Autumn Sacrifice

Ladies and Gentlemen, please help me welcome back our dear friend and talented poet, Ruth Bavetta. Her poem “Autumn Sacrifice”, which originally appeared in Spillway, is the perfect way to show off the first pomegranate to come from my fledgling tree. Thank you again Ruth, for sharing your talent.

...Punica granatum - November 2011

Autumn Sacrifice

~ By Ruth Bavetta

When I bring the pomegranates into the kitchen,
already my hands are stained with red.

The bruised globes, with their gaping wounds,
ooze crimson onto the white tiles.

The hard dry skins resist my knife.
A slip, and my blood mingles with the fruit’s.

Cooked with sugar, thickened, poured into jars,
the jelly is both sweet and bitter.

(Previously published in Spillway)

...A plate of rubies

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…the leaves were calling me.

I meant to do my work today,
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.

–Richard Le Gallienne (1866–1947)

Miss Peanut answers the call of a Mint leaf

Well, the last week has simply been heaven. Every spare moment was spent planting the seedlings started during Spring Break. Several huge cans full of grass and weeds were pulled as well. There is still a lot to be done, but the garden looks tended again. It’s impossible to express just how good for me this process has been. My intellectual pursuits of the last 20 months were very intense and I had not been grounded in the way I need, which is that special brand of grounded I only get from, well, the ground. All head and no body makes one a bit insane after a time. The garden is medicine. My muscles are delightfully sore and I have a touch of color back in my cheeks. The weather was even on my side with cool cloud cover and a bit of rain midweek. The photos all came out with a bit of fog in the center, so I apologize for the quality – not worth retaking them though. Let’s just pretend that I was going for that vintage nostalgic hazy days of summer sepia toned wonder and call it a day. Later I’ll clean the lens, since I know I probably thumbed it with sunscreen. We get messy when we’re gardening 🙂

Somewhere around 42 Tomato seedlings went into the ground in various spots around the property. They had priority, of course. Those are the leftover winter peas drying on the tops of the stakes so I can plant them later.

the Brandywines are in the ground and all is right with the world

The Artichoke seedlings, 4 of them, came from last year’s fruit.

Artichoke seedling

I found a bird’s nest, probably doves, in a burrow on the ground in the meditation circle. This makes four nests that I save in a special place in the potting shed. They are among my favorite things.

I have quite a growing collection of bird's nests in the potting shed

The Hollyhock seedlings are from Andrea’s seeds, so of course I’m hoping for dark colored flowers!

Andrea's Hollyhock seeds are finally in the ground

Tom bought me an upside down hanging Strawberry planter so I would have more than just a few ripe ones at a time. He loves me.

Tom's Topsy Turvy

There were at least three of these cans full of grass and weeds pulled out to make room for seedlings.

out with the old - in with the new!

At a certain point, I had pulled out so many plants needing new homes, I had to spread out over the lawn. I find I have to make a mess before I can bring about any kind of order.

finding joy amid the chaos

There is still a lot of transplanting to do; finding new homes for what I dug up, re-potting things that have grown out of their pots, moving all succulents and cacti to pots leaving more ground for herbaceous plants, etc…

looking for new homes

When I get it all cleaned up, probably by the Full Moon this coming Wednesday, I’ll be able to sit in my rocking chair and celebrate with a juicy glass of wine. In the meantime, the bees are busy gathering pollen…

greedy little bee in an Agapanthus

…the flowers are blooming…

Roses and Grapes and Andrea's birdhouse

…completely oblivious to the fact that I’m literally turning the entire garden upside down. The only ones to really notice have been the spiders, but we get along famously as long as we respect each others space.

the ever-faithful Feverfew

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The Garden Infirmary

We’ve had our ‘Manila’ Mango, Mangifera indica, for three years.The first summer we had it we didn’t get any fruit, but I expect that from a sapling. Last year it put out fruit but it was all very tiny, like large jelly beans covered with ugly dark spots. The mini-fruits that I taste tested were so good, I couldn’t wait for the tree to mature and put out regular sized healthy fruit, and I was hoping the black spots were not a sign of trouble. This year, it looks dead in the water and there is no new growth and no sign of an impending inflorescence, and the spots are now all over the leaves. I’ve been painfully aware of its troubles for months and I finally have the time to investigate why.

