My World

I have been neglecting my blogs of late, I know.  So, what have I been doing?

Well, Hubby and I try to walk five miles a day or occasionally get out on our bikes.  We've also been camping and visited our mountain home.  When home in Lincoln where I have internet access I have instead been busy in the garden.

Back in 2009 I had removed the lawn in the back yard.  This year I decided that the yard lacked interest.  I needed to define the spaces, make rooms.

So we built a fence to set off the back patio and added a little bridge over the dry stream bed where I piled some of the many rocks I had dug our of the beds.

I edged a pathway with more of the stones and bought some DG to make the paths.

I made this "Rube Goldburg" contraption to support bird netting over the blueberries and I have added some shade cloth to protect them from the hot sun.  I also added more fruit trees, keeping them small so I could have a greater variety.

Unfortunately, the wildlife enjoys our garden, too.  Deer prune the strawberries, fruit trees and grapevines.  They would eat the tomato plants and other vegetables if I didn't keep the plants covered with netting.

Raccoons eat the peaches and apricots and voles like tomatos.

The  critters don't get it all, though.  They don't like onions and garlic so that is my most successful crop.  I keep netting over my tomatos and beans and so far nothing has gotten those.  We have blueberries every day for breakfast in spite of tenacious mocking birds who seem to find their way through the netting.

Peppers, eggplant and squash are starting to flower but it will be a while before they are ready to harvest.

Time for me to go back out to the garden.  I need to find a way to keep the critters from the fruit trees, and the grapevines need to be trained to a support, and....

Post Script:

As we were getting ready for our evening walk, Jules spotted my nemesis in the neighbor's yard.

He had come through our yard first, leaving tell-tale tracks on the pathways. 












 Get more views of what is going on in the world at Our World, Tuesday.

Spring in My World

It's Spring, that magic time in the garden and so I've been spending more time at home and less time traveling and taking pictures.

The bulbs are up, undeterred by the dry winter.  Tulips, muscari and daffodils grace my garden.

The wisteria is will soon burst into bloom with its heavenly fragrance and cascade of blooms.

The peach and nectarine trees are in bloom and for the first time the winter nellis pear is blooming.  Unfortunately, its companion the comice pear is not in bloom so I have been roaming the neighbor hood, snipping some blooms from the many ornamental pears in hopes of successfully hand pollinating.  The apricots, early bloomers, already have little fruitlets developing.

I've been carefully tending tomato, pepper and eggplant seedlings, keeping them on a heating mat in the house and putting them outside on warm, sunny days.  Some of the tomatos will soon be ready to plant in the garden (if the weather cooperates) but peppers and eggplants started at the same time still don't have their first true leaves.  A week of much needed rain is in the forecast so perhaps I'll be in at my computer again instead of out playing in the dirt.  But then, maybe I'll be stuck with my nose in the seed catalogs or gardening books.

This is what is happening in my world, to see other parts of the world go to That's Our World, Tuesday, hosted for us by Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia and Sandy.

To Little Time in My World

I seem to have too little time or too many projects.  With summer coming I have been trying to get the new parts of the garden on autopilot with new drip emitters.  Do you remember what it looked like last year?  Click here for a reminder.  I used divisions from plants elsewhere in the garden for much of the new plantings.  It will take a while to fill out. 

I’ve also got the guest room half painted and soft cornices made for our bedroom.  That leaves three more rooms waiting for window treatments.  Seeing what the rest of you accomplish has spurred me to action.

It’s almost time to open the cabin for the summer and the Roadtrek thinks we need to do some more camping, it’s feeling neglected, and I’m having trouble finding time for exercise, that’s not good.

I just don’t seem to find time for it all.  Maybe I should give up sleeping.

After the Rain--Watery Wednesday

We don't usually get much rain after March but this year we have had a much needed bonus, a good soaking rain in April.

With my garden now in bloom I went out to see if I could capture some raindrops on iris.

I have lots of iris and some of the bearded iris are now in bloom,

And the columbine as well.

The dogwood
Climbing on the dogwood is a clematis, as the dogwood starts to fade the clematis comes into full bloom.

More watery sights can be found at Watery Wednesday, hosted for us by 2sweetnsaxy.

