Gulag Garden

Twenty Twelve in the Gulag

2012-01-03T11:00:00.000-08:00

A new year for the Gulag. My goal for this year is to get out there far more often - at least until the warmer weather begins. Also, because I hate hot weather, I intend to stand back and let nature take its course during the warm weather, to wit, I shall plant no warm weather things that require constant care. What would be the point? What will I do instead of planting high maintenance warm weather plants - uh... still working on that one.

Let's live in the now. Today the gulag is covered over in last fall's dead oak leaves. Hum... sweeping out there is in order. All the planters need TLC - weed pulling, addition of fresh soil, a PLAN.

My so-called-Gulag-plan most years has been to see what pops up where. I've had total surprises pop up, and I don't just mean the 5K acorns my local fox squirrel plants for me (OK, for HIM/HER). There are freesias, gladiolas, monkey flowers and numerous others waiting to pop up and surprise me. Nothing gives me more pleasure than the persistence of perennials. So! This year's plan - clean up and the awesomeness that is perennial SURPRISES!

Oh yeah, I told you it was dreadful just now

CUKES!

2011-08-11T20:18:00.000-07:00

It is a proud day at the Gulag Garden. After nursing a pot of lemon cucumber seedlings, purchased at a local nursery I am proud to announce: CUKES!

I am beside myself with Lemon Cuke Joy
Yes, you grow armloads of lemon cukes, tomatoes and zuchinni by the bushel basket, but hey, this is the Gulag here. Last year's crops was beyond pathetic, and as I again largely insisted on Heritage type crops, the yield was predictably low overall. But lemon cukes? I grew 'em, I got 'um! What I love most about the crisp little mites is they are each a single serving - no leftovers wilting and softening in the fridge.

At the farmer's market lemon cukes are usually that lovely pale green color, but I have stalled on removing the first cukes and a couple were yellowish like the one shown below. Might be overly ripe or I might not even notice it's difference from the paler cukes. Oh well! Tomorrow I will dig into my first home grown cuke salad. Yum... Any extra cukes will be dropped into a brine and pickled for consumption when-I-get-to-them.

This yellow-ish cuke may have been left on the vine too long
The amazing bit is the cucumber plant looks like it was dragged through the depths of hell - if its container isn't watered daily, the plant wilts and its leaves go brown. The plant also doesn't like direct sun so its leaves are overall spotted with yellow which I think is caused by sun damage. Oh well! As long as it keeps producing those tasty mini-cucumbers, I'm a happy camper.

The Gulag Garden's Alter Ego

2011-08-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

Recently I visited a friend living in Fort Bragg on California's beautiful Mendocino coast. One look at her front yard cottage flower garden and I was wildly in love with her bright lilac poppies, flourishing nasturtiums and dozens of Dianthus. Honestly, it was like Beatrix Potter's brightest daydream.

A frilly Poppy flanked by vivid blue Bachelor Buttons
Jo Beach carefully explained that her garden didn't just 'happen'. They built their own home so she had to form her garden from scratch. 'Scratch' involved a truck full of horse manure being carefully integrated into the ground, and the planting and nurturing of dozens & dozens of seeds and seedlings.

Blooms by the hundreds

I dream of having soil I can dig into without the use of a pickaxe. I dream of bushels of bright flowers, festooning over the ground in thick happy clumps! Oh well. My only chance - with my low energy levels - of getting such a garden is to move to a spot on the west coast where the sun doesn't broil my garden and the ground is a soft flower bed on which my plantings can wistfully slumper away.

My Dream Cottage Garden

All Right in the Gulag? The World is Topsy-Turvey

2011-06-18T13:49:00.000-07:00

The Gulag Garden is in very-nearly-almost great shape these days, contributed to by my recent retirement, which allows me time enough to have my goof-off time and eat it too (uh... you know what I mean). However, no time to sit on my overly squished laurels yet. A v. lovely gardening buddy of mine visited the past few days and set me straight. She pointed out the three numbers on fertilizer containers are not recommended hours for my daily 3 square meals, but are actually indications of how well my garden will grow under that particular fertilizer's use. For example, I have to date used Osmocote, with the numbers, 18-6-12. I am now informed that's great if you want your newly planted sprouts to grow top heavy at the expense of the as-yet under- formed root system. No shite! Who knew, right?

So, I have vowed to purchase some fertilizer with even numbers across, such as 11 X 11 X 11. Easily done I think.

This morning I got round to planting container planting some pretty trailing plants: Lithodora and Tropical Breeze Verbena. The latter is my favorite, as it is pale white with fantasy splashes of purple. I even remembered to include some reconstituted moisture gel beads for those oncoming sizzling Sacramento summer days.

Newest hanging planter, known to local
Scrub Jays as "~~nest~~homemaking material
In other news, one of the two tomato plantlets I bought is doing well, and there are at least a half dozen tomato fruits disguised just now as yellow blooms. Don't laugh - that's five more tomatoes than I managed to grow last year.

Marion Heritage blooms
My potato crop is already beginning to look a tad stressed as the weather heats up, but I'm near-on-to-certain there are at least some nice baby potatoes for me to cook up or save for next fall's potato crop.

Viking Blues, but also a few grocery store
red potatoes growing, but not as yet flowering
A decorative Martha Washington Geranium seems quite happy to be spotlighted on my plant hanger (which holds four planters of up to 100 lbs total weight)

Vivid pink Martha Washington Geranium
My red penstemon had a bumper crop of stalks this year. I took several of the tipped over flower stalks inside for cut flower arrangements. I planted this pretty red cultivar with dark throat speckles, at least 8 years ago and have completely ignored, which may be why it does so well.

Damn it! What is this penstimon cultivar's name?
In other gardening news, my gladiolus underperformed this year, producing only one humongous spike of pink/white blossoms. Still... I do enjoy the stalwart stalk that do manage to perform for me. I will keep an eye out for other colors for next planting season. Oh, and this season's complete wash out (for no known reason) are my half dozen Rainbow Swiss Chard plants. I was counting on them heavily for my green-monster smoothies this summer, but looks like I'm back to buying store bought spinach for that summer treat.

The Gulag is Behaving Itself Flowerwise

2011-05-28T13:48:00.001-07:00

Credit where credit is due, the Gulag is rockin'. I've always wanted my own cut flower garden and by Faery 'nads if I haven't, despite my purple thumb, achieved my goal. Just now there are purple and mauve pansies, golden calendulas, yellow monkey flowers (a native plant), baby blue delphiniums, hot pink rose champion and several colors of roses. The biggest and showiest are my pink Denia Oriental Lilies.

Pink Denia Oriental Lilies are the star of the Gulag
Even the smaller of the Gulag's flowers are rockin' the garden

My newly transplanted Parrot's Bill 'Amazon Sunset'unexpectedly began to bloom, its tiny flowers indeed sort of resembling parrot bills. I've discovered the fern like foliage closes up tight at night; an unexpected bonus of weirdness.

The Parrotbill's strange little hot orange flowers
Here's hoping the Gulag has as much luck in the veggie department as it has currently in cut flowers.

Bless Me Garden Faeries...

2011-05-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

Garden Faery
Bless me garden faeries, for I have sinned. It has been a good few weeks since my last trip to the gardening center at the local hardware store. I gave into my not-as-natural-as-one-might-think gardening urges, purchasing innocent plantlets DOOMED DOOMED DOOMED to a half life in the dread Gulag Garden. Amen.

Loads of Gulag Garden plants kicked it during the numerous minus 32 degree nights of this past winter. I was surprised some of the more delicate looking plants managed to hang in, while others, such as one of my columbines and all exposed bits of my potato plants died back.

Other plants bolted and died, only to have them reseed themselves, easy as you please! This pot of Garlic Chives looked like bedding straw one day, then a few weeks later was looking like a garden of omlette herbs.

Obviously Foolproof Volunteer Garlic Chives
My pansies, those in barrels or hanging pots, all survived. How? Tenacity on their part, I can tell you!

Bright Faced Surviving Pansies
Winter's end I mentioned in a previous post, my blooming Fressias. No sooner were the Fressias and Nodding Onion's done, then the bright Yellow Monkeyflowers (a CA native) were up and sassy.

Yellow Monkeyflowers
I also have some Cardinal Monkeyflowers in the same barrel but that delight seems to be off to a slow start this year.

