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July 31, 2006
Another Success
We harvested our eighth and last head of cabbage today. It's a beauty, and weighs 3 pounds 2.5 ounces. Not recordbreaking, I'm sure, but considering how poorly last year's garden did, I'm quite proud of it!
Posted by DJSueellen at 09:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 30, 2006
Flowers by the turtle pond
Posted by Bob at 08:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 28, 2006
Reflections on Self Sufficiency
The recent upsurge in Middle East conflict and the possibility for escalation, potentially into a world war, has caused us to reflect on self-sufficiency. Imagine an economy in which food, fuel, and raw materials are in short supply. Too far fetched? Ask those who remember rationing during WW2.
In any case, we find ourselves reflecting more on how to be self-sufficient. These experiments in canning were a beginning: Strawberry-Lemon Marmelade, Jalapeno Jelly, Orange Marmelade (from oranges gown by a client in malibu), pickled radishes (home grown), and pickled peppers. (Suellen made the bonnets.) I've got a batch of sauerkraut going, and time will tell if it comes out right.
Yet think about what it takes just to put together one home-grown meal. Not just vegetables, but protein, whether meat, dairy, or soy. Starch-- who can grow & make their own flour? Butter or olive oil to put on it?
Take it a step further: dog food and cat food. Clothing. Fuel. Electricity.
Some of these may be attainable. Suellen & I hope to put in a solar/wind system this year, and we're discussing raising chickens. But I doubt we'll be distilling ethanol any time soon to put in our gas tanks, or spinning & weaving cloth, or even making bread and pasta from home-made flour.
I think about the pioneers who settled this land, and I am awed by what they accomplished in just putting food on their table. Being self-sufficient is no easy task!
Posted by DJSueellen at 08:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 27, 2006
Mexican grass
It loves it up against the south fence.
Posted by Bob at 11:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 26, 2006
Volunteer tomato
Tomato seeds got in the compost bin, and they've been sprouting everywhere. This grew out of a small crevice, we ignored it for a while, yet it kept growing. Now it's producing...
Posted by Bob at 09:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 25, 2006
The serranos survived the heat!
Posted by Bob at 07:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 24, 2006
Finally, the heat subsides
Today was a mere 100, tomorrow is forecast to be 95, and Thursday could be high 80's. After Saturday's 119 and Sunday's 108, 100 seems positively temperate. Seriously!
We'll be able to do some actual gardening tomorrow, and blogging will resume.
Posted by Bob at 10:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 23, 2006
Blistering heat
Yesterday, it was 119, the eighteenth day in a row over 100. Today may only be a mere 102 or so.
It's been too hot to garden. Two tomato plants went down from the heat. We've put umbrellas over other plants to protect them.
This heat wave is way unusual, that 119 degree heat was a record high for the area.
By the Thursday, it should be down to the low 90's. Then gardening and blogging will continue.
Posted by Bob at 12:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 20, 2006
Yum
Arkansas Traveler tomato
I don't think we'll have a bumper crop. It's too hot for that -- and having read that it is good to cut side shoots off indeterminate tomatoes, we might have Gone Too Far. But we'll have enough.
Posted by Sue at 11:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 19, 2006
And a High Vole-tage Solution...
Did you ever try to get two cats to cooperate for a photo? Yeah, right. This is the best we could do. This is Felonie and Romeo, both very sweet and affectionate cats, also from the pound. Felonie is a young gray female who promises to be a good mouser. She got her name because of the stripes, but she also has a reputation for being an escape artist.
Romeo was an orange stray who was mating with a cat belonging to a young girl when the girl tried to separate them. Not smart. Romeo bit the girl and found himself at the pound on a rabies hold. He's now been released into our custody. He caught pneumonia at the pound, so he gets antibiotics twice a day. He also has an appointment at the vet to get "fixed." What a strange term for removing something that wasn't broken!
We'll keep them both in the workshop for two weeks, and hopefully after that we won't need mousetraps in the garden anymore.
Posted by DJSueellen at 05:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
How Many is in a Plethora?
Here's the whole family...
Posted by DJSueellen at 05:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Because One of Anything...
We haven't had a rabbit in our yard since we got Bernie, but he was lonely. Monday we went back to the pound and brought home Heather, another Catahoula mix, who is much smaller than Bernie. She's about two years old, knows some basic commands, and is very sweet.
This photo with Suellen also gives a much better idea of how BIG Bernie is...
Posted by DJSueellen at 05:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
White Sage: Deciduous from heat
We asked Bert at Las Pilitas Nursery if we were doing something wrong with the white sage, which is drying up in the heat.
He said we could cut it back now. "They go summer deciduous if they go a little dry like they should. Too dry they die, too much water they rot, You can hose them off once a week and that will keep them from going deciduous -- as long as ground doesn't get wet, A literal hose down."
