gardening

There is something about the smell of dirt, whether in the form of sodden leaves and dirt in the fall rain, or a pot of soil, or spreading amendment into a garden bed.

For years I had a house with a fenced-off area for gardening. I grew tomatoes and corn and lettuces and lemons and figs for the most part. There was a 40-foot tall avocado tree too, but it was old and diseased. The soil was clay, and if I watered it, I could sink into it up to my ankles unless I put paving stones around the beds. It wasn’t the best of situations, and had I the wherewithal, I could have rototilled amendment to make a better bed, but it never happened. Still, going out to play in the soil, plant and weed and pick were some of the best bits of summer.

Since then we have moved. The guy we bought our current house from put in too many trees, and now we are paying the price of having them removed over time. About a dozen more to go (that’s down from about 20). Then, a small back hoe or something is going to need to come in to dig down to get at roots and such – probably 24″ or so – and put in a new watering system and dirt. In hindsight, I should have done it when we moved in, but that is hindsight! With foresight, I am planning ahead. It will take time and money and a bit of thought, and perhaps even a landscaper or professional.

Only one tree is going to be saved – the crepe myrtle (above).

However! All is not lost as I have a Dog Free Zone (a.k.a the “DFZ” – a side patio where the dogs are forbidden, and is fenced off). There is also a small flower bed in the front yard, and gardening areas for a fig tree and roses.

We have a couple of tangerine trees in pots on wheels which we roll around on the back patio to collect the sun. Today I did some transplanting of flowers into larger pots, pruning, and general clean up. After that, I started some old seeds in starter containers – things like cucumber seeds from 2008, long beans, mesclun, holly hocks, lupines, stock and carnations, pimientos and cayenne peppers. If they come up, great; if not, at least I tried, right?

Flowers and vegetables and fruit – all are better when home grown! Besides what I put in today, I also have a couple of tomatoes, odd bulbs, lilies, zinnias, more peppers (about 12 or so), mint, milkweed, lavender, alyssum, sunflowers, marigolds, and few other bits and bobs that attracted my attention these past months. Front and back are getting spruced up!

Gardening is one of the great joys of retirement, a beautiful spring, and an unfolding summer season . . .

Sunday Morning

This morning I awoke to the sounds of birds and the rustle of leaves in the breeze. The sunlight was dim through the windows, with hints of blue, presaging an incredible day. Now the sun is up, and all that seemed promised is true. New leaves are appearing on the tulip tree and the redbud; the birds are still singing. Robert Browning wrote, “all’s right with the world.” On mornings such as this, it is best to believe it, and so I shall.

So, what to do? We are having family over for Sunday dinner, so there are things to be done around the house, a bit of shopping, a bit of cooking. It is a simple thing to do – marinated lamb roast, salad, bread or rice or potatoes, tzatziki. The company is to be enjoyed, and hopefully all invited will be able to join.

Life – and time to finally live it – is grand. No more “return to work” dates; I choose what to do and when. The Puritan side of me espouses “pain before pleasure,” meaning, get the unpleasant stuff out of the way ASAP! That means chores, like cleaning. I like clean things, but the cleaning process is not exciting – I’d rather be outside digging in the dirt or drawing or reading. The satisfaction of a chore, to me, is when it is done. Putting it off dulls the joy in other activities, but as I like an orderly and relatively clean house and studio, it makes sense. Doing the unpleasant first makes the rest of the day move into infinity.

Yesterday I bought some plants -peppers, alyssum, dianthus. Bulbs were on sale half price since it is past their season. Potting soil, too. Before I start the dinner shopping, but after housework, I shall begin work on my little front yard flower bed. My gardener worked in some soil for me, and now I have some ideas as to what I am going to do with it. Its a sunny – shady area as it faces west, with the house to the east. Afternoons find it quite shady, and as summer comes along, I think it gets shady earlier. Alyssum and dianthus will be along the outer borders of the plot – see below – bulbs sporadically distributed depending on their sun requirements – and the peppers will be placed in their own pots out on the sunny southern patio (aka “the dog-free zone” or the “DFZ”!)

Along with gardening, planning for my next painting is on the way. I have been following various YouTube painters – as you have seen in earlier posts – but I have also been working my way through a book on perspective and contemplating spartan photography. (Huh? Wuzzat?)

And, Josh and I spent 3 days in San Diego, which was something wonderful to do – get away from it all to enjoy coming back to it all!

Tomatoes at Sunset

Green Tomatoes at Sunset

Just before the sun sank slowly in the west . . .

Tomatoes & Roses

Today I noticed the first of the roma tomatoes I planted!

My yard is impossible for gardening. Along the back fence is a row of about 15 trees, consisting of 10 podocarpus, 2 camphor, and one crepe myrtle. When I get the chance, the podocarpus are all exiting. I’ve taken out 2 already in the front of the house, and am just waiting to have a spare bunch of change for the rest. There is simply way too much shade, and nothing grows except moss and mushrooms. Yes, the yard is cool, but the darkness is not worth it. The camphor trees provide shade, are nicely placed, and once the crepe myrtle gets more sun, should be quite lovely.

What this means is absolutely no flower gardening nor vegetable gardening. Everything is in pots, on the patios. I have blueberries and tomatoes and herbs and a fig tree and a key lime tree and some roses and a plumeria and some lilies and canna and orchids and galangal and spiderwort. It gets a bit troublesome as seasons change, and messy, too, when it is time to re-pot.

Despite these limitations, the urge to plant and propagate exists. Where I teach is a wonderful rose garden in the middle of the shabby buildings. The roses are well tended by the gardener, and I expect they have been there easily 50 years or more. During the annual cut-back, he kindly gave me numerous slips, which I have only now taken the time to put into the ground. That is one of the things so wonderful about roses – you can really abuse them, but it takes a lot to destroy them. The slips have been living in a bucket of murky water. Some turned totally black; these I discarded. The rest, I pulled out, and one by one, split the base and inserted tooth picks, and popped them in the ground.

Empty flower pots were filled with potting soil, watered thoroughly, and then allowed to drain. I dug down about 4 inches, and placed the cuttings into the soil, firmed the dirt around the slip to keep it upright, and then watered again. Watching the slips is critical – the soil has to be moist, but not overly so, nor allowed to get too dry. We’ll see how things go over the next few weeks.

Little Things

Like proud parents, we point out our lovely, young children!

The rhizome went in a week ago, the madder seeds two weeks ago. I thought the madder wouldn’t sprout, but here it is. 2 out of 7 seeds have sprouted – 18 remain.