March 5, 2014 by Born To Organize

Garden Peas Last Stand

It’s time.

I waited to see if the garden peas would return after five punishing days of frost last November. Luscious green pods covered the plant for a time, with a promise of many more. When the frost hit (early and rare for us) I wasn’t prepared. By the end of that week it was too late. The remaining peas froze on the vine, eventually shriveling to a dusty brown.

Always an optimist, I left the plant in place hoping it might recover. It did! In the last few weeks, the plant sent out a second round of flowers and legumes, plump and sweet.

After this last push, the plant looks spent. Soon I’ll be planting Sweet Peas in the same place. Keeping it all in the family.

I will definitely grow this winter crop again next year, but I’ll be better prepared.

Meanwhile, if you have a favorite recipe for pea soup, please share in the comments below.

Garden peas

I love the pretty white flowers

Last hurrah

March 4, 2014 by Born To Organize

Four-in-One Fruit Tree

Fruit tree tags

A couple of you have asked for more info on our four-in-one fruit cocktail tree. I think the idea is genius. One tree receives three additional grafts of different fruit. In our case, the tree grafts include peaches, nectarines, apricots and plums.

We first learned about these trees from our neighbor, Gwyn. She’s in the process of creating an edible front garden. Pretty cool, eh?

My then ten-year-old son was so excited with the idea that he asked for one for his birthday. Talk about a gift that keeps on giving. The tree turns five this year. Sadly, we lost one of the grafts, the smallest and weakest of the four. The other three remain healthy and strong.

This is the perfect tree for gardening in small spaces. You get to grow multiple varieties on one tree. They even fruit at different times! Trees are available with up to six grafts in a related family. You can buy citrus, stone fruit or apple.

Our tree is in bloom with three distinct flowers. The bees arrived in between the storms. Don’t you just love that steady hum of industry?

Plum blossoms

Apricot buds

Peach buds

You can read more about ‘fruit salad trees” here. Please let me know if you plant one of your own.

February 28, 2014 by Born To Organize

Friday Flowers

The rain continues. I had a white-knuckled drive across the valley this afternoon, with bits of flooding across the freeway. I’m happy to be home and enjoying the rain with my feet firmly planted on the ground. Flash-flooding is inevitable with so many months of parched earth.

Hopefully we can weather this storm without loss or injury. Everyone forgets how to drive on wet roads.

Traffic conditions aside, what a happy soaking in the garden. Signs of spring were everywhere this week. Come take a look:

Coral Abutilon

Fragrant freesia

Garden peas

First tulip

Jasmin buds

Sweet Alyssum

February 27, 2014 by Born To Organize

Raspberry Teasers

Two summers ago the raspberry vines produced mouth-watering fruit. Many a summer’s day, we would head to the garden after dinner and eat them right off the vine. They were melt-in-your mouth delicious.

Last year I transplanted the vines to make room for an impromptu pumpkin patch. They pumpkins self-seeded in the compost bin and needed a place to grow. The raspberry canes grew into vines, but not a single berry. Not one! We missed them terribly.

For years I bought beautiful red berries at the market, only to be disappointed by the taste. After growing them I learned that the mouth-watering taste was in the dark berries. Red fruit looks pretty in the market, but doesn’t come close to delivering on taste.

I’m happy to report that the vines have recovered. They’re sending out healthy green leaves along their prickly, red stalks. Stage one is looking good. Next up: white flowers. Then I’ll know we’re back in business.

Raspberry vines and daffodils

Will the vines produce fruit? Only the shadow knows for sure

Healthy foliage, happy gardener

So, here I am counting my berries before they grow, but I can’t help myself. Fresh rain and the countdown to spring bring out the optimistic gardener.

Stay tuned.

Do you have a favorite berry?

February 26, 2014 by Born To Organize

Fab Freesias Frolic in the Rain

It’s raining. Honest to goodness, puddle-forming, hair-curling rain.

