Spanish Lavender

There is something about having an abundance of lavender in the garden. The silver toned leaves and the pretty purple flowers look beautiful beside my roses. This spring, I placed a lavender plant in between all of my roses. The uniformity appeals to me and it is a good start to developing an under planting scheme for my rose gardens. I chose spanish lavender because it is considered hardy in my climate here in Southern California. I do have one french lavender plant tucked in a shady spot. It is not flourishing as well as the spanish, much to my regret. It's blooms are more delicate and appealing. I haven't given up on it though.

The lavender has another effect: Scent. When guests come to my patio, the first thing that they remark on is the pervasive scent of lavender. Most find it relaxing and calming as I do.

About the only drawback I find with the spanish lavender is that it attracts an large number of bees. At any time of the day, you can find little bumblebees gathers pollen from my lavender. I'm learning to live with the bees as I do with the other wild creatures of my gardens. The bees help my vegetable become pollinated and are a sign of a healthy, organic garden.

I'm planning on harvesting my lavender this year and creating sachets. Since I garden organically, even in my rose beds, the flowers will be pesticide free and perfect for giving a calming fragrance to my closets and drawers.

Kamikaze Pilot?

I am late with my plantings this year. While I had purchased three heirloom tomato plants for my garden, it took me weeks to get them into the soil. I've talked my husband into giving up the front bed this year so that I can devote the sunnier raised bed to our tomato and bell peppers plants.

The three tomatoes are a paste, a beefsteak and a beefsteak yellow tomato. The peppers are a red and a yellow Corno de Toro and my two overwintered blushing beauty peppers. I'm hoping that with the additional sunshine and cages to support the weight of their pods, I might get a better yield from them this year. I have yet to plant the other chile plants that I purchased at the monster pepper and tomato sale last March, but all the plants I bought are still healthy in their little pots. I will attempt to get them into the ground sometime this week.

The rest of my gardens are in full bloom as the days turn warm and sunny here in Southern California. The scent from the lavender is simply incredible. The extra plants I put in this spring have made such a difference in the level of scent of my garden. It feels very peaceful out there.

Songbirds are coming in to bathe in the birdbath or eat in the birdseed house that hangs on the tree. A hummingbird has taken up residence near my flowering maple plants. I have to be careful as he enjoys dive bombing at me like a tiny kamikaze pilot. The loud buzz about two inches from my ear is what gives him away! I suppose that this is his way to play.

Greenscene

This is Greenscene weekend over at the Fullerton Arboretum. Greenscene is a plant event featuring tables for the local plant societies, garden clubs and various vendors that sell garden related products and plants. I felt that this year's event was much larger than last year. There were many new vendors selling handmade teapots, vases and pots or handwoven baskets and sun hats. Even a few jewelry vendors, although they didn't seem to have much patronage. It was overcast and threatened to rain, but it didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the large number of people that came to enjoy the event.

I was amazed at the number of vendors selling succulents this year. Twice the number as last year's event. Since I was planning on creating a new cactus pot for my yard featuring a small aloe vera plant that a friend had given me, I welcomed the opportunity to select a few prickly pots among the various sellers. The herb vendors were not to be outdone, while there were only three or four booths selling herbs, all featured large, healthy and uncommon plants perfect for a medicinal or culinary garden. I selected a thyme and oregano for this season's culinary herb garden.

As I always do, I wandered over to the community garden plots that are hosted by the arboretum. These small plots of land are free, from what I understand, but you MUST tend them and make them look attractive in order to keep them. It is pleasant to tour the community garden for this reason. You view examples of homemade tomato cages, lovely arbors, perfectly constructed paths and raised beds holding a wide assortment of vegetables, flowers and herbs. Despite the prospect of a long waiting list, I always think how wonderful it would be to garden in one of those little plots and have room to grow bigger vegetables, but I have my own little salsa garden at the side of the house and containers for my patio. I suppose that I should be grateful for what I have, small though it is.

Spring Rain Falls

Since rain was predicted for this evening, and as I look out of my window, I see the first misting of it now, I wanted to get all my garden tools secured and potting soils either laid into their designated beds or pots or put away into the garage. I've been busy in my gardens the last few days. I've potted up a few hanging baskets of verbena, bopoca and million bells for my backyard, planted a strawberry pot with everybearing strawberries and today, I filled up my front square foot garden bed with soil and steer manure. I've been delighted with the introduction of more organic soils to the gardening centers. The soils are rich and well mixed, not sticks or strange crud that would not work with my garden.

I still haven't gotten to planting my new pepper plants, but since they are still small and might fall to cutworms, that is not a critical. Once this current system of rain has passed, I will get back to work on my square foot garden. Meanwhile, my tools have been put away so that the rain won't damage them, my open bags of potting soil have been stowed in the garage and all is peaceful in my garden.

Clearing the Bed

Rain was forecast for the day here in our little section of Los Angeles. All my gardening tools were still outside and I had even left my gardening gloves out on the patio table. Fearing that everything would rust and become ruined in the rain, I got hustled outside early to be under overcast skies.

I took my shovel and cleared the dead tomato plants from my front raised bed, cutting the stalks with my pruners when they got caught on the picket fence that surrounds my vegetable garden. It didn't take long since all the plants had withered away to dry stalks during the winter's cold. All my beds have been cleared except for the chile plants that I am keeping. Once the current "storm" has gone through, I will be ready to start adding new soil and organic compost to my raised beds and planting my chiles and tomatoes into their new locations. All of my tools and gloves have been put away and my yards are ready for the rain.

I hauled all the plant matter away and got the can back to the side of the yard. The city will come and take it all away in the few days on their weekly rounds. Our city has two recycling programs. One takes cans and cardboard. Another takes yard "waste" and sends it to a composting program. I'm glad that our city does this. I feel that it helps us do our part to help the planet.

Pink Jasmine in Bloom

One of the pleasures of early spring is the sight and scent of pink jasmine when it comes in full bloom. I have three jasmine vines in my backyard garden. The eldest and most beautiful is the one over the entrance arbor. I thought I'd share a photo of this beautiful vine. I only wish that I could share the scent. The flowers are so massive that you can smell the jasmine from 30 feet away. It is heavenly.

I am always glad when spring arrives. While we enjoy a mild six week long winter (rainy season) here in Southern California, it can be dreary since most of the plants either lose their leaves or go dormant. When the first of the spring flowers begin to appear, it can be a cause for celebration.

For those of you who are curious, the yellow blooms behind the gate in the photo are flowering maples.

Monster Tomato and Pepper Sale

Yes, it is once again time for the Monster Tomato and Pepper Sale at the Fullerton Arboretum! March 15th through the 18th over by the Potting Shed, the plant loving public has an opportunity to purchase rare heirloom tomatoes, exotic chile and bell peppers and a good selection of unusual eggplants too. This is my second year buying plants at the Monster Tomato and Pepper Sale. Even though it was Thursday morning, the place was packed with shopper of all ages. I brought a small luggage cart with me to roll my cardboard box of seedlings around the sale and back to my car, but the Friends of the Fullerton Arboretum do provide a limited number of little flyer wagons to haul your plants around if needed.

I didn't buy as many seedlings this year as last, but then I successfully overwintered many of my peppers from last year. This time I purchased two italian pepperoncini plants, two lemon drop chile plants, one of the Carmine Hybrid chiles that was a feature of the sale and one Coro de Toro Giallo pepper plant. I purchased three heirloom tomato plants and will look forward to wonderful salsa and italian spaghetti sauce this summer.

If you live in Orange County or Los Angeles, CA, you should make a point to visit the Fullerton Arboretum and get in on the action this weekend.