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One thing that’s showing consistent progress in my garden is sunflowers. I planted three varieties: Sunspot, Autumn Beauty, and Mammoth Grey Stripe.

I planted some in pots and particular other places, but because my raised garden beds are so meticulously geometrical, I thought some randomness needed to be thrown in. So I threw some sunflower and nasturtium seeds about randomly. The following pictures are of one of those random sunflowers. I’m guessing this one’s a mammoth grey stripe.

This was taken this morning…unfortunately, I’ve been playing with my camera and the settings weren’t right. I was going to go take another pic, but the battery was dead. And I don’t feel like trying to correct it in post production right now.

Here’s a picture of the same one taken 9 days ago (and in better light).

The progress of the corn can be seen as well, so that’s nice. Unfortunately, the squash and the watermelons that I’ve posted about recently…gone. I’m not sure if the watermelon is a victim of the sqirrels or one of the near flash flood downpours we had this past week, but the one I posted is not there, there’s just one little stub of something green in that area. And the corn in that bed is really, really sad. I seriously need to regroup in that bed. And since it’s the last one to get irrigation, I guess that’s okay. A fresh start next week or so.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

When I first planted things, something (ground squirrels?) ate most of the greens, a good deal of the eggplant leaves, and some squash leaves. Then, things were left alone for the next month or so. But between Sunday and now (Tuesday afternoon), something has really done a number on my squash. Lots of leaves missing from the smaller ones and spaghetti squash. I didn’t have it in me to do a full inventory, but there’s a lot missing.

I thought I had gotten past some hump of them not bothering things, but I guess they just realized that they should wait for the good stuff.

I guess I make some chicken wire/hardware cloth enclosures for things. Ick.

ETA:
Not great pictures, but…

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I knew that the melons had the yellow orange ‘moon and stars’, but I was surprised to see that the foliage has them too.

This one’s lagging behind a bit.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

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ETA:

It looks like I’m a couple days away from my first ‘harvest’. I should be able to get two or three zucchini off of this plant this week. I can’t wait.

Since I grew up not liking tomatoes, zucchini is what says ’summer garden’ to me. And the triple digits here sure make it feel like summer.

Now if school would just let out…

We moved into our house late winter 2000. I planted a row of asparagus crowns probably in the spring of 2001. It might have been 2002, but it wasn’t much later than that. I, of course, hadn’t harvested any asparagus that year. And then I started working full time AND going to school almost full time AND teaching night classes…so I wasn’t gardening at all.

I cleared that level in 2005 when I built those beds. It was the dead of inland summer heat. I really hadn’t been down there much at all in years, and I didn’t notice any asparagus that year. But I wasn’t looking either.

However, a couple days ago…I looked over and saw this one lonely stalk of UC-157 asparagus. I really feel sorry for it. It’s so lonely.

I was trying to figure out where to plant asparagus when I was re-planning the beds this spring. I decided that it could wait another year. So maybe I’ll dig up this lonely one next year and move it to where I plant it’s relatives.

I’ll start with one thing about me…
1. I’m a high-school teacher in a school where something getting tagged isn’t a good thing. It usually involves a permanent marker that both damages what’s been tagged and probably gets the tagger sort of high. (Resisting the urge to pull an image of tagging from my neck of the woods…no need to give them publicity…)

Okay, another thing about me…
2. I went to work today with straw in my hair. I kept trying to get it out…but there was always more. I picked up a bale of straw to mulch my strawberry bed last weekend and for some reason today on the way to work was the first time that the wind kicked up all the straw remenants and I was COVERED! I kept finding straw in my hair throughout the day. Every time I thought I’d gotten it all, I’d find more.

Jenny at Seeded tagged me for a meme. And because I’ve been fiddling around in the guts of the blog, I want to use the blockquote tag, so, I’ll quote her…

Suddenly I feel like I’m thirteen again and somebody asked me to sit with them in the cafeteria.

I agree.

The Rules:
Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog. (2 down…4 to go)
Tag 4 people 3 people at the end of your post linking to their blog.
(Jenny did three…I’ll do three.)
Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Four more random things…

3. I am an organizational-geek. I used to love going to fabric stores with my mom when I was little mostly to put all the zippers, buttons, and thread back into the right spots. It was fun, they were colorful. But my house is usually a mess. I’m pretty sure that enjoyment I get from gardening, and blogging about it, comes at least partially from the organizational aspect of it. (and as much as I thought I’d like my visual, excel-based, pdf’s of my beds for keeping track of planting and sprouting info…I’m going to switch to or supplement with plain ol’ lists. (Ahhh, a chance for a new system!)

4. I love the rain. I love clouds. But it’s probably because I’ve lived in Southern California almost all my life, so I don’t get to experience it too often. I have very fond memories of watching mid-western thunderstorms from a window upstairs at an aunt’s house for hours on end.

5. I’m planning to hike Half Dome in Yosemite this summer. I can walk 10 k/6 miles like it was nothing. But I seriously need to get my butt in gear to get ready for that 16 mile trek!

