I recently counted how many fruit trees are on our property and was sort of astonished when the number totaled 16. Three of the fruit trees are Mandarins - 2 Clementines and 1 Seedless Kishu. I look forward to the period in which those little Cuties are available at the store. We buy boxes and boxes of them and practically live off of them for weeks, fruit bat style.
Because it makes sense to grow that which you eat the most of, we decided on the Mandarin trees for the most impact. Ours are still babies and have yet to produce, but they did put forth a few flowers this past summer. Then we had watering issues, and the flowers dried up and dropped off.
I took some pictures of this beautiful Salvia 'Hot Lips' [Salvia x microphylla (grahamii)]* which has finally filled out and started blooming like mad in the past few weeks. It's far too close to the Seedless Kishu Mandarin on the left, and I plan on moving the salvia a couple feet to the right in the picture so it can cascade over the "v" of the wall. It's very happy in this little area.
Side note: this was the very first plant I propagated from a cutting! Fun times.
BUT imagine my surprise when I spotted this little guy in the salvia's overgrowth:
My very first homegrown Mandarin! Exciting!
*Thank goodness for Google, because in order to look like I have any idea abut what I'm talking about, I will start posting Latin in addition to common names of plants. Even though once here I said I would never do that. I'm purposely not linking to that post!
Oct 27, 2009
My Darling Clementine
Oct 26, 2009
Inspiration Personified: Rosalind Creasy
Alternate title: My brush with the greatness that is Rosalind Creasy
Two years ago I was in a local used bookstore when I came across a book I'd always wanted but was no longer in print:
The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy (Sierra Club Books, 1982)
This book has had a profound influence on me and shaped me as a gardener because until I flipped through those pages, I never imagined landscaping with edible plants. I've read that book over and over and can look at my landscape in current form and credit Ros with specific things like our backyard orchard, which had previously been turf grass until we let it die and sheet mulched 18 months ago.
When I found out Rosalind Creasy was going to be speaking in Sacramento, I jumped at the chance to see her in person. A group of us went - myself, Carri (@betweenthelimes), and Kristi (@notsocraftycom) and we met up with Maureen (@plantanista) who is Ros' protege and we've been lucky enough to chat with via Twitter for some time now! (Aside: To me, 2009 will go down as the year of meeting people via Twitter who have changed my life in profound ways! Long live Twitter!)
We showed up at 10am and browsed the plant sale before the auditorium opened. Morningsun Herb Farm and Peaceful Valley were there, and I spent every little bit of cash I had on a few plants:
Captions above pictures
Sages (Salvia) 'Waverly' (white flowers), 'Indigo Blue' (bluish-purple flowers), and Globemallow (Sphaeralcea) 'New Haze Coral' (coral pink flowers)
'Sochi' Tea Camellia (Camellia sinensis)
I know this plant is persnickety to be polite about it. I know it might be sort of difficult to grow. But I forge head first into the challenge. Even Ros herself picked one up and spoke about her difficulty with them also! I feel in good company now. I remember first reading about this plant in her book, and it was sort of an aha! moment for me.
Pineapple Guava (Feijoa sellowiana)
I picked up two of these because of pollination purposes. That was before I realized that these are all over our subdivision as landscape plants! BUT those are often sheared before they flower, which is a shame.
I packed up the car with my haul and cracked the windows, and we ventured inside to get good seats for Ros' presentation and slide show. Maureen introduced Rosalind Creasy by telling the story of how Maureen stalked Ros they met and Maureen came to manage a garden that Ros had designed and created in the Bay Area. Maureen is still working in that same garden today, and loves every minute of it, crediting Ros for changing her life.
Rosalind Creasy captivated the entire room. Her slides chronicled her garden over time, and the different plants she recommends.
A few anecdotes from her presentation that I'd love to share with you:
On how she got into edible gardening
Her husband worked for IBM and whenever he traveled internationally, she tagged along and explored. She came to see how other countries included edibles in their gardens and had varieties of fruits and vegetables other than the 70-100 or so you typically see in the supermarkets in the United States.
It was a trip through the desert in Israel in which her guide lamented that the sand dunes that stretched as far as the eye could see used to be the most fertile land in the world. Through overgrazing and overfarming, the top soil became less and less and eventually blew away, leaving sand dunes behind. She likened this to what was occurring in the Santa Rosa (now Silicon) Valley which enjoyed 25 feet of alluvial top soil, where agriculture was giving way to row after row of tract homes. She along with a group of others were devoted to trying to save as much of the land as possible.