In the Gulag Garden, sometimes the plant survives but the pot doesn't. This showy Apricot California Poppy was adorable in a rainbow stripped teacup pot, but the frost this past winter caused the tea cup to shatter until the whole thing was held up on a seed and a prayer. Even thought the pot was crap, I bought another one, this one just as colorful as the last. When winter hits I will pull the whole pot indoors where hopefully the poppy and its clever container can make it through the winter.

Cup O' Apricot Poppy in its new teacup pot

I'm throwing caution to the wind this year and will try to grow several types of veggies. The black sack of potatoes is looking well. The original baby Purple Viking potatoes I planted made eensie little potatoes that successfully overwintered underground, even as their green bits died in the frost above ground. I also added some red potatoes of the grocery store sort, just to see if they have it in them to grow as well. I'm crossing the fingers on having a cold baby potato salad in a month or two.

Tatter Tots
And in other vegetative news, I have a pot of 4 lemon Cucumber plants waiting on the sidelines in the pot they arrived in. Hope to have them bedded down in a barrel by week's end.... we'll see.

I am trying for tomatoes again this year, 2 heritage varieties I picked up as baby plants since as usual I'm too late for hoping to get seeds started. I hung a Heritage 'Marion' tomato in the usual upside down torture position. Bwah, ha, ha!

Heritage Marion
I have a Heritage 'Black Krim' a dark Russian tomato temporarily rooming with several cheeky Rainbow Swiss Chard. I think I need to fill up my raised planter bed with some soil and get it back into production for tomatoes, lemon cucumbers and cutting flowers.

'Black Krim' & Rainbow Swiss Chard
Yesterday, I hit a local Fair Oaks Nursery with intent only to look, and as preordained I came home with 2 baby Butterfly Bushes and one strange little creeping plant.

New 'Parrot's Bill' and 2 New Buddelias/Butterfly Bushes

The butterfly bushes are to be planted (better be TODAY that's all I gotta say) in honor of two pets buried in my garden. Dear old Rum-kitty, and long ago passed on Dog-in-a-box (Lizzie the Yorkie Terrier). One of them will have the Pink Delight which will grow to have lilac type bunches of fragrant pink blossoms.

Buddelia 'Pink Delight'
The other will have this blue flowered Butterfly bush. Rum is really going to like his shrub. It will attract hummingbirds for him to haunt down and eat.

Buddelia 'Black Knight'
Last but not least is an oddball little plant that was so lush and bloom covered at the nursery that I had to have one. Happily one is all they had left! This 'Amazon Sunset' Parrot's Bill will go into one of my two coconut husk planters.

My new Parrot's Bill
I'm told the Parrot's Bill plant will enjoy the semi shade of my covered patio. I suspect it is going to be awesome!

Mature Amazon Sunset Parrot's Bill
There are always garden surprises, and here is one, a coastal grass, "Rattlesnake Grass" that I had no clue was going to pop up in one of my wine barrel planters. Following a trip to the coast, I must have put the seed in the barrel at some point, but I don't recall doing so. What a beautiful Accident for the Gulag!

Rattlesnake Grass

Wow... the Potatoes LIVE

2011-04-11T19:21:00.000-07:00

I'm dumbfounded. Ought not to be, but I am. I was futsing around in the garden today. Digging in the potato bag I discovered the potatoes I thought died during the numerous cold snaps are still plump and pink. The spouts they sent up are gone, and there are no roots, but hell, they're alive.

I added some sprouted potatoes that I bought to eat, not plant, but what the heck. Now the potato planter bag is jammed full of little taters. Hopefully every tater will begin to grow as Spring has in fact sprung, because as Ms. Scarlet probably said sometime when the cameras weren't rolling, "I shall have my baby roasted potatoes because, after all - tomorrow is another day." Damn. Thought that would have sounded a lot better than it did.

In other Gulag news, the white and the gold freesia's are up! So are the chia which have pretty much taken over their barrel, which the variegated lavender is fighting to regain territory, and the flowering sage - uh... alive, but the less said about its progress, the better.

So. I really need to do some before photos on the garden before I get out there and drag the Gulag back from the Archipelago. Really, things are alive, but the garden is a MESS.

Entering Fall with Crossed Dingy Green Thumbs

2010-11-14T16:15:00.000-08:00

The Gulag Garden is deep into Autumn, at least as far as being knee-deep in maple & oak leaves. I optimistically opted to brighten things up a bit, planting primrose and hanging a couple of baskets of pansies. To show how screwed up the weather is, my fressias popped up for their second showing this year; no flower buds as yet.

Loads of nice brown leaves for my composting barrel
A few days ago I was thrilled to notice the baby potatoes I replanted have begun to pop up in the black planting bag. Hurrah! I'm totally stoked about them and will be even more so if I get any potato flowers.

Four tiny baby potato sprouts
In other great news, my color Swiss chard baby plantlets have boned up and are growing straight and tall. After a while I'll probably have to split them into two tubs so there isn't too much crowding. Hope I don't forget to feed them.

My rainbow sack of Swiss Chard

The rest of the Gulag garden is doing well too. There are hundreds of volunteer chia plantlets and the sweet pepper plant is still putting out peppers - but don't be too impressed; I've only harvested one pepper so far this year but that's better than no peppers at all, isn't it?

Yet Another Gulag Garden Miracle!

2010-09-29T19:32:00.000-07:00

About a week ago I bought a half dozen rainbow Swiss chard plantlets. They were starting to go a bit pale in the kitchen window so tonight I decided to plant them - somewhere or the other. I decided the only spot available was where the seed Viking Blue Potatoes I planted some months ago had fried - in a black planting sack. So! I started to pull up the dead, withered, decrepit & spent potato plants. I found an acorn planted by an annoying squirrel *grumble*. Then something else, small and round surfaced - an ensie, fat, purplish baby potato. HOLY MOTHER OF GULAGS! Digging around I pulled up another dozen small potatoes! I GREW POTATOES!

I can't believe those seed potatoes set roots so quickly!

I know it is no big deal to most, that the cut up potato eyes I planted some months ago, grew potatoes. I mean, I wasn't exactly expecting to plant pototes and grow onions or baby bulldogs or anything, yet the whole process remains to me; yet another Gulag Garden miracle.

So, feeling empowered, I re-planted the baby potatoes and watered them a bit. Last night I had pre-wet the soil so perhaps that is why the baby potatoes seemed so... so... hopeful, so eager to grow. We'll see. I also planted the Swiss chard in a second planting bag. I might just grow some veggies this fall/winter. WEEEE!

Humm... wonder if I planted them the correct side up?

Win Some, Lose Some, mostly Lose

2010-09-18T09:59:00.001-07:00

September: the air is cooler every day, and the early mornings are cold. The Gulag was neglected, as usual during the previous month, and the beautiful ornamental grasses either died, or attempted to die. The beautiful little dicots planted around the ornamental grasses unceremoniously croaked. Bugger.

But it is nearly Autumn and it is Autumn when the Gulag Garden shakes off the crap and neglect of late summer and accepts this year's offering of better times ahead. I clipped back the might-well-be-dead grasses for neatness' sake, and gave the Operetta Rose a v. early pruning. I'm hoping the thing gives me another round of blooms - maybe if I actually water and fertilize it?

Last weekend I hired a sturdy young man to deal with the bits of the Gulag I have no energy and actually, not much money to spend on. He trimmed back the effing ivy that daily invades from my neighbor's yard. He also dug out all the kitty-poopy soil from my formerly pristine raised cedar bed. Now in the coming months I can refill the cedar bed with clean soil and put - I am NOT joking - a kitty-proof electrical fence in and around the cedar planter. For now I've staple gunned green plastic fencing over the planter, with goal to keep Rum-kitty's poised buttocks OUT of the planter.

Now, the Gulag Garden is bare of almost any living plant material, save the rose and a couple of others. Here is the past season's roll call of successes and failures.

Success!

Harvested One - yes, one - beautiful, hen egg sized red pepper from a store bought pepper plant. T'was delish.
Harvested a dozen red strawberries from elaborately planted but under watered, coconut straw lined hanging basket. A scrub jay ran off with much of the cocoa straw early in the Spring. I hope it's nest was all the better for it. The poppin' jay ignored the 100% merino fleece I hung on the planter for the bird's exclusive use. Some critters got no taste for the good things in life. *grumble*
Kitchen greenery - Italian Parsley & Garlic Chives, were a success. The Parsley bolted after a few short weeks, but the stalwart chives, though bolted, are still alive. I collected enough chive seed for next year's crop. I'm thinking the hanging baskets do work best, if for no other reason than Rum-kitty can't climb that high.

