All Bundled Up

Cindy put the corks in place to support a protective cloth covering for the vegetable beds about a week ago, and when temperatures dropped into the mid 30's the last couple of nights, she covered them up to protect the plants from frost.

Shhhh, The Veggies Are Sleeping

She's not about to put all that work into raising the plants from seed, preparing the beds and transplanting the seedlings to have them nipped off by frost.  As a bonus, it makes it harder for the ravenous California Towhees to get at these plants to do the same kind of damage they've already done to the tender young Sugar Snap Peas.  

We're really pretty lucky that we live in a place where it is possible to start growing veggies in December, but they still have to be protected to keep them growing.    

Cork Farming

Using the wine corks as mulch for container plants has worked out pretty well for us (see: "Showing Our Dedication To A Noble Cause" ), but what do you do when you don't have enough corks or can't drink the wine fast enough to accumulate all the corks you need?

Why, of course you plant a cork farm and grow your own corks!  

Corks Up!

Actually, Cindy had intended to use these corks to support some shade cloth to keep the emerging vegetable plants safe from bugs and other veggie predators, such as the California Towhee or the Lesser Goldfinches, who like to nosh on our plants.

She had to quit for the day before she was able finish, but left the corks in place with the shade cloth over the top of the anti-varmint panels.  

 It's more fun to think of it as a cork farm, though.  

Nobody Told Them

I guess nobody told these green beans that they aren't supposed to want to grow at this time of year.  We didn't even plant them; they came up from this summer's beans that had dried out on the vine and fell into the bed.  So when we got some rain, the beans just sprouted and began to put down roots and develop leaves.

Volunteer Green Bean Plants

Although the freezers are already stuffed with the beans we grew this summer, as well as some from years past, Cindy decided to put up some strings for the bean plants to climb, since they appear to be thriving.

Sugar Snap Peas

The Sugar Snap Peas at the other end of the bed, which are supposed to be growing at this time of year, have been having a harder time of it.  Cindy put hardware cloth cages around some of them to keep the varmints, especially the feathered California Towhee type varmints, from eating the emerging plants.

The snap pea plants without cages have been stripped to the stems, so I guess the Towhees are hungry.  They don't seem to fancy green beans at this time of year, though; I guess they know they're out of season.

Some Happy Turkeys

When I was up in Oregon visiting my brother last month, I happened to look out the front window just as a flock of wild turkeys strolled across the front yard.

Wild Turkeys

They are apparently the progeny of a hen turkey who appeared in the neighborhood last Spring and took up residence in a cemetery a few blocks north.

More Turkeys

The hen obviously connected with a tom and soon had a flock of chicks following her around.  The chicks are grown now and current flock looked to me to be about twenty turkeys strong.  I watched as they strolled across the street and into the yard across the street, looking for seeds and grubs and whatever else wild turkeys eat.

Even More Turkeys!

They seemed completely unconcerned with human activity, obviously unaware of our former neighbor who used to shoot pheasants out of his back door in the vacant lot behind our houses.  That fellow is long gone now, but these turkeys might want to hide out in the cemetery for the rest of this week.

When Ugly Becomes Beautiful

Cindy was talking to a friend recently who asked her about an ugly pest that was devouring the leaves on her citrus trees.  When the friend described the pest as "looking like a piece of bird poop", Cindy guessed that the "pest" was actually the larval stage of the Giant Swallowtail butterfly.  Our friend was horrified to hear this because she had been carefully picking the ugly things off her trees and feeding them to her chickens.

Fortunately, the Giant Swallowtail is not an endangered species and has become fairly prevalent in Southern California, where the larvae happily feed on the leaves of citrus trees; the world can always use more butterflies.  Although the caterpillars will chew up some of the leaves, they usually aren't numerous enough to damage the tree.

The Ugly Caterpillar

My friend Kris shot a great picture of a Giant Swallowtail a couple of years ago, and shortly after that  Cindy and I found one of the larva on one of our small citrus trees.  See http://plantagarden-itllgrowonyou.blogspot.com/2013/11/giant-swallowtail-butterfly.html.

Becomes the Beautiful Butterfly

Just another lesson in not judging the worth of something based on its initial appearance.

The Down Side

The down side to living in the wonderful San Diego climate is that there really is zero down time for the vegetable gardener.  Vegetable gardeners in other parts of the country may watch while the landscape disappears beneath a layer of snow, but that doesn't apply in this climate.  No sitting by the fireside on a snowy evening perusing the stack of seed catalogs to pick out which tomatoes to plant on Memorial Day weekend for the San Diego vegetable gardener.

Cindy just pulled out the last of the tomato vines recently and harvested the remaining eggplants and peppers, but that left empty raised beds, so of course she then began preparing them for ...more vegetables.  The first thing she did was add more compost to the beds and check the irrigation system.

Empty Raised Bed

Then she planted the seeds for beets in one of the beds.

Planting Seeds

And started seeds for the cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts and Swiss Chard in the mini greenhouse.

Then she called the chiropractor because her back hurt.  I can't imagine why.

End of Season

Cindy harvested the last of this summer's produce the other day; some eggplant, some basil and  her peppers.  Then she made a wonderful casserole from the eggplant and some of our tomatoes.

Harvest Still Life

And it was wonderful.

Ominous Development

When we cut down the monster Eugenia hedge on the north side of our house, we realized that the chain link fence between our house and the neighbors was kind of ugly, so Cindy decided to plant something to dress it up a bit.

Pretty Flowers

The plant she chose was a vine called Thunbergia, or Black Eyed Susan Vine.  It had pretty flowers, it grew fast and it's definitely prettier than the fence.  However, after the vine had become established, it began to show a more sinister side; it soon became apparent that the vine had designs on world domination.

Creeping Toward The House

We watched as it rapidly spread out of the flower bed, across the sidewalk and crept toward the house.  Not wanting our house to disappear beneath the vine, Cindy has chopped it back numerous times, but it keeps creeping back.

However, the other day, she discovered an even more disturbing development.  She went out to check the hummingbird feeder at the end of the fence and found it swarming with Argentine Ants devouring the sugared hummingbird food.  That was odd, since we have a water baffle between the feeder and the hook it hangs from and there was only one dead ant floating in the water.

Hummingbird Feeder

However, it soon became clear that the ants had evaded the baffle by marching across a tendril of the Thunbergia that had snaked across to the feeder, providing a convenient highway for the ants.

These ants love sweets and are always on the search for food sources.  Since they are prolific and have no natural predators in Southern California, they are pretty much everywhere and it takes great diligence to keep them out of the house, particularly in dry weather, when they're in search of water.  Or rainy weather when their nests are flooded.  Or any other time.

Argentine Ants are enough of a nuisance by themselves, but when they start teaming up with the Thunbergia?  Look out, world.

More Tomato Roots

It may seem that we're obsessed with the root systems of the tomato plants we grafted last Spring, but we've been very curious about the effect of the grafting on the root systems.

Healthy Plants

The vines were very healthy and vigorous and produced a good crop of tomatoes.  As far as I know, we didn't have any of the grafted plants succumb to bacterial wilt this year.

These roots are from one of the Stupice plants.

And this is one heck of a vigorous stem.

Yes, They Really Are Tomato Vines

And now it's goodbye to the tomatoes for this season.

Grafted Tomato Plants

Last March Cindy grafted some of her tomato seedlings onto tomato root stock (see:  Dr. Cindy and Dr. Kay Operate), to give the tomato plants a better chance to fend off Fusarium Wilt and other fungus and bacterial diseases that attack tomato plants.

Last year's experiment with one Box Car Willie tomato plant was a success, so of course this year Cindy decided to try several different varieties of tomato: Box Car Willie, Stupice and Sioux and several different root stocks.  The Sioux plant and one of the Box Car Willies didn't survive for long, and Cindy hasn't pulled out the Stupice plants yet, but the other two grafted Box Cars and the control did very well.  All three were planted in the same bed and all three produced tomatoes, although we didn't keep track of which plant produced the most fruit this year.

Since the tomatoes are now at the end of their productive season, Cindy tore the Box Car Willie plants out yesterday, so we were able to compare the root systems of all three of those plants.

