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Turkey Day 09

post from Garden of Eatin' on 03 November 2009 09:34:15 PM. © Garden of Eatin'

First order of business: Costco is getting ready to start accepting food stamps (now known as SNAP, or Supplimental Nutrition Assistance Program) by Thanksgiving ‘09, which I think many of my readers will appreciate thanks to the great economy we’ve got going on. Just be careful and price compare because Costco is more expensive for [...]

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A Good Foundation Planting

post from About.com Gardening on 03 November 2009 08:05:42 PM. © About.com Gardening

For many of us, the shrubs in front of our homes are about the only gardens we see throughout winter. While there's a movement to get us thinking about alternatives to foundation plantings, shrubs still rule. If you're not yet willing to replace your yews and rhododendrons with perennials and vegetables, you still might want to think about sprucing up your curb appeal. David Beaulieu has a foundation planting photo gallery of inspiration for you to mull over and compare what you have with what it could be.

Photo: © Marie Iannotti

A Good Foundation Planting originally appeared on About.com Gardening on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 01:05:42.

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My Friends

post from Notes from Wazoo Farm on 03 November 2009 01:56:00 PM. © Notes from Wazoo Farm

I lost my three half-days a week, and though I mourn the absence of our dear friend who is now student teaching, the cut in hours has been good for me. Now my nurturing friend (Bea thinks of her as another of her mommies) takes the non-school girls for two mornings a week, and those two mornings are so precious to me that I do not squander a single minute. If I have three hours, I sit down and I write the whole time. I am glued to my chair, no getting up or lollygagging unless I am DESPERATE to urinate or my three-baby bottom falls asleep. I write two new chapters a morning. Having limited time (say, over the past seven years) has produced one very important characteristic in me: Gratitude. I don't take even ten minutes of writing time for granted. I imagine that's a key: not having too much. Generally speaking, having just enough and making the most of it seems to be one of my keys to contentment. And what do those keys look like? Do they gleam like ice or are they dull from burial? I suppose it depends which day you catch me.

My dear Maple Mullihan and her oddball family feel, like my friend LJI in Missoula reflects about her novel's characters, like good friends by now. I hear Martin playing a song ("Dancing in the Moonlight") and I think, "That's a song the Mullihans would LOVE. I bet they're singing it." For a while there I felt all caught in the morass of publication (I had missed my by-the-time-I'm-thirty-I'll-have-a-book deadline) and then I turned a corner, and like Arnold Lobel's Frog, I spied spring! Why do I write? I asked myself. And I answered: Because I must to be happy; because I enjoy it! And so I jumped into the rather brisk waters of the new book and splashed around like a happy idiot. I must admit there are fairly muddy eddies here and there where I'm not sure what's on the bottom and I'm afraid to put down my toes. But why do something if I can't find a shred, or a hunk, or a whole lot of joy in it?

My girls are always spinning such delightful tales, and they have no use for time lines or inner pressures to produce. Elspeth turned her face to me at nap time the other day and reported in all seriousness: "Mommy, when I was born someone threw a pie in my face."

That's good stuff.

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Elsewhere: LADWP offers FREE Landscape classes

post from A Gardener's Notebook with Douglas E. Welch on 03 November 2009 01:42:37 PM. © A Gardener's Notebook with Douglas E. Welch

Found at Blogging.la...
LADWP offers FREE Landscape classes:
"LADWP is offering its customers free landscape classes focused on using ideal vegetation for our climate. The California Friendly Landscape Workshop will show you how to choose the right plants and conserve water in Southern California.

Workshop Dates and Locations:

Saturday, November 7 & Saturday, November 21
Downtown Fashion District -1350 S. Wall Street, Los Angeles 90015

Saturday, December 5
Harbor City ? 24901 Frampton Avenue, Harbor City 90710

Class sizes are limited, so you must RSVP immediately.

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Cactus Brand Cell Phones

post from Cactus Blog on 03 November 2009 01:25:00 PM. © Cactus Blog

The drivers didn’t seem to notice, but they were being watched from a patrol car parked behind a cactus hedge just off Demaree Street. Visalia police Officer Jacob Heaton scanned the driver’s seat of each passing vehicle… looking for a driver passing by with his hand fixed to his ear, the telltale sign of a motorist flouting California’s 16-month-old law prohibiting adult drivers from talking on cell phones without hands-free devices.

Now you know: Don’t drive while talking on your cell phone… While driving past a cactus in Visalia. Actually, that’s probably good advice even if the police aren’t behind there, since that accident you are about to cause could land you in a cactus.

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Cactus Joke (such as it is)

post from Cactus Blog on 03 November 2009 11:13:00 AM. © Cactus Blog

From one of the news sites I regularly read, Talking Points Memo, comes this insight about the failure that is Joe Lieberman, as told in a cactus joke.

But it became ever more clear yesterday that (Obama’s) “forgive and forget” policy toward Joe Lieberman was a big mistake.
I understand why Obama did what he did. It is summed up in (an) adage (that) states that the difference between a caucus and a cactus is that, on a cactus, the pricks are on the outside.

Oh, snap! See, that joke is funny because Joe Lieberman is a prick!

But unfortunately, any comparison between a cactus and Joe Lieberman would inherently be insulting to the cactus. He makes a jumping cholla seem friendly. Even a porcupine wouldn’t mate carefully with him (that’s another sophomoric spiny joke entirely. Sorry about that.)

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Euphorbia Fungus

Hello friends at Cactus Jungle,
My beloved euphorbia pseudocactus has been having some problems lately. I’ve noticed two distinct issues, which I was hoping you could help me diagnose.

1. Black and brown discoloration, over wide areas of all 3 pseudos. (see picture)
-I know this can happen with overwatering, but I’ve owned this plant for 3 years and have watered at most once every 4 to 6 weeks.
2. Chunky holes (see picture)
-possible pest infestation?
I am currently having a mealy bug problem with other succulents in my garden, but I haven’t see any signs of mealies on the pseudocactus. Any ideas as to what might be causing the above issues and how I can treat them?
Thanks a million!
-Kristi

Kristi,
The holes look like they have healed over, whatever had caused them in the first place, so I wouldn’t worry about them at this time. However, the black spots, with rainbow coloration around it, looks like a fungal infection. This needs to be fixed ASAP or you will lose that portion of the plant over the winter.

It doesn’t sound like it was overwatering. Has light or airflow conditions changed recently?

Treat with Neem oil, or we also have a product called Mildew Cure.
Take care,
Peter

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It's All About the Light (and of course the
Leaves)

I swear that these wonderful leaves are going to be my photographic downfall. I've become a leaf groupie taking photos I never would if they were just utterly boringly green. I've thrown composition, lighting and the most important reason to take a photo - "What is this picture really about?" out the window - just because the colours are pretty.

Case in point - this is my front porch establishing shot. I've stood out in blizzards, 30C, rain and the most blissfully beautiful days in the world and taken this shot, just to show what things are like in the garden. This was yesterday, look at that light....

Look at how much better the first one is because I took it when the light was better. I'm almost certain that if the photograph is taken during dazzling good light, the leaves needing raking are far less apparent.

Yes, it's pretty and yellow, and it's nice grass....but I certainly didn't work too hard for this shot.

More colours and less composition. The home owner has done my work by providing an interesting combination and garden design.

This shot taken today - definitely eye-bleedingly beautiful. Light + Leaves.

Hmmmmm, Leaves - Light shows how much better you can make a shot when you wait for the right light.

My garden chores have really started to pile up. Sadly, I'm just going to have to murder some of my tropicals - have you ever seen such an infestation of spider mite? There's no way I can bring in anything that's been in pots near this one and risk infection of my houseplants.
The Solanum laciniatum looking positively French provincial standing next to the Eupatorium coelestinum.

Now, here is a combo that is OK during the growing season, but look how great their colours are together - H. quercifolia and Calycanthus florida (bright yellow).

Early on Sunday morning - wasn't that extra hour divine - won't be too long before that long slushy pile of leaves is replaced with crusty piles of snow....

One of the first trees to be completely bare down by the lake.

This is a grocery store Easter Hydrangea that didn't produce flowers for the first time in years. Very cool the way the stems are changing colour at different rates.

So lovely two days ago, so yucky today.

I've probably got a week before I have to cut back stuff here. I like to leave as much as I can so I have something to see from the back window.

Ah yes, just had to have a picture of our new addition - Bart from the Hamilton/Burlington SPCA. He's slightly miffed that he's on a rope and can't get into Barbara's Squirrel and Chipmunk sanctuary. (No fears Bart, when the bulbs go in, I'm giving you a longer rope.)

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