by angela@diggingbliss | Nov 25, 2013 | bulbs, fall, flowers, landscaping, pansies, tulips
I finally dragged my lazy ass out front to plant my tulips. They’d been chilling in the fridge since arriving from Colorblends several weeks ago. Had they been in there for the full six weeks? I don’t know. All I know is, we got a break in the rain and Thanksgiving is Thursday and I need room in my fridge for holiday food, not tulips.
“What? I thought these were shallots! They’re in the stuffing!”
First, I dug the planting hole. I skipped the bulb auger this time because I had a hundred tulips to plant and realized I should just dig out the entire swath of soil along the front edge of the bed. I actually only got ninety-four of them in the ground. That’s because my basil is still growing and I can’t… won’t… pull it until I make several more batches of dairy-free pesto.
I’ll plant the leftover bulbs in a container. As happens to me sometimes, strange things happened while I was out front. A homeless man walked by and turned back to ask me the time. I gave that to him, but then he… clearly not a neighbor and clearly emboldened by my politeness… asked if I know someone named “Laura” who lives on my street. Dude? Don’t. Even.
“Not at all.”
I replied in a voice that encouraged him to keep walking. When creepy drifter guy was gone, police helicopters started hovering over my street, announcing something from the loudspeaker that I couldn’t quite make out. I think it was about a missing boy. Then a police car cruised by, circled back and then took off. I don’t think the two unsettling events were connected; just random strangeness that punctuated what was otherwise a lovely fall day of bulb planting. Usually, my neighborhood is quite idyllic.
As the afternoon sun waned, the soil came out, the bulbs went in, the soil went back in, the pansies went in, my back began to groan. I didn’t add any granular fertilizer to the soil, so I will hit the pansies with liquid fertilizer in a couple weeks; these bulbs contain all the nutrients they need in order to bloom.
I decided to plant a flat of ‘Dynamite Wine Flash’ pansies over my bulbs. Meg and Michael at the nursery helped me settle on that color over ‘Antique Shades’, which I also liked. The flat sat untouched for a week since my mind was pulled in other directions by other distractions. You can tell by the roots that they needed to go into the ground… stat. It feels good to have tulip planting out of the way. Now we get to sit back and wait for the show.
Guarded within the old red wall’s embrace,
Marshalled like soldiers in gay company,
The tulips stand arrayed. Here infantry
Wheels out into the sunlight. — Amy Lowell, A Tulip Garden.
by angela@diggingbliss | Nov 25, 2013 | Uncategorized
The first time I went out to plant daffodils with my nifty bulb auger, the soil was too dry to drill easily. Yes, our irrigation system is on the fritz. Again. So I soaked parts of the front flowerbed with a garden hose, drilled a couple random test holes in the more moist sections. Ah, much better. I knew I’d also be contending with sycamore tree roots, but figured the edges of the triangular bed were pretty safe since they were farthest away from the trunk.
I’d gone back and forth on planting pattern aesthetics. Did I want to sprinkle the bulbs in the bed in a pseudo-natural “I am a daffodil living wild in the foothills” fashion, or did I want a clump, a drift or a more refined row. In an uncharacteristic moment of formality, I decided to try a formal row along one edge of the bed. That is… until I started drilling. Every hole in my row hit 3/4″ pipe that was buried a shamefully shallow 4″ deep, proving yet again that the people who landscaped my yard before I moved in were just as naughty as I thought.
I find examples of landscaping naughtiness all the time in my yard. There’s weed fabric buried under 6 inches of soil… too-shallow PVC pipe being battered by freezes and my shovel… sod netting tangled into in the soil in my flowerbeds… the irrigation timer never works… terrible to non-existent sprinkler pressure. We’re going to do our best to exorcise this demonic landscape installation.
Speaking of demons and Hell… my new bulb planting aesthetic is guided solely by wherever the hell my auger happened to randomly avoid pipes and roots. Most of the bulbs are in, and I’ll plant the rest today now that the rest of the bed is moist. I should probably do a little careful Bermuda grass tugging around my California poppies as well. I used to be afraid to pull Bermuda, preferring to spray with organic herbicide. When I use the herbicide, the Bermuda does turn brown, but then I forget about it and it greens up again. So I pull. It’s this little game we play.
