City Slicker Blogs?

Yeah, it's been a while. Rest assured I have not forgotten neither my garden nor my blog. So, another spring/summer is upon me. Time for me to tell you a bit about how my garden grows.

 So we have some celosias in pots. I call them Draggle Flowers because they remind me of the Draggle-Tail plants from the game Morrowind. I didn't buy these from seed (I feel like a failure in that regard) but I did transplant them from their tiny pots to these slightly larger tiny pots from Wal Mart. In the top right we have a beautiful freesia that has flowers with a beautiful deep red on the outside of the petals and yellow centers. These blooms have faded a bit, but the plant is doing well post transplant. Bottom left are my beautiful sunflower seedlings. I mixed two different types, one is a tall Velvet Queen that will bloom a deep red (can you see a pattern here?) and the other is a shorter one that will have (you guessed it) deep red with some yellow in the center. Oh, and the bottom right is a bunch of wildflower seeds that have popped up. Can't wait until they bloom so I can tell what they are.

I also have been admiring the fuscias at the hardware stores. I first encountered them last May when I went on a trip to Coronado Island. They were outside some shops and I fell in love with them. They looked like the ones in the middle picture here. But then my garden shop had the ones on top with the white outer petals and purple inner ones.

I showed you a while ago my succulent planter. They are actually doing quite well (figures) but the pot looked a little bare. So I bought my succulents some cacti friends and will be installing them sometime this week.

And now for the grand finale. I have been trying for ages to get some violas to pop up from seed in my front yard plum tree area. Finally I get some life and hopefully they will bloom before they die. But this is the best show I've had so far.

So that's it. I'll be around soon. Instagram makes it easier for me to update my blog because my phone updates the photos online, rather than me having to take my sim card out of my camera and put it in my computer and then put it back again. I do want to use my nice camera 'cause it's nice. But Instagram makes it easy for me to edit them nicely.

Amongst the Lazing About

Wow. I forgot I had this post sitting in here waiting to be made. Woops! I love my grapefruit tree, the fruit are so huge! So All of this happened last year sometime. The basil above is officially dead. So is the avocado below (that was a my bad moment).

These green onions from my garden were quite tasty.

And my plum tree is even more healthy than the plum tree you see below. And that really old lawnmower works, but we haven't used it in a while so it's kind of turning into one of those antique garden decorations. You know like a bathtub full of poppies, etc.

I planted this nice little dahlietta. It has a gorgeous flower. It died over the winter but it's coming back now. This is a pic of it after I had just transplanted it a year ago. Wait until I show you how it's doing now.

This is a pic of what the flower will look like. It looks better in real life. Can you see how my dog chewed it a bit?

Well now that there is this late update. You'll have to wait until tomorrow for my new post of new stuff.

Olympic Gardening?

Friday was a wonderful day, I went to the local fair with my mum and some friends. It was a lot of fun. I learned how to trim a goat's hooves. I got to see and pet an oxen pair. They were HUGE!!!! The piglets were adorable and the chickens always make me want to raise my own. I always love to see the Budweiser Clydesdales and I got to see them pull the wagon a bit later in the day.

 They really protect those horses, you can't get anywhere near to touch them. Kinda sad actually as I am sure they'd love some face scratchin'.

Well, one of the best parts of the fair was the gardening section where they had a TON of plants. And when I saw the veggies entered in the competition and realized that the ones that I have grown half-heartedly were way, way bigger and probably tastier. So I got the bug in me to get my garden up in to full swing.

So, I got home and looked at the seed packets I own at the moment and realized that many of them said I could plant them in July and/or August. Now I realize that July is past, but I figure that I'm close enough to that month to plant the stuff that had a July cut-off date.

I also decided to keep track on a calendar of when my plants should be germinating and when I should be harvesting them. That was one of the problems I had last year with my corn (that and not watering enough). So I wrote them down so I know when to pick things. I also picked up a nice oscillating sprinkler to water my stuff. It should make this year's crop a lot better.

Aren't my little rows so cute?

 Now, if you recall a couple of earlier posts about my veggie garden it looked somewhat like this and this. Well, yesterday it was a mix between the two. My broccoli had sat there not producing anything for two years now, so it was time to come out. I had plenty of carrots intertwined in there as well. They were leftovers from the crop that went to seed two years ago. They weren't looking all that great as I have not watered them at all, so they had to go. Now look at how clean my veggie bed is :D

How do you like my red and yellow mole chaser windmill? And my temporary watering solution is in the foreview. It will go away (sometime in the very far future). So, what did I plant? Corn, Bell Peppers, Tomatoes, and Lettuce.

