For Uncle PP

My Little Jungle, a photo by zostra on Flickr.

My marvelous Uncle Peter, the one who helped with just about every little (and big) project inside my house when I bought it, doesn't believe that there's really all that much going on in my garden. Just wanted to let him know that there's plenty of good stuff. Like two massive zucchini plants, five summer squash, at least a dozen huge tomato plants, peppers, chard, beets, carrots, kale, strawberries, peas, bok choi, flowers, herbs...well, you get the idea. The only reason the raised box looks a little bare in this shot is because I just harvested a ton of carrots & beets to pickle. But more on that later. For now, I just wanted to take a minute away from tending the jungle to show it off. Love you, Uncle PP.

What I did on my vacation

Planted Garden 4, a photo by zostra on Flickr.

Two days of vacation time plus one weekend = a real garden. After carrying thousands of pounds of soil amendment, compost, and bark (not exaggerating, it was about 3600 pounds of stuff over the four days and one of those days we didn't carry anything), laying three paths and one patio-ish corner, fixing two raised beds, and planting bunches of stuff, it's official. I have a garden. Come June or so I'll have a small jungle of produce (fingers crossed that this prediction comes true). We planted 2 types of kale, 5 types of carrot, 4 types of beet, 2 types (but many plants) of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, 5 varieties of herbs, 2 types of strawberries, half a dozen types of flowers, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things. Zucchini and bunching onions are still in their pots for a few days. Peas will stay in their trellised pot. Here's hoping for a bumper crop and lots of yummy meals over the summer. Yes, you're invited.

A Birthday Dinner

Mom's Birthday Flowers, a photo by zostra on Flickr.

Mom's birthday was a few weeks ago, but I was in Wisconsin at the time, so we celebrated tonight. The menu: gazpacho, salad, asparagus frittata, garlic hedgehog potatoes, strawberries, meyer lemon sorbet, and chocolate. Except for the ranunculus, the flowers are all from the backyard. I gave mom a hat that I knitted for her from an olive green wool with an off white border all in seed stitch. She'd requested something warm for her morning walks, and hopefully this will do the trick (and fit better than Dad's hat that she's been wearing in lieu of her own).

SF Garden Show

Hydroponics, a photo by zostra on Flickr.

My parents & I took our annual trip to the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show. Of all the garden exhibits, this was the most unique. More of an art installation, really. Other popular items included succulents and edibles. Not a whole lot of ideas to take home this year, but a few. Enough to keep me hoping for sunny weather and some time in the yard. I did buy some new dahlia tubers, which will go in the ground just as soon as it dries up enough to be called dirt instead of mud.

Narcissus for the New Year

Narcissus
Originally uploaded by zostra

On New Year's Eve I returned home from a quick trip to the grocery store to find a beautiful glass container filled with narcissus bulbs that were just getting set to bloom. My wonderful neighbor from up the street had left them for me as a holiday gift. They've all opened up over the last week, and the entire front of the house smells wonderful. I love how they bloom in compact pom-poms of blossoms, it's like a bouquet at the end of each stem.

Bloomin' Poppies

First Poppy
Originally uploaded by zostra

While I realize that plants are supposed to bloom, particularly flowers that are planted for expressly that purpose, I am enough of a novice gardener that I am still thrilled to see it happen in my little patch of dirt. I planted some poppies in a corner by the stairs that already has a few rosebushes, added some violas, and a few other little things. The violas were already in bloom and took to their new home quite happily, but I was a little worried there wouldn't be enough sun for the poppies. Apparently my fears were misplaced as my little corner now has several poppy blooms, with quite a few more buds ready to open. It makes me feel like at least I have a bit of a handle on this little corner of the yard. If the rain holds off enough next week for me to break out the rototiller, I might start to see some progress on the rest of it.

Firsts

First Tomato
Originally uploaded by zostra

There's an almost ripe tomato in my garden. It's a sungold, so it won't ever get red. A few days and it will be ready to eat. I did pick and eat a handful of blackberries, and admired the first dahlia. The picture turned out fuzzy though. Perhaps I should rename this "Knitting Tomatoes"?

Mother's Day Goodies

Mother's Day Goodies
Originally uploaded by zostra

Amanda brought me flowers, chocolate (dairy free, of course) and a Cal reusable shopping bag! She obviously knows the way to her mother's heart.

Spring Has Sprung

Spring Has Sprung
Originally uploaded by zostra

Lilacs, strawberries, asparagus. Need I say more?

Asterix's Garden

Asterix's Garden
Originally uploaded by zostra

At the Home & Garden Show this year, one of the mini-gardens put together by local grade schoolers featured three of my favorite comic characters of all time: Asterix, Obelix, and Dogmatix. A must read for all lovers of comics, ancient history, and pun after pun after pun.

Floral Penguins

Floral Penguins
Originally uploaded by zostra

The Bouquet d'Artes is one of my favorite events every year, and this year was no exception. It was at the DeYoung, as it has been the past few years. There were several arrangements that really caught my eye, but we almost missed this one tucked away in the hall going out to the parking garage. Aren't they marvelous?

Blooming!

Titania is blooming, at just over six feet tall, and she doesn't smell (just kind of greenhouse-y, but no rotting meat smell at all):

Bloom?

There's a corpse flower at the U C Botanical Garden getting ready to bloom. Her name is Titania, and she's supposed to smell like rotting flesh when she opens up. Right now she's still tucked in and growing (almost to six feet so far):

Sunflower Scarecrow

Dad decided that since the birds planted a volunteer sunflower in his garden, he could do some art with the tweezers and turn it into a sunflower scarecrow:



Amanda agreed that it made a great mask:

Decadent Breakfast

Farmer's market treats...oatmeal with organic strawberries, organic grapefruit (broiled), Earl Grey & ranunculus: