California spring is on the way!

Carol, can you share any personal experience with daffs? Maybe I'm just having those pesky '70s flashbacks again thinking that they're actually deterring gophers. I just did a 'net search and there are other sources that seem to support my theory, but I dunno.

I once watched a pepper plant get sucked in, flinging peppers off like giant red and green firecrackers as it vanished down the hole. But the worst was my artichokes. Waited 2 years for them to bloom, got to eat two 'chokes (the yummiest EVER), and came out the next morning to find both 4-ft high plants eaten off right at soil level. I haven't had the heart to try them again. And some sources say artichokes are a deterrent! Guess the gophers don't read the books, either...LOL!

Can't help you on the Daffs! CalTrans doesn't plant bulbs. I watched my bachlorbuttons dissapear in my garden the first year I lived here, but now I have 3 cats! No gophers dare to show their little faces.

Neither the rabbits nor gophers eat my erigeron. Most of my salvias are safe, though the rabbits have eaten s. transylvanica and s. verbenacea. They don't eat my daylilies, so I don't bother planting those in wire, they don't eat the vinca, nor centranthus....don't eat romneya...don't eat the cistus....

I think my 3 cats are afraid of the gophers.... :-(

no self respecting cat is afraid of a gopher ! lol

You guys all make me chuckle, as I am right there with you in frustration. In the Beginning Vegetables Forum there is a thread titled "Seeking disappointed veggie gardeners" that I have given a rundown on my veggie garden experience so far. And that is only veggies, not trees and flowers and shrubs. Our gophers are so brazen! The neighbor 4 year old was feeding one tortillas when he would stick his head up. One (another? same?) bit the toe of one of the teenagers while she talked and I saw another poke his head up while I was standing there talking. I have seen the head of one getting one of their favorite treats in my garden - dusty miller - then shook it and down the hole they went. I guess I will try the hardware cloth on the trees, but continue using the chicken wire for other plants, only making Sherry's baskets rather than lining the hole with it. Chicken wire is easier to use.

I will plant the Society garlic. I brought home a bunch from Jules, but still have it in a large pot. I did have some in ground before that the rabbits ate to the ground - but the roots were intact! They were small plants, so maybe these bigger ones will work better. I would dearly love to have this beautifully smelling garden, but guess that is out of the question with garlic. I had heard "naturalized' daffodils were safe against gophers. I wondered if I made rings of them around a garden if they would repel those dastardly gophers. Have not seen any daff bulbs for sale at the big box stores.

Four years ago our neighbor labored for weeks preparing and planting his grass (about a 1/4 acre of it - what a waste), then watering multiple times a day. When it started growing and I was leaving at night, my headlights would hit his lawn and it looked like a scene from a B movie, what with all the rabbits eating it. He never did have to use a lawnmower. Very splotchy - then the weeds, big 4ft hi ones, moved in.

Rabbits ate your Society Garlic?!! They never touch mine! I wonder if there's more of a lack of other things for them to eat out your way.....

QG, planted her Society Garlic when there wasn't much anything else for her gophers and bunnies to eat. I got a bunch more I need to transplant, honest, more than enough to share. (Please! I'm not begging or anything! Puhlease!)
Thank you OCCAROL. I told them that nothing eats that society garlic, I was really hoping a gopher would save me some work, but NOO! when you want their help, they are avoiding you. They will eat it if there isn't anything else to eat. Bees do work the flowers.
It reminds me of Bluecurl. Which is really a noxious weed to most people, with a strong astringent odor. The bees love that stuff. The honey made from that smelly weed has an incredibly high sugar content. It will not stay liquid for long unless heated.
I have been sharing this photo for you all. Was given the green flowers and yellow roses. Raided the garden for the jonquils.
This flower arrangement is screaming spring.
It's late, and I'm heading to O'side tomorrow, so I'll have some time to catch up on posting some photos.
I've really been enjoying reading the posts and seeing the photos.
WIB~
SW

Hi
Just want to see if any of you live by Las Vegas. I am going to visit on the 22-25. Like to go to some of the nuseries. Sorry to butt in. Nice spring pictures.

I know SharonKWinter lives in Vegas, and there are other DG members in Vegas you could send a DMail to and probably get some good nursery suggestions!