Other seed-reared, didn't quite make it to adult veggie hood plants, including but not limited to Lemon Cukes, Moon & Star *sniff* watermelon, basil, colored Swiss chard, heritage tomatoes. *sniff*

Chin Up, These Things Happen in the Gulag

2010-03-30T20:09:00.001-07:00

One must keep one's chin up after a disaster so let's look at what is going well in the Gulag Garden. First up, the freesias I planted last Spring put up a bumper crop of blooms. For a few short weeks, the whole patio area was full of freesia perfume. I'd love to duplicate the fragrance here but smell-o-blog has yet to be invented.

Also looking good is the barrel that holds yearling variegated lavender with sage, and loads of volunteer chia that are popping up daily. The chia look like a Popsicle garden.

And Gulag Surprise, mystery blades of something-or-the-other! I thought at first it was mutant iris, come back from the compost pile to torment me. Turned out to be the peach and white gladiolus I put in one of my planter barrels a few months ago. Totally awesome for the year round cutting garden I hope I am gradually cultivating.

Now for the bad stuff. I am sick with disgust over what's gone wrong in the Gulag. My 16 (17?) year old fart of a cat, Rum-kitty discovered a great treat. A HUGE, absolutely spot-on perfect litter box: that which was formerly known as my raised flower/vegetable bed. It seemed to happen abruptly. One minute the raised bed was pristine, clean, filled with spring fresh friable, enriched soil. The next my raised bed was filthy, poop-filled with tainted, cat-friable, a little too enriched soil.

My first impulse was to turn the raised bed in to a cat crypt & I knew just who to inter, but I restrained myself. How much longer can this annoying animal live? Right? Work with me here, cat's don't live forever, do they? Of course not. If I pretend I adore him, he'll be dead in a week or two, but if I continue feeling resentful of his furry arse, he'll reach the ripe old age of 35 - in human years of course.

I am so repulsed by the raised bed now, and following the death of my oven-stored seedlings, I am put off veggie gardening for this year altogether. When I work up the stomach for it, I will clean the raised bed - and its adjacent gravel trim - fencing it off with the wildlife netting that keeps my chickens from poopifying my patio. In short, I shall dwell on this summer season's triumphs - and NOT strangle the cat.

The SURVIVORS

2010-03-30T19:33:00.001-07:00

Silverbeet Swiss Chard, a few Sunflowers and Gulag Dreams

This is Why We Call it the Gulag Garden

2010-03-28T21:28:00.001-07:00

My friend Barbara is visiting with me this weekend, and I proudly served up a lovely green herbal salad, asparagus, and some excellent grass-fed beef flank steaks, rolled up into pinwheels and gently broiled. What has that to do with the Gulag Garden you might well ask? OK, I'm getting to that.

As we ate, Barbara commented she smelt something... strange. I hastily assured her whatever it was must be coming in from outside, or at worse, the funny odors were in her imagination. She insisted there was a strange odor, but I shrugged it off, up until after dinner clean up time when I went to pull the broiler rack out for cleaning. Uh oh...I was sprouting this year's garden seeds in my oven. I forgot all about my seedlings

the source of the 'funny smell'my seedlings cooked in the oven
right along with the formerly cool planting blueprint.

Barbara asked why seedlings were in the oven in the first place. My reply to her was loud and a tad bit rude. Shoot. The same oven sprouting method worked for me last year.

Poor seedlings were encased in hardened damp shrink wrap from the see throug lid that melted above them. Happily I have enough seeds for a second round of plantings though. Maybe there will be Moon & Star Melons in the Gulag this year after all - if I keep them out of the oven.

Because I was using the broiler, not the oven, never
occured to me to check the oven - DUH
The planting tray melted and sagged through the oven rack
Happily, several days ago I put several of the seedlings that were up and ready for sun, out of the oven sprouting box: heritage Silverbeet Swiss Chard, one Alaska Nasturtium and a couple of the sunflower seedlings. So they are safe and happily sunning themselves in a bedroom window, therefor not all the seedlings were lost. Still, I feel like a colossal duffus.

So looks like if I'm to have any plants at all this year, I'll have to buy them at the nursery, which at any rate now carry more of the popular heritage varieties. *sigh*

The only good news today is I found the seedlings I collected last year. I have searched for weeks but came up empty. Tonight Barbara encouraged me - in my post-seedling-baking-trauma, to search my desk again. I found my seeds on top of my computer amoire. Hurrah! Apricot Poppy seeds, Wild Crown Brodia and Wavy Soaproot plant seeds, Wild and domesticated columbines and exotic black poppies. I can't wait to plant them out. I think I'll skip sprouting them indoors and put them directly into the soil. A wise decision, you think?

Nothing Says Lovin' Like Something From the Oven

2010-03-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

Hurrah! Am making a start of this year's 'crops'. Planted seeds which are tucked away in the oven (off) where the temperature is warmer than my 45 degree home.

Oven Ready seed
I made a little chart of the seed I'm hoping will thrive in this year's summer Gulag Garden, among which are: Moon & Star watermelon, Lemon Cucumber, Sugar pumpkin, Sunberry & Black from Tula Tomato; all from the Heritage Seed Exchange. I potted up ten Silverbeet Swiss chard because they come in a variety of colors and I want at least one of each - I can share duplicates. For my herb garden there is cilantro, chives, Purple Ruffle Basil. On the cutting flower side I potted up Cutting Gold & Citrus Sunflowers, Snapdragons and Coreopsis - I still have one Coreopsis from 2 years ago surviving in one of my planter boxes.

Now, if I could just figure out where the $#%@ I put all the wildflower seed I collected last spring, I could be a happy camper.

Pray for the Wee Flowers, for They Doth Dwell in the Gulag

2010-03-13T12:29:00.000-08:00

Ok! Here's where I cleverly "hid" some new plants I bought this morning...

I picked up several beautiful flowering potted hyacinth at the recently relocated Farmer's Market (Damn them -Stop moving things!), I planted several deep rose hyacinth to the south of the Hawthorn island. I put a nice deep blue one along the Great Wall of China where pale pink hyacinths I planted years ago come up each spring. Of course, my hens immediately trampled the flowers - count... to... ten... so I put bricks around the flowers to at least slow the hens down.

Yes, I know - you've seen better displays but then,
why do you think I call it the Gulag Garden?
On the way home I stopped at the Capital Nursery meaning only to buy some planting pots for my new seed, but unable to resist, I came home with new Dahlias. So, in the same area I put the Hyacinths I planted two Dahlias 'Painted Lady' (west) and one Dahlia 'Pablo'. Am crossing my fingers the bulbs take to the spot. I'd berate myself for the splurge, but at least I got the things into the ground. Honestly - I ought not be allowed anywhere near plant nurseries in the Spring, I can't help myself.

Dahlia 'Painted Lady'
Dahlia 'Pablo'

Also at the Farmer's Market I bought a seedling Blueberry 'Legacy'. It's a late producer, making ripe berries in August. I'm going to get another blueberry later that will produce berries earlier like in June/July. I'll have blueberries most of the summer - assuming of course, I get it into the ground and it likes the spot I pick. Think happy thoughts for this new blueberry and the other plants I got today for remember - they dwell in the Gulag Garden!

Baby 'Legacy' a late fruiting blueberry shrub

Spring in the Gulag

2010-03-05T11:26:00.000-08:00

Unwilling to wait for the calendar's recognition, Spring went ahead and sprung already in the Gulag Garden. The first signs are my as yet unpruned roses setting forth new stalks and fat buds. Further proof is my rosemary shrub.

Rosemary - looking good!

Equally tickling is that last year's Chia (Salvia columbariae) did in fact reseed itself and one of the tiny plants has the most adorable little Who-ville thingmabob from which future flowers will sprout.

New Chia Pets in a wine barrel
I am so inspired by the new growth I think it's time for me to - get outside and join in on the fun. My chickens do their best to mess with the garden. My birds consider new fressia leaves to be quite tasty. They also enjoy pulling up my oriental lily bulbs - not to eat, just to toss around. *sigh* Oh well. There are still autumn leaves all over the patio and a lot of chicken poop. I guess I should stop typing and get busy and start sweeping up the poo n' dead leaves.

