Doomed Blooms

A week or so ago my little peach tree stick started to bloom... and then the nectarine, the meyer lemon, the oroblanco grapefruit and I bought a washington navel orange and hass avacado trees.  I told my mother in law that they were starting to bloom.  I was so excited.  She asked, "Are you going to pick off the blossoms or wait and pick off the little fruit?"  What???

Meyer Lemon with ant

Nectarine

Oroblanco

Washington Navel

Hass

Apparently you aren't supposed to let them fruit the first couple years so they can build stronger roots. :(
Watch out little ant.

Birthday presents

All shiny and new

Early and late peaches, apples, a nectarine, and a 4-in-1 grafted plum.



Meyer Lemon and Oro Blanco grapefruit

 Chris and I often get gifts from our parents that are a combo Christmas and Birthday gift. My cookware set was creeping ever-nearer to the end of it's 25 year warrantee (which seemed like a lifetime warrantee when I got married) and our silverware started disappearing about the time the boys started helping scrape the plates.  I think a lot of forks went into the garbage and the spoons into the disposal (we were short on forks, the spoons were gouged up but I think we still had a full set.)  Now we have a shiny new set of pots and pans and silverware.  We feel so fancy now.
  Our yard is getting more and more bare (it's a lot of work and the yard looks worse the more work we do.) But it was really fun to go choose birthday trees at the nursery.  They have been planted close together in groups of the type of fruit they will bear.  The idea is that our family doesn't need a whole mature-tree full of apples at one time.  So, you get a few trees with a different harvest times, plant them close together and prune them so they don't grow very big.  Then you get a more usable amount of fruit over a longer time.  We'll see how it works.
Thanks!

What I did this summer

Our summer is turning out different than we thought it would. Up until the end of April, we thought we would be moving to the Bay Area, but Chris took a job back down in Calabasas (same bank, different group) and moved back to Southern California on Memorial Day weekend. Since we had talked about moving to Thousand Oaks (much closer to his job, less urban, less expensive) during the time he worked at Countrywide, we decided now was the time before Davis started high school. So, for me, the whole summer has been about moving - packing, finding a place to live (more on that some other time), cleaning, and keeping the boys semi-occupied. Here's basically what we did.
Nathaniel really wanted to go to Webelos camp with his pack before we moved. He went to Camp Trask this last week and had a great time swimming, doing archery, bbguns, art, boating, marbles and general exploring.

This is a walk I took one morning when I was out in Thousand Oaks before I was meeting the real estate agent to look for a place to live. It's going to be a lovely place to live. It has lots of trails for hiking and biking.

Hanging out with friends has been really important to Davis this summer. He goes bike riding (on my awesome bike) in the afternoons with kids around town. Here are a couple pics of him at EFY with his pal Grant at UCSB.

They wouldn't pose for any more pictures - they're 14.

Nathaniel and the Webelos had the honor of putting out the fire after the year end pack meeting marshmallow toast.

This is what I haven't been doing this summer. This is my garden. Click on the "garden" label to see what the garden looked like last year. It's sad. I don't think I'll ever have a garden this big again.

I have been cleaning like crazy so when we do actually move I'm all ready. Thanks for the pink gloves Steph! I'm still using them.

And we have been trying to spend time with our friends too. Last Saturday we went to a concert with fireworks at the Hollywood Bowl.

Fall Colors

This is fall color So Cal style - even in my neglected yard Lemon Queen

Persimmon

Day Lily

Thai Chilis

Not my garden...

My garden is in sad shape. I feel guilty spending the time posting pictures. There's no way I have time to clear the summer plants and put in the winter veggie seedlings that have outgrown their seedling flats.

Tomatomania

...and this is what happens when I leave the garden for a few days. I thought I would dig up the onions and potatoes this morning, but I have more than I can handle with the tomatoes. Want some?

Summer Time

Its full-on Summer in the garden now. This week we've had the tomatoes and corn ripening and the beans and raspberries look like they are on their last legs. The lettuce bolted a couple weeks ago (except for one stray head that I picked today) and I'm waiting for it to go to seed to collect them for fall planting. When the tomatoes get going full blast, then I'll start making tomato soup to freeze for winter. The past couple years we've had enough to last all year. I didn't get around to planting sunflowers this year, but the volunteers came through for me. (Squirrels who were sloppy when they ate last year's sunflowers and dropped seeds.)

This daisy-like flower is called Feverfew - its supposed to be a natural insect repellent.

HA shot of the corn patch.

A couple weeks ago I had to tie up the tomatoes again because the plants grew so big and I knocked off some green tomatoes. We fried them (what else do you do with them?)

But now they are starting to ripen up so I pick a few each day.

And this is what lunch looks like in the summer - tomato salad with fresh mozzarella, basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and cucumbers.

June Garden

Here are some more recent shots of my garden
Here I'm spraying a soap solution on the aphids that attacked my yard-long beans. It killed the aphids right away, but the beans were too damaged and shriveled away. I think they get a bacterial wilt from the damage produced by the aphids. So even though the aphids were dead, the plants were already infected.

This was my first major picking of the season.

This is about the whole extent of the blueberry crop. I have 4 little bushes and I need to figure out how to condition the soil for them. They're not happy.

