Gardening as therapy.

Ga, the volunteer lettuce is a romaine variety I originally planted several years ago. Every year, some plants go to seed, I harvest the seed. But there are always seeds that drop, overwinter and sprout in February. It's really acclimated to the climate and soil after several generations . Salt cedar is indeed invasive along the rivers.

Linda, I'm envious! I lost my rosemary years ago during a hard winter.

I'm not familiar with salt cedar, so I googled it. It's beautiful, light and frothy. I did learn it's invasive, so I'll have to check to see if that applies here. Otherwise, I'd like to add some and mix it in with ornamental grasses.

Is your volunteer lettuce from seeds that the wind sowed last year? I'm not familiar with it overwintering; it's a tender crop here.

Lilacs blooming, rosemary has tiny blue flowers, apple trees in bloom, salt cedar really pretty in pink. A few daffs and tulips starting up. Garlic peeking out, volunteer lettuce and chards doing well. New fronds on fennel.

what is growing in my gardens at my rental home? Nothing. Have some rose bushes greening up nicely. But the grass is blooming in dandilions, chickweed, some grass with lavendar and white violas interspersed lightly. :(

I have noticed several clumps of daffs planted by the previous owners aren't going to bloom, they didn't last year either. They should have had plenty of sun, what can I do to get them into bloom next year?

I have always taken all those messages to conserve water to heart even though I live within miles of world's largest freshwater system. I think we could really reduce water consumption everywhere just by making grey water systems simpler and more cost effective. One thing that irks me is the gallons of water we waste just running taps waiting for the water to get hot/cold, I have always wished there was an easy way to collect it for my garden. I hate paying for water that just runs down the drain!!

So far I just have crocus and mini daffodils in bloom. The larger daffs haven't opened yet, the hyacinth are in bud and the bunnies pruned my forsythia bush. They are predicting snow on the weekend, possibly squalls. I know it isn't uncommon to see snow into May but grrrr, I've had enough already!

Send, a few of the CA gardeners I know from a garden forum have switched to xeriscaping, focusing on plants that either conserve water or don't need watering as much.

It's my understanding that in one area of CA, there was a governmental movement to support people who wanted to replace lawns with ground covers.

And the idea of using rain barrels or other methods of capturing water is another alternative. Taps are inserted into the rain barrels, hoses are connected, and plants are watered that way.

Thanks for explaining that my grass is really a weed that always dies in May in So. Cal, and I would be wasting water! That looks so true, and my neighbor, whose lawn from here looks so green and she never watered it, has told me the same just yesterday.
Went to the Huntington Gardens website and viewed a grass that is very long, appears like waves-on purpose! I just hate the unnecessary laws about how long our grass can get! It is nature, grass grows, it is pretty! imo.
Sharyn- Sorry, did not know we were using water from your area-I will use less now, even though we went from 7 cu. ft. usage down to 3 cu.cft., but my neighbor, household of one, uses only 1.5 cu. ft. of water per month! We can do better-she taught us to capture shower water for plants, but we're having lifting the buckets issues. Ouch! We keep on trying!

Sharyn, is that a Seal Point Siamese? She/he's stunningly beautiful! Is it your cat?

As to the grass issue, my grass typically dies back in August but is resurrected when the Fall rains come. Do you think your grass is really dead?

I wish mine would die permanently; it would be a lot easier to convert it to ground cover.

Daffodils are blooming now, lending a cheery pale white, ivory with slightly lemon overtone highlight to the existing sea of Siberian Squills spreading daily across the garden.

They're almost like a little stream of blue flowers, extending almost 50 feet across the garden.

The Squills have been the harbingers of spring, along with crocuses, for the last several years. I planted some in my father's yard years ago; they've now spread out into the lawn to create a lovely, almost Monet-like palette of royal blue blended with the fresh green of spring-revived grass. Dad gets compliments on them from neighbors and delivery people.

I'm thinking of gathering the seeds, about the size of chick peas, and planting them in containers to put around the front of the house for some early spring cheer next year.

What's blooming in YOUR yards?

The yard here is a mess of dandilions, some little clover like things with tiny purple flowers on them. Whatever the bulb is it still has no blooms, don't think that is happening. But there are some little lavendar and white violas growning sporadically in the lawn/weed area. Maybe things will start to happen out there now since we had some snow last night, barely, but evidently the snow total for the winter. Just minow dustings up to this point.

I found a recipe for a natural herbicide soap. Mix equal parts liquid soap, salt and vinegar. Put in spray bottle and spray it on the leaves of weeds. I am goo g to try this in small areas.

Other natural weed killers are pour boiling.g water on weeds, a mixture of salt and water and plain old vinegar. These are best for use in cracks in driveways a d walkways because too much of it in a flower bed would affect t Ph levels in the. Soil.

Mulch also helps to block sunlight from reaching weed seeds preventing.g germination. Spreading newspaper over the soil works too if you don't mind the look of newspapers spread all over your garden.

Now that our front " lawn" has been tamed, watering will do no good. You see, our lawn died because of the drought, what we have now is wild grass that will naturally die in May because of the heat so watering it is a waste.

Now, my son has a nice green lawn where he lives in SoCal. How nice that he gets a nice green lawn with "our" water. Yes I am against the Delta tunnels. I k ow what happened to Owens Valley.

iI don't blame the guy, he probably thought it was weeds. I will water it, see if it grows back.

lol,
i helped a customer mow her lawn once -- mowed down her snap peas . i wouldnt know a snap pea from a plywood tree , or care , for that matter .

Remediated. I really cant complain too much, it does look much better.

