New Garden Plot

I have dirt! I ran into the guy who runs the City of Sacramento community garden program at a composting event and started chatting about how I've been on the list for over a year at the garden closest to my house but they don't have any turn over. He said he had one ready to go on the other side of the freeway. Within 5 days I have a plot!

I picked a plot that I had to clear myself but it has an established artichoke that is ready to harvest. It took me hours of hard work and many days to clear all the mint (don't every plant peppermint!), and leftover plants. I kept two things, a pin cushion and some calendula.

In just three months, my garden is hitting it's stride! Here's a list of what I planted followed by a picture diary.

Tomatoes: Sun Gold, San Marzano, Costoluto Genovese
Peppers: Jalepeno, Serrano, Shishito
Beans: Haricot Verts, Edamame, Purple Runner, Maxibel, Blue Lake, Pinto, Green & Gold
Cucumber: Persian, Crystal Apple, Cucamelons (Mexican Sour Gherkin)
Herbs: Thai Basil, Globe Basil, Chives, Lemon Thyme, regular Thyme, Sage, other tiny leaf basil, Bay Tree,
Flowers: Nasturtium, Fernleaf Lavender, Twickell Purple Lavender, Yarrow, Guara, Verbena, three kinds of sunflowers
Carrots: Rainbow Mix of red, yellow & white, Little Finger

I'm such a happy camper!

Oh man, this plot is a disaster!

I'm only done with the front and half of the bed. Stupid mint.

Front bed cleared an amended. Calendula re-positioned to the left

Damn, that is hard work. All amended. Every inch turned and cleared of mint runner.

Plant Foundry in Oak Park hooked me up with great plants!

Everything is in the ground!

Beans and carrots from seed have sprouted!

A week of over 100 degree heat is trying to vaporize my plants. Put in shade breaks to help.

Well, a couple of Haricot Vert and Soybeans bit the dust but the thick straw bedding is helping a lot!

Things are growing in well! Last of the artichokes have done.

     

I love this yarrow.

Artichoke flowers are stunning. I left quite a few on the plant to feed the bees.

Three months later, the garden is doing really well. Harvesting almost everything.

My harvest! This is super fun.

My runner beans are flowering a lot but not one bean has set. Hmm...

   

Tahoe Rim Trail Flowers

We've been working on hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail this summer and I can't even describe how gorgeous some of the areas are. They are a wildflower heaven and the photos don't do them justice. Here are just a few.

A ground cover ceanothus

Snowflowers everywhere!

Penstemon

Spotted Coralroot, Corallorhiza maculata

 

Such happy moss!

Ficus Finds a New Home

My rescue ficus was starting to look a little tired and dropped leaves well into the spring. I've never repotted it so I figured now it the time. It was like wrestling a giant trying to get that into a new pot and it took two bags of mix to fill it in.

After a little time in the new pot it stopped dropping leaves and it a happy little giant once again.

May Flowers

I love my porch in the spring. May flowers.

Succulent Show 2016

Another plant show and another terrible failure at trying to only buy a couple of plants. I'm losing my mind this year with more plants. This year I ended up with some cactus and a Pachypodium which I haven't had before! Of course, this meant I had to repot my whole collection, pull some leaves and root some new stuff.

My new plants!

My little cactus is flowering like a champ.

All my old and new plants ready to be worked on.

Everything done.

I put all my new plants in here (minus the Pachypodium & cactus)

Orchid Show 2016

I went to the annual orchid show looking for two Bulbophyllum plants. Oh, I did find those and so many more! I don't have a lot of windowsill space so I was on the hunt for mounted orchids. Here's what I ended up with.

From my mom, a cymbidium pup from her outdoor one.

Cirrhopetalum Elizabeth Ann buckleberry

Dendrobium anceps

Dendrobium had a tiny flower!

Bulbophyllum robhschildianan "Haverhill"

Bulbophyllum eberhardtii "Okayama"

Cymbidium intermedia var. orlata

Orchids taking a bath

Yuri Orchid

My Yuri Red Velvet orchid was rescued back in April 2009 from a coworker. I've repotted it a couple of times over the years, but other than that, it just trucks along on the porch. This year, it threw out three spikes of gorgeous flowers!