Please feel free to ask questions about a garden, garden designs, or plant problems. I will post the questions. If I have an answer I will e mail you and also post the answer. If I am stuck and I am not able to find an answer, which happens all too often, maybe someone will write in and give us both the answer.
If you have any helpful ideas on tools that you enjoy using in your garden please share it with me, I am also looking forward to plant ideas that do well in your gardens environment, so include the zone you live in, and I will post it to encourage other gardeners in your area to try it in their garden as well.
All of This I Caused, By Not Being More Careful
If you have been keeping track of me, you notice that I have not written anything for a long while. There have been a myriad of problems, and I have been working to solve them. These last few months have brought weather that has caught me unawares. I am learning that flexibility needs to be added as a mental gardening term. Taking Yoga really helped my physical dexterity, but at seventy this year I am finding myself not as flexible in my thinking.
Last month when I entered the greenhouse, I found that the new plants were covered with aphids, and my seedling that were doing very well were gone.
I was deva
stated. What I did notice ants in the greenhouse the previous weeks, what I did not do is become alarmed. I needed to put two and two together, ants = aphids. This was a problem that I did not recognize. 
My concern had been on the slugs and gnats that I was still finding; after spraying to take care of them. 
Having all of the problems at once was overwhelming to me. The aphids just sucked my lovely seedlings dry, and I just could not see how to recover.
Taking it one thing at a time got me on track. I put ant traps out, than sprayed some soapy water on the plants, even with this I did not think they could recover. Then reseeded, knowing that I probably missed the baby slugs no matter how I searched. All of this was depressing.
The good thing that happened is I called Arbico Organics the company that I ordered my nematodes from, and they listened to me as I explained my problems to them. It was decided that my weather was not conducive with the application of the nematodes and they sent me another supply to apply. I appreciated the listening, the advice that they gave me, then helping me with another supply for the greenhouse. It was more then I deserved. The product arrived a week later and I applied it the next day and I am on the watch for recovery.
Now for the rest of my garden; It is in need of help, and it will be slow going. For a few weeks a month ago or so we had a bit of a dry spell, and I had been able to pull a few bags of weeds in the front circle (the truth is it is more like an oblong than a circle). 
Usually I do this garden first, to help the house look pretty as you drive in, and second as I enjoy showing a pretty garden to my friends as they come to visit.
But now it is I that need the pick-me-up. So this time I am starting work in my Memory Garden that is in the back of the house. It is called the Memory Garden as I have memento’s in the garden that my family has contributed to making it special. The Buddleias needed cutting back;, I encourage them to grow up not bushy, creating a second cover or undercover of shade. With the variety of colors, Buddleia davidii ‘Black Knight’, Buddleia d. ‘Dartmoor’, Buddleia x weyeriana ‘Honeycomb’, Buddleia White Profusion, they are so pretty when in bloom, and the scent is wonderful. This winter was hard on them and so many had and have branches that died and needed to be cut down. It took three trips to haul all the trimmings the barn where I have another compost pile going, and I am only done with the top half of the garden. My arbor with my Clematis and Sally Holmes Rose, I have not figured out how to cut back yet and It is getting so late in the season.
Another problem is my pathways, they are causing me a tripping problem. 
The person I had install the pathway decomposed granite and weed mat under it, used a solid weed mat. I ask for one that was permeable and would let the water drain through. The weed mat was for several reasons, the garden path was not laid on compacted (or undisturbed soil) and the decomposed granite would just disappear into the soil, another reason was gophers. I did not want them to raise mounds in the paths. My garden has grade changes, and with the solid mat the granite sand floats when it rains and moves on top of the fabric like a river. It took me several years to figure out the problem. It wasn’t until I could see and examine the mat, I pulled a bit up to look at it I knew immediately what the problem was. Unfortunately I decided that could not take the path material up and replace the weed mat as it would be really too expensive and my health was not great. Now years later, a new problem is happening, the weed mat is showing and causing a tripping hazard. I am afraid of falling I have no choice now, I made a bad decision then, and now I am paying for it. Now it has to come up, and I am just going to do it a little bit at a time, and just get it done.
After cleaning one of the flower beds of Gallium ordoratum Sweet Woodruff, applying newspaper, moving compost to cover the paper. This will do two things for me keep the weeds down, the soil moist and let the worms be happy. I split a large Marscari into four sections and planted them in a half circle. In front and between the Marscari I put four miniature Zinnias. They are bright fuchsia in color. Then center at the back I found a Geum at the nursery, it has little orange/yellow flowers on long stems that sway in the wind. It looks so pretty. I have now cleaned up three beds; it almost seems possible now that I will be able to finish the rest before summer is over. 
