Eleanor Roosevelt, Michelle Obama, and Me!

NYT article about the Obamas' vegetable garden. Also Michael Pollan's letter to the President-to-be from last year.

It's nice being part of a movement.

Different View of the Huntington

I missed the first field trip my class took (to the California Rare Fruit Growers scion exchange), but I managed to make it to the second one, which was to the Huntington. I'd been to the Huntington a bunch of times before-- their cactus garden is one of my favorite places anywhere-- but never like this. The master gardener of their rose, Shakespeare and herb gardens, Katarina Ericson, gave us a tour, provided us with cuttings and showed us the greenhouse, nursery and tissue culture lab.


Shakespeare garden-- cerinthe and flowering almond.


Herb garden.


Greenhouse.


Nursery.


Bitchin staghorn ferns.


Tissue cultures of rare and nearly extinct cacti and succulents.

The Learning Garden

View of the garden.

So why my sudden veggie garden mania? I signed up for the the Plant Propagation class at UCLA extension over the Xmas holidays. The course began in January and ends next week. Classes are held Sunday afternoons at The Learning Garden at Venice High School. The vibe is laid back, but instructive, and I like my teacher (David King). Most of the students are in the UCLA horticulture certificate program. I think I may be one of the few non-credit students.

I signed up for the class originally so I could learn to propagate my flowering perennials, but by the middle of the class I realized that I really wanted to have veggie garden beds similar to the ones at the garden. The Learning Garden is really an edible wonderland. I highly recommend a visit to anyone who likes planting edibles (and who lives on the westside).

We started out sowing seeds-- first in flats, then in the ground-- and transplanting seedlings. Then we graduated to cuttings (stem, leaf) and then finally grafting (shield, side, saddle). One of the highlights of the class was our field trip to the Huntington (another post to come).

So you add this all up and it's made me into a wannabe small scale farmer. I'm just starting out-- my kitchen is full of flats right now-- but my fingers are crossed. I'll post progress pictures.


Another view.


Wedge cuts on begonia leaves.


Golden Dorset apple scion grafted on EMLA 26 rootstock.


Seedlings.

Sowing the Seeds

Some of my packets. Aren't they pretty?

I waited with bated breath for my 14 seed packets to arrive from Peaceful Valley. They came yesterday in an ordinary yellow bubble envelope. I spent a good hour last night planning how many seeds of each I would sow and where I would place them in my veggie garden.

The best thing about springing our clocks forward is that I have daylight hours to sow seeds after work. Wait, did I just say that? If you'd asked me 5 years ago (or even 5 months ago) whether I would ever have a veggie garden I would've laughed out loud. Now, I'm planning my day around it. I hope this isn't just a phase because I think this small scale farming thing could be good for me. Mentally and physically.

Anyhoo, I spent the remaining light of day after I got home today sitting on my patio, sowing tomatoes, Spanish lavender, and all sorts of lettuce. I'll post pictures soon.

Seed Freak

I ordered way too many seeds the other day. It was so easy. I was on the phone with the representative from Peaceful Valley, rattling off the item numbers, one after another. Before I knew it, I had ordered 14 seed packets. Whoops. And this is in addition to the 3 types of hierloom tomatoes (Brandywine, Green Zebra, Marvel Stripe) that I started indoors last weekend.

Here are the 14 that are on their way:

Beets - Bulls Blood
Brocolli - Di Ciccio
Pak Choi
Lettuce - Gourmet Mix, Little Gem
Tomatoes (yes, more tomatoes) - Beefsteak, Black From Tula, Old German Heirloom, Black Krim
Mint - Korean
Basil - Thai Queenette
Cilantro- Slow Bolt
Lavender - Spanish
Onion, Scallion - Bunching Ishikura

Well, I'm new to all this, so I guess more is better since many of the seeds won't take. I'm going to start sowing seeds indoors in the next couple weeks while Mr. Octopus and I figure out how to order cedar planks for my raised veggie beds.

Turning Back the Clock is Overrated

Today feels like the longest day ever. I can't believe it's only 9pm. I don't like that it gets dark so early. I need sun. I feel myself getting sad. LA life has made me really dependent on sunshine. I don't remember feeling this way in NY.


