Garden Hacks Hearing the Inner Call of the Garden

I have always loved to garden.  But after buying our first house in Richmond,CA  I have become (dare I say it) obsessed with gardening.  Living in Northern California with our Mediterranean climate means a lot of time outdoors.  So it makes sense to create attractive outdoor spaces.  But once that dirt was my own…look out!  I was a woman with a mission.  And that mission was to grow as much food as possible.  One might attribute that to my inner homesteader, my love of cooking and preserving, the local food movement or my proximity to Bezerkley.  Regardless it stuck.

My first challenge was to hear the secret inner call of my own personal yard. To say that Northern California weather varies by area is a huge understatement.   The temps often vary 30+ degrees between the coast and inland.  Taking in the huge number of other factors that can affect the garden such as fog, wind, slope, drainage, clay and you realize… we are not in Kansas anymore. Not to say gardening in Kansas is easy, but the sheer variations and possibilities of the Northern California Landscape demanded I up my game.

In this ever progressing journey I’ve learned a few tricks or “hacks” as I like to call them.

Hearing the Inner call of the Garden:

In order to discover what will thrive in your garden, you need to experiment and observe.  My first rule of thumb is to spend some time EVERY day in the garden getting in tune with what is going on.  You will discover such things as where the sun rises and falls and how that changes over the year, what thrives, what weeds are invasive,  are there snails, butterflies, gophers, does your soil hold water among other things.

As you are observing, it is worth recording and organizing your observations.  This way you can experiment with new things and find what works in your garden

Organizing Hacks

Below are some the tricks I use

Garden Journal:  I highly recommend keeping a garden journal. Moleskin puts out a dedicated garden journal but obviously any notebook would work just as well.   My journal is mostly a diary with entries by date.   This particularly helps me remember optimal times to plant seeds.  If you are more of a graphic person you could use drawings or graphs.  The key is to document what works and what doesn’t.   I always think I’ll remember exactly when I planted or what or the Latin name is of that particular plant that did so well, but invariably I don’t.  This leads me to another hack;

Saving Plant tags:  When I plant a seedling from a nursery,  I always put the original plant tag in with the plant.  This is especially true with plants I’ve never grown before.  I’m terrible with names and by the time I’m journaling that a plant is a winner I’ve most likely forgotten what it was.  When I find a winner, I usually put the tag in a pouch in my journal.  That way I have a library of things that work in my garden.

Seed Organizer:  Seeds are one of the best ways to experiment in my opinion.  It is easier to risk total failure if you have only invested is $3 in seeds.  Note that seeds seem to accumulate.  This is why you will need some way to store them.  I use a plastic bin with a top.  The seeds are sorted alphabetically using index card dividers.  I put the seed packs in Ziploc bags and label them with a Sharpie.  The waterproof box and bags protect against moisture, if I happen to leave the box out in the rain or within sprinklers distance by mistake.  I find looking through the organizer is a great way to brainstorm what to plant next.   This also helps if you do any bulk ordering of seeds, you can sit down in one place and see what needs re-ordering.

Plant Markers for seeds: It’s hard to keep track of what seeds were planted where and when.  For this I use popcicle sticks as plant markers.  I have a huge pack of blank ones from the dollar store.  When I plant something, I write the plant name and the date I planted.  This helps when you are journaling to calculate germination time etc.

Storing all those organizational Tools:  All the above tools only work if you use them. My garden is at the base of a big hill.  I realized I wasn’t using the journal or the plant markers because I’d forget them in the house at the top of the hill.  My solution was to install an old mailbox on our fence.  It keeps everything dry and in one place.  In it I keep;  my journal and a pen, clippers, sharpie, popcicle sticks, twine and a trowel. 

I hope these were useful

Happy Gardening!

Sowing seeds spring fever.

Today was that first day of warmth where Spring fever hits hard and folks go a little bonkers.  They start tearing off clothing layers exposing white pasty flesh.  Folks who have no business riding a bike among cars are wobbling around in traffic and sporting bugs in their ear to ear grins.  Unfortunately it was also the day of the Annies Annuals Spring Party.  Which I would normally whole heartedly attend as the nursery is fabulous and I love to root my home team on and they are located in Richmond. But under the influence of Spring Fever and Mr. away in London and unable to provide the necessary financial restraint, I needed to decline the invitation.  (Pats self on back).