Upon her return to California, she had an epiphany that she shared with her Horticulture professor at Foothill College - the highest use of the land is to grow that which we eat, creating beautiful edible gardens. When he learned of her enthusiasm he replied, "That's called salad bowl gardening, and it's tacky." Insert laughs from audience! Little did he know that he planted the seed in Rosalind's mind for what became her work over the next 30 years.
On her amazing slide show
Our group was curious if she took her own pictures and the answer is yes. She's a gifted photographer - if you want a peek at what we saw, head over to her website www.rosalindcreasy.com.
On her amazing garden
Ros completely swaps out her garden twice a year - in September/October and April/May. I was tickled when she shared that all of the pictures in her slideshow were of her garden over the years - she was really the only person doing edible landscaping for a long time, and she needed it to seem as if she had visited many gardens that were doing it, so she was always redesigning and replanting! That cracked the audience up. Her commitment to the edible movement and her garden was inspiring.
On controlling "pests" in her garden
She volunteered that because her garden is an established ecosystem, nothing gets out of control. She hasn't had whiteflies, scale, or ants in years. Alternately, she hasn't seen a butterfly in years either.
On watering her garden
When she replants her garden twice a year, she also completely renovates her drip system. She became animated at this notion because she hates drip irrigation, calling it a necessary evil. Dave Roberts was in the audience and the discussion turned to Netafim - 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch drip tubing with in-line emitters. Ros is a 100% organic gardener and when Netafim was first developed 15-20 years ago, a strong herbicide was included in the plastic to be slow-released as to not clog up the emitters. This in-line tubing is now made by multiple companies and also comes without the herbicide. I heard Dave Roberts wax philosophical about this product in my Green Gardener class recently, and I'm sold. It's available at local irrigation shops, but typically not the big boxes.
After the presentation, our small group helped Ros pack up her items (squeeeee!) and we followed her to her book signing. When I presented her with my pristine original 1982 edition and explained how it came into my possession via used bookstore, she was floored.
Ros: "Have you seen how much these go for on Amazon?"
Me: "Not recently."
Ros: "Original hardback print editions of this book were going for $600 a couple years back. You should sell it!"
Me: "No way! I love this book. I bought it for $9!" as she signed it
Ros: "I don't even have an original copy of my book...You know my new edible landscaping book is coming out in the Spring..."
Me: "Yep, I've already preordered it on Amazon! Really looking forward to it."
I didn't really know what to say and was sort of stammering in the presence of greatness. She was kind, down-to-Earth, and drinking a beer. My kind of lady!
Left to Right: Kristi, Me, Ros, and Carri
A day I'll never forget. And now ... a determination to reconcile our amazing landscape plan with edible landscaping!
Oct 22, 2009
Dats how I roll
Description I put on Flickr:
Self-portraiture is not my thing. After spending 20 minutes trying to take a good shot of my new haircut, I put on my sunglasses, and said eff it. And then I took this one. While I was sucking my teeth. That's how I roll. It's all about the sunglasses.
Also on display, my totally rockin' "My Dad bicycled across Alaska and all he got me was this kids t-shirt". Only it doesn't say that and kind of reminds me of Three Wolf Moon.
Oct 17, 2009
Interesting Tool
I get lots of solicitous emails because I have a blog. I ignore the vast majority of them. I was going through my email when one caught my eye. The person wasn't trying to sell me anything, and it wasn't a poorly written press release. I kept reading.
It passed my very discerning litmus test of something I'd share with my readers.
It's a site called The Farmer's Garden and it's like a Craigslist for extra produce for backyard "farmers" and those seeking specific excess food.
It's easy to use, but you'll have to register to list your own excess produce.
I think it's a neat idea and while I'm all in favor of sending extra produce to the local food banks, this is another alternative that can create community and share food.
Food for thought.
Oct 15, 2009
Stream of Consciousness
I feel so lucky to have so many people rooting for me. Like I have a tiny bit o' karma in my corner as of late. You all rock, and you know who you are. So thank you from the bottom of this feisty girl's heart.
I had a guest post on Crazy Sexy Life this week which was a total kick and surprise that they'd even like lil ol' me enough to want me to do that for them. I banged out the post in record time too. Guess that's what happens when you feel comfortable with and passionate about your topic!
