A week or two ago I started a few of my winter propagation projects. I don’t really need more plants, especially trees, but the nerd in me likes to play Dr. Frankenstein every once in a while and try to clone things. I am generally successful with the berries, grapes, salvias, alstromerias, geraniums, pelargoniums, and gallardias, but I have yet to try many other plants. One of the easiest fruit trees to propagate is supposed to be figs, but since…
I had wondered why my daughter’s carrot crop was so pitiful this year. While I was outside this morning, I pulled a few carrots out and discovered the reason, Root Knot Nematodes. I have managed to avoid any infestations of Root Knot Nematodes in my two decades of gardening, however, it looks like they finally ended up at Hanbury House. I am guessing they came in on a little pepper or tomato transplant last Spring or the Spring before. Those two…
If you are interested in maintaining or starting a high density, mini backyard orchard, or even just learning what is the best variety of low chill fruit trees to plant in your SoCal backyard, this is a very informative free workshop hosted by H & H nursery in Lakewood, California. Although I already have my own mini backyard orchard, I attended with my mom last year and learned a few new helpful tips. The class included demonstrations on initial…
More than a decade ago, in early October, I began planting many of the bulbs that have since naturalized in our Southern California garden, including freesia, bearded Iris, Amaryllis belladonna. All of them are tolerant of our long dry summers. Each year I add a few more bulbs. Planting varieties of flower bulbs that are known to naturalize in our Mediterranean climate saved us money on the garden over the long run. They slowly multiplied in number and continue to…
Nestled in our backyard micro orchard is one of my favorite winter fruit trees, mandarin, that we planted in 2000. At the time we planted it, my toddler son and I were going to two different farmers markets a week during peak mandarin season because we both loved them so much, eating as many as 4 or 5 at a time. Now a days, it is easy to find “Cuties,” in the grocery stores, but they are nothing compared to…
I had the pleasure of helping harvest, along with a bunch of other volunteers, over 450 lbs of Bearss Limes, Valencia Oranges, and Satsuma Mandarins this morning with SoCal Harvest, a local charity group. While finishing up, one of the harvesters mentioned her orange tree at home was covered in what looked like road dust, soot, or black sticky dirt. Based on her brief description, I told her it sounded like her tree may have a fungus commonly called sooty mold. She…
While out on a walk with my daughter, we almost breezed right past a couple of fairy garden apartments up high in a few street trees. It was a very unexpected, whimsical find. According to a friend that lives nearby, the figures are different almost everyday. I may have to set some scrap lumber aside for a fairy apartment in our parkway tree.
There’s a certain kind of fun in having the latest and greatest, but I’ve also learned that it’s often more rewarding to fix broken things, propagate, being resourceful, and making do rather than buying new. This is just as true in a modern day garden, as it was in a frugal or vintage 1940s home or victory garden. Use it Up – Don’t throw out old seed packets just because they say they were packaged for last season. Many seeds…
Happy Thanksgiving from Hanbury House! One of my favorite things about having a garden and growing my own organic flowers is sharing them in floral arrangements with the folks I love and care about. This year, my daughter, B wanted to help make our arrangement to take to Nana’s house, so I decided something more kid friendly was called for. We still had a left over unused pumpkin from Halloween out on the front porch that I figured would make…
Although my gardening passion is mainly for edible plants, I feel having a variety of organic cut flowers to bring in the house or share is another good use of our growing space. I create all sorts of floral arrangements, depending on what is in season. One of my favorite flowers for arrangements is Alstromeria. I like that they last a long time after being picked, come in a variety of pretty colors, and are a bit drought tolerant. However,…