1.17.10

Some "afters"...

The non-producing rose bush is gone, but not much else is changed here. Oh, yeah, I pulled out the remains of the pumpkin vines.

The weed looking thing at the bottom center of this picture is an artichoke plant. Actually, it's two of 'em. I'm hoping it's a green one and a purple one, but only time will tell. Under the chicken wire cage is another one. It's a little smaller and I've caught a local tom cat sniffing a bit too intently at it, so I put the cage over it to protect it until it's big enough to be annoying to the cat. Believe me, it won't take long.

The yellow circle at the top of this picture shows you were a lot of very long branches from the neighbor's tree used to be. Last spring I didn't get them trimmed and they cast a LOT of shade. Of course, I might find out this year that it was the shade that made my melon vines so prolific, but we'll see. The orange line just shows where I used my laser beam to cut the branches.

About 1/5th of the bed has been cleaned here. More work to be done. LOTS more...

1.16.10

It's mid-January now and I'm eager to get to work on things that MUST be done before the heat comes. And while it may seem like that's a long way off, it really isn't. I need to be aggressive.

Unfortunately, a lot of the activities that need to happen now are heavily dependant upon other activities being completed. For instance, I need to build my compost pile, but the area where it is going to go is still covered with a pile of mulch that I am trying to use up. I need to get my blueberries container planted, but I don't want to do that until the area where they are going to live is paved over, as it will be easier to pot them where they are going to go, than pot them elsewhere and then move these huge, heavy pots into place. I need to dig up and container plant the blackberries, but it's the same story here - need to pave the ground they're going to sit on. They're going to go into even BIGGER containers, and I just can't move those around when they're full. And so on...


So, I started with this bed, adding the final 4 or 5 feet of cedar bed edging in this corner. (Obviously this is a "before" picture). I weeded the whole bed, relocated some plants, and added a thick layer of mulch (whittling away at that pile that's impeding the building of the compost pile).

I moved those three lavendar plants closer to the driveway so that I could plant something else in the middle ground. Maybe 'maters... I removed a rose bush that never produced. I think it was a grafted plant where pruning had removed all vestiges of the desired stock. I added a new bare-root rose. It's a climber with apricot flowers with hot pink tips on the petals. Can't wait.

Another "before" picture.

From the "street end"

This is another big issue. This is the "sidewalk bed". About mid-summer last year, this insidious grassy weed started spreading all throughout this bed. I pulled out as much as I could, but it was aggressive. It grows from roots and runners. It's the hay-colored mess roughly in the center of this picture. The cold weather has slowed its growth, and I spent some time this weekend with a weeding fork and a garden claw, pulling up as much of it as I could. What's above ground is dead, but there is plenty of live roots and buds just below the surface. I'm hoping to get a lot more flowers growing in this bed, a lot earlier this year. This'll help choke the weed out. For right now, I have to dig up as much as I can, and plan where to plant my spring/summer additions. I can't use a pre-emergent to help with the weeds because I do want to plant some things from seed directly into the bed. Plus, the enemy weed didn't ever seem to go to flower/seed. The runners root wherever they hit the ground. While I try to dig out the roots and get a feel for where I want to put things, I have to figure out where I need to patch the soaker hose (needs LOTS of TLC). I also want to use up some more of my mulch pile here, but if I add it now, it'll just give the bits of weed-root that I don't dig up a better chance of coming to life. So I have to wait to mulch until I've planted it out. Yeesh! It's a whole lot of hurry-up-and-wait.

Taking inventory of what lived and what didn't. My lavendar is looking sickly, and my lamb's quarters finally gave up the ghost. There are some mounds of dianthus that look good though, and I think some thyme in there too.

Lots of little dianthus mounds right along the fence. I need to bust out the weed eater and cut in a dividing line, but that's one of those things that can happen whenever time allows. It's not a priority.

Yeah, there's the thyme (the bright green in the middle) and the flagging lavendar. Come back to me, Lavendar!

