Flash Flood

High water

After the flood

Wheelbarrow filling up

Very wet chamomile(there's a street behind this)

Chicken soup and other things

I love chicken soup in any kind of weather. Given my mass quantities of fennel, is as you see here, a primary ingredient, roots included. Also floating is fresh basil and fresh bay laurel, oregano, all from my garden. I don't have many onions.

This is a dragonwing begonia. I got it in a 4 inch pot on impulse.

Here's the same pot about 3 weeks ago. I think it is twice as large.

These are I believe, the same variety of mint, peppermint I think. I hope you notice that the sprig in my hand is greener. The pale mint is from a planting from last year while the green was potted this year. Clearly the old pot is becoming deficient of some things including nitrogen. I just added a little bit of dried cow blood to help it get back some vigor, but it probably needs some more help.

I suppose I won't talk about soil in depth here, but I do encourage all to look closely at your plants as they can't tell you what their needs are. Testerday somebody found this blog after doing a search for "enriching poor soil." Today it seems that this blog is #2 for that inquiry of blogs.

In this case the question is "fertilizing potted plants." There are many possible solutions, so don't take mine as the final answer but I occasionally lime my pots a bit, because the soil has a high organic content which turns acidic as it breaks down. Sometimes I fertilize with a seaweed mixture and very often I use some bokashi juice. If it is a plant with certain specific needs I may add some other things. Also, as the soil breaks down, the soil level in the pot goes down. I generally top it with some compost.

I have noticed that this year my beds seem to be in better shape, my plants seem to be less needy than they were last year. I guess I am doing something right.

Here we have a bunch of chamomile that is ready for harvest. Notice the round yellow balls with the white petals tucked under. When your chamomile blooms look like that, it's tea time! Pop them off and either make some tea or put them in a brown paper bag to dry out.

May Garden

This box planter I found on the street turns out to have come from a friend. He did use it to store glass because that is his business. When he saw how I was using this box, and the boxes in back(I swear I will post about them soon) he was very pleased. Everything looks pretty good right now.

Here's the ubiquitous saladball. It's hard for me not to photograph it. I am trying to make it transition to summer smoothly. I just pulled out the large mizuna that bolted. I think other things will fill out and I tucked some more basil in it.

You can also see some other things growing here. I started one of those hanging grow bags with less than spectacular results, thus I have not photographed it much. There is also the ichiban in the background as well as the saladbowl, both looking very nice. The lettuce is starting to get a little bitter but it hasn't bolted yet. I might need to make some transitions with that planter too.

I love lemongrass. This is a stalk I rooted from Lotus, a local Asian grocery store. It finally is growing a 2nd stalk! Lemongrass grows really fast.

Here is the driveway side of the main bed. Visible is chamomile, sorrel, chives,broccoli and some birdseed plants which I just figured out are safflowers.

May Blooms

I said before that I have too much chamomile. I have taken to cutting it back and vasing it. Right now I have 4 vases full of chamomile which has been surprizingly cooperative in the vase. Some has started to root, but sadly I do not need anymore.

The Cheddarhead likes to jump up on the wall here and threaten to jump. He is a fine looking cat and actually purred for me yesterday. I think though that he did not purr in pleasure, it was an annoyed purr.

This is an ichiban eggplant bloom. It is growing pretty fast. Unlike the rest of my eggplants, this came in a larger pot and the cost reflected that but I can't complain about its progress. I think it might be weeks until any of my other eggplants bloom.

Here's a slice of South American flowers. Heliotrope and salvia guaranitica are from Peru and Brazil. I talked at length about the salvia, heliotrope has an interesting story too. Unfortunately I can't remember exactly what I heard and google isn't helping me glean much information. There's something about prophetic dreams. If I find a good source of information, I'll link to it. It does have a nice scent. Maybe its story is a little too interesting, if you know what I mean.

This is a rainbow lantana. I never grew them before but I understand that they are lovely and a magnet to butterflies and hummingbirds.

Ladybug Larvae

If you see something like this in your garden, don't be alarmed. They are your friends. I have seen a lot of these guys in the past few days. I think they like chamomile or maybe they are easier to see on it, but it is heartening.

I also think that like adults, they like to take breaks from eating pests to smell the flowers. Actually I think it is enjoying some nectar.

This guy I found on my shirt yesterday so I put it on this aphid infested flower. The 1st thing it did was to climb up to where it is in this photo.

This 2nd image is a 2nd larva. It too seems to like the flower a lot too.

This final image was previously posted a week ago. It could be these larvae's parent. The chamomile was just opening up.

What a week can do!

Lazy Man's Way

It isn't readily apparent here, but these lettuces are growing in the shade of an artichoke. None of my lettuces have bolted but it is early. Lettuce is great for growing under plants, especially those that like cool roots. They aren't heavy feeders and with so many varieties, they are quite pretty. I tend to start with seedlings from a nursery for faster gratification then later I start some in a small tray to plant out. Usually I do a mesclen mix for variety.

Lettuce is like a little firecracker that goes off all the time while you wait for the bigger bangs. A lot of greens are like that as well as chervil and cilantro, both pictured somewhere in this picture.

The lazy man's way to keep these going is to just let a few of them go to seed. This leads to chaos but it is my approach to many of my plants. Decades ago, somebody signed my yearbook, "The lazy man finds an easier way to get the job done." I can't say that any better.

This artichoke looks pretty spiny to me. I think it won't be the best eating so I am going to let it bloom. I am sure my neighbors will be impressed. They get pretty confused by a lot of my plants and yet they cannot deny their beauty.

Sometimes I think I should talk more in detail about what I am doing here. After some thought I have decided that for the most part if you want to replicate what I am doing, you really need to read some books.

One book I recently read was the e-book "Double your tomatoes," which is actually one of my advertisers. I do not completely endorse the author's philosophy but I have taken away a few good points. He does not however cover as much as I thought he would. Again I say, read some books. Tomatoes are kinda complicated.

I do not grow tomatoes to be highly productive but I have experienced late blight on some of my tomatoes in the last 2 years. I think "Double your tomatoes," gives some good advice about that which I intend to use. I am experimenting with fertilizing my tomatoes with bokashi. Most of my tomatoes have the contents of one bokashi bucket buried beneath them. There's a few other quirks I threw in that I will not elaborate on until later.

Again, I say read some books. The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Ed Smith has some very good specific advice that I will always remember.

On the other hand if you do have specific questions for me, please feel free to leaves them in the comments or email me directly. I am perfectly willing to keep your identity confidencial if you are a 'private person.'

What was I saying about being lazy? Here is the perfect image of that. This chamomile grew here all by itself. I have weeded other plants out of the cracks but left these and a few other plants alone. However, I have found it necessary to trim this a bit. If I had done it again I would have trimmed this back earlier though I think that right now this looks rather pretty even though it is also untidy.

Dawn

This morning I got up as the sun was rising. Unfortunately many photos I took were under exposed but it makes choosing easier.

Today I intend to dig up a large part of my berm. This part, and angle looks pretty nice. I have a few orphan plants that need a home, as well as a couple butterfly bush. I just need to make sure that people understand not to step on some of these plants.

Yarrow is fine with being walked on, as well as chamomile, if anything I should encourage people to walk on my chamomile to keep it in line. I will attempt as well to reduce the grass and various weeds, that is plants that I do not favor.

Maybe next year I will have less chamomile. I imagine that I will not need to propogate it any any manner anywhere next year. This spring, I actually transplanted a lot of seedlings all over. Behind the chamomile is one of my mint pots.

Here's Abe giving me a look. There's but a few sidewalk plants visible here. Honestly, I wish the crack were wider so I could plant something nice, like some thymes and other stepable groundcover plants.

I am very happy with how my porch is filling out. I don't think I need anymore plants up there, indeed, I have moved the pots surrounding my blue planter a couple inches away as the black and blue fills out.

So far, I have my vase offering, a lemongrass I rooted from an Asian grocery (Lotus, if anybody's wondering), a dracula dahlia, and my blue planter, at least that's all you can see. I think the black and blue will get at least twice as tall and much wider. I am waiting quite happily for that. There's also some cypress vine that is still quite small that should be pretty fun too. We'll see if it gets out of hand.

Beautiful Day

It's a beautiful day. Abe the cat prefers stepping stones to walking on soil. Keeps his paws clean but sometimes he has to leap.

When Sally looks at me usually her eyes say, "What can you do for ME?" One thing I do for her is give her fresh catnip. She seems to prefer to be serviced rather than getting it herself. But as you see here, I make her work for it.

I have reason to believe that this ladybug really likes chamomile.

After a year with no blooms and a winter in my basement, this bonnie plant artichoke has a bud.

I seem to be getting into a sort of routine here. Blogging everyday isn't that bad, but I gotta say, a faster connection makes it far less frustrating.

Last Year's Garden - mostly herbs

There was a frost threat last night that led to me putting flower pots on a bunch of things but that does not make for pretty pitures and it was a bit cold so I have decided today to look at some photos from last year. I posted pictures of things that are great in container gardens, even if they aren't in my pictures.

I really, really like chervil. It is lacy, pretty fancy and hard to get in groceries. It is one of the Frenchie fine herbs. I have also found it to be tougher than many say it is. I have seen seedlings survive uh... incredibly cold weather, now I can't say what the bottom was, 5 or 10 degrees fahrenheit? I dunno, but I recall that the chervil in this picture came from a bunch that survived that. These guys are in a pot and this year I have them in my salad bowl.