Fressias putting up new flowers from
stems that escaped the chickens

Bugger! It's Cold Outside.

2009-12-08T16:33:00.000-08:00

Jack Frost nipping at my Dianthus
Rather cold for the lowlands of Northern California. Winter night temperatures here only touch 32 degrees a couple of nights per each year. This year our nights are hoovering around 27 degrees. There were several inches of snow in the lower foothills - make that, foot rises - and as ought to be expected many lost electricity, water and the like.

Here at the Gulag Garden, I woke late, that is 8AM, and went out to release the chickens from their house. Everything was under a thick coat of hoarfrost. I am most concerned that my little Galactic Star Daffodils may have taken a hit. The poor things had thought spring was in the offing so they began sprouting. Wonder if there is a patron saint for daffodils¹?

My poor little Operetta Rosebuds are ice princesses!
My single Swiss Chard plant was flash frozen
help from any Jolly Green Giants, unnecessary

I think the thing to do, for those with the means, is to wrap plants or bring them inside. Mine are just fending for themselves. I dragged a few under the patio where the temperature is a bit higher, but being home suffering from yet another intestinal flu, I'm not about to romp around in the cold, coddling plants. Translation: there is always spring and what the heck - the garden needs a bit of a cleaning out anyway.

¹...yes! Saint Francis of Assis, patron saint of gardens, animals and the environment. Dear St Fransis, please watch over my poor daffodils & my garden in general. Amen.

Oh, HALE no!

2009-11-27T16:44:00.001-08:00

There is a gully buster going on in the Gulag Garden today. I was fooling around - not doing chores - enjoying an ash log on the fire. And the hale came tumbling down. The rattle and clap of thunder, I charged outside to see if my three French hens were okay or drowning or something. They were fine, on the back doorstep. I rewarded their annoying 'poop on the doorstep' behavior with fresh meal worms. I'll never learn.

Yes; I know that kind of flooding is destroying the house foundations; another heart attack, for another day.

It wasn't only raining, it was haling - looked like someone was sprinkling pea sized,fancy gourmet salt crystals around the yard. Wow. Not terrifically scarse here in the fall/winter, but I don't recall we got any hale last year at all.

The raised bed looks all Christmasy with a throw of hale on it
Click on this pic to see 2 ensie dark blue Sunberriein the potted sunberry seedlings
I particularly like the following shots taken a few minutes ago during the hale. You can see the Swiss Chard is alive and well, and the little pot next to it are the Sunberry seedlings I planted during the summer. If you look very closely, you can actually see a dark blue Sunberry still on one seedling. I love these momentary looks into a wintery landscape in the Gulag Garden - doesn't ever last for more than an hour to two, tops. Looks so very prairie-ish.

Moon and Stars Revisited

2009-11-22T20:15:00.001-08:00

This evening in a rare bout of garden tidiness (in the dark, in my PJs no less) I went out the back garage door and I tore the dead summer watermelon stems out of the raised bed. I tossed most of it but could not bring myself to toss away the littlest Moon and Stars watermelon. The one, tiny, eensie, three inch watermelon, the entire crop I got from my Hertiage Moon and Stars Melon plants. I wrote about the tiny melon a couple of weeks ago

Yes, my lonely little melon was pathetic and, again, tiny, but damn it! I worked hard growing the plants from seed and watering them on the hot summer days. So I thought the least I could do before tossing the littlest melon was see how it looked on the inside - too my shock, it looked fresh, it looked just fine. The inner flesh was yellow. The seeds were so underdeveloped they were still white and soft. I decided, what the hell, might as well taste it. I was so in awe, I just wolfed it down before photographing the inner flesh occured to me.

HOLY MOTHER OF GULAG GARDEN MIRACLES! The littlest melon was sweet! Tasty, tiny, sweet and honestly, that yellow flesh was flavorful to boot! I am amazed. Can't wait to get the next batch of seedlings started round about early April.

The Littlest Moon and Stars, 3 inches packed with
sweet yellow melon flesh
Yellow flesh! I just read up again, the flesh is supposed to be red, but this melon never had time to develop properly, making it all the more strange it should have beautiful juvenile yellow inner flesh. Wow. Can't wait until spring to have another shot at getting full sized fruit.

Look at me here, planning ahead!

2009-11-20T19:44:00.001-08:00

I was fumbling in the garage with my potato growing bag and it dawned on me that a second year is going to pass without my even putting dirt in the bag if I don't order some seed pototoes (don't I sound like Farmer Jane!). So I went on line to my favorite site, even though I haven't had much luck with their fancy heritage seed as yet. That my luck has been off is my doing and the doing of Sacramento's weather this past year.

What I actually have had the best luck with is the Burbank Sunberry. I planted the seed and the amazingly tiny scrubby little plants, barely four inches high, flowered and bore fruit. Color me stunned. I said the plants were tiny, so this year's crop was like four berries I shared with a friend. I'm entusiastic over a larger crop for next year - ten berries?

So tonight I hit the Seed Saver Exchange. Ordered True Lemon Cucumbers, Purple Viking Pototoes and multi-colored Swiss Chard. Am so excited! The seed veggies should be here in a week or so, but the 10 lbs of seed potatos will not come until around March. I am sooo excited.

Now, if I can only figure out what is eating my beautiful white chard (thank you Terries). The chard is currently still alive, but chawed on, I will soooo kick the tiny arse of whatever is supping on my chard. There is no veggie I've tried growing so far that doesn't go into the night, whole and in one piece, to emerge in the morning, chewed up to resemble Swiss cheese. Something-of-large-appatite is out there scourging the Gulag and I will find it and I will kill it. Probably should give B.T. a go.

A wonder! Each lemon cuke comes in a single serving size

Ch-ch-ch-ch-CHIA!

2009-11-14T13:22:00.001-08:00

So now as one season has ended, another begins. This being northern California, and our weather being bizarre, many plants seem unaware it is only November, and are making out like it is at least January.

A January's worth of narsissus, up in November.
That is good news in some spots. There are loads of what I, hopefully, innocently believe to be baby chia plants. They're growing in one of my barrels.

Ooo maybe 99/44 100% sure these are chia seedlings
There are other signs of life in the garden that I'm sure of as far as ID, but unsure of as far as if they're growing out too soon. There are newly sprouted Daffodils, Frissias and the like. Not fussing mind, just wondering if those plants are A types and a bit over ambitious. Oh well! Time will tell.

One Day, Three Miracles

2009-10-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!, I chortled in my joy, just a few minutes ago. There I stood, in the Gulag G., pulling out the powdery mildew sprinkled veggies and flowers of the past season. Out came the lovely but old sunflower and part of the lemon cucumbers. Out came Moon & Stars heritage watermelon... Then I saw it! Almost the loveliest of fruit I have ever seen! I thought it a very unripe lemon cucumber, until my noggin zoned in on the yellow spots - it was a mini-Moon & Stars melon!

The Littlest Moon and Stars - love its anemic yellow spots n' dots

Yes, if you wish to be picky it is only 2.5 inches, and should be closer to two feet, but it's just a bay-bay after all. I quickly replanted the frazzled mama plant and though I know there is slim hope for the melon to develope in to a ripe fruit so late in the season, who know? And anyway, seeing that tiny fruit means if I get the damned thing into the ground next season, I may yet grow my own heritage watermelons. *GRIN*

When done replanting the mini-melon and slinging it over a trellis of sorts, I noticed miracle number two. You might recall a number of ages and eons ago, I spoke of flower bulbs left in their packaging until they rotted or shriveled up. At that time I noted a few of the bulbs - fancy, expensive arse daffodils were not quite squeezed of every last atom of freshness yet. Instead of tossing them, I lazily put them under a pile of dry potting soil that is in a outdoor log burner on my patio - I use the burner for potting actually, not fires. I read that bulbs, dahlia tubers and such, can be stored at the end of a season in peat moss, saw dust or other dry warm, comfy bedding. As I patted the soil over the blubs, I lovingly though, 'Yeah, fat chance these suckers are ever going to see the light of day again. And I was wrong!