A Tale of Three Box Cars

From left to right in this picture, the control plant is on the left, the middle plant was grafted onto RST-04-106 rootstock from Tomato Growers Supply Company, and the plant on the right was grafted onto Estamino F-1 rootstock from Natural Gardening Company.

The main stem and subsidiary stems on the Estamino rootstock plant were larger than those on the RST-04-106 and about twice the size of the stems on the control plant.

Estamino and Control Plant Roots 

Estamino plant roots on the left and control plant roots on the right.

I have a feeling that next year there will be more grafting.

A New Invader--Asian Tiger Mosquito

The San Diego County Vector Control Office is reporting recent sightings of a new health threat in San Diego County, the Asian Tiger Mosquito.  For more information, see: http://www.countynewscenter.com/news/new-invader-asian-tiger-mosquito-found-county .

Although this insect is apparently not very widespread yet, it seems to be a nasty bug that prefers an urban environment, bites indoors during the day and carries yellow fever, chikungunya (I hope I never find out what that one is) and dengue fever.  Cindy's nephew Jake had a nasty bout of dengue fever in Mexico several years ago; although none of these diseases are usually present in San Diego County, they're nothing to take any chances with.

Vector Control is urging people to take the same precautions they should already be taking to prevent the spread of the West Nile virus:  prevent mosquito breeding by dumping out standing water; protect yourself with appropriate clothing and insect repellant, and report green swimming pools and mosquitos biting indoors during daylight hours to Vector Control.  And, of course, West Nile itself has not gone away; two new cases were recently reported in San Diego County.  http://www.countynewscenter.com/news/west-nile-virus-update-state-confirms-new-cases#.VgxkF0IIjXs.email.

Vector Control also provides free mosquito fish to help control mosquito breeding in ponds and fountains.  FREE!

Leafcutter Bees

We were out in the front yard the other evening talking to a neighbor, when I noticed that some of the rose bushes had circles or semi-circles cut out of the leaves.

Cut Leaves

I told Cindy that I thought we had a grasshopper at work chewing up the leaves again, but she identified the distinctive circles as the work of Leafcutter Bees, (Megachile).

Leafcutter bees don't eat the leaves; they cut these circles for material to line their nests for their eggs.  They seem to be pretty active right now, probably because they're raising a new generation of Leafcutters.

The damage they do to the leaves is minimal, since they're only taking what they need for the nests and not actually eating the leaves, so there's no need to do any kind of pest control.  In fact, as pollinators, they are important contributors to the overall health of the garden.

Butterfly Farms

We've both always loved butterflies and have tried to make our front yard into a garden with food sources for butterflies, bees and hummingbirds, so we went up to see the butterflies at Butterfly Farms in Vista recently.

Butterfly Farms

Most of the butterflies they have, both inside and outside the enclosure, are native to Southern California.

Monarch

Of course there were plenty of Monarchs enjoying the abundant Asclepia.

Gulf Fritillaries on Lantana

I was surprised to see how popular the Lantana was with the butterflies; we ripped out all the overgrown Lantana in our yard long ago, but the Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) butterflies were all over the Lantana shrubs in this enclosure.

Indra Swallowtail

An Indra Swallowtail (Papilio indra) also found the Lantana attractive.  And a couple of Indra Swallowtails even found each other attractive.

It was an interesting place.

Melons And Memories

Two years ago when Cindy was back visiting her Dad in Indiana, they stopped at an Amish farm and bought some melons.

They enjoyed the tasty cantaloupes so much that she decided to save some of the seeds and bring them home with her, intending to plant them the next year.  Her Dad died unexpectedly early last year and it was such a chaotic time for us that she didn't get around to planting the melons then, so she decided to try it this year.

On her first attempt she planted the seeds directly in the ground, but the pill bugs and other insects nibbled the emerging plants off before they could put out enough leaves to become established, so next she raised them in the small greenhouse cabinet until they were big enough to transplant.

They're Coming Up!

Since she didn't know what variety of cantaloupes these were, it's been a sort of "by guess and by golly" approach, but the plants seemed to be thriving and we saw that they were setting some fruit earlier this summer.

So lately it's been a matter of waiting until they were ready to pick, and today they were ready.

Two Beautiful Melons

We had one for lunch today; it was yummy and very juicy.  And now she's got more seeds to start them again next year.

