Suburban Eden

New Year’s Planting

laura — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:53:00 +0000

Winter still hasn’t arrived this year, so I’m not expecting much from my fruit trees next summer, with virtually no chill hours. So I decided I should pay a little more attention to my vegetable garden again to keep my land from going to waste. I got the fluorescent lights set up in the kitchen and started a slew of seeds for a late-January planting:

Winter Density, Buttercrunch, Matina Sweet, Simpson, Emerald Oak, Ithaca, and Red Iceberg lettuce
Russian Red and Dwarf Blue kale
Ruby Red Swiss chard
Early Wonder and Perfected Detroit beets
Copenhagen Market cabbage
assorted broccolis
chives
Red Robin and Green Feast scallions

I also planted four dozen strawberry crowns around my kiwi and avocado plants, a dozen each of Albion, Chandler, Seascape, and Sequoia. It’s probably too hot here for them to really thrive, but I figure with so many of them I’m bound to at least get some fruit.

I’d typically have finished my seed shopping by this late in the year, but I’ve been saving that task to keep me busy after I have my surgery next month. I’m considering devoting an entire bed to basil plants.

Thanksgiving

laura — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 22:39:48 +0000

A quiet Thanksgiving at home:

Elliott is thankful for books and blankets, and so am I.

Winding down

laura — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 20:43:23 +0000

The garden is winding down for fall. I’ve pulled up most of my zucchini plants (except for a few scallop squash that are showing no signs of tiring) and all my tomatoes, am letting the last of my pole beans dry out, and will soon be harvesting the seeds from my rangy basil plants. I won’t be growing much this winter, just a single bed of kale, some chard, and a few rows of beets.
My new kiwi trellis is finished (thanks to Justin) and my kiwis are planted. I’ll be running irrigation lines for them today.
I built a low brick wall along the side of our front yard, where I think I’ve finally eradicated most of the ivy (probably wishful thinking), and planted a row of mock orange to make a privacy hedge.

Near the front door I used more bricks to make a little raised bed around my rosemary, flax, and artichoke plants.

Yesterday I harvested my first feijoa crop (if you can call 7 fruits a crop) but haven’t really figured out what to do with them yet; the texture is a bit mushy eaten plain, so I might just put them in smoothies.

Lost month

laura — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 03:44:32 +0000

I feel like the past month got away from me somehow. I’ve been stressed out with the start of the school year, some major computer problems that sucked up way too much of my time, and still-undiagnosed and increasingly debilitating leg pain. Blah. However, there’s some new fun on the horizon: I’m getting kiwi vines this week to trellis along my back fence, which will complete my little orchard (okay, who am I kidding, but at least they’ll make me feel extravagant.) This week I’ll also finish my fall planting, which will be minimal, mostly just beets, kale, and lettuces, but planting always makes me feel optimistic (as does gardening in general, since no matter how much I neglect my garden something still seems to grow).

Del Valle Lake & New Trees

laura — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:01:23 +0000

Justin & I spent a scorching day at Del Valle Lake today, our first of what I expect to be many visits there. There are miles of calm water, lots of nice swimming spots, a rope swing, and a 10mph speed limit that keeps most motor boats away. There were several herds of deer frolicking on the banks, and we also spotted cormorants, egrets, a heron, a family of wild turkeys, and a very somber-looking treeful of vultures.

On the home front, I’m in the process of taking most of the vegetable beds out of the front yard, and converting the space to fruit trees and perennials. I’m leaving the asparagus bed, but the other veggie beds have been dismantled. I put in 2 new avocado trees and this winter I’ll add a couple more almonds and a nectarine. These will be surrounded by lavender/rosemary borders and interspersed with artichokes. It should be much lower-maintenance when it’s finished, and with veggie beds only in the back yard I might just be able to keep up with the weeding.

