July 25, 2013 by Born To Organize

A Pumpkin We Will Grow

First Pumpkin

We’ve grown pumpkins every summer for a decade. Our first crop was a happy accident when my then four-year-old spilled a bag of squirrel food. We swept up most of it, then kicked the rest off the path into the dirt. Before you can say ‘boo!!!’ we ended up with five pumpkins.

To celebrate that tenth anniversary, we’re growing an all-volunteer crop this year too. I feel a bit guilty when I walk by our little patch and realize I had next to nothing to do with it.

Earlier this year I popped the lid off of one of my composting bins and spied a pair of pumpkin seedlings. I smiled, put the lid back on and went about my business. The next time I checked the bin was full of seedlings! Clearly they enjoyed the impromptu greenhouse effect, though the lack of light was a concern. I left the lid ajar and before I could even think of transplanting them, the crop took off.

pumpkin plants in compost 3-15-2013 7-56-04 AM

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I prepared the garden bed intended for the crop and simply eased the entire contents of the compost bin over on its side, then into the bed. I held my breath for a few days, hoping the trauma of being upended didn’t finish them off. Instead, they continued to grow.

At last count, there are 11 little pumpkins growing on the various vines. I’ve lost a few to snails and a critter with sharp teeth, but the remaining pumpkins look good.

2013, 07-03 4th of july fairy garden2

I’m a huge fan of all things Halloween, so growing pumpkins in the back yard brings me great joy. After all these years I’m still in awe that one little seed can produce a vine that runs half the length of the house in three short months. Beautiful yellow flowers give way to bountiful fruit. Days shorten, vines brown and left standing is a bounty of orange goodness.

Do you have a summer tradition that brings you great joy?

You can check out my page Passionate about Pumpkins to see a decade of growing, displaying and my husband’s awesome carving.

July 24, 2013 by Born To Organize

A Winning Combination

Sunflower

Earlier this year, I dug out a corner of the lawn and replaced it with a variety of flower seeds. The corner faces my kitchen window and sits at the curb, allowing maximum viewing enjoyment.

I started with assorted new and leftover seed packets, then added seeds saved from last summer. Growing from seed is risky business around here, thanks to a healthy population of squirrels. If the seeds manage to stay under wraps long enough for germination, they face the next hurdle: noshing snails. Those mollusks love tender shoots. What’s a gardener to do?

Lacking a greenhouse of my own, I hit upon the idea of ‘tenting’ the corner with a cover I spotted in a garden catalog. Boy, was I feeling smug. I planted my seeds, then erected the barricade. I staked the corners, then added rocks for safe measure. I checked each day and sure enough the barricade remained sound.

Every other day, I unzipped the cover to water the seeds, then stood back, waiting for them to grow. Nothing seemed to be sprouting. I checked with our local nursery, and received sound advice: if the seeds don’t remain moist at the time of germination, they never be viable. In the past I either started seeds indoors or sowed directly without benefit of a cover. My attempt to thwart the squirrels ending up thwarting the germination as well.

I went back to the nursery and bought a few bedding plants instead, so I could get a jump-start on the garden. I bought half a dozen sunflowers, some Alyssum and a couple of small bedding plants. I added a bright pink Cosmo to the center of the triangle and called it a garden.

Then lo and behold, the seeds began to grow! Just as the sunflowers were reaching their full height, lacy green foliage emerged below. Soon blues and pinks joined the yellows. Bachelor Buttons commingled with Cosmos. Forget-me-nots were next on the scene producing a brilliant dark purple flower. My garden corner is now what the garden centers like to call ‘a riot of color.’

Come join me for a walk on the bright side…

Bright Pink Cosmos (bedding plant)

Yellow Sunflower (bedding plant)

Emerging Bachelor Button (from seed)

Bachelor Button (from seed)

Soft Pink Bachelor Button (from seed)

Forget-me-not (from seed)

garden triangle collage

July 23, 2013 by Born To Organize

Muselet Cafe Chairs Fit for a Garden Fairy

I’ve learned all sorts of things this week, including the proper name for the ‘cage’ on champagne bottles: muselet. I’m dusting off my high school French and letting the word roll off my tongue. It’s also been great fun fashioning tiny cafe chairs from what we heretofore referred to as ‘that wire thingy that holds the cork in place.’