Thanks, Bert!
Posted by Sue at 12:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 17, 2006
Heat-Beating Strategy:
Paint the Fence
Our south-facing fence is dark brown, weathered to near-black in some places. It gets so hot midday that it steams if water falls on it. Plants closest to the fence are more likely to wilt and scorch than those in the middle of the yard. Also, during the winter and spring, plants lean south quite dramatically.
So we're trying a coat of fence stain, color: Navajo White. We hope it will cool the area in the summer and provide reflected light in the winter.
Posted by Sue at 11:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 16, 2006
You know it's been hot when...
... you walk outside and it's 87, and you think it's cool. (like I just did.)
Posted by Bob at 06:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 15, 2006
Heat wave until Fall
This June was the second-hottest ever in L.A.
"The average temperature in downtown Los Angeles in June was 74.5 degrees, four degrees above average. According to records that go back to 1878, there was only one year that saw a higher average: 1981, with 77.4 degrees.
So far this month, the average 24-hour temperature has been 79.1 — 5.6 degrees above average."
We live in the San Fernando Valley area of L.A. It's been seriously hot, over 95 every day for at least three weeks. Today could be 105-110. The normal weather patterns that provide cooling are absent. It's expected to be this way until Fall. Yikes.
Posted by Bob at 09:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Lovely Fairy Roses
99 cent rose statistics: 11 DOA, 12 still working on it, 77 leafed out & blooming.
Varieties I've discerned thus far:
Yellow Simplicity hedge rose
Fragrant Lavender Simplicitiy hedge rose
Purple Tiger
Fragrant Wave
Lovely Fairy
Yellow Ribbons Groundcover rose
About Face (bronze and peach on reverse)
Golden Celebration English rose
A great experiment, overall.
Posted by Sue at 12:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 13, 2006
Progress...
In spite of the various pests, we've done better this year than last. Here you can see the serrano pepper plant (right, a transplant from Cal-Ranch) and another pepper (left, transplant grown from seed-- I think it's a Carmen) in the foreground and tomato plants with flowers behind (some were purchased transplants and some were transplants grown from seed). There are also onion leaves visible. Our onions are doing quite well. Looks like we may be making salsa this year!
We have four tomato plants going, plus a single cucumber that survived, and a couple of squash plants and some green beans. Lately all the radishes we've planted have been eaten, but we're going to try again.
Posted by DJSueellen at 08:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A Vole-gar Problem
With fencing, mousetraps, and the new dog, we have eliminated almost all our varmint problems-- except one. Voles continue to dig and eat our garden. Here they've partially excavated an onion. The empty space used to be filled with pepper plants, but they got eaten.
A vole acts much like a mole, digging holes and coming out at night, but it is much more like a mouse in appearance. I thougth they were mice until I saw the holes and asked one of the locals.
Suellen thinks they may leave of their own vole-ition. Somehow I doubt it.
Posted by DJSueellen at 08:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Clay pot irrigation
Look at those green leaves! What's their secret?
Some areas of the backyard are bearing up in the heat quite well -- the tomatoes among them.
It may be the result of clay pot irrigation, which Bob & I have installed around the tomatoes and some roses.
Clay pot irrigation has been used for thousands of years all over the world.
Buried clay pot irrigation uses a buried, unglazed clay pot filled with water to provide controlled irrigation to plants grown near it. A standard red clay pot with the hole plugged works fine. The seedling or seed should be placed in the area wetted by the pot. The water seeps out through the clay wall at a rate that is influenced by the plant's water use. This leads to very high efficiency--much better than drip irrigation and as much as ten times more efficient than conventional surface irrigation.
Our clay pots are 1-gallon size, from a 99 cent store. To plug the hole in the bottom, we tried & rejected rocks, plastic stoppers, and a plumbing sealant, finally settling for a dab of cement -- which works well although it needs about 24 hours to fully dry. Also, to keep feet, cats and mosquitos out, we placed a clay saucer on top of each clay pot.
For our next upgrade, I'd like to decorate the top of the saucer with stones and provide a loop handle for lifting. Then we could walk around with a hoe and use it lift the lid while standing (instead of stooping over) -- and fill each pot with a squirt from the hose or a watering can.
Posted by Sue at 08:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 12, 2006
'Sour grapes' is right
Whole Foods is selling them at an outrageous price ... why?
The grapes seem to like heat, as long as they have water. And, as long as I'm belaboring the heat, I'm rather grumpy today from the 100F+. Get out of my way, cats. Gardening is out, except for dashing outside once a day to do some squirt and run.
Posted by Sue at 10:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 11, 2006
Heatwave
A few patches of green and ripening blackberries among the crisped leaves.
