Gardening

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Pumpkin Vine Sprawl

Well will you look at that?!  Our granddaddy of all pumpkin vines has meandered across the planting box, over the trellis, through the tomato cage and around the berries.  Yesterday Big Max grew at least a foot!

I have two smaller vines growing as well, transplants from indoors.  One of them set fruit last week, but they can’t keep up with the big guy.  We’ve counted at least a dozen pumpkins so far, currently a pale yellow.  Two of them are the size of basketballs and so far unharmed.  The rats, squirrels and other mysterious visitors are helping themselves to the smaller fruit, but fortunately we have enough to go around.  Fingers crossed.

A few of the fruits have rotted on the vine but the plant itself looks okay.  I hope this is just part of the natural selection process and that the others continue to grow.  I wish you could all stop by for an in-person tour.  I guess photos will have to do.

Upward Mobility

My Pride and Joy

Leafy Green

Pumpkin Vines: The Long View

Up and Comers

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Three Out of Four Cats Agree: Nepeta Cataria Rocks!

The verdict is in, at least as far as our cats are concerned. It’s a resounding “yes” to fresh-picked catnip. I performed this highly scientific test in random order. In other words, whatever feline showed interest first. Since Lindy, 10, had her eye on the plant, I started with her. She immediately dove into the lawn where I placed the catnip, rubbing her chin against the leaves.  I pulled my hand away to take the picture, and she continued to nuzzle the leaves. Next up, Beijing, 15,who came by to see what all the fuss was about. She leaned down to smell it, rubbed it a bit, then picked it up and took a nibble. Tasty!  Slinky, 2, is a wild one, frightened of just about everything. She took some coaxing, but once she got a whiff of the catnip she immediately took to the scent as well.

Neighbor kitty hung out on the fence, observing the tests and making sure I didn’t falsify the results and jeopardize my catnip seed funding.

Lindy-Lu gives it a Paws-Up

Beijing Finds it Tasty

Slinky Says Yes to Catnip

Neighbor Kitty: I’ve got my eye on you!

You can read more about the properties of Nepeta cataria, also known as catnip or cat mint here.

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City Picker Update: Tiny Green Tomatoes

Early Green Tomatoes

As the pumpkin vines continue to populate the vegetable patch, I was once again grateful for the City Picker boxes.  I simply rolled the entire planter box of tomatoes to another sunny spot, and let the pumpkin vines continue to grow.  (As if I would stop them!!!)

Unfortunately, one of the two boxes leaks when I fill the watering tube.  I can’t do anything about it now, but I’ll investigate at the end of the planting season to see what’s up.  I planted three starter tomato plants on one side and a variety of seeds on the other.   Eventually, I thinned the plants to an even six to the box.

Here’s how they’re growing:

City Picker Tomatoes: June 23, 2012

City Picker Tomatoes: May 23, 2012

City Picker Tomatoes: May 1, 2012

Help! There’s a pumpkin vine chasing me!!!

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Rearranging the Plants: A Welcome Home Surprise

Rearranging the furniture was a favorite pastime when I was a girl.  My sister and I would move things around while Mom was at work, then yell surprise when she walked through the door.  This week, I decided to rearrange some plants.

In March we planted five glorious pink Azaleas beneath the living room window.  Sadly,  once the temperatures rose, one of them rapidly dried out.  Hoping for the best we held on for another several weeks.  I hate giving up on plants. We finally laid it to rest in the compost heap last week.

My husband has been wanting to buy more Azaleas for the back corner, to intersperse with the hydrangea. I suggested we move the surviving plants, then buy pink hydrangeas to go under the window.  Azaleas make me happy, but blooming hydrangea make my heart skip a few beats.

While I was away, Mike made the switch.  He tucked the Azaleas around the sword fern near the blue hydrangea, then planted pinkish purple hydrangea under the window.  The plants will grow taller, doing a better job hiding the house’s foundation, and as they grow they’ll pop their pretty pink heads above the window.  Can you feel me smiling from ear to ear?

New Hydrangea

Azaleas (Back in March)

Relocated Azaleas

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Miniland Wonders: Bonsai meets Legos

Can’t you just see the job description:  ‘Lego builders wanted, must play well with others.  Patience and math skills a plus.’

Without further ado, today’s blog is brought to you in pictures. All of the models are built from Legos.   The trees and flowers are real but pruned to scale:

San Francisco, California

New England

New England meets Bonsai

Star Wars Episode IV: Tatooine

Las Vegas, Nevada

Historic Ferndale, California
(This one’s for you, Bonnie)

Not pictured: Washington, DC, New Orleans, New York and Southern California. There is also a Star Wars Miniland, featuring scenes from all six episodes.

Blending The Two
A. Bison
B. Golden Goose
C. Elephant near succulents
D. Bison close-up
E. Dragon tail

What’s Growing at LEGOLAND

Native Wildlife
(That lizard tried to impress me with push ups)

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LEGOLAND: Our Miniland Sendoff

We’re happy to be home with stories to share and a plethora of photos for the scrapbooks and Facebook.  I love traveling but I’m happy to come home, too.  I miss the garden and our cats and this time my husband and older son who stayed home.  It was a great trip.  We laughed a lot, shared some nice meals and enjoyed the novelty of a theme park based on Legos.

Our day drew to a close in the midst of the amazing miniature village known as Miniland, filled with incredible scale models of the real and the imagined.  Here is a quick peak at Miniland from the top of the hill.  More pictures to follow tomorrow.