Manila Mango

Mangoes do not need trimming or a lot of fussing, but they do need good drainage and I think this might be the issue here. It’s planted on a slight raise in the lawn but the soil underneath is heavy clay. Sometimes the water sits in the plant well for hours before soaking in and this could lead to root diseases. Time for mulching and soil amendment, and a good feeding since it has to compete with the lawn for nutrients.

poor thing

Also, I think it has a fungus called ‘anthracnose’, which is such an awesome name for a wicked fungus don’t you think?

So, I have treated it with a fungicide and I’m hoping for the best. It has the entire summer to rest and recover in the sun and let the medicine do its job. If it doesn’t improve or show some signs of forward-moving life in the next few months, it will have to be pulled out and replaced, or moved to a pot where I can air out the root system. We do our best, but sometimes a plant is beyond recovery. Sadly, I have not been entirely happy with both of the fruit trees I bought at this particular nursery. Both trees were stunted in severe ways and have not done well.

My sister-in-law, Lori, really loves mangoes and this one is planted in between our houses just for that reason. For her sake, I hope it pulls through…fingers crossed!

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Go Outside and Play!

When we were little, our mothers sent us outside to play when we were getting on her nerves. We thought she was being sweet and encouraging us to have fun when all she really wanted was a moment alone with her thoughts and perhaps a Highball or two. Well, I’m on my own nerves lately, so the moment I get free from work, rain or no rain, I’m going outside to play and I’m dragging Tom with me.

Carrots get curly if the soil isn't loose enough - be sure to prepare your soil!

In gardening news, it’s an excellent time to plant anything with an underground harvest such as root vegetables, like carrots before it gets too warm, or bulbs. Today I’m planting the garlic that was leftover from an olive oil roasting I did on Monday. When the garlic you use in the kitchen has little green centers, it means the garlic is growing again in your pantry and it will most likely be bitter tasting and it’s past its prime. Bury it and you’ll have fresh garlic later. I know I’ve said it before, but I really really want you to plant garlic! It helps keeps aphids off your roses and vampires will think twice before messing with your garden.

red Dragon Carrot - sweet and adds color to salads or cake - did someone say cake? 🙂

It’s also a good time to plant radishes if you live somewhere with a cool spring. I just harvested mine, so I won’t be planting more, but it’s not too late if you want to get another batch through before summer. I had the “Easter Egg” blend and they were delicious!

Spring Radishes - Easter Egg Blend - April 2011

The Moon is waning so it’s also a good time to prune where needed. My pruning is done for now, so I can take a break on that front. In fact, the garden seems to be doing her own thing quite effectively right now, so I can take a little breather. I have some extremely feral patches around the property, but I’ve put those off until summer when school is over. Thanks to the budget cuts, summer classes have been canceled so I have no opportunity to change my mind about taking the summer off. Tom and I are going to plan a little trip someplace we’ve never been. It’s very exciting.

I didn't really like carrots until I grew my own

This is also a good time to think about feeding your garden. Spring is a time when nature has a voracious appetite and plants need food and mulch and compost-y nourishment to reach their full potential fruit and bloom-wise. I like the pellet kind of food because I can walk around the garden with a bucket of it and toss toss toss. I’ve tried the Miracle Grow liquid with the hose attachment and, although the food itself works well, it’s not a great way to apply it and I think it wastes a lot of water while being inconsistent with the delivered amounts. I did see an ad in Sunday’s paper that they have a fairly new device with premixed solution, but I have not tried it yet. The bucket/toss method seems to work for me, for now. That’s the key with this gardening thing – do whatever works for you and you alone. Gardening is a much easier task than it was even a decade or so ago. When I started gardening seriously about 10-15 years ago, there wasn’t a huge online community of plant enthusiasts, garden blogs were rare, websites that explained how to care for plants were terribly incomplete, tools and products were still old fashioned and not much of it was geared toward those of us who choose the organic way. Now, the world is your oyster, or pea, if you want anything from a tiny pot of herbs on your urban balcony, to a farm in the backyard, and anything and everything in between. Information is instant online and there’s a huge community of people just like me writing about gardens just like mine and sharing information. It’s awesome, easy, rewarding and healthy, and will improve your mood considerably. Even if it’s just one Strawberry plant – the fresh and pristine pesticide-free fruit will have you hooked in no time. So, what are you waiting for? Go outside and play!

