What do football players do during the off season?

Fresh pickings: Grapefruits, oranges, passion fruits, limes, cherry/grape tomatoes (hint: the twins favorite, I didn't even see him take the tomato until after the photo came out. We also have avocados (i forgot to put them in the picture) and strawberries (we ate them on the spot- so sweet and juicy!)

A lot of weeds were growing between the strawberry/onion patch, so I covered the walking patch with the staw that was holding up my pumpkin display. The strawberries are where we had planted the zuci's last year. So this year, I'm planting the to the right of the strawberries, you can kind of see the bare land in the picture. To the bottom left of the picture, you can see my star jasmine, it didn't fill in the fence quite liked I'd hoped. I'm thinking of replacing it with a kiwi or passion fruit vine.

(still wondering what the answer is to my question?) The good ones usually prepare for the next season. And while most people are thinking of gifts, holidays and new year resolutions, gardeners are thinking of what to plant for spring. I received my burpee catalog and my Nichols Garden catalog back in early December. While I love shopping and am a strong believer in helping local shops, I really want to grow hops this year, and Nichols' seems to have several varieties. They also sell Cheese making kits (this sound like a great mom's club activity). I'm also hoping Ed finds his truck keys soon, so we can load up on free fertilizer from Norwalk Dairy (don't let the name fool you, it in Santa Fe Springs) 13101 Rosecrans Ave, Santa Fe Springs, Ca. Yes! they have over a hundred cows there and you'll never know it, even if you're intentionally looking for this place, it's easy to miss.

I've been scouting out place to buy to best fruit trees for cheap. So far, it's Costco (the bulk store- although they are selling the trees individually price) the rose are 2 in a box for 16.50. They have this year's one and only rose winner "Easy Does It." I'm not a huge fan of roses, but Ed likes them, and since I accidentally killed his Veterans of Honor roses last year when my worm bin fell and broke rose branches. Then I decided to move it while it was blooming to a better location. I uprooted it and place it in a temp pot until I'd get around to it later that day. Well a few minutes later, the boys and I got hungry and went inside the house for lunch... and forgot about the rose bush until a month or so later when I was looking for my flower pot.

Remember my pea/peacock/tool shed frame. My friend Ester came by a while back and helped me plant Aloe Vera on south facing part. The North side seems to be to shady to grow anything, until (hopefully) now. I planted so cabbage, bok choi, and broccoli there. I'm also going to sprinkle lettuce seeds and see if they bloom.

Even great atheletes make mistakes... and that holds true for novice gardeners- like myself. I used twisty ties to hold it to its support stick. Then a few months later the truck grew around the ties- I couldn't pull the ties out, it's like the tree ate them! What do we do with our mistakes? We learn from them and try not repeating them...

No Rest in the Garden!

This tree has soo many thorns, it's worse than a cactus! So why do we keep it? It's came with our property and it has an edible seed pod that is juicy and more tanic than a young red wine! Ed says this type of tree grows in dessert climate and that people use it for nurishment.

The radishes that were growing in the seed packet are actually doing quite nicely in the rain gutters...

... and then there was 4... my chickens were attacked by my dogs. Solo, a giant playful lab, was chasing them around and accidently killed them... The four chickens left aren't giving any eggs right now.

We have a lot of guavas right now!

Lettuce is growing in the front.

Whata Mess!!!

So on Wed I thought a water pipe broke in my yard, thank goodness it was just my drip irrigation line which was a lot easier to fix!

My worms are doing better after the rains. I am searching for a better location to put them before the rains begin again.

The rains also leaked into my plastic bin where I was storing my winter seeds... The radishes sprouted up and out of the seed packet!!! My first instict was to toss it into the compost bin... Then I decided to plant it in my rain gutter pot. Hopefully they'll survive...

While searching for winter seed packets, I found a "seed tape"- the carrot seeds are evenly spaced on a thin strip of tissue paper which makes sowing them easy! I am planting the carrots, turnips, and radishes where I was growing my mini pumpkins and bird house gourds.

Enjoying a break!

Max and Eli are posing in front of the pumpkins we grew. The giant ones were planted in early May and were orange by Sept. We kept our finger crossed that they would last until at least October, and they have so far held there shape.