The Sweet Woodruff is just so happy that it h
as taken over two of my flower beds and is killing other really sweet flowers that just cannot fight the Gallium. It spreads by runners and seeds prolifically. I really enjoy the bright green of the leaf and white flower. Just how to keep it under control is the problem? I am going to save a little bit for a pot decoration, and get rid of the rest. There are drier sunnier areas in other garden that I can try it, let’s see if this will slow it down a bit.
I notice that I have a problem in my soils nutrients. I am going to make some compost tea, and bone meal tea, to try to help the plants that are in stress.
Again, I have been slow to post. It Is now the first week of May, I am going to post my note to you and hopefully will add more this next week. I am still running to catch up. Last week I planted, and cut back some happy Geranium’s and worked at the children’s garden in Kelseyville. It is coming along very well, the children are fun to be with as they really enjoy finding worms and insects. Then they tell me how beneficial they are. I enjoy the company. The woman who runs the garden does such a great job. Next week when I go I will try to take more photos of the garden so you can see the development.
Today I will be back in my garden and will up date you soon.
Posted in Composting, Flowers, Gardening, Greenhouse, Insects, Seeds, Weather | Leave a comment March 20, 2012
For California it is Cold!!!!
We are so grateful for the rain that we have had, and expect more to come. I will just deal with the cold. The best part about the rain is that the wind has been very gentle. I am grateful for this as it gives the trees a chance to absorb water and anchor its roots.
Before the rain came I went out to look at my gardens, pretty messy and I am not going to show you the photos of the messy part; I do want to show you photos of the pretty flowering fruit trees that I took just before the rain started. We had a good chill this winter and the trees reflect this with their bloom. Hopefully the bees were able to fertilize a few of the blossoms before the rains started. 
Outdoor work is not in my language these last few weeks, Chocolate and I have been picking up the house trying not to mope from the loss of Amber; Working on some sewing that needs to be done. I am making a dress, jacket and a hat for myself, and dresses for my 3 granddaughters. Then a really neat vest for my grandson he will look so handsome. Getting grandpa in a suit will be a bit difficult 
. It is all in preparation for a wedding this summer.
It is really funny, as I have not sewn an outfit in a long time, most of my sewing has been on making quilts. I find myself laughing that I have forgotten how to sew a 5/8” seam allowance; I keep trying to make a ¼”. Time and more sewing will cure this, then the chore will be to return to the habit of a ¼” when I start quilting again.
What I am really waiting for is the ground to warm up. I am going to spray Nematodes in my gardens, greenhouse and compost, to see if this will help me with some pesky insects thrips have been my bane these last few years. With what I have read and talking to others, this is going to help me with my fruit trees and flowers as well as keep a whole list of harmful insects under control such as thrips, grubs, fleas, Japanese beetle, including dog and cat fleas. It is a bit expensive, but if it saves my seedlings, fruit trees and vegetables it will be worth the expense.
I will let you know what the results are.
Posted in Family, Flowers, Friends in my garden, Gardening, Insects, Spring, Uncategorized, Weather | Leave a comment March 13, 2012What is the saying “March in as a Lion and it ends as a Lamb”?
I have no energy to Google the question and do I really want to know? So far 12 days into this March makes it a Lion.
We lost Amber today, she was recovering from a surgery and it did not go well. She worked so hard doing everything she was asked to, trying so hard to get better.
Now you understand, I am talking about a Beagle. From my limited experience our Beagle does only what she wants to and shakes her head in surprise; if it is the same thing you want.
As of January she was 10 years old and pretty healthy. She loved living here on her 10 acres; as she could run and chase rabbits and squirrels to her hearts content. What she would really do is set her house mate Chocolate (a Labrador) up to do the chasing for her. Faking that she saw something off in the distance, she would start to bark and run, enticing Chocolate to take off on the search. Then she would quietly sit down on the hill to wait and watch to see if Chocolate roused anything out of the long grasses down below; If Chocolate did find anything then off she would go leading the pack. 
I noticed some growths on her, one on her neck, another on her forefoot and one her haunch early in February. They were soft and movable, I was not worried thinking that we need to get them looked at soon. It was at that time or very soon after, my husband and I came down with the flu. It was horrid experience; we were sick for 10 days or better, during this time my husband noticed that Amber’s growth on her haunch ballooned in size and gotten hard. It was a weekend so I called the vet on Monday morning to make an appointment. The only appointment we could get was two days later. During the visit the vet tried to take some fluid out of the growth on the haunch and couldn’t get anything. She suggested that we remove all the growths, we said ok, Amber went into surgery that afternoon. We picked her up the next day, Amber was very happy to get back home and things went almost back too normal. We took her back in a few days later as her surgical cut was separating as the swelling decreased. They put her out and redid the stitches. The next day we noticed that she was not as bouncy as she normally is, no tail wagging either. It was a weekend. We took her in on Monday for a blood test and was told that her kidneys stopped working, and to help her out we needed to give her 500 cc’s of water every day along with an antibiotic and some prednisone. We did this for more than a week, retested the blood, found her kidneys were starting to work again. We were so excited. We kept up the water until she was pronounced better, then another problem started, her leg wound only half of it is healing. The other half is still a large opening. We took her in to be checked it was decided to re-bandage it then we went home. Amber was out doing some walking then all the things dogs do.
