California winter #2

The hanging plants actually needed to be watered. Does anyone want some String of Pearl, seeds?
Silly thing is blooming like crazy, as you can see.

It helps to turn off the sprinkler when the gh is flooded.

My poor strawberry plants (due to be transplanted soon), are covered with a layer of silt.

A strawberry? So soon?

Strawberry and some of it's flowers.

The Lantana seems happy.

My muddy stepping stone path around the banana.

This is why I hate gophers. With their holes entering the gh, it allowed the water from behind the gh to go through their tunnels and helped flood my gh. : - (

Bananas.

Medusa Plant.

The pineapple is still alive!
I'm getting pretty tired, but I hope you liked some of these photos of the garden and gh after the rain and flooding.
Hope to see some of your photos soon too.
WIB,
SW

Great photos Jules. There are so many signs of new life at your house. Here the daffodils are half way up and some of the fruit trees in the neighborhood are blooming. My magnolia "Galaxy" is starting to bloom too. I've got to get after those Japanese Maples and get them pruned!

Oh my, my roses are drowning, but the weeds not covered with Fall leaves are doing quite well, thank-you-very-much!

Linda

LOL, Linda!
doss, we have had a milder winter than is usual.
Have to go get a new power cord for lap top. Am borrowing my nephew's wife's but she needs it back. So I'm off to radio shack and then I'll be able to share more photos.
WIB!
Jules

LOL Singing Wolf. I was looking thru fast at the small photos, I thought this one was of a lion you came across. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=7504402

Got to love your huge conservatory! Boy you could have a tropical paradise in there with incredible water lilies and lotus. Does it get too hot in summer?

Spring is so here! Earliest I can remember, it is JANUARY still! Magniolias are out in bloom and so are the acacias.

I was at a nursery yesterday and they had trays of calibrachoa in full bloom.

This is the warmest winter I can remember. We could still get zinged.

Today at Lake Merritt.

Kell, nice photo at Lake Merritt.
My feral mama cat is really kind of small and thin. There is a quality of the air around here that sometimes magnifies things. So it doesn't surprise me that she'd remind you of a lion.
We could still get a freeze happen, but if it does it'll be in Feb. According to my trusty Farmers Almanac, it will be a mild winter for us this year. I guess that means temperatures, not rains. LOL!
My gh can get pretty hot in the summer even with the fans. Which is how we know that hummers pant when they get hot.
It can get pretty cold in the winter, as we don't have any heating in there except solar, and that doesn't work so well when it is raining. I do have a shade cloth over a portion of the top of the gh. Most plants don't mind the heat and humidity, as long as they get enough water.
I'm going to be utterly ruthless tomorrow and prune my roses. It so hard to do when they just started to bloom.
Speaking of blooms, here's a ground orchid, that KC gave me. It's a flood survivor and (gasp!) finally decided to bloom! : - )
Thanks KC. This photo was taken on the 27th, right before my ac laptop cord went zap and the screen went black. I wasn't sure if I'd lost my photos or not. I'm so thrilled I didn't, so I could share this with you! : - )
The irony is that the extended warranty expired the day before the line went pop. : - (
Got a new universal charger cord from Radio Shack.
WIB,
SW

This message was edited Jan 31, 2010 11:40 PM

I seem to remember that every year at this time I think it's spring and have to keep warning myself that it will probably get colder in February. We never really get frost at our place, but this year has been much milder than usual and everything here is growing lush and fresh and it's hard to keep myself from cutting back some things that I really need to wait maybe another couple of weeks on.

When we lived in La Costa, we had a freeze at Easter that destroyed a bougainvillea and I've never forgotten that at this time of year.

It is a good time of year to get ready for the vegetable season. I started on my garden plot this weekend. I planted onion sets in the bottom row. The rest will come later. Such wonderful soil, it used to be an avocado orchard so the leaf mold from the trees over the decades has made the soil rich and loose.

This message was edited Feb 1, 2010 10:13 AM

I thought I had a picture attached to that!! OOPS!!

Lisa kept me supplied with drinking water and chocolate chip cookies.

Hi Lisa! Wow, you're really going at it, DP. Looks great.

I would like to subscribe to Lisa's water and cookies, please----tell me where to sign up!!!