You're not out of the woods yet bulbettes
I still have to plant you somewhere
I am truly floored. The stubborn little imps survive a long summer buried under discarded & spent potting soil. And no ordinary stubborn little imps are these bulbs, they are v. expensive, v. royal, and damned sure beautiful fancy bulbs called Galactic Star Daffodil. Maybe that is how they survived? They thought they thought the metal burner was a little flying saucer, that while they lay in suspended animation ala 2001:Space Odyssey, they were being carried off to a beautiful garden in a strange land, far, far away. Oy, they are going to be so surprised when they open their blooms.

GAK! I might just get to have Galactic Star Daffodils of the Martian Realm in the G.G. after all!
And last, but sure as hell the best of the bunch yet, anoother little flower has entered the grand garden (far nicer than the Gulag) this morning. Little McKayla Ann Bertsch (my dear, oldest friend Joann's granddaughter) came into the world. I'll have you know, McKayla came in to the world the old fashioned way - sex unknown until the doctor slapped the little tushe and yelled, 'It's a beautiful baby girl!'

Hi little McKayla! Auntie Claire hopes some day to walk you around the Gulag to play with the chickens.

Gardening Guru Dispensation

2009-10-13T18:01:00.000-07:00

As I've noted in the past few months, the Gulag Garden was just that, a semi-green non-haven of unfruitful veggies. My heritage watermelons and tomatoes did next to nothing and my lemon cucumbers, cantelopes and sugar pumpkin have produced loads of lovely yellow blooms but no fruit. I was feeling a bit dour about it, but this morning I read something in the local Sacramento Bee newspaper that gave me heart.

The following cut & past came out small, but lean in squint and have look.

Gulag Garden:

Lack of tomatoes: CHECK
Presence of Powdery Mildew: CHECK
Frustrated Gardener: CHECK

Gives me heart for next season.

End of the Season

2009-10-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

Not much to say today, but that never stops me, does it? It's Furlough Friday and I've decided I must make some effort to make amends to the Gulag G. It was cool last week, and my response to the bout of pleasant weather was cease watering. Can't puzzle out the logic? Truthfully, neither can I. Doesn't matter - it's time the non-fruiting cucurbits is stripped from the planters to make way either for winter veggies or spring flowers. Not sure which way to go yet.

On a happier note, My chive plant - which filled a large hanging pot. T'was a nice addition to numerous omlettes and such during the summer.

Garlic Clove bolted, bearing white balls of blooms
Now the chive flowers stopped looking pretty, and began to resemble sick bridesmaids, I popped them off the plant, and collected fresh Garlic Chive seeds for future herb gardens and perhaps to share.

The flowers yield loads of Garlic Clove seed
I feel like the Gulag Garden is falling asleep around me, gearing up for a cold, wet, possibly miserable winter. Well, this garden isn't called the gulag for nothing.

It's almost as if...

2009-09-29T19:57:00.000-07:00

Today at work, I heard a couple of my co-workers discussing their plans for their winter garden. I was stunned. It was almost like people lay out plans for a garden. You know, like they don't wander into a plant nursery half way through a given season and then decide to purchase various and sundry plants, 3/4 grown & ailing flowers and vegetables that have one root in the soil and the other in a compost bin.

Don't these people know about the lovely whimsy of purchasing living compost?

If I Lived Off My Garden Produce I'd Be Skeletal &/or Dead

2009-09-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

*sigh* the Cucurbits are all leaves and no veggies
So... my entire crop of veggies for this year amounted to two sickly heritage tomatoes, seven serviceberries, chives, basil, and six sweet banana peppers. Ok, not the most impressive of results, but it was only my first year as a gardener of more than just kitchen herbs, which I've actually had great success with over the years. Still, this was the first year I managed to get some veggies out of the Gulag Garden and frankly, I'm feeling rather encouraged for next year. I shall plant seed in February & March!

The last 3 peppers
Although my Moon n' Stars watermelon, Lemon Cucumber, and cantaloupe did 'nada' that was likely the luck of the annual whims of Mom Nature and the result of planting far too late for results. Over the weekend I was stunned to have a friend (that's you Robbie) speak of her Cinderella Pumpkins. Apparently she cheated, planting the things last Spring instead of waiting for the last possible minute in August, like a good - хороший - Gulag gardener.

If only I had known one can start fall veggies that early... well - maybe it's not too late for my Sugar Pumpkin plant to do something, anything. Or... maybe it's not too late to figure on only growing a cut flower garden for next year. What to do, what to do...

Cinderella Pumpkins

A Final Tally

2009-08-30T18:44:00.000-07:00

Entire Yield of this Year's Heritage 'Black Krim' Tomatoes
For the sake of silliness, let's use the old 'Mastercard Tally' on my 'home grown tomato' project.

Gardener's Revolutionary Planter - $19.95
Organic Self-Watering Container Mix - $12.95
Black Krim Tomato plant - $3.00
Four-Arm Plant Hanger - $100/4= $25.00 (as only used one arm)

Rounding it all off & ignoring tax & shipping, dividing it by the number of Black Krim tomatoes in my crop that comes to: $30.00 per tomato.

Now, half of each tomato was not edible due what I believe is blossom-end rot but might just be Mother Nature's way of smacking my bum. So that's $30 each half of a tomato, which comes to about $30 worth of tomato on my salad tonight.

So, the price of one sun ripened, Heritage 'Black Krim' tomato, produced by the sweat of my own brow and straight off the vine?

Priceless!

Who Has the Most PULL in Gulag Garden?

2009-08-14T15:52:00.000-07:00

Sugar Pumpkin and eensie Sunberry seedlings
Gave away a HUMONGOUS Moon & Stars watermelon plant, two Sugar Pumkin seedlings, and at least 3 Sunberry seedlings to Katie, a coworker. Another couple are earmarked for Johan, another co-worker.

Hurrah! Am so happy and proud to have plants to share! Will be even prouder if ANY of the plants get to the fruit bearing point.

Here's how the raised bed stands now.
The rate of growth for the watermelon and other cucurbits is astounding. Oh! And check this out. The Lemon Cucumber's tendril latched onto the Skunk's tail and dragged that skunk so far, it was no longer parallel to the side of the planting box. Who knew those skinny green whisps of green could exert that kind of pull?

Can you see the light green tendril that is latched onto the rusty tail?

Oh dear... Might Have Gone One Melon Too Many...

2009-08-06T18:17:00.000-07:00

Hum... I was thrilled to find out that all the veggies are growing like weeds, by which I mean I can barely believe that something I WANT from the plant world is totally cooperating with me - more or less - the tale of the poopy peppers to be saved for another time. The veggies in the raised bed have begun to bloom: 2 Lemon Cukes, a Cantaloupe, at least 5 Moon & Stars watermelons.

Raised Bed getting a bit crowded
Until I saw that the cukes, melons & cantelopes all have tendrils, I hadn't remembered they are all in the same plant family. YIKES! I think their fruit will be well enough but the seed of the fuit will not bear true-to-type seed. In short, if I save this year's cross-pollinated seed, the future fruit will be inclined to sit high the porch and strum 'Dueling Banjos'.

Lemon Cukes, Gripping cage bars for dear life
So no seed collecting this year. And next year I'll only plant only one type veggie family per planting bed.

Jailed/Caged Cukes - only missing a few tattoos
Lemon Cucumber tendrils & future Cukes
There is a second problem too - I planted too many veggies for one bed for all of them to have adequate space. I think the solution will be to dig up the 'weaker plants' (of which so far, there are NONE) for sharing. My few gardening friends are soon to find wee baby veggies in a basket at their door step. Perhaps I will pin a notes to the pots: "Please look after this fruit BEAR-ing Watermelon. Thank you."

Newest Buggie Assult Weaponry

2009-07-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

Today was a 'cure what ails yer' day. I applied Safer Insecticidal soap to my poor belabored Sweet Banana Pepper. First the effing Hornworm attacked it, and hot on its trail came a downpour of aphids. Who knew a pepper plant would attract so many avid fans besides me?

Also today I opened up my chest of biological pathogens and sprayed all my veggie/fruit plants with B.T., which is Bacillus thuringiensis. The bad bugs eat the bacteria, get stomach aches, cease eating and then die, Die, DIE!

I also hit my native Scarlet Monkeyflower with the BT, because something, which remains hidden, has been copping the odd nosh. Honestly, it's a good thing I'm not a large scale veggie farmer, because I'm sure I'd have been the sort that would continuously beg the county aggies for more and more powerful insecticides with which to wage buggie-war.