I did allow myself the more frugal indulgence of buying seeds.  (Annies doesn't sell seed).  I headed off to Berkeley Horticulture and came home with the above load of seeds.  

As you can see I purchased some lobelia, which normally is a dime a dozen at the local home despot or Orchard Supply.  The problem is that I wanted to plant baskets of Lobelia and what those box stores sell is not the trailing variety. I had been down this road before and tried to plant Lobelia unsuccessfully in our cold frame.  

The problem with planting Lobelia is two-fold.  As you can see the seeds are itty bitty, even smaller than a grain of salt.  It's really hard to water these with a hose.  Also the seeds want to be warm to germinate.  And then I came up with the perfect solution.

I took an old clamshell pack from cherry tomatoes and taped some of the holes on the bottom.  Filled it with potting soil and very carefully planted the seeds. 

I'm keeping it on the windowsill where I can very gently water in the sink.  It should be warmer next to the stove and under the solar tube, and especially with it's own little clamshelll greenhouse, so I have high hopes.

Felt Planters

Hello my name is Christl and I'm addicted to felt.  This is well known among family and friends, who collect stories and send me pictures of anything felt related.  A friend who had attended Stitches West called me up to tell me about some felt flower pot cozies she had seen.  Seeing as I am also an avid gardener, this got my wheels turning.

Access to felt was absolutely not a problem for me.  I sell felt (or technically fulled) accessories at Fiberpuppy.  I have all kinds of failed projects lying around.  I fondly refer to them as my Chernobyl collection.  Flower pots on the other hand are in short supply at my house.  My husband is a plant hoarder

Every container is in use as a holding cell for some bit of greenery he could not bear to part with.

Then it occurred to me that there is really no reason to even use a pot.  The felt actually retains water making it an ideal planter.  I wasn't 100% sure this would work so we started small, using succulents which tend to tolerate small containers.

We added dirt, then the plants and finished with lava rock.  We then soaked them in a bucket of water.  Look they actually float.

The felted containers I had were kind of odd shapes and didn't really want to stand up on their own.  I tried propping them up against other plants.

Then the second brilliant part of the plan emerged.  I should hang them on the fence.  Not only did this keep the plants upright, it created vertical planting space.

So we'll see how these plants fare, before I go whole hog creating planting installments all over the fence.  But I'm thinking I could be on to something wonderful.

February Garden

I've decided to tempt all you folks in colder climes with a few sneak peeks at what is going on in the garden.  We've been starting veggies under the cold frame and have actually harvested some lettuce.  Unfortunately, snails or slugs have been eating some of the new shoots but I over planted so it looks like some will make it.

There are also a number of things blooming.

Our beautiful Magnolia tree is in full bloom.  It has such a delicious odor and keeps blooming for near 3 weeks.  The creamy flowers against the dark green foliage is dreamy.

Our potted Aeonium is just about to pop.  The flowers on these succulents are just so unique.

This grows like a weed here.  It has wandered in through a neighbors yard.  I believe it is crocosmia, but I wouldn't swear to it since I never planted it.  The hummingbirds LOVE this so I let it be.

We've got a couple of these Echeveria planted in pots.  They are just starting to go into full glory.

And finally the Nicotiana I planted last year has overwintered and really never stopped blooming.  I keep meaning to pull this up but just when I'm about to hack it down I'll spy a luscious deep red bloom.

Gardening! It's a lot of work

We have been going garden crazy lately.  We've been in our house a year and have slowly been working on the garden.  Sometimes it seems like we have gotten nothing done but after taking these photos I realize we've done a lot.  So I'll take you on a garden tour.  Above is a planter David built for me in front.  The front has the best sun but is cemented so David built this temporary planter until we can get something more permanent done.  We have basil, parsley and chives in this one.  Next to it are out tomatoes.