Looks like a weedy mess, but the dianthus will start to color up soon, and I'll put in more plants... I also intend to add that short cedar edging to keep the soil from going all over the sidewalk like that. It doesn't look too bad here because I just swept, but when it rains, the soil washes all over the sidewalk and it becomes an ugly, messy, slippery mess. I've been toying with the idea of using pea gravel as mulch in this little strip (once the edging is in place) and removing all of the herbs and replacing them with succulents. That can be done in due time.

This is a particularly trying little bit of ground. I can't get much to grow here. I gave up on my jasmine because although the plant gets huge and is a glossy, gorgeous green, the flower production was next to nothing, and it only lasted about a week each year. If that! It was nothing like when I bought it. Hardly any fragrance. I'm going to move the goldfish plant here to add color. There are verbena and sage and salvia and pansies right now. None of which are looking spectacular.

I want creeping thyme to grow in the sandy crevices of the little path I laid. That or creeping jenny. Something bright and pretty.

Another hot mess. Getting ready to dig up the weeds here, turn the soil, decide if the bulbines and the salvias are going to come back or not. I'm also going to move that rock rose and the xioras. And the burberry, if it lived.

I pulled out the dessicated zinnias and was happy to find lots of little dianthus mounds sprouting. Yay, volunteers! (This is still a "before" pic. "Afters" to come.)

That's my goldfish plant. I have no idea if it's still alive or not (I don't like doing the "scratch test" on the bark). If it's alive, I have no idea if it'll survive being moved. But it's going to get moved nonetheless. Godspeed, Goldfish Plant!

1.1.10

The mini pumpkins and an acorn squash that I picked in mid November ripened further on the counter in the kitchen. I finally dissected all of them. Seeds went to the worm bin (after cooking and cooling - seeds often sprout in the worm bin and are sort of hard to deal with). I lightly rubbed the squash slices with olive oil and roasted them at 350 for about an hour, maybe more. When a fork could easily pierce the flesh and flake off a tastey morsel and they didn't taste raw, they were done!



After I removed the skin and pureed the flesh, I made pumpkin muffins. They were delicious. I gave up meat just before the new year, so I altered a recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook to accomodate. I used lite coconut milk in place of milk. I may have used real eggs as I was still going through groceries purchased before I switched over, but in the future I'll either use egg replacer (not egg substitute, which is still made from eggs) or cinnamon applesauce. I'm betting the cinnamon applesauce will be dynamite. I made a little crumble of brown sugar and toasted pumpkin seeds that I topped the muffins with. The resulting muffin had a great texture - a tad on the crumbly side but I'll bet that the apple sauce in future batches will correct that. It was sweet but not overly so. You could just barely taste a hint of coconut. I think most people would have missed it altogether. I had added some extra spices - cardamon and clove - in addition to the regular pumpkin-y spices.

Here's the recipe with my alterations:

• 1 C whole wheat flour
• 1 C packed brown sugar
• 1 T baking powder
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 t baking soda
• 1/4 t ground nutmeg
• 1/8 ground ginger or ground cloves ( or cardamon)
• 1 C pumpkin puree
• 1/2 C lite coconut milk
• 2 "eggs" worth of egg replacer OR cinnamon apple sauce
• 1/3 C vegetable shortening
• 1 C whole wheat flour
• 1/2 C chopped walnuts
• 1/2 C raisins

1. Spray a non-stick muffin pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine 1 cup whole wheat flour, the brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, and spice of choice.
3. Add pumpkin, coconut milk, egg replacer or apple sauce, and vegetable shortening.
4. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed pr hand mix until blended.
5. Once blended, beat on medium to high speed for 2 minutes, or simply contine hand mixing until fully incorporated.
6. Add the 1 cup whole wheat flour, blend.
7. Fold in the walnuts and raisins.
8. Spoon batter into muffin pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven 30-35 minutes (cooking time might require adjusting) or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

For additional flavor, cut together 1/4 cup of brown sugar and toasted pumpkin seeds. Sprinkle a spoonful on top of each muffin before baking.

Sorry no pics. We ate 'em all too fast. Maybe next batch!