Our Backyard adventures!

So well bee behaved...

2011-04-10T17:58:00.000-07:00

I recieved an email from a bee guy name Bao indicating he need to find new locations for his bee boxes. As many of my fellow friends now, I have been wanting to do the "bee thing" for a few years; but never got around to actually doing it until today... Bao will contine taking care of his bees and the bees in turn will pollinate my edibles and in turn I can slowly learn about bees and how to care for them. Bao took my bee box to help catch me a hive so that in the future, I can have my own bees. To learn more about bees check out the OC Bees Beekeepers. The bees seem very calm and friendly.

Kinder-Garden, an Edible Garden!

2011-04-07T13:48:00.000-07:00

The boys enjoy eating radishes, peas, and boysenberries from the garden. I found a tiny empty spot on their school that has know transformed into an edible oasis. Whenever I work on the garden, kids approach me and say, "Max-n-Eli's mom, that looks like a brocolli flower." I reply with, "Yes, that's how brocolli grows before you eat it." The radish and turnip seeds came from a company called Sprout Robot. The company sends me emails of when to plant and what to plant. On April 22nd, the kids from the school will be celebrating Earth Day by have a salad grown from the garden. This spring the 4x12 foot plot grows: peas, beans, grapes, celery, tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, rosemary, basil, lettuce, onions, radish, carrots, a blueberry bush and a Peach Tree! ...and that's not counting the flowers and weeds and the worm compost bin...

Thinking inside the box...

2011-04-04T20:19:00.000-07:00

When we moved into our home, we knew we wanted to grow veggies, but what we didn't realize how back-breakingly difficult it was going to be. I've always seem to grow more vigorous produce in containers, so when I came across the book "Square Foot Gardener", I knew that would be perfect for me! We started by making a salsa theme garden in front of Ed's Taco Shack. And now we have about 10 theme boxes. The Asian Theme box is the most bountiful right now with a pound of sugar snap peas every other day. The daicon radishes are beginning to bolt. The second box isn't really a theme, it's just cilantro and it's amazing! Other themes: Movie Night Snacks (strawberry popcorn, corn, and edamames), salad bar box, root vegie box, and our salsa box.

Cool Friends and Fresh Ideas!

2011-04-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

I'm always looking for ways to get others interested in growing edibles and that doesn't mean they need a garden or lots of space. A few posts back, I grew strawberries, chives, herbs, peas, and radishes in rain gutters. So when I read an article that potatoes were so easy to grow, you can even plant them in a basket, I did just that.

My basket, imported from Mexico designed to transfer strawberries from the fields to factor as they awaited their fate. My grandmother saw brought me this basket on a six-hour flight from Mexico to LAX, then it was squeezed into a van and slowly made it's way to Los Angeles during evening traffic on the 405 fwy. This basket has served many purposes in my home, from laundry, hide-n-seek location, and toy bin. After a decade (yes, this basket saw US presidents enter and exit the White house from our bedroom room TV), it finally began to unravel from the bottom. As I read about potatoes and all the possible ways of growing them in unusual containers like tires and baskets... So the there it is, the basket that keeps on working!

I also came across this spectacular pail display at the Pomona Fair Grounds. These pail hold strawberry plants. Immediately my mind and camera went into action. Who could use this idea in their yard... what else can I plant in it... will it be easy to build... where can i put this in my yard...

The best way to get people that love to eat into growing what they love to eat is by inviting them to a farm-to-table dinner. These events usually bring extreme creativity by the chef because his meals need to be made with what is available in the garden and then paired with the drinks being served by the sponsor. This month's event local sponsor, Dale Bros Brewery, located in the Chino Area it's the 2nd smallest brewery in California. For a menu description click here, the picture above is the "Jidori chicken, roasted beets, “Dale Bros. Pomona queen” beurre monte Dale Bros. Pomona Queen". While the chef at Farm to table dinners are pressured into cooking and having dinner served at a timely manner to 20-30 hungry guest, at home it is more relaxing and easier.

Begin by growing a Salad garden: loose leaf lettuce, radishes, chives, finger-size carrots, strawberries, peas, and grape-size tomatoes. Grill up some chicken, pick your season salad, for dessert serve up purchased pound cake slice strawberries from you garden with whip cream and voila- your very own farm to table dinner!

What came first... the chicken or the egg

2011-01-01T20:02:00.000-08:00

At our home, the chickens came first. We usually buy chickens a few months old, but when the opportunity to get Araucana chicks (they lay blue/green eggs) we quickly added 9 to our family. As of late March we have 7 healthy teenage hens who joined the veterans hens and duck in the group. We have 4 hens laying an egg each every day. Each hen lays a slightly different egg, one hen even lays double yolk eggs.

Chicken gone Wild!

2010-05-06T13:57:00.000-07:00

I felt like I was on a live shooting of Animal Planet! My chicken captured a flying grasshopper and banged it on the ground until it stopped moving and then swallowed it whole. It was amazing! I was able to capture a picture of the chicken just moments before it ate the grasshopper.

Ed's taco shack is getting serious upgrades! It has tile flooring and the grill is no longer stacked bricks, it's covered with cement and has side doors. Our neighbor Jose is welding it a custom grill top with a rotisserie turner.

The artichoke plants were also attacked by the chickens. The chickens stomped out the leaves and chopped on them. The ground is very moist with lots of bugs, all the right ingredients to attack chickes.

As much as we loved the sweat peas, it's time to let them bow out gracefully. The height of these beauties toppled over on top of my strawberries and onions. The strawberries began to wilt. So I pulled out as many seed pods as possible, then we pulled out the flowers. See you next year sweat peas!

Location, Location, Location

2010-03-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

I went to purchase plants to get our salsa garden up and going. I had found an area that I thought would be convient and close to Ed's grill shack (I sketched out a plot plan with the water hose). However, I noticed that the area was covered with shade, not good for sun loving peppers and tomatoes. The next day, the boys and I went back outside and found another location. This site is directly in front of his grill shack, so as he's grilling, he can see his salsa ingredients. The boys and I set out tomatoe cages to make sure we had enough room for our plants. Hopefully on Friday, the neighbor will bring by the truck load of garden soil I need so I can start planting.

So WE went to the gardening class

2010-03-24T20:19:00.000-07:00

The boys attended with me the Edible Garden Class. Thank goodness other kids were there and they all kinda played together. We learned about what to plant for summer and about companion planting (like the 3 sister: corn, peas, and squash). The pizza garden inspired me to create a salsa garden. I've been thinking of different locations and haven't quite decided where... The boys are such great garden helpers, I'm glad they are outdoorsie kids!

Busy bees at work!

2010-03-06T09:04:00.000-08:00

Here are two of my favorite morning bees: Eli and Sole! (Max is my favorite past-9:30am bee) Sole and Eli got up just after the sunrise to go pick avocados and oranges.

As I went to what was growing that was new, I came across our beloved abandoned plant, the cactus. This is just any cactus, it's the one that you can eat the "leaves" or the nopalitos. Our neighbor Don Natividad (Nati) and Tony (his son) gave us some of these cactus when we first moved into our home. Ed planted them way (way, way, way) in the back against a fence. About a year later, we decided to put the chicken coop back in that far away corner and we found that the cactus had thrived in that area! Ed cut some nopales off and we grilled them up that night. Since then we try not to forget about this edible delight- it's the perfect plant: we never water it and it semi-protects against coyotes.

(While I know I mention Home Depot a lot in my blog, I will say Lowes is my favorite Hardware Store- the customer service and friendly staff and great prices are way better at Lowes! plus a lot of the plastic flower pots look real and they are made here in the USA! As far as plants go, I usually find the best quality at Local Nursery [gotta support small/family-own businesses]) Great finds: I went to Home Depot to see if they had a water hose thing that I needed, when I came across a rain barrel! Just last year, I had called around all the hardware stores (including this one) and no one had any in stock. It's nice to know that consumer requests add stuff to the stores. Although the barrel is smaller then the one I have, it's actually nice that the "safety-cone-orange" one that I own. For those that are not do-it-yourselfers, they also sell premade x4 raised beds.

When life hands you citrus...

2010-03-06T08:32:00.000-08:00

We have an abundance of citrus (almost ready for picking). I'm hoping to make marmalade, candied citrus peel, citrus curd- so if you have good canning recipes, please share. If you like citrus, come on over and pick your own and help yourself.

The artichokes are coming! My plant had been infested with aphids and a few lady bugs came to the rescue, but it wasn't enough to save the plant, so I had to butcher all it's leaves off. Luckily this plant is very strong and it recovered well and began to grow new leaves- as if nothing happened. I saw some artichokes at Home Depot for less the 5 bucks, but this plant is so huge, I'm not sure where to plant it. As it is, the arti above is in a weird spot in our yard.