On a brighter note, I am really getting into succulents. I just got this great book called Designing with Succulents. Not only are they super cool looking, they require little water and are very good for fire prone areas like LA. Their leaves are filled with water and they don't act as fire ladders since they are usually low to the ground.


Chiricahua: "Wonderland of Rocks"
Last, but not least, I am making arrangements for our next trip: Arizona. The Octopus and I have been nostalgic for our 2005 road trip where we hit a bunch of national parks, so we decided that Arizona is the place for us. We'll be skipping the Grand Canyon and other Northern AZ sites in favor of the lesser traveled Montezuma's Castle, Saguaro and, what looks to be very interesting, Chiricahua. I'm looking forward to getting more national parks brochures.

My How They Grow

Remember this succulent arrangement that I did back in June (my post here)?



Well, I gave it to my mom and today, a little over four months later, it looks like this!

DIY Succulent Arrangements

This was a lot of fun. Bought some shallow pots, small succulents, cactus potting soil and colored rocks and arranged them the way I wanted. It's fun to play around with height, color and texture. Pots and plants from California Cactus in Pasadena and Pot-Ted in Atwater.

Gardening Blogs of Note

Heavy Petal in Canada and the very cool Germinatrix here in Eagle Rock.

Shopping for Nature

"Hot lips" salvia. We got some of these.

We went to the Lincoln Avenue Nursery in NW Pasadena over the weekend and bought a boatload of plants. Hohh, it was fun. And I owe it to Mr. Octopus...

Left to my own devices, I have a very frustrating tendency to go to the nursery and buy one plant, maybe two. I spend lots of time mulling things over, what if this, what if that, such that the plant buying experience, which should be fun and easygoing, sometimes gets overwrought and unpleasant. I become paralyzed by the options and the fear of buying something I won't like later.

This led to my recent gardening breakdown. I was really pissed that I'd spent all this time thinking about plants and visiting nurseries and still my garden didn't look the way I wanted it to. I didn't have enough plants, I didn't like how they were laid out. I just didn't like anything. And that's where Octopus came in.

He's not much of a planner. He's more of a let's just get it and it'll be fine kind of person, which can be a good counterbalance to my overthought and hyperplanning personality. So we went to the nursery and we got lots of stuff. It was like my birthday! Tee hee.

Hello Week

Sunday night. Watching E! True Hollywood Story: Kelly Ripa. I'm not home in the mornings to watch Regis & Kelly anymore, but last I watched she really bothered me. I used to like her. At the beginning.

Aaah, the last hours of the weekend.

The one good thing about Mondays is Dancing with the Stars. I can't believe that Billy Ray is still on. Poor John Ratzenberger. I'm guessing Ian Ziering will be next to go. I would say Billy Ray, but I've been saying that for a couple weeks and he just keeps coming back. Like a cockroach. I don't understand what the judges are talking about when they say he dancing with his heart, puts his all into it, blaah blaah.

But let's not talk about Monday yet.

My weekend was great. And not because Mr. Octopus was away (ha ha, sorry Octopus). A friend who lives in DC spent the night on Friday. We made grilled cheese sandwiches, had a bottle of Riesling and caught up. Then today I hiked the 'JPL Trail' in Pasadena with another friend. I couldn't have imagined a better Sunday morning. I think this hike is one of my favorite things ever. It's cool and shady and easy.

Then this afternoon I went hog wild with the gardening. I went to not one, but two Armstrong nurseries. Glendale and Pasadena (the Pasadena one is way better). I bought a bunch of plants (including some yellow and red 'kangaroo paws' like the ones here) and then came home and dug some holes. I'm pretty happy with what I bought and I hope that the plants take to their new environment.

Sorry Mr. Fig Tree

A couple weekends ago Mr. Octopus and I decided to weed a certain part of our back yard that had been overtaken by a weedy vine-like thing that had sprouted out of nowhere. It was growing very fast and vigorously and we felt that the sooner we conquered it, the better. It had broad coarse leaves and weird bulb things (right). We had no idea what it was. Mr. Octopus tried his best to dig it all out, until he realized that it was growing from underneath the patio.