The Invasion of the EFFFING #%&^ Tabacco Hornworms

2009-07-20T13:41:00.000-07:00

This is the second year I've attempted to grow tomatoes, and this is the second year I have been suddenly horrified by the sudden appearance of worms the size of Shar Pei.

This green horror was chewing my Sweet Banana Pepper so loudly I could HEAR it!
I am always trying to 'be one with Nature' and a friend to wild critters, but I have to say, finding a pipe-bomb sized anaconda girthed beast, gnawing away at the foliage of my one pepper plant was totally unnerving. I was jumping at flecks of dust for a half hour after having spotted the thing. Oh, I grant the beasts are a lovely shade of rich green, and have lovely stenciled white trimming, but they are so very large, they give me the heeby jeebees.

Big-arse Tobacco Hornworm Shown here 40X smaller than real life impact

And how the HELL do they managed to stay so completely hidden until suddenly BANG, there they are! Do these annoying green blogs have Invisibility cloaks that hide them until they get big to pull the cloaks their fat arses? I never find them as eggs or eensie catepillars and I never see the moths that lay their obnoxious eggs.

You think I'm kidding about the size of these monstrosities? Nope! They're as big around as your thumb and around 6 - 7 inches, that seem more like metric feet. *UGH!*

Sun Damage vs Genetic Stuff

2009-07-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

So... had worried over the past week that heritage watermelon plants were getting spotty from sun damage. So I was very careful to not get water on their leaves and to water them while they had shade. My careful husbandry had no effect, and the spots, if anything seemed to be increasing in number and intensity.

DUH.

Digging in for less cursory reading, Moon and Stars Melon, not only have spotted fruit, but also, spotted leaves. Again; duh.

See The Moon & Stars - Even in Daylight

2009-07-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

Took ages, but have managed getting new cedarwood raised bed filled with an excess of 20 bags of patio container potting soil. I have dumped old, but clean soil into the planter so it's now 3/4 good clean soil.

Point here: my garden soil is clay, and therefore as friable as cement - ugh! Clay soil is too horrible. So, now having easy digging in my veggie bed is like heavenly.

About a week ago, I bought the last dozen sacks of raised bed soil, and a few more crop plants: a lemon cucumber & a cantelope(!). I potted the lot up with the Moon and Stars Watermelon I grew from seed over the past month. So now there are four Moon & Star melons to the rear. I grew them from Seed Savers Exchange seed I purchased a good 2 years ago. In the bed's middle are the lemon cuke & cantelope. In the front are a few impatiens, dianthus and cosmos left over from the coconut husk hanging planter 'project'. None of the new plantings of course, look like anything just now (here below, freshly planted up) but fingers crossed, in a month's time...

Not looking like much, give it time

For decor, there is a lovely rusty skunk - a totem bud of mine - that I bought on sale at the winery where I got my planting barrels.

Love that Skunky Strut

Summer, alas, is effing here

2009-07-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

I was out at the crack of the first sparrow's fart this morning. The Central effing Valley is heating up - good for the garden, gawdawful for me. The heat means all my gardening happens either early morning or at twilight. I potted up some pink/white impatiens a dianthus and a few Cosmos into a coconut husk hanging basket. As per normal, it looks dreadful when first planted up, but it should look great in about four weeks.

Hanging basket - looking a bit dreadful
My Tomato plant torture device is doing wonderfully. I ditched the pot's automatic watering system (bowl and wicks) because it wasn't dependable enough in this steamy weather.

The Black Krim Tomato plant is fat and lovely
Hurrah! A couple of days ago I noticed a couple of baby tomatoes, not much larger than cherry tomatoes, but these need to grow to the size of baseballs I think.

Loads of yellow blossoms, but so far, only two, rapidly growing baby tomatoes

The biggest success so far is Sweet Banana Peppers, of which there are two peppers, and that was cheating because they were on the plant when I bought it. Oh well. There are flowers on the little plant, but so far, no new fruit to be seen - what gives?

Sweet Banana Peppers

The Garlic Chives & two types of Basil (Dark Opal and uh...) are routinely featured my weekend omlettes. The Dark Opal Basil has bolted - lovely purple flowers - and I need to look up if I ought to have nipped the buds before it flowered... (allow me time to look this up, let's see... Aha!) Apparently one should nip the flowers (pardon me while I run outside and do some nipping, though it may well be too late already). Nipping the flowers will keep basil producing longer.

Dark Opal Basil, which was just nipped so the flowers are no more...
Ah... my new favorite summer scent is that of newly nipped basil. Ah! One last thing - on the spur, I planted about a dozen Sunflower seeds, variety 'Citrus' in the raised bed, uh... two or three of the barrel planters. If those come up (the seeds, variety 'Cut' did not come up!), then in a few weeks I'll plant up a second round. Oh, and I did put a teensy bit of moisture gel in the new coconut husk hanging pot.

Tea Party Poppy

2009-07-06T15:43:00.000-07:00

Drove over to Annie's last Wednesday, and bought just a few plants - all native to California, though not all exactly found in nature. For example, I got this pretty, double flowered apricot colored California Poppy - I don't think it's to be found in nature, though I could be wrong. I love it! Planted it in my giant teacup planter. Damn. Should have bought more than one pot.

California Poppy: variety double flowered, Apricot
And here's a plant I had no clue was a native, until I found it some weeks ago in Bear Valley. It's a chia, which I understand is the same chia of Chia Pet fame. It has sticky-when-wet seeds that cling to unglazed pottery. The seeds are, as is, edible. As soon as mine spits out some seed, I will save some for planting, then grind/toast/mix with water & eat/drink the rest, California Indian style.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Chia!

Behold: the Miracle of the Muscat

2009-07-05T10:05:00.000-07:00

It is written, there did dwell in the Garden of Gulag, a lone Muscat Grape. The Grape, unplanted sat in a great pot, under the Hawthorn tree. Lo! The Muscat was sad. All who lookithed upon the Muscat pitied it, for the Muscat had no-effing-chance-in-hell it should find itself in a proper bed that it might prosper and bear fruit.

The Muscat Grape beneath the Hawthorn - pity thy sad little shrub

On said day of Sabbath, the crappy gardener Claire did sally forth to attack the EFFING GREAT PRIVIT, which having planted itself in a manner of vigor, no shrub one actually wishes would do. And Claire did mightily hackith away at the privit while calling forth words of great damnation, calling unto the heavens to smite the Privit. The great Privit began to fall.

And then did Claire pile the Privit faggots (classical definition, not modern rude slurs) upon the patio. The pile grew to five by five cubits of effing Privit. And as Claire stood to lookith upon her labors she noted under the Hawthorn, the lone Muscat sat, for a second year in a pot of plastic. And Claire saw a great miracle, for lo, in the shadow of the Muscat, under the great shade of the Hawthorn, the grew forth a sprig of fruit.

Claire spake, saying unto her beloved, yet neglected Muscat, "SWEET MOTHER OF EFFING LATE HARVEST MUSCATS - THERE BE GRAPES!"

And Claire danced the dance of Joy for her Muscat had confounded the smart-arsed gardening web sites she had visited, and the Muscat was fruitful. And thus, it is written.

Ok, not exactly a bumper crop, but dang - so very cool!

NOOOOOOOoooooo!

2009-07-01T21:05:00.001-07:00

Am proud of myself. Have been venturing out and potted up a Poppy (Eschscholzia californica 'Apricot Chiffon') and Chia (Salvia columbariae). Then I was watering and discovered a mushroomy looking thing at the base of a lupine. I popped it with my finger and it cracked open in a very un-mushroomy manner - then it hit me - a Praying Mantis egg pod! Ok, now that is good news for any normal, sensible gardener, which is not ME. I found a baby mantis a few weeks ago, and now there's a second litter. Damn. The problem is if the things grow up and hang around my garden, I'll be too cowardly to go out there and mess around my plants. I am like soooo very pathetic.

Sure... they start out cute and eensie...but then they grow up
AND EAT YOUR FACE!!!!!
Rest assured - the finger in the upper photo sure as HELL is not mine!

New Flora on the Block

2009-06-22T20:20:00.000-07:00

Another half barrel was drilled, filled & watered. Planted a Sweet Banana Pepper and one of my favorites - a varigated lavender. The lavender should eventually fill most of the barrel, which is fine by me.

