My Green Ambitions

I adore this variety of sunflower! These are some heirloom seeds I purchased from
Seed Savers Exchange. They're just gorgeous. They're much smaller than other sunflowers I've grown. These end up being around 5 or 6 inches across. The petals are a very pale yellow, and there are several blooms on one stem. It makes them perfect for putting in a vase. Of course, I have never actually cut any for a vase. I just leave them growing in the garden. I'll definitely plant more of these next year. So pretty!

It's funny when I look back over the last few blog posts and see pictures of the garden. Whenever I take photos, I feel like the garden looks so good and the plants are getting so big - but then it changes so much in just another few days' time! I can't tell you how much joy this year's garden has brought me. It's so soothing to walk out in the yard, checking all the plants, watching things grow. Gardening is rewarding on so many levels. On a very literal level, we're experiencing the reward of fresh veggies! New zucchini are ready to harvest almost every day, along with small (but delicious!) yellow crookneck squash and lots of cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes are mostly from that volunteer plant that came up along the fence. I love all the vibrant colors! And I also love how excited the kids are about the garden, too. So far they're still a bit shy about actually eating the vegetables. But we're getting there.

After a nice heat wave at the beginning of the month, the days here in San Diego have softened into the gray haze known as June gloom. The mornings are misty. The temperatures are mild. I actually like it, since I'm somewhat sun-phobic. That's what happens when you come from a pale tribe like mine! Anyway, though the weather has seemed less than ideal, the garden is very happy! I am astonished at how big some of the plants have become.

Here is a photo of my cherry tomato plant. I have it in the largest tomato cage they sold at the nursery, which I then also secured with two bamboo stakes. But the plant is so large that the cage is starting to lean to one side and there are new shoots going in all directions! You almost can't see a cage in there at all, can you? (That is a 6 foot fence behind it, by the way, to give you an idea of the size).
Next up is my very happy zucchini plant. We're almost ready to harvest out first few zucchini! I don't know why, but I thought we wouldn't be harvesting much from the garden until much later in the season. The leaves are simply enormous on this plant. I love it! I'm a little nervous that it will obscure my Blue Lake green beans that are growing to the right. I hope they'll still get enough sun.
I was quite excited to discover baby watermelons on the vine! We have several now (about a dozen at my last count) but this was the first one I saw. I planted the watermelon in a raised bed, and the vines are all cascading down this rock wall I built to shore up some crumbling railroad ties. (We'll eventually built a new retaining wall, but for now I'm going with what we have). I love how it looks with the vines creeping down the rocks. So pretty.
My cucumbers are also coming in nicely. I'm trying to train them to grow up this mesh trellis. I've never really used a mesh trellis before, so I hope it will work and will be sturdy enough to hold up the vines.
In the Three Sisters garden, the beans finally sent up shoots saying they were ready to climb! So I helped them find the corn stalks. In this photo, it might be hard to see the beans climbing the stalks - it looks just like a sea of green. But I was so excited to see the plan for this garden actually working! How the beans have climbed almost to the top of the stalks, and they've grown lots of new leaves.
I was also thrilled yesterday when I found a bit of corn silk showing up on one of the stalks. I actually have an ear of corn! The stalks were growing tall and green and healthy, but I hadn't seen any actual corn show up yet. I'm so pleased. I can't wait to have fresh corn on the cob!

My next gardening endeavor, I think, will be with some roses. We had to take out one of the hedges we had in the front of our house when we redid some of our plumbing. It looks so bare out there now that I want to fill it in with something. I thought about trying a blackberry hedge, but I really like the idea of some roses. And the front of the house would be a great location for them. I'm especially in love with Mister Lincoln roses, which are really large red ones that smell fantastic. We'll see what happens!

This is a picture of my fennel. I only have one bulb. I've never grown fennel or eaten very much of it. My one experience with fennel was at a restaurant where they served salmon on a bed of mashed potatoes, topped with fennel slaw and a slice of red grapefruit. When I ordered it, the fennel slaw didn't sound appealing to me and I figured it would be something I'd put up with in order to enjoy the salmon and potatoes. But the fennel was my very favorite part. It was crunchy and delicious and wonderful. And it tasted great paired with the grapefruit, too. Anyway, that's what led me to plant fennel: happy memories of fennel slaw.

This photo really doesn't do the fennel justice, because I think it's one of the prettiest plants in my garden. It doesn't look that impressive in this picture. It's this lovely green color, and it's light and ferny looking. I honestly wish I would have planted a bunch more. I certainly plan to have more next year. When I think about actually eating this fennel I feel almost sad because I don't want to pull out the whole bulb and lose such a pretty plant. I know that's silly but...whatever.

Of course, since I've never grown or really cooked with fennel I don't know much about how to prepare it or what to do with it. So now I'm on a quest to learn. I want to put it to good use!

Viva la fennel!!

My little patch of earth is full of green, growing things and I couldn't be more delighted. I know I've said it before, but I really did doubt that I'd be able to manage a garden. Working full time and having three energetic kids to wrangle can demand so much of my time, attention and energy. But, truly, there is something so beautiful and satisfying about gardening. I'm caring for the plants which then provide sustenance for me and my family. Being part of that cycle is and edifying experience - pun intended!

So here are some recent photos of Our Patch. Look at that cherry tomato plant! It's going nuts! No tomatoes yet, but plenty of blossoms.
The watermelon is starting to flower!

Look! That's a baby crookneck squash! And it's the cutest little squash ever! Yes it is! There are actually a few little squashes starting on this plant. Quite exciting.
Here is a recent photo of my Three Sisters area. It's really coming along nicely. I'm so pleased with how healthy and strong the corn is! The beans are getting tall. The squashes are getting bigger all the time. The pumpkins I planted are just finally starting to sprout. I can't wait to see what this spot looks like when the squashes sprawl and full in the empty space. It'll be so pretty!
And here are my wee basil plants. They're in kind of a shady spot and aren't really growing as much as I'd like to see. But I'll give them time. They smell so nice. I can almost taste the pesto every time I walk by!

Wishing you all similar garden blessings!

Once again, it's been far too long since I last posted! But I blame it on being very, very busy outdoors. The weather has warmed up and the garden is coming to life. There's something so magical about this time of year. I love seeing all the trees in bloom, like this peach tree in my mom's yard:Lots of flowers this year, so I'm hoping that means we'll get lots of peaches this year as well. Last year, Japanese beetles ate ALL our peaches. It was a tragedy.

This year it seems like we have an abundance of California Golden Poppies. They pop up everywhere! They were my father's favorite flower, and my mom refuses to pull out any Golden Poppies that come up. So she has poppies all over the place. Here's one that sprouted in the middle of the lawn. She just mows around it. I love that sunny orange color!Back at my own little patch of earth, the garden is doing well. That volunteer tomato plant that had sprouted near our fence is going nuts now that the weather is warmer. It had flowers on it for the longest time, but no little tomatoes. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever have fruit on it. Obviously, I just needed to be patient. The plant is now COVERED with little tomatoes!In fact, this volunteer tomato plant now currently has more tomatoes on it than I harvested all last year from my three tomato plants. Isn't that crazy? Of course, the tomato plants I had last year were in pots and I don't think the soil was very good. I only got about a dozen cherry tomatoes, total. I easily have three times that on this one plant right now. I'm so pleased!

In addition to my volunteer, I have eight other tomato plants. Some are doing really well. A couple others are struggling thanks to hungry snails. But I'm still hoping to have a good crop so I'll be able to can a bunch. Homemade marinara sauce, here I come!

The "three sisters" area of my garden is doing great, and I think it's going to be simply gorgeous when the plants get a little bit bigger. I planted a ring of sweet corn, and then I planted green and purple pole beans around those. The beans will climb up the corn (in theory). Then I planted an assortment of squashes in a ring around the corn & beans. Here's what it looked like about a week ago:It's a little hard to see everything (I'm a crummy photographer), but I wanted to show how it looks with the squashes coming in. The larger squash plants in the back are yellow crookneck squash. Zucchini coming in toward the front. I'm not actually sure what all the squash are. I foolishly planted stuff, thinking I'd remember what went where. But of course I didn't. So it'll be a fun little surprise for later this year! Anyway, here's a little close up on the beans and corn:I can't wait to see how it all fills in!

This past weekend I worked on putting in more herbs. I now have cilantro, parsley, thyme, tarragon, rosemary, chives, basil and dill. So far they seem happy in their little garden plot, but I'm concerned there might not be enough sun. We'll see. Dill is supposed to be more of a cool weather herb, so I didn't think mine would make it. It looked a little sad and brown for a while, but it's perking up now and has lots of new green growth. Yay! We'll see how it handles a Southern California summer. I planted it in partial shade, so I hope it will be happy and thrive.

More pictures and garden updates to come!

My goodness, has it really been a month since I last posted? Time flies! Especially during Spring when there's so much to be done outside. I am delighted to report that my garden is all planted, and thus far doing well. I may or may not have nightmares about snails eating all my wee seedlings during the night. Grow, little plants! Thrive!

My local gardening expert and dear friend Cassie helped me plan out what to plant where - and then came over and worked with me: digging in the dirt, transplanting seedlings, planting seeds. I don't know what I would have done without her help. Hopefully, if I'm able to pull this gardening thing off, I can show my gratitude by sharing lots of delicious produce. I think I might have enough corn and beans to feed an army if everything comes up. Fun! I will post photos of the garden progress soon. But for now, let me babble about the sunflowers some more.

The sunflowers near the back fence have all bloomed, and they're simply gorgeous. There are a few different types of flowers. Some stems have multiple smallish flowers on them, others are the big mammoth sunflowers with just one big flower at the top. The big ones are my favorites, even though they're kind of sticky.
Look at that drop of stuff in the middle. Do you know how much self restraint it took not to touch that bead of...whatever it is? Nectar? Sap? Is it sad that I don't know?
I also love seeing how many bees these sunflowers attract. Can you see the bee in this photo?
Here's a close up. Look at all the pollen on her little head! I'm sure she was a happy little worker going home to the hive. Here's hoping she and her friends come back and help with lots of cross-pollinating when the garden comes in. I can use all the help I can get - especially with my 10 tomato plants.

Things are growing and blooming and coming alive after the long Winter's nap. Exciting stuff on the horizon!