An exploration of spring

Let's talk about flora...

I don't know about you, but spring can be tough!  It's sunny one day, rainy the next. I'm breaking out my shorts and tank tops, then I'm hunting for my woolen socks. I have whiplash from the rapid changes in direction the weather keeps taking (and I even live in a temperate zone!).

One thing I've noticed, that remains common to spring, regardless of the mercurial weather, are the daffodils! I see them sprouting through the dirt, reaching for the sun, and blossoming with reckless abandon all around. Their fabulous yellow petals brighten up the dreariest days and yards.  Daffodils remind me that the weather will eventually even out and that consistently warmer, sunnier days are just around the corner.

When I was shopping at Trader Joe's last week, (on a day that started out 50 degrees and raining, then ended up 70 degrees and sunny) I found bundles of daffodil stalks (10 stalks for only $1.29)!! The helpful guy at the store told me all  I had to do was put the stalks in a vase with water, and in a couple days they would start blooming!  You can't beat that for ease! Since I don't have a yard to plant bulbs in, this was going to be the closest I would get to having daffodils in my house. I brought home a couple dozen and spread them around in various vases.

Interspersed throughout this post are a few pictures I took as they started to open up and blossom! (Can you tell I have been trying to play around with the camera??)
Do you love spring?? Or are you already looking forward to the warm (and more consistent) weather of summer??

C.A.L.W.....continued

The CALW continues (that would be Carrot And Lettuce Watch for those who weren't plugged in last week)!

Right now the count (if we were keeping count) would be 1 to 1. Meaning one pot is doing something (like growing delicious little veggies I will later consume with great gusto)... and one pot is doing nothing (like NOT growing anything at all to speak of).

I have attached pictures of both so that you may compare and contrast the party that is occurring in pot#1 to the party that is NOT occurring in pot #2. For those who are concerned about my level of commitment, I have most definitely not given up on pot #2, I'm just not as enamored with it right now, because frankly it's not doing anything to be enamored with!

Happy planting! Happy growing! I just got the new Sunset magazine and there's a great article about cool weather crops, so this may just continue year round! I know you're excited!!

C.A.L.W.

What is C.A.L.W. you might be asking? Well, it is the new abbreviation for Carrot And Lettuce Watch, catchy eh?

So how are the new batches of carrots and lettuce doing?!?!

Well, I currently have two beautiful pots full of very beautiful and healthy looking dirt!! I know it's exciting isn't it?!?!

C.A.L.W. will continue next week (or earlier if something really exciting happens, like little green shoots popping up through the dirt!)

Happy gardening!

Lettuce watch the fifth week

So... I got a little behind on posting - here's a great picture from last week of the tomato and lettuce harvest I turned into dinner. Yum!

By the way, thanks for the advice on how to rid my garden of pesky pests. I have not showered the neighbors recently (they are appreciative) and seem to be getting a handle on the bugs. A few people suggested using dish soap and water and spraying it on the plant and leaves. I am trying that and we'll see what happens.

Happy gardening!

The first blush

I went out this evening to water the tomatoes and there it was... the first blush! Will (my lovely husband) watered the tomatoes this morning since I had been called into work and didn't get a chance to do it - he called to let me know one was turning orange. How exciting!

But when I got home tonight the first little tomato had passed the "orange" stage and moved right into a blushing reddish-gold. Soon it will be time to eat and enjoy!

Lettuce watch - week 2 (part 2)

I know most of you may not be as excited about lettuce as I am... but I had to post another picture. This literally has happened overnight and I really just wanted to share this little miracle of life with you all. It is so amazing what a few seeds, some dirt, water and sun will do!

(Yes, I know we all grew the little bean sprouts in kindergarten, and it was amazing and we all learned about the miracle of life, but it is so damn cool when it's growing on my deck, that I can't help but share it with you all over again... and I'm looking forward to eating it in a few weeks.)

Lettuce watch - week 2

It's coming!!! I promise there are little green buds in there - go lettuce go!

Update on the tomatoes!

There are 30 gorgeous, green, globes hanging off the tomato plants already. I am SO excited! Check out the really cute, really tiny one on the far right of the bunch.

Lettuce Watch - The first week!

