Sally Holmes

In a frenzy of gardening! Well, a lot of it is weeding. Give these plants a little rain and they all go crazy! One of the joys of spring is the roses...here's my Sally Holmes on the side of the house. Couldn't be more beautiful.

A bonus is my neighbor on this side says she looks forward to Sally Holmes every spring too - she sees it from her kitchen window, which is only a few feet away and a bit uphill. Sweet.

In an effort to get more done while at the same time feeling less overwhelmed (quite an order), I've been making "to do" lists the past few days, just like I used to do when I was working full time. The first day I had seven items on the list, most of them big, and that didn't happen. I finished four. So I moved the three undone "to dos" to the next day, added a couple small ones, and now I think I have a formula. On today's list was "weed the herb garden", which I just finished. We're so lucky in this climate to be able to grow herbs outside that come up year after year. Some of them flourish all year long. My herb garden is right outside the stairs that lead from the kitchen, so it's real handy. Here's what I grow and use in my garden:

• Sage (used for sage butter and with marinated chicken breasts. Also stuffing.)
• Oregano (for pizza, pasta, chicken, anything)
• Thyme (beans, stews, soups, fish, artichokes, everything)
• Parsley (everything)
• Rosemary (in bread, beans, with lamb, potatoes, chicken)
• Lemon verbena (tea)
• Epazote (used in beans to prevent gas - Mexican miracle herb)

I also grow basil, but that's either in the front of the house where the sun is strongest, or in the kitchen window. That basil needs lots of hot sun! And I have a big concrete planter of the most delicious peppermint in the lower level of the back yard. I use that for drinks, like mojitos. And for wonderful meatballs. Love my herbs.

Survivors

It's already November and my front yard tomatoes just won't give up! I can hardly believe it but I've got tomato plants with big ripening tomatoes and even flowers. I think the flowers are doomed, frankly, as it hardly gets above 65 degrees now. But the tomatoes that are already formed will ripen . . . slowly, slowly.

The taste isn't what it was in the heat of summer, but still. They're better than anything you'd buy at the supermarket. I'm using them for stews now, and chili. Yum!

Simple pleasures

Even though we haven't had much of a winter (i.e. decent rain only in December), the signs of spring are everywhere. All this week, we've responded by tackling the back yard and gardens - a big job we've put off for a couple of years, so by now it's really a project.

In the middle of all the work, which I have to admit is also fun, I realized this morning that I was especially enjoying two simple pleasures. The first has nothing to do with the yard, it's a set of towels I bought a week ago. I just love them because they match my bathroom walls (a light pink) as well as the tiles (gray). It gives me such pleasure to see them, I'm not sure I'll be able to take them down to wash them! Just kidding.

My little herb garden also gives me great pleasure to look at. Of course that is part of the backyard project. I've finally trimmed the huge rosemary bush back so the other herbies can get some sun, and refreshed the soil with compost and chicken manure. Yesterday I planted a variegated sage to fill in the elderly sage plants I already have and use, and I planted a chamomile, which I love for tea. I also have a lemon verbena in the garden, whose leaves make wonderful tea. And an epazote, which is a common Mexican plant used with beans to aid digestion and minimize gas. We love beans, so it's real useful!

You can see I still have some space in the herb garden, and I'm contemplating. What should I plant - more thyme? Another parsley? I have parsley in the brick planter, as well as tarragon, so maybe I'll try something new. Don't know yet.

The herb garden needs a new fence, or perhaps needs no fence at all. That fence is on the list. Lots to do!

2014 garden favorites

Almost Fall. Well, in fact, it is Fall, but here in northern California, Fall is our real Summer. So it's hot, not colorful like Fall is in other places. The summer vegetables know it's Fall, nevertheless, and they are on their way out. We still have fabulous tomatoes, and chard, and peppers, but soon...very soon...we'll be uprooting these and planting winter crops.



What were our favorite summer vegetables of 2014? Without a doubt they were the Brandywine heirloom tomatoes (OMG) and the padron peppers. The heirlooms were just plain delicious - green and dark red and not always the most beautiful classic tomatoes - but their taste told the true story. Sweet, they were really sweet. And tomato-y. Wow.




The padrons, well they are some good tasting peppers. Green, they're mild and wonderful fried up whole with a little salt. Red, they have a kick, and are best cut up in beans, or rice, or with chicken or pork, or in salsa. They have such a good taste! I still have a whole bunch that I'm drying, day by day, in the sun on the front porch. We'll enjoy them all winter long.

Tomato Time!

We harvested our first tomato last week although the tomatoes on the other

plants are not quite ready yet.  Then we had to celebrate with the first BLTs

of the season. Delicious!

Baggin' it

Alameda County, where I live, finally decided to do its part to reduce non-compostable garbage and try to save some trees. Effective January 1 this year they outlawed plastic bags in grocery and other stores, and mandated a fee for paper bags, if customers fail to bring their own.

I fully support this action, having seen enough photos of dolphins choking on plastic bags and knowing those bags have a half-life of nearly forever. And I have nice cloth bags that will work fine and, even better, are reusable almost to infinity. Nevertheless, it took weeks for me to remember to bring the bags to the store. At first I had trouble remembering to take them from home, so I put a bunch into the back seat of the car. Then I had trouble remembering to bring them from the car into the store. Drat. I can't tell you how many times I left Trader Joe's with my arms full of milk, orange juice, yogurt, and bananas, clutching a box of dishwasher detergent in my two free fingers. I got tired of it.

Now, almost three months later, I've got it down. This post is in celebration of baggin', and of course the bags that make it possible. . .

A few of the bags I have in my car.

Some wine bags I also have in my car. Who knew I needed FOUR wine bags that hold six bottles each? Oh well!

A few more bags from my traveling life (Cambridge, UK, Maui, Holland America Cruise Lines). And that's not all of them. I guess I have enough bags!







Last week I got a new kind of bag, and are they ever cute! And good for the environment too! These are planting bags, and they're made from recycled plastic bottles. I'm using them to plant potatoes in a plot that's become way too overgrown with roots, and I don't have the time or energy to dig the silly thing up and put new soil in.


Here are the Potato Bags, each filled with dirt and a seed potato (some are Reds and some are Yukon Golds). Not only are they cute as can be, they're sturdy, are supposed to last several years, and let water through for good drainage. I got them from GreenhouseMegastore.com. Gonna be some yummy potatoes...


So, here's to baggin' it!

Planting a winter garden

 

All it took was a few days of sunshine and mild temperatures, and I was down at the neighborhood Ace nursery buying up baby vegetables. We're so lucky in northern California - many vegetables grow through the winter, including this year a crazy cherry tomato that's still going strong in late January (this has never happened in my garden before!).

 

 

If you look closely you will see yellow flowers even, signalling yet more tomatoes to come. Amazing! Well, that's unusual.

 

The vegetables that usually grow well in our climate in winter are of the cabbage family -cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli - as well as beets and lettuces, and other leafy things like kale and chard. All are yummy!

 

I bought beets and arugula for the back yard, which doesn't get much winter sun but is also protected from the most "extreme" cold by the house.

 

Just a comment about "extreme" cold: I'm originally from Minnesota and we don't have anything here in coastal California that even approaches Extreme Cold, so you're probably laughing if you happen to be in a climate where REAL cold happens. Believe me, I haven't forgotten.

 

Here are the sweet new little beets and arugula:

 

 














And Nero (a.k.a. Pookie-Boo) guarding an already maturing cabbage:

 

 For the front yard, where the best sun is, I got rainbow chard, cauliflowers, and broccolini, which I planted in pots...easier to water if we don't get rain, and easier to defend from hungry spring snails.

 

Baby rainbow chard

Broccolini all gathered in a pot

Snowball cauliflower YUM!

Aren't they sweet? And, mmm, are they ever going to be good to eat! I think that rhymes. Sort of.

 

The temperature has dipped back into the low 50s today, and the sky is overcast with drops of rain spitting here and there, so it looks like our few days of warmth are over for now. Every time I look at my new little vegetables, though, bravely standing up in their pretty pots, I know Spring is coming. Yay!!

 

 

Spring gardening

Finally, two days of sunshine in a row! I planted part of my herb garden yesterday . . . sage and thyme and oregano and cilantro. Mmmm, it makes my mouth water :=) In fact, I nipped a few leaves off my baby sage plants to make Chicken Breast with Sage, one of my faves, for dinner.

Today I planted climbing peas and green beans, mixing them all up near a fence so they'll climb together. Always Ms. Grace, I dropped a clipper on my ankle and gouged a hole, which of course bled. I was cutting back those vines that are trying to take over the left side of the yard. They're so pretty with their pink flowers and then later the wisteria with their long purple blooms, but they're deadly. If you let them go they'll smother everything, so I attacked. Then I was attacked, but only by a clipper.