The Garden Continues to Evolve...

I've spent a lot of time the past two weeks preparing one of the planter beds in the front yard of the studio house, shopping at Annie's Annuals & Perennials, then planting all of my treasures. I've turned this:


into this:



Taking my lead from a fabulous new book, Ivette Soler's, "The Edible Front Yard",


I planted a mix of succulents, tall flowers and grasses in the front half of the bed (in order to form a screen of sorts), then filled up the back half with kale, spinach, eggplants, tomatoes and peppers, and some more flowers and succulents. I'm really happy with the results, and can hardly wait for it to fill out and not look so "new".

I'm about to get started on preparing the third of the four planters, as well as cleaning up the pathways that surround the planters. Lots of work still to go, but I'm having a wonderful time!

Happy Birthday!

Today is my husband's birthday. We didn't do anything special... just hung out at home; he did Sudako puzzles and I puttered in the garden. I fixed his favorite dinner: Curried Eggs... cheesy, buttery, eggy, spicy, rich, rich, rich... yummy! You can practically feel your arteries hardening as you dine!


I also steamed up a mess of green beans from our garden, and tossed a green salad with tomato and cucumber, also from our garden. Dessert was a decadent chunk of lemon cream pie. All was accompanied by Korbel Champagne.

After dinner Martin took a nap and I zoned out in front of the computer and decided to see who else shares his birthday, and came up with quite a list of talented folk...

Gustav Mahler...

Marc Chagall...

Harry von Zell (100 points if you remember this guy!)...

Gian-Carlo Menotti...

Satchel Paige...

Pierre Cardin...

Hank Mobley...

Ringo Starr...

Jig-Saw Puzzle Quilt

A few years ago, ten of us in the Vallejo Piecemakers Quilt Guild made a jig-saw puzzle quilt. Annette, the most artistic among us, designed a 12-piece puzzle on paper (about 8 feet square), then cut out the individual pieces and passed them out among us. The object was for each of us to make a quiltlet in the shape of our puzzle piece, and then "assemble" the puzzle. We put the completed puzzle on display at our 4-Guild luncheon, and it was a big hit. This afternoon, I was hiding out in my dark computer room, cruising through some old files while trying to stay cool, and I found a picture of the completed puzzle, as well as some pics of my puzzle piece. Here's the completed puzzle:


This is my piece:

And some details of my piece:





I'm going to plow through some more photo files and see if I can find close-ups of the other pieces, and will post them when/if I do...

How does my garden grow?

Very well, thank you! Have a look...

Roma Tomatoes...

Strawberries going bananas, complete with green bean volunteer...

The zucchini plants are getting pretty ugly...!

The fruits look nice, though.

The potato greens are withering - that means they'll be ready soon...

Chocolate Mint for me on the right, and Catnip for the cats on the left. Everybody's gonna be happy!

Baby Yellow Pear Tomatoes...

Three kinds of Cucumbers...

Beans!

Are you hungry yet??!

Annie's Annuals & Perennials

This is THE most fantastic nursery on the planet - two and a half acres of paradise-on-earth for gardeners! It's been said, "A trip to Annie's Annuals nursery in Richmond is for true plant fanatics what a religious pilgrimage is to the devout believer." So true!! I've never seen such an array of plants anywhere, and, not only that, they're all so healthy and beautifully presented. If you're a gardener and haven't seen this place, you've missed something simply unbelievable! Feast your eyes on this - "as far as the eye can see" is only a marginal exaggeration!



The first thing you see upon entering this Eden, is a group of large beds, planted with samples to give you an idea of how things look together:



Special displays are everywhere - here's some poppies...


One of the most helpful things to me is an information card that appears with every plant that tells you more than you ever wanted to know before you buy...


My main reason for today's visit was to hear a presentation by Ivette Soler. She's a gardener from Los Angeles who advocates getting rid of your front lawn, which doesn't reward you remotely in proportion to the amount of attention and devotion you give it, and replacing it with edibles and interesting "support" plants. She's recently published this book:


Several years ago we got rid of the pathetic lawn in front of the studio house, and installed some raised beds surrounded by pathways. My dream was to plant a garden of herbs, edibles and roses. To date, the results have been as pathetic as the lawn once was, but I promised myself this would be the "Year of the Yard", and I've been taking baby steps and inching my way towards the garden of my dreams. Today's presentation by Ivette, together with her book which I purchased earlier this week, has given me a world of inspiration, and I definitely feel propelled in the direction of gardening Nirvana!

Front Patio

I think I've done enough with the front patio for now - time to start concentrating on other areas! This is such a pleasant space - protected from the wind, nice and shady in the afternoon, and smells divine!!! I love spending time here...

Down On The Farm

Last week, Martin and I visited Loma Vista Farm, a local, real live farm, right here in Vallejo. It's a venture between the Vallejo School District and Friends of the Farm, a non-profit, community based organization. The day we were there, we arrived as a field trip of over 100 kids was just leaving. It was obvious, from the general din and commotion, they'd all had an exhilarating morning, and, after our visit, their excitement was easy to understand. It was probably the first time most of the children had seen 90% of the things they'd just experienced.

Since my main purpose in visiting was to see the greenhouse, that's where we began...




I was absolutely blown away at its size, and the amount and variety of things growing therein. And, (Oh, rapture!) much of it was for sale!!! I bought a gorgeous bromeliad, a cactus and a succulent, a varigated-leaf nasturtium, and a catnip plant, which has already nearly doubled in size! I can hardly wait to harvest and dry the catnip and make some toys for our fur kids.

Of course, every greenhouse needs a resident cat - here's "Spirit" (so named because he and his camera-shy sister, Pumpkin, first showed up on Halloween.)

All around the grounds are various vegetable patches and orchards...
Here's a gourd garden...

And here's the "Pizza Garden"... full of tomatoes, garlic, onions, basil, oregano, etc... Yum!

A wonderful assortment of animals lives on the farm...

I kept my distance from these guys, since one of the worst beatings I ever received in my life was from my grandmother's gander, Cicero...

The din in the poultry yards was almost as deafening as the children, including from this guy, who gave us a wonderful gobbledigook serenade every minute or so!




Martin had never heard the song of the Bovine before, so was absolutely delighted when this guy repeatedly bellowed for us!

And here's Rita, the head farmer, who keeps everything running smoothly. Rita got her degree in Horticultural Therapy, then came to the farm as an intern years ago, and never left. What a happy accident leading to a rewarding and wonderful life! Thanks, Rita, for a fun afternoon!