Lavender Life is Hope for Fall

Lavandula angustifolia "Hidcote Blue"

Lavender does fairly well here in the Central San Joaquin Valley of California.  However, like most of us, its production ceases when the weather gets mega hot. During production, stems can be cut for drying.  I use twine to tie a bouquet then wrap it in newspaper to protect it from dust and bugs.  Then, the package is hung up-side-down in a dry location like the shed until the bouquets are stiff and dry. The dried lavender can then be used in floral arrangements, potpourri for sachets, cooking (herbes de provence or alone) or flea repellent.

Once an arrangement has ended its usefulness as an arrangement, crush that dude to pieces and save in a paper bag.  Sprinkle some of that on carpets before vacuuming.  The carpet is freshened and so is the vacuum bag/canister.  Rub it on your pet before brushing.  The oils smell great to us while the fleas are disgusted.

Now that the heat is on it's way out (hopefully), it is a good time to give lavender a haircut.  Prune off all dead/spent twigs.  Check soil and irrigation.  Spray the plant with a blast from the hose to shake off the summer dust.  I only feed lavender infrequently and when I do it's minimal but organic.  Any lavender that didn't make it through the summer, pitch it in the compost heap and replace. 

I've tried propagating lavender by layering and with seeds.  Buying a new, healthy plant from the nursery is easier and gives instant gratification.  Plus, you're able to see the blossom and determine if it's the right fit for your needs.

Garden Progress During a Drought.

What the heck?!  Blogging sure has dwindled down to a small trickle just like the flow of the good ol' Kern River.  Even though the drought is taking its toll, production in the garden continues.  Here's what's going on:

Dwarf sunflowers track with the sun and are enjoyed by pollinators.  I doubt that I'll harvest and roast the seeds.  These flowers are used to attract pollinators, provide some short shade, and brighten the garden.  Only about half of the seeds planted germinated.  I'll blame it on the source.  Maybe I'll save a head of these seeds to plant later.

Santa Rosa plums were not abundant this summer; but there were more than last summer and so very delicious.  There weren't enough to meet the demands of munching in the garden and jelly.  Munching wins everytime.

Thornless boysenberries  were productive enough to freeze some to enjoy later and fulfill the garden munchies.  Ice cream?  Cobbler?  Delicious.

Blenheim apricots produced just like the berries.  Some in the freezer and some in my belly.  These are my favorite and are evidence that there is a God.  Dang it, they taste just like summer.

Here's a variety of cantaloupes I've never tried before.  The seed package describes the taste as similar to pineapple.  We'll see.  Moon and Stars watermelons are also planted in the garden.  They aren't expected to be harvested until late summer.

 String beans are vigorous where a failed thornless boysenberry once dwelled.  I'm not a fan of green beans; but Farmer MacGregor enjoys them.  Surplus beans will be housed in the freezer for MacGregor and a garden gnome to enjoy during the winter.

Lavender is drawing the the honey bees too.  I've never used it to cook (except for Herbs de Provance); so I might give it a try.  Ice cream?  Creme Brulee?

Granny Smith apples look to be having a banner year.  This little tree that I thought was going to die from scald has made a great comeback.  Since I eat an apple each night, I don't think these will be used for anything other than munching.

Red Flame grapes are coming along; but there are some problems with some bunches and leaves that the local farmers' cooperative extension need to be consulted about.  At least, it's providing great shade and shelter for the scrub jay family nesting on the arbor.

As for the drought, I have very strong opinions that I'll save for another time.


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Afterthought:  I forgot to list the biggest resident in the garden this summer - tomatoes!  Here's the variety, the amount, and where they came from:

Better Boy (6 plants from Floyd's) -  These are planted in a bed that has been solarized to kill root knot nematodes.  4 out of 6 plants are thriving.  As the temperatures have increased, the plants are looking healthier.

Big Beef (1 plant from the Tomato Lady at the Haggin Oaks Farmers Market) - The Tomato Lady needed to reduce her inventory; so a dollar bill won a healthy plant to try out.

Champion (6 plants from Floyd's) - These are living up to their name.  All the plants are growing vigorously with many blossoms and tomatoes (non ripe yet).
 
Gold Currant (1 plant from a bird pooping at the front step) - Several years ago, a co-worker gave me an heirloom plant she started from seed.  The thing would never die; so Farmer MacGregor had to yank it out during the winter.  Each year, it sprouts somewhere in the garden.  The current Gold Currant sprouted last year at the front step and thrived through our mild winter.  It grows a top hedges (see header photo) for about 8 feet and has been producing grape tomatoes the entire time.  It's a keeper.

Super Sweet 100 (1plant from Walmart) - What the heck.  These were out on a rack at the entrance to the dreaded Walmart; so I made the trip a little bit more enjoyable by picking up a tomato plant.  We'll see.

Garden Progress in April

 Here's what's going on in the garden after some nice rain before we head into a scorcher of a week.
Several lavender plants are drawing various pollinators into the garden - hummingbirds, bubble bees, bees, and butterflies.

Lavender

The plum tree is alive.  I thought it had been lost after it bloomed in the fall and produced leaves into the winter.  Those leaves looked awful and sad; but it bloomed this spring and produced some fruit.  Most of that fruit has fallen though.

Santa Rosa Plum

The peach tree got away from my pruning shears last year.  Once the fruit has been harvested in a few months, I'll work on slowly trimming it down to a manageable espalier.

O'Henry Peach

Good ol' Granny Smith looks like it is thriving and will provide plenty of apples at the end of the summer.  This tree had some problems with scalding a few years ago.

Granny Smith Apple
 

The Red Flame grapes were pruned a bit today by Farmer MacGregor.  He took down an unfilled Scrub Jay nest that distressed those nest builders.

Red Flame Grapes

The Warren pear tree never bloomed (AGAIN!) and the Fantasia Nectarine lost all of its fruit.  The Bleinheim apricot has had a few prunings so far this spring.  The fruit has a bit of cosmetic damage from the sun and wind.  Hopefully, it won't do a thing to the flavor.

Bleinheim Apricot

A few peas have started to develop.  I'm surprised since the heat came early.  Maybe I'll get a few to sample.

Wando Peas

Celebrity tomatoes have produced well in the past even though there is a nematode problem.  This year is no exception.  There is hope of homemade salsa.

Celebrity Tomato

Thornless boysenberries were covered with netting today to fight off the pesky birds.  This season may not be as bountiful as last.  If so, I'll blame it on my pruning.

Thornless Boysenberries

Serrano peppers are great stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped with bacon.  They are also my pepper of choice for making salsa.

Serrano Peppers

Most of the irrigation is only twice during the week.  Basins are filled from the hose.  This method may encourage the roots to push deeper into the soil and not dry out as fast.  I may be wrong since so many encourage drip irrigation.  We'll see.

Garden Update

Just a quick notation of Spring progress in the garden.

The Pink Lemonade Sunshine Blue blueberries are developing nicely.  These are in a pot so it's much easier to keep the soil acidic.  Netting to combat those thieving birds needs to be put in place this weekend.

Thornless boysenberries (6 plants) are producing well.  Once the petals have matured a bit more, bird netting will be installed here as well.  It's a lot more difficult than with the blueberries.

O'Henry blossoms have faded giving way to developing peaches.  This summer I will try to correct some pruning neglect from last year.  More on that in a later post.

Granny Smith apples are coming along beautifully.  I don't thin out the fruit.  Nature will drop the weak ones in most all cases.

Celebrity tomatoes (6) all have multiple blossoms and are thriving amongst the onions.  I suspect that when the heat turns up this week (95 by Wednesday), these plants will be going bonkers.  In the meantime, I'm loving this cool, overcast Saturday.

I picked up a little lavender plant that needs to be potted. It's already developed buds.  No doubt it will enjoy the heat next week and be in full bloom.

That's a quick peek at what's going on in the garden.

Stems & Buds

Jarrahadale Pumpkin on dried lavender.