Speaking Of Large Birds....

When I posted the information for San Diego County Vector Control for reporting large dead birds, such as Crows, Jays, Hawks, Owls and Falcons, a couple of days ago, I wasn't expecting to see one of those large birds very much alive and sitting on our birdbath, waiting for breakfast.

It's probably a juvenile Cooper's Hawk, judging from the bands and white tip on the tail and the amount of white on its underside.  I ran inside and got the camera, trying to get a few pictures without scaring it away, although it seemed oblivious to our presence.

However, as I was taking these pictures, I saw a flash of orange feathers on the ground; a Spotted Towhee had hopped down out of the shrubbery and was pecking at seeds on the ground, apparently unaware that a large predator was very close by.

We know that, by putting out birdseed, we will attract not only songbirds, but also hawks and other critters that prey on them; it's all part of the cycle of life, but we prefer not to watch it happen if we can help it.  

So Cindy went out toward the feeder, the Towhee skipped back into the shrubbery and the Cooper's Hawk reluctantly took off to land in the neighbors' Eucalyptus tree, to the great disgust of the Crows in the area, who set up a cacophony of complaints about it.

More Dead Birds

Last year at about this time, we found several dead birds in our yard.  (See:  For The Birds).  Because we're concerned about the West Nile Virus, I posted the contact information for the San Diego County Vector Control Office.

Within the last few days we've found two dead sparrows and a dead House Finch, so it's time to post the reminder again.  Sparrows and House Finches are too small for Vector Control to deal with, but they will collect larger dead birds such as Crows, Ravens, Jays, Hawks, Owls and Falcons.

If you find one of these larger birds dead in San Diego County, the phone number to report it is (858) 694-2888 or report it on line at vector@sdcounty.ca.gov.

We hate to lose our birds, and we really don't want the West Nile virus to become any more prevalent in the county than it already is.

Rock Plants.... Seriously?

When we visited Janet's garden last month I saw some plants I don't recall ever having seen before.  Called Lithops, living stones or pebble plants, these are plants that have evolved to look like rocks.

Which Are The Rocks?

The appearance of these plants helps camouflage them from hungry animals in their native South Africa and Namibia environment.

We were fortunate to see that a couple of Janet's Lithops were coming into flower; they looked like the "rocks" had split open to reveal smaller rocks inside.  They should eventually produce a flower which will go to seed.

Split "Stone"

I think these are really interesting plants.

I Fought The Lawn...(Reprise)

When I lived in Northern California, I had a beautiful Fescue lawn that I watered, fertilized and mowed faithfully.  (See I Fought The Lawn).  It was beautiful, but it did suck up a lot of water.

Southern California is a different climate, one that has been experiencing a fairly severe drought for the past several years.  Native grasses in this area tend to spring to life in the fall and winter, go to seed rapidly and then die off or at least turn brown in the Spring when the rains stop.  Unfortunately, this cycle doesn't sit well with a lot of people who have been conditioned to the idea that every house MUST have a green lawn, an idea derived from the landscapers of 17th Century English estates and  fostered today by the companies that sell grass seed, sod, endless varieties of fertilizer and weed control products*.

San Diego is currently under fairly strict water restrictions governing how much, how often and when lawns can be watered.  So I did a little informal survey the other day to see how our neighborhood, where the streets are named after English counties and every house has space for a lawn, is coping with the drought.

Some people have gone to plastic grass, which looks pretty good most of the time.  The down side to plastic grass is that it's not permeable by water, so a hard rain like the one we had a couple of weeks ago just has to run off into the storm drainage system and can't get down to water tree roots underneath it.  It also tends to be hot and may end up baking those tree roots and ultimately may kill the trees.

Plastic.  Needs to Be Dusted

Other people have tried painting their lawns green.  I kid you not, paint.  Green paint.  The only problem with that is that the paint fades in the sun and has to be redone periodically.

Green Paint Over Bermuda Grass

Some people have gone with drought-tolerant ground covers, such as the silver-gray Dymondia, although that plant seems to work best where it won't get a lot of foot traffic.  It also takes a while to get established and spread out, and it does need at least some water.

