September 2009

Prepping the garden

September 30, 2009

I’ve been puttering out in the yard for the past couple of weeks, looking over the garden with a critical eye and thinking about what changes I want to make. I like the layout of my raised beds and that came about through trial and error, so those will stay in place for this next year. I’ve been trimming and weeding, and I’ve pulled a few non-performers out. I’ve repotted a bunch of plants and threw some away that just don’t want to be healthy. It’s a good time to be ruthless in the yard in preparation for the coming year’s garden. Bulky trash pick-up is in a few weeks, so the timing is perfect for getting rid of some of this stuff.

My son promised to help me for a morning next week, so I’ll have some heavy lifting for him. One of the bigger projects will be to move my two compost bins to the other side of the yard under the big tree so they get more shade which will make the worms happier, I think. (It’s all about the kids!) Moving those bins will also open up an area that I don’t have good access to right now, so I’m looking forward to being able to clean that area up better. One of the bins is full of organic material that will go straight into my beds. My biggest priority right now is soil prep. I want to do the best job possible for better results next year. I cut corners last fall, and as a result, was applying band-aid solutions all during spring and summer this year. Not the smartest way to garden and my meager results prove that.

I’m cleaning up my curb section as well. It is a mess right now, so I’m anxious to create some order and symmetry. I have a Pride of Madeira that I love out there, but it’s going to get too big (I knew that when I planted it but just couldn’t help myself. Duh!) and my friend Diana wants it for her giant yard so all’s well that ends well. I might dig up a lion’s tail out there, too, because I have two others flanking the entryway. Diana will probably take that, too. She’s easy! That would free up more room to do something interesting out there. My end goal is to have a very drought tolerant sidewalk area. I’ve been starting succulents all year from cuttings, and I’ve bought other babies that I don’t have in preparation for planting out there, so I’ll be excited when that project is finished. It’s going to look great when I’m done.

I’m gone through my tools and gotten rid of anything I don’t use anymore. I’m recycling plastic pots to friends, family and any other sucker who will take them! I need to inventory my seed collection and decide what to keep and what to save. Same thing with all the fertilizers and pesticides. I have no idea what I’ve got because I’ve got it stashed all over the place, but I’ll be able to use some of the fertilizer for soil amendment so I need to find it first! Whatever I don’t need anymore, I won’t throw away; I’ll take it to a hazardous waste drop.

This clean-out is just like moving. You don’t make time for it until you have to but once you don’t you wonder why you waited so long! I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by the garden projects I need to do, so this will be a good start to clearing the decks so I can get down to business: aka gardening!

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Rat Fink

September 28, 2009

I looked out the kitchen door this morning and this is what I saw….it’s just taunting us.

Rat fink

Susan called this morning to say she has not caught her rat yet, but it shimmied down a pole on their patio last night when they were sitting out there. Pretty gutsy rat.

So far, the only thing we’ve caught over here are slugs. The other night I was getting ready for bed and I heard a buzzing sound. I looked out the window and saw the Rat Zapper flashing its red light so I yelled, “Bonanza!” and we ran downstairs, grabbed a flashlight and went out to check our bounty. What a let-down. Slugs are so anti-climactic. I’ve moved the Zapper back by the kitchen door and I stocked it with Oreos. I love them so I’m sure a rat will, too.

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Agaves vs Aloes

September 27, 2009

I’m a lover of aloes. Everytime I think I have completed my collection, I find another one. When I first started collecting, it took me awhile to realize that I was mistaking agaves for aloes so I had to get that figured out. It seems so obvious to me now, but I had to learn a few tricks to tell the difference.

Aloes and agaves are both beautiful but they are very different plants. It helps to know the difference between these two kinds of succulents when you are planting because the way they live and grow can impact your garden down the line in some very dramatic ways.

Agaves have a tendency to live for many years in a garden, they only bloom once, then they die. In their last hurrah, agaves send up a tall stalk that flowers for months, and then the plant quickly dies after that, leaving you with a big empty spot where your beautiful agave had been growing. In most species, when the stalk finishes blooming, the flowers turn into mini agaves that pop off and propagate themselves if left lying around on the ground. A friend gave me a blue agave bloom stalk last fall that ended up giving me tons of baby blue agaves that I have since potted and given away.

Aloes can bloom yearly but that doesn’t mark the end of their lifecycle. They tend to propagate by pupping off little aloes around the base of the mother plant. Within a few years you can fill in your garden with new plants you started yourself. I’ve got petite, little aloes and large, elegant aloes. Most of the aloes I’ve seen bloom an orange color, but I have one variety that blooms a beautiful muted yellow. In the middle of winter, when most plants are resting, aloes are blooming all over the place in Southern California. I think we tend to take it for granted because we live here, but people visiting here are always fascinated by the displays along the highways.

Another way to tell agaves and aloes apart is by the spines on the leaves. Not all agaves or aloes have spines, but if they do, agaves tend to have sharper spines and they are tougher skinned than aloes. Agaves only have spines on the edges of their leaves, but aloes can have spines all over their leaves. If all else fails, and you are trying to tell the difference, aloes have a gel-like substance in their leaves that you can find by sticking a thumbnail into a leaf. Agaves are fibrous and won’t have the gooey stuff like an aloe.