Out in the garage was a basket full of dried lavender stems and buds (insert Cheech and Chong's Acapulco Gold Filters).  It was in danger of being tossed out by Farmer MacGregor who will remove most all clutter EXCEPT for his 1976 Harley.  Nevertheless, the bounty in the basket has been put to work.

Out in the garden the dried grape leaves under the pumpkins have decayed and the squash are in danger of rotting or getting chewed up by insects.  The lavender straw has been placed beneath some of the pumpkins while dried thyme is cushioning others.  If the herbs do as advertised, this will not only support the squash as they mature, but insects will be repelled by the strong (wonderful) aroma.

Pumpkins and marigolds.

Once the lavender and thyme has been exhausted, I will use rosemary and bay laurel.  I have noticed that the evil squash bugs are not congregating near the marigolds.  I may even use spent marigold plants to support any further pumpkins.

Note:  I stumbled upon a great herb combination of lavender and chocolate mint.  When the hose rolls over these neighbors, the scent is terrific.

The Color Purple

How can I capture purple a lot more realistically?  In the garden I have several plants that are various shades of purple.  Lobelia?  Forget it.  It always gets so washed out.  I just can’t figure out what the problem could be.  A Nikon  D90 is being used with no flash.  The sun is setting in the examples provided below.  Settings for each photo are provided.

Black Knight Butterfly Bush is practically black.  Whenever I take a photo, the color seems to fade or brighten.  It’s just not the blackish-purple that you can see in person.

F stop	f/56
Exposure time	1/50 sec
ISO speed	ISO-3200
Exposure bias	0 step
Focal length	55 mm
Maximum aperture	5

Although my butterfly bush photo is similar to others I’ve seen while researching the topic, that doesn’t make me feel any better.  It simply means I have company with this problem.  (Note:  Farmer MacGregor is not posing for The Nursery at Ty Ty.)

Lavender is really stumping me.  It completely washes out no matter what time of day the photo is taken.  Too blue.  It’s as if the images are Photo Shopped too heavily.  Too processed.  None of my photos are touched up but what you see is a bit different than what you get.

F stop	f/56
Exposure time	1/15 sec
ISO speed	ISO-3200
Exposure bias	0 step
Focal length	55 mm
Maximum aperture	5

 

Not only do I want to conquer this hurdle to correctly capture the color purple in the garden, I want to conquer this hurdle before the plums and grapes ripen.  The Santa Rosa plums are more red than purple – so are the Red Flame grapes.  Purple zinnias will be planted soon.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Best in Show

Lavender & Sweet Peas

If you follow gardening blogs it seems they are broken down into a few groups:  Edible, Flowers, Homestead.  I think the edible part of gardening I’m getting the hang of.  Homesteading isn’t going to happen.  I have pioneer blood but it enjoys air conditioning along with me.  I’m simply too much of a whiner to be a homesteader.  That leaves the flowers group.  This evening as I cut some flowers to use as bouquets, I determined that I need more flowers in the garden.  So in addition to this being the Year of Corn in the garden, I will now try to incorporate more flowers into the landscape.  I mean try to pack spaces with blooming plants.  Nothing too difficult or fussy will do.  I’m going to stick with varieties that are hardy in the hell hole of summer in the south San Joaquin Valley.  Marigolds, zinnias and the like will be the things I’ll try to grow from seed. 

Now the research begins to determine what to try.  Any suggestions for flowers that do well in zone 8-9 are appreciated.  Thanks

Lavender

It’s getting warm enough now that the garden needs regular irrigating.  Any seedlings like corn, beans, and squash need moisture everyday.  The young plants like the tomatoes and peppers need  water about every other day.  The established plants like strawberries let me know when they are thirsty.  I’m backing off on watering the onions and garlic as harvest time approaches.  The trees are irrigated only if the moisture meter indicates that’s necessary.  It’s remarkable how dry the surface can be while just below the surface the soil is moist.  The same goes for the camellias.  Too much water isn’t a good thing.

Herbs only need occasional irrigating and are some of the easiest plants to grow in the garden.  Lavender is one of my favorites.  The scent is so clean and fresh.  Whenever I go to the drug store I try to remember to clean the shelves of the Yardley English Lavender Soap.  I haven’t been able to find any other soap that has a better lavender scent than Yardley’s.  The soap is stored in my armoire with linens.  Last year’s lavender harvest needs to be stripped from the stems and stuffed in some little cloth sacks to make potpourris.  Those are used to keep moths out of woolens and to scent undies.

Lavender only needs minimal water once it’s established.  Perfect for a water wise garden. 

Isn’t it strange that English Lavender grows in drought conditions but it’s from England where rain is plentiful?

Hope

  Sweet Pea – Old Spice

The 1st bouquet of sweet peas was harvested this weekend to enjoy in the kitchen while preparing Easter dinner.  These were planted so late, December 12, 2010, that I really didn’t have much hope that anything would come of my meager effort.  The seed packet describes this variety as  a single and bicolor tall heirloom.  A bean support used last summer for beans remained to support the sweet peas.  Once they have faded, beans will be planted for a late season harvest.  The success of the sweet peas is more than I had hoped for.

 

Lavender – Lavendula Angustifolia

On September 23, 2010, seeds of lavender from Burpee were sown with hopes of a quick germination.  After more than a month I gave up hope and forgot (kinda) about another failure in the garden.  This weekend I notices a few signs of success along the corn bed.  There is hope that the garden will have more lavender to enjoy.

Bell Peppers

A visit to the Farmers’ Market this weekend was fruitful.  I returned with three new Bell Peppers – Red Beauty, Red Marconi, and Super Heavyweight.  The Tomato Lady unveiled some of the peppers she has been germinating for here weekend business.  My hands were full of produce bags and a puppy lead; so I let the Tomato Lady’s daughter select three different varieties of bells for me to try.  Oh, she tried to educate me on these varieties; but I was distracted with all the shoppers wanting to pet Ajax.  My hope is that these peppers will be abundant and be used to stuff and grill.

The pea patch was cleaned out this weekend to make way for tomato transplants.  A few carrots and onions will remain until they mature.  In the meantime, the soil will be amended, deep holes dug, and a variety of tomatoes will take up residence until the fall.  I’m using the same method as last summer for plant supports.  Stringing.  The strings will run vertically and I’ll wrap the plants upward around the twine as they grow taller.  This post has an example of what the supports look like when they are full of tomatoes.  Hopes are high that this year’s tomato varieties will flourish.

All in all, this Easter weekend is a pretty good one for hope.

 

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Garden Update

Lavender is clipped on a regular basis then dried for use in potpourris.  I did notice that lavender buds are being used to toss at weddings in place of rice or birdseed.  I like that choice.

Dove chickies have hatched up in the grape arbor.  Don’t they know that dove season starts on September 1?  Perhaps they’ll simply hang out in the garden for a while.

The tomatoes just will not stop producing.  My freezers are stuffed and I have loads of salsa.  There are little yellow blossoms on most of the plants.  In the background, the apricot is screaming for an espalier pruning.  This will probably be the sixth trim this summer.

Summer sweetness plumps up the peaches as they continue to ripen.  I enjoyed a peach this morning and thought it was great.  Farmer MacGregor didn’t think it was sweet enough yet so I won’t harvest just yet.

The chives are blooming and need to be snipped.  Most all the herbs in the garden are growing well – chives, parsley, basil, thyme,  and rosemary.  The summer savory I planted with the beans never germinated.  I planted twice.  It must have been a dud package of seeds.

I’m not sure how to best preserve the peppers since the favorite way to use them is in salsa or stuff them with cream cheese, wrap them in bacon and bake them.

Pumpkin looks forward with anticipation for the upcoming dove season.

Licorice continues to supervise all activity in the garden between naps.  Looks like she’s ready to take a dive.

Spittlebugs are Gross!

Spittlebugs in their nymph stage suck the sap from a plant and make a foam to hide in.  My lavender has spittlebugs hiding out.  It looks exactly like the neighborhood boys have been hanging out in my garden and having a loogie contest.  Gross.  Tomorrow morning I’ll be using the business end of a hose and blast these gross things loose. Gross!