Photos
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.
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...]
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.
End of the Line for Hot Peppers 2019
The summer ended with the rain in November. Then came the frost. Then came the rain again. These are officially the last peppers of Hidden Lake Hot Batch 19. At least they were easy to pick.
Christmas Rescue 2018
A white poinsettia one year after being rescued My wife likes to justify her post-Christmas bargain hunting by bringing home an abused and deeply-discounted Christmas plant for me to save. Sometimes it's a rosemary trimmed in the shape of a little Christmas tree, an easy save, sometimes it's a spruce, a plant wholly unsuited for San Diego's desert climate and therefore a hard save. Usually though, it's a poinsettia, which is an easy save unless you make it hard. San Diego is basically America's poinsettia capitol. Every town in the county has at least one street named "Poinsettia" [keep reading...]
This Crassula Owns the Greenhouse Today
Wandered into the greenhouse this morning to check how everyone is doing with the ridiculous 50° temperature swings. My Island of Misfit Succulents seems to be doing just fine. This Crassula (anyone know the variety?) with it's bright green and pink-tinged leaves is really owning it today.
Found an Aloe Forest
For the past week I've been cleaning a long neglected section of the Acre in preparation for a chicken (and duck) friendly Mediterranean garden. To clear one area I had to chop down a rogue oak sapling and cut out a tone of dead brush below it. When I finally did get the area cleaned up, I discovered a rather large patch of aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis) growing quite happily along the fence line. I vaguely recall planting an aloe (i.e., one) there probably back in the late 90's-early 2000's. You think with no water, covered in debris [keep reading...]
Gaucho the Rooster
This magnificent little guy is Gaucho, so named because of his fancy feathered feet and the exotic dance that makes him irresistible to the ladies. At age 11(!), he's basically our feathered Ricardo Montalbán.
Chinese lantern adds a bit of color
It's cold, it's wet and most of the plants are hunkered down for the winter. Were it not for this one little Chinese Lantern (Physalis Alkekengi), the view out my office window would be very earthtone.