Fast forward to today. My parents came to visit and as usual, my mom, an avid gardener, looked closely at all the plantings in our yard. Turns out there is another similar weedy, bulby thing growing in the far back of the yard (no man's land) and just like the other one, it had appeared out of nowhere. My mom said it is a fig tree. Poor Mr. Figgie. No we feel sorta bad. I guess that's what eating fig newtons, as opposed to real figs, will do to you. Of course, we're going to leave the new fig tree to grow happily into a big bush, maybe something like this one (below).

Trying My Hand at Gardening

Man, was it hot today. We hit 90+ degrees here in Eagle Rock. I didn't mind it so much since it's dry heat (this is the desert, after all), but sheesh, was it hot.

This weekend was a hugemongo milestone for me. Yesterday I went to the Armstrong nursery in Glendale and bought two camellias (one red, one pink) and one vertical growing Japanese shrub. I also bought some special camellia soil. Why camellias? We have one in the back yard that's thriving without any help from us, so I thought the safest thing would be to plant a couple more out front. My gardening confidence is fairly low, so I need to start with something easy, with a decent probability of success.

Shopping for plants is fun. So today I dragged Mr. Octopus to Burkard's, which is a family-owned nursery in Pasadena. Burkard's has a lot of stuff that Armstrong doesn't (fruit trees, in particular), but it's also more expensive. We stocked up on shrubs: a rosemary bush, two blue salvias and two lavender bushes. All drought-resistant and easy to grow.

We got home at 4pm and it was still friggin hot. I waited an hour or two before I started doing anything. First order of business: weeding. Awww man, weeding is no joke. It's so much more than just pulling and yanking. It's squatting, digging, pulling, yanking, shaking, more yanking and more shaking. And, of course, you gotta be careful not to get dirt in your eyes. Weeding is work. Anyone who tells you differently is a liar.

After a full hour of weeding-- and mind you, I was only weeding a 10' by 2' area-- I drafted Mr. Octopus to help me dig some holes. He was a willing party, so I was happy about that. So we laid out where we would put the stuff and he dug the holes. Then we filled the holes up with soil and mulch (secret: you can buy mulch-- it's like nutritious dirt or something, no biggie), dropped in our little plants and drenched it in water. Voila! We gardened!

A few thoughts about the experience:

1. I kinda like it. It's gratifying -- in the way that only manual labor can be.

2. It's a good way to see the neighbors, without having conversations with them. A quick 'Hi, How ya doing?' and you feel like part of the community.

3. I can see how this can get all-consuming. The mere act of weeding can ignite the O.C.D. in you. I can totally see myself looking at my 10' by 2' gardening experiment every day, zooming in on whether those damn weeds are coming back and plucking them before they take over.

4. There's all sorts of stuff you need to buy in order to garden. There's the plants, of course. But there's stuff besides that. I have a shovel (well, shovels actually) and gloves, but I quickly realized that I also need shoes/clogs/crocs, a mat for all that kneeling and gardening clothes (crappy old stuff that you would throw out if you weren't planning on gardening).

5. Lastly, but most importantly, I really hope these things grow. I picked no-brainer plants, so I will be really discouraged if they die.

Landscaping, the Great Unknown

Sitting on the couch, listening to Hall & Oates, looking out onto my front yard. It's beautiful and sunny outside. Must be 85 degrees or something.

We've done a lot of work on the house in the 10 months we've lived here. The floors, the paint, the A/C. The next big thing to tackle is the yard. I'm almost too afraid to think about it.

The backyard needs a complete overhaul. It's huge and flat, which is good, but it needs some real landscaping, maybe even professional landscaping. Planting a few trees here and there won't do; we need to redesign the whole thing.

The front yard is more managable and I'm thinking of taking a crack at it myself. Maybe some camellias and peach blossoms. Nothing requiring much water or maintenance. There's an Armstrong nursery in Glendale. I should just go there. I need to stop thinking about mulching and pruning and other things I don't understand, and just buy a plant, stick it in the ground and hope for the best. It's springtime. Time for new things.