Jurassic Garage

Cindy was transplanting tomatoes yesterday and was in and out of the garage several times and I was making some of my flame worked glass beads.  Cindy uses  wooden clothes pins to secure shade cloth over tender plants.  She keeps the clothes pins in a basket on top of one of the cabinets and when she reached up to get them, this is what she saw looking back at her:

Hello There!

Turns out it is a  Southern Alligator Lizard, Elgaria multicarinata.  These lizards are considerably bigger than the Western Fence Lizards we usually see scooting around our patio and garden, with a combined body and tail length up to twelve inches long, but like some other lizards, the Southern Alligators Lizards also are able to shed their tails as a defensive measure and then regenerate the tails.  See: http://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/nature/southern-alligator-lizard.htm.  Our lizard's tail was a grayish brown and did not have the scale pattern that the body had, so we think this one had regenerated its tail.

This One Has a New Tail

After an initial reaction of shock at finding the lizard in the basket on top of the cabinet, we decided to see if we could get it out of the garage without damage to either the lizard or ourselves.  Fortunately, the lizard was content to just go along for the ride in the basket and didn't jump out at me or run up my arm or do any of the other things it could have.

I'm Ready For My Close-up, Mr. DeMille!

When we got it out of the garage, of course I had to take some pictures, and then we decided to relocate it into the cool space under the Star Jasmine bush on the north side of the garage.

Lizzy's New Home

We're hoping it likes its new home in the shrubbery and doesn't try to get back into the garage.  And it's welcome to all the bugs it can eat.

Flower Fields Demonstration Gardens

We went up to Carlsbad to the Flower Fields to check out the Master Gardeners' demonstration gardens there, and found them very impressive.

Each of the gardens, although only about four feet by four feet square, focuses on water wise gardening in the San Diego area using plants that are native to the five Mediterranean climate zones in the world:  the Mediterranean sea basin, California, Chile, South Africa and Australia.

The gardens are located at 5704 Paseo Del Norte, Carlsbad, California and are open from 9 am to 6 pm daily until May 10.

Dr. Cindy and Dr. Kay* Operate!

Cindy started tomato plants and some tomato root stock a couple of weeks ago.  They've been quietly growing away under grow lights in the garage and getting steadily bigger.  Last year Cindy grafted one tomato, a Box Car Willie, onto root stock and it did very well, out performing the non-grafted Box Car Willie throughout the growing season.  In fact, the non-grafted plant cashed it its chips long before the grafted one.  See:  Box Car Willie Update, Last Tomato Standing, and One More Thing for last year's experiment.

So, of course this year she had greater ambitions, deciding to graft more Box Car Willie plants, but also some Stupice plants onto one of three different root stocks:  Supernatural Hybrid (Territorial Seed Company), RST - 04 -106 (Tomato Growers Supply Company) and Estamino F1 Rootstock (Natural Gardening Company).  She started both the tomato and root stock plants from seed.

Preparing to Operate

It's a delicate operation because you have to find a tomato plant and a root stock plant with approximately the same size stems so that they will match up and allow nutrients to flow up from the root stock to the leaves and tomatoes.

Leaving the plants in their plastic grow cells, Cindy sliced off the top of one root stock plant and discarded it, then made a vertical cut about a quarter of an inch deep in the very thin stem.  Next, she carefully sliced off the top of one of the tomato plants and shaved slices off the lower end of the stem and then inserted the tomato stem into the vertical cut in the root stock stem.

Slicing the Plants

The most delicate part of the operation involves using a plastic clip to connect the tomato stem with the root stock stem; the dang clips just did not want to cooperate.

Clip It

Once the plants were all snipped and clipped, they and their plastic containers went into a larger plastic container and were placed on a capillary mat.  Then they were covered with another container to provide sufficient height and some plastic wrap to retain humidity.  Finally, they were placed in Cindy's closet so that the entire system would stay dark and moist for several days, allowing the stems to heal.  At least, that was the plan.

Grafted Tomatoes

We just checked the plants three days after grafting, and most of them appear to have survived.  One of the Box Car Willies on a Supernatural root stock had wilted and clearly didn't make it, but the rest seem to be thriving.  If they continue to survive, we'll have three grafted Box Car Willies and two Stupices on the different root stocks, as well as several other ungrafted plants.

They're Alive So Far

*  OK, it's a PhD in the Philosophy of Religion and a Juris Doctor degree, but hey, we're operating on plants.

Cindy's Desert Photos

Cindy got a chance to go over to Borrego Springs for the weekend and enjoy the wild flowers that bloom there every Spring.

Cactus Flower

Purple Verbena

White Line Sphinx Moth Caterpillar Devouring The Verbena

Caterpillar Devouring Invasive Mustard Plants

http://www.abdnha.org/pages/03flora/reports/current.htm

Master Gardeners Spring Seminar

The San Diego Master Gardeners Spring Seminar is March 21st.  Each year the Master Gardeners present classes and information for the home gardeners in the area, and this year's line up of classes looks exciting and informative, from Nan Sterman's "Bye-bye Grass"; Pat Welsh's "The Healthy Organic Garden"; Joyce Gemmel's "Growing Food In A Challenging Environment"; Mary Matava's "San Diego Soils--Challenges and Solutions", and many other presentations that look like they will be interesting and informative.

The link to the program can be found here: http://www.mastergardenerssandiego.org/seminar/index.php , and you can register for the seminar here: http://www.mastergardenerssandiego.org/seminar/addattendee.php .

I won't be attending the classes this year because I'm going to be participating in the Marketplace with my flame worked jewelry and glass flowers.

Good-bye To Goldilocks

Our cat Goldilocks crossed the Rainbow Bridge yesterday.

She was at least twenty years old and had become increasingly feeble and had been sliding slowly into dementia for the last couple of years.  Lately she had taken up residence on the window seat in the kitchen and the table and chairs next to it, often snoozing in the sun.  But within the last few days she had become much more disoriented, less steady on her feet, less aware of where she was and had fallen off the table or chair several times, at the risk of breaking a leg or hip.

She showed up on my doorstep in Walnut Creek the day after Thanksgiving in 1996.  The neighbors had gone for a walk down by the canal and she had followed them home, but they were allergic to cats and shooed her away.  She had probably been dumped down by the canal.

However, using her feline radar, she promptly trotted across the street to my house.  I heard George hissing at something through the window, so I opened the door to see what it was, and she trotted into the house.  The three male cats were't pleased with this, but she backed them into the corner, ate their food, played with their toys and curled on their cushion.  After a while, I put her back out on the door step, but she curled up on the door mat and went to sleep.  It was a cold, nasty night, so I brought her back in and put her in a back room.

The next morning, I put her back out and she went trotting off.  A short time later I found her sitting at the back door; having inspected the property, she decided she wanted to stay.  And so she stayed.

She was never happy about having to share the house with other cats and wasn't shy about showing her displeasure, but aside from that detail, she had a long and happy life.

Working On Her Tan