Point & Shoot

I have concocted a screwy way to take pictures when my back won’t allow me to get down on the ground with my eye against the camera.  I simply set the camera to automatic, point, shoot, and hope for the best.  Here are some of the results from today’s garden tour without any editing:

Granny Smith Apple

 

Al Kuffa Tomato (harding off)

 

Freesia

 

Merlot Lettuce

 

Golden Bantam Corn

 

Strawberries

 

O’Henry Peach

 

unknown variety Fig

 

George L. Taber Azalea

 

Generally, the images turn out just fine.

Freesia

The vegetable garden consists of four raised beds.  Cinder blocks form the beds.  The holes in the blocks allow me room to plant things like herbs, strawberries, sweet peas, and sunflowers.  Last fall the freesia bulbs were lifted to be transplanted all over other parts of the garden and allowing room for the strawberries to spread.  A few freesia stubbornly remain.  These will find a new home in the fall.  Until then, I’ll enjoy the show.

Opening as predicted, the butter yellow variety are soft and creamy.  They remind me of meringue.  Inspecting the garden before lunch may be the reason for all the food references.

The burnt orange variety opened too.  Just as I feared…It looks like it’s a man/bug eating variety just like the Little Shop of Horrors.

The lilac buds haven’t broken yet.  They continue to fatten up.  It should be any time now.

Love Is In The Air

Twitterpated.  The birds in the garden are completely twitterpated.  This afternoon at lunch, this fellow was letting the entire neighborhood hear his treetop opera.  He sat at the very top of the neighbor’s mulberry tree trying to impress all the ladies while I was out noting the progress of some buds.  These birds look like a sparrow dipped in that powder that my kindergarten teacher used to mix with water to make finger paints.  THAT came out of nowhere.  Back to the garden…

One of the lilacs has very plump buds ready to burst.  I suspect tomorrow at lunch I may be able to enjoy lilac perfume.  I have two different varieties of lilacs in containers.  Each one has a story to make them even more enjoyable.  This one was given to me as a gift.  It is from a cutting from a lilac that came to California from Mississippi.  Allen’s great-grandmother brought it with her.  Allen’s mother had a cutting in the yard of every place she lived.  This cutting was taken in the spring of 2004.  Looks like it’s going to do well.  If you have a lilac, make sure to prune it right after it blooms if you have to prune it at all.  The flowers form on the growth from the prior year.  If you prune too late or too much, it will take at least another season to enjoy the bouquets these shrubs provide.

This freesia reminds me of the crazy plant in the Little Shop of Horrors.  It should be blooming tomorrow.  I certainly hope it’s only a freesia.

Buttery yellow petals will most likely enjoy the spring sun by the end of the week.  I thought I had transplanted all of these bulbs last fall to a better location allowing me to transplant more strawberries.  Seems I missed a few and they seem to multiply fairly easily.  The freesia bulbs were a gift to me as well.  These gifts keep on giving.

Lilacs and freesia grow vigorously in zone 8-9 in Bakersfield, California

Mystery Plant

These are starting to bud.  These are bulbs.  These are a mystery.  My brother gave me these bulbs a few years ago.  I smashed the entire lot of them in a shallow pot.  They sprouted lots of long, slender, green leaves; but they never bloomed.  The bulbs look as if they are covered with hair.  Kind of like cocoanuts.  (Sorry, I don’t have a photos of the bulbs.) I wanted to use the pot for something else so I pulled the bulbs out and tossed them in the holes of the cinder blocks that form the raised vegetable beds.  The familiar green leaves began to sprout reminding me that those forgotten bulbs needed to be dealt with.  I procrastinated and now the bulbs are starting to bloom.  What do you know?  These may be great flowers to attract hummingbirds and bees into the garden. Now, I’m searching to figure out what, exactly, these bulbs are.  I hope to post photos of the flowers when they open.

Note:  The brick wall in the background has a common bond pattern; but in the photos it takes on a vertical weave look.  Strange.

Answer:  Freesia. 

My brother confirmed the identification of the mystery plant.

Helen B. and Maureen,  thanks for helping with the identification.  Email me your contact information and I’ll send you a coveted packet of heirloom tomato seeds (Arkansas Traveler from Baker Creek).

Here’s what the corms look like.  Kind of like hairy cocoanuts.

The blooms began to open on March 10, 2010.  The colors seem to range from deep red to yellow.  Note how great the lobelia looks in the background.  The growth habit of freesia remind me of pan flutes.