Back from the Lair

Drove back with an over night in Santa Barbara and returned to Los Angeles today. It was a good vacation.

I'll post more later, including a possible update of the two (I remember emailing three) previous blogs. It looks like they were formatted poorly due poor translation between my Blackberry and Blogger. In tireless service (servitude?) to this blog, I composed them on my Blackberry and then waited to post by email until we returned to an area with wireless phone service.

Saturday at the Lair

Met Alessandro and his son Issa at Portola Redwoods and shared some good conversation. Traded email addresses for later.

Left around 1030, helped an Indian woman who was lost in the Santa Cruz mountains (thereby providing yet another opportunity to lecture my son how you have to be smarter than a computer, since she had lost GPS signal in the trees and canyons).

Arrived at the Lair around 330 and was greeted by the friendly Lair staff. Unpacked by 430 and my son was off to the creek. He and new friend Kevin love the creek, which is higher now than when we typically visit at summer's end. Camp is less dusty than 11th week too, but mosquitoes are more abundant. Dinner was at 6 and unexpectedly delicious. Skipping lunch helped with that. By 645 my son had fallen into the creek, which made a typical start to the week.

Camped last night at Portola Redwoods

My son and I had a great night of camping at Portola Redwoods last night.

Borrowing a page from numerous Scout trips, we cooked hobo meals - all in one aluminum foil wrapped dinners and baked apples right on the coals of our campfire. We're dining at the Big Basin Cafe in Saratoga right now before heading to Lair of the Golden Bear.

Ecological restoration

There's a nice article on ecological restoration in the Christian Science Monitor. I'll leave you with a teaser quote that caught my eye, but there's more to the article than just "kill your lawn".

Asphalt...is not the only surface that creates a boundary between people and the environment. “Mowed lawns surround most factories, schools, churches, and other buildings,” he says, “and they give nothing back to people or the environment.”

Even on a small scale, meadows and open wooded areas do much more than lawns to improve the quality of human life, he says. They are also cheaper to maintain, a concept that has special appeal in hard economic times.

link

Everything sure was blooming

Back on 3-21 everything was in fine bloom.

Juli's Impatiens.














Phacelia tanacetifolia















Front yard w/ poppies, Penstemon, etc































Cercis occidentalis had a better bloom this year than last. Each year it gets better.














Ceanothus 'Darkstar'















Blue Eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum)














Heuchera 'Wendy'




















Clivia














my VERY FAVORITE VEGETABLE GARDEN PLANT that I didn't even eat.













































I complained this year and last that I couldn't grow Miner's Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata). Well here it is. I was wrong. I got two plants after abusing a whole packet of seeds planted across two flats. I'd given up and these two guys showed up. I didn't even recognize it at first. This eventually went to a shaded part of the yard with it's buddy and did quite well. It rapidly lost the stressed look due to excess sun exposure.

Spring garden blooms

These photos were taken on 5-17.

Blue Eyed Grass with poppy, etc.



















This puts the wooly in Wooly Blue Curls















Blue Globe Gilia in foreground. Yellow Yarrow in background.















Tritelia laxa in foreground. Poppies, Gilia, Yarrow in background.















This is particularly nice. It's a Bitter Orange seedling that I grew from a seed. I tried with about a half dozen seeds and two grew. For some reason, I figured it was impossible to or at least very difficult to grow citrus from seed. Not so for this one. Bitter orange is used to make marmalade and in Persian food culture (I got it from my brother's Persian in-laws). It is also used as a root stock for more mainstream citrus.

Chlorogalum pomeridianum (Soap Plant)

This was an "Oh, that sounds cool" sort of purchase, that I immediately regretted. However, I later found that I liked the plant quite a bit. The scent is pretty strong for such small and relatively sparse blooms. Unlike most plants, they are closed during the day and open only after dusk in order to attract a particular moth that provides pollination.

These photos were taken on 5-19. I moved it into the ground soon after and it seemed to take nicely to its new location. The bloom is now done.

Gophers eat that?

Midnight snacking on the drip line at my parent's house.

Starting seed

This method of starting seed was miserable for me. The small cells dried out too quickly and caused high mortality. The plants that did grow quickly outgrew the cells, but my schedule didn't allow me to repot them at the very best time.

I'll stick with 4" pots in the future, I think.

Shown with exposed roots are Nassella pulchra seedlings.

Aphid problem

I have a lot of aphids in my garden this year. I don't spray them except for a sharp jet of water, and I do see many more ladybugs and other predators as the years have gone by. But this crop of aphids was overwhelming. Here they are on a Nassella pulchra (Purple Needle Grass) seedling. I thought that the native plants and particularly the hardy grasses would be immune. I was wrong.




















Closer.




















They ended up on my pole beans. Here's the bamboo trellis that I built with baby bean plants at lower left. Nearby bush beans seemed unaffected.

Globe Gilia (Gilia capitata) harvest

This is the second year I've harvested wildflower seeds. They start around May and in June. This photo was taken 5/17/09.


First photo is with seeds.

Second photo is without seeds - they dump right out like water from a series of small cups.

Third photo is the seeds from this one flower.

Ceanothus problem?

This Ceanothus had a lot of leaves turn brown on me this spring. I seem to recall it did it last year too. At first I thought it was gong to die, but then it dropped the brown leaves and regained its apparent health. None of my other Ceanothus plants do this, though of course they are different selections and may be better adapted to the garden.

I wonder if it got too much water both years, but then recovered. I added supplemental water in winter, but none after I noticed the brown leaves and probably none for some time before that. The soil is not particularly well drained in this area, so that may be a factor too.

My other thought is that this is normal. It had a nice healthy bloom again this year coming out of winter and maybe it overstretched its reserves to make such a nice bloom. This picture was taken 5/15/09.

Anyone care to clue me in?

Garden update

I've been very neglectful of the gardening aspect of this blog, particularly since we've just left behind the most active growing time of the year. This and the posts that follow is my attempt to catch up.

I'll start with a trio of shovels, a spade, and a pick that I find handy to use in the garden. The very smallest shovel I despaired of ever finding a use for, but it turns out that it's great for close work in the vegetable garden. There are two larger shovels, and the smaller of the two I've heard referred to as a "lady" shovel or some such. It's very useful for scooping wet concrete because the scoops aren't too heavy. It also has a bit more finesse when used in tight quarters such as when digging around established plants. The largest shovel is a bruiser - I always buy the most expensive large shovel hoping that I won't break it, but I always have. This time the blade gave way even though it was advertised as unbreakable. I guess they only meant the handle was unbreakable. In truth, the fiberglass handles took a lot of abuse and never gave way like a wood handle. My newest large shovel has a beefier looking blade and the same style fiberglass handle. The pick is good for grubbing out plants that have overstayed their welcome and the spade it for moving loose earth or scraping weeds from teh cracks in my driveway. I have a mattock too, for general digging, and several other tools but I didn't use them this day.

A walk in Santa Barbara

The journey's start on 2/15/2009. So a bit late. I was trying to use my GPS and geolocation software, but it didn't work too well. So I have some pictures, but that's it.















Looking down on the upper 40


















Cool mail box.



















I don't know what this ground cover is, but it's been there for years and I like it.

















Infamous road.
















Old Knapp estate.

















After the Tea fire, before the Jesusita fire. This immediate area wasn't burned in either fire, but you can walk to burned areas from here.
















Skater with Ganna Walska estate in background.



















Cold Spring School.



















































































Time to turn around and walk back.