Say springcolor, you wouldn't happen to be attending the National Christmas Tree Association Convention those days, would ya?
DH and I are still debating whether or not to go, as the CA CTA Convention is in Monterey the 25-27th. I am really interested in attending both, if my body will hold up to it.
Sharon is really nice,and I was planning on seeing about a get together with her if we do make the trip.
You might try other forums, too.
WIB!
SW

No
My husband is a Podiatrist and they are having a big education thing there. I need to fill time during the day.
What other forums might be good? Thanks

Do any Las Vegas people post in the Southwest Forum?

Jules..............That bouquet is spring beautiful!

Sylvia

It sure was pretty, Sylvia!
Just had a really nice lunch with KC, out here in O'side.
It just started raining about an hour ago, and I hope she made it home safely.
Be careful driving in the rain.
WIB!
SW

Jules......... I'm not driving in the rain today. Just resting up from our visit to Oceanside with DSIL and DBIL and the SB party at their house and tour of Oceanside and Encinitas, where we saw the Boat Houses. Have you seen them? Quite amazing. On our walk DSIL and I pilfered a few suclent cutting in the parkway.
Sylvia

Too Cool! House boats. I've always wanted to rent one (on a nice lake) for the summer and have a family reunion. Maybe, I'll still do that. We'll see. Did ya take photos?
Pilfering? : - )
WIB!
SW

Made a couple of stops on the way, but still got home before the rain, Jules. Car is still dirty. :-)

Alas........I'm still Technoligy challenged. The boats are actually homes now permanently put in place for many years as abodes on land. Must find out the name of the street so you can be a lookie-loo on your next trip to Oceanside. I believe they were in Encinatas (sp). I'm told that our beloved Huell Houser did a piece on them. Quite unique, never knew they were there all these years.
Sylvia

They were never real boats, but built to look like boats..yes, in Encinitas.

Does anyone know what street that's on? I'd like to see them myself.

3rd.....

Thanks Sherry!

Dodged the raindrops yesterday to get this photo of Narcissus 'Avalanche' that was just opening.

Think Spring!

Chris

Oh, I can smell the narcissus from here....

Not quite spring in Julian today...but a lovely day indeed. I never get over being able to live where I can go to the desert, mountains and ocean all in one day. Snow in Julian today:

Heading back home back side of the mountains, high desert route through Warner Springs:

We were just in Julian a couple of weeks ago, had breakfast in a little cafe and walked around a bit, checked out the old jail and museum, cute little town. A bit of snow on the ground here and there so I guess there was new stuff since then.

Who knows? We might have been there at the same time..lol..we make the run quite often. Perhaps even passed you on the sidewalk and didn'tknow who you were.....

We were there on Sunday mid-morning, Jan. 31st.
We have lots of old historic towns within a couple of hours drive from us along the Sierras, most of them old gold mining towns. That's what Julian reminded us of. Sure seems to be a popular destination on the weekends with folks driving up from the city, it was packed.

Well, it's the closest you can get to around here for that atmosphere and snow. Julian and Idyllwild. Draws everyone from the San Diego area and even in the snow you see lots of people who drove up from S.D in their shorts and flipflops. Yes, I love all of Hwy 49 also. Brother and SIL live in Sonora...I lived in Modesto when real young and then we lived in Contra Costa years ago. I miss all the good places we could get to from there. We have a hard time staying home...lol..from here it's 58 miles to Julian, 67 miles to Idyllwild, 71 miles to Borrego Springs and 23 miles to the ocean. The drive from our place to Julian is all backcountry and really nice, past Palomar Mountain and Lake Henshaw. Harder to get to Cambria, Tahoe and Eureka and points north though...2-3 hours of freeway just to get out of the L.A. basin...yuck. We may have to move north again, we have my Dad's house up there and we keep thinking it would be a good intermediate move in working our way farther north again. LOVE northern California.....
Nope, we weren't in Julian the day you were.....

