by angela@diggingbliss | Nov 3, 2014 | fall, flowers, landscaping, seeds, talini's nursery, wildflowers
Right now, after we’ve had our first real rain, is the perfect time for Californians to go crazy sprinkling wildflower seeds all over the land! I planted California poppies a couple days ago. What will you plant? I’m partial to Renee’s Carefree Annual Wildflowers Scatter Garden, and the poppies-only mix. Find the sunniest, most inhospitable part of your yard and sprinkle away.
I planted the poppies (pictured below) in a narrow crack between asphalt and concrete out front at Talini’s Nursery. Just sprinkled and forgot. No water. No work, because Mother Nature took care of the rest.
We may have paved paradise and put up a parking lot, but that doesn’t mean we can’t put a little paradise back into that parking lot!
I’ve also had really good luck with the native CA bulk seed mixes from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply.
Watch this inspiring video!
by angela@diggingbliss | Apr 20, 2014 | landscaping, weed fabric, weeds
The previous owners thought it would be nifty to bury a layer of landscape fabric several inches below soil level. As Kim works on this neglected flower bed on the north side of our front yard, we keep discovering more. He gets to pull it all out while I water and deadhead and soak other beds for an upcoming weeding session.
I’ve run into the evil fabric… literally… with my shovel… all over the yard. I’m not a fan of weeds, but I’m also not a fan of weed fabric. No wonder I haven’t seen very many earthworms.
When I do resort to using the stuff on rare occasion, I put it on TOP of the soil, followed by a thick layer of bark. Burying the fabric did nothing to stop bermudagrass and other weeds from establishing quite nicely.
by angela@diggingbliss | Apr 14, 2014 | book, books, landscaping, sunset, Western Garden Book
The new edition of Western Landscaping and the latest Western Garden Book are at Costco. I happened to visit the Expo Blvd. Sacramento store.
by angela@diggingbliss | Mar 23, 2014 | book, landscaping, sunset
I got excited when I spotted a Facebook post about the new edition of Sunset Western Garden Book of Landscaping: The Complete Guide to Designing Beautiful Paths, Patios, Plantings and More
. If it’s of the same caliber as the previous edition, it’ll be full of great pics, great examples of California landscaping, and regionally appropriate gardening information. This is fantastic timing since we’re about to re-landscape our smallish yard and want to create an inspiring space.
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 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.