We had a MAJOR storm roll through here on Tuesday and thankfully our property didn't sustain any damage other than knocked over tomato and amaranth plants and a garbage can teetering on a plastic Adirondack chair. Lots of ornamental pear trees and liquid ambar trees in the area were down or shed a ton of branches. We got 2" of rain here, Sacramento got 3" putting it in the top 10 wettest days EVER on record for the area. Wild.
Tomatoes got knocked over
The bean tepee was moved by the wind. The stake was originally where my foot was! Beans held it up. Glad it didn't fall on the baby pomegranate!
Speaking of kicks. I love my hiking boots. I feel powerful when I wear them.
Rawr. EDIT: I feel tough when I wear them.
My cute little amaranth patch was completely uprooted. I also need to dig the dahlia up. Lazy gardener asks: Do I really need to dig the dahlia if I live in Northern California?
Three weeks into my Green Gardener class and so far so good. Although I'll admit that many of the people in the class don't seem to be very friendly. And last night the speaker was a highly credentialed entomologist who I was looking forward to hearing from, but she kind of lost me when she started advocating for using Bayer Advanced systemic Imidacloprid - a super toxic horrible chemical I wouldn't dare get near, no matter how bad an issue with "pests"... I will say I have learned a whole lot in the past 3 weeks, which isn't all that surprising since I don't know much of anything anyway!
Chris got this totally awesome American Apparel shirt with New Belgium Brewery stuff printed on it, but it's the wrong color and not the right size. Boo.
Chris made me take this picture. It's of two eggs in a bowl from different cartons. One is obviously fresher and more nutritious than the other.
Another close friend is pregnant, due in May. Yay for her and her hubster!
I got a new laptop a couple weeks ago and am completely smitten. BUT my spell-check plugin for Firefox doesn't work anymore, and I can't make Flickr Uploader work with Picasa. Le sigh.
Our Habaneros are finally starting to produce.
And...that about does it for the randomness today.
Oct 8, 2009
Field Trip to Annie's Annuals
Last Sunday my real life and online life collided in a beautiful mash-up that was a trip to Annie's Annuals in Richmond. This nursery is so much fun and was totally worth the trip, even though I was sort of hungover. Guess that means I'm perpetuating the stereotype! Haha.
[PICTURE REMOVED]
Tweeps! (L-R)
@gardenpunk (Me!), @betweenthelimes (Carri), @back40feet (Chuck), @anniesannuals (THE Annie herself), @bayareatendrils (Alice), and @TMTenterprises (Matt)
Because Annie's Annuals tweets, has a Facebook page, and is on Flickr, they knew we were coming and had some goodies ready for us, thanks to @patfitzgerald and Pacific Plug & Liner.
The coolest thing is that we got a behind the scenes tour of their propagation and new planting areas and got to meet Anni Jensen and Claire Woods. It was like being in the presence of royalty.
I'll be honest. I only bought one plant while we were there. A Ceanothus 'Tuxedo' - a black variety of Ceanothus! I planted it in the back corner of my lot that I have stuggled with for a couple years because it's barren. It's supposed to get 8' x 8' and is evergreen, so hopefully it blocks out the unwanted view of the neighbor's dining room window.
When we first moved in here 3 years ago, I had received a bunch of plants from a not-so-great mail order nursery which I proceeded to stick in the clay (you can't even call it soil) and every last plant died. That sort of shell-shocked me and I haven't really bought that many plants since then. Couple this with the outrageous sticker price of what I thought was the nearest nursery, I just didn't really buy any plants, just mainly started vegetables from seed.
Now we have a landscape plan being drawn up so I didn't want to go crazy and buy stuff that might not work. (At least, that's what I told myself). Annie's is a great resource for getting a lot of healthy plants for not a lot of money. Cheaper in person than mail order, or so I hear! The plants are very robust, albeit in mostly 4" pots. For those of you who can't make it to Richmond, or don't want to get off the freeway given Richmond's reputation (it's not THAT bad during the day) - I hear folks rave about the quality of their packaging when shipping items.
We made off with some pre-release Kniphofia (look, a Latin word on Gardenpunks!), which I potted up tonight as they were rootbound in their individual 6/9-packs.
(Don't be jealous.)
A huge thanks to Annie's for treating us like VIPs and making for a wonderful experience!
Fermented Tomatillo Salsa
Tomatillos have personally been the most frustrating plant for me to grow. We've gotten huge plants, only to have none of the flowers fruit. We've had spindly little plants which never make it to the point of flowering. And this year we've had tiny little fruits that have been practically useless.
So imagine my surprise when I actually had enough tomatillos to make something!
One of the areas I've always seemed to have problems with is pollination. I've heard that multiple plants are necessary, otherwise pollination will not occur. To that end, we had three plants this year, in the hopes that we would definitely get some pollination. Well, two of those were pulled out over a month ago, and we're now getting more tomatillos than ever. I don't pretend to know why, but I'm not complaining about it one bit.
On to the recipe!
The original idea with this salsa was to use all green and yellow ingredients, which promptly fell apart when I realized I was chopping up a red onion. the contrasting colors ended up looking nice, and it is still up in the air how I would make this again.
Ingredients -
- 1-lb Tomatillos (roasted)
- 0.5lbs Tomatoes (roasted) You can use your choice of unripened red, ripe green or ripe yellow. I used a mixture of these.
- 6-7 Jalapenos (roasted)
- 1 fermented jalapeno with fermenting juice
- 1 small onion
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 1 Habanero
- salt/pepper
Everything was processed in a food processor, and then moved to a 1-qt jar for storage. Much like my previous salsa, I will allow this to ferment for a few days, and then refrigerate.
Oct 4, 2009
Fermented Salsa
Now that October has arrived we are finally getting our first decent crop of tomatoes. Trust me, it makes no sense to me either, but I'm finally getting to make tomato-based recipes with our own produce.
I originally planned on making a fermented ketchup today, but my lack of a food mill made me go for this easier fermented salsa. Thankfully I also have plenty of jalapenos and habaneros.
Ingredients -
- Whatever tomatoes you have that are ripe (I used a combination of Abraham Lincoln, San Marzano and Gardener's Delight)
- Jalapenos (combination of red and green)
- 2 fermented jalapenos and their juice
- 1 Habanero
- 1-2 small onions (I prefer using at least one small red onion)
- 2-3 cloves Garlic
- Salt/Pepper
- 2-3 Mexican limes
The already fermented jalapenos should help the lacto get a quick hold and add that wonderful tang that comes with it. I'm going to allow this to sit for 2-3 days at room temp, and then test to see if it is ready. Once it is ready it will go to the fridge for longer storage.
Oct 3, 2009
Fall Garden Chores Puttering
Last night I was moving around our oscillating sprinkler in the front yard watering what little grass we have left when it struck me.
I walked out onto the grass into the moonlight, leaves crunching underfoot, the smell of smoke in the air. Woodsmoke? Grass fire? I dunno. But whatever it was, I knew it. Fall is here. She visited recently, but has now made her presence known.
In true Fall style, today we took out the popcorn stalks.
You may recall, they looked like this (only more dead now):
Haul
Chris shucking the popcorn ears
After shucking
Because this raised bed has been home to tomatoes, garlic, and then corn in the last 12 months, I think it needs needs a season off. So we busted out the cover crops: fava beans and clover.
After sprinkling a little powdered kelp on the soil to feed the critters (aside: does anyone else love the smell of kelp? ahhhh), I spread clover seed and pushed a zillion fava beans into the soil. Hopefully the raccoons don't steal all the fava beans like they did last year. There seems to be nothing more attractive to a raccoon than freshly planted beds. Thankfully, my ghetto raccoon proofing has helped this summer.
I've been looking forward to taking out the corn stalks to use as Fall decorations.
Related: I will never have a garden without growing 'Hopi Red Dye' Amaranth ever again.
After messing with the corn stalks and Amaranth cuttings, this is now my front porch. I love it.
October is my favorite month. ♥
Oct 2, 2009
Follow up on the Nonsense
Thanks to all of you who commented on yesterday's post.
I found out today that a blogger at the Baltimore Sun wrote:
Gardening with Gen Y...or Not?
I was perturbed by the sweeping generalizations once again being made, this time by traditional media - what gets me is the "hype" blog author Susan Reimer refers to regarding Gen Y:
AND I QUOTE
They aren't interested in gardening and outdoor life.
They are too busy playing video games and hanging out together.
And they lack the work ethic you need to sustain a garden.
Get a life.
BUT what I adore is the comments left on the post. Brilliant!
We're here. We're paying attention. And we're more organized than we seem.
