Sunflowers

Fall Garden is finally in!

WHEW!
Didn't plant radishes this year
But did try Swiss Chard.  We'll see how that goes
If nothing else, it looks cool

 I just kick myself for not taking a picture earlier
By the time I did, the flowers were bent over
But here are my amazing Mammoth Sunflowers
Didn't think they would grow in the time they had left
But thought, whatever, we'll try
And I didn't keep track of when they started
But seriously, I think it was like 3 weeks
I mean it was FAST
It seemed like every day they grew full foot
And the stalks were as big as a tree
When the flowers were up, I bet they were 10 feet tall...
COOLEST THING EVER!

So we harvested the seeds on Saturday
Again, top 10 in Gardening experiences
Totally amazing!
Did you know that the seeds are literally just sitting there?
It's like a big honeycomb thing and the seeds just pop out
And then we dry them from here and that's it!
They start out all wet and white like this
Trying to figure out a way to plant a whole forest of them next year...
Coolest thing ever.

Ant Wars

We are having a War with the Ants around here
It's hot here, it's cool inside the house, so I guess that's why they are suddenly swarming inside

They are everywhere we look: every tiny tiny morsel of food in the kitchen

Bits of moisture on laundry, sticky medicine bottles, crumbs on the floor

ANYTHING
Bug guy come all the time it seems
They just come back

So we  have decided to take matters into our own hands

We did two different things that we found online and so far they are actually working:

1.  Find the HOLES:  we went out to the perimeters of our house and tried to find where they were coming in and pretty soon we found several places.  Big thick lines of ants going into our house and into the frame itself (since the OTHER side of the wall had no bugs).  We patched those holes with spackle and the ants were blocked!!!

2.  We mixed a conconction of ant deterrent: Paprika, Cayenne, Black Pepper, Garlic Powder and Cinnamon.  The Ants HATE this and will rarely even touch the stuff.  (Online said mostly because of the smell).  We put along the pathway of where they were coming up to the house and along the base of the house so they wouldn't try and find any other holes

So the only problem with all this is I think there was already a base of ants inside our house somewhere.  

So beware if you do this, that when you lock all of the ants OUT.  

You are also locking all the ants that are already INSIDE your house, IN.  

So the next day we had this MAJOR infestation in our kitchen.  Ants EVERYWHERE trying to get at any scrap of food EVER.  

So we found a few more holes we never knew we had among the bottom of our cabinets, and fixed those.  Today we are waiting to see what other holes they will find now.... 

and maybe in a few days we'll drive them all out...

Fall Garden

Man, summer went fast.
Time for Fall gardens already, can you believe it?

Next three months of growing are starting:
Time to plant:

Broccoli

Cabbage

Carrots

Cauliflower

Celery

Collards

LEttuce

Peas

Radishes

Turnips

Growing Annual Flowers from Seed: Gardener's Supply

Another great article on how to grow flowers from seeds. Also super good list of what flowers you can just plant and which ones to plant inside first.

Growing Annual Flowers from Seed: Gardener's Supply

I so need some grow lamps... where do you get such a thing and how much are they?

Double Your Harvest with a Second Planting, Plant Now for Fall Veggies: Gardener's Supply

So many articles about vegetable gardening are irrelevant to Bakersfield but this article is actually really good! A few tips on year round gardening that are really good.

Double Your Harvest with a Second Planting, Plant Now for Fall Veggies: Gardener's Supply

Also on this article is a link to a book called The Winter Harvest. It's a book about some people who run an actual commercial garden on a small plot and how they do it using green houses. I don't have a green house so what I saw I was mostly like, huh, wish I had a greenhouse so I could do some of this... there's always someday I guess.

But the MOST interesting thing though is a publisher that is listed at the end, along with several publications: they publish books about gardening and being organic and etc etc, and several titles looked really good... think I might order a catalog... :)  Titles like: Holy $hit :), and Perennial Vegetables, Salad leaves for all seasons

www.chelseagreen.com

How to not Kill your Yard plants

How to not kill your YARD plants

1. 1.       Water Less: sounds crazy but it’s true.  You can kill plants just as well by DROWNING them as by letting them dry out.   Also, better to SOAK them once then water them lightly three times (besides who has time to water three times?)  
2. Prepare the spot: dig a hole twice as big and deep as the root ball, fill the hole w/water first, let drain, then plant, then fill w/water again.
3. Choose the right plant for the right spot: you aren’t a bad gardener just because you can’t get a plant to grow in a certain spot.  Try a different plant.  Certain plants only like certain conditions so try a different plant there.  
4. Follow the Leader: look around at what grows in the yards next to yours, if they grow there, they’ll probably grow in your yard also.  If you want low maintenance plants, copy what the city plants on the roadsides, or what housing developments plant outside their homes. 
5. Buy from places where you can get replacements:  Stop buying from stores like Walmart/Target/Home Depot/Lowes etc.  They don’t guarantee your plants and there’s a higher chance something could be wrong with it.  Buy from nurseries that have LIFETIME GUARENTEES on your plants: if you kill them (as you often will and do, right?), they send you a new one.  No questions, no receipts, no carting your pathetic dead plant back to the store J

a.       springhillnursery.com

b.      michiganbulb.com

c.       there are tons more…

Top Bakersfield easy no-fail plants: 

1.       Leafy “bushes”: Day Lilies (big orange/yellow flowers), Alliums (purple flowers you see everywhere), Cannas (tall purple and green leafy plants),

2.       Top “bushes”: boxwood bushes are everywhere you look in this town, Blue Potato bush (these can get huge), Jasmine (small yellow flowers (actually a vine but often used as a bush), California Bush Daisy (you see these everywhere also)

3.       Top Annuals:  Zinnias, Marigolds, Cosmos (all are easy to grow from seeds)

4.       Perennials: Dahlias, Gladiolus, Shasta Daisies  

5.       ROSES:  want flowers? These are the best any day.  Very hardy, love the sun, just keep in mind there are many varieties: do you want a tree, a bush or a vine?  Make sure you pick the right kind.