I had sown a ton of radish, carrot and beet seeds in this section of our yard. While I see a few emergers, the grass/weed ratio overwhelms root crop productions! It is very hard to pull weeds out around root crops, because they are so close to the root crps. I just throw daggers at the weeds with my "evil eye" stare and hope they die.

So I've know for a while that my kale leaves looked alot sunflower leaves, but today as the first flower bloomed, it made it offical. At least one plant is growing taller and faster than the weeds!

how to feed the worms...

2010-03-06T07:46:00.000-08:00

I know it sounds gross, but feeding worms is not all that bad. I start by collecting kitchen scraps (ks), The parts of the fruit or veggies that gets cut of and usually thrown away. I also go through my fridge the night before trash gets picked up and I toss into my k.s. pile all the produce that's gotten soggy and won't get eatten by us. I place all these left over k.s. into the freeze in a gallon ziploc bag. When I fill up the bag (about a week or two), I go outside and I push all the worm bedding (looks like soil) into one side and then dump the food in and cover it again with the bedding. These worms don't eat food that is "above ground". It also helps prevent other critters and things feasting.

Why freeze? In my early years of worm composting, i'd get a lot of ants in the bin. So another worm composter recommended to freeze the food. This helped in several ways: 1. the food thaws out and moistens the bedding (it is very important for worms to have a moist environment) 2. The food as it thaws out, decomposes faster making it easier for worms to consume (also important since they don't have teeth) 3. The ants can't smell frozen food and don't like a freezing environment. (i've never seen ants walking in the snow). During supper hot days, I'll place ice cubes on the top of the bedding to help moisten the top and keep flying critters and things away.

A lot of worm composters keep the worms in a regular size storage bin under there kitchen sinks for easy feeding. The closest Ed alows me to keep the worms near the sink is out side by our trash bins (which is a lot closer than what I had then last year!). As long as the area is shaded ps: the best way to control worm population is on the amount you feed them. The more food, the more the worms... Where to get these adorable creatures? Master Gardeners near the red barn sells them during the OC fair. They also sells bins. Can't wait for summer to start worm composting? LA/OC county smart gardening program has workshops almost every weekend and they sell worms and supplies. PS: They have a raffle at the end of the workshop where you can win the supplies for free (that's how I got started)!

These pea pods are so fresh, we just pluck them and eat straight off the vine.

We bought a six pack of cilantro for 99 cents and know it's taken over my side of the house kitchen garden. We usually forget to buy cilantro when we're at the store, so it's kinda nice having it on hand when we need it. Since our cars are parked near it, we brush against it and a nice aroma fills the air!

Adding to our garden...

2010-01-08T20:58:00.000-08:00

I pulled out some weeds under my raspberry canes. As I was standing up, I saw a red token or appreciation awaiting for me! Yay, there is a cluster of more about to change color!

Strawberries are known for having white flowers, so when I saw this Pretty in Pink Strawberry Plant, I knew I could make room for another strawberry plant. The yellow center is already forming into the edible delight! The tag indicates it's a perinial, so year after year, I'll have these pretty pink flowers to enjoy.

When we're in the backyard, this chicken (who still remains nameless) keeps following me, everywhere I go, and whenever possible, it like to be eye level with me. If I'm turning the soil, it's right there to catch whatever juicy creature pops out of the ground. This chick is truely my "Wing Man".

I love harvesting plants, and my future endevour is to harvest water following from my roof... I just hope it doesn't rain until I purchase and install it... These rain barrels cost about 199 at H&H nursery in Lakewood.

Max wants me to catch the butterfly that kept spiraling all around up. The butterfly reminded me I need to work on my butterfly garden...

We found aspargus plants, (For many years, I wasn't sure how I thought they grew, maybe from a tree, kinda like pineapples...) so since we like eating them, we got them.

What do football players do during the off season?

2010-01-08T19:06:00.000-08:00

Fresh pickings: Grapefruits, oranges, passion fruits, limes, cherry/grape tomatoes (hint: the twins favorite, I didn't even see him take the tomato until after the photo came out. We also have avocados (i forgot to put them in the picture) and strawberries (we ate them on the spot- so sweet and juicy!)

A lot of weeds were growing between the strawberry/onion patch, so I covered the walking patch with the staw that was holding up my pumpkin display. The strawberries are where we had planted the zuci's last year. So this year, I'm planting the to the right of the strawberries, you can kind of see the bare land in the picture. To the bottom left of the picture, you can see my star jasmine, it didn't fill in the fence quite liked I'd hoped. I'm thinking of replacing it with a kiwi or passion fruit vine.

(still wondering what the answer is to my question?) The good ones usually prepare for the next season. And while most people are thinking of gifts, holidays and new year resolutions, gardeners are thinking of what to plant for spring. I received my burpee catalog and my Nichols Garden catalog back in early December. While I love shopping and am a strong believer in helping local shops, I really want to grow hops this year, and Nichols' seems to have several varieties. They also sell Cheese making kits (this sound like a great mom's club activity). I'm also hoping Ed finds his truck keys soon, so we can load up on free fertilizer from Norwalk Dairy (don't let the name fool you, it in Santa Fe Springs) 13101 Rosecrans Ave, Santa Fe Springs, Ca. Yes! they have over a hundred cows there and you'll never know it, even if you're intentionally looking for this place, it's easy to miss.

I've been scouting out place to buy to best fruit trees for cheap. So far, it's Costco (the bulk store- although they are selling the trees individually price) the rose are 2 in a box for 16.50. They have this year's one and only rose winner "Easy Does It." I'm not a huge fan of roses, but Ed likes them, and since I accidentally killed his Veterans of Honor roses last year when my worm bin fell and broke rose branches. Then I decided to move it while it was blooming to a better location. I uprooted it and place it in a temp pot until I'd get around to it later that day. Well a few minutes later, the boys and I got hungry and went inside the house for lunch... and forgot about the rose bush until a month or so later when I was looking for my flower pot.

Remember my pea/peacock/tool shed frame. My friend Ester came by a while back and helped me plant Aloe Vera on south facing part. The North side seems to be to shady to grow anything, until (hopefully) now. I planted so cabbage, bok choi, and broccoli there. I'm also going to sprinkle lettuce seeds and see if they bloom.

Even great atheletes make mistakes... and that holds true for novice gardeners- like myself. I used twisty ties to hold it to its support stick. Then a few months later the truck grew around the ties- I couldn't pull the ties out, it's like the tree ate them! What do we do with our mistakes? We learn from them and try not repeating them...

No Rest in the Garden!

2009-11-03T17:01:00.000-08:00

This tree has soo many thorns, it's worse than a cactus! So why do we keep it? It's came with our property and it has an edible seed pod that is juicy and more tanic than a young red wine! Ed says this type of tree grows in dessert climate and that people use it for nurishment.

The radishes that were growing in the seed packet are actually doing quite nicely in the rain gutters...

... and then there was 4... my chickens were attacked by my dogs. Solo, a giant playful lab, was chasing them around and accidently killed them... The four chickens left aren't giving any eggs right now.

We have a lot of guavas right now!

Lettuce is growing in the front.

Whata Mess!!!

2009-10-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

So on Wed I thought a water pipe broke in my yard, thank goodness it was just my drip irrigation line which was a lot easier to fix!

My worms are doing better after the rains. I am searching for a better location to put them before the rains begin again.

The rains also leaked into my plastic bin where I was storing my winter seeds... The radishes sprouted up and out of the seed packet!!! My first instict was to toss it into the compost bin... Then I decided to plant it in my rain gutter pot. Hopefully they'll survive...

While searching for winter seed packets, I found a "seed tape"- the carrot seeds are evenly spaced on a thin strip of tissue paper which makes sowing them easy! I am planting the carrots, turnips, and radishes where I was growing my mini pumpkins and bird house gourds.

Enjoying a break!

2009-10-14T22:47:00.000-07:00

Max and Eli are posing in front of the pumpkins we grew. The giant ones were planted in early May and were orange by Sept. We kept our finger crossed that they would last until at least October, and they have so far held there shape.

With the rains now upon us, Ed's shut of the backyard automatic drip water. I also went out to take some frozen goodies to the worms. I place over ripen veggies and fruits and egg shells into a freezer bag and freeze everything until I have time to go outside and feed them. It's a trick I learned from a fellow worm farmer. She said that by freezing the kitchen scraps it helps break down the food for them faster- which also helps prevent food from spoiling and smelling, the thawing helps moisten the soil and by freezing it she didn't have to worry about going outside every day, she just waits until the bag is full. I had moved my worm bins to a new location earlier this summer, just under my avocado tree. What I didn't realize was that there was a water sprinkler system a few feet from there and my table where my bins are on top of, has been slowly sinking down (only the two right legs). So now with the rain, the table sunk further in and my bins were very close to sliding off the table!!! I tried lifting all three trays at once, I couldn't get it off the table... So I had to lift each tray out individually and move them over to a nearby bench. I have no picture of any of this, because it began to rain and I had to round up the boys who were enjoying the mud... I dropped one of the trays on the floor and lost at least one hundred worms. The chickens had a feast and with ten of them by my feet, I couldn't see past there feathers to pick them up.

On Thursday (if it doesnt' rain too much), I'm heading outside to plant some sweet peas along all the fencing area and the peacock ex home/temp tool shed/my thinking space. I haven't had much luck of anything growing there, so hopefuly I'll have a winter's luck crop. I'm also planning to sow some more onions and garlic.

Fall Cleaning- and New Arrivals

2009-10-08T23:33:00.000-07:00

Since we've harvested the last of the summer squash, Ed asked Josh to help him pull out the dead plants. The boys were also there to lend a hand.

We found some basil growing where the squash was. We had grown basil in this area a year ago, but when the rainy season started, the plant was lost among the weeds and died. Three basil bushes are growing very well, so I'll leave them there and contine to water them. We also found some tomatillos also growing where the zucs were. We had also planted some in a close by location last year.

My bear didn't do well with the heat so I'm not sure if I should continue watering it or plant something else or cover him with succulents... The grape vine growing just behind the bear, grew quite well, but didn't give any grapes this year, which is shame, because the were really sweat last year. I planted another grape vine that and been near a shaded fence and it too took well to it's new location. To the right of the grape vines are my raspberry/blackberry/ back raspberry bushes need a better support system, so I need to tend to that this week.

Our passion fruit got a second wind and is producing more flowers and I see lots of fruit already growing. I found another wooden fence piece near the garage and dragged it half way to the passion fruit. I plan to set up a similar trellis like the one used for the grape vine.

Our bird house gourds and mini pumpkins did well. So well in fact that Panfilo to Pony ate most of the ones on his side of the fence!

The dragon fruit plant that I purchased earlier this summer is already flowering! I'm very excited to see what color the inside fruit will be since they range from white to pink!

We just realized we are growing 2 different types of pomegrants! We've had the traditional red tart one for 2-3 years, but the light pinkish one we purchased early this summer. While the color appears light and the seed look bigger, it's actually quite sweat! You can clearly see which one Eli prefers.

Got Guavas? you bet!!! The tree we purchased and the ones my grandma gave us from her garden- which I should take pics of because everything is in pots and grows in abundance! Here are to guava trees from my yard, the ones on the left look real round... the ones on the right look almost pear shaped. I guess we'll have to wait and see what each one tastes like. The one on the left has had a few harvested from my little helpers and by the look on thier faces, I know thoses are good eats!

Our giant pumpkin patch is now a air port for a private plane and helicopter! Which is fine by be, I'm not planning on planing anything in that area for a while. That black doughnut shape between the fence and the plane is where I had plantd horseradish, but the only thing growing out of it seems to be weeds, so it'll be coming out soon and maybe plant a blue berry there... we'll wait and see!

New Fruits growing!

2009-09-13T00:28:00.000-07:00

We have several guava plants that have a ton of fruit on them.

Our corn has died!!! at least the neighbors horses will eat it and our pony.

finally finished my bear, he's sniffing the blueberry bush.

This week: 9-7-09

2009-09-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

My green bean covered area never happened so now i'm using it to store my tools and clean up the giant pumpkin site next to it so the kids can play there.

My topperari is almost complete... it's a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, but I'm almost done. he'll be connected near the blueberry bush since he's my little blue bear-y

Max helped me harvest a lot of pumpkins and zucs!!! He got tired of riding his bike and also thru it on the wagon! He's so cute, he's pointing at his favorite pumpkin.

i thought I was crazy about bees...

2009-09-01T00:17:00.001-07:00

Getting ready for 2nd Crop Season!

2009-08-24T22:55:00.000-07:00

While we are up to our ears in squash, we are thinking of what to plant in its place (maybe peas, edamames, beans). and Speaking of ears, we have starting harvesting our heirloom corn!

