What's Growing In March

We have strange weather this week but I suppose that is normal for March.  Most of this week has been clear and warm with nights that bring fog and frost.  This weekend we have a huge storm coming in, potentially the largest of the year.  Rain will start Friday night, Saturday will be a downpour, and then Saturday night through Monday we will have snow.  Lovely.  In the meantime, here is what is growing in the gardens.

Rhubarb!  (most important)

California poppies everywhere

Gophers busy by the artichoke plant.  If they kill it...  AARGH!!!!   You will hear me scream in New Zealand

Cala Lilies

Daffodils are still going strong.

Freesia

Hyacinth and pansies

 I've also decided to participate in a daily prompt over on my poetry/writing blog "Hoofprintsin my Garden."  There is a link in my sidebar (go to the far right and hover your cursor over the grey boxes.  One of them is a link) if you are interested in reading my responses for the next two weeks.  The prompt for yesterday was "Who Am I?"  and today I'll be writing about when I knew I was an adult, and how that felt. 

Spic and Span

I love the gardens when the winter pruning is finished.  Everything looks neat and tidy, clean and bright.  I finished the orchard pruning a few days ago and Brett helped me spread compost under the trees.  The peach tree is ready to burst into bloom already, the buds are swelling on the branches.

After lunch today, I tackled the arbor rose.  The arbor is starting to fall apart.  I cut off all the old canes so Brett can reinforce the structure.  With the arbor cleaned of any canes and the espaliered apples pruned, the garden entrance looks neat and tidy.

Inside the garden, the artichokes are green as are the strawberry plants.  I have garlic and beets poking through the soil in one of the planter beds.  Tarragon and mint are starting to green up as well.  I even have flowers -- my carnation doesn't seem to realize that it is January. 

In the corner of the garden is a large stock tank.  It's been sitting there empty for years.  Ideas?  I'm thinking about filling it with water in the spring, adding some lilies and gold fish and making it into a water garden. 

It's cloudy and overcast today, although not particularly cold.  There is a chance of rain tomorrow but it will be a light warm rain, from Mexico, if we get any precipitation at all. 

I won't know.  I'll be in Fresno riding Winston!!  Fortunately, the rain isn't forcast to get that far north.

A quiet rest of the afternoon on tap; Camille and a friend coming up later for dinner and to spend the night; a warm fire; a pot of chili and cornbread for dinner... 

A good day.

Flower Bed in October

The perennials are starting to die back and the leaves to fall, but the rain we had last week has also brought some positive changes to the property.

For instance, we have grass in the orchard, sprouting in the goat pen and on the slopes.

The flower bed looks lush, with the alyssum growing thick and fragrant.  The last burst of bloom is on the rose bushes.

Flower bed in September

I bought Johnny Jump Ups (violas) and pansies for the flower bed.  The roots should get a nice start in the warmth of fall and then explode with color and growth in the spring.  That's the plan anyway.

In the vegetable/herb garden I'm still raking in tomatoes.  I'll make another batch of sauce tomorrow.  I think the pumpkins are ready to harvest as well.

Jonagold apples are ripe in the orchard.  Wasps and the dogs have wiped out about half of the crop but I managed to collect enough to make a pie.  The dogs seem to think apple trees are fetch balls on trees.  They don't pick up the ones on the ground.  Oh, no.  They have to pick new ones everyday.

I found a recipe for baking apple pie in a brown paper bag that looked intriguing so I gave that a try.  You can find the recipe here at Bakers Banter. 
 It's an apple pie with streusel topping that bakes inside a big paper bag - like you get from the grocery store.

It browned up nicely and the paper bag soaked up all the juice that overflowed the pan.  Sweet!

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Brett built me a beautiful flower bed as a gift last year.  I promptly filled it with flowers and have enjoyed it immensely.   There was just one problem.  We changed out the bubbler sprinklers for soaker hose and when we hooked them up to the existing line it just didn't work well.  Soaker hoses run infrequently for a long, long time.  The other sprinklers on the line were bubblers .  Either my flower bed was dry or the rest of the line was flooded.  It's been on the to-do list for quite awhile.

My flowers started dying.  The only plants left standing after enduring the heat of summer were the rose bushes (well established), the alyssum and the lambs ears.  When Brett initially installed sprinklers, he put in many lines.  There are not all being used so "all" he needed to do was tap into one of the inactive ones. 

He started digging and voila! there they were.  But.... which one was which?  Fortunately, he had labeled them when he put them in originally.

He dug up the lines all the way to the planter.  Bella supervised.  Of course. 

The weather was hot and muggy today.  Brett was exhausted by the time he finished.  But he did it!  And they work perfectly.  (of course)

 

I think he deserves a big steak for dinner.  And a big glass of wine.

Flower Bed in July and other Chores

It's only July 8th but the flower bed is already working its way towards August Ugly.  All of the snapdragons have dried up in the sun leaving lambs ears and alyssum behind.  I can't plant anything else until fall and my cosmos didn't sprout.  Rats. 

Around the corner, my blanket flower is doing well and the lavendar by the greenhouse is also in full bloom. 

I can't complain about the vegetable garden either.  My tomato plants are covered with fruit, the rhubarb is getting tall, one of my cucumbers survived the slugs and is winding itself around the pumpkin vines which are threatening to take over.  In the orchard, the peach tree is making an amazing comeback.  We chopped it down to the stump in an effort to save it from a severe case of peach leaf curl that responded to nothing else ... and it has rebounded. 

One of the chores on my list for today was to clean out the goat shed: removing the dirty straw and replacing it with clean.  When I went down to the barn to get the muck cart and rake, Jackson was in his usual position at his stall door.  He likes to be informed about the activities and projects on the ranch. 

The next challenge was how to get the muck cart into the goat area without them all running out the gate.  I decided to throw them a leafy branch off of the cottonwood tree.  They love cottonwood leaves.  It worked.  While they fought over the branch, I brought the cart into their area.

The next challenge was getting the hay into the cart.  The goats seemed to be under the impression that I had brought it in as a new toy for them.

While I was gone on my trip with Camille, Brett kept busy.  One of the things he did was put reinforcement across the window to the shed.  A mountain lion came into the yard of neighbors just down the road and killed one of their goats.  We lock Bella, Bear and Thistle in the shed at night.  No goat served here!

June Flower Bed

Climbing rose and clemetis (not in the flower bed, I know)

I rode Jackson for a short while this morning.  He was a bit lethargic and sore but I think it was from his exuberant antics yesterday more than anything.  I didn't push it, just worked him in a nice relaxed frame, practiced our corners, and a bit of leg yield from center line to the quarter line to confirm his understanding of inside leg to outside rein. 

Brett and I went down the mountain for yoga and had another great class.  Afterwards we went to lunch in San Juan Capistrano.  We sat on the patio in the coastal sunlight and watched people going by.  It felt like vacation: our bodies mellow and relaxed from yoga, the warm sunshine on our skin, and the tourists making their way down the street to the mission. 

After evening chores, we sat on the patio with a glass of wine and discussed sprinklers (which are working and which aren't) and fencing for trees in the goat area.  We went by PetCo to get puppy pens and they are ludicrously expensive ($100 each for a four foot tall one).  So, its back to the drawing board.

Flower Bed and Vegetable Garden in May

Perennial Garden

Vegetable Garden

Artichoke

beets

strawberries

tomatoes

pumpkin

cucumber

rhubarb

tarragon and chives

mint

oregano

basil