Spring – looking and feeling like it

Seedling peach tree in blossom.

Spring is not officially here until March 20, and the weather has been cold, wet, windy, and it even snowed for one minute within the last two weeks. Snow is a once every ten years event in these parts. I slept through the whole thing since it happened very early in the morning. I was around for the hail later that day though. Various weather reports foretold doom to fruit trees when the night time low temperatures were supposed to drop below freezing for several hours.

Today looks and feels like spring though. It is sunny and warm, with a light breeze. The bees are out working all the blossoms in the yard - nanking cherry, apricot, peach, rosemary, calendula, and more. The hellebore is in full bloom, right on time, and a few other perennials are starting to push through.  A few of the seedling peach trees I've grown are flowering this year, and if they make fruit this year I'll be able to determine if they are worth keeping as they are or if I should make a graft and let the scion be the dominant tree part. I have two good fruiting peaches (a yellow peach and a white peach) and have a friend who has collected scion from his peach tree, so I can still have multiple peaches on one good peach stock. I'll be practicing my grafting skills soon.

Today one of the two hummingbirds fledged, and the other one is still in its nest, working on perching technique, building up wing strength with various exercise sessions, and preening. The first to fledge has been flitting around in the mulberry tree while the mother bird chases away various interlopers (scrub jays mostly), and comes back to feed both her offspring. I did not take lots of photos with this set of birds, since they look just like the birds I photographed heavily last summer. It was frequently very cold during their incubation and subsequent rearing that I feared they would not make it, but the mother bird really worked on insulating the nest, and the birds made it. I'm hoping to watch the one still in the nest take its first flight.

Hummingbird yet to leave the nest.

Nanking cherry in flower

First break of dormancy on the lemon verbena shrub (I was worried it wouldn't survive the cold weather)

Chicken out on the pasture.
Both hens are now consistently laying their eggs in the nest box.

Almond Blooming Season

The almond trees are exploding with blossoms. The weather has been cold and wet and I wonder if the bees are even out pollinating. The almond crop might be compromised this year.
The almond trees are the first to flower, and they really brighten up the back yard when they bloom.

Almond blossoms

Back to the garden

The hummingbird has been taking up lots of space so I thought I'd best get back to the garden for a bit. This spring has been terrible for gophers. They've been going after the usual favorites (theirs and mine) like leeks, garlic, onions and potatoes. They've expanded their diet by also eating a couple of abutilons (common name is flowering maple but they are not maples), they decided this was the year to eat up the campanula, and interestingly they've been eating tomato plants, which I had understood they would not eat. I have lost several tomato plants to the rodents and, while I've been toughening myself to the losses over the past few years, I find the tomato losses a bit hard to take.

When I look at the front yard and see the lovely, large hollyhocks in bloom, I know it is only a matter of time before the gophers will chew the large roots up until the things fall over. I'm enjoying the flowers while they are here. Life in the garden is transitory anyway. In a side note, Hollyhock flowers are frequented by hummingbirds.

The gopher situation in the back yard (where the tomatoes are) is the most bothersome. I set traps, and so far I haven't had near the success in trapping as I've had before. Though I did manage to snag one in a trap I set last night, which buoyed my hopes of at least getting the leeks to go to seed, so I can disperse them to a wider area. Leek blossoms are also rather beautiful, in my opinion. I suppose I would rather lose leeks than my fruit trees. And I am unwilling to sink hardware cloth into the soil, so losses must be accepted.

Spring Rain

Rainy day today. We had a good downpour for a while. Rain delays turning on the irrigation. I wish I had installed my rainwater tanks last fall. Big projects take time and money though, so I'll get to the tanks when I can. I've calculated the amount of water I can harvest off my roof by using Brad Lancaster's books Rainwater Harvesting vols. 1 & 2.

They are both filled with excellent ideas for using water more efficiently and valuable information on how to harvest water. I checked the average annual rainfall in this area (26 inches or 2.16 ft) and measured my roof area. I'd be harvesting water from less than half the roof surface, since I'd put larger tanks in the back of the house and probably no tanks in the front of the house. The formula is catchment area (sq ft) x rainfall (ft) x 7.48 gall/ft x coefficient (80%). Two downspouts in the back of the house would put out approximately 16,500 gallons per year, much more than I could reasonably be expected to store in tanks. That's why Brad Lancaster says "the cheapest place to store water is in the soil," and he advocates the generous use of mulch, and turning one's garden soil into a sponge of organic material - roots, organic matter, organism, and more.

I'm looking at getting two 1550 gallon storage tanks, which would make a tiny dent in my watering needs during the summer, but those drops add up. One of the main issues in this climate is we get our rain over half the year and then no rain during the hot half of the year. Until I get those tanks, I'll be working on building the sponginess of my soil.

Most of the water in the front of the house goes into the soil. The driveway and sidewalks drain into garden beds or to the ever-shrinking lawn. Some water from the road runs into the berm & basin I put next to the pavement, watering the plants in that garden system.

insects

The rosemary was buzzing with bees.

This bee at a borage flower has big yellow pollen packs on her legs.

The first almond blossoms opened today and I found this little insect visiting the stamens of one flower. I'm guessing it is a Dance Fly, Empis, but I'm not totally sure since my insect book image shows it a different angle.

Mid-Winter treats

Days are getting noticeably longer. Various plants are showing signs of breaking dormancy, while others have been blooming through the fall and winter.

Almond buds

Rosemary blossom

Progressions

Artichoke

This lovely artichoke is starting to bloom.
Just a hint of hairy purple has started to peek out of the center of the flower bud.

Garlic and coreopsis.

I left the garlic in the ground for as long as I could stand it. Gophers have recently made their entrance into the garden and garlic roots are first on their preferred menu. I lost enough bulbs to justify digging them all. The plants would have done better with a week or two more, but I lost so many garlic plants last year I couldn't stand the thought of a repeat. The garlic is curing in a dark place, and then I'll trim and clean the bulbs. This garlic area has been sown with seeds of tomato and lemon cucumber now. The coreopsis is still blooming away.

Just for Pretty

This peony plant came from a friend whose garden doesn't get enough sun for the peony to bloom. He had wanted to grow peonies because they are his mother's favorite flower.
It bloomed two days before Mother's Day, and I had him over to take a look at it.
It had two of these outrageous blossoms.

Feijoa in bloom - Edible flowers

Feijoa sellowiana in bloom. This is the first feijoa I planted in the front yard. Four other followed with the expansion of the swale system. This plant only had two blossoms last year. Now it is covered in blossoms and flower buds. The outer petals of the flowers are sweet and slightly fleshy. I wonder if any fruit will form.

Useful Border - update

Our first 100+ degree Fahrenheit day of the year was today. The useful border I wrote about a back in March is now looking a little fuller. The leeks have sent up their flower heads, one of them taller than I (170 cm) and will start blooming soon. The hollyhocks have just started to bloom, attracting carpenter bees, among other pollinators. The English lavender is looking perfect, while the french lavender appears a little unruly.

A guild of sorts

This selection of plants happened to come together in a rather unplanned way. Leeks, chard, borage, fig, parsley, clover, and alpine strawberries. I also grew daikon and fava beans as cover crops. I feel like something is missing from this guild, but I am not sure what it is. This area is located near the oaks and the plants benefit from the oak leaves. I usually don't dig the leeks when I harvest them, rather I cut the below the soil line and they do grow back from the roots. Borage is a mineral accumulator and bees love the blossoms, which are edible, as are the leaves. I think maybe it needs nasturtium or perhaps a melon for the summer. Something to cover the ground after the daikon, fava, and borage are cut. I don't want too much clover since it is known to attract gophers (they also love fig roots and alium roots too).
I loved looking at this planting progress through the fall and winter
Here is a photo of the same spot in November 2008. Note the droopy chard plant, fungi, very small borage plants, lots of blossoms on the alpine strawberries.

Warm April Day Pictures

A few 80+ degree days have finally arrived and the garden is starting to explode in growth and flowers. The bees are still loving all the borage and now they have the neighbor's mature orange tree to visit (the smell is magical) along with salvia officinalis, lots of daikon is still blooming, lots of calendula too. I've harvested some artichokes and fennel bulbs that I steamed and ate and shared with friends. Some of the leeks are starting to form flower heads, the arugula barely had a chance before it bolted, but I managed to have a few salads with it before they bloomed. Some of the red chard is starting to push up flower stalks. Apricots are filling out and I've been thinning the tiny peach fruits on the white peach tree. Strawberries are just starting to ripen, and I have been forced to share most of them with pill bugs and slugs so far. Melon seeds are germinating in the ground and in pots, as are winter pie pumpkins. Here are some photos of various things from today, which is called Earth Day. Why have a special day? Everyday should be Earth Day.

Fennel blossom (yellow) and borage (blue)

Carrot Blossom


California Poppies


Artichoke - ready to pick

Useful Border

It is looking a little overgrown in this pre-pruned, winter photo (taken Feb. 14), but this border along the driveway used to be plain lawn two years ago (the large shrubs in the background are very old buxus and camelia plants).
Now the area serves a variety of purposes with lavender (2 different types), leeks, rosemary, strawberries, korean mint agastache rugosa (good for tea and bees love the flowers), hollyhocks (good for petal tea).
No mowing required and most of the plants are drought tolerant.