Pizza Night

Tonight we had Popeye pizza aka spinach.  My spinach has gotten too big to use in salads, so I put it on a pizza.  It was very good.

Big Garden Day

We've had nice weather, but rain is returning soon, so today seemed like a good day to really get the garden in shape.


The tomatoes were getting big, so out they went.  I put black plastic around the bottoms of the cages for a little added heat.  I cut up trash bags lengthwise, one bag for every two cages.

 The peppers and aubergines went out, under cover of a plastic tunnel, open on the ends.

I also planted bush beans, a bed with five different dry beans, summer squash, and more carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach and kale.

Winners and Losers

Now that spring is actually here, I've done a survey to see what made it that I thought wouldn't and what didn't make it.

First, the winners.  Both the Satsuma mandarin and the Eureka Lemon, the latter looking totally dead at one point, are looking very good.  The mandarin even has lots of flower buds.

And I'm happy to report that all the blueberries, including several that I transplanted from the yard of the vacant house next door last fall, are alive and well.  In fact, it looks like we may have a bumper crop this year.

Now for the losers.  My 'Bennet's White' cistus and 'Snow White' cistus are both gone.  The windmill palm in a pot on the deck is toast.

I've lost several things on the deck in pots, including a hesperaloe that had a tag claiming it was good to -20.  I'm pretty sure it didn't get that cold here.

All my penstemons, salvias, and agastaches died.  I've replaced some of the the agastaches, but not the others.

Hungry Squirrel

A couple of days ago I noticed some big mushrooms along the path in the back yard.  This morning a squirrel was eating one of them.  He must have really enjoyed it, because he ate the whole thing.

Apple Bags

Today was the day to put the little net bags on the tiny apples.  There isn't going to be much of a crop this year.  Only two apples on North Pole, a dozen on Golden Sentinel, and about two and a half dozen on Red Sentinel.  I suspect a pollination problem.  We didn't arrive home from our trip early enough for me to hand pollinate them, and maybe it was too cold and wet for the bees.

Today I planted five unnamed varieties of dahlias that I got on sale.  I thought all mine in the ground had died.  But I found that several are alive.  So now I have lots.

All the berries are blooming, front and back.

Vegetable Washing Station

I've been wanting a vegetable washing station outside for a long time, and now I finally have one.  I can wash all the dirt off vegetables before I bring them in.  And an added benefit is I can collect the water and reuse it in the garden.   It cost me $10 for the old sink and $6 for the blocks.

I sowed more onions, 'Copra' this time, and some 'White Lisbon' scallions.  I also planted out the leeks I started in a pot.