Dymondia

Some have gone with rock or bark as ground covers.  I think this one is very attractive because it incorporates succulents and different sizes of rocks.

Rocks and Succulents

And then there are those who seem to be pretending that there are no water restrictions anyway.

It's Pretty Obvious Who's Still Watering

We live in a Mediterranean climate; we need to adapt to it.



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*The ads I find particularly irksome are those featuring the phony Scotsman, conveniently named "Scot", who relentlessly pushes his company's products, shaming those whose lawns look less than perfect because of their lack of devotion to the ideal lawn.  Enough, already.

Cat's Cradle

Cindy put up a new trellis for the green beans a while ago.  It took both of us to get the thing untangled and assembled.  I had lots of experience when I was a kid of untangling kite string, but this one was a major mess.   I told Cindy it reminded me of the cat's cradle puzzle I was never able to work as a kid, but we finally got it assembled and put up.

Bean Trellis Up

Then the beans finally discovered it and climbed rapidly up the strings.

Beans Up!

And now it's fully covered with bean stalks and beans and sort of reminds me of the Jolly Green Giant.

Ho, Ho, Ho....

That's going to be a lot of green beans.

Georgia's Garden

During our recent trip to New Mexico, we visited the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, and then took a tour of her house and studio in Abiquiu.

We found the tour of the house, garden and studio interesting, but the rules prohibited us from taking any photographs until the tour was over and we were back outside.  However, we were able to take a few pictures by leaning over the wall or shooting through the fence.

Georgia's Garden Walk

One of the most interesting things about her garden was that the property includes water rights and the garden is still watered using the flooding method, with the water flowing through trenches or diverted to flood specific parts of the garden.  This low-tech method seems wasteful to us, with our heightened consciousness of drought, but it probably has been done that way for centuries in this part of the world.

Original Entrance To the House

I loved the gate, with the smaller gate set inside.

FOODAR

Just as airplanes use RADAR (RAdio Detection And Ranging) and submarines use SONAR (SOund NAvigation and Ranging), Cindy uses her built-in FOODAR (FOOd Detection And Recognition) to locate wonderful places to eat.  It's especially handy while we're traveling, and I have to say it's never steered us wrong.

It came in especially handy during our recent trip to New Mexico, leading us to restaurants that served traditional New Mexican food, such as the Church Street Cafe and the Pueblo Harvest Cafe and Bakery at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque.

I was especially glad that a we ate at the Artichoke Cafe in Albuquerque, because their food was "New American Cuisine",  modern takes on classic dishes, some of which I actually recognized.

I was somewhat apprehensive before we went to New Mexico, wondering if I would find anything to eat there that did not contain chiles or peppers.  We had found a list of the "Top 20 New Mexican Foods" that didn't seem to hold out much hope of that.

Here's the list:
1.  Green Chile
2.  Green Chile Cheeseburgers
3.  Chiles Rellenos
4.  Red Chile
5.  Carne Adovada (red chiles)
6.  Stacked Red Chile Enchiladas with a Fried Egg
7.  Huevos Rancheros (blue corn tortillas with eggs, red and/or green chiles on top
8.  Blue Corn
9.  Tamales
10.  Tortillas (I can eat those)
11.  Chicharrones (pork rinds)
12.  Chicos
13.  Posole
14.  Beans
15.  Calabacitas
16.  Horno Bread
17.  Navajo Fry Bread
18.  Sopaipillas
19.  Pinon nuts (now you're talking--I love pine nuts)
20.  Biscochitos

http://www.nmmagazine.com/article/?aid=89545#.VbUunXj2CpH

Cindy actually managed to eat at least half the things on that list.  I pretty much lived on tortilla chips and cheese quesadillas.

Janet's Garden

Like many other people living here in San Diego's version of a dry Mediterranean climate, our friend Janet has created a beautiful, colorful garden that does not include a lush, water hogging lawn.

Textures

Instead, she has used many varieties of succulent and drought-tolerant plants to create different textures and color combinations.

Color

The variety of containers she uses also allow her to create a landscape with many different elevations.

Elevation

And the great thing about containers is that the plants in them can be taken with you if you happen to sell the house and move.

Congratulations on creating a great garden, Janet!