We spent a whole week down there, 1st in Barstow, then 2 days in Ocotillo Wells State Recreational Park, 2 days in San Diego, the weather was fabulous, breakfast in Old Town, drove through Coronado, then Balboa Park, checked out the great 1935 cactus & succulent garden & the beautiful botanical building, pictured below.. Hubby was sweet enough to even stop at 2 nurseries for me too, Exotic Gardens in El Cajon & the Calif. Cactus Center in Pasadena. We stayed our last night in Cambria at our favorite inn.

No doubt...a girl after my own heart...lol...I'm at my absolute happiest when on the road....

I love road trips too - only problem is that I don't like to drive, and my kids are off on their own. My favorite family vacations was driving down south, then on over to Texas, loop back over through Utah and Grand Canyon, then through Nevada to home. Driving up north to Vancouver was neat too.

A sure sign that spring is on it's way in my neck of the woods is this flowering quince. Since there are very few blooming plants in late January/early February, this flower is very popular in flower stalls in Chinatown San Francisco during the Chinese Year New season. Chinese New Year is Feb. 14th - the bloom time is perfect this year.

A little closer view of the flowers. I love the taller old-fashioned varieties. I bought one in a nursery about 15 years ago, and it was the short ones, with the blooms concentrated near the base of the plant. I got rid of that one in a hurry. I either got this one from a friend's yard, or I dug it up from the side of a road - they do send out suckers, and I saw a clump that had spread under the fence and onto the side of the road.

CalifSue - So do you have family in Barstow? I thought that was only a potty/walk stop between Las Vegas & SoCalif. Nice trip though. Did you have breakfast at the Old Town Mexican Cafe in Old Town? It's the place where the ladies make the flour tortillas in the window. You might think it would be to touristy, but locals love it too and the food is great. So are the margaritas, but that is for another post... DH is from Southern NM (and there is a mental & food difference) and says he only like the Mexican food from there. Their chile is different, not all hot, I think it is the soil it grows in. Tried growing some NM seeds here and they tasted the same as the other peppers. There is a place in SD that serves the NM style enchiladas - stacked, flat with fried egg on top. It is called Salazar's and is on Market Street, near the 5 freeway. They do use chile from Santa Fe, but it is almost as good as Las Cruces chile. Another place is in Escondido that is a tiny old house on Quince called Estrada's and their family is from El Paso and they make the NM style enchiladas with the RIGHT chile.

As I was thinking I was REALLY off topic, it dawned I me, I should bring NM enchiladas, in casserole style, to the round up (sans eggs as those are best done right at the moment of serving).

No, Barstow was a overnight stop over on our drive to Mojave Desert & Ocotillo Wells. We have 4X4 Jeep (pictured below with an Ocotillo plant) and love coming down for desert drives in the winter months.

Ad we ate at Cafe Coyote in Old Town, they were making the torillos outside on the patio eating area.

HOUSEBOATS IN ENCINITAS: from Panaramio via Google Earth. Here's the url http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/5951958.jpg .

Here's the picture:

Linda

edited to add: Not sure I'd want to live next to this. LOL, ROFL!!! But I've had a number of friends who lived on the beach or in houseboats on water in the Bay Area or the San Joaquin Delta. Their priorities were a bit different than mine at the time and I always admired them for that. They were great people. But a bit different and I absolutely loved them. Now, please do not ask me to explicate that difference, because it's been so long I'd hate to have to search my aging memory to find the detail.



This message was edited Feb 12, 2010 8:51 PM

So the hulls of those 'boats' are not real? I bet the city would not allow those today. Restrictions are so tight in neighborhoods. Kinda fun, though.

Yes, it takes a certain mindset to live on or really close to the water. While I might find a houseboat that is docked cheek to jowl with other boats a bit confining, I ADORE living right close to water and being able to see it everyday. I lived in a mobile home park built on the water in San Pedro (it is now next to Trump's new development). Even though the homes were relatively close together, I had gardening space and built a beautiful large deck that I could sit on and watch the boats, the lights go on in Avalon and even Santa Barbara Island on a clear day. No matter how tense I was after commuting home from my job in downtown LA, you could not help but relax coming home to that. And EVERYTHING grew there. Roses, cactus, pines, whatever! So why am I living here in the desert? Well, you see, that was a single lady who bought that place and 3 years after marrying and 2 after having a baby, VOILA!