I think it is best to start them from seed rather that seedlings but if it is late and there are only plants available, go with them. Chances are, especially if they end up in a hot spot that they will flower and go to seed sooner than you'd like. Let them. The flowers are cute. Use some as garnishes but let a few go to seed and you'll be set with more chervil by fall.

I love chamomile. I started last year with one pot. In most pots there is not just one, but many chamomile plants. I broke them up into many small bunches and planted them all over my garden. The result has been, even though I was fairly vigilant about harvesting is that I have chamomile everywhere.

This is not a bad thing. If I don't want it somewhere, when I remove it, it complies and does not come back. I hear that chamomile is one of the most agreeable plants that there is and that plants growing close to it actually grow better. I don't know if this is true, but outside of having less space, I haven't noticed any of my plants suffering in chamomile's company. The flowers also attract many beneficial insects.

So if you have limited space, try some German chamomile. It's relaxing just to look at it.

Mint is something that I only grow in pots. I love the stuff. It's great for tea and certain popular mixed drinks. I also like to spruce up any cold drink with a sprig.

I keep it in pots because if you plant it in the ground it will once established take over everything. If I had a small bed surrounded by concrete I might let it take ove, but I don't, so in a pot it stays. My pot is however large enough to grow a tomato so you might understand that I love mint. I suppose peppermint is my favorite but I also like corsican, a tiny leafed variety, in the upper left of this picture, that could be risked in a bed. Another noninvasive variety is pineapple with it kinda pretty too.

I used to have a gumby but somebody stole it. My front yard gets lots of foot traffic and the scale is such that small toys like gumby are good lawn ornaments. A giant gnome would look stupid. Todd gave me some weird soldiers to ornament my yard. I guess I oughta plant them.

Gumpy is admiring an Alaskan nasturtium. These are better sown as seeds because they are fussy about being transplanted but if you are careful, they'll be alright. I transplant all sorts of things that they say shouldn't be. You just need to be gentle and vigilant. I guess I tend to check up on my babies as often as I can til they settle in.

This is one reason why having one of those mister pump things is a good thing. There's no better way to spot water a fragile transplant. They also are good for chasing cats away and giving yourself a cooling off on hot days.

Nasturtiums are completely edible. They taste like cress, very peppery. The flowers add some color to salads, or are nice as a garnish while the leaves with their werid shape are pretty cool too. I am partial to alsaka's variegated look.

On a different topic... It seems dumb, but since I started forwarding this blog to twitter I got 2 more subscribers, er followers, and this is after maybe a week. I don't have an iphone, though I play with Todd's every morning before he brings me my coffee in bed, yes I am spoiled, but anyway I'll just keep twitting.

Mostly Blooms and my Berm

It's been cool and rainy, great weather for sleeping and other things. I have a rain collection system I am working on but it like most things I do is sort improvised. When and if I perfect it I will share details that a layman may read and see and apply to their own situation. I will say that in my improvising, that I have been careful about mosquitoes. Those mosquito donuts are available everywhere and should be used, indeed, even a birdbath can get infested with mosquitoes, they need very little water to breed.

We start this with my yarrow which was growing in the grass between the sidewalk and the street. I decided to let it grow wild and bloom this year. Last year I felt compelled to trim it with the grass. It looks pretty but untidy, musch like the chamomile growing in the cracks of the sidewalk but when these blooms pass, I intend to dig up my berm and give it structure so it really looks like I intended it to be wild. Anything to avoid having to mow it!

Another berm improvisation is this sea thrift. It is all but swallowed by the grass and clover. Again, I will try to change this.

There's chamomile all over my garden including, of course the berm. I planted this cabbage here for lack of another spot for it. I sorta wish they sold them in 2 packs but I guess I could have passed this on to somebody. The thing is that most people do not plant as early as me which means I either abuse the seedling by keeping it in its tiny plug or I have to transplant it to a slightly larger pot. I wish people would think more about their gardens in April, really folks, if you do, it usually comes together and grows better too. I might offer discounts for early bird gardeners, yeah I think I might just do that.

The pole are there because my landlord uses the detached garage in back to hold construction material so he drives down my driveway pretty often and kept running over things I planted here including my crocuses! Maybe he's gotten the hint and I'll take this down. I did widen the entry by a red brick and put a large cobble stone down as a barrier that can be felt as it is run over.

This next picture belongs in the dew post but is here. Yes I have strawberries. No, they're not on the berm. This is the 2nd year so they should be and certainly look more productive than they were last year. Maybe I should plant some of these in the berm? Most people who walk their dogs sorta avoid leaving anything behind here. Atctually, most dogowners clean up in general but there's always one who... OK, no strawberries on the berm.

Well, I sorta wish this blog wasn't so scattered but when you consider the structure of my garden, this makes sense.