The Empty Cabinets of my Mind

Cut-and-Come Again Flowers

The anemone bulbs I bought at the 99 Cents Only store last spring have produced more beautiful cut flowers this winter than I would have believed possible. 

 

They are definitely cut-and-come again. 

More Anemones

I only bought one color of anemone rhizomes last spring, but look what came up:

 

 

 

 

 

The pink one was a "volunteer" left in some recycled dirt that I acquired from a neighbor who was getting rid of an old planter. 

Life is full of wonderful surprises. 

Farming Indoors

Hurray for me!  I have my wheatgrass "farm" growing again.  It is hot here in the Palm Desert and I am not much on using the air conditioner, so the grain grows fast.  I call this before and after photo "What a Difference a Day Makes."

On the left are three day old sprouts photographed on August 31 and on the right here they are again yesterday, which was September 1.

From left to right, these are winter wheat, kamut, rye, buckwheat lettuce, and spelt. 

Also, outdoors, I am happy to report that my lemongrass is doing well, and there is a before and after photo of it posted on Ann's Air Gardens.

I Love Swiss Chard

A short time ago I figured out that it is possible to cut off big leaves of Swiss Chard from my garden and keep them indoors in a glass of water.  Not only do they look pretty sitting in the kitchen, but they serve as a reminder to eat dark green leafy vegetables.

I grew a dandelion plant from seeds  someone special sent me and was happy to see a flower on it today, so soon there will be more dandelion plants.

The tomatoes have been bearing heavily for about a month now and have new flowers, so they should continue to provide me with tasty snacks.

Next year I intend to only grow the Sun Golds, as the birds do not think they are ripe when they are ready to eat, for one thing.  The other reason is that it is very hard to distinguish between the unripe red cherry tomatoes and the ripe Sun Golds.  Also, the Sun Golds are sweeter.  Maybe I will try some currant tomatoes alongside them, though, as they are interesting, tasty, and small enough not to get confused over.

 

A Bushel Basket full of Weeds

The guys who pull weeds in our complex know that I love purslane, a highly nutritious vegetable once consdered a pot-herb.   They do not use insecticides or weed killers in the area, so rather than throwing the uprooted plants away, they pulled them up and out of the dirt carefully and gave the monster plants to me.

Photos to come....I hope.

A Lasting Gift

A Neighbor who knows I like flowers brought me a gorgeous blue Hydrangea last year and after it was done flowering I kept it inside for a while because the foliage made a pretty houseplant.  Then I put it out in the back yard, watering it from time to time until now, almost a year later, it has started to bloom. 

Low pH and aluminum in the soil make the hydrangea flowers blue whereas raising the pH and the absence of aluminum will make them pink. 

So I couldn't resist playing.  This one started out blue, but I made it turn pink:

Comeback

My mint is making a comeback after those pesky ground squirrels ate every inch of the foliage. When there was nothing left to eat in my back yard, they went somewhere else to wreak havoc, but I had better put this up up high somewhere before they decide to come back.  

We have feral rabbits around here too, but apparently they are not desperate enough to eat mint.

Computers Have Changed Punctuation

In my last post there are some ad links, because as disclosure tells, some time ago I made the decision to monetize this blog.  But the links are missing commas.  That is OK, the words are understandable, just funny. 

But there are times when the conventions of using a computer to process text get in the way of the conventions of English language usage.  My unfavorite example is punctuation marks at the end of sentences which are enclosed in quotes.    It used to be the rule that the punctuation belongs inside the quotation marks but when the quotes are enclosing a search string, then we can't do that. 

  This flower is not from my garden.  It is a "weed" growing along the Ortega Highway above Lake Elsinore.

Bug on My Brassica

Here is a critter who landed long enough for me to get a picture.  My raised planter out back saved quite a few yummy plants from the ground squirrel, mostly Japanese greens in the mustard family and my yummy Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes.  I ate a handful while watering them this morning, but noticed two more ready to munch this afternoon.

Just home from an early restaurant dinner, I was not hungry then, but now maybe I will  mosey out and eat them before the big black bird does.

Growing Palm Trees from Seed is Like Watching Paint Dry

My neighbor has the most amazing palm tree in his yard and it drops seeds all over the place and drives him up the wall with suckers.  But I got a thrill out of gathering the seeds last fall when the tree trimmers came and cut them all off.   So now I have lots of little palm tree seedlings here and there.  They are very cute, but if I wanted to have a row of palm trees in my yard in my lifetime, probably I should have gotten them from a nursery or landscaping company or someplace they sell wholesale palm trees.

On thing I really did not expect either was for the ground squirrels to climb up into the pots and eat them from the top down.  But some of my new seedlings were indoors and others were safely up on a high shelf in the back yard, so I still have plenty of seedlings.  Maybe in time I'll have enough little palm trees to put up my own sign saying palm trees for sale.

But before rushing off to find a wholesale nursery interested in buying my plants, I'll have to wait and see how long it takes them to grow. At the rate they are going it looks like it will be years. Maybe that is why mature palm trees are so expensive to buy. They sure are pretty, though.