With the rains now upon us, Ed's shut of the backyard automatic drip water. I also went out to take some frozen goodies to the worms. I place over ripen veggies and fruits and egg shells into a freezer bag and freeze everything until I have time to go outside and feed them. It's a trick I learned from a fellow worm farmer. She said that by freezing the kitchen scraps it helps break down the food for them faster- which also helps prevent food from spoiling and smelling, the thawing helps moisten the soil and by freezing it she didn't have to worry about going outside every day, she just waits until the bag is full. I had moved my worm bins to a new location earlier this summer, just under my avocado tree. What I didn't realize was that there was a water sprinkler system a few feet from there and my table where my bins are on top of, has been slowly sinking down (only the two right legs). So now with the rain, the table sunk further in and my bins were very close to sliding off the table!!! I tried lifting all three trays at once, I couldn't get it off the table... So I had to lift each tray out individually and move them over to a nearby bench. I have no picture of any of this, because it began to rain and I had to round up the boys who were enjoying the mud... I dropped one of the trays on the floor and lost at least one hundred worms. The chickens had a feast and with ten of them by my feet, I couldn't see past there feathers to pick them up.

On Thursday (if it doesnt' rain too much), I'm heading outside to plant some sweet peas along all the fencing area and the peacock ex home/temp tool shed/my thinking space. I haven't had much luck of anything growing there, so hopefuly I'll have a winter's luck crop. I'm also planning to sow some more onions and garlic.

Fall Cleaning- and New Arrivals

Since we've harvested the last of the summer squash, Ed asked Josh to help him pull out the dead plants. The boys were also there to lend a hand.

We found some basil growing where the squash was. We had grown basil in this area a year ago, but when the rainy season started, the plant was lost among the weeds and died. Three basil bushes are growing very well, so I'll leave them there and contine to water them. We also found some tomatillos also growing where the zucs were. We had also planted some in a close by location last year.

My bear didn't do well with the heat so I'm not sure if I should continue watering it or plant something else or cover him with succulents... The grape vine growing just behind the bear, grew quite well, but didn't give any grapes this year, which is shame, because the were really sweat last year. I planted another grape vine that and been near a shaded fence and it too took well to it's new location. To the right of the grape vines are my raspberry/blackberry/ back raspberry bushes need a better support system, so I need to tend to that this week.

Our passion fruit got a second wind and is producing more flowers and I see lots of fruit already growing. I found another wooden fence piece near the garage and dragged it half way to the passion fruit. I plan to set up a similar trellis like the one used for the grape vine.

Our bird house gourds and mini pumpkins did well. So well in fact that Panfilo to Pony ate most of the ones on his side of the fence!

The dragon fruit plant that I purchased earlier this summer is already flowering! I'm very excited to see what color the inside fruit will be since they range from white to pink!

We just realized we are growing 2 different types of pomegrants! We've had the traditional red tart one for 2-3 years, but the light pinkish one we purchased early this summer. While the color appears light and the seed look bigger, it's actually quite sweat! You can clearly see which one Eli prefers.

Got Guavas? you bet!!! The tree we purchased and the ones my grandma gave us from her garden- which I should take pics of because everything is in pots and grows in abundance! Here are to guava trees from my yard, the ones on the left look real round... the ones on the right look almost pear shaped. I guess we'll have to wait and see what each one tastes like. The one on the left has had a few harvested from my little helpers and by the look on thier faces, I know thoses are good eats!

Our giant pumpkin patch is now a air port for a private plane and helicopter! Which is fine by be, I'm not planning on planing anything in that area for a while. That black doughnut shape between the fence and the plane is where I had plantd horseradish, but the only thing growing out of it seems to be weeds, so it'll be coming out soon and maybe plant a blue berry there... we'll wait and see!

New Fruits growing!

We have several guava plants that have a ton of fruit on them.

Our corn has died!!! at least the neighbors horses will eat it and our pony.

finally finished my bear, he's sniffing the blueberry bush.

This week: 9-7-09

My green bean covered area never happened so now i'm using it to store my tools and clean up the giant pumpkin site next to it so the kids can play there.

My topperari is almost complete... it's a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, but I'm almost done. he'll be connected near the blueberry bush since he's my little blue bear-y

Max helped me harvest a lot of pumpkins and zucs!!! He got tired of riding his bike and also thru it on the wagon! He's so cute, he's pointing at his favorite pumpkin.