Inside a sea of Nasturtiums - March 2011

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Strawberry Fields

This week, I finally got an extra afternoon hour to go outside! I decided to hang the beautiful birthday gift from my friends Matthew and Sherry: the perfect box for strawberries! Now perhaps I can enjoy my strawberries before the sow bugs get to them. Strawberries, by the way, are not actually berries. They are an ‘aggregate accessory fruit’ which means that the edible part is not a single fruit from the plant’s ovary, which basically defines a berry. What you’re eating is fleshy tissue that surrounds the ovary and those tiny seeds on the outside are actually ‘achenes‘ or tiny little crunchy ovaries with teeny tinier seeds inside. Now you know.

A box of strawberries - March 2011

Also, I got to play in the grass! This is what our grass looked like that day. This was two days ago, so it’s even taller now. It’s up past my knees. I’m five feet tall so that’s not saying much, but it is like a prairie in the backyard, thanks to the last rain. I haven’t watered the lawn in months and this is how good it looks!

back home on the prairie! March 2011

I really love the color and texture of spring grass! We could hide some wicked eggs in this.

what the world looks like to a grasshopper

What I really wanted to do was grab a blanket and take a nap in the afternoon sun. Today is Friday, the normal day for the man who mows our lawn….I hope so anyways!

time for bare feet and a good book

In the world of agriculture, the name for what happens when a rice crop falls over, like the grass in my photo below, is called ‘lodging.’ It’s bad because you cannot harvest a plant when it’s laying flat on the ground. So, the agri-dudes in charge crossed tall rice plants with shorter rice plants because shorter rice plants don’t ‘lodge’ and now they get higher crop yields. Now you know. See, there are times in life when being short is ideal – ha!

lodging! March 2011

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a stuffy old essay about figs….

A couple weeks ago in botany class, I had to write an essay about a plant that was used as a food. We could choose anything we wanted, as long as our professor hadn’t done a lecture on it already. His lectures focus on major ‘agribusiness’ types of foods like corn or wheat, so I chose to report on the fig. There’s a tree in the backyard, so it was a perfect choice. It contains a bit more commercial information than I usually write, but I had no choice about that aspect and actually learned a few things. Since I haven’t had a moment to do much here, I thought I would post the essay as a ‘ready made’ blog post as soon as I got my grade back. So here it is, my boring essay on the fig, which I did not have time to edit much for a website, so it may fit a bit awkwardly into this space – and yes I got an A 🙂

Spring Fig - 2010

The Fig
Ficus carica

My earliest memory of figs has to do with cookies. Our family cookie jar always had a variety, but the one constant was a sleeve or two of delicious Fig Newtons. My mother thought they were healthy, so she kept them in stock and the family never really discussed what was in the middle of the cookie. In fact, it was not until I was well into my 30’s that I encountered a fig in its natural state, fresh from the tree and not in a cookie. They instantly became a favorite fruit and I eventually bought my own tree so I could eat them fresh. It still amuses me when I offer one right off the tree to a houseguest and they look at me funny because they have never had a fresh fig. Everyone thinks of the cookie first. So, what exactly is a fig and why don’t more people know more about this delicious and nutritious little fruit, apart from its cookie fame?

Figs actually have a long and rich history and a high profile in our collective mythology. The Bible alone mentions the fig fifty seven times, the most famous reference being of Adam and Eve using the leaves as clothing. It is one of only five fruits mentioned in the Quran, and the Ficus religiosa, or Holy Fig, is the tree believed to have adopted Buddha when he received enlightenment. A fig tree is said to have adopted the ancient Roman god, Mithras. This view of the fig tree as a “Great Mother” also figures into the mythology of the Babylonian Ishtar and the Gaulish gods, Dusii. Even Hindu mythology has a story of the “Cosmic Fig Tree” which has the power to grant wishes. Figs were used in love spells and fertility rituals, grown around the home for good luck and prosperity, and the leaves have been used in divination. Sixteenth century herbalist John Gerard credited the fig with curing tumors and “…roughnesse of the skinne, lepries, spreading sores, small pockes, measles, pushes, wheales, freckles, lentiles and scurvinesse of the body and face…” (Herbal or General History of Plants, 1597).