6.       Vines:  Bougainvillea vines (careful these can be CRAZY), Trumpet vines,

7.       Berries:  Don’t forget about Raspberries, Blueberries, Boysenberries, Blackberries, and Strawberries. Easy to grow and you get berries also!  Look for thornless kind if you have kids

8.       Citrus Trees:  Oranges, Lemons, Limes, Grapefruit all grow super well here in Bakersfield.

9.       Palms and Others: All kinds of palms grow here and they do very well (sometimes too well!): Sego Palms especially! Banana trees, Birds of Paradise, and Ferns!

Veggie Garden 101

Bakersfield doesn't have a down season
We have winter but it's not that significant
So here's what I learned from a friend of ours:

In the Winter, you grow plants that you eat
Which means, in Winter you grow carrots, cabbage, lettuce, radishes, onions, garlic, herbs,
In Summer, you grow plants that produce things you eat
In Summer, your grow tomatoes, corn, potatoes, pumpkins, melons, strawberries, peppers,

Monji Gardening 101

My husband goes to this business club called BNI
One of the guys there is called "The Tree Doctor"
And he came out to our house a couple months ago
And did an "assessment" of our yard as a free service since we are in BNI

At the time, my yard was nothing special at all
My garden was looking AMAZING
We had finally got grow boxes in
And everything was growing like crazy
And I was so proud of it
(he didn't seem very impressed at all and didn't seem to notice it was there)

So Monji walks around our yard
And mostly what I heard from him was a lot of huffing and puffing
I heard a lot of "tst tst" and sighs
I was a little irritated, I gotta be honest
He tested our soil and said that it was compacted
Meaning that we were basically trying to grow plants out of solid concrete, our soil was so hard
He said our soil was high in alkaline
And that we needed to water less

So a few weekends ago,
I went to an actual Gardening Class at BC
And Monji was the teacher
Now Monji is a professional landscaper
But really, he's more of a tree guy
When he was at my house, he tells me:
You gotta take care of your trees, because trees are people too
I wanted to laugh but then saw that he was really serious:
Trees are people too
Okay....

So here is a list of Monji's advice about gardening:
1. WATER LESS: most people in Bakersfield water too much he says. (sprinklers set on a schedule have ruined most lawns he says) You have to let your yard actually dry out before you water again or you end up with most like swamp conditions, but WORSE, watering too much will compact your soil (like in my yard), which gives the plants less oxygen, which means they don't grow as well. Drying them out actually opens up the soil and allows oxygen to get in, helping them to grow better.

2. SNAILS: put out small dishes of vinegar and beer :) That kills them and you don't have to buy snail bait all the time.
p.s. and for those of you with children like mine who like to drink out of the dog's dish so would think this was also one, HIDE them under bushes and things, that's where the snails are anyway. I put out a few of these a couple days ago and three of the four have done nothing, but the one I put under this bush: dead snails all around. It's FANTASTIC. :)

3. FRUIT TREES: Citrus trees are the best for this area. "Hard core" fruits like Pear, Apples, Peaches, etc, don't really do very well here because it never gets cold enough to kill diseases so you have to do all kinds of maintenance on them to keep them healthy and in the end, it'd be cheaper to just buy them at the store anyway and save yourself the hassle of having to chop down your trees because they contract Fire Blight. So get Orange, Lemon, Lime, Grapefruit trees all your want and there are different ones that go at different times, so if you plan it right, you can get fruit all year round.

4. Spray your yard with Peroxide and Lemon Dish Soap once a month to kill bugs.
Seems like a good idea, but I tried this and a week later all my plants got DEVOURED by ants and snails so I'm not sure that it really helped, or maybe it did and it would have been worse, who knows?

5. Your Trees Need Oxygen: to keep your trees healthy you need to put oxygen tubes around the bed of the tree. This helps them get oxygen and grow better. When you do this, you can also put in these vitamin packs he has and this is fertilizer for 5 years
Haven't done this yet but it's a way good idea, you should see pictures of trees he's done this to, they looked like they should be chopped down and he did his little oxygen tube/fertilizer pack trick and a week later they are healthy and green, It's crazy.

Introduction

I finally did it
I have wanted to do this FOREVER
And I finally got to it
This is a blog about GARDENING
Totally a geek thing, this is true
But still, it's something I love and so hey, join in

This is a blog about Real People
I am not a professional
I'm not a landscaper
I'm not an architect
I'm not a professional gardener
And you know what?
Most people aren't.
So this is a blog for NORMAL people
Who have real lives, and real budgets
And real problems
Who have kids and dogs and naptimes and bad days
And who don't get paid to design flowerbeds
And who shop for plants with babies in the cart jumping around
And who want to still have a cool yard
And have their plants live and look good
So this is my blog
The main goal: share the things I know and figure out
Because while I don't know it all
I have found that I actually know a lot sometimes
And if I don't know how to do something
I'd like to find out
And so maybe someone out there knows
And can tell me!
So we can all learn
So WELCOME!
To me and You