April 3, 2014 by Born To Organize

Living Scrapbook: My Little Side Yard Garden

This seems to be a banner year for my little side garden. Virtually everything is in bloom or promises to in short order. The tiny plot is small and shady, but full of wonderful memories.

Side yard garden darlings: petal pink azalea, budding Jasmin, blue fescue, white and purple alyssum, pink azaleas camouflage the meter

When we bought the house 18 years ago, the narrow space between our house and the neighbors was in sad neglect. A ragged shrub divided the property line, creating a dark, narrow opening between the garage and the gate to the back yard. In short, it was a pass through

The side yard was low on the list of household projects since we didn’t spend any time there. Of course, if you garden, every bit of available soil eventually meets the wandering eye. What if we…

So when the neighbor asked if the shrub could go, the answer was a resounding yes! Between households, there were five children, all under the age of ten so I suggested a ‘children’s garden.’ It would be a place for them to play, plant and experiment. A small wooden bridge, once in the backyard, spanned the tiny space and unified the area. I relocated my dinosaur topiary and Mike transplanted a pair of azaleas from the back yard. The kids loved it. At one point my six-year-old decided to dig a ‘hot tub’ in the middle of the garden. Shavings of sidewalk chalk turned into magic dust, as long as you believed. I miss those days of wild imaginings.

Planting the children’s garden

Digging in the dirt

Within a few years, the neighbors moved away. Our boys got older, the bridge began to rot, and the garden morphed again.

As it turned out, the little bridge proved to be an excellent hiding place for snails. I’ve never seen so many of them congregated in one place. Out it went.

We planted sunflowers in front of the lemon tree, but it eventually took over.

I planted Alyssum from starters and a bag of wildflowers. Just enough came up to fill the garden that summer, but just as quickly, they died off in late fall. I added a few begonias, transplanted overgrown fescue from the fairy garden, and eventually the baby tears meandered over the exposed dirt and made themselves at home. Our dwarf lemon tree moved in at the edge of the garden and agreed to stay.

Sunflowers take off

Measuring the sunflowers

Our little patch of garden makes me smile. It feels like a living scrapbook of our years in this home. It mirrors the ebb and flow of life. It’s also a reminder of the joy to be found in a tiny patch of dirt.

View from the gate

View from the neighbors side

Fescue, Alyssum, Vinca, and the trunk of the lemon tree

April 2, 2014 by Born To Organize

The Tale of Two Lemon Trees

Prologue

Yes, I know it’s three chapters, but they’re short, and sweet, like the blossom on a lemon tree.

Chapter One

When we first bought our house, there was an ancient lemon tree growing in the back yard. The lemons were as big as small grapefruits, but alas never juicy. We enjoyed the tree for its beauty and used the lemons for other things.

The sweet smell of citrus blossoms is crisp and inviting. A tree laden with bright yellow fruit brought cheer to the garden year round. One year I found a nest in the dense foliage of the tree which confirmed what a special tree it was. There was, however, one challenge. The trunk of the tree was low to the ground. At knee-height, the lemon tree forked into two large branches. The weight of the fruit started pulling the branches apart. After wrapping the tree with rope, we called an arborist. They suggested keeping the fruit to a minimum to reduce the weight and to harvest as often as we could.

Garden birthday party, 2003

It was all for not. I arrived home one afternoon to find the tree split in two. Part of it was standing, but the rest lay sprawled across the lawn. I was so grateful that my children weren’t playing in the yard at the time. Once I knew the cats were also safe I was able to relax. I knew they weren’t trapped under the limbs of the fallen tree.

The tree had to go.

With the tree gone, we realized how much we enjoyed the extra light and the space to plant sun-worshiping vegetables. We bought a dwarf lemon instead and put it in a pot on the front deck.

Chapter Two

Dwarf lemon trees produce full-sized fruit on a smaller tree. My mom had good luck growing a potted lemon tree, so I reasoned we could too. For whatever reason our Myer lemon didn’t take off.

We moved our dwarf lemon to the front, side yard and hoped it would get plenty of sun.

Dwarf Myer Lemon Newly transplanted, 2011

Dwarf Myer Lemon today April, 2014

That first year the tree doubled in size but didn’t produce any fruit. It increased in size again but got hit with a hard frost and decided to sit it out for another year. Last year the tree sent out thorns. Surely fruit would follow. By early fall, a fungus or some kind of pest, deformed all the new growth, wrapping it in a light powder.

What is a gardener to do? I pulled out the shears, and removed the damage, taking a little extra for good measure. Winter came (sort of) followed in typical fashion by spring.

Chapter Three

It’s spring! The birds are singing, the bulbs are popping and we finally got a bit of rain. Could this be the banner year for our little lemon tree? A recent trip to the side yard renewed my hope. A single flower bud, fresh from the rain sent out a cheerful welcome. New growth covered the tree and not a single pest in sight.

Lemon tree buds

A couple of rainy days later and all was right with the world. Tiny flower buds cover the tree. Sweet, pink, intoxicating, might-one-day-be-a-lemon buds.

Lemon tree flower and buds

To be continued…

Epilogue

When life gives you lemons…

Collect them in a large bowl for a pretty display. Your entire house will smell like citrus.
Lemon juice and salt are great for cleaning copper.
Grinding a chopped lemon with some ice freshens the sink and the garbage disposal.
Use lemon juice instead of bleach to remove stains. Soak your delicate clothing in a mixture of lemon juice and baking soda for at least half an hour before washing. We did this with costumes in my theater days, so we didn’t harm the delicate fabric.

April 1, 2014 by Born To Organize

Birdwatching Fieldtrip: Fun in the Rain

We took a hummingbird class at Los Gatos Birdwatcher last week, then met for a birdwatching field trip over the weekend. Lead by Lisa Myers of Let’s Go Birding, we drove to the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society. Located at the tip of McClellan Ranch in Cupertino, trees, native shrubs and a number of feeders attract resident and migrating birds. We stood under the awning with a light rain falling, and made like a tree. Trees with binoculars, that is, and a few cameras, too.

Lisa pointed out that some people ‘bird’, some people photograph and some (raising my hand) try to do both. You can’t do both well, but I tried, knowing I wanted to share as much as I could with you.

Like so many things in life, once you tune in to something, the world opens up. Lisa called out several species, pointing out gender, mating patterns, feeding habits and other bits of wisdom. She has a dry sense of humour along with a vast knowledge of native birds, making for an interesting and entertaining morning.

She jokingly pointed out that serious birders will sneer if you mention seeing Canadian Geese and Seagulls. The correct terms: Canada Geese and Gulls. Conversely, she has to bite her tongue when customers come into the store and swear they saw a canary or an eagle in their back yard.

Although we did see hummingbirds, they were fairly shy. They didn’t approach the feeder until we were well out-of-the-way. At home the resident hummers are quite bold, and will buzz up to us on the deck in the summer. They definitely know the hand that feeds them.

No matter. We saw plenty of other birds and I came away with even more appreciation of the songbirds in our area.

McClellan Ranch

Male birds flaunt their colorful plumage in order to attract a mate. The female, on the other hand, is nondescript. Since she’s the one sitting on the nest incubating the young, it makes sense that she blends in, keeping her and the nest safe from predators. When I took the picture, below, I didn’t even know that the female of the pair was there.

Male and Female House Finch

Some of the pictures, below, are clearer than others, but I wanted to give you an idea of the variety on view Saturday morning.

A variety of song birds

Upper Left: Black Phoebe, Song Sparrow (?) Woodpecker and Mourning Dove.

I’ve been working from memory and my trusty Local Birds of the San Francisco Bay Area Quick Guide to identify the birds pictured below. I’m going to have to check with Lisa to see if I got it right.

More song birds

I’m more confident about identifying this crowd: Behind the stop sign, a House Finch and a Lesser Goldfinch, at the feeder, Lesser Goldfinch, two White-crowned sparrows, and at the top of the tree, a White-tailed Kite.

Do you have a favorite songbird in your neighborhood? Please let me know in the comments below. Sharing of photos encouraged.

