Depending on what garden resource I read or who I listen to, what I do around our property is referred to by a variety of names…urban homesteading, Permaculture, backyard orchard culture, edible landscaping, victory gardening, etc. I really don’t care what it is called, except when my husband calls it an addiction. This is a small sample of what’s growing around here, and more pictures can be found throughout my blog. We live on a 1/12th of an acre, smack…
This new video by a local film student features a few volunteers from SoCal Harvest. If you are local to the Greater Long Beach area, and if you don’t want backyard fruit to go to waste, SoCal Harvest has a team of volunteers that will come out, pick any fruit within reach of picking poles and small ladders, and box it all up for Food Finders to pass out to local food pantries. Homeowners can even get a receipt for…
… isn’t all bad. Okay, I have to admit, the veggie garden looked awful out there back in January with the broccoli going to seed and spilling all over the path and the blackberries rooting everywhere. Even my daughter mentioned how bad it looked. But I kept the mess for around for a good reason, it’s the bees. The bees enjoyed the broccoli flowers for weeks, and I wanted them to stick around the yard to pollinate the fruit…
I am notorious for killing plants. I admit it. Occasionally I kill potted plants accidentally due to lack of watering. Other times, I buy plants on an impulse and then neglect to get them in the ground in a timely fashion. As a gardener, I should have learned by now. However, after almost 18 years gardening, I still do it sometimes. Aside from those accidental plant deaths, I sometimes actually plot my plant killing. Each year, I re-evaluate what is…
Part of my winter chores this time of year is caring for my semi-dwarf apple espaliers on the back of the garage. The two varieties, Anna and Dorset Golden, never really go dormant in my yard. They are both very low chill apple varieties, recommended by many gardeners as a couple of the easiest and most dependable to grow in Coastal Southern California. Anna was originally from Israel and Dorset Golden came from the Bahamas. They always seem to have…
We have been eagerly waiting since late May for the flowers on the Vincent Kiwi to turn into the yummy egg sized fruit. It didn’t help that i was frustrated with the two vines this spring… just as the Vincent flowers were fading, the male vine finally began to open a few blooms. There were only about 50 female flowers remaining, out of 400 or so it had initially. Therefore, I took matters into my own hands. I spent the…
In February 2009, I purchased three tiny 4″ goji berry Lycium barbarum plants from a fellow edible plant collector during bare root planting season. At the time, I was reticent to pay a premium for a small plant I knew very little about, and even worse, never tasted. I like collecting edible plants, especially ones that are exotic for Socal backyard gardens, hard to find the fruit sold as organic in stores, or would cost me more than other common…
There are regular sightings of opossums, squirrels, and rats in our neighborhood; and the majority of these sightings are along the Furry Freeway, as my husband calls it. It is the system of the power and utility lines that run overhead between the park and the houses. The connecting lines are a safe expressway where they are able to by-pass the dogs and cats below on the ground, confined in fenced backyards. The power poles down into the yards are…
I found this in the yard recently, perfect timing for Halloween. This species is one of my 3 favorite native spiders I often see in the yard. The unfortunate thing about them is, when I find them with a captured prey, it is always a butterfly. They seem to catch a lot of Fiery Skippers on the daisies and lantana flowers. Nevertheless, I leave these be where I find them and enjoy seeing their natural camouflage on the flowers. With…
Fairy Ring in Southern California neighborhood We apparently have fairies dancing at night in the neighborhood! I found this in a neighbors yard last fall, late one night, and I have been meaning to post the photo I took of it. Prior to finding this ring, I had only read about them, and never actually seen a fairy ring in person. Of course, I made sure not to step inside the ring. Being of Irish decent, I knew better. There…