The black raspberries, on the other hand, are doing great! They aren't as soft and juicy as the red ones, but I pick more than a pint of them each day.

This is my favorite variety of lettuce called tom thumb. It forms a nice little head of lettuce about the size of a grapefruit. It is better tolerant of the warm weather than other head lettuce and its crisper than loose leaf lettuce.

The little greens between the hoses are watercress. Kind of peppery when you put it in a salad.

Here's a shot through the onions looking toward the peppers and tomatoes. Still waiting for ripe tomatoes though.

I planted nasturtium to act as an insect repellent. It's supposed to discourage ants which should reduce the aphid problems. These are planted right by the tomatoes and I haven't seen many aphids this year, so maybe it's helping. I could also put the blossoms in salads, but I haven't felt that adventurous yet.

Here's one of the daylillies that Chris' mom gave me from her yard a few years ago. They cover the hill above the garden.

I have volunteer gladioli near the house. I'm glad for volunteers because I don't put much effort into ornamental plants.

I'm hoping to have tomatoes, peppers and corn in the next few weeks. Stay tuned my tiny little audience.

When was the last time you foraged for your supper?

When I was a kid my dad would forage for food and feed us what we called "Weed Salad". I amused my high school friends by describing the dandelions and purslane he'd collect from between the rows of "real vegetables" and around the edges of the alfa alfa field behind our house. Or, when he'd stop the car to climb down into an irrigation ditch and come up with handfuls of watercress. (I have to say I always liked the baby cattails because you boil them and eat them with butter like baby corn.)
Well, little did he know that he was a rustic gourmet. Today, I will be feeding my family weed salad. I will just call it "Tiny Spicy Salad". I planted watercress at the point where the soaker hoses fork off the garden hose and its always damp there - kind of like an irrigation ditch bank. I also have purslane growing as a "volunteer" plant in between the rows of conscripted vegetables. It has a lemony flavor. I took the opportunity to thin the lettuce and cilantro seedlings and add them to the mix. I have a sweet but very light honey-pear salad dressing that will balance the flavors I think.

These are the first radishes of the season. I'll chop them fine and add them to the salad for color and zing. I love how pretty they are. They make a great bouquet for giving away. Looks like Nathaniel's teacher will get a bunch of radishes Monday (since we forgot to bring flowers for teacher appreciation day this week.)

Speaking of flowers - these are the blooms that were intended for teacher appreciation week. The are Amyrillis. They are the bulbs that many people buy at Christmas and grow indoors because their long stalk grows so quickly. They grow right behind the house and appreciate the regular water we provide for the lawns. There are more blooms every year. I need to divide them and share the wealth.

The Garden is Planted

The garden is now planted. The artichoke plant is from last year and I think I'll pick it tomorrow to steam with garlic. Here is a long view of the garden. If you have a magnifying lens you can see the labels. Basically I have a raspberry hedge in the far distance, then tomatoes with radishes and lettuce in between and nasturtiums along the edge. Then peppers and chiles, onions, garlic and shallots, and then red and russet potatoes. Where the soaker hoses get wavy I planted early and late corn with spinach in between. In the foreground is climbing and bush beans with marigold and chives interplanted, cucumbers, summer and winter squash, and a variety of herbs. I'm trying partner-planting with herbs to cut down on ants and aphids.

Here is the sun shining through the cages of peppers and tomatoes.

Nathaniel helped by planting potatoes, onions, and beans.

You can see the garlic already starting to come up.

I'll post more pictures as it grows, and as I begin to harvest.

Garden work

March is the time for heavy labor in the garden. First thing I did was try to avoid all the problems with the weed creeping up the hill into my vegetables. I put down water-permeable black plastic over the weed hill and covered it with mulch. I think the mulch has had the neighbors talking about how crazy I must be. I contacted a tree-trimming company about getting the wood chips they have after a job. They were pleased to come and dump a truck load for me. There was no way to get the truck around to the back so I just figured I'd move the mulch one cart-load at a time. When they came to dump the wood chips, it was about 3 or 4 times bigger than I had imagined. Chris couldn't even pull his car into the driveway. He couldn't imagine how we were going to move it and where it would go. I must admit I felt discouraged and foolish.

I started moving it back to the garden a few cartloads at a time whenever I had a little time. Chris was able to get the car into the garage after a few days. Its taken a few weeks and I'd guess I've moved about 3 quarters of it so far. But I think it will make a big difference with the weeds and the hill looks great.

Saturday was rototilling day. We got up early and rented a rototiller. Chris does this for me each spring. Here is a "before" shot.

And this is the "after" shot. Doesn't it look great! Chris tills it all until it is an even texture like cake crumbs and the sculpts it like frosting so the water won't just run down long rows and off the hill.

I hung around the garden in case he needed me for something. I weeded the hill above the garden and found some cool mushrooms growing on my "sitting stump."

This is a pic of Chris rototilling. It makes the whole garden possible. The amount of work turning the soil by hand and raking out the weeds would be much more than I'd be willing to do. He ends up sore from his fingers to his heels after this. I love the garden after it is tilled. It is such a nice thing to do for me. Thanks Chris.

Next - planting.