Well, it's a sideways picture, but this is my dwarf orange tree. I just bought it a month ago and it had a TON of oranges on it. Then my German Shepherd decided they were fun to chew and he tore all but three off of my baby. Now my chicken wire stands guard so that sometime I will get my three oranges. They had better be good.






This is one of the two pansy plants that I have left (at least I think it is a pansy, it could be a johnny jump up). I used to have five, but the something ATE them ALL!!! Grr.... I need more of them. I want to have a little bed full of them in all color varieties as well as plenty of multicolored johnny jump ups. I do hope this one is the pansy though as it is supposed to be a jet black one.

I talked in an earlier post about my little succulent patch. I'm sorry I didn't catch one of the pink flowers on the miniature cactus looking thing. I really like the rose bud looking ones.

This is the wildflower bed. I am more than a little disappointed with it. The flat bladed plants are baby wild fairy irises that I have been trying to get out of that area. The other, more prolific plant is one I like, but not one I want a whole lot of. Here is a close up of that flower:

My grandmother had these in her yard. My mum doesn't like them, but I do. They smell like honey to me. I don't know what they are, but my mind wants to call them clover. Anyways, the smell brings back good memories, so I don't mind that these are the hardiest of the wildflower mix, I just would have liked more of other things.

I did get one other type of plant. I don't know what it is yet as it refuses to flower. In fact, in kind of refuses to grow any more. Here it is:

And lastly, my nemeses. The above two pictures are descriptive of my summers. You see that fern looking thing? That invades all of my rose beds and every other gardening bed. They have spikes and they have berries and are persistent and pervasive little buggers. A friend of mine had these suckers get into his sewer pipes. I'm doing pretty well at ridding my yard of them. But the seeds and nuts in the picture above, these are the most annoying part of summer. At least it's not ficus tree droppings or jacaranda flowers. But everyday I clear my sidewalk and in less than an hour my sidewalk is covered in these babies. I mean no white space left whatsoever. *sigh* At least it is winding down for the year. Until next time :D

I almost forgot, I mentioned the Olympics in the title. I have been getting more than my fill of them every day. In fact, I'm pretty much tired of them, but since they only come around once every four years I figure I'll just give in to the glut and then ignore sports for a good long time afterwards. Mkay, now I am signing off.

Back in the Saddle Again!

It's summer in So Cal. And while I have two part time jobs I have been out of graduate school for a semester. And yet my garden is sadly lacking in attention (though I've taken plenty of pictures and need to have a couple of "catch up" posts again). Well, at least it looks that way.

I gave it some thought the other day. I spend two to three hours a week out there. But there seems to be little to no improvement.

Perhaps I should give you guys a little bit of background: My yard is mostly dirt. Adobe clay to be more precise. What does that mean? That means it's not well-draining soil. The "soil" is hard as a rock, because "Hey, it's clay!" And because I am in So Cal, it's hot. Perpetually. In fact, my area is it's own little micro climate that is roughly 10 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than anywhere else around.

Some more background. I broke the sprinklers many many many many many years ago. We (my father and myself) don't have the money or the time to get them fixed or do it ourselves. Though time is beginning to give us a few bonuses we didn't expect.

Now, we used to have the most beautiful lawn in the neighborhood. Even after I broke the sprinklers. We had a Kentucky Blue Grass and Rye mixture. Absolutely breathtaking and lush. But then a gardener, who is no longer in our employ, decided to mow the weed-laden yard of one of his clients. Then, without emptying his catch bag he proceeded to mow our lawn. It would not have been such a big ordeal, but his bag had a HOLE THE SIZE OF NEBRASKA in it. Therefore, he seeded our yard with weeds. And they thrived. And our grass died. And now the lawn is dirt. This gardener had also ripped up (we think, but cannot prove that he stole) $2000 worth of ornamental strawberries that we had planted out front. Then to top it all off, he charged us $96 for his "services". You bet your sweet bippy we told him where he could put his bill.

So, my yard is mostly dirt. Weeding dirt every week is great in that there are few weeds in my yard. But the neighbors don't really see much of an improvement because I'm just weeding dirt.