Here’s how it all started. I fell in love with the idea of fairy gardens when volunteering at my son’s school. The idea is to fashion a miniature garden using bits of this and that, along with rocks, twigs, flowers and leaves. Originality is key to attracting mythical fairies. I try to fashion my fairy garden with living plants, rocks and twigs, as well as items I would otherwise toss or recycle.

Fairy tables throughout the years include wine corks, an empty spool of thread, rocks and a muselet. My neighbor and fellow gardener, Ruth stopped by, took one look at the fairy birthday garden table, and told me about the cafe chairs. Be still my heart!

She loaned me the charming red chair pictured here so I could create one of my own. It was easy and fun. Since I’m Organized at Heart, I twisted the back of mine into an organic heart shape, but really, the skies the limit.

Next time you’re at a party, you can wow your host by leaving behind a tiny chair at the end of the evening. You could also put a bug in the ear of the caterer at a wedding and offer to take the muselet off their hands. Once home, you can fashion a pair of chairs for the bride and groom as an unexpected anniversary gift. These would make cute gift toppers as well. Who needs a bow when you can attach a cafe chair instead?

Specials thanks to Ruth for the inspiration and the loan of her chair.

Here’s a quick visual tutorial:

Muselet Cafe Chair tutorial: 1. Remove from bottle, 2. untwist and lay flat; 3. remove the long steel wire piece from the base; and 4. twist into shape and attach along the back of the chair legs.

Muselet Cafe Chairs

I found this great blog on all things muselet. (Sorry…I can’t stop saying that…muselet, muselet, muselet). Did you know about the six turns? Check it out!
Fellow blogger Greenhousing is making Elderflower Champagne in her garden. You can follow along here. Doesn’t that look tasty?
For the truly inspired, check out L’art du muselet. These are stunning artisan miniatures.

Please drink responsibly.

July 22, 2013 by Born To Organize

Here’s the Dirt

Purple Bachelor Button

I finally got to the bottom of my Planter Box Failure. In a word, Topsoil. All dirt is not created equal.

I ordered planting mix from a local supplier, but they delivered topsoil instead. The otherwise healthy plants weren’t thriving and I couldn’t figure out why. In the end, it comes down to the basics: sun, water, soil. The soil delivered was far too heavy and ill-suited for my needs.

The supplier offered a refund, but they can’t or won’t pick up the unwanted dirt.

Freecycle to the Rescue!

One of my readers suggested I offer the soil on Freecycle. I posted the offer last night and woke up to half a dozen emails. Wow!

The soil is going to one or two good homes and the emptied planter box will soon be mine. It’s late in the season to start over, but I’m going to plant a bag of flowers seeds I have on hand and see what grows.

Meanwhile, I had to scramble to transplant the surviving plants. I filled in some bare spots in the triangle at the corner of the lawn. I pulled four spent sunflowers which gave me room to transplant the status. I transplanted snapdragons and several cosmos that were struggling to establish. The roots of the plants hadn’t spread at all. They’ll do so much better now in their new fertile soil. The one plant that seemed to be taking hold in the box was the chocolate mint. Each plant sent out foot long runners beneath the soil and were really taking hold. The mint will go back into the new and improved planter box, but for now they’re resting in a few plastic pots along the walkway wall.

What seemed daunting last week now feels like an adventure. I love planting, so enjoyed ‘rearranging’ the plants. I’m happy the mint is doing well and can replant accordingly. Most of all, it feels great to find a home for all that dirt.

Time to transplant; Mighty Mouse assists

Back to Basics: Ready for pick-up

Merging Flowers: Cosmos, Status, Bachelor Buttons, Sunflowers, Snapdragons and Forget-me-nots

July 17, 2013 by Born To Organize

Planter Box Fizzle: Failure to Thrive

I’ve been trying to swallow my disappointment at the sorry state of my flower bed. In my imagination (a rich and fertile place I might add), the bed is flourishing. Instead, the mint, herbs, annuals and transplants are all stuck in idle.

My husband lovingly built the raised bed along the sidewalk strip this past spring. It’s quite large (4′ x 16′) so instead of buying bags from the nursery, I ordered planting mix from a local landscape supplier. I wasn’t home to accept the delivery, and ended up with a lot more than I needed. My friend, Jazzy, helped me remove all the excess and a friend down the street took it by the wheelbarrow-full for her own budding garden. At last it was ready to plant.

Doesn’t this look pretty and full of promise?

garden bed front garden newly planted

Here it is several weeks later.

Even the ‘volunteer’ pumpkin plant that jumped ship is doing better growing in the grass (lower left).

Given the seasonal heat, sun and proper irrigation, along with a generous covering of mulch, the plants should be thriving. Instead, a crop of black mushrooms sprout along the surface each morning, eventually wilting under the mid-day sun.

Today, I got to the bottom of things. Or more accurately, the top. Instead of delivering ‘potting mix’ they delivered topsoil! It’s heavy, sandy and ill-suited for my needs.

The supplier offered a refund today, but they can’t remove the delivered soil. They suggested a few bags of high quality premium mix, free of charge, but I’ll need to amend it by half, so I still need to figure out what to do with over a cubic yard of topsoil.

Right now, I’m just overwhelmed. I’ll keep you posted.

July 1, 2013 by Born To Organize

Mad Dogs and Redheads, Get Out of the Midday Sun

As temperatures heat up across the country this week, I marvel at the good common sense of our felines. I continue to plow through work and household chores, miserable in this 100 degree heat. They on the other hand seek the cooler ground.

Early in the day they stretch out on the damp concrete patio. As the sun rises, they come indoors and sleep away the hottest part of the day under a ceiling fan or in the cool recesses of a closet.

Lindy, made in the shade

Beijing, looking frail but still hanging in there

The garden, too, knows exactly what to do on these over-heated days. Sinewy roots reach down to capture the cool water below, letting blooms open wide for the sun. Then they pack up shop as the sun sets and store their energy for the following day.

Helianthus, Sunflower

Cosmos and Forget-me-nots, happy in the heat

Even our native ancestors had more sense than we do. I see posts on Facebook of people running in the mid-day heat. Several spectators arrived in Las Vegas area hospitals after suffering from heat stroke while sitting in an outdoor amphitheater in the mid-day sun! And who do you suppose was offering the tomatoes a mid-day drink in the blaring sun? Guilty!!!

So…today I’m taking a page from the common sense manual. I ate an early breakfast with my husband outdoors in the patio shade. I finished my garden chores before 9 and now I’m writing with my feet propped up on the paper shredder under my desk, ceiling fan whirring overhead. My afternoon client has A/C (hooray).

Once back home I’ll try avoiding my natural tendencies to go, go, go by referring once again to that common sense manual. If you need me I’ll be doing (almost) nothing, until the blaring sun recedes for another day.

Hey…nobodies perfect.

Ways to beat the heat:

1. Drink plenty of cool water.

Slinky Malinki has a cool drink

2. Take a refreshing bath.

Mighty Mouse thinks a bath might cool me down

3. Enjoy an afternoon nap.

Shine On

Special thanks to Tamara of Botanical Gardens for including me in her list of Shine On Awards. It’s so nice to be appreciated. Tamara writes:

I am passionate art and nature lover. As I work for the third age university I got the opportunity to develop a new field of education for our seniors-my idea was to start the senior garden volunteers program. I find it intriguing for this program is not only a bond between education and nature, but it mirrors connections between society, ecology, development, individuality. My wish is to start an inter generational project with our senior garden volunteers. So this blog is also about topics dealing with importance of botany education, senior learning,inter generational learning, ecology,garden volunteers, art. Because, as I have mentioned before-it is blog about My Botanical Garden.

June 24, 2013 by Born To Organize

We’re Off to See a Different Mouse

We’re waving goodbye to Mouse (the cat) today as we fly to Disneyland for a short holiday. Mickey Mouse, here we come!

My traveling companions are two active 13-year-old boys. There will be no moss growing under my toes this week! My son asked me to take photos of the garden today and then again on Friday to compare. Without further ado, here’s a snapshot of some of the faster-growing garden favorites.

June 24, 2013
Female pumpkin buds

June 24, 2013
Young pumpkin

June 24, 2013
This pumpkin is further along, but those two snails look suspicious to me. We may not have a pumpkin to photograph.

June 24, 2013
Basil in the rain. It’s looking fresh and tasty.

June 24, 2013
Three stages of hydrangeas

June 24, 2013
One of these things is not like the other
The sunflower on the left continues to grow up

Have a terrific week!

June 22, 2013 by Born To Organize

A Mighty Wind: Bending and Breaking

Sunflower Save

I guess the downside to planting a small garden is that ever single plant seems precious. Farmers, especially organic ones, expect to lose 20% of their crop. They simply take it in stride. Not me! So when I pulled into the driveway last week, greeted by heavy winds and leaning sunflowers, I knew I had to act.

Earlier this season, I planted several sunflowers from seed, for a near-perfect garden fail. One sunflower survived. To be fair, we do have a thriving squirrel population, so it’s important they don’t go without. ;-)

I hit the nursery for a second go and bought a cell pack of (6) six-inch plants instead. I planted the second batch of sunflowers during an early season heat-wave and they all survived. Thrived even! Within a month they had tripled in height with flowers everywhere. Ironically the one plant started from seed continues to grow in height. It’s the big sister to all the other plants.

I digress.

So…I’m driving up the road bemused at the crazy weather, only to see my precious plants bending in the wind. No one else was home to help, so I dragged the heavy wooden garden bench across the yard and the walkway so the plants could lean into the back for support. I grabbed some garden twine and laced up the stalks to the slats in the bench. I’m sure the neighbors thought I had lost it, placing a garden bench at the curb facing the driveway, but I’m past worrying about that.

Garden bench and a card table to the rescue

Relieved that my impromptu support was working, I turned to go inside, only to find the glass hummingbird feeder smashed to pieces. Again with the mighty wind. The wind snapped the tree branch holding the feeder, sending sticky glass crashing to the ground. I found parts of the feeder on the patio step, across the lawn and in the shrubs along the walkway.

Once there was a hummingbird feeder…

“Cleanup on aisle….” Oh right. I guess I’m on my own with this one, too. Ten minutes and one pair of worn out gloves later, the broken glass was up. While I tidied the sharp and sugary mess, hummers buzzed overhead. They couldn’t figure out why dinner had suddenly disappeared. They seemed to think I was responsible.

It was tempting to redirect them to the aforementioned sunflowers for a drink. “Hey…look over there!” Since we’re in the business of spoiling our local wildlife, however, I headed indoors to unearth our backup feeder. I mixed up a quart of sugar-water and we were back in business.

The mighty wind is fierce and strong; the resident gardener, resourceful.

Win or lose?

I think we’ll call this one a draw.

June 14, 2013 by Born To Organize

Flower Tower: Summer Edition

Tower of Sedum

Earlier this season I created a ‘Flower Tower’ by stacking three clay pots in graduated widths, then securing them with a stake. The flowers were beautiful, but the narrow space for planting, meant they dried out quickly. Annuals are shallow rooters to begin. Couple that with the porous clay pots and you have a watering challenge on your hands.

I loved the tower, and had fun aging the pots with gold leaf. I wasn’t ready to give up. I shifted the annuals to larger pots, then replanted with drought-tolerant Sedum.

I’m really pleased with the results. The plants don’t mind drying out between watering (and in fact probably prefer it). The soft greens contrast nicely with the clay. As they grow, they’ll cascade down the sides of the pots, and once established will send out tiny flowers.

Power to the tower!

Sedum Guatemalense

Sedum layered in tower of pots

June 13, 2013 by Born To Organize

Sunflower Power: Still Number One

I’m a firm believer in one of the following two clichés:

Variety is the spice of life.
Familiarity breeds contempt.

Can you guess which one?

Emerging Sunflower, 2013

Sunflower, 2012

Sunflower going to seed, 2011

Hope blooms from a packet of seeds

Did you guess?

I love the variety a garden affords. When you live and play in California soil, variety abounds. That said, I have three garden favorites that appear year after year: pumpkins, tomatoes and sunflowers.

My top three favorites never breed contempt. For over a decade now, sunflowers make the list. One tiny seed leads to a magnificent flowering plant, growing a majestic 5 – 12 feet (1.5 to 4 meters) or more. As they grow, they attract beneficial insects. They’re a huge favorite with the bees. Sunflowers produce a mass of seeds which we generally ‘offer’ the squirrels at season’s end. The bright yellow flower is my favorite anyway, so I’m happy to share the remaining spoils.

How about you: variety, familiarity or a little of both?