When I was in sixth grade and we studied about Mexico, I remember learning about agave plants and that they could be used for sewing because of the heavy pointed spine at the end of the leaf and the fact that it was attached to fibrous threads down the leaves. And let’s not forget to mention that tequila is made from the agave, specifically, Agave tequilana, or as it’s commonly known – surprise! – the Blue Agave! Shoot, I gave all those plants away……….

A great book about succulents is called Designing with Succulents by Deborah Lee Baldwin.

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Did You Know…….?

September 27, 2009

Coronado has been a Tree City USA member for 24 years. To be a member of Tree City USA a city must follow the four standards established by the Arbor Day Foundation. There are a lot of great reasons we should be proud of our accomplishment.

To view the complete list of Tree City USA cities, go to their site directory.

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Vermin update

September 25, 2009

So far in the rat-catching contest, the rats are winning. In the meantime, rather than dwelling on the fact that I probably spent way too much money on the Rat-Zapper, let’s take a trip down memory lane to a time of friendlier vermin.

The porch at our old house was perfect for possum viewing. They lived across the street and came over to break bread with our cats on a regular basis. Here are some of my favorite pictures of their visits…….

Thanks for the snack!

A cat, Flat Stanley and a possum = Party!

Our cat, Jocko, has a dinner guest

Possum sleepover

Possums are smelly, messy and not so attractive, but they do eat snails and slugs so…..Bon Appetit! We hope you enjoyed your meal. Come again soon!!!

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I love foggy mornings

September 25, 2009

Foggy mornings serve a purpose in the garden. A little respite from the heat for some plants and a way to hydrate for others. Another bonus with the fog this time of year is what appears – a little surprise in the early morning! Enjoy!

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Bonsai for the rest of us.

September 24, 2009

I’m a gardener who can’t stop moving plants around. Actually, that’s probably what makes me a gardener! When I moved into this house four years ago I had to start the yard from scratch, which was great. I kind of had a vision and I wanted to try out some new plants I hadn’t grown before so I launched right into getting the yard laid out. I planted a bunch of stuff, and then added more stuff. I dug things up and moved them around, and then I started giving some plants away that I didn’t like so I could buy more. (Sound familiar?!) After two years of watching me from across the street, my neighbor came over and asked when I was going to finish the yard. Them’s fightin’ words, lady!

Anyway, I digress. I think bonsai are beautiful and fascinating. I appreciate the vision and work that goes into these little treasures, but I find myself intimidated by the whole bonsai process. I don’t have the patience or really, the interest to pay that much attention to one plant for years on end, so bonsai hasn’t factored into my thought process much.

Well, at today’s garden club meeting (Coronado’s Crown Garden Club) our guest speaker was an interesting man named Rudy Lime who spoke to us about creating bonsai with succulents. Voila! I’m all ears. I love succulents and creating this kind of bonsai is almost instant gratification. Perfect! But is it succulent bonsai – or bonsai succulents? Moving on…..

Rudy had a beautiful display of his creations, created one while we watched, and showed us a great slide show of yet more of his collection. He’s a published author as well. His book is Pachyforms 2: Bonsai Succulents. He brought another book along that I thought was also great guide to bonsai called Bonsai Ideas by Marty Mann.

Some tidbits I learned today:
-Rudy pots his plants in 3 parts perlite and 2 parts compost (remember, we’re talking succulents)
-don’t use peat moss because it is more of a water repellent than anything and your plants won’t get adequate moisture
-he deep soaks his plants every couple of weeks rather than watering more frequently, always dependent on whether the plant is growing or dormant, and of course, weather conditions.
-proportion is important in bonsai. The thickness of the stem of your plant gives you the measurement for the height of your pot. The height of plant dictates width of pot; for instance, your pot will be 2/3 the width of the height of your plant.
-succulents are tough, but pay attention to their growing and dormant seasons. If they are dormant, too much water can end up rotting your succulent.

These are just little tidbits I picked up today, but, of course, there is so much more to learn and think about. And really, a lot of what he talked about today fit right into the Principles and Elements of Design that I’ve posted about previously. Flower Show Judge School is paying off!!!

I didn’t get the greatest pictures today at the meeting, but enjoy them anyway. If you click on a picture, it will enlarge.

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Oh, Rats!

September 22, 2009

Gardening in SoCal is kind of a cake-walk so we don’t have much to complain about. My mom has to deal with deer and gigantic snails in Hawaii, friends in the midwest complain about rabbits and bugs, and squirrels are wreaking havoc all over the place, but other than the occasional slug and snail war, [...]

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Wisteria Confusion

September 19, 2009

When we moved into this house four years ago I had grandiose ideas of what I wanted my yard to look like and what I wanted to plant. Of course, a lot of that has come and gone, and now I’m dealing with the aftermath of some of my overzealous plantings. One of the plants [...]

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Pe(s)ts in the garden –

September 19, 2009

Guest posting by Lauren Hubbard….. “I noticed a strange phenomena: my cherry tomatoes would just about ripen and suddenly they would disappear. I thought it might be birds or perhaps raccoons raiding the garden. Today the mystery was solved! I caught Celia the Border Collie hunting through the foliage for the ripe and succulent little [...]

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Seedlings – tending your babies

September 18, 2009

Faithful reader, Jessica, started her seeds last week and now that they are beginning to sprout, she wants some guidance on how to proceed, so here goes…. Make sure your seedlings stay moist. If they dry out you’ll lose them, or weaken them significantly. When you plant a seed, the first leaves to emerge are [...]

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