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My First Rain Barrel
Water can get expensive here in San Diego so I've been talking about getting a couple of rain barrels. Then my wife gave me a couple for Christmas. Nice, big 55 gallon barrel kits with all the hardware needed. All I had to do was hook them up to the rain gutter and, boom, free water. So I cleared out an area under the eaves by the back of the house and got the first barrel set up on some cinder blocks. Then it rained a little the night before last. Not much, maybe 1/3rd of an inch, but, as [keep reading...]
Tithonia Sunshine Bouquet
My Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia diversifolia) had grown tall and leggy in the shade of the trees in the upper yard over the past few months. It was basically like looking at a forest of sticks with flowers 15 feet in the air, so I whacked the plants down to a couple feet tall. Now it's like looking at a hedge row of sticks, but it'll be green and leafy again by spring. In the meantime, my wife has some nice bouquets of bright yellow flowers around the house.
Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 11
The hot sauce has been quietly fermenting in a cool, dark area of the garage for several weeks now. It was before Christmas when I added the toasted oak staves and the last of the fresh peppers from the garden, so the bright red color is giving way to a duller brick red/orange. The peppers, which I added whole, are beginning to dissolve and fall apart, leaving a layer of pepper seeds at the bottom of the jar. A little white mold has accumulated at the top of the jar and there's a musty, tangy scent telling me that fermentation [keep reading...]
Keyhole Garden Progress – January 10, 2020
Cool weather (frost overnight and daytime temps in the upper 50s / low 60s) has slowed, but not stopped, plant growth. Lettuces (particularly the romaine) and cilantro are doing quite well, and the garlic I planted several weeks ago has now all sprouted.
Make your own Mustard
Making your own mustard (yellow, deli-style, or flavored) is surprisingly simple and tastes better than the store-bought stuff. Here's how to make your own:
Sneaky Gopher Got My Aloe (Video)
As I was touring the yard yesterday, I noticed a large aloe vera tipped over on its side. I knew the dogs couldn't have done it, so I decided to take a closer look. Here's the video of what I found. I've seen gophers pull plants into their burrows, but I've never seen one burrow into a plant. Time to find the gopher traps.
Chinese Cabbage – “Minuet”
I picked up a packet of "Minuet" Chinese cabbage seed from @johnnyseeds last winter because they described as the "best mini variety." I didn't get a chance to plant it until this past fall and picked the first head yesterday for a stir fry dinner. My plants are closer to 15 inches tall rather than the 9 inches mentioned in the catalog, but they're very upright and grow quite comfortably just a foot apart. Nothing -- cold, rain, slugs, etc. -- seems to bother them, so they're all quite healthy and require almost no care. The outer leaves are deep [keep reading...]
Pozo Blue Sage in Early Bloom
This is Salvia Pozo Blue (Salvia clevelandii X leucophylla) a hybrid of two So Cal natives, Purple Sage and Cleveland Sage. I picked it up about two years ago from La Pilatas Nursery, a native plant specialist not too far from here. It's leaves resemble the Cleveland Sage's leaves, but they're spaced farther apart on leggy stems like the Purple Sage. The smell is a woodsy must akin to the Cleveland Sage. I like the plant because it makes a nice green shrub that requires no care other than a little water now and then. From mid-winter to mid-spring it's [keep reading...]
My Keyhole Garden is Amazing
Keyhole garden winter progress as of January 10, 2020 Cool weather has turned it into a nutrient rich kitchen garden like no other! It's hard to overstate how awesome a keyhole garden is. If you’ve ever thought about building one, do it. I built one on a whim for about $100 early last spring and was amazed at how it pumped out vegetables and herbs from spring all the way into mid-autumn with basically no effort from me -- no weeding, very little watering, easy harvesting. Definitely $100 well invested. Turns out, that was just the start. I [keep reading...]
Is This Pride of Madeira Looking at You?
My wife told me she felt like this stalk from a Pride of Madeira near our front door was looking at her. I didn't see it. So I fixed it. Now it's definitely looking at her.
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