vines

Tricky Tendrils

October 8, 2011

The grapevines are starting to lose their leaves and I need to trim things back soon.  The vines have created a privacy wall around the front yard, but I’m looking forward to opening things up again for a while.

Grapevines

Grapevine wall

The vine has grown up to 30 feet long in some places and is still grabbing and wrapping around branches and wires along the fence.

vine wrap

Over, through and around - amazing!

 

grapevine wrap

Up, over and around twice! How does it know to do this??!!!!

The vine looks messy from afar, but taking an up-close view is so interesting!  Another little miracle of nature…..

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Uve Delizioso!

August 20, 2011

Delicious Grapes!!! Some of the best things I’ve grown in the my garden this year are grapes. I only got a few clusters but they are red, seedless and very tasty.

I found this plant about 3 years ago. Someone was moving and put it out in the alley. Now that I’ve gotten two years worth of fruit, I have decided that the variety is Red Flame Seedless, a pretty common variety to be found at local nurseries and ‘big box’ stores, too.

I need to read up on proper pruning technique because I think my small yield is due to bad pruning last year. I really chopped away without much regard other than to take an out-of-control plant back to a compact, manageable state.

I can’t bring myself to cut this bunch because it’s in the perfect place to offer people a taste when they walk by on the sidewalk.

Grapes

TASTE ME!!!

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Poisonous Plants

April 21, 2011

For a list of safe and poisonous plants, two websites are good resources. I hadn’t looked at these lists for awhile but found them to be a good refresher on poisonous plants.

University of California Garden Web

California Poison Control System

My dog and cats don’t generally eat plants, but it’s good to know what’s lethal out in the yard so I can remove if I see potential for problems. One time our dog, Ringo who wasn’t feeling well, ate a bunch of morning glory leaves. Talk about panic. I calmed down a bit when I learned that the toxic parts of the plant are the seeds and the root, but not before I ran around the back yard like a crazy lady, ripping out garbage cans full of morning vines! And Ringo was fine after a trip to the vet. The problem wasn’t from eating morning glory leaves. He drank too much salt water at the beach that morning and got dehydrated. (Dumb dog!)

I'm being friendly with beautiful Wisteria despite her poisonous seeds and pods!

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Out with the old…..

December 30, 2010

To finish out the end of the year, here’s a selection of photos I took throughout the year.

Happy New Year!

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Cup of Gold (Solandra maxima)

August 18, 2010

My elderly neighbor has a Cup of Gold vine growing in her front yard and the plant was sending shoots straight up into the air. She wanted them cut but her gardener hadn’t been showing up, so I took on the task. I cut four stalks down and then cut those in shorter pieces to try to propagate. I dipped the ends in Rootone and stuck them in pots. Fast forward about two months and voila! What a nice surprise to find that one of the sticks had finally sprouted. One out of eight isn’t a great return, but it only cost me a few minutes of time so it’s all good!!!

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Ho trovato questa vite nella spazzatura.

June 13, 2010

Translation: I found this plant in the garbage. It sounds so much better in Italian, doesn’t it? Anyway, I found it last year on one of my routine alley cruises and this year it has grape clusters on it.

The leaves are so beautiful, it’s healthy and I think we might have some edible grapes in the near future.

This vine, a different one growing in the backyard, came out of my mom’s yard a few years back, and I actually got a little crop of red grapes last year, but the plant was immediately attacked by powdery mildew last year and again, this year. I could treat with sulfur, but I’ve not done that before and, frankly, it sounds like a huge hassle. I’m thinking that it may be past its prime, so I’m debating its future. (If I say, “I might dig up this vine and get rid of it,” in Italian, maybe its feelings won’t be hurt.) Potrei scavare questo vitigno e di sbarazzarsi di esso. ;-) Buon giardinaggio!

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Wisteria Wednesday….

March 24, 2010

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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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