Have noted the basils and cilantro in my coconut husk hanging basket look rather frazzled, and the weather is only starting to warm up. I think daily watering might take care of the problem for the basils, and if not, they might do better under the patio eves with the less direct sun. As for the cilantro, I'm thinking a few rosaries and seeking a spot to compost it with dignity. Bugger.

Varigated Lavender in its barrel bed

A Crop to Enjoy at Last!

2009-06-09T17:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, not to brag, but sometimes my gardening does show results. This year there I have a crop of Service Berries, which though unconnected to Army, Navy or Air Force, being in service to the natural world of the western wilderness. I got a lovely Serviceberry shrub at the Farmer's Market a bit ago. The berries were red then, but now are rippened and a lovely blueberry blue. They are sort of like blueberries and quite tasty.

Lovely fat Service or Saskatoon Berries
I'm totally happy with this crop which has amounted to five. Not five bushels, but five berries. You think me silly because I celebrate a harvest of five berries? Yes, that would be silly. Actually I will ultimately harvest seven berries in total. I have yet to harvest the final two berries of this year's crop.

The Remaining Crop
Yum! Ok, make that ONE remaining berry. That last one should be ready in about two weeks. I'll keep you posted.

It's Not Called Gulag Garden for Nothing

2009-06-02T07:34:00.000-07:00

As it took me a couple of months to find last year's veggie/flower seeds -waste not, want not - I didn't grow any Black from Tula tomato seedlings. Instead, I bought a Black Krim tomato seedling at the Sunrise Farmer's Market. What does one do with a pedigree Russian tomato seedling? Well, of course, I hung it upside down in position of torture and request, nay, DEMAND vast quantities of tomatoes or it is off to the compost heap.

When Russian Black Krim ceases sniveling, there WILL be tomatoes
Hope neighbors don't call in Amnisty International.

Planted Some Herbs Today

2009-05-30T19:29:00.001-07:00

This morning I tripped of to the Farmer's Market for herbs for a new hanging herb garden. My last one actually worked, but I allowed it to die during the winter. Why? Uh... anyway, as I was saying...

The cloth bag was a freebee with the plants I bought. I was tickled with the with the bag, it's dancing fairies and woodland fauna depicted are very in keeping with the whimsical aspects of my garden. Yes, my Gulag Garden is whimsical damn it, if I say so.

Is this not a cool bag? Yippy Skippy!
So! On the list of new herbs, I'm starting off with 'Pesto Perpetuo', a lovely, deep purple perennial basil (perennial? We shall see...). The basil is supposed to get huge (up to four feet high, which is not a problem because I'll be eating from it). It is NOT supposed to go to seed - that's a neat trick for a basil I think. I also got a plain old curly-leaved parsley, a cilantro and a forth herb which I have already forgotten the ID of. It's varigated though and rather pretty. I'll look for it at the Woodsong Herb booth this Wednesday Farmer's Market downtown.

Big surprise to me, there were young blueberry and Serviceberry plants for sale. I opted fo rthe Serviceberry, because that's native to California. I always go native over foreign when I can. Sure hope I have as much luck with this eensie Serviceberry as I did with the once eensie, baby Hazelnut shrub that Don gave me a year or so ago.

This wonderful Hazel provides nice view from a rear bedroom window

Where I'll put the Serviceberry and at what point it will magically go into the soil is the big question. There is already a California White Sage shrublette in a tiny pot, already in line for it's final growing spot. Hang in there little sage! I'm a' thinking on it.

Here is the new herb basket - looking a bit stressed,
but it should settle in and look pretty in about a month.
It was about a month ago that I sent for the free standing plant hanger. It's supposed to hold up to 200 lbs. At the same time I ordered one of those new fangled upside down tomato plant growing bags. The one I got has metal basket and is self watering, but more on that later.

A Gulag Garden Project Finally Happens - Almost

2009-03-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to do something constructive with the dirt area near the pool pump. Some months ago I laid the area with anti-weed tarping and redwood bark. It looked great. Unfortunately, word of the cool new kitty toilet spread rapidly - and pretty soon I couldn't go near the area without averting my eyes from the mounds and my nose from the stench. There are days I really could get into blowing up kitties with some TNT.

Plan two went into effect, an idea I had since I first took posession of my house - a raised planting bed. For ages I thought I'd build one from scratch, but finally I settled on buying a ready-to-go version from an on-line company, Naturalyards. Not a bad deal; I got a 22 inch raised bed of 'seconds', which means the wood is pretty on one side, but worn on the other (as if I care). It's quite attractive overal and the cedar wood fades to a worn silvery gray as it ages.

Barb prepares to, if necessary,
to poke me with a sharp stick, so I help a bit
So! I sat on the project for months, and more months, the boxes sitting in the garage. Happily, friend Barbara came up for a visit and decided to put me out of my misery and set up the thing. I had been stymied by the pile of redwood bark - ok, I was grossed out by it. With Barb's help, the decision was made to just pile it up and build around it. The old cat poo is so dry now as to be suitable for a rich nitrogen fertilizer.... OHGAGME! Geez, but I hate cats.

Another thing that kept me from working on the project - flimsy excuse, I know. The surface wasn't level and I kept thinking to dig out the rototiller and make a big production out of it. But it was Barbara's idea to level the area under the wood with planks or something. Turns out I had the old pink tiles from the hall bathroom makeover. Great idea really and am very-nearly-annoyed I didn't think of it myself.

Having poked me to no avail, Barb places boards

Tada! The last of the boards require a bit of sanding on the inside where they will come up against the soil. That means now that "I" must do something. Ok. I will. Any day now.

Very nice looking, don't you think? Imagine if I ever get soil and plants into it?

How We Doin'?

2008-09-20T15:29:00.000-07:00

Cutting Gold doing well by the north fence, aka Great Wall of China

Ah! By now you must realize I wasn't kidding when I said this back yard blog is for my own benefit, note taking and blah, blah, blah. Think of this as one way I keep my thinly veiled craziness at bay.

So! Summer is pret' near over, and autumn and it's wonderfully cool weather is at hand. Here's the current state of the Gulag Garden:

Kniola-Not-Quite-Inky-'nuff for my tastes
The Kniola Black Morning Glory is in its glory, though the flowers didn't turn out nearly as black as I would have liked. I love inky flowers. Am suspecting that for professional reasons, the Kniola Black flowers are normally photographed in rather dim lighting to up their sooty appearance - or not.
Awww... aren't they bug bitten, but cute?

The hanging coconut husk baskets that I planted with flowers a while back are doing rather well - the one I
planted with herbs, not quite as well, but well enough - seems herbs should get a lot more sun than available under the porch eaves.

Adore the Alaska (varigated) Nastrusiums. These aren't what I planted though - these were purchased as seedlings. No flowers yet.

And comrades, a while back I purchased the seeds of 'Black from Tula' from an organization that sells heritage, aka lonely, lost, nearly unwanted (by big business) veggies, fruits and flowers. Black from Tula got it's start in the oven, then it went on to the window sill and now here it is in all its glory in a half wine barrel.

A bit late in the season to start off tomatoes, but what the heck

Not the most lush planting, but I do love the delicacy and near wild look of Moonglow Coreopsis
On the 'it survived' bunch, there is the 'Operetta' hybrid tea rose. At first the color seemed almost leuwd, but it's grown on me.

I want undies in this color so I can glow in dark rooms.

Coconut Coup

2008-08-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

In other gardening news, a while back I bought 2 plain white metal coconut husk lined hanging planters from the Fair Oaks Nursery for $14 each. Then today saw nicer ones, fancier metalwork, at Walmart - like THAT is a surprise. *sigh*

So, with use of the hanging baskets, and my desire to grow my own herbal garden, I have gathered up a nice collection of kitchen herbs.

Thyme : Gold Lemon
Plain Italian Parsley
Cilantro
Chandler Strawberry
Varigated Oregano

So, the plan was to slit the coconut husk in four evenly placed slashes on the bottom. I stuck the Strawberry plants into the slits, then added moisture-jello pellets. Occurs to me I ought mention, the jel pellets must be amended into the planter soil, after hydration, not before. How do I know that? A couple of years ago I added tons of unhydrated pellets to my planters. It was fine for a while, then when the first winter rains hit, the planters looked like it had rained clear jell-o! The gel piled up on the soil surface for like three inches, as it forced its way up out of the planter soil. Really - it was amazing.

