Around the Garden

Ever wonder how kohlrabi grows? I (wrongly) assumed it grew in the ground like a beet or radish. What a surprise to see the bright purple bulb snuggled in amongst the leaves. The leaves are also very tasty.

Other goings-on around the garden:

Last year we planted 12 strawberry plants. When the first set of blooms appeared, we followed my mother-in-law's advice and pinched off all of the buds. We continued for the first few months and harvested maybe a handful of berries. She swore it would help them develop strong roots over time.

She was very right. This year we've had non-stop strawberries.

Lettuce and wild anise. Any ideas for what to do with anise? So far we've eaten it straight and sprinkled it in salads. We have it growing all over the backyard.

Our lovely nectarine tree has some funky leaves. We're thinking maybe leaf curl? Ideas?

Apricot tree with no funky leaves and tons of fruit. Looking forward to eating apricots....

Fava Beans and Maintenance

I've never grown fava beans but they are just so darn easy. I planted them and really haven't done a thing. I'm also excited to taste them (I've never eaten fava beans!). Any favorite recipes to share?

C pointed out that the pretty white flowers look like butterflies.

I've been feeling slightly unmotivated to post over the last week or two. Maybe it's just a phase or maybe it's the weather. We've been working on the house but it's been maintenance, maintenance and more maintenance. For how much I love our yard and garden, it's an amazing amount of effort just to keep the grass cut, the weeds pulled and the trees pruned. We spent the entire last weekend (when it wasn't raining) just cleaning up and man, it's exhausting. Gardening is nice but yard work...not my favorite.

What keeps you motivated when you're stuck in those dreaded maintenance periods?

***Michelle over at PrettyMommy asked me about my "Everyday Obsessions". Check them out here, thanks Michelle!***

Nature is Amazing

I spent a good part of the weekend exclaiming, "Nature is so damn amazing!".

I think finding the sprouting acorn kicked it off for me. I was weeding the garden and found this little beauty nestled in between the strawberries. We have mini oak trees poking up all over the place but this was the first time I really saw how the magic works.

That crazy alien-like pink area will unfurl to become the oak leaves. I planted this little guy to watch him grow but someone some puppy pulled it out of the pot.

C spent the weekend on super-speed. First he leveled out more of the upper hill area, added 3 new steps, a winding path and an area for a bench. Then he climbed up a 30 ft. oak tree, pruned it and freed it from the encroaching Acacias. On to the next Oak trees for pruning and then an epic battle with poison oak. He also managed to cut the grass and hang the hammock (for me to nap in!).

Sunday we planted some more flowers and though C spent most of the day in another working craze, I managed to take only one photo of him; sleeping in the hammock with Elli.

I found this yellow spider on our Rosemary plant. I've never seen a yellow spider before!

And because C says, "Sometimes people want to see what you eat", here's what we had for dinner:

Roast chicken over potatoes and a side of roasted kohlrabi and watermelon radishes.

Oh, and Saturday night (in keeping with the "Nature is amazing!" theme) we watched this great documentary about the search for the first flower.

(in the upper right you can see our little house)

Weekend activities included building more stairs up the path to the look-out platform, re-potting cacti, pruning a newly discovered walnut tree and weeding, weeding and more weeding. 

 

 

 I also planted more radishes and we spent some time birdwatching.

 

Weekend Activities

Two long, exhuasting days spent cutting and pruning and dragging branches from the backyard down to the driveway. We're clearing the area where we'll build the studio.

The above photo is about 1/3 of the way done on early Saturday.

Spencer from the Oakland Zoo came by again to pick up all of the branches for elephant "browse". We sent him away with an overloaded truck and another pile to be picked up tomorrow.

Spencer says that if you put a pile of Eucalyptus, a pile of Palm, a pile of Oak and a pile of Acacia in front of a hungry elephant, they would probably chose the Oak first and then the Palm.

I took Farmgirl Susan's advice and sprinkled some Diatomaceous earth around the plants that are being eaten. I poked holes in the lid of a mustard jar to make a little cannister. I'm crossing my fingers we'll actually get to harvest some kale and kohlrabi soon.

Around the Garden and More Windows

The tiny flowers on our almond trees smell like honey.

We snapped some cuttings from a renegade neighborhood plant (aloe?) about two years ago. The flower is new this year.

Rosemary that I clip to make winter roast chicken and summertime rosemary lemonade.

 New (salvaged) windows that C found for my studio.

***Karey couldn't be sweeter and said some ridiculously kind words over here today. Thank you, lady.***

***Joslyn whipped up a batch of these cookies over her lunch break yesterday and posted some excellent notes about the recipe on her food blog***

Cheese and Vegetables

And again with the pests. Something is eating my radishes.

Also spotted on the lettuce; tiny little bugs.

I'm feeling a bit frustrated with the vegetable garden right now and looking forward to nicer weather so I can spend more time and energy tending to the vegetables. At least the arugula is happy these days.

Last week I made some very excellent goat cheese. It was more like a soft ricotta than a chevre, supremely easy to make and most tasty (grainy photos due to the cheesmaking happening late night).

String Garden

This project is so incredibly beautiful. I would like to have a glass greenhouse filled with my own string garden.

Go here to see more here.

(via AT-SWIM-TO-BIRDS)

first, something awesome:
my new kitchenaid (a big thanks to my aunt, uncle and favorite backyard helpers) (making a batch of meringues...yum.)

and then something seemingly awesome until closer inspection:this whole backyard vegetable gardening adventure has been a tough one...
first there were the mushrooms, then we had a minor infestation of cucumber beetles and now, finally as all of the fruit is starting to ripen, i think my poor tomato plants are suffering from late blight. do i really have to pull the plants immediately or can i wait until we're done harvesting???

i have no photographic proof of any activity this weekend because lately our camera seems to mysteriously only take photos of puppies. i offer, instead, a brief list of what happened around the house, with photos to follow soon:

- planted the cantaloupe and peas, finally
- cleaned out the front yard and planted another small area. this job is HUGE and will be completed tiny bit by tiny bit. we're making progress...
- moved the huge pile of wood, AGAIN and turned the side yard into an outdoor elli play-pen.
- finished painting the carport
- replaced and restrung the old christmas lights on the carport
- strung outdoor "ball" lights along the back of the vegetable garden area

oh, and a friend told us last night that our backyard looks like how she imagined fairytale forests when she was a child (except that it's missing the fairies and elves). that made me a lot giddy...

lest we forget that there was a world before elli...remember that project i mentioned a week or so ago? here it is:an incredible potting bench designed and built by one talented german. it's made completely from recycled wood. the top pieces are redwood from our giant stack and the bottom pieces were salvaged from an old deck via craigslist. C sanded it all when he was done and then applied a thin coat of beeswax. he even added a few special details, pulled from a collected pile of old construction parts, to finish it off.i especially love the way the wax really brought out the different colors in the wood he used...while C was working on the table, I painted the funky carport. we figured it as long as it's still there (until we tear it down), we could at least spiffy it up a bit....and yes those are indeed overalls that i'm sportin'.

barring weekend-long thunderstorms, there are many more projects underway for this little area (and a special side project for elli!)...