Fabulous resources in Silicon Valley:

Lisa Myers’ Let’s Go Birding leads tours and workshops.
Los Gatos Birdwatcher, for all things birding.
Wild Bird Care Center Quite often, wild birds are ‘over rescued’. This site has many great tips for determining if and when to intervene.

March 31, 2014 by Born To Organize

Beginning Birding: Hummingbird Class

Don’t you just love learning new things? It’s especially fun when it’s something your passionate about. We took a hummingbird class at the spectacular Los Gatos Birdwatcher. This locally owned store describes themselves as

the nature lover’s general store, specializing in everything to do with bird feeding and bird watching.

If you’re local, or planning a visit to the area, it’s a must see. The owners and staff are wonderful people, knowledgeable and helpful in every way. Their current dog in residence is a chocolate Cocker spaniel named Marley.

Lisa Myers of Let’s Go Birding presented the hummingbird class, then lead us on a two-hour field trip Saturday morning. We had so much fun. Lisa leads a variety of birding trips throughout the bay area. She’s incredibly knowledgeable with a wonderful sense of humour.

Lisa Myers and Freddy Howell

We’ve been feeding hummingbirds in our garden for as long as I can remember. We have several feeders and hummingbird-attracting plants.

Hummingbirds in our garden

I’ve read a number of books and articles over the years, but still found much to learn. It’s also nice spending time with a group of like-minded folks.

Here are a few things I didn’t know:

There are over 300 species of hummingbirds, but only six or seven in the Bay Area.
Hummingbirds are native to the Americas. They’re not found anywhere else in the world.
Yellow attracts bees, red attracts hummingbirds. Therefore a hummingbird feeder with yellow plastic ‘flowers’ sends out mixed messages.
Anna’s Hummingbirds, native to our area, live here year round. There is no need to remove feeders during the colder months.
Hummingbirds are the only bird that can hover in the air, as well as fly forward and backward.

Anna’s Hummingbird

It was fascinating learning about torpor. Hummingbirds enter this state of hibernation nightly to conserve energy. I found the following explanation at ScienceBlogs™

Even sleeping hummingbirds have huge metabolic demands that must be met simply to survive the night when they cannot forage. To meet this energetic challenge, hummingbirds save enough energy to survive cold nights by lowering their internal thermostat at night, becoming hypothermic. This reduced physiological state is an evolutionary adaptation that is referred to as torpor.

Torpor is a type of deep sleep where an animal lowers its metabolic rate by as much as 95%. By doing so, a torpid hummingbird consumes up to 50 times less energy when torpid than when awake. This lowered metabolic rate also causes a cooled body temperature. A hummingbird’s night time body temperature is maintained at a hypothermic threshold that is barely sufficient to maintain life. This threshold is known as their set point and it is far below the normal daytime body temperature of 104°F or 40°C recorded for other similarly sized birds.

Isn’t that interesting?

Please be sure to check back tomorrow for news and pictures from our two-hour field trip to the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society.

Fabulous resources in Silicon Valley:

Lisa Myers’ Let’s Go Birding leads tours and workshops.
Los Gatos Birdwatcher, for all things birding.
Wild Bird Care Center Quite often, wild birds are ‘over rescued’. This site has many great tips for determining if and when to intervene.

March 27, 2014 by Born To Organize

Garden Triangle

Around this time last year, I removed a wedge of lawn near the sidewalk to make room for some flowers. That nifty little triangle of dirt proved to be a lot of fun. Through spring, summer and early fall, an assortment of flowers bloomed. By late November, most of it had gone to seed. All that remained was the Statice, relocated from the curb garden earlier in the year.

My reward for letting the plants go to seed: a host of spring ‘volunteers.’

Here is a photo from February 25th:

Wedge garden: February 25th

Here it is today:

Wedge garden: March 26th

The Statice really filled out. It’s also about to bloom. The purple and yellow pansies are blooming for the second time and the seedlings have doubled or tripled in size. Now that the growing pattern is taking shape, I transplanted a few volunteer seedlings heavily concentrated at the curb. Spade in hand, I held my breath and took the plunge. They drooped for half a day, then bounced right back. Now I’ll have a nice mix throughout the triangle.

