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

 
 
 
 

Pretty peppers

 

This fabulous string of peppers just arrived from Seattle thanks to my cousin and his partner! You too can have a string of beauty in you kitchen. Just go to www.choicepeppers.com

morning photos

 
 
 

there are supposed to be photos here. Three of 'em. All I see is an entire paragraph of codes. Hopefully, the codes will turn into photos when I hit the publish button. If not, I'll have to bug Angela again to FIX IT! ;>) I am so not techno-savvy.

Picasa Web Albums - Cheryl - An afternoon ...

oops!

Obviously I need to learn to always stick my finger in the pot before assuming that it contains a thirsty plant. I actually suspect that the roots got boiled on this poor Persian Shield. It's a hot spot in the morning in which anything would droop, but then it's shady the rest of the day. Obviously, when the potting soil bag says that it has water retaining gizmos in it, one should pay attention! the poor little Persian is reviving after a rather severe pruning. (They are tough, aren't they!) The other plants are doing fine, though I did move the lime green sweet potato vine to a shadier location.

puzzle

Does anyone know what this clown was used for? He's about 10" tall and obviously not a vase. The piece says "Marcia of Calif." on the bottom, along with "A 85" and USA. Maybe a t.v. lamp?

Naturally I can find other stuff by Marcia of Calif. but nothing like this. He's been up on a shelf in my parents' home for a very long time and had to have been a gift since neither of them was particularly fond of clowns. I don't like clowns (rodeo clowns are ok for some reason) and I don't think my brother was ever a clown fan either. He's a bit of a mystery. The clown, not my brother. Oh. Wait...

Mr. Clown will be for sale as soon as I get an idea as to what he's worth. 99 cents? $99.00? Heck, I don't have a clue! Help?

Maude's Make-over

Poor old Maude. She smiled real big and her face simply cracked and fell off. She was immediately whisked away for a massive make-over and, "Voila"! Just amazing what a little hair color, instant tan, and lipstick can do for a girl isn't it?
Here is the "new and improved" Maude. Of course, she's got attitude now so looks even more formidable sitting in her chair by the driveway, guarding things, drinking her Margaritas, plotting...

Cock-A-Doodle-Dooooo

Peabody forgot to take the old white rooster with her when she left!

peafowl update

Phoebe (the doggie) and Peabody (the peahen) were really at play here, Phoebe thinking it was just grand that Peabody would chase her. Phoebe prefers to be chased rather than TO chase. Anyhow, the day after this picture was taken I managed to capture Peabody. She has gone to live on 18 acres with a real, live peacock so has to believe that she has died and gone to Heaven. I miss having her around but am happy that she is no longer crossing our busy street in search of love in all the wrong places. She will make a most excellent mother to her peachicks. She was, after all, an excellent mother to the one Bantum chick that she managed to hatch and not step on 2 years ago.