Home and Garden

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Staking Tomatoes

Not “steak and tomatoes” but tomato stakes, those wonderful supports you place around your cute little tomato plants.  It takes planning and a healthy dose of optimism to set them up early.  While you’re waiting around for the perfect day to do that chore, your tiny plants morph into shrubs.

I have a few choice words for the lazy gardener who puts off this task.

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Okay, now that I’m done telling myself off, I’m happy to report that I did manage to wrangle a couple of folding plant stakes around the prolific tomatoes.  I’m glad that’s done!

Staked Tomatoes

While I was at it, I tied a couple of old wooden trellises together into an A-frame for the pumpkin vines.  Hopefully, [insert optimism here] the elevated fruit deters the midnight foragers.  Time will tell.

Pumpkin Trellis

Happy Friday!

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Gardens of San Jose Tour

What a day!  I toured three private gardens in the historic Rose Garden Neighborhood with a long-time friend along for the journey.  We picked up our tour map in the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden, run entirely by volunteers.  From there we walked the route to each home.

The first garden, and the most unusual was a Xeriscape, a New Mexico arroyo-styled theme garden.  There was so much to take in.  The center of the garden houses a yoga room, surrounded by native plantings, dry river beds, a vertical vegetable garden and walkways.  The home owner keeps bees on the property in a hive resembling a tall bird house.  The hive sits behind trellised berry vines, and receives a regular visitor: a neighborhood blue jay.  The bees “clean house” each day, tossing out the dead bees and the jay stops by in the morning to eat them.

Beehive

As an organizer, I was intrigued by the efficient use of space throughout the property.  Baskets, crates, wire shelves and hooks lined the entire back side of the garage.  The narrow space served as storage, with a beautiful Jade and Fuchsia intermingled with the tools.

The mid-day sun wasn’t optimum for good photos.  That said, the collage below captures the flavor of this incredible garden.

Xeriscape Garden

Next on the tour was a spacious 1923 home with a California Woodland garden.  The first thing you see is an 80-year-old Redwood tree with an equally magnificent Spruce dominating the side garden.  The paths open up to a wide expanse of lawn, with “woodland plants such as ferns, lichens wildflowers and grasses” nearby.

A few highlights below:

Woodland Garden

The House of 53 Roses was the final home on the tour.  While I appreciate roses, they don’t grab my attention the way other flowers do.  The show-stopper for me was the charming cat in residence, a mellow fellow named Curtis.  He let me scratch his chin as he rested in the cool grass and seemed indifferent to me and my camera.  Look at that face!

53 Roses and 1 Charming Cat

We capped our day with garden salads and the comfortable conversation of old friends on the outdoor patio at Aqui in Willow Glen.  Garden nirvana indeed.

Old Friends

Proceeds from today’s tour benefit San Jose Parks Foundation, a membership-based, non-profit organization that:

  • Empowers neighborhood and community groups;
  • Helps to recruit, train and retain park and trail volunteers;
  • Works in partnership with the City and others to maximize access and use of San Jose’s parks for families and youth; and
  • Advocates for our parks and trails on behalf of the community.
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‘Big Max’ Pumpkin Vine: Busy Bees, Budding Fruit

Our ‘Big Max‘ pumpkin vine is enjoying the recent heat.  The smaller varieties are leafing out and looking healthy too, but ‘ol Max steals the show.  Max re-seeded from last summer, so had a bit of a head start.  I’m definitely planting directly into the beds next year.   I don’t think the indoor starter plants paid off in the end.  So many of them wilted and died within 24 hours of transplanting.

Will you look at this happy pumpkin vine?!

The Happy Gardener and her Platter-Sized Pumpkin Leaves

Female Flower Setting Fruit

A Squirrel Stopped by for Lunch

Male Flower: Pollinating Bee

Female Flower: Pollinated

Curly Tendrils

It’s a Wrap: The Power of the Vine

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Why Gardening Makes You Happy

Healing Earth

Playing in the dirt always makes me happy.  I’ve taken pleasure from gardening my entire life.  What I never knew, and apparently we are just finding out, is that the mere act of putting your hands in the soil can be as powerful as an antidepressant!

One of my Facebook connections recently shared this article,  entitled Why Gardening Makes You Happy and Cures Depression.  Author Robyn Francis is an international permaculture designer, educator, writer and pioneer based at Djanbung Gardens, Nimbin Northern NSW. She is principal of Permaculture College Australia.

She writes:

Getting down and dirty is the best ‘upper’ – Serotonin

Getting your hands dirty in the garden can increase your serotonin levels – contact with soil and a specific soil bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae, triggers the release of serotonin in our brain according to research. Serotonin is a happy chemical, a natural anti-depressant and strengthens the immune system. Lack of serotonin in the brain causes depression.

Ironically, in the face of our hyper-hygienic, germicidal, protective clothing, obsessive health-and-safety society, there’s been a lot of interesting research emerging in recent years regarding how good dirt is for us, and dirt-deficiency in childhood is implicated in contributing to quite a spectrum of illnesses including allergies, asthma and mental disorders.

At least now I have a new insight into why I compulsively garden without gloves and have always loved the feeling of getting my bare hands into the dirt and compost heap.

Conversely, she points out that soil contaminated with Roundup or Glyphosate-based herbicides depletes serotonin and dopamine levels in mammals.  Yet another reason to grow and eat organically.

I’ve read her article three times and I’m still fascinated.  You can read the full article and the supporting research on the Permaculture Australia website.

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Blooming Thursday: Cosmos Open Up

Tomorrow’s Bloom?

This lovely flower was entirely unexpected. It re-seeded around the corner from last year’s location. As is often the case, the seeds that are hearty enough to survive volunteer status (dropped by a bird, blown in the wind, planted by a squirrel) do well. This is the first bloom of the season with two promising buds (photo, left) ready to spring forth in pinks and yellows.

The fairy garden flowers are holding up nicely. I spruced up the table with a mini bouquet and a table-runner made from leaves. Lindy is the self-appointed watch-cat, keeping those scary garden gnomes I saw on Facebook yesterday at bay.

What’s blooming on your Thursday?

First Cosmo

Lindy Standing Guard Near the Fairy Garden

The Fairy Garden: New Table Runner and a Purple Bouquet

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Therapeutic Bath Salts: Putting My Dried Lavender to Work

Dr. Teal’s has a wonderfully fragrant and oh so relaxing lavender bath salt, but it’s nearly seven dollars a bag.  I shop for generic brands of Epsom salt, half the price and equally effective for soaking sore, tired muscles.  That said, I long for the relaxing scent of lavender filling the steamy room.

So today I’m experimenting with my own dried lavender.  I took a few flower heads and gently pinched the flowers from the stem.  I tucked the flowers into a small organza bag I had on hand (available at most craft stores) and double knotted the ribbon at the top.

Recipe to Relax

Lavender Sachet

Recipe to Relax:

  • Draw a hot bath, preferably up to your chin.
  • As the water fills the tub, add two cups of Epsom salts.**
  • Run hot water over the lavender-infused bag.
  • Hang up the do-not-disturb sign.
  • Practice yoga breathing, letting your cares slip away.

**A word of caution:  bath salts and oils can make the tub surfaces slick.  Use common sense care when getting in and out of the tub.

Enjoy!

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Raspberries: Natures Candy on the Vine

Mouth-watering Raspberries

We planted a pair of raspberry vines two summers ago.  We’ve anticipated the day when we could stroll by and pluck them straight from the vine. That day is…today!

I’m tempted to pull up a chair and a bowl to the edge of the planting box, but I’m showing a little restraint (mostly because I’m wearing a new white shirt).

As I see it, berries are the perfect fruit: no cutting or peeling required. You simply pull them from the vine and pop them in your mouth. Brilliantly red and lusciously sweet, it’s even fun to say: raspberry, razz-berry, rasp-bury.

What do you think?  Is there any other fruit so sweet?

Berry Close-up

Berry-laden Vine

Raspberry Vines: Year Three

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Gardening Nirvana Turns 1!

I launched gardening nirvana a year ago today.  It’s been fun! My fellow bloggers are a wonderful inspiration and through them I’ve learned a lot.

Early this year I challenged myself to post every day.  The discipline is wonderful. In addition to posting from home, I’ve posted from hotels in Las Vegas, Cupertino and Santa Monica and look forward to posting from LEGOLAND® this summer.  Wherever I go, so too goes my blog.  It feels like a good friend

Thank you for reading, for commenting and for clicking the like button.  It’s such a compliment when you share my words on Facebook or Twitter.

With appreciation,

Alys

P.S. We joined our friends Doug and Laura for a tie-dying party this afternoon.  They have an amazing garden, with unique specimens tucked into every corner of the yard.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Doug’s Garden

Flowering Cactus

Otherworldly

Doug and Laura’s Cactus Garden

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Slugs and Snails and…Slugs and Snails

You witness life at a whole different level when you crawl around in the dirt.  I was up close and personal with the camera this week, taking pictures of the flowering catnip.  I turned to my left and caught sight of a snail, sliding its way up the side of a fern.  I took several shots, none of which came out, of the snail’s careful journey.  As the gastropod gained height, the fern slowly gave way.  Up and up went the snail, down and down went the frond.  Mesmerizing!  Eventually the snail’s green path dropped but the gastropod, undeterred, continued its ascent.  I backed up and saw the rest of his slippery group heading toward cool shelter for the day.

I felt strangely voyeuristic.  Inadvertently, I stumbled upon the secret hiding place of these unwanted helix aspersa.  I don’t like it when they snack on my garden, yet they seemed harmless and graceful as they slipped out of sight. A friend recently wrote an interesting blog entitled, Evolution: Escargot, Erotica, Empathy about her own awakening to the multitude of creatures that inhabit a French field.

It’s an interesting metaphor for life, I suppose: it’s easier to fear and hate what we don’t like or understand.  A little knowledge goes along way to level the (French) field.

Ascent

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City Pickers Update: Week Three

Things are looking good in the City Pickers. I planted three starter tomatoes along the front of one box and seeds along the back. The tomato plants sprouted last week. I thinned them to one or two per planting. The second City Picker holds a different variety of seeds. They don’t seem to be performing as well, though I’m not sure why.

In addition to the tomatoes, I added one pumpkin seedling. So far, so good. Temperatures remain on the cooler side by Bay Area standards. We had healthy plants and poor production last summer for the same reason: very little heat. Here’s hoping the new planting system coupled with the reflective heat from the house and gravel add up to a warmer environment.

City Picker Tomato Boxes: May 1, 2012

City Picker Tomato Boxes: May 23, 2012

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