Well, I have tired of dirt. And since the sprinklers are broken I am beginning to entertain the idea of a small desert garden. I don't want to convert the entire yard to a desert garden, I am too big a fan of the English cottage garden to be a full desert convert. But I am beginning to see the practicality of it. Besides barrel cacti are pretty awesome! Also, one of my best friends has been in a succulent mood and now I am finding them to be adorably cute.

So I went to Home Depot yesterday looking for some barrel cacti, but the three they had on display were sadly lacking in personality. So, I purchased four awesome looking miniature succulents (photos to follow in a later post as me mum has borrowed my camera) and planted them together in a planter for my front porch.

My Nasturtiums that I transplanted are thriving which is a shock as they pretty much hate anyone who transplants them. So I have decided to try the experiment again with a new round of Nasturtiums.

Underneath my blood plum tree I planted the standard Johnny Jump Ups and my jet black Pansies, we'll see if I get any results there.

Next to my dwarf peach tree I had a lot of blank dirt so I seeded a wild flower mix. Things should pop up in a week or so. I'll definitely get pics of my stuff versus standard internet pics.

But, just so you know what I am expecting to see in my garden I have scoured the internet via that mysterious messenger that is Google Lucky Search to find you some cool images of my dream garden.

Here are some sample images of the succulents I got. Mine are cuter :D

So, what do you think of my gardening choices?

Early Work

Earlier this year, in March, I did some work in my garden. But mostly I took pictures of all of the spring growth as it was so pretty. Enjoy!

 Suckers from my peach tree. They are a marvelous shade of green.

 My avocado tree. Sadly, the new puppy ate it in his "I'm going to eat every little thing on the planet" phase.

 The poor basil plant that just keeps limping along.

 The broccoli that is there but doesn't really produce much anymore.

 On the left we find the cherry tomato plant that had been raised here in a pot with us for a while before it got too tall and had to be transplanted. On the right is the cherry tomato plant from the store that was transplanted the day we bought it. The left guy doesn't seem to be too healthy here, but he's okay now. I gave him extra special love.

 So I made a mistake. These aren't marigolds. I apparently had planted some cosmos. They are quite hardy and are thriving in their cute little niche of my yard.

 I had a pot of strawberries. It was wonderful and beautiful. And then the puppy got to them and ripped them to shreds. So I planted them here. As you can see, they don't look very happy, but I promise they've been getting better.

 My blood plum tree is sprouting. I love the look of the dead part of the tree in the background.

 My Japanese Honeysuckle before it is in full bloom.

 My dwarf peach tree has beautiful blossoms. Too bad I've only ever gotten one good piece of fruit off of it in 15 years. All of the buds turn into little peaches that never ripen and fall off of the tree to my dismay.

 More beautiful blooms of the dwarf peach.

 Can you find the hidden sparrow in the Cape Honeysuckle

 Oh cilantro. I can't get enough!

 More strawberries added to the patch of the ones my puppy shredded.

 More grapefruit on my lovely tree.

 My wonderful and yummy green onions.

 My wonderfully healthy aloe vera. Apparently I'm pretty good at growing cacti :D

 I love my scraggly lemon tree. Sometimes it makes wonderfully tart lemons.

 Okay, now I'm just playing with my camera's focus abilities on my lemon tree. But it's a pretty pic, so I took the time (20 min) to wait for it to load to this blog.

Yet another pic of new growth on my lemon tree. I love that new growth on things is this purple-ish red color.

Stay tuned for another post soon. Much more yard work has been done. It's actually quite impressive.

Gone To Seed

Yep. Most everything in my garden is now sprung from the seeds of the plants I neglected last year. With a couple of actual well tended plants thrown in (well, maybe just one well tended plant).

The broccoli. I should have eaten it instead of letting the florets actually open and become flowers.

I didn't plant these here. 

 These were once French Marigolds that went to seed, died and the seeds sprouted to become this less hybrid version. They're quite simple and nice. Though I miss my dark red blooms with orange rims.
 

A close up. Isn't it simply cute?

This is my one "well tended" plant. It's my white grapefruit tree. Its fruit is sweeter than any Ruby Red grapefruit I have ever had and I've tried quite a few. These babies get huge too. About the size of a head of iceberg lettuce, maybe a little smaller.

These are the seedlings of my green onion crop. They aren't growing where I initially planted the green onions, but it doesn't matter, I'll still pull them and eat them anyway.