Photo: Fallen Leaves

It looks like got quite a bit of wind while we were visiting my sister for Thanksgiving. When we returned, we were created with this blanket of elm leaves coating everything in the front yard. Despite it looking like Fall, our temperatures have been in the mid-to-upper 70’s. Blah! I think I have Seasonal Effective Disorder (SAD) but in the opposite way of most people. Around the holidays I want the dark and the cold. Temperatures like these put me all out of sorts and make it feel ridiculous to put up Christmas decorations and lights. Oh well, must do out anyway, I suppose.

Fallen Leaves

Fallen Leaves

Even with all these leaves falling, though, this geranium continues to throw off flowers year round. It is a simple plant, but I always delight in seeing it as I enter the house each day. It is over 15 years old and was an original housewarming gift from my co-workers at the time.

Winter Geranium

Elsewhere: Video: TedTalks: A Garden in My Apartment

A great talk on a system to building a garden anywhere you have available space and light. Does it give you some thought? It sure does that for me. Check it out! and let me know what you think in the comments.

Could you use this in your house or apartment?

Would you try it out?

How could you make it better?

What would you grow using a system like this?

Watch “Britta Riley: A garden in my apartment” on YouTube

Troy-Bilt Pressure Washer – A Review and Giveaway!

My fellow Saturday6 blogger, Kylee, over at Our Little Acre is giving away a Troy-Bilt Chipper Shredder and you can enter with just a comment on her blog.

I reviewed an older model back in 2008 and it is a monster…in a good way. It can take your garden waste and turn it into wonderful wood chip or leaf mulch in seconds.

In just a week or so I will be announcing my own Troy-Bilt giveaway, so stayed tuned to A Gardener’s Notebook!

From Our Little Acre

Now for the giveaway! Last year, we got to test and review a Troy-Bilt CSV 206chipper/shredder/vacuum.  You can see my review here. We used it quite a bit this fall, and Troy-Bilt is letting me give away a CS 4265 Chipper Shredder (a different model) to a very lucky reader!

Read Troy-Bilt Pressure Washer – A Review and Giveaway! and enter the contest

Photo: Elm tree leaves turn for Fall



Elm tree leaves turn for Fall, originally uploaded by dewelch.

It seems like the Elm and Locust trees just discovered it was Fall. Within just a few days they have changed color and are dropping leaves at a high rate.

We don’t get a lot of Fall color here in Los Angeles, but these provide a splash of color both on the trees and on the grounds.

One more rain storm or bout of high wind and they will all be gone, I imagine.

Elsewhere: Enviro-Cakes terrarium giveaway at Our Little Acre

I entered this giveaway for this cool take on a terrarium from one of my fellow Saturday6 members — Douglas


Earlier this year, I received a new product introduced by Batson’s Foliage Group, a family-owned business in Florida, called Enviro-Cakes™. I’d read about it in their newsletter, wrote to Kelley to tell her how awesome I thought the product looked, and she offered to send one to me.

When it arrived, I got a kick out of the box and its handwritten labeling…

Read the entire article

A few things done (or at least doing!)

I took a few minutes today to get the last 30 or so daffodil bulbs in the ground. We are expecting a significant storm over the weekend, so it is the perfect time to finish up that job. While I was out putting these bulbs in the ground I saw our first bulbs of the season popping up.

First Bulbs

First Bulbs 2011

Click for larger image

These are probably snowbells. I think these are typically the first bulbs to appear, but there is a slight chance they are paperwhites. The daffodils come up much later, so I should be ok getting them planted just today.

A little painting project

We are also planning on doing a little painting repair or, I should say, having someone do some painting repair for us. The painter was out today for an estimate We only need a small area painted. There is a selection of shingles on one part of the house which are peeling and are now more visible since we removed the large pine tree that stood in front of them. We are taking the opportunity to add some accent color to the house by painting this area a dark red, leaving the fake shingle white. You can’t see it in the picture, but the garage door on the opposite end of the house will also be painted the same color to keep a little balance in the coloring.

Here is a (badly Photoshopped (LAUGH)) before and after. The red will be much darker, I think than this, rather weak salmon color.

House color update before House color update after

Click for larger images

Pumpkins, maybe?

Finally, we are trying something with our last, rather rotten, pumpkin. Since the pine tree was removed and the stump ground out there is quite a mound of shredded wood and soil where the trunk had been. I dug out some space there, added a bit of homemade compost and chucked in the pumpkin. A few quick slices with the shovel opened it up and spread around the seeds. I finished with a topping of more compost and then leveled the area again. Who knows, come Spring we might see a few pumpkins sprout up there.

As part of this tree removal, we were already planning on planting some edibles in this area and an old rose bed that runs along the north side of the front yard. It is one place that gets some sun during the day. This pumpkin planting became the first step in the remodel of this area.

Finally, my picture didn’t come out, but the cherry tomatoes we have growing are just now starting to ripen. I was afraid they wouldn’t ripen at all, but they surprised me. Rosanne should soon be enjoying them in here homemade tomato, olive, spinach, pasta dish that she likes to much.

Keep digging!

 

Giveaway: Melissa’s Everyday Cooking with Organic Produce book

I have a copy of this book to give away and the contest will run for the next 2 weeks. You can enter with a comment here on the blog post, following the @gardenersnotebk twitter account or Liking the AGN page on Facebook.

You can read my review of this book in this blog post and see more information and reviews on Amazon.com
Continue reading →

Gardening Tips – Recent collection from @gardenersnotebk on Twitter

Here is a collection of recent tips shared on the @gardernersnotebk Twitter feed…

  • [Tip] Get your garlic in the ground now, before the freeze, for a big crop next Summer.
  • [Tip] Go to your garden. Sit down — on the ground — and run your fingers through the soil. It brings ideas to mind, doesn’t it?
  • [Tip] Making compost is as simple as green stuff, brown stuff and time. Add each in equal proportions and black gold will result.
  • [Tip] Often your garden dictates timing on big projects and plans. Trees need to be removed when they need to be removed. Take the hint.
  • [Tip] As Oct Snow shows, Winter can happen any time. Be prepared with covers, mulch, and moving plants inside.
  • [Tip] A good general pruning rule is to never remove more the 1/3 of the plant or shrub. Most people don’t remove enough, though.
  • [Tip] SoCal – get those bulbs in before the first rain. I have a bag of 75 daffodils sitting in the garden right now. Time to move!
  • [Tip] Sometimes building your garden requires tearing stuff out and replacing it entirely. It isn’t a step back, but forward.
  • [Tip] You can get lost in a garden that is no wider than a backyard, but also find yourself there.
  • [Tip] My favorite guide to gardening in Southern California – Pat Welsh’s SoCal Organic Gardening Guide – 
  • [Tip] Check out new gardening magazine online – The Leaf – Free –
  • [Tip] Take your garden foot-by-foot, yard-by-yard and concentrate on improving one section at a time. Weeding, planting, pruning, etc.
  • [Tip] Growing your own garden is unique, but it doesn’t mean you can’t steal from others. Keep a “Swipe” file of favorite designs then make
  • [Tip] Fall is not the end. Plant for Winter structure and beauty. Think and plan this Winter so you can create for next year.
  • [Tip] Often, YOUR plant is lovelier than anything in any catalog. Appreciate what you have, even if without pedigree. It is yours!
  • [Tip] Dreaming about the garden to be can be just as fun (and sometimes more) than your garden today. Dream big. Especially in Winter!
  • [Tip] Propagating your own plants is the simplest and cheapest way of developing your garden. Ask friends for cuttings and seedlings.

Rain, glorious, rain!

Finally.

What more can you say?

While we had a short dose of rain a few weeks ago, it did almost nothing for the dry as parchment soil. Hopefully our day long bout of steady rain will soak a little deeper this time. Even more, I hope it bodes the beginning to our Winter here in Southern California. We get almost all of our rain between October and February and a bad Winter can leave us even worse off the next Spring.

SoCal Rain

We can’t control the weather, but we can revel when it brings us exactly what we want. That said, most everyone else in Los Angeles curses the rain. All they can see are longer commutes, an increase in automobile collisions, and mudslides. I always see if differently. I can almost hear the plants ease a sigh of relief. They don’t have to suffer with the limited sip from the hosepipe, but can drink deep and long, as nature intended.