Botanically speaking, the common edible fig, or Ficus carica is of the:
* Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – making it a vascular plant
*Superdivision: Spermatophyta – making it a seed plant
*Division: Magnoliophyta – making it a flowering plant
*Class: Magnoliopsida – making it a Dicotyledon
*Subclass: Hamamelididae: meaning its flowers are often unisex
*Order: Urticales
*Family: Moraceae or Mulberry – which makes it a relative of the rubber plant

Fig Preserves - August 2010

The fruit of the Ficus carica is actually a Syconium, or the inverted inflorescence of the tree. This means it has no visible flowers and the flowers are female, so do not require pollination. The fruit is extremely fragile when ripe and must be consumed or processed immediately. I always use gloves when harvesting because the white sticky sap irritates the skin. The trees grow quickly and can be propagated by cuttings or grafting. They are also deciduous. In fact, my fig tree is always the first plant to lose its leaves in the winter. They thrive in areas with a long hot growing season and a mild winter. Their shallow root system makes it possible to grow them in containers, which can be moved indoors in cooler climate winters. In my experience, they are a relatively easy tree to care for. The only time I need to prune is when the tree gets too tall or develops ‘suckers.’ There are also few pests to worry about, so it is compatible with my organic gardening style. There are usually two crops per season. The first comes from the ‘embryo figs’ which are like leftover fruits from the season before, and the main summer crop, which lasts all summer and into the early fall.

Luscious Figs

My favorite part of eating the fruit is to break it open and study the insides first. It truly looks like an ‘inside out’ flower and the gritty seeds add a fun crunch to whatever dishes I decide to make. When I bought mine, it was no more than three feet tall and now, 6 years later, it stands about nine feet tall and produces more fruit than my family can eat. We like to slice the fig onto a square of puff pastry and bake it in the oven with a dab of goat cheese, honey, and walnuts. We also like to dip them in chocolate. Honestly, I think they are best right off the tree while standing in the garden. Mother Nature must agree with me because every year the ripe fruit attracts possums, rats, mockingbirds, and large yellow birds, which I believe are Hooded Orioles. If you want a fresh ripe fig for breakfast at my house, you have to get up earlier than the wildlife!

Chocolate Dipped Figs and Fig Bread Pudding...drool

Because of the fragility of the fruit, they are not commonly found fresh in the grocery store. This may explain the fact that my guests have rarely had one before I offer. Most of the figs produced are processed and sold dried or canned to manufacturers of jams, jelly and preserves, cookies, trail mix, and energy bars. The fruit is generally the only part of the plant processed, although the leaves can be used for teas or yellow dyes. California produces about 40,000 tons of figs a year, 98% of all US production. Turkey grows about one fourth of the world’s figs, followed by Egypt, Greece, Iran, and Morocco.

Figs were originally cultivated in Asia Minor as early as 9400-9200 BC, based on fossilized fruit found in the Jordan Valley. This information means that the fig predates barley, wheat, and legumes in terms of early agriculture. They eventually spread through the Mediterranean areas and were brought to California in the 1700’s by Spanish missionary priests. Black Mission Figs get their name specifically from being planted at the Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcala, by Franciscan missionaries.

Ripe Fig

My mother may have been right about the nutritional value of the fig cookies kept in the family jar. Figs have a higher fiber content than any other common fruit, vegetable or nut. They have the highest level of calcium of all plant sources, higher even than cow’s milk, and their potassium content is 80% higher than a banana’s. They are also excellent sources of protein and iron. They contain flavonoids, which have value as antioxidants. Even the Roman scholar Pliny claimed that figs were a main component in slaves’ diets because of the high nutritional value and availability.

In recent years, I have noticed an increase of fresh figs on the menu in restaurants due to more chefs using local fresh foods. I find this trend exciting now that I have a tree of my own for inspiration. It is a delicious, interesting, and versatile fruit. The more I learn of its history and nutritional value, the more I look for ways to serve it and to share it with friends. Sometimes, this backfires because I have initiated so many fig fans that my harvest gets smaller every year as people arrive with empty bags in hand.

Well, that’s the end of it. A fairly enjoyable essay to write since the parameters of the assignment included personal experience as well as mythology and folklore, which are among my main interests regarding the plant world. I deleted the bibliography, but if you’d like to know where all the info on commercial food plants can be found, just ask me. There was so much more information about figs, but I had to limit my paper to a certain size – I was amazed at how many fig types there were and how they were all a bit different. At a certain point I could have written a book! Speaking of school and books…I’m off to attend class as soon I can find my sneakers. I think today’s lecture is on plants used as psychoactive drugs. For some reason, I have this feeling there will be a few more students in attendance than there were last Thursday, when the lecture was on plants used for aspirin and birth control pills!

