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 ?