Congregating at the curb

Garden pansies spring back to life

Purple Statice

Still a mystery. Any guesses?

I collected a lot of seeds last year, including Cosmos, Bachelor Buttons, Four O’clock’s and Zinnias. Between the collected seeds, the volunteers and the bag of wildflowers (intended for last year but lost, then found) the garden should bloom all season.

Do you have a favorite spring flower? Is there something you’ve always wanted to grow? Let me know in the comments below.

March 26, 2014 by Born To Organize

Daffodil Dance

Shortly after planting my daffodil bulbs, I saw signs of digging everywhere. Little pockmarks appeared in the same random pattern as the naturalized bulbs. Foiled again!

I fluffed up the soil and hoped for the best. Surely the anonymous foragers left a few behind.

All that worry was for not. (Which is almost always true, but that is for another day). Apparently daffodils (narcissus) aren’t that tasty. I’ve since learned that it’s one of the few bulbs that even bunnies will leave alone.

All fifty bulbs came up! Ten are in bloom, with several more about to bud. I’m so cheered by these flowers.

It’s easy to see the inspiration for William Wordsworth’s poem Daffodil:

“Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.”

Curb garden daffodils

The long view

Spreading cheer

A lovely rendition of William Wordsworth’s Daffodil:

March 25, 2014 by Born To Organize

Tools and Snails: This Way

Check out my new tool holder. My friend Nick made it from reclaimed fencing and ceramic knobs. Nick Timmerman is also the talent behind our Little Free Library. If you missed that post, you can read about it at Little Free Library: Books for Everyone.

Garden Tools, Reclaimed Fences

The tool holder is hanging from the side of the house near the vegetable garden. It’s great to have a handy place to put my oft-used garden tools. They’ll be right where I need them throughout the growing season. The arrow points away from the garden. It’s a subliminal message directed at the snails: lunch is that way. Nothing to see here, mollusks.

Ceramic knobs

Nick reclaimed the knobs from his mother’s former kitchen. They looked vaguely familiar at first, but I couldn’t recall why. Later I remembered buying the very same knobs for a project years and years ago.

What goes around, comes around, in more ways than one.

Thanks, Nick!

Memories, from the corners of my mind

March 24, 2014 by Born To Organize

EarthBox: Growing our Salad

Earth Box

Inspired by Pauline at The Contented Crafter, I planted an EarthBox™ this weekend with assorted salad greens. The heirloom tomatoes self-seeded this year and are well on their way. I’m looking forward to a summer full of fresh garden salads.

The EarthBox™ planting system is a great way to grow vegetables in small spaces. It’s a fully contained gardening system. The box comes with

an aeration screen
fill tube
Dolomite
Fertilizer
Mulch cover

You pack the lower corners of the box with potting mix, then add additional mix to the two-inch mark. On top of the mix you add a layer of Dolomite (premeasured and provided in the kit). After mixing in the Dolomite, you create a small trench down the center of the box and add the premeasured fertilizer. Finally, you add the remaining soil, the cover, and you’re ready to plant.

Our backyard garden has very little full sun. This box allows me to extend my growing space by wheeling it to the edge of the patio in the path of the sun. It’s a great system for first time gardeners, since all the guess-work is done for you. It conserves water, another plus since you add water through a fill tube. This encourages the water to flow to the bottom where the roots will follow. No surface drying and no leakage.

I used a similar product called a City Picker for last year’s tomatoes. The plants did well, but it was difficult to stake them in such a shallow pot. They’re growing in the raised beds this summer instead.

I added a band of copper tape barrier to the box and the lower rungs of the trellis. The tape creates a small electrical charge that snails won’t cross. It’s a cruelty-free, organic way to ensure snail-free salad.

Copper tape discourages snails

Copper tape on trellis

Last, but not least, I planted a handful of sweat peas from seed along the back of the box. (Thank you, Boomdee). If all goes according to plan, I’ll have a box brimming with purple flowers and fresh salad greens for months to come.

