Hello from southern Ca's. version of Wine Country

Hello all,

My wife Pam and I have just joined this forum today. We live in what southern Californians refer to as 'Wine Country', Temecula, CA. We have a plot of land surrounded by vineyards where we garden and breed sport horses. Pamela is a retired Psychologist and I retired from the United Nations, where I worked as a biologist for waaay too long..lol. This really seems like a friendly site. I hope the photos of our gardens I post can help me to get some of the expert advice I've been seeking in the somewhat eclectic interests we have as gardeners. It is good to find you.

Best,
Don

Hi Don and Pam,

Welcome to Daves Garden, the most friendly and informative gardening site on the web. Can you tell I like it here? Great picture of you two. Is the cement pond yours? I can sure see that with lots of ears growing in and around it. Can't wait to see what you are doing with your gardens. My youngest daughter raises horses here in Iowa. Grulla are her specialty. Will not bore you with anything else tonight. I hope you will cruise around the garden and find just what you are looking for here and if not, just ask. There are lots of well informed people here just waiting to help. Have a great night and it is really nice to meet you both.

Shirley

Pam & Don~
Welcome to DG. I joined last summer, and have learned a WEALTH of things. And made a lot of friends. And obtained a ton of seeds LOL. I mostly browse through the vegetable, propagation, and organic gardening forums. But when I get a chance I just lurk around everywhere, as there is always some new nugget of info!
Congrats on your retirement! You picked a beautiful place for it, and have wonderful new hobbies/careers. I love horses, and would love to be bored by details of sport horses (Hanoverian is my fav) or grullas. When I buy a horse again, it will be for my oldest son, and he wants a white horse, but I think he would consider a grulla once he saw one.
See you around, DrDon and Pam,
Tamara

Welcome Don and Pam from your neighbor to the north.
I love to visit your area once in a while for the golf and to visit a few acquaitances. I would love to live in that area, but it's way to hot in the summer for me. hehe

Hope you get lots of great info from these great folks at DG as I have for the past 4 yrs.

See ya around the forums,
Donna

hellow from new york

Wow!

This really is a friendly place. I thought I might post a photo of how hot it is here to verify what SoCal was saying about our summers here. This is a photo of one of my prized Dahlia imperialis blooming in the November, 04 snow. What a bizarre turn of events.... The weight of the snow broke every branch of the plant. Gardening catastrophies..lol.

Welcome from Ohio Don and Pam!! You've found the best place for gardening info on the web. ;-)

Melissa

A big welcome from Northern California, Don & Pam. Hope you have a wonderful time going through the forums & meeting terrific fellow gardeners. But beware, it is addictive...LOL
Donna

Thank you for all of your greetings. This is an amazing place.

Since I'm not familiar with California, I have to ask if you are getting the horrible rains that we hear about on the news? I swear I saw someone on the news that was surfing down the middle of a street or skiing on a small board of some kind. That was in Huntington Beach. I hope it is okay where you are. There has been some strange weather in many parts of the country this year.

Hey Brugie, that was me you saw on the news....lololol. We are getting pounded at this moment....again. Lots of thunder and pouring rain. My poor garden is so soaked, I don't know if some of my plants can survive. My veggie garden has 4 " of standing water.

Don is way south of me and inland a little. He is closer to San Diego. I'm not sure if he is having the rains like we are having.

Back to Don's thread. hehe

Donna

Yep, we're getting the bloody rains...sheesh!

But as far as I can tell the coast around Huntington Beach, where SoCal hails from is where they were surfing in the street. I saw that on the news as well early this morning before slogging around in mud to feed horses....ahhhh retirement...lol.

The access road to the west of our ranch is now a creek with about 3ft of water 20ft wide running toward the ocean...so we only have one way out and it is best to have 4wd. It is nasty, and southern Californians have no idea how to behave in the rain, so the freeways are clogged with accidents where someone was brushing their teeth while driving before an audition or talking on a cell phone trying to sell their stock in Disney...lol.

Right now we have a tornado watch! I'm sure that's something Iowa is familiar with. This year (05) is on track to be the wettest rainy season on in more than 120 years...

But it's great for pasture grasses...always a bright side...;-))

Gosh, I feel bad for you guys. I would be so afraid I'd lose my plants due to having wet feet. I hope you get some relief soon. It can't keep it up forever. My prediction for this year was that it would be normal since we were cool last year and like a furnace the year before. LOL! We can hope, I guess. You all be careful. Stay away from those roads that have homes above them. LOL! I guess that isn't funny though. I can't imagine watching my home slide down a cliff.

Sorry ya'll are so sopping wet.

Glad to have you join our garden neighborhood here. Grab a cup of coffee, too. You may find this place is addictive. :)

Welcome from a native Iowan and 26 year resident of Orange County. Just got back yesterday from the OC. I am there about 8 times per year. It was wonderful to get outside and garden last week. Made coming back to frozen Iowa easier.

Hope you love DG like we all do. Be sure to get over to the Round-Up forum. There will be a big gathering of Southern Californians coming up soon. You won't regret going. And if you do, give my good friend, SoCal a hug from me!

Thanks Smilin, and I'll take you up on the Roundup forum TwinLakesChef. Both Pam and I have had a great deal of fun here so far, and holy-smokes are we learning a lot from you folks. I have shared our gardens and our ranch on various forums so far with incredible advice and feedback. We really love it here. The least we could do was subscribe. Thank you all and I hope to see the lot of you in other forums.

Best,
Don