the missing photo from last blog

I'll never tame the wild gremlins that live in my computer.
THESE are the Ikea finds and the disco ball that go with the caption below.. why, WHY don't these things appear as they did when I hit the "publish" button? Gremlins I tell ya. Gremlins. (Won't it bu funny if THIS picture doesn't show up?..or the photo without the verbage.... arghhhhhh!! I am SO technically challenged!

More fall foolishness

Awwwwwwwwww

Ikea finds. Well, not the disco ball. Can't remember where that came from.










Persimmons

















WHAT a sweet face!

November nonsense

Having some fun with pupils....


Mr Rootie-tooster having a bite of cracked corn. Probably tastes pretty good after a diet of snails.











(They always think its spring in November!)

Pokeberry (Phytolacca)

10 years ago Mom and I took some of this plant to a nursery to find out what it was.
The nurseryman said "Its a nightshade, get rid of it."
Well, Mom and I both thought it was just too pretty what with those red stems and purply black berries so we left the plant.

It is now all over the property but these pictures are from the origional site.
I forgot to see if Phytolacca is indeed a nightshade but I do know that all parts of the plant are toxic to mammals.

Some folks in the southern parts of the United States still do eat "poke salad" but I think I'll just feast with my eyes, thank you very much.

The birds eat the berries but are unaffected by the toxins because the small seeds have very hard outer shells which remain intact in their digestive system and are eliminated intact. This explains why there are now plants all over the property. The
root systems are ginormous so lots of new growth rises up from them too.


The most interesting fact unearthed about this stuff is that the Declaration of
Independence of the United States was written in fermented pokeberry juice! (The plant is sometimes called inkberry) Many letters written during the Civil War were written in this "ink".

Native Americans used the dye to paint designs on their horses.

The fall color of the leaves is exactly as you see it here in the last two pictures. I don't have Photoshop (and wouldn't know how to use it if I did) and I didn't tweak the color in Picasa.

fun with pots

Or, fun with garbage. Take your pick. My late friend, Larry, used to see things like this rusty old cream can and say "Give it to Cheryl. She'll paint it black and plant flowers in it." I've gotten over painting everything black but not over planting stuff.
There have been a few things that finally just rusted away, alas. But golly, is it ever fun to make pots out of junk! Its one of my favorite recycling programs. Once I Mod Podged© the lable on a can of spagetti sauce, punched holes in the bottom, and planted basil in it.















Whilst my computer was refusing to allow me to blog I got to spend time perusing the blogs of other gardeners, one of whom is a Kati from Ontario, Canada. (did you know, by the way, that there is a town in California, La Canada, which is pronounced La Cah-nada?) but I digress. Kati had this wonderful Anti Lord's Prayer (not anti Lord. Don't go getting all crazy on me) that I have absconded with. Written around this crazy pot is the anti prayer; "...forgive us our conformaties and deliver us from normal..." I had to add the "forever and ever amen" because I had too much room left at the end of the quote. ;>)
Kati has lots of fun observations, photos, and links on her website www.realmudgarden.blogspot.com and if that is not correct try www.doorwaystospirit.blogspot.com

That wire thingie behind the pot is a poorly designed peanut feeder, now lined with moss and stuffed with potting soil and waiting ever so patiently for me to decide what to plant in it. You know, like a basket planter? Impatiens perhaps. For someone who is supposed to be down-sizing in case of impending move back to God's Country (that would be Oregon), I sure seem to be amassing a lot of new plants and pots and stuff.

Oh, and yes, that is a pot in a pot...only to see how the plants will look...they look fine. Someone needs to re-pot the poor things into the colorful pot.



I'm temporarily out of words. Let's just see what the Blogmeister does with this rambling too-many-photos-not-enough-verbage. I tried to get atleast 2 more photos of odd pots on here but I don't see them. They are floating around in cyberspace.

mums the word

we are testing. Are testy. depends. More soon. maybe.

Plenty a' punkins!