Challenges aside, my bulb auger is an awesome tool. You simply attach it to a drill (mine’s cordless) and pull the trigger. If you need a bigger hole, simply make two adjacent holes. Using it, I feel capable. That didn’t stop a man walking his dog from saying, “That tool is too big for you.” I chuckled awkwardly out of politeness, but it was difficult to conceal the wince. No, dude. My bulb auger and compact DeWalt drill are not too big for me; apparently the sight of a woman planting flower bulbs in her front yard is “too big” for you.
It’s a terrible system.
But the good news is that then there is new life.
Wildflowers bloom again.
That’s it? you ask. That’s all you’ve got? No. I’ve also got bulbs.
-Anne Lamott. Stitches
by angela@diggingbliss | Nov 16, 2013 | bulbs, container gardening, landscaping, seeds, talini's nursery, vegetables, veggies, winter garden
Even though our yard is in flux since we’re redoing the landscape between now and Spring, I suddenly decided I must have a few winter veggies, exactly one flowering Annie’s sweet pea (there’s a drain pipe crying out its name) and a flat of big, fat, richly-hued ‘Dynamite Wine Flash’ pansies to go atop my tulip bulbs.
Oh, and I needed one more seed packet of California poppies! They re-seeded nicely from last year, but I want to up the amp even more. I also grabbed some parsley, sage and chive starts because I know I’ll be cooking with them next week and don’t like buying cut herbs at the grocery store when I should be harvesting them from my yard.
We were pretty productive today. Kim made some headway in our bursting garage… and is having a mini spontaneous garage sale in the morning. Eek! I’m so not the spontaneous garage sale type. My contribution will be to stay inside and cook bacon and eggs for him. Yay, teamwork. He also helped me by moving several big bags of soil and compost. Together, we tackled the overwhelming layer of leaves blanketing our property. It’s amazing how many different leaf shapes end up in our yard considering we only have one sycamore.
I feel good because I consolidated all my scattered and neglected succulents into one 3/4 wine barrel and planted my new veggies and herbs in the remaining two barrels. The barrels are now in a sunny temporary location out back. Today was all about salvaging, consolidating and purging… all good preparation for backyard fabulousness to come.
I didn’t think I’d buy this house, and did. I didn’t think I’d see lemons on the baby Meyer lemon tree I planted here, and they’re turning yellow now. All two of them. Note to self: feed lemon tree. I wasn’t sure if the red orchid cactus I rescued from my old home/life would ever bloom again. It has its first buds in nearly five years. Sometimes all you can do is rescue, hope and wait. MaxSea fertilizer helps too.
My Succulent Menagerie
I topped off old potting soil in the barrel pictured above with two bags of E.B. Stone cactus mix. It would have been too expensive to use all cactus mix, and quite heavy as well. When we have a frost, now I can easily cover the barrel with frost cloth. I so fell in love with succulents on our trip to the Central Coast. They are more of a challenge here in the Valley, but well worth the effort.
Herbs & Spinach
I know I’m going to need a little sage and parsley for the Thanksgiving stuffing and I can’t bear the thought of buying cut herbs. Not sure if I’ll need chives, but you never know and I may need them for other recipes. As for the spinach, it’s just for salads and pasta dishes.
Lettuces & Chard
The chard I planted is the very colorful and tasty ‘Rainbow Chard’. Lettuce varieties include Romaine, ‘Red Sails’ and ‘Butter Crunch’.
Banana Bread!
In a stroke of uncharacteristic productivity, I also made banana bread today, using a recipe from one of my favorite bloggers, Katie S. (AKA NorCal Katie). It was a good day.
by angela@diggingbliss | Nov 14, 2013 | houzz, landscaping
I’ve been collecting ideas on Houzz and saving them to my Idea Book. I’ve also been using Houzz to research local landscape designers/contractors/architects. It’s interesting to me to see who has an online local presence in this realm. I’m sure there are some fabulous landscape creatives out there who do not have websites and profiles on sites like Houzz, but this is how I prefer to search. And since landscape design is such a visual medium, it seems strange to me why someone wouldn’t be online by now. Most of these sites, including Houzz and Yelp, are free. Let’s not forget Pinterest and Facebook.
Here are a few photos that I saved to my Landscaping Idea Book on Houzz. I’m still in the loosey-goosey brainstorming phase and this is one of my “digital scrapbooks”. Anything that catches my eye goes in the Idea Book. I’m noticing certain trends emerging– shade sail patio covers, cafe lighting, comfy patio furniture, decking and funky/arty/bohemian touches.