Check it out! This is the beginning of "Lettuce Watch" 2009. (I know it looks like a pot of dirt right now... but just wait!)

Catalina

This last weekend I visited Catalina, an island located approximately 20 miles off the coast of southern California. It is a rugged island, the majority of which is a natural preserve. There are two small townships located on the island, Avalon and Two Harbors. After a sixty minute ferry ride from Long Beach (not recommended those who get seasick unless you've taken your Dramamine) my husband and I embarked on our Catalina weekend adventure. (He was a little bit steadier on his feet then I was as we got off the boat.)

Since I have dedicated this blog to all things food, art or plant related I am going to focus on the plants on Catalina. Particularly the Botanical garden plants. At the farthest outskirt of Avalon (1.75 miles, the locals were very excited to tell us it was the longest walk in Avalon we could go on) there is a botanical garden and memorial to William Wrigley, Jr.

The Wrigley's used to live on Catalina. The Cubs (yes, the baseball team) used to have their spring training on Catalina. And the garden was created by Ava Wrigley (with the help of horticulturalist, Albert Conrad) to preserve the local plant species and showcase others that would thrive in the island's environment. (For more on the history of the island check out this website: http://www.catalina.com/memorial.html)

The botanical gardens are a combination of endemic plants and a variety succulents and cacti. While the endemics were beautiful, and it was great to see the local species, I was particularly fascinated by the succulents. They're so alien and impressive and diverse. I wanted to share a few pictures we snapped while we were poking around.

The picture directly to the left is called an Elephant's Foot. I thought this one actually kind of looked like an elephant's foot at the base so I snapped a picture of it. There were also older and larger varieties of the same plant that looked less like feet and more like "elephant piles."

The next picture down is a shot of a bunch of cacti that are all one plant (I don't remember what they were called) that was probably 8 x 6 feet wide and averaged 3 ft tall. We thought this would be a great plant to grow below your windows if you were worried about burglars - the needles on the cacti were 1 to 2 inches long, sharp and hard (we tested them).

The bottom picture is of the prickly pears. They were in bloom with beautiful yellow flowers all over them. I didn't get a great picture of the bees, but they were cruising around the flowers and laying on the cacti, drunk on nectar. Apparently they were "on holiday" too.

Catalina was a great little vacation, especially if you're already in southern California and you just want to escape LA for a little while. And I would absolutely recommend a stop by the Botanical Gardens to check out the crazy plant life. Happy planting to all!

Growing tomatoes in LA

I started a vegetable garden in the middle of LA. I live in a 3-story town home apartment in the LA jungle with my husband. We have no dirt, no land, nothing I can grow plants in to call my own. But we do have a rooftop deck.

Inspired by all the fresh vegetables I see at the farmer's market I decided it was time to try my hand at growing my own vegetables. I procured a variety of pots from discount shops, thrift stores and craft stores along with a mix of ceramic and iron stands to set them on. One trip to the garden store and I found a 30 pound bag of potting soil, a couple of healthy-looking starter plants, a hose, a shovel, and a few packages of seeds. After lugging everything up 3 flights of stairs I was ready to get my hands dirty and start planting.

I had done minimal research and figured I would start with plants that like sun. The deck gets close to 8 hours of direct sunlight everyday so I knew I needed plants that liked sun and plants that were fairly hardy, even drought-resistant. The deck also gets minimal shade; where we live in LA there are not a lot of trees and even fewer that are 3-stories tall. I had settled on bringing home tomatoes, sweet peppers, chives, mint, geraniums, daisies, cut-and-come-again lettuce, and 2 really cool looking succulents called, Space rocks (adromischus maculatus) and aeonium zwartzkop. The succulents are both drought resistant and are fascinating to watch grow. (I will attach pictures of these in a future post.)

I am now 1 week into my grand experiment: Can I actually grow a garden on my rooftop deck in the middle of LA?

The verdict so far is: it is working! I have attached a picture of one of the tomato plants - it looks like I am going to need to get tomato cages or bamboo spirals pretty soon because these little guys are actually growing! I am so excited to see the little green tomatoes that are already poking out. According to the planting instructions that came with the tomato starters I should have ripe and ready-to-eat tomatoes in 60-70 days!