We hired a yard service today to mow the lawn. I don't know what hubs told the guy, he weed eated my wandering Jew plant right to the ground. It was given to me by a very dear family friend who was like a grandmother to me. I did find a small piece I put in water hoping it will root. I hope there is enough below ground that it will grow again. He pruned my camillia which was fine except I don't do square formal look but that will grow out and can be remed

i dont like honey wine either , and in fact have never made it .
its just a plan " b " in case we can no longer coerce guatamalan slave labor .
plan " c " is mexican and american drug war " prison " labor .
plan " d " is yobamas dumb a@#s smashing sugar beets with a blunt stick at gunpoint .
we need sweeteners to make booze . im pretty negotiable as to how these sweeteners are brought to market ..

Thanks Cwillie! Grasshopper lives! I will cover the bougies. These have caused me so much concern-what kind of therapy IS gardening therapy?
It must be survival training, yeah, that's it.

Lol !! HAHAHAAAH!!! Mead is too sweet for my tastes. Had some in Ireland at Bunratty Castle.

well ,
hubby needs to learn to roll with the flow . if i could choose between a drunk wife or a sober wife , s*it , this sentence doesnt even require completion ..
BTW .
wines sweetened with honey instead of cane sugar are called meads . they require so much less guatamalan slave labor ..
im way ahead of doc . hes thinking toast , bacon and honey . in my mind ive already cooked the mead into 151 proof lightning .
go BEES !!

I will buy raw honey from you Cap!!! Great stuff, don't know about cherry wine, ut my drinking days are over since 2 years this May. I am not a good drunk, fell too many times, last time I cut my forehead open and the look on my husbands face às I was all bloody was a look I never want to see again.

my little cherry propagations are still kickin it . these are from a " known " and trusted cherry tree . two years ago i copped 11 quarts of cherries from the host tree without even straining myself . for a dwarf tree that was a good yield .
meet me back here in 5 years and we can talk about cherry wine .
kidding . i wouldnt trade off cherry cobbler for booze . we'll make booze out of fish heads or something ..
out at the farm , " doc " is dead set on raising bees . the farm foreman claims to be allergic to bees and is a little apprehensive about it . im not . i get higher than cooter brown from a honey bee sting . i dont deliberately screw with em but i dont avidly avoid them either . we'll raise bees , i dont care either way .

Nature can never to controlled, however, it can be destroyed, as well as cultures and animals. Nature is a tonic, and everytime I step into nature, I receive much more than I can ever give back.

CWillie writes:

'It is funny that gardeners are trying to be one with nature and yet we are continually at war with the bits of nature we don't want in out gardens, like weeds, squirrels and grasshoppers. "

Yes, how true and how sad, and city code enforcement departments must take the responsibility for much of this, especially the lawn height and weeds laws.

As one of the gardeners I know writes, "weeds are just plant in the places we don't want them to be." It's amazing how Native Americans, colonists and earlier peoples found uses for plants even if they weren't edible or beautiful.

But history has shown that people don't always seek moderate or accommodating solutions, but rather seek to control, especially to control nature.

I'm surprise researchers haven't figured out a way to control the weather, although I'm sure some of them are trying, somewhere, somehow.

It reflects a lot about human beings and our adaptability that we've become so far from learning to live with nature.

Oh, these bulbs, like all bulbs sold here are not like a bare root plant. It is just the bulb. I mention that because I have seen where they can be ordered with part of the green plant as in a bare root type. Live and learn.

Oh dang, I ordered them from home depot cuz it was too late to get any from places like Scheiners. These are breaded irises. I will see what I can do to spread them out. I know with daffodils you can plant 2-3 bulbs in a pot together so I did not give it another thought these might be goo close together.

Oh yeah, iris do best when sitting near the top of the soil, as clumps age and spread they tend to come right to the surface.

It is funny that gardeners are trying to be one with nature and yet we are continually at war with the bits of nature we don't want in out gardens, like weeds, squirrels and grasshoppers.
Nuke 'em Send, or cover those bougainvillea for a little while until the plague abates.

Sharyn, Please send the cat instead, I will take care of it, and promise that I won't feed it any chocolate grasshoppers at all! I can take better care of a cat than tend a garden.
Lol. Just joking. Was wondering just how crazy this could get with the full moon. Can anybody send chocolate? Fortunately, we have Garden Artist to advise about the Iris plantings. Me, I would be grateful there is a green plant growing at all, and wait for April showers to bring May flowers. It is colder up North, so it takes longer. How many did you plant? I forgot, but it was lots, right?

Sharyn, I think they're too deep. Did you order them from a quality grower like Scheiners, or buy them at someplace like Home Depot or Lowes? I'm wondering about the accuracy of instructions.

I know that not all plants come with proper identification or instructions. A poster on a gardening forum I visit bought a plant at one of the big box stores, planted it, and was threatened with legal action by code enforcement because the plant was actually an invasive plant iner state. It had been mislabeled by wherever the big box store got its plants.

If I post a link with a "dot com", it'll will get truncated. So Google "Schreiner's irises, planting guide", and click on the first hit "Grow Bearded Iris...". Then click on "planting bearded iris".

(If you really want to be mesmerized by the variety of irises they have, click on "online catalog".

I've bought my irises from Scheiner's - always very, very top quality tubers.

Their guides recommend planting 12 - 24" apart, with the rhizomes "laying down" (horizontally). There's a photo which includes a planting layout.

I'd be tempted to dig up the rhizomes, spread them out, and plant them less deep in the soil. Sandy soil could as I wrote be a major factor as well, especially if they're planted close together and too deep. Too much stress and competition and not enough nutrition.