EarthBox™ (looking down)

Organic Mixed Lettuce

Additional Resources: How to plant an EarthBox™.

March 21, 2014 by Born To Organize

Vintage California: Stunning Display Garden

Tuesday night I attended a preview of the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show. This year’s show features 16 display gardens in addition to plants, seeds and other garden wares for sale.

Vintage California won several awards and it’s easy to see why. Designed by Brian Koch of Terra Ferma Landscapes, the garden features an enormous orb built with discarded grape vines. I felt like a kid in a fort.

The structure is both ethereal and substantial, a bit reminiscent of a nest. I’m picturing birds swooping in and out of the branches while I sip my crisp glass of wine, below.

From the show’s site, Vintage California:

is a response to the wine country landscape and the periodic clearing of vines that have lost favor or popularity. This removal of vines is a process where large excavators scrape the landscape clean of the vines, posts and wires and then pile them up to be burned. Witnessing this take place while visiting wine regions has left a strong and lasting memory with us. The rustic beauty of the region and the interdependence of the winegrowers, the vines and, now, the natural ecosystems are what inspire us. The vine orb, which is the centerpiece of the design, is constructed of old vines that have outlived their value to the vineyards.

Vintage California
Terra Ferma Landscapes
Brian Koch, designer

I don’t know if it was intentional, but the row of grasses, planted on a gentle slope, are reminiscent of rolling hills of grapes. My in-laws had a small vineyard in Calistoga before they passed. I think they would have enjoyed this.

Underneath the vine orb

Inside the orb a low rock wall flanked both sides, with a small fountain between stones.

Centered under the vine orb

A clever use of sea glass and discarded wine bottles forms the floor of the garden. I was a bit tentative walking on it, but it proved substantial. Isn’t it pretty?

Clever markers, hand-stamped on scraps of wood

Throughout the garden, plant-markers sported hand-stamped descriptions on what looks like small scraps of wood. It added to the vintage vibe.

Exiting the garden

The garden, planted with greens and purple hues and the incredibly fragrant Jasmine is restful. Congratulations to the designer and his team.

If you live in the Bay Area, there’s still time to attend the show. It runs through Sunday, March 23rd. Tickets and info here.

March 20, 2014 by Born To Organize

Vernal Equinox, Always on Time

Variety adds spice, predictability keeps us grounded.

I enjoy the novelty of each season, and their predictable arrival. Though it feels like winter passed us by, the planet continues to rotate. Once a year I celebrate the Vernal Equinox, aka the first day of spring.

I found a super-cool site called Time and Date that spells out the specifics if you’re curious. I was. I love learning new things. As gardeners in the Northern Hemisphere welcome spring, green thumbs in the Southern Hemisphere are seeing in the first day of fall.

My celebration is simple: I plant. Nothing says spring like tucking seeds under the soil with optimism in your heart.

I also pulled weeds, topped of the planter boxes with rich soil, checked on the mini-greenhouse *and* remembered to do a good job with my sunscreen. Lindy kept me company, happy to be outdoors on this glorious day.

Lindy-lu

Planter boxes, rotating composter, mini-greenhouse and worm bin

The hummingbirds circled the feeder, jockeying for territory.

Swooping in for some nectar

They’re also drinking from the Abutilon lining the fence.

Abutilon lines the fence near the patio

I heard a squirrel overhead, and noticed activity in the little mason bee nesting house. What a day!

Mason Bee Habitat

How is this for serendipity: the lovely Boomdee sent me several packets of sweat peas, and they arrived yesterday! Perfect timing. She sent a purple variety as well so that my sister, Sharon can enjoy them when she’s here.

Goodies from Boomdee

To round out the day, I popped in to SummerWinds Nursery and picked up an EarthBox™ and some potting mix. I’m planting assorted lettuces in the front of the box, with the sweet peas in the back. The trellis from the now-deceased Hardenbergia is the perfect size. I’ve placed it at the edge of the lawn near the patio for easy viewing. I can’t wait to watch them grow.

There is much more to do, as their always is this time of year, but I enjoy it all. Wishing you the best of the new season, be it spring or fall.