Slight overflow -June 20

The chives and chiles are being grown on the side of our home, close to the kitchen for easy pickin'.

This picture is so cool 'cuz it shows different stages of passion fruit.

My poop donors are having a union meeting, as soon as I got close, they scattered. They are plotting something...

My boys love wagon rides.

don't worry, this is recycled water.

The Boys Section

We decided to set aside a part of the gardening area for the boys to play. We had seen a few landscape shows that recommend sectioning off the play area to make it look separate from the yard. We decided to use deer fence since we have plenty of it on hand and we can easy see threw it to keep an eye on the little guys. We made a long entry way to give it a feel of a maze.

Once you enter, you'll first see a play house area or an aviation port. Adjacent to the house is a small bench where the storytelling area will be. There is also a parent lounge (table and bench), an activity center with a chalk board wall pending (along the fence), and an open-ended space for riding their bikes or just running around (maybe we'll add a sand box). At the end of the entrance we're also thinking about adding a water feature. I've also sowed some 2' pea seeds to cover some of the wall fence and give it a more defined look.

The new trees in the yard are getting set up to where they might be placed.

Our catus is growing! Even these plants need water once in a while.

The new home of our bird house gourds and Pumpkin mix variety pack. We planted seedlings even if it looks like nothing is there.

Finishing some projects and starting new ones 6-18-09

The roses are in full bloom. This is my hub's department since he's into pruning and watering them. Although I'm the one that sprinkled Dr. Earth's Rose Food on them a week ago, so I should get a little credit, too.
















We finally found a permanent home for the raspberry, boysenberry and black satin raspberry. Now we just need to stake the sides to hold them up and we're done on this berry nice project. While I never planted the tomatoes (the storage bin near the wooden fence), they have a lot of tomatoes growing with lots of blooms merging! And on this raspberry project day, I promised Eddie to never plant in fruits or veggies in containers again. This promise came about due to root binding in containers and becoming extremely heavy in planting and he thinks storage bins look ugly.

Why did I start another project when I haven't finished any of the other ones? I love butterflies and want a better way to give tribute then a butterfly garden. Ed said I should plant low growing plants in order to see the design. And plant the larger dill, cosmos and such where the grass part near the fence is. I have a bird bath that has been neglected for some time. I'm going to bring it over here to make this a backyard habitat for butterflies and caterpillars.

Reaching My Limit! 6-17-09

While the pumpkin vine is thriving and seems to have no growing end in sight, my space for it has expanded. I added 2 rows of 4' wide landscape fabric, and the vines are just a foot from the newly expanded fence. The pumpkins are almost the size of baseballs!

I'm collecting leaves that i'd normally trash and every time I rake new leaves in, the pile gets full. Then in about two days when i rake again, there is plenty of room for the new leaves. I'm not sure how to tell when this leaf compost will be ready, but for now I'll just keep filling it.

My beloved chineese lemon tree was completely removed (trunk roots and all). My hubby didn't care for the lemons and it was an old tree... so in it's place will be a star fruit tree or Longan Tree or mexican lime tree or a mutant/grafted plum tree. We purchased a few plants last friday at Green Mart in the city of Orange. My favorite buys were the star fruit, dragon fruit and longan tree. I'll post pics of our new arrivals in the days to come.

Have a mentioned our passion fruit has began to fruit. We purchased it two years ago at the Weds Day Farmer's Market for five dollars. Since we knew it was a vine, we planted it next to fence and in the months to come forgot about watering it. For the next year, it survived on sheer will power! This year as i was sprinking fruit fertilizer I went ahead and dashed some the vine roots. Two months later, the vine took off and tripled in size with lots of blooming flowers! Now we're reaming the rewards, and hopefully it won't fall negelected anymore...

More tiny pumpkins on the vine!

I took these pictures around mid day which is why my plant looks so droop. Usually in the morning it looks lively and lifted. My husband thinks it needs more water. So instead of every other day, I'm going to up it two twice a day.

Giant Pumpkin Competition!

Can you see the tiny yellow pumpkin (above)? We've had to extend the fence about five more feet to allow the vine to grow. I also remove the smaller vines and left only largest two. I remapped the soaker hose and covered the new extended area with landscape fabric. My new goal for this week is to find a pallet to place my growing pumpkin on.

I think this year will be good for my giant pumpkin (and other fruits and veggies). The Pumpkin vine is huge and growing strong! I'm thinking of entering several divisions at the OC Fair! If you have fruits and vegies you'd like to submit for judging, check out the oc fair competion. I need to move my fence over to give the pumpkin vine space to roam! I'll also need to get rid of the "weaker" pumpkin plants in order to give more room to the giant vine!

I'm so excited this is my first time entering a competion of home grown stuff!

Remember the Date

Two Composting Workshops Coming Up: visit http://www.smartgardening.com/ for more info! They will sell compost bins and worm bins to help you get started! The also teach about watering wisely.

Long BeachBirney Elementary School 710 W. Spring St.
Saturday, June 13, 2009


WhittierSorensen Park11419 Rose Hedge Dr.
Saturday, June 13, 2009