So, after the bottom plants were in, the rest was simply the usual potting up of the remaining herbs on the top of the husk basket. My photos below are rather crummy, but they get the general look of the things as they look freshly potted.

Ok, not my best photography, but sometimes the magic just doesn't want to work
YIKES! The garden crook barely holds this planter off the ground
The second coconut husk planter got Impatiens, petunias and the lot
So! There spot these planters are ending up in are just under the patio eves. Hopefully they'll be OK there.

It LIVES!

2008-07-05T13:21:00.000-07:00

Put out Nasturtium ‘Alaska’ seeds (just four, which I scarified) in oven nursery. The Black from Tula tomatoes and Coreopsis, which are also in the oven, sprouting like crazy.

Alaska - a varigated Nasturtium

Update! This is the Toyon, Don planted in the northwest corner of the garden, August 14, 2000. It sat and did nothing for 8 years, and now it has finally bloomed! There will be Toyon Berries this year. In celebration, I’m going to fry the gigantic privet that is just west of the Toyon, and is trying to go all Jurassic.

My Toyon, back in the day, when it was a wee bugger

Fireworks of a Sort, In Gulag Garden

2008-07-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

[Oh yeah? Well MS MILLER thinks management should mind its own business and be thankful Ms. Miller didn't start her back logging with her 2006 and 2007 garden records, so there!]

Where was I? Right. I potted up a pair of Fair Oaks Blvd Nursery Morning Glory 'Kniola Black' in the square plastic pot I bought at the Sunrise Capital Nursery. Have no clue what I bought the pot for really, but here's a use for it. In the planter's center I stuck a pretty, bird-topped trelis I got at the Greenback Lowes. When these Morning Glory flowers are large enough, I plan to put the baby Coreopis in there too perhaps. Should be a nice arrangement.

I also bought a very pretty Harlequin Hydrangia for a whopping $33 dollars (YIKES!), which is meant for the flowerbed to the north of my front door. The hydrangia is as close as I will get to fireworks this year.

Amendments: I put a fair amount of water-jello into the Morning Glory pot and a dousing of B-1 vitamine water for transplanting shock prevention (or cause-there-of for all I know).

Also at Lowes I bought a big old Beautiful Fushia, two small Dahlias (one violet, one yellow) and a HUMONGOUS yellow/white-tipped double Dahlia - just lovely.

To round off the day - and likely my back - I made an initial assault on oak in planting spot to the North of my front door. That BUGGER is anchored! Had to run water on it to loosen it up and to make the spot friable enough to plant the new Hydrangea.

This oak, planted by a rogue squirrel, has roots that wind up in China

Management is Appalled

2008-06-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

[Management has only just discovered that Ms. Miller is not only wasting valuable blog on her atrocious gardening antics, but she is yet again, pretending to post in the past tense. It is concluded, there is no stopping Ms. Miller on her posting spree. There is also, no earthly good coming of any of her efforts. Management hereby washes its virtual hands of this mess. If it were virtually possible to spit over one's virtual shoulder, one would do so.]

Sunflowers

2008-06-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

Hurrah! No energy to speak of, but plenty of weed hatred. I loosened up the soil at the far end of the Hawthorn island. At long last, I planted the rosemary shrub I bought back last

The rosemary is left of the Silver Lupine I bought around the same time. When was that? Hell – I thought I was taking notes.

I planted the last of the probably dead powderpuff hollyhock tubers at the base of the Great Wall of China- the forth section. I also planted several Citrus (orange) and Cutting Gold Sunflower seeds. Hopefully I’ll get some flowers out of the effort, one way or the other. I stuck the area with sharpened bamboo, tipped with curare to keep the cats out.

OK. I was joshing about the curare - it's kind of difficult to buy.

I also planted Coreopsis seed in the north long planter and Snapdragons in the southern long planter.

Moonbeams over Fair Oaks

2008-06-28T11:47:00.000-07:00

Hurrah! Ages ago I planted a Moonbeam Coreopsis and it instantly disappeared. Well, it’s back, with eensie little yellow blooms. I sprayed a weed killer near it and am praying it doesn’t die because of my crabgrass hatred.

And in other TERRIFYING NEWS, a mini praying mantis moved in with the Operetta Rose. It has doubled its size since I first saw it. When it gets big it’s moving to Nancy’s house so I don’t have a heart attack.

Stupid insects. Stupid mantid.

Fer crying out loud, calm yourself! I know matids are all a part of the great gardening circle of life, yatta, yatta, yatta. It is only the when certain non-lepedopteran insects pop up unexpected in the garden, I am prone to self wetting. In a perfect world every last mother one of the insect world would be as cuddly as honey bees and as beautiful as butterflies.

Lilies Steal the Show

2008-05-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

TADA! The Denia lilies came up and stole the show, AND did so while I was still home, and while I had Joann & Gene up for the weekend so there are people who can prove I didn't just imagine the lilies in their glory. Could I have asked for anything more?

The pansies and columbine at their high point before they nearly croaked while I was in Colorado.

Cheap Fix

2008-04-06T11:39:00.000-07:00

Eureka! Talk about being slow on uptake. I finally put to use, a coiled hose I bought at Cost-co some 4 or 5 years ago. It hooks onto the garage sink and easily trails the 50 feet to water my patio plants. It works great. No longer any need to day dream about a new tap extension to the patio. The cheap hose connection does the job. Hurrah!

New 'Crops' are in

2008-03-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

My bulbs and tubers from last year are up and getting ready to bloom again. Must ADORE the persistent plants! I have some of the following but won’t know for sure until they bloom:

8 Lily Pixie Denia (pink with brown speckles)
5 Nerine Bowdenii (little pink lily thingies)
5 Dahlia Sir Alf Ramsey (Pink with richer color to outer ring of petals)

To be honest, I’m not sure if the Dahlia’s made it into any pots or not.

The Gulag Garden

2008-03-23T22:15:00.000-07:00

I should appologize for this blog's existance, but I won't. What appears here is pretty much, only of any interest to myself. I'm putting it here, in all of it's soil sterilizing, i.e., mind numbing nonsense here, because I can't get M.S. Word to do what I want without causing me grief. So, here are my garden records, chronologing my lazy-arse back yard follies. When I say lazy, I mean that the squirrel who buries its oak acorns in my pots is more organized and hard working than I am. So... without further ado... here's the past.

Easter Sunday

2008-03-23T10:25:00.000-07:00

Hurrah! A bright and sunny Easter Sunday and I will celebrate by planting a rose in a tub. I put a lot of time into this endeavor, the entire time spent in the planning was about .05 nanosecond, or the time it took me to spot roses on sale at Home Depot.

The Rose in question is Operetta, escribed on the lable as 'Lovely large double flowers are a cream and red blend. Repeat blooms later in the season - Hybrid Tea Rose. Hey, works for me! The rose cane came in a plastic sack. I took the rose out and soaked it in a pail for about an hour - to reconsititute the roots or some such.

For my next act, I planted Songbird Columbine' which are some cultivated variety of domestic Columbine. One plant will have gigantic white and yellow flowers, and is called 'Songbird Dove'. The second variety is 'Songbird Bunting' and will have large purple and white flowers. They are going into a planter that held snapdragons plagued by some nasty scale insects. I’ve never seen my Columbines suffer from scales so here's hoping they survive. The ‘Songbird Bunting’ is potted in the South planter, the ‘Songbird Dove’ in the Northern. For some 'I am lazy when the weather warms up' protection, I put those jello-water-holding granules in both planters. The pansies, that are already paying their rent in blooms, have done great under the Gulag regiem of weekly flower dead-heading. The more blooms you pick, the more blooms you get. Sweet.

The white/yellow Songbird Dove to the north

and the blue/white Songbird Bunting to the south
Did I stop with the rose and the Columbine? Nay, I potted up two ensie, and very rickity old planters with a dozen or so jello moisture granules enhanced, Lupine Seedlings that got their start in a bedroom window.

Lupin, raising their hands, asking, nay begging, for a good spot in the Gulag Garden
For my final act of garden faith, I planted a Dark Opal Basil. The problem is that I still have two Muscat Grapes that I have no idea what to do with. Where the hell am I going to put those?

Orphaned Muscat Grapes