Everything is struggling right now. Today the temperature at 4pm was 102F. It was too hot to garden, even as the sun set. At dusk, we traded the heat for mosquitos and West Nile virus.
The flowering cherry burned up -- the Tartarian cherry is beginning to brown -- the leaves of several blueberry bushes look like somebody lit a match under them.
And it's only July 11th ... just wait, Bob says, until September.
Posted by Sue at 10:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 10, 2006
New Rabbit Weapon
We got Bernie at the Enoch Pound on Saturday. He is about a year old, and is an Akita mix. We think he's also got some herding dog in him. The Pound thought Catahoula, because of the spots, but we think Border Collie because of the eyes. He weighs about 60 pounds, and may not be full grown yet. He's very good-natured. When we got him, he'd never had a bed or a toy, and didn't know what they were for. He also didn't know any of the basic commands, so we've been working with him on "sit," "come," and "down."
Bernie is an outside dog. He doesn't seem to mind much, since he'd been at the Pound for over five months. He's happy just to run around the yard and play.
Since Bernie arrived, we haven't had a single rabbit in our yard. The twelve gauge has now been retired as the primary weapon against rabbits!
Posted by DJSueellen at 06:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Cabbages!
Finally, one of our spring crops has amounted to something: I harvested seven (7) heads of cabbage today. Six were from a flat I bought at Walmart, and one was started indoors from seed. There's one more head still growing (also started indoors from seed).
All of these cabbages were transplanted on April 10, exactly 3 months ago. These were advertised as 60 day plants, so they took 50% longer than they were supposed to. I don't know why. They seem healthy enough, though I had to spray them with some kind of chrysanthymum extract to get rid of some bugs.
Next step: I'm going to try making sauerkraut.
Posted by DJSueellen at 06:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 09, 2006
Define "full sun"
Butterfly bush
Full sun in a catalog means something quite different than full sun in the San Fernando Gobi Desert. This butterfly bush fainted for two years when it found itself in the valley and not, say, Oregon. But now it seems reconciled to its fate, and is blooming nicely.
Posted by Sue at 11:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 08, 2006
Squash Bug Partay
Rolly polly zucchini is a scanty producer -- as bad as its predecessor, Ronde de Nice. We planted it in Spring, and have eaten one (1) baseball-sized fruit. At least the squash bugs are enjoying it...
Posted by Sue at 11:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 07, 2006
Sunflower center
Posted by Bob at 10:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 04, 2006
The Sycamore(s) Falling!
Sycamore leaf and fruit
L.A. Street Service teams were working the holiday, chopping up fallen sycamore limbs all around our neighborhood.
Why so many limbs down? An internet search produced the following theories:
Two common summer-time branch fractures are “fruit weight failure” and “summer branch drop.”
1. Fruit weight failure can be due to weight of the fruit. Some pine trees will break due to the weight of cones and foliage.
2. Abundant seasonal moisture may cause the weight of water in the tree to overcome the strength and number of medulary rays. In this case, the problem is lack of rays in the cellulose/lignin/hemicellulose structure.
3. Branch wood looses elasticity as it looses moisture and that lack of elasticity can lead to fracture, or delamination and then fracture. Stress moves to strain moves to failure.
4. Irrigation when the temperatures are above 90F after a dry spell in the mid to late growing season will cause the tree to absorb water then close down stomates as the temperature rises to conserve moisture. The result is high water weight (bloated trees?) and limb fracture. This is most common after a dry period, in which wood shrinks and fibers pop, causing microfissures and loss of strength.
Sycamore is fairly strong wood, so we the non-expert armchair tree surgeons at Downtown Tomatoes, who have been whining the last month about high temperatures and lack of H20, and irrigating lavishly -- DRY + HOT + WATER -- vote for theory number 4.
Posted by Sue at 09:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 03, 2006
Green China Rose
Rosa chinensis viridiflora - resulted (it is surmised) in the mid-1800's from a chance mutation -- a "sport" -- of Slater's Crimson China rose. The flower is made up of sepals, rather than petals.
Recently there have been more than a few wilting pansies in the heat of our SFV garden -- how much 106F can one take, thank you very much? But the China roses don't seem to mind the weather.
Posted by Sue at 11:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Square Foot gardens
The soil is a mix of compost, peat moss, and vermiculite. These plants do much better in the scorching sun than those without vermiculite, which retains mositure, do.
Tomatoes in background, peppers in foreground. Three volunteer asparagus are popping up through the peppers. Sue gave up on asparagus after virtually all of them died. Yet now we have these volunteers
Posted by Bob at 12:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 02, 2006
A slight lull in posting
I was out of town, and the past few days at home have sometimes been 106, too hot to garden. Weather this coming week should be high 80's, so, more posts coming soon!
Posted by Bob at 02:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack