First frost

Yesterday morning was the first (light) frost of the year. I was not even aware it was going to get that cold! I guess I was just not paying attention, i.e. watching the news. The temps officially got down to 33 degrees F, which to me means in some areas it did freeze.

Happily, it didn't do too much damage to my more tender plants at home. Just a  twinge of grey and wilt on a few spaghetti squash leaves. The tomatoes stayed relatively unscathed.

However, my tomatoes at the community garden raised bed (ORB) were affected. When I visited I noted a good amount of dieback in the outermost, newest leaves.

So, last night I was paying attention, and I laid protective sheets over all my tomatoes last night -- both at home and in the ORB. I'm going to do what it takes to shield my tomatoes through the winter this year.

Anybody know the right thing to do with dead/frozen tomato leaves? Remove or let remain?

The bells are ringin'

We thought this was some sort of weedy tree when we first moved in. The home inspector said we should trim it back because it was so close to the house and roof. Then a month or so ago it started blooming spectacularly.

It's called Tecoma stans, or Yellow Bells. It's also known as esperanza, which is a name I just love. In general it's a shrub, meant to grow about 12 feet tall and 6 feet wide. But here it is at least 20 feet tall, towering over our home. The branches are so loaded down with these fantastic, sweet-smelling flower clusters that some of the branches have bent and broken.

The bees and hummingbirds are going absolutely nuts over this Southwest native. And I am too! It's going to bloom all through the winter.

I'm going to try trimming some of the long branches with blooms on the end and using them inside as cut flowers.

We misjudged you!

Here we thought it was just an old, crochety grapefruit tree (among 3 grapefruit trees on the property) that might not live out the year. We pruned it back hard and almost cut it down.

Really, we were standing around holding large chopping/cutting implements after pruning off three-quarters of the tree. The topic of just putting the tree out of its misery was brought up and seriously considered. But we held off, deciding that we may as well see how good the grapefruits were before taking the tree out.

Then today, I took a close look at the fruits. Do I detect a hint of orange!?

A Case of Gardener's Block

Temperatures have been lower, so the past few days I've been walking my backyard, sketching it, considering it, photographing it, considering it ... everything but DOING something in it.

I started a few seeds indoors for broccoli and lettuce, but my mental now-now-now push to plant a vegetable garden outside, well, it's been waking me up in the middle of the night.

Warning: "Before" photos ahead!

Former planned site for vegetable garden.
South-facing back fence, shed and
black cat Deuce (she says hi).

I thought I knew where I was going to put a huge lasagna mulch for the foundation of my vegetable garden. Now after studying it for a few days, it seems like that area is too shady. So am I going to cut down two trees or choose a new spot?

Something must be planted soon or I think I am going to miss this growing season.

Plus: Close to house. Irrigation ready.
Minus: Close to house. Not a large space. 

My other two potential vegetable garden sites are not as ideal; they would require more work (removal of gravel or pebbles) before mulching. But they do get a good deal more sun.



Plus: Well situated by shed.
Minus: A ton of gravel covers area.
Not a large space.



Suckers!

We just moved in to a home with 5 citrus trees and a peach tree. Now that I've had some time to look them over, it appears that I have three grapefruits, a peach and two big suckers!

These suckers -- which are defined in my "California Master Gardener Handbook" as rapidly growing, upright secondary vegetative shoots that develop from the root, crown or stem of a plant -- occurred when the trees' fruiting (grafted) stock was pruned off or died, and the rooting stock took over. It's not good.

This is my peach. The fruit is small (could use some thinning in the future) and it needs some pruning. But I think it may do all right.

This is my old granny yellow grapefruit. The poor thing has been underwatered for years and needs a ton of pruning. Fruit is OK.

Here is one of the suckers. Note the long shoots, lack of flowers and fruit, and spiky spines along the trunk.

Sucker #2. Long, leafy shoots. Again, no sign of fruit or flowers. Just lots of shoot.

And a close-up of a Sucker #2's "trunk," which is just a long shoot coming up from the base. Get a load of those spines!

Ahhh, this is nice to see. My second grapefruit -- don't yet know if it will be yellow or red flesh. But please note the thick trunk, evidence of fruit and outward (not just upward) growth.

Thankfully, I also have this wonderful and delicious ruby red grapefruit (at left and above left) that is doing fine.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Now that I have identified the suckers, they are on the pull-out list.

They will never grow fruit!

I need contributors, not suckers! I'm thinking an orange, a lemon and a lime, for starters. Any suggestions for good desert varieties?

What do I do with freedom?

Today was the first day ever that both my kids were in school.

Did I run triumphantly screaming through the house (as my mom tells me she did when her sixth kid finally went to school)? No, I did not.

Did I sit on the couch, drinking coffee and enjoying the newspaper in peace for the first time in almost 5 years? No.

Did I work on the computer (as I should be)? Nope.

I started playing in my yard. Well, my version of playing. That means one thing leads to another leads to another ...

... and then two hours later -- when all I meant to do was sweep the side yard -- I find myself with a FULL compost bin. Finally!

I had let the yard do the work of making more materials for my bin. My half-full compost just needed to wait for things to grow a bit larger. Then I had more than enough.

I trimmed the hedges, raked up dead leaves, picked up the neighbor's dried trimmings that fell in my yard and pulled a bunch of things that were growing where they weren't supposed to be.

The stuff at the bottom of the bin looked like it was composting, but now it is full and can really get to work.

Seriously though

It's the middle of the night, and here I am realizing I have gotten way too behind on my projects. For a number of reasons.

1. The summer in the desert is really hot. I know, excuses, excuses. But you can't go outside to do anything that requires physical labor from about 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. And I am not an early riser/morning person -- never have been, never will be. So turning the compost a couple times a week? Maybe not. Building new raised garden beds? Hmmmm. Pruning my citrus? Unh-uh. Constructing a solar oven? Call me in October.
2. I lost my camera. Posting feels so sad without pictures!
3. I've been on vacation. Being away from the computer for a large portion of August has been wonderful. I don't regret it at all. NEXT!
4. I just moved in July. A million things still need to be unpacked or nailed to the wall or filed or shelved. My house needs to get in order.
5. The dog ate my motivation. 

Seriously though, after checking my posts from 2010, I slowed down quite a bit last summer, too. It's just the way of life out here when it gets hot, dude. I'm taking it easy until the equinox.

Still thinking about Moorten's

More photos I took at Moorten's Botanical Garden last week. I love the desert.

Cool bunching cactus crouched among lava rocks. So covered with spines it looks white.

"World's First" Cactarium packed full of interesting specimens.

Plant forms in the shape of a crouching nude. "Behind" it to the left, a cactus grows straight down in tail-like ropes.

This plant appeared as a bed of snakes rearing up, with red pillow flowers poised here and there. This has got to be a carrion plant that just hasn't bloomed yet. (see a few photos below)

This succulent was almost translucent and super-hard -- like a pile of green Jolly Ranchers.

Cacti peering up out of the pot "Flight of the Navigator" style. (Anyone else remember that flick with the robot eye with PeeWee Herman's voice? OK, maybe too obscure ...)

Charming old Palm Springs hacienda and open lawn on site.

Score! We came across a similar type of carrion plant that was in flower. This one looks like Stapelia gigantea.

Merits a closer view: The flower reeked of rotting meat and its center was crawling with flies -- its pollinators!

I will try to grow this coral vine (Antigonon leptopus) in my yard someday. The intense color of the flowers simply blew me away.

In search of the night-blooming cereus

I’m lucky to work from home, editing gardening articles for an online content company. One of the biggest perks of the job for me is the variety of obscure facts I run across. I adore and seek out random trivia, you see. It’s kind of a curse; I end up spending way too much time looking into odd subjects. The searching takes effort, but it's gratifying because cool things can pop up where you'd least expect them to.

Yeah, the dragonfruit is awesome.
Photo courtesy Wikipedia Commons

Last week, I pulled up an article describing a fascinating cactus plant species (Hylocereus undatus) that produces a huge, stunning flower with an incredible edible: dragonfruit! The fruit is known by many other names, including strawberry pear, pitaya and – wait for it – pitahaya.

 

Palm Desert has a street named Pitahaya. This piqued my interest. Was the cactus grown by the early residents of that area? Do residents still grow it? Or did early community developers just like the sound of the Spanish word? I searched online but could not find much about the reason behind the naming. Tried Palm Desert Historical Society ... I'll try again when it reopens next October. Maybe some knowledgeable resident can shed some moonlight on the subject before then? If you know, let me know!

Anyhow, now I’d been dreaming for a week about growing this amazing night-blooming cereus in my own garden. The enormous white flower opens once and has that one night to be pollinated by bats or moths in order to bear a fruit. You’d think that because it’s a cactus and we live in the desert that we could plop it down and grow it anywhere in the valley. After further research, however, I found that it's native to Central America and grows best in more tropical climates than ours (think Hawaii or Vietnam), but that doesn’t mean we could not grow it here with a little TLC and shade.


A new, humble cereus cutting in my garden.

With this in the back of my mind, a friend and I visited the Moorten Botanical Garden in Palm Springs last weekend. Bingo! The garden had the cactus, sprawling huge, with small unopened buds just waiting to share their awesome bloom and fragrance. I came away inspired by the spectacular variety of desert plants ... and with a small cutting from the kind proprietor – a cereus of my own.

I imagine some night in the future it may bloom, and I'll visit it there in the moonlight. Who knows? It may possibly bear fruit that I'll savor, remembering the first time I marveled that a thing called a dragonfruit could pop up out of such an unassuming cactus.

It's Tomato Heaven upstairs

Not long now and there will be some ripe tomatoes on some of the five tomato plants I have growing on my balcony! Counting back, probably Early Girl will be red and ready around April 15.

So far the plants remain pest free, the only difficulty is watering. Every morning, I've got to run upstairs and downstairs tying a string around a hose by a downstairs spigot, hauling it 20 feet up over the balcony wall and then turning it on to water. Soon I will have to do that twice a day to keep the tomatoes from drying out.

It's going to be worth it.