This is the first substantial rain in San Jose in two months. Everyone else seems to be suffering from too much weather; we haven’t had enough. I walked with a friend for an hour this morning and it never let up. Fantastic.

My garden freesias share my enthusiasm. This is their first shower of the season.

Nature’s perfection

Refreshed

They aren’t the only ones happy about the downpour. The squirrels are chasing each other around and around the pine tree with glee. Meanwhile, a hummingbird tried to make sense of the fruit tree. It’s known as a four-in-one or a fruit cocktail. It’s one tree with four grafts. This one grows pitted fruit: peaches, plums, apricots and nectarines. The grapes were an after thought by yours-truly on her way to the compost bin. They still had some life in them so I hung them on the branches for the birds.

Hummingbird at rest

I’ve enjoyed watching the progress of this potted beauty. It sits on the back steps, so I can see it from indoors. I pass it on my way to do the daily rounds: emptying the kitchen compost bin, snapping pictures, checking on things. I pulled weeds for an hour yesterday, and cut back some of the dead growth from last November’s frost. It felt great to get out there and do a bit of work after nursing a crummy cold for over a week.

Four week progression

The yellow freesia was a surprise. It popped out from under another plant and seemed to bloom in a flash. Yellow is such a cheerful color, don’t you think?

Yellow freesia buds

These popped up earlier this week

If you are sick of the wind, the rain, the snow or the drought, I hope things turn around for you soon. I plan to enjoy every minute of this rainy day and, fingers crossed, hope for more to come.

February 25, 2014 by Born To Organize

How to Plant a Garden

There are three ways to plant a garden.

You can start with seeds, gently coaxing them with warm soil, water and light.
You can buy established starter plants from a local nursery or garden center.
Or…you can get out-of-the-way and see what the earth has in store.

We refer to them as ‘volunteers’ around here, tiny seeds that make their way into the soil by a variety of methods and grow up to be the healthiest plants in your garden. Volunteers are the handy work of the wind, the birds and in this case a little self-control from the organized gardener. I like things tidy, even the garden, but have learned to show restraint.

It’s one thing to pull out weeds or cut back dying branches. That helps the garden grow. But dead-heading flowers isn’t always best. When I sat on my hands and let my annuals go to seed last fall, wonderful things happened.

For starters, lots of birds. It was a joy to stand at my kitchen window and see them visit throughout the day. They ate a few, dropped a few and now I have a self-seeding patch of annuals ready for a good soaking from tomorrows promised storm.

Don’t you just love nature?

Small garden patch near the sidewalk
brimming with tiny seedlings

Look closely: sprouts galore

Variety is the spice of life

February 24, 2014 by Born To Organize

Everyone P**ps

You can take the girl out of England, but you can’t take the English out of the girl.

I came really close to naming today’s blog Everyone Poops, from the children’s book of the same name. Written in Japanese, and translated into English, I first spotted this book nearly twenty years ago in a Mendocino bookstore. I giggled.

My dad was British, my mom Canadian. We used more polite words when discussing bodily functions, and even in my fifties I give pause before using this particular word.

Yet today on my hike, when this lovely deer provided a front row seat to her daily elimination, I kept thinking about that book.

Taking care of business

On her way

I thought of other things as well. She was trusting enough to hold my gaze while at the same time holding that position. It was fun for me, hiking alone, to have her walk along the same path for a few hundred feet before heading up the hill.

Hiking companion

Generally they close the park trail to traffic, but the gate was open this morning. As I snapped away, I heard a large truck pull up behind me. I moved off the path to let the truck pass. I giggled some more.

Clean-out Tank

You’ll never hear this discussed on Downton Abbey, but the reality is it’s true. Everyone p**ps.

February 21, 2014 by Born To Organize

Greenhouse Envy

Mini greenhouse

Last year I watched with admiration as Sarah the Gardener built her second greenhouse. Sarah writes a fabulous blog about her garden in Australia, and is about to publish her second book on the subject. Check out her amazing garden.

I’ve always liked the idea of a greenhouse. My dad planted that seed years ago as he too wished he had one at home. Living in Silicon Valley means houses are small on small plots or large on small plots, but rarely will you find a house with a big piece of property attached. It’s simply cost prohibitive. Those of us who garden make do with the limited space. We have great weather year round and a long growing season to boot. I have zero room to complain.

So imagine my delight when I saw an ad in the paper for this scaled down and highly affordable mini-greenhouse at our local garden center. It was on sale for $39 bucks which is a steal if you ask me.

I put it together over the weekend and it’s ready for plants. I’m going to take stalk of my seed collection this weekend and then the fun begins. Planting seeds!

Spring, also known as the Vernal Equinox, is just a month away in this hemisphere. As Sarah puts her garden to bed for the winter in Australia, our California garden will be waking up.

I’ve Been Framed

Thanks to all who voted and commented with your suggestions earlier in the week on I’ve Been Framed. The straw-colored hallway won. Here is a video of the art as I approach. I hung her so our eyes meet when I walk by. It’s nice to live with someone who sees eye-to-eye with you every single day. I promise not to let it go to my head. ;-)

There was a great artist named Pauline

Who lived with a kitty so darling

She made fabulous art

Art filled with great heart

Now it hangs on my wall thanks to Pauline.

February 18, 2014 by Born To Organize

The Long and the Short of It

Do you ever look at photos on other blogs and think: “I wonder what’s around that corner’? I catch myself doing it all the time. What’s behind the house just outside of view? Where is the wheelbarrow in relation to the garden? Is that what I think it is?!?

Of course it’s none of my business, but that doesn’t stop my curious mind from traveling along the path. The solution is simple. I’ll buy a private jet so I can travel around the world, meeting all my fellow bloggers. I’ll deliver in-person hugs, and then, when I finally let go, hours of tea-drinking and a Q & A will ensue. When I arrive home, I’ll know the long and short of it.

Sadly, no room in the budget for my private jet fantasy. It’s fun to dream though.

Today I took photos with both the long and the short view. Closeups are usually more interesting, but seeing the origins of that closeup can also be fun.

Burgundy Fringe Flower (Loropetalum)

This beauty grows along the back fence under the Pittosporum. It gives a lovely splash of color from a distance, and continues to delight up close. Those fringe-like flowers look like fairy garden pom poms in the making.

The closeup

I wrote about the intoxicating scent of the Daphne a few weeks ago. It’s still covered with tiny flowers, but the fragrance seems to be fading. I think it’s pretty both near and far.

Daphne in the garden

Daphne up close

These low-growing plants hug the patio near the outdoor table. Purple and white look so pretty together and the Alyssum smells like honey. I love sitting out there in the summer.

Bell-flower and Alyssum

Bellflower

Mighty Mouse belongs to a neighbor, but he spends all of his ‘spare’ time at our place.

Tasty garden morsels

Kitty nibbles on the grass

And that is the long and short of it.

How about you? Are you curious about life outside of the edges?

February 17, 2014 by Born To Organize

Goofing Off

Selfie with Silicon Valley in the background

It’s a holiday in the US today, more specifically President’s Day. The boys are out of school, Mike’s home from work and the sun is shining.

We desperately, desperately, desperately need the rain and this is the month we get the most of it. That said, it’s hard not to enjoy such a clear, bright warm day.

We hiked at Almaden Quicksilver, and enjoyed the bits of green along the trails edge thanks to some recent rain. The California Poppies are up as well. We hiked mid-day, a terrible time for decent photos, but I hope to go back soon to snap some shots while the poppies are still in bloom.

In case you think I’m a complete deadbeat, I did a lot of digging, pruning, weeding and planning over the weekend and will share more with you later in the week.

See you then!