Miniland: The Long View

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The Heart of LEGOLAND and a Dash in the Splash

LEGOLAND’s® heart lies toward the center of the park, known as Mini-land USA. Meticulously detailed Lego models recreate, on a miniature scale, monuments, neighborhoods and landmarks. Mini-land brims with recreations of  New Orleans during Mardi Gras, the White House, complete with marching band on the lawn, Las Vegas and downtown San Francisco to name a few.   It’s amazing to see the creativity on display. Each scene captures the essence of the original, using lights, sound and movement, such as a cable car going up and down the hill in San Francisco or a fire crew rescuing a cat from a tree.  Mini-land is full of charm, appealing to all ages.  In recent years they’ve added a Star Wars series, with displays from various Star Wars movies. In addition to the fixed models, buildings are surrounded by miniaturized landscaping.

If you look closely at the photo below, the trees are actually small plants, pruned and shaped to look like pines and spruce.  The red barn and green house are built entirely from Lego bricks.  They stand about eight inches tall.

Three years ago, LEGOLAND added a water park and a small aquarium. The current Sea Life Aquarium exhibit featuring crabs and other crustaceans.  The tanks were breathtaking, with an eye toward beautiful design and sea life preservation.  It’s small and intimate, a nice way to start the day.

We spent the rest of the day at the Water Park.  Cameras safely locked away, we donned bathing suits and floated anonymously on individual rafts along the Build-a-Raft-River. The water was warm and relaxing.  We shook things up by careening down the Orange Rush in a family raft.  My son talked us into a turn on the water roller coaster, a ride culminating with a steep plunge into a wall of water.  To say we were soaked is an understatement.

Trivia for the day: LEGO started in Denmark in 1932. LEGO comes from the word “Leg Godt” which means “play well.”

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LEGOLAND: Green Amid the Bricks

We’re here in sunny Carlsbad for a few days visiting LEGOLAND California.  My youngest son is 12, so this may be our last visit.  He commented early in the day that he thought there would be more “mature people” in the park.  Like me, he remembers the good times we had when he was younger.  He’s been cutting his teeth on daredevil roller coaster rides back home, so finds the rides here rather tame by comparison.   That said, it’s a wonderful place to bring children.  Several rides are interactive, allowing the rider  to participate.  LEGOLAND is airy and uncrowded with several outlets for spontaneous creativity.  Water figures prominently throughout the park.  They’ve added a separate water park since we were last here, which we plan to explore tomorrow.

We’re traveling with friends who are easy-going and fun so we’re enjoying each other’s company.  It drives the boys nuts when the moms stop to take photos.  If you’ve spent time in the company of a 12 year-old you know that annoying them is easy.  It’s an adolescent right of passage.

We took pictures anyway!  Here are a few highlights of the day:

Miniland: Las Vegas, Lego Style

Tall grasses line the edges of the lagoon

Rock Concert: Singing Rocks
We will, we will, rock you!

Tasmanian Tree Fern ‘Dicksonia Antarctica’

Trivia for the day: 53 million LEGOs used to build models throughout LEGOLAND California.

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The Joyful Gardener Turns 12

Harvesting his first watermelon

My cheerful, insightful, smart and creative son turns 12 today.  As an infant we joked that he was born with the “happy gene” as he soaked up his surroundings with a positive, mellow and inquisitive outlook.  His tantrums were few, even at two.  When he fell, his cries lasted a few seconds.  My son was joy, personified.

As it turns out, he was also born with the “gardening gene.”  Sure he liked the toy aisle at Target, but the seeds were his favorite.   We came home with many a packet of sunflower, pumpkin and carrot seeds, full of optimism and good spirit.  His grandfather would be proud.  During the Santa years, I mail-ordered his pumpkin seeds so they looked just a little different from the seeds we bought in town.  The jig is up, but the pumpkin-seeds-in-the stocking tradition lives on.

Here are a few pics of my joyful gardener over the years.

The first watermelon

Starting his garden

Reading to his pumpkin plants to help them grow

A little music never hurts either

11, years, 364 days old

Happy birthday, M!

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Father’s Day: Lost and Found

I celebrate two fathers today, my dad who died when I was nine, and my husband, wonderful father to our sons.

My dad was a horticulturist by trade, but loved all things gardening so much that he gardened on the weekends as well.  We took turns on the one-way wheelbarrow rides, while he hauled rocks to our London, Ontario back yard.  He built a meandering brook throughout the garden, then added trees, flowers, and in the short summer, vegetables.  I tasted my first cherry tomato from that garden.  I remember walking through the back door of our kitchen with a handful of tomatoes and giving them to my mom as she prepared lunch.  Is it any wonder I inherited Dad’s green thumb?

Eric Milner
Father, painter, gardener, hobbyist, animal-lover

My husband loves the garden and the gardener, but not the actual day-to-day joy of gardening.  That said, we’ve spent many an hour together planning, creating, digging, and simply enjoying our garden.  Like anyone who truly loves you, my man celebrates and embraces my joy of all things green.  Our sons love and admire him.  He’s smart, kind, clever, generous and most days, a kid at heart.  The greatest gift to any son is to be a stand up guy.  What lucky boys!

Mike Francini
Husband and father, self-described computer geek, Renaissance man
He’s traveled the world, speaks with fluency in two languages, sails, tinkers, and loves his family.

Happy Father’s Day to the dad I lost and to the dad I found.  Happy Father’s Day to you and yours.