by angela@diggingbliss | Nov 3, 2014 | fall, flowers, landscaping, seeds, talini's nursery, wildflowers
Right now, after we’ve had our first real rain, is the perfect time for Californians to go crazy sprinkling wildflower seeds all over the land! I planted California poppies a couple days ago. What will you plant? I’m partial to Renee’s Carefree Annual Wildflowers Scatter Garden, and the poppies-only mix. Find the sunniest, most inhospitable part of your yard and sprinkle away.
I planted the poppies (pictured below) in a narrow crack between asphalt and concrete out front at Talini’s Nursery. Just sprinkled and forgot. No water. No work, because Mother Nature took care of the rest.
We may have paved paradise and put up a parking lot, but that doesn’t mean we can’t put a little paradise back into that parking lot!
I’ve also had really good luck with the native CA bulk seed mixes from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply.
Watch this inspiring video!
by angela@diggingbliss | Nov 16, 2013 | bulbs, container gardening, landscaping, seeds, talini's nursery, vegetables, veggies, winter garden
Even though our yard is in flux since we’re redoing the landscape between now and Spring, I suddenly decided I must have a few winter veggies, exactly one flowering Annie’s sweet pea (there’s a drain pipe crying out its name) and a flat of big, fat, richly-hued ‘Dynamite Wine Flash’ pansies to go atop my tulip bulbs.
Oh, and I needed one more seed packet of California poppies! They re-seeded nicely from last year, but I want to up the amp even more. I also grabbed some parsley, sage and chive starts because I know I’ll be cooking with them next week and don’t like buying cut herbs at the grocery store when I should be harvesting them from my yard.
We were pretty productive today. Kim made some headway in our bursting garage… and is having a mini spontaneous garage sale in the morning. Eek! I’m so not the spontaneous garage sale type. My contribution will be to stay inside and cook bacon and eggs for him. Yay, teamwork. He also helped me by moving several big bags of soil and compost. Together, we tackled the overwhelming layer of leaves blanketing our property. It’s amazing how many different leaf shapes end up in our yard considering we only have one sycamore.
I feel good because I consolidated all my scattered and neglected succulents into one 3/4 wine barrel and planted my new veggies and herbs in the remaining two barrels. The barrels are now in a sunny temporary location out back. Today was all about salvaging, consolidating and purging… all good preparation for backyard fabulousness to come.
I didn’t think I’d buy this house, and did. I didn’t think I’d see lemons on the baby Meyer lemon tree I planted here, and they’re turning yellow now. All two of them. Note to self: feed lemon tree. I wasn’t sure if the red orchid cactus I rescued from my old home/life would ever bloom again. It has its first buds in nearly five years. Sometimes all you can do is rescue, hope and wait. MaxSea fertilizer helps too.
My Succulent Menagerie
I topped off old potting soil in the barrel pictured above with two bags of E.B. Stone cactus mix. It would have been too expensive to use all cactus mix, and quite heavy as well. When we have a frost, now I can easily cover the barrel with frost cloth. I so fell in love with succulents on our trip to the Central Coast. They are more of a challenge here in the Valley, but well worth the effort.
Herbs & Spinach
I know I’m going to need a little sage and parsley for the Thanksgiving stuffing and I can’t bear the thought of buying cut herbs. Not sure if I’ll need chives, but you never know and I may need them for other recipes. As for the spinach, it’s just for salads and pasta dishes.
Lettuces & Chard
The chard I planted is the very colorful and tasty ‘Rainbow Chard’. Lettuce varieties include Romaine, ‘Red Sails’ and ‘Butter Crunch’.
Banana Bread!
In a stroke of uncharacteristic productivity, I also made banana bread today, using a recipe from one of my favorite bloggers, Katie S. (AKA NorCal Katie). It was a good day.
by angela@diggingbliss | Feb 24, 2007 | custom seed packets, hortus botanicus, seed packets, seeds
Now here’s a cool way to make your own custom seed packets! I picked these up at Hortus Botanicus on my last trip to Mendo. Looks like they used coin envelopes and printed labels using their own photos of plants in bloom. Very classy and very clever.
Inside the envelopes, seeds were stored in smaller waxed paper envelopes. Germination instructions were tucked inside as well.
Not sure where to find coin envelopes? See this GardenWeb thread.
by angela@diggingbliss | Dec 10, 2006 | basil, peppers, seeds, squash, summer, tomatoes, vegetables
about which summer veggies I’m going to grow in Summer of ’07.
Tomatoes
Early Girl gave a steady supply of roughly 3-inch fruit with good, though not spectacular flavor. Costoluto Genovese (Thanks, Don) was my second-best producer, and was not only delicious, but beautifully ruffled. Black from Tula (Thanks Amy) had the most complex blend of flavors and a beautiful dark tint , but production slowed dramatically when summer heat kicked in. If I grow it again in ’07, I will plant it in a more sheltered spot. Maybe I should rig up some shade cloth. And Sun Gold… what can I say except, “You had me at hello and you will always have a place in my garden.”
As always, my desire to stick with what works is in direct conflict with my desire to try something new. Luckily, there’s plenty of time to duke it out in my head. I do plan to try one of the heat-tolerant varieties, a paste tomato, and a few good slicers. And Sun Gold.
Squash
‘Gold Rush’ was hugely successful and delicious. Flavor, to me, was just like a yellow crookneck, but the straight neck shape made for easy slicing. I will definitely plant ‘Gold Rush’ again, but would like to broaden my squash horizons by trying something new. I think what I like about ‘Gold Rush’ is that it doesn’t taste “squashy”. Pumpkin pie makes me gag, and I’ve been too afraid to try many squash varieties. Never tried spaghetti squash because I know the odds of it tasting like spaghetti are very slim.
Peppers
Bell peppers were ok, but a bit bitter. I don’t know that I want to grow bells in the coming summer. ‘Fresno’ chili pepper was just right for homemade salsa and it didn’t seem to mind our sizzling summer temps. I wonder if there’s a consensus out there on the best medium hot pepper for salsa. I’m willing to be swayed.
Basil
Genovese basil seems to be preferred for fresh use and pesto. Mmmmm…. pesto. Renee’s Garden Seeds has a super fun basil selection, including a new container-friendly variety called ‘Italian Cameo’.
In-ground versus Containerized
While containerized veggies and herbs did best early in the growing season, they started looking stressed just when the in-ground plants kicked into gear. If you can do both, do both, but in-ground is probably a better long term investment and requires much less watering vigilance. You want to be able to get outta town every now and then, don’t you?
Ok, now back to the reality of December: rain, leaves, mucky soil, frosts, freezes, Christmas shopping and cleaning for company. Fa la la la laaaaa… la la la laaaaa.