6. I cobbled this post together at various times over the past couple weeks, so there’s absolutely no flow I’m sure. I angst-ed over various aspects of it, then figured what the hell.

I shall tag:

Front Yard Gardens

May Dreams Gardens

Mercenary Gardens

There were probably about 25 peacocks just hanging out in various parts of the gardens. I had heard they were obnoxiously loud, but who knew that they sound like very large meowing cats? We definitely want to go back and take some better shots of them. They’re amazing. Also, evidently unpredictable and potentially mean.

The only thing louder and more obnoxious than the peacocks were the guinea hens. And not quite as pretty.

Besides these normal attractions of the Arboretum, there were garden chats (which we didn’t get to hit this time), plant sales (which we also didn’t hit this time), and various garden related vendors. We only bought some Napa Wildflower honey from Pollen.

But there were lots of things that we would have liked to buy funds permitting. So in the interest of documenting what we saw and who had it for sale, I’m going to keep track of that here.

A nice, modern looking bench that would be lovely with our house. From Jackalope

Several nice items from Potted.


The chairs and bench were definitely out of budget for now, but we almost bought this rug…
…which was made from recycled plastic bottles. But I’ve never been too successful using outdoor rugs. I like the idea of them better than I like the reality of them.

A couple other interesting furniture items…

From Newtiques in La Crescenta…no website listed on their card.

We didn’t get a card on this…but it was something I thought I’d take a stab at making (if it stuck in my mind and I felt I needed one.)

And last, but not least…

…I STILL want a little covey of quail for my garden. Cheesy, I know. But we’ve seen them in our travels, and I’ve almost bought them several times. I passed once again. But maybe a loved one will see this and take pity on me. Maybe they’ll end up in my yard sometime. (I was alone in my love of the ‘flat’ ones, my husband and mother-in-law both liked the sculptural ones. But I didn’t like their scale. I want the flat ones.) I have a card from this place in Long Beach, but it’s MIA right now.

My mother-in-law and I went to this show, we think it was the same one, several years ago and loved it. It was even better this year. I think next year we plan one day with the husbands, and one day without…planned around when there are interesting garden chats.

It was a nice, nice day.

The whole set on Flickr

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A hummingbird I caught this morning. I should be posting a picture of something growing in my garden, because every time I walk out, the plants do look bigger and stronger. But I’m pretty happy with this pic. And I appreciate my fountain more and more.

(Now if I can just get the blogroll for GTS into my sidebar without breaking this theme…I’ll be even happier.)

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

(okay…you have to go to Amazon to ‘Search Inside!’)

I’m reading Diet for a Small Planet, by Frances Moore Lappé. The ironic thing is that I’m reading the twentieth anniversary edition, which I first read about fourteen years ago. I’ve been hearing the recent news reports about the meat packing plant issues and it’s got me thinking about giving up meat…mostly…again for a while. And one of the things that inspired me to do so during another time of my life was reading this book…so why not read it again and hope for similar results.

I’m not yet ready to say ‘I’m going to be a Vegetarian’, because I know I’m prone to failure with such hard and fast statements. But less is better than more…so I’ll strive for less.

I’ve made it most of the way through the introduction this evening, and I had forgotten (says the girl who forgets the plot of a movie when the credits roll) how much philosophy there is in it. That’s to say, she’s mentioned Relational Philosophy a few times in the introduction. And after reading it, I went on to get a higher degree in Philosophy…and particularly favored relational philosophies. Hmmm. Coincidence?

So among all the other new-ish tasks I’ve undertaken, I’m going to read this book and eat less meat. Wish me luck!

Now I know if you’re reading this, you’ve painstakingly looked through every last post and through my Flickr account and are thinking “You’ve had a D70, why are you excited about a D40?” Well, I wasn’t going to be.

“We” have had a D70 since we brought home AJ, our first pup.

(He’s three and a half now.) But I’ve also had my point-and-shoot, and that’s what I’ve usually been inclined to grab. Until I started gardening again. And walking/hiking more. So there’s been some push/pull about “our” camera. We each like to have it ready and waiting for us, set up the way we want, and it just can’t happen with two people who take different kinds of pictures.

He was trying to talk me into another camera long before these recent interests, but it’s been intensified recently. So last week I finally said okay. And I’m really having a good time with it. Here’s the other pup, Jake. He’ll be two on Monday.

Both of those were cropped out of one picture I took today, then this is the other ‘big’ shot of them today.

It looks to me like they were posed, but I was actually trying to take a picture of a spider that was fairly unsuccessful. And they just snuggled up together like this. Priceless.

This has even inspired me to make a separate photoblog. I’ll ‘blame’ Katie at gardenpunks for the daily photo idea. (Thanks Katie, I actually really like the idea.)

So hopefully, I’ll get this place updated, get the garden tended to, return some overdue correspondence. And settle in this weekend.