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A Bunch of Grapes

The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.

~ Galileo Galilei

Grapes Leaves and Sky

Several years ago, Tom and I bought a Cabernet Grape vine while out on one of our shopping excursions. In fact, I think we were at Costco buying food. I always run through the garden section, simply because I cannot “not” go into the garden section. There they were, so we brought them home and planted them by the Gothic iron archway that Gina and Lori had gifted me for my birthday.

Gently Sun-Kissed

They’ve done really well and we’ve had fun watching them grow. The leaves are always beautiful and it amazes me how the vines themselves reach out in fearless exploration, sometimes climbing over the fence into the neighbor’s yard.

I'm always awestruck by ripe clusters of grapes in my very own garden

This year, we decided to try our hand at making grape jelly. The grapes are not sweet enough to really be table grapes and we’re still experimenting with what else to do with them.

Bacchus would approve

We cooked them in a pot with a little sugar.

..in a cauldron...

Then we put them through the food mill to get rid of skins and seeds and ‘whatnot’.

grind and grind and grind and grind

Then back in the pot for the final cook. This is where all the Magic happened. They wanted quite a bit of sugar. We put the final product in jars and ate it on toast. It was delicious!

There is definitely some High Magic going on here!

Next year, I’d like to try making Dolma with the leaves, and maybe a different kind of jam or some juice. Who knows.

Late summer grape leaves and Queene Anne's Lace

As the year fades, the leaves turn yellow then orange and finally, bright red. They dry up and fall, leaving naked vines which I cut back in February with the Roses…and we start all over.

Fading into the Sunset

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The Layers

Passion Fruit flower - June 2010

The Layers
by Stanley Kunitz

I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp-sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face.
Yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
“Live in the layers,
not on the litter.”
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.

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…and that was September.

Time for pie! September 2010

“The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze.”

~ September ~ by John Updike

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A Weed by any Other Name

I didn’t want to tell the tree or weed what it was. I wanted it to tell me something and through me express its meaning in nature. ~ Wynn Bullock

Wynn Bullock was a photographer from the early to mid 1900’s. Here’s a link to some of his photographs.

Peanut greets the morning sun

Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, I went outside with my coffee and didn’t do anything else first. There was no coastal fog or clammy cloud cover, no phones ringing or office work calling me, no homework or housework that was urgent or tugging at my thoughts. There wasn’t even a neighborhood dude running a power tool, weed eater or lawn mower. Stepping out onto the cool grass in my bare feet into a peaceful enchantment accompanied by nothing but birds, bees and Peanut: pure unadulterated bliss. These are the mornings I live for and I haven’t had one in a looooong time…thank you Mother Universe.

Cilantro/Coriander blooming with Nasturtiums

Since the sun has finally been shining a little lately and it’s warming up at last, everything is growing in cosmic bursts. I look out the window one day and I have grape vines. Looking out the next day reveals that the grape vines are snaking out all over the back lawn desperately needing to be tied up. So, now that the Moon is waning and the planting is done, it’s time to do lots and lots of clean up work, starting with pulling out weeds.

Borage flowers decorate the grass

Normally, I’m not a weed puller. If it’s green or makes flowers, it’s a legitimate plant and can stay. Morning Glories are considered a weed in many places but I actually spend money on seeds so I can have them growing on my fence. A weed is a weed when I say it’s a weed! Dandelions make good tea. Weeds are good for decoy plants – if aphids are eating a ‘weed’ next to the roses, they’re leaving the roses alone and I’m leaving the weed alone. Some weeds get to grow just so I can have mulch.

things are getting crowded!

However, when anything growing begins to hamper the well-being of another plant, that’s when it turns into a true weed. Right now, I have squash and tomatoes that need Sun and space and WATER! – anything in the way of that is getting pulled or moved. Mostly, I have wayward grass instead of true weeds. It goes in the compost pile. The next thing to get pulled is the Evening Primrose.

Evening Primrose tumbling over the garden wall

It’s beautiful and I love it, but it grows very wild and will take over the garden completely if left to its own devices. At a certain point it goes from being “enthusiastic” to being “pernicious”. It needs to be picked as it spreads and I either put it into vases or the mulch pile.

Passionflower is finally blooming!

So, while this rare and beautiful peace in my life lasts, I will be outside pruning and trimming and pulling, caging tomatoes and make trellises, moving things around to get more sun – or less sun – and breathing slowly so this RESPITE can work its magic.