 

Also in the front we had to cut down this rubber tree.  It was poorly pruned and we discovered this puppy grows like 5 feet a year so this was our last chance to get rid of it before it got too big.   I bought some stuff at Home Despot to get rid of the stump.  When I got home and read the directions it said to drill holes insert toxic gunk wait 4 weeks and set the tree on fire.  Whhaaaaa  um not so much in dry N. Cal right next to our fence.  I looked online and discovered that you can drill holes and insert epsom salt to make sure it doesn't come back.  David is still after me to bring back toxic stump stuff.  I told him I don't have the receipt.  He said he doesn't care he doesn't want the money he just wants Home Despot to be responsible for the disposal of toxic goo.

 

 I got this cool planter from my mother in law.  It sort of defies gravity as the pots are just held in the notches of the wood.  So far so good no tragedies.  The front of our house is really lacking in color so the Zinnias add a little something.  We are planning on re-doing our fence this summer and will eventually plant ....

 

New Guinea Impantiens.  I noticed these in our neighbors yard.  They get really tall and seem to do well here.  So I asked if I could take a clipping.  These guys rooted like gangbusters.

 

David did a ton (and I might actually mean a ton) of work adding another tier to our yard.  We are on a steep slope so our yard has a number of tiers.  This one (I hope) will be the last.  Lots of digging and woodwork.  We filled this one in with Cal wildflowers.  Had to rope it off from Miss dog (in background) who seems to want to Christen any new garden with a big dog log.  Urgh.

 

This is the only permanent raised bed we've managed to build.  Peas and favas are going crazy.  I'm giving them a week or so more before I dig em out and plant cukes.

 

This will be the site of the next raised bed.  In the meantime, David gave in to my need for flowers and we planted sunflowers (and a few favas to break up the soil and add nitrogen)  Again to keep Miss dog out we used the absolutely vicious fronds from the palm trees that fell over the winter.

Here is a pic of our waterfall.  Miss dog had herself an escapade of chasing our frog down it and brought all the stone down in a landslide.  Fortunately none ended in the pond and the frog survived.  So we had to relay all the stone.  Which is actually a mighty tricky task.  Trying to figure out the aqua dynamics of any one rocks requires the waterfall actually be on.  So we stood in the water hauling around rocks to see if the water splashed out or into the waterfall.  We will still have to cement this, but I've gotta do some research on what kind of cement won't kill our goldfish.  Hmmm I'm thinking that's probably the most expensive kind.

 

This is Davids current work in progress.  Now that we have the tiers set he's trying to figure out a walkway.  I'm not sure about the big square stones, but I love the river rock.  We're thinking we will fill the gaps in with thyme and baby's tears.

 

I'll leave you with a nice pic of the pond.  They water hyacinth are finally looking ok.  I had to haul out a bunch and clean them up from frost damage over the winter.  The fish seem happy and are apparently spawning if all the flipping and splashing is any indication.

Welcome to my garden.  Always something to do.

Working with what you've got

We've been in our new house since June.  We've been trying to take a wait and see approach to re-vamping the entire garden.  We wanted to see the yard in all it's seasons before making any major decisions.  (that and our limited budget).  Ironically, our back yard with it's 3  Koi ponds and 29 palms turned out to be not so awesome in terms of growing veggies being on a northern slope.  Other than that it is a paradise.

So with my desperate need for fresh herbs and veggies we looked around.  And discovered that our cement covered front yard had southern exposure.  Hmmmm. 

David being the perfectionist and asthetic had ideas of tearing up cement.  Um not even close to on our budget  I suggested building raised planters.  David agreed that could work, but we would need redwood since other woods would rot.  Again not on our budget (are you seeing a theme here?)   Perhaps next year once we recover from putting on a new roof.  But we did have some Doug fir (which would rot). 

Well in a stroke of genius (or bad taste if you ask David)  I remembered seeing plantings in old bathtubs and such and thought well heck I can buy plastic storage containers from Home depot for $4 a piece drill a hole in the bottom.  So David built a platform for the containers so they would get more sun over the fence.  And here they are.  I planted basil parsley, thyme and chives and have plans for another for tomatoes and cukes.

This is not a permanent solution.  But planting time is afoot and heck even fresh sprouts in plastic bins is an improvement over pavement in my mind.  Perhaps we can afford redwood next year.

Perhaps not to the aesthetic's eye a perfect solution but for those of us on a budget.  Hey if you have a deck you can have a garden.