I dug 8 rows about 40 feet long. I'm gonna do another plot about the same size behind where I was standing when I took the picture of Lisa. I'm looking for heirloom vegetable seeds. I found one source, but they only have a package deal that will plant an acre. It's not a bad price at $149, but I don't have nearly that much garden area and I'd like to spend less than that. Anyone have any sources please let me know.

Hey Janet,
Just come on down and help me with the other plot and I'm sure Lisa will supply you with water and cookies too!!! LOL

As I recall, Territorial and Peaceful Valley Farm Supply both have some bulk heirlooms. Not sure how prices compare. Johnny's has a good selection of heirlooms but I don't think they advertise bulk---but you could ask.

We cross-posted, DP---nice of you to offer to share....LOL!!

This message was edited Feb 1, 2010 11:30 AM

That's just the kind of guy I am Janet....generous and all....you know!!!
Randy

Wow DP, you did all that by hand? No rototiller? What a guy. I am going to try some strawbale gardening this year. I read about it in it's own forum on DG. Found bales of straw for 4.95 and since I am doing all my veggies in large pots due to gophers, figure the bale cost is less than potting soil. Read that in ground or in bales that the mesh used in concrete makes great support for tomatoes, bean, peas, etc.

Go to one of the veggie forums, under both Beginner or General. OH, oh, I just looked and there is an Heirloom Veggie forum also.

KC, was the Easter freeze April of 1999? We lived in Jamul (East County San Diego) and were getting sunburned in the heat, in the yard the first of the Easter vacation week. Then, Good Friday I believe it got very cold and started to rain. DD and I headed toward Alpine to go to the Viejas Outlet Mall which is at a slightly higher elevation and we had slush, then snow! Then by Easter day is was beautiful again.

This will be our 6th spring here and we have not had a freeze later than Feb, so I will try to get veggies in Feb and March. I know last year it got hot early and regularly and although those veggies like full sun, they get pretty desperate in the full heat of summer around here!

Randy, our property used to be avocado orchard also, but the soil varies from spot to spot. We'd taken the dead avos out years ago, but the two that are surviving have super primo soil around them. I can really, really see the difference in my salvias planted there and ones planted in all of the other spots. Everything just thrives there.....lucky you.....hope all of your property is that good.

I am pretty sure I am home free as far as frosts go. Knock on wood. We just got 2 or 3 nights of them in December I think it was this year.

Today though I was waiting on rain all day, I went out to get a burrito and ended up wandering all over taking pictures on such a bleak day. I found 2 back roads around the San Francisco Bay. The birds were so chirping, I really think spring is here for sure.

Looking across to San Francisco just under the X.

Zoomed in a bit.

Even closer. The fog has descended over San Francisco.

Going out for a burrito on a day like that sounds like a wonderful way to spend the day....just pokin around, enjoying the day...wish I were there.....lucky you.....

Nice photos, Kell.

DP, have you checked the Seed Savers Exchange? http://www.seedsavers.org/

Cool website K. I've gotten so many good ideas since I mentioned it on here. I don't think I'll have any trouble finding inexpensive heirloom veggie seeds.

They already beat me to any good suggestions, but I would recommend the cottage gardening forum. They are well known for seed swaps and can steer you to what you want. If you find anything you think we might want in on let us know.
So happy to see a photo of Lisa, and look she is smiling. She must really like being home with you and fattening you up on cookies! : - )
Can't wait to meet her.
Good job DP, although it's intimidating too. To think I used to be able to work like that. Minus rototiller or the tractor. Sigh.
QG, I'm going to do a combo of straw bale gardening and in ground gardening. Let you know how that goes.
WIB!
SW

Aaaaawwwww, SW, your Feral Mama looks just like my Princess Di, resident feline supervisor of unpaid staff, both 2- and 4-legged variety. LOL

Linda

That garden spot was probably the easiest one I've ever done. I spent about 5 hours on Saturday and 3 or 4 on Sunday to do all that with only a shovel and rake. The ground is incredibly malleable. I pushed the shovel in the ground to the hilt without the use of my heel more often than not. I'm very fortunate. The worst part was the debris in the soil. Evidently there was an old burn pile there. I found a lot of wire and bottles in there along with ash. You can see all the debris I raked out at the bottom near the roadway.

LOL...to rural areas and their burn piles.....We've been here for years and I'm still picking glass out of the soil...I can't figure out just how they thought the glass was going to burn.........

Randy - di you say your property is a couple acres? What made you choose that particular site on the hill for your veggie garden?