And while I'm totally off subject

For the record, Sammy had a party hat, too.

Coming soon - Chronicles of the Garden Bad Guys (the invertebrate type).

Shiny happy

I can totally relate to Neely's comment that the pictures I posted from our visit make her look "angry." It wasn't my intention, and of course I didn't realize she looked (what I would call) "serious" until I double checked...

Since I didn't manage to take any especially flattering photos during our trip, and so that she wouldn't think I was picking on her, and also because it is particularly inappropriate on the second day of summer to feature snow on the blog - here it is, a picture of both of us, on our January '09 visit to Calaveras. And one of her totally beating me in the sled race.

I promise, she is really fun and happy, not the austere figure so inaccurately portrayed in a previous post. :)

Flower garden progress

After a slow start - maybe just lots of root development because of the amount of wood ash that was previously deposited there (meaning more root than "shoot" growth, I think) the flower garden is making great progress.

Crawling with beneficials

Lady bugs! And lady bug larvae! All over the greenhouse!

I admit I've been grabbing the occasional ladybug out of the yard and transplanting them into the greenhouse. (If they want, they can get out through the small window that opens when it gets warm - controlled by a heat-sensitive hydraulic arm). So I'm really happy some have stayed and reproduced.

The small rock garden

I always tease Matt about collecting "rocks and sticks." That collection has grown to crazy proportions, and we're both happy all the found objects have reached a resting place here! (We joke about moving his "cord" of driftwood...) I think discussions last weekend about a rock garden inspired Matt to make his first relatively small but beautiful display. Many more of his rocks are still piled randomly, waiting for their garden homes...

Back at it

We had a lovely break, with a partly-work, but mostly-pleasure visit to Calaveras Big Trees where Jason and Neely are. It was a little cooler than is seasonally typical there, but it was still beautiful and fragrant. I was tempted to post photos of Neely and Jason's garden, but decided not to steal their glory and have the casual observer believe it was ours! I was impressed by the number and size of the plants they have already coaxed from the ground, considering their last frost date is something like June 1!


Jason and Matt's birthdays are only a few weeks apart, so while we celebrated Jason's, we had to embarass both the guys - just to be fair. When the guys went fishing, Neely and I hurriedly created party hats. I commented on the seeming contradiction, as we listened to Janis Joplin whilst making paper crafts and planning dinner. But as Neely pointed out, we were there by choice - all that matters! :) Anyway, we had a great time, the guys loved (or pretended to!) their pirate (Neely's handiwork) and viking (my creation) hats. Two cakes made the mini-party complete. The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out, fishing, or walking/hiking about.

Almost summer

This weekend we enjoyed the first bonfire of the summer (and at this house!) with Don.


As night fell, we watched the moon rise over the trees on the neighboring property.


Tonight, I made a big batch of pesto from a heap of sweet basil harvested from the 20 or so plants in the greenhouse.

Greenhouse fauna: part four

Yellow spidey hanging out on opal basil.
The spider must have taken art classes, because aren't yellow and purple "complementary colors"?

Something positive

This is the very lazy start to the 13 x 20 ft. perennial herb garden, which we'll try to do no-till style:

A layer of grass, weeds, and some leftover hay from the barn, mixed with a little bit of compost. Watered it a bit to help everything break down a little more quickly. On goes the plastic and the wood to weigh it down.

I took this picture to show that it's not too much of an eyesore in the neighborhood! You can barely see it, off to the right.



After all the grass and weeds break down (hopefully killing the sod in the meantime), maybe we'll buy a load of compost or planter's mix to put on top, and then plant into that. Then mulch it.