Agapanthus getting ready to open

Have a safe and happy, but mostly peaceful, Memorial Day!

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Early Arbor Day

Fat Buddha eats too many avocados

A couple months ago, I was going through a list in my head of every plant or tree that fell under my care and keeping. It was a test to see if I could remember their name, or to think of something I needed to do but had neglected during the fall and winter. The first one I thought of was the oleander on the north-west side of the house. It was there when we moved in, is not visible from any of the house windows or doors and it’s HUGE! It must have been growing there for many many years:

Nerium oleander

This giant lump of ugliness never got any of my attention or thought, nor that of anyone else. This entire area was a dead zone. It suddenly occurred to me that this spot could be used much more productively growing an avocado tree, something the family has wanted for quite a while but thought we didn’t have room for. What a good trade: nasty toxic shrub for one of the tastiest foods that nature grows! It’s a perfect spot for an avocado; lots of sun, space and drainage. Our neighbor will be happy too, since I know they hated that oleander as much as I did but were way too wonderful to say anything about it.

On Saturday April 17th, our landscaper Cesar drove up to Riverside and got us a nine foot tree that was already fruiting. (He also dug out the oleander) Why feed and water a baby for 5 years waiting for the first piece of fruit?! If you’re going to buy a fruit tree like this, do it right and get one you can enjoy as quickly as possible. When he brought it, it already had about 5 large avocados that were almost ripe. We gave some to our neighbor (who also split the cost of the tree with us) and put ours in a paper bag. In a few days we ate them with a spoon and a little salt. They were the best avocados I had ever eaten.

Haas Avocado

For now, the tree is doing well, although it hasn’t produced any new fruit. This is normal as the tree adjusts and the roots settle in. We got a Haas, which are particularly acclimated to life in California and they produce year-round. My job for now is to get the water right, feed it a bit and wait.

My other job is to bring the earth back to life where the oleander was. There is no color to the dirt, no worms, no organic material or mulchy goodness. It’s a bleached out desert akin to the scenes in some of the Armageddon-themed nightmares I had as a kid after church, or that ‘scorched earth’ speech at the beginning of the first Terminator movie.

Post-Apocalyptic Earth

I planted some of my leftover bean and squash plants here for now. If they don’t do well enough to eat it will be fine because the plant and root activities will breathe a little life into this dirt for me, especially since I haven’t had the time yet to rake up and discard all the pieces of oleander. For now, I’m just glad the toxic thing is gone and the whole property seems to breathe a little easier.

random thoughts:

* I remember when avocados were considered an odd thing in my family – something other people ate because they were expensive and hard to get. We lived in Arizona at the time and it was the 80’s. Avocados were for those people who lived in California!

* When I first moved to Cali 20+ years ago, they were expensive and not as easy to get as they are now – Now you can buy big packages of avocado at Costco, already peeled and smashed.

* They are considered an aphrodisiac and the Aztec word for them is “ahuacatl” which means ‘testicle’.

* For nutrition facts go here.

* For oleanders, all I could remember was that it seemed like every school I ever attended as a kid was completely surrounded by monolithic walls of oleander. Maybe it was because of their ability to live under harsh conditions and my parents had an affinity for the living in the desert. Maybe it was that the adults were secretly hoping all the scrawny little booger eaters would poison themselves during recess. Whatever the case, it creeps me out that they grow so freely. Take a look around at the freeway or side of the road next time you’re out. I’m telling you – creepy!

* my favorite way to eat an avocado is with a little salt, and then on some chips or toast. if you MUST adulterate the purest of foods, it’s good chopped up with some fresh lime, jalapeno, cilantro, tomato, onion and garlic (which are already growing in the garden!) and then eat with some nice crunchy corn tortilla chips. throw in some shrimp and you have ceviche. It’s also a good replacement for cheese on a sandwich.

* I’m suddenly starving and gonna go eat!

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After a Storm

Of scenes of nature, fields and mountains;
Of skies, so beauteous after a storm—and at night the moon so unearthly bright,
Shining sweetly, shining down, where we dig the trenches and gather the heaps,
I dream, I dream, I dream.

from In Midnight Sleep – Walt Whitman

Sundays are my favorite day to garden. Lately, I haven’t been able to do much, what with being out of town and it raining so much, and another storm coming on Tuesday. Today was a sunny day and I ventured out to assess the storm damage and see what dirt I could manage to get under my fingernails.

