A home, a yard, a never-ending adventure

A home, a yard, a never-ending adventure

Photos

711, 2019

Photo of the Day: Hummingbird Sage

November 7th, 2019|Photos|

Hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea) is another native that I really like. It's a low growing sage that spreads by rhizomes and can colonize a whole area. When a colony is in bloom, there are so many hummingbirds it can sound like a swarm of bees. Beyond the flower and the low growth habit, one of the other things I really like about it is it's ability to thrive under live oaks, pine and eucalyptus -- all trees known for being notorious allelopaths (i.e., they secrete chemicals that make it difficult for plants to germinate and grow under them). The sages [keep reading...]

3010, 2019

Photo of the day: End of Season Tomato Harvest

October 30th, 2019|Photos|

Last of the tomatoes for the season. Red Valentine grape tomato and yellow Indigo Kumquat tomato Well, that's it. The last of the tomatoes have been picked. The Valentine grape tomato (front of bowl) was ridiculous. Easily 40lbs of tomatoes. The Indigo Kumquat (yellow, back of bowl) was a pleasant surprise as well. Long production time and beautiful fruit.

2810, 2019

Photo of the Day: A bathtub’s worth of luffa sponges

October 28th, 2019|Photos|

A couple years ago I planted some luffas, which proceeded to sprawl out, climb into the trees and take over a large section of the west garden. Even though I removed every luffa I could find, some were still left stranded high in the trees. Each of the past two years those leftover luffas have dropped seeds into hidden spaces and grown more luffas. Here's a bathtub's worth of luffa gourds from this weekend's cleanup. Free seeds for anyone who asks!

2510, 2019

Photo of the Day: Autumn Sage “Lipstick”

October 25th, 2019|Photos|

The past few days have been hotter than Hades, but the natives are thriving (except for yours truly, I'm not happy). This one is a variety of Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii) showing off how it got the name "lipstick." It's a little over five feet (1.5 meters) high and equally wide and spreads like crazy if you let it. I only planted one about 10 years ago, but it's managed to colonize areas of the south and west-facing slopes. Good thing they look nice or I'd have a real problem.

2310, 2019

Photo of the Day: Crazy winter squash hybrid

October 23rd, 2019|Photos|

Just for giggles, last year I grew two winter squashes, Delicata and Spaghetti, next to one another, then took the seeds from a few of the fruit of both types of plants. This year I got a crazy speckled hybrid that tastes sweet like Delicata, but has the noodle-like consistency of Spaghetti. If this "Delighetti" squash stores as well as its parents do, I think I'll grow it again next year.

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