My World in Spring

How do I know it’s Spring?

The neighbors Pink Flamingo is showing off his Spring wardrobe.

The green hills are washed with white popcorn flower.

My garden has begun its succession of Spring bloom.

 

 

Perfumed with the heavenly fragrance of the wisteria.

 

In the open space the sheep have moved on to other pastures.  But wait, they left one behind!

No, not one, there is another.

Another sign of Spring.  A new born lamb.  Not wanting to tire or disturb them during this critical period, the shepherds fenced the ewe and her lamb and left them for a day, allowing them to rest and bond before returning them to the flock.

I had no idea when we moved here that it would be such a “back to nature” experience.  Sheep lambing 100 feet from my back door, egrets, pheasants, quail, hawks and songbirds I see or hear every day from my yard.  A walk down by the pond and I can see a wide variety of water fowl.  Five years here and I still find new things to wonder at!

You can find more worlds at My World Tuesday, hosted for us by Klaus, Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy and Sylvia.

If It's Yellow Maybe It's Spring

This is not a meme I usually participate in but I didn't know a better place for

these lovely harbingers of spring I found last week in my garden.

Now, I don't want to make you feel bad, those of you still dealing with winter snows. In

fact, here in California the rain clouds have returned.

This Meadow Lark just wants to remind us all that spring is just around the corner.

See more of this sunny color at Mellow Yellow Monday.

Garden Update--My World

I showed you this last spring, the beginning of my project to remove the lawn.

Drought seems to be a permanent feature of California weather and I wanted to reduce our use of water.

After I removed the sod I dug down 12-18 inches and removed the larger rocks. My garden consists of river cobble cemented together with clay. I then dug in compost and turned over the sod in some places and piled the rest of it high to make a berm at the back of what had been the lawn. I couldn't afford to lose the sod, the only decent soil in the yard.

You might ask why I have river rock when I live on a hill. The sign at the right explains how this came to be. In brief, at one time this was a valley which filled with volcanic ash. Since the ash was so hard it did not erode easily, thus the valley became a hill and the former hill became a valley.

The rock I removed I used to make raised beds and dry streams.

I covered the old sod with layers of newspaper and cardboard. Then I got 8 yards of bark mulch and put it down thick.

I made three raised beds for vegetables. I'll wait to plant the rest of the garden and allow the sod to decompose. I'll use drip irrigation as we have in other areas of the garden.

See more worlds here.

My World Tuesday is brought to us by Klaus, Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy, Louise and Sylvia.

Garden Shadows

The clematis and fairy rose against this south facing wall get a second life now that the sun is low. They suffer in the summer heat but bloom again now, casting their shadows against the wall.

The red maple in the back yard is one of the last in the neighborhood to turn.

The salvia needs to be cut back and maybe replaced. It did not do well this summer. It makes an interesting shadow though.

See more shadows at Hey Harriet, hosted by Tracy.

Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens I

I am gone again but since I have been collecting material faster than I can post, I've left a few this week.
While in Fort Bragg we visited the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden.

In additon to the plants, we saw some interesting shadows. I'll have more pictures of this garden later in the week.

You can find more shadows at Hey Harriet. Go to the site and click on "Mr. Linky". You'll have to scroll down aways.

My World, My Garden

I grow a lot of iris in my garden. They are very forgiving of my neglect and bloom during the months when I tend to be home.

I have a lot of tall bearded iris.

When they are done the Siberian and Louisiana iris bloom.

Last to bloom are the Japanese iris.

The last of these are beginning to fade.

Next will be the lilies and daylilies, they also thrive in spite of me.

Thats my world, to see more worlds, click here.

In the garden

The weeds think it is Spring. I am anxious to see things growing and blooming again but not the weeds. After pulling weeds for a while I noticed that the daffodils and tulips are starting to poke through. A good sign but it doesn't mean it is time to start planting tomatoes.

The birds are busy gorging themselves at the feeder. The finches throw enough down on the ground to keep the quail happy. I manage to spill a little on the ground when filling the feeder as well. The humming birds are around, too. They try the butterfly bush but soon find the blossoms dry and empty and go back to the feeder.

Next week I will start the tomatoe seeds in the house and the weather should be warm enough to set them out by mid March.