The entire lawn is a swamp with water standing in puddles thanks to our California clay deep down keeping the rain from soaking in any further. The rain bucket (huge trash can) was entirely full and I managed to fill up two more buckets after emptying out all the vessels that were sprinkled around the yard. Next year, or when the budget allows, I’d like to have the whole rain chain/barrel set up…but it’s expensive, and for now I’m making due using the passion fruit vine as a rain chain.

After I got my rainwater situation under control, I dumped the unused dirt out of the wine boxes I used last season for pumpkins. They need a good drying out and then I’ll oil them well with linseed oil and use them again this spring. When the boxes are finally unusable I take the ends off and nail them to the outside of the potting shed. I love wine boxes and can’t have enough of them scattered around being used for one thing or another…mostly books and plants.

Also needing attention was a sorely neglected Malabar Chestnut that I had set outside and forgotten. By the time I got back out there most of it was dead and the dirt had washed out of the pot. Poor Baby!

She got a good trimming off of the dead stuff, which left only one small stem with roots

After a gentle re-potting, she sits quietly in the infirmary window.

The broom corn has completely taken over the pot that held the juncus effusus spiralis which I bought on one of the many nursery visits with my friend Andrea, a fellow green thumb. It reminded me of my own hair…anyways, it needed help immediately

broom corn mess

I took the entire clump out of the pot and cut the grass away and divided the juncus into smaller pieces. This is a great way to propagate perennials. I use an old bread knife if I just cannot divide things with my hands or pull them apart with a garden fork. It seems aggressive but most plants will bounce back with a little love.

juncus effusus 'Spiralis'

Now, where there was one, I have five – fabulous!


Other exciting news from the garden today:
The first jasmine bloom of the season – right outside my bedroom window 🙂

The rosemary is blooming – one of my favorite shades of lavender:

rosemary blossoms

The swiss chard seems to be thriving in the stormy weather:

swiss chard

The lemons are squeaky clean. I never pass by my lemon tree without singing the Peter, Paul and Mary song…lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet…

There wasn’t much in the way of storm damage, only a flooded potting shed, soggy broom, and a few decorations blown off the fence. Even the hail didn’t do a lot of damage. Color me thankful and impatient to plant in the soil while it’s still wet.

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The Potting Shed

I LOVE my potting shed, yes I do. It’s dusty and dark and full of quiet, leggy spiders and sharp implements. Rodents, skunks, possums and raccoons hang out in there, so does Peanut, our feline companion of 15 years. Some of my favorite objects live in there too; the lace curtains I bought in Paris hang in the tiny window, an old and cracked red apple cookie jar my mother-in-law was going to throw out (in which I keep my seeds!), cast iron cauldrons, pots and jars of mystery, favorite pitchfork, dirt, some other stuff I won’t mention for fear the evil Pope will have me burned at the stake. There are herbs strewn on the floor so it smells good when I step and a sign on the front door that says “Pam’s Potting Shed” – a housewarming gift from my sisters-in-law, Gina and Lori, which you cannot always see because of the passion fruit vine. When I go in there, I enter hag heaven.

The potting shed only gets cleaned once a year in the winter or when I can’t get in the front door anymore, find anything, or there’s a funny smell. This year I even took all the empty planting pots outside for a good washing, which doesn’t make a lot of sense since I’ll be filling them back up with dirt and seeds soon, but it makes me happy anyways. Discoveries I had forgotten about: a half bag of gypsum, seed starting mix, a fresh bag of worm poo, leftover seeds which need to be used while still viable, and a trash can full of fireplace ash. I’m ready for spring…and it’s only January!

There have been some incidents…the time I nearly killed myself burning incense in there (cough!) or the time I was standing there potting something, felt myself being watched, only to look up right into the shiny eyeball of a huge mouse: once we both recovered we went about our business in peace!, or when I used to ask my daughter “put this in the potting shed” and I would find whatever it was sitting just inside the doorway on the floor – apparently not everyone loves spiders as much as I do!

When I’m in there, I can’t help think of my grandfather, who always hung out in his potting shed and let me go out there with him when I was little. It was chock full of useless wires (he was an electrician), funny looking gadgets, oily things, and black widows. It was a special place. After he died, my mother brought me an old wooden tool box he had made – she found it in his potting shed. It sits in my potting shed now with garden tools in it. As far as family heirlooms go…well, it’s awesome – and so is my potting shed.

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