by angela@diggingbliss | Aug 10, 2005 | Uncategorized
Reclining in this rental house’s Barcalounger with a laptop warming my legs, I need only lift my eyes from the screen to get a panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean and rugged bluffs. It was sunny this morning, but the fog’s rolling in early. That’s ok by me because I know it’ll be around 102 in Sacramento today.
Want to know what’s blooming in Mendocino? Passion vine, nasturtium, sweet peas, penstemon, lupine, naked ladies, poppies, alstroemeria and more… Because of the fog, the quality of light here is incredible and flower colors don’t fade. A photographer’s dream.
I hope to hit a nursery and driftwood store today.
I’ll be back in Pyrethrumtown tomorrow night. Until then…
by angela@diggingbliss | Aug 6, 2005 | Uncategorized
Since my son starts 7th grade in a few short weeks (with a new inhumane start-time of 7:30am), this is our last chance to leave town before school starts. I’m torn between a desire to get caught up around the house and garden (summer garden, I hardly knew ya) and a desire to escape to the coast. Yep, I’m going back to Mendo. On this trip, I intend to really relax and finish reading Harry Potter. I want to hit some local nurseries too. I was planning on a trip to Portland, OR, but the timing didn’t work out.
In the garden:
My monstrous tithonia (Mex. sunflower) snapped under its own weight! The day before it snapped, I thought it might be leaning a little and made a mental note to stake it. I snoozed, I lost. Before it snapped, it was spectacular at 6-7 feet tall. I never knew tithonia made such a great cut flower until I used them in an arrangement. The blooms lasted a long time and the stems stayed nice and straight. Luckily, I’ve got 2 smaller plants coming along nicely. Whiteflies love my tithonias, by the way. I never really noticed whiteflies in my garden before and I’m wondering if their presence is related to all that mild weather and moisture we had in spring.
My lavender is between blooms but looking good. Sedum, cosmos, black-eyed susan, gomphrena, portulaca and others are blooming bravely in this heat. Other plants shut down when the heatwave hit.
Gotta go deadhead now. I need to MULCH! Oh, to clone myself so I could be in two places at once.
by angela@diggingbliss | Aug 6, 2005 | Uncategorized
Went to Monterey for the weekend. Remembered why I’ve always gone on off-season weekdays in the past– too many people on weekends in August!!! At the aquarium, it seemed like every time I stopped to look at an exhibit (not that I could see through all the human flesh pressed up against the glass), someone behind me with a stroller would say, “Excuse me!” in a not-so-patient voice. Aren’t aquariums supposed to induce placidity? I did manage to get some video footage of the trip. It’s 10MB, so dial-up users might not want to bother downloading. I love “videoing” my trips because when you’re actively looking for interesting things, you tend to see the world through fresh eyes. Better than watching it all go by without noticing.
by angela@diggingbliss | Aug 2, 2005 | Uncategorized
music: Yo-Yo Ma
Caprice No. 24
by angela@diggingbliss | Jul 23, 2005 | Uncategorized
Got some fun stuff at Home Depot yesterday… 5 1-gallon portulacas (a pink-blushed peach color), a couple 1-gallon bloodgrasses, a couple 4″ Salvia greggii, several 4″ million bells, a 4-pack of dragon’s blood sedum and a 4-pack of baby’s tears (for a pot). Oh, and some little lemon thymes. I redid some pots that were bursting with miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light”.
My “let’s see how well Lithodora diffusa does in my clayey soil” experiment is complete. Conclusion: Not well. It died. I’m always trying to bring a little bit of Mendocino back to Sacramento. The echiums have done well, as have other plants, but lithodora was not meant to be for me. I do not live in a cool, coastal climate with fast-draining soil. I do not live in a cool, coastal climate with fast-draining soil. I do not live in a cool, coastal climate with fast-draining soil.
Basil’s doing well, peppers and tomatoes were slow to take off this year, despite care and feeding. I didn’t plant ‘Sungold’, but the seedling volunteers are giving me lots of tasty fruit while the tomatoes I planted are still growing and/or ripening. My ‘Sungold’ babies are bigger than their parent and slightly more red and tangy, but I’m not complaining. I like tomatoes of all shapes, colors and sizes.
There’s a frenzy of bees and butterflies in the garden right now.
by angela@diggingbliss | Jul 18, 2005 | Uncategorized
# of black widows discovered out in the open while watering today = 2
Remember, black widows make these crazy looking webs. If you ever see an irregular looking web, keep an eye out for its creator.
Speaking of spiders, I videotaped a spider in my doorway the other night. It was beautifully backlit while wrapping its prey just before sucking the life out of it. I’ll try to post the video clip soon.
I finally planted most of the plants I bought at P.O.W. before my trip to Mendo. Waking up early this morning made all the difference. At 7am, it’s quite nice outside. It was so nice outside that I found myself thinking, “There’s no way it’s gonna be 106… 7… 8… 9 degrees today.” Hah. Still, I’ll take 109 and low humidity over 80 degrees and humid any day…
Recent garden bummer: turns out my irrigation controller was OFF the whole time I was out of town and a few days after I got back. I have no idea how or why it was turned off. I swear I didn’t do it. We probably turned it off when repairing the spray heads my darling puppies gnawed off awhile back. Some parts of the yard look crispy, but I’m doing my best to rehydrate things.
Speaking of my cute canines, they’re being really good lately but have managed to dig two small but very deep holes in the lawn. There’s absolutely no sign of dirt where they’ve dug, but I know they did it. I caught them in the act a few times. God, I hope they didn’t eat the dirt from the holes. Don’t know why they wouldn’t, though, since their palate is quite broad. Ants, cherry pits (toxic to dogs, by the way), cat poop, a several-day-old grilled cheese sandwich someone left in my van, garbage in general… all of it’s haute cuisine for these dogs. Their expensive gourmet kibble from PetSmart, however, is always met with boredom and slight disdain.
On a positive note, one of my Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia) is huge and blooming right now! It’s 6-7 feet tall and pretty wide. Love it. My cosmos it blooming up a storm too. It’s so showy and cheery, I must plant more of it next year. Gloriosa daisies are, well, glorious. Pink sedum is just coming into bloom. Etc., etc.