We notice that there was some blood on her bedding the next day, we keep it clean over the weekend and return on Monday to hear that blood is coming out of the skin around the wound, and that the skin around the area is swollen and has become hard. We are told that there was nothing to be done that would be helpful. In tears we made our goodbyes; Amber breathed her last breath. She was then wrapped up in a blanket and we brought her home.
We dug a deep grave in an area where is us sunny most days. It is a special place that Amber and Chocolate like to sit to watch the neighborhood.
In the kitchen I watched the weather start to change from sun to clouds bringing rain, and the only thing I could think of is that Amber might get cold out there, wishing the sun would come out and warm up the ground for her to rest in. 
Posted in Family, Friends in my garden, Memories, Winter | Leave a comment February 23, 2012
This is February, a Month That I Will Remember for a While
This is February, a Month That I Will Remember for a While
There was some good things that happened. We are now in recovering our health, our Beagle became ill at the same time. She had some surgery and is well into recovery, as she is now her stubborn self and finely my computer is back up and running. It has been three weeks of trauma. We will be going back to the Vet’s to see if Amber is doing as well as we think she is. The recovery was long and tedious. Thank goodness for Carbonite and their service tech’s without their help I would still be down.
The best for last,
early in January I was learning and reading about nematodes and how they can help in the greenhouse and garden. What I found out after I bought some is that it was to cold for them in the garden, although they did a great job in the greenhouse. I am not having any problems now with gnats eating my seedlings. Because I was too soon in my main garden I am going to need to repeat the process when it warms up. I am hoping to control the harmful insects that harm my peaches, nectarines, roses and vegetable in the Memory Garden.
My tomato seedlings are doing very well. A bit long as I was to sick to take care of them sooner. I am going to transplant them into 4” pots and bury them a bit.
The sweet peas are coming up, along with the sugar peas.
The rest of the Cafeteria Garden and compost are looking good.
We have been short on rain, so I am need to plan how I am going to water sparingly.
Hope you are doing well in your garden.
Posted in Composting, Gardening, Greenhouse, Seeds, Tomatoes, Uncategorized, Vegetables, Weather, Winter | Leave a comment February 5, 2012It has taken me a bit to get started
A few weeks ago I mentioned that my seedbed heat mat in the greenhouse went out, and that I had some cuttings still in the bed waiting for them to take root. Most of them did and I potted them up. What was left I was hoping to work around.
I was able to remove a lot of them it and made it possible to remove some of the medium I am using for seedlings and cuttings. The medium I am using is lava sand and vermiculite. I dug out three 5 gal. buckets of the material, which left me with a four foot plus empty space. My thought was that if I left the old mat in place and laid the shorter heat mat on top I then did not need to disturb the other cuttings in the bed. It worked. The mat was plugged in and the thermostat was set and the medium started to get warm. I am a happy camper.
On the 26th of January I planted four types of tomato seeds. One is for friends; they saved their favorite tomato that they grew last summer and are hoping that they can have it again. (me too, hope I do a good job raising the seedlings) The others are mine from fruit that I had grown the previous summer.
I know it is hard for us to keep tract of each other’s weather, but California’s weather has been on the strange side. Really cold, dry then warming up a bit then making a change for cold and dry again not enough rain, a lot of fog.
After seeding and watering I left the greenhouse and tried to concentrate on other things. The other day I went in to the house and uncovered the seed bed (I put a tent over the seed bed) and was shocked how beautiful the seedlings were doing. It was a lovely surprise. 
My first thought was “Wow what else can I plant.” Then I told myself not to get so excited and take care of what I have, after all it is only the beginning of February. Although, I am going to plant some snow peas J as they can go into the garden early. I will make a plan and plant seeds as soon as I can.
After checking the outdoor garden called the Cafeteria Garden, I am pleased with who the onion, lettuce leeks, and radishes are doing. Now to get on to other chores.
Hope you are having a wonderful time planning your new gardens, whether 
it is flowers or vegetables. When it is spring, we in the colder climates need to be well rested for the clean up after winter. Those of you in the warmer climates please tell me what your garden life is?