While removing old poting soil from a pot to decorate for fall, Melisa and I discovered that the potatoe plant indeed give potatoes. We found these growing with the roots even though I had yanked out the dried plant a few weeks ago. In it's place, I transplanted a corn plant and we sprinkled in some "egg" gourds and baby pumpkins. After three days, most seeds have the first pair of leaves!

Ed had bought an upside down tomatoe pot early during summer, I used the "soil" it came with to start another worm bin. So when he came across this topsy turvey pot, he decided to give it a try again. Feeling bad for using his soil and losing the pot, I decided to surprise him when he came home. The boys and I set out to Blue Hill and found his fave habanero plant. The boys and Melisa helped me fill it while i holded the pot up. We hung it in front of our home in the porch where it gets plenty of morning sun.

New Arrivals!!!

2009-08-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

Still picking squash and it's back down to normal size.

"We" have pomagrants now... I'll leave it at that...

We picked passion fruits today!!! We aren't sure when

As Big as it Gets!

2009-08-12T23:56:00.000-07:00

We left town for about 3 weeks. My cousins were in charge of watering and harvesting the vegies... we return to super sized giant eight balls and summer squash the size of frisbees! We picked so much squash the day after we return Melisa and Josh both carried it in a large laundry basket into the kitchen. It took over a dozen fully stuffed grocery bags to distribute all the zucinis, eight balls and summer squash... As of today, we are harvesting 2 bags a day... thank goodness my mom's coworkers are asking for more.

Speaking of big, we have a hen that every few days lays an egg with a double yolk. We have no idea which hen is doing this amazing thing, but we love cracking the egg... I guess i'm not the only one with bragging rights to having twins. How can we tell it's a double yolk egg even before cracking it, well just look at it's size! (answer: back row, 2nd from the left).

My prize winning pumpkin got as big as it's going to get. After the bee sting incident, I'm staying out of the patch untill all leaves have wilted away. Both pumpkins are turning orange, so i'm not sure if i should continue watering or not, I'll ask the Pumpkin Guru on that. Apparently a few days after we left, a white powder formed on the leaves and started causing the plant to wilt. I was told, the weather was extremely hot and Ed's uncle place a tarp a few feet above the entire vine to help give it shade. Ironicly, the only part of the vine that was wilting was the one not shaded. I'm very happy with the growth of my pumpkins and plan to show them off for all of fall!

Out with the old (my giant pumpkin), in with the new (bird house goards and watermelon)! I planted some bird house gourds along the fence near the pony and my neighbors, in the middle part, Ed sowed watermelon seeds and the are growing! In this same spot a year ago, I sowed sunflowers, however none ever sprouted until now. Between all the vines is a five foot tall sunflower with it head just barely raising to bloom.

Our heirloom corn is growing tall and forming well. In some space, the corn didn't grow, so Ed will be filling it in with edamame (soy) beans and peas. The corn will make natural bean/pea poles.

Do bees fly at night?

2009-07-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

Ed's "the shack" bbq was inspired by the OC/LA County Fair Turkey Leg Grills. We grilled the night it was built and almost every night since!

These are my last two pumpkins each on its own vine. I thought it would be idea to remove pumpkin flowers at night since they would remain fresh for morning breakfast. I also thought that when the sun set, bees couldn't fly. As I was out picking off flowers with Mellie, she said, "Liz I hear buzzing..." as I tried to leap out of the pumpkin patch I felt a the legs of a bee crawling on my back under my shirt. Yup, I was stung.. twice! (can a bee do that or maybe it was two bees). My husband came to my recue and flicked off the stinger. While the initial sting didn't hurt, I still feel like i have the stinger in my skin. While Ed gets stung every year in the same ear, I haven't been since I was ten. Now I'm rethinking my bee hive hobby that I was planning to start.

Just a few days later!

2009-07-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

We cut on of the pumpkins off and ate it over the 4th of July weekend. Today, I went out there to see how it's grown. Wow, it really took off! There are a few more on the same vine, we are going to have to eat. In our home, the "loser" get eaten... yum!

The eggs have finally hatched and the birds have flown away. "Empty Nest" -

July 5th

2009-07-05T01:27:00.000-07:00

Wow, chickens go to bed early, the sun hadn't completely set and they were all calling it a night.

This peach jam came from the peach tree next to the house. This season's bounty was very large and sweet! This was the first time Melisa and I had canned.

We picked zucs for the first time this season. On our first day out there we got alot.
Look at our baby pumpkins grow! Its nearly the size of the soccer ball! I need to place a pellet under it and cut some of the smaller pumpkins off the vine.

Slight overflow -June 20

2009-06-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-19T00:49:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-06-19T00:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-17T23:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-17T23:13:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-17T00:05:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-08T19:21:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-02T00:10:00.000-07:00

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

New Kids on the Block and some oldies too

2009-05-31T22:30:00.000-07:00

Remember my topiary idea? Well DIY network had a special this featuring Yard Crashers at Walt Disney World. And guess what is a huge attraction at Disney? yup, topiary. They semi should how to put one together, and I was shocked to find out that most of them are bushes inside the wire but drip irrigation and the outside of the frame is covered with moss, then plugs of plants are put in for a textured design! I googled "Disney topiary" and apparently DIY network had a whole episode on how to make them. Now I have streams of ideas flowing, with using colored moss and textured plants! This is so much faster than waiting for rosemary to fill in a frame. Added Bonus: Moss frame topiaries are mobile since no ground planting is involved, so if needed, I can change the location! My biggest concern now is finding out how in install a drip irrigation system in the frame. Maybe I can just hose it down once a week?

This Jazmin Vine was tangled in a corner near the new location of my worm bins. I dug it up and used an old doggie play pen as it's supporting fence. The location of the Jazmin is perfect, everytime the slightest breeze hits it, the air lifts the vine's perfume arcoss the garden! It also marks a division path so folks don't cut across the newly planted seeds behind it.

*Notice the pvc pipe in front of the jazmin? I placed it there so when the hose snakes around, I don't bang up against the plant!

Are my peas and beans growing? they look the same size as two weeks ago.

The corn has risen and it will be transplanted this week!

The lavander used to be in a pot in this exact location, I decided to plant it so it can be free to expand.

New Improvements!

2009-05-31T22:03:00.000-07:00

Ed surprised me and got me mulch! A whole truck load was enough for 4 foot wide 40 foot long path! It feels so spongy and soft to walk on!

The pumpkin vines are doubling each day in size!

The new and improved chicken coop! Same frame, door and chicken wire from the old home was re used. The tool shack was the original chicken coop from like 3 years ago. But since they weren't fenced in they went everywhere they weren't supose to. This was my Mother's Day gift from Ed.

Peas vs Gourds: Round 1... My original plan was to be harvesting peas and beans right about now and reusing the wire home as a gourd home in a couple of weeks. However, with the warm weather, I have a lot of gourd seedlings already emerged with second set of leaves and my peas haven't even touched the wire part of the house. So I decided to zone this area for a gourd pathway which will lead to the giant pumpkin patch area.

New Additions!

2009-05-10T18:07:00.000-07:00

For a couple of bucks, we purchased some horseradish. The bottom of the pot is open to help the roots grow, but not spread.

In my strawberry pot, I planted some of the herbs that I plan to use with my reindeer.

The tomatillo's are blooming, the onions, peas and beans have started to popped out.

The boys found something more fun than gardening.

We also purchased a Monarch bush. I'm not sure what kind of bugs are on it, but I'm hoping it's catterpillars.

This week the onions and peas started to pop out the ground!

Finding a home for my Herb Herd!

2009-05-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

I decided to set up our bear toward the entrance of the grape vine tunnel. On the other side of the fence (near the lavender) I placed our raspberry, blackberry and boysenberry pot. Yes, all 3 plants are in that container and they are blooming. As soon as the harvest ends, I plan to plant them in the ground right there. To the right of them is my tomato plant container. We can't decide on where to place it best.

The bear will become a blue-bear-y bush as soon as I find a blueberry plant/bush.

The reindeer will create an "herb herd". One is destined to be Rosemary. But the other 3 still are undecided and suggestions are greatly welcome. And while Jasmine isn't an herb, it has crossed my mind to use since it grows pretty fast and has a fragrant smell.

Recycling reindeer frames into Topiaries

2009-05-06T09:16:00.000-07:00

My bean home is missing a path or a grand entrance and I noticed my husband, David and Josh were throwing out some old reindeers and a bear decorations. Then it hit me, I can use them in my vegie garden. I am removing the christmas lights from it and was wondering if anyone had any ideas which edible herbs or plants or fruit vines I can use with it. Can I use rosemarry, raspberry or a blueberry bush? I have about three reindeer and one bear that I plan to