The Davis Ranch in Sloughhouse, CA.
has pumpkins from the itty bitty ones
that will fit in you palm to some pretty
honkin' big ones. Red orange, orange,
spooky green, white, or greeinsh pumpkins.

Plus they have a corn maze.

Not to mention that they still have fresh corn-on-the-cob which is DELICIOUS! They have apples, melons, garlic, peas, beans, beets, nuts, herbs, I'm forgetting most of it! I bought fresh corn and fresh tomatoes; Angela bought corn, tomatoes, green beans and a melon...all for a pittance.


Davis Ranch
13501 Jackson Rd
Sloughhouse, CA
916-682-2658

Just be careful driving out there because its a 2-lane country road which some people seem to think is a freeway.

Open House at Windmill Nursery

We had a grand time at Windmill Nursery's open house last night. The food was delicious, the wine was wonderful, and the people all friendly and fun. There was even live music! (hopefully the slide-show will show up here..I am never, ever sure about these things!) Of course I had to buy a few plants (10% of all yesterday's sales were donated to Wind Youth Services which helps homeless teens.) which I have been out planting this morning. (the plants, not the teens) Now its time to scuttle off to tend to The Nephew's yard and then to help Angela ready her yard for her upcoming interview with Sacramento Magazine! If the slide show didn't work then I'll post pictures later. Right now I gotta get my hands dirty! Toodles~

a "light" blanket

It may not even freeze this winter but just in case it does, the lights went up early. They do seem to aid in deterring Jack Frost from turning the tender plants to total mush. Of course, it does help that there is a fair amount of tree canopy overhead. The lights work here in the Sacramento area because we rarely get a "hard" freeze. One of the Anna's hummingbirds just kept right on lapping up the nectar from the orange Wild Birds Unlimited feeder on the kitchen window while I strung up the lights. (yet another pang of guilt. If the developer has his way with this 2.5 acres of trees & shrubs, where are all "my" little birds going to nest and find food? I'm not sleeping worth a damn these days.)

spider plant in pumpkin witch'sbottom

ok. Well, it will do for now. The pot just fits nicely without going to the bottom of the pumpkin belly so it'll be easy to change. Angela says it needs spiders..plastic ones...gosh, I did remove a fat, hairy (real) jumping spider from the plant when I brought it inside. Guess I shoulda left the poor thing there. (No, I didn't kill it.) There are some black plastic spiders around here...somewhere...probably packed...

Pumpkin butt planter

Pretty sure that this was meant to hold Halloween candy but I'm seeing it as a way cool planter! Might paint the "pumpkin" purple and then stick in a pot of chartreuse potato vine. OR, maybe it should be painted chartreuse and potted with purple leaf Tradescantia. I can't tell what the "pot" is made of but doubt it could be planted directly. A tiny label on the bottom of the shoes says "for indoor use only" , "not a toy" and "Made in China"....I don't plan to eat out of it.
The hole is big enough to accomodate a 2 gallon pot of something and "she" can stand inside during the wet season and outside in the sun or covered patio to work "her" magic.
Come to think of it, "she" could be turned over and use as a plant stand. Gotta love Target!

OMG!

It worked!!

a day in the East Bay...maybe..or maybe not

Have NO idea as to what I'm doing.."just copy and paste"...yeah. right. :>) there is supposed to be a link to a slide show here...all I see is code. dreaded code! Arghhhhh!

Monster Fernoctopus

Ya just gotta' love this plant. It looks like an escapee from Whoville. I must look for a little Cat-in-the-Hat figure to place in the pot with it! It has been living quite happily under the palm tree for several years but in my frustrated panic/stress mode (still hoping that damn developer will just go away) I dug it up today and potted it. It looks better in the pot...all gnarly and spooky. Hopefully it won't die. At least I'm trying to save it. (The developer would simply doze it along with everything else he told me made this place "such a beautiful park!") I will NEVER understand that.

If only I could grow Valium. ;>)

'Tis the season

The folks out front got new duds today. Don't tell the Little Woman that her Halloween costume is fine because she thinks she looks tres glam and not Halloweenie at all. She thinks she's the poster girl for Mary Kay. Poor dear.

miscellaneous nonsense

Just some random photos of little mini-projects. One of the "e"s from the peace sign was lost for months but surfaced, literally, when I cleaned up the old chasmanthe leaves near the kumquat tree last week. The letters are made of plywood so it is amazing that they haven't fallen into untidy, unrecognizable masses of pulp.
Then I read an article about a Corvallis gardener who turned two old toilets over and made a bench of them. Since I only had one old toilet, it became the base for a birdbath and a concrete stepping-stone thingy for a potted plant to live on.
What is the easiest and most economical way to refinish old lawn furniture?
What to do with a broken glass hummingbird feeder, some bamboo, and a cheap hangydown from Walgreens.

Artsy-fartsy Carpsie

Oh my goodness! Don't tell me this is actually gonna' work this time? There must be gremlins in my computer because sometimes things work and sometimes they don't. I really didn't expect this to work this morning. Ahh, I know. Its only working because my son-the-computer-guru is visiting. As soon as he leaves, I won't be able to blog. ;>)

Things have been very interesting around here of late. I'm hoping to get out of the sale of this property. Much as I want to move back to Oregon, I can't bear the thought of all the 200+ trees and the house our parents built being bulldozed to make way for a rediculously large sub-division. The neighbors are all up in arms as well. They don't fault me for wanting to sell and move but they are certainly not happy with the developer who led me to believe that he "would save as many trees as possible" and now indicates that that number is possibly as many as two. He does not understand how we feel about trees. Trees are just obstacles to him. The fact that these trees are somewhat historical, being one of the few olive orchards left in the area, (there are many other tree varieties also), the fact that they aid in air quality and in halting erosion, the fact that they are homes for several kinds of birds (hummingbirds to titmice, bushtits, housefinch, goldfinch, yellow billed magpies, red tailed hawks, Sharp-shinned hawks, screech owls, scrub jays, mourning doves, robins, yellow-rumped warblers, spotted towhees, California towhees, white-crowned sparrows, gold-crowned sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, white-breasted nuthatches, cedar waxwings, and an assortment of migrants in the spring and summer to name a few) means nothing to him. I haven't even mentioned that there have been a lot of alligator lizards dwelling on the place, though I haven't seen any for a long time. (that doesn't mean that they are no longer here) To tell me "This is a beautiful piece of property! A park!" and then to say that he intends to turn it into solid houses and pavement, is just, well blasphaemous! My tummy has been in knots. Ideally we would like to find a buyer who wanted an "estate" or "estates". Who would build no more than 4 houses, and to have spacious yards, and contain people who actually cared about the earth and who would build "green", earth-friendly houses...

Ok. now let's just see if this will print. errors and all!

a rather lazy day

I shouldn't forget the name of my Terragon any time soon, nor shall I be tempted to "dump that bucket of dirt" when the plant goes dormant this winter. Labeling the plant was about the only gardening thing I did today and its all Laurie's fault. If you haven't discovered her yet, go here; www.LauriesGarden.com . She is hilarious and no dummie when it comes to plants. I have spent a good portion of the last two days sitting on my fat fanny, reading her comments and laughing out loud. I can SO identify with some of her "customer issues"! I don't work in a nursery but I do work in retail. Must look her up the next time I'm in the Portland, Oregon area.
This year's tomato crop is pitiably pathetic. Sure the plants were safe from deer and the rats but...sheesh...only three? Guess they didn't like the containers. The cucumber vines are long and full of blossoms but nary a cuke. On the other hand, the melons are growing at an alarming rate and they are sharing the wine vat with the cukes. Go figure. and then, there's Maud. She is SO lazy!
Ok. Let's see if the photos actually show up. There are lines and lines of coded jibberish above this that I type. Will they come to life when I hit publish? Will ALL of them come to life? I'm going back to reading Laurie's archived entries.

Random color shots.Summer 07