Wordless Wednesday: Living in a Sluggish Paradise

"Wordless Wednesday" is a popular internet blogging meme where you just post a photo you've taken... I'm going to give it a try.  If it doesn't work out, maybe I'll have Mumbled Monday or Photo Phriday or Sentenceless Saturday instead. Hmmmm.

(click photo to enlarge)

The Pests Come Out At Night

By night, my backyard is the epitome of a gardener's nightmare... earwigs covering all available surfaces of the withering and helpless zucchini seedlings... silvery slug trails as thick as chainmail are draped over the earth's chest.  It may be a pest's paradise out there for now, but plants are one of my greatest loves, and stubbornness is perhaps my greatest fault... I WILL be victorious.

 Taking a good picture of the mesh-like network of slug trails is difficult... but here you can still see lots of slime sparkles!

And so, I need a new plan for the bugs.  After that midnight foray into the garden with a flashlight, I am shocked to see exactly what my seedlings are up against, and not so surprised that any new nasturtium/pea seedlings in the ground disappear in a day or two (seedlings in pots seem to do fine). As an emergency action tonight I'm setting up barriers by cutting the bottoms out of plastic cups and then pressing them into the soil around each seedling.

I'll also try my grandpa's newspaper method... you lightly roll up newspaper into a long log and then put a rubber band around the middle, wet it and set it outside at dark... by morning earwigs will have crawled inside to hide for the day, and you can just throw the newspaper in the trash.

The beer trap is doing fantastic, there is about a centimeter's thickness of insect bodies at the bottom, primarily pincher bugs.  It seems that the longer I leave it there, the more enticing it becomes to the bugs, so I'll leave it a bit longer.  It is, um, a little too gross to photograph.

Chewing Holes

Yes, I keep changing the title picture (which is a photo of last year's Empress of India nasturtiums after a rain, by the way)... I figured it is best if the text reflects the state of my garden, and the state of my garden is currently bug-munched.  Something small is chewing tiny holes in the pea seedlings and in just 2 nights something larger is impressively crippling the zucchini sprouts.

Ack!!  The horror!

Om nom nom!

And so, I pour a libation to the garden gods, right into a homemade slug trap.  The bugs get to drink Sam Adams, 'cause I wasn't about to sacrifice the Guinness!  I'm interested to see if this actually works. 

Drink up!

A Look Forward

The previous owners of this house were an elderly couple who had lived here since it was built in 1986, and they obviously took a lot of pride in the state of the backyard. It is full of hummingbird and bee-friendly plants, and they were careful to make it very water-efficient with an extensive drip system and a thick layer of mulch over mostly drought-resistant vegetation. Vines climb the back fence and engulf the tall porch. The front yard is covered with plants as well, and I'm told they will flower exuberantly this summer! There are so many plants here that are strangers to me, but we'll get to know each other soon.

A small stone path winds from one side of the yard to the other.

These photos were all taken about a month ago, when we first moved in, and it was very rainy.

A little spot of zen

An apple tree! It is well-trimmed, and I am anxious to discover what kind of apples it produces.

Due to the well-planned nature of the back yard, my respect for the amount of work that went into it, my desire to see what these plants do, and the fact that we're only renting, this first year I plan to pretty much not disturb most of the plants and design. But where will the veggies go, you ask? After a few weekend days of sleuthing, it appears that the best sunlight hits along the south edge of the porch and the west fence so I have put my pots and half wine barrel there.

Last year's marjoram sits happily on the pebbled concrete of the porch, where it can finally get some sun!

There are suspicious bare spots in the yard which are already hooked up to the drip system, where ailing plants were likely removed before sale of the house... I will take full advantage of those bare spots, and as many of the nooks and crannies between existing plants as possible. The back fence is rich with possibilities, since it is already covered with a green wire grid for vines... you know some peas and beans are going to sprout there! Soon I would also like to create large raised beds along the completely empty side yards for lower-light plants such as salad greens. It's a good start for a first real garden, and it'll definitely keep me busy!

What are your plans for this year's gardening?

A Look Back

It would be fitting to take one last look at the old garden. We lived a block from the train, in a place so tiny that one room of a 4-bedroom house was ours... though we did have a private entrance and access to a porch. And boy, did I fill up that porch!

What started it all

One day my fellow bought a half wine barrel out of the back of some guy's truck in Napa... after I had filled it to the brim with herbs and radishes, I couldn't seem to stop, and pretty soon the potted plants were everywhere.

The entire porch, early April 2009: Humble beginnings

I vowed to use only organic gardening methods, and planted way too many things in too small of a space. The peas, beans, nasturtiums, cilantro, tomatoes, and radishes exploded with vigor... the gourds, zucchini, peppers, sage, basil, and strawberries puttered along and didn't really produce anything considering all the effort that was put in.

The entire porch, late June 2009: A vegetable jungle!

The shepherd's hook

I was also conscious of attracting beneficial organisms to my garden, so I added a hummingbird feeder and nasturtiums for the birds & bees. It seemed to work... all my flowers were pollenated, and it did seem to make a dent in the aphid population.

Looking back, it's obvious what the garden was missing... not enough sun, not enough salad plants, not enough fertilizer, and definitely not enough root space for most of the plants. But the 3 lessons that I will keep in mind the most this season are:
- Grow more tomato plants than you think you'll need. I only grew one plant last year which ended up being very abundant, but friends and family love home-grown tomatoes almost as much as I do... I didn't even get a chance to try them cooked!
- Snow peas begin lose their flavor within minutes of harvest, as the pea uses up the sugars... eating them as you pluck them from the vines is a unique pleasure not to be missed. Peas were also by far the largest producer for the least amount of care and space in the container garden, in this cool California bay area summer.
- There will always be aphids in the garden. Always. It's okay. Just try to keep them from overwhelming the seedlings, and invest in a good salad spinner for when you wash bugs off delicate plants.

If you have a garden, what's an important lesson you learned in your first year?

Hello to You, and Happy Birthday to Spring

What could be a better time to start a garden journal than the spring equinox? Day and night are about equal today, but from now on the light becomes increasingly dominant as it wakes the plants. It's become obvious that spring is here, as the trees begin to bud and the air starts to warm.

Buds on the green Japanese maple... and firewood that's going to make the air warm!

I seem to be having a similar experience too as I make the transition between towns, relaxing into the cozy realization that this is my home. The difference is that there is now actual land, an oven, bathtub, garage, fireplace, space for crafts, no one walking back and forth on a squeaky ceiling all night, no traffic noise, and my only housemates are a happy husband, a pampered gecko, and a bossy fish... it's all the little things that make me blissful! There's a bubbly sensation inside, and all those suppressed gardening/crafting/cooking project ideas are threatening to burst forth at about the same time as the trees explode in leaves.

With that in mind, hello and welcome to Leaves In My Hair! My name is Kendra, and plants are one of my life's greatest joys. If you happen upon this blog, I'd be thrilled if you'd introduce yourself, and even stick around a while to share your own gardening experiences and advice as this journal grows. If you have a blog of your own, what is it about?