes if I did not pull them.

   This baby popped up approximately 2 weeks ago maybe less. It is already 10" tall and has blossoms. It towers over the tomatoes I started in January. That is why I never plant cherry tomatoes. I just let them grow where I have space. So far there is one by the cucumber Teepee, 2 by this stall and of course one next to the blueberry wall. Where did that come from ? Go figure.

Chives anyone?

  Last year I planted this little clump of chives in my strawberry pot along with some succulent flowers that did quite well but did not overwinter. Honestly I forgot it was there. it was always just a little clump of green. There are lots of little clumps of green in my yard at all times. I bought it with plans to use as a garnish . Never happened. Who actually uses chives ?

   Lo and behold it went and flowered. I'm impressed . More strawberry pot holes will be filled with chives this year. It seems hardy enough to withstand my container planting curse. I guess I need to learn cooking with chives as according to the chive experts it grows better if you clip it. Another interesting use was this recipe for Chive blossom vinegar.  Now  where do I find 2 cups of chive blossoms ?