Basil Mountain

laura — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:25:24 +0000

I harvested two overflowing colanders worth of basil today, which wasn’t all of it but was all I could stand to process. My freezer is getting filled with mason jars of pesto, a happy thing indeed.

Grape season has ended, and I’m trying to mentally steel myself to start harvesting and drying apples next week.

Unrelated, here is a particularly charming picture of Elliott.

Now enough of this computer nonsense…I just started a good book, I have some white wine chilled, and there’s still sun on the patio.

Tour d’Organics

laura — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 03:02:49 +0000

Justin and I just returned from the North Bay, where we rode in the Tour d’Organics, our first century ride. Apart from my plantar fasciitis kicking in around mile 80, it was a delight. Every rest stop was at an organic farm, where we got to sample the produce (lots of apples, peaches, grapes, and berries) and I got to gaze covetously at the fields of bounty. Happy times.

Highlights

laura — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:23:25 +0000

Okay, I think I’m overdue for a post. The last month (and the whole summer, really) has been jam-packed with riding, physical therapy, more riding and more PT, swimming classes, school, home repairs, and working overtime. I’m pretty much exhausted all the time, and will be glad when this month is done, work lets up a little, and I can get caught up on sleep.

In the garden, peach season has just ended, and I managed to get all three (!) peaches from my baby peach tree before Jasper or the squirrels harvested them. I’m picking basil, beans, zucchini, and pattypan squash every other day. It’s also grape season; the little grape vine that barely grew for its first two years has now taken over the side fence and is dripping with sweet/tart chardonnay grapes. Now I’m thinking I should plant more along the back fence, and maybe that will give me enough to make a few bottles of wine.

Yosemite trip

laura — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 02:44:19 +0000

Justin and I spent Fourth of July weekend in Yosemite. I was disappointed that my foot wasn’t healed enough to do more than a few painful miles of hiking, and it was frustrating to have scored hard-to-get permits to hike Half Dome and not be able to use mine. I spent a lot of time sitting in very scenic spots with my nose in my Kindle. I’m reading my way backwards through all of Margaret Atwood’s fiction, enjoying some old favorites and discovering some new ones. I did make it out for a short hike around Hetch Hetchy, and it was neat to see where my drinking water comes from. Many of the trails were closed because of late snow-melt flooding, but the waterfalls were at their best & biggest, and I was impressed by how much water changes the landscape.

This lake near Tuolumne Meadow was almost dry when we visited it last Fall:

The meadow itself made me want to skip and frolic:

Justin enjoyed Half Dome without me:

…and made a friend there:

Now that we’re back home I’ve been bogged down in working overtime, training for my bike rides, and garden chores. The plums are almost all harvested and have been transformed into chutney, preserves, pickles, fruit leather, and a stellar upside-down cake.

Now the basil is getting a little out of hand, but that’s a problem whose solution I can get behind: pesto! Most of my basil plants this year are a variety called “Lettuce Leaf,” and the name doesn’t lie; the leaves are humungous:

riding, etc.

laura — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 01:08:56 +0000

I’ve been spending a couple hours on my bike most days, neglecting household chores and letting my new drip irrigation system babysit for the garden. There is a somewhat haphazard and much-unmapped system of trails that runs the length of the Peninsula along the Bay, and I’ve been wasting/enjoying hours exploring there, getting covered in dust and subjecting my poor bicycle to conditions that are much better suited to a mountain bike.

As I shift from running to cycling for most of my exercise (having mostly-accepted that my tendons won’t allow me to run again), I’m enjoying how much more distance I can cover, the ability to get further out of town without having to drive to trailheads, and the illusion of increased safety the bike offers me. Running, I always felt a bit breathless and vulnerable; biking, I feel (erroneously, I know) that I could outrun anything, and I’m getting pretty addicted to that sense of exhilaration.
Here’s a shot from today’s foray into the baylands. I love the collision of the industrial and the natural there, it’s sort of like riding through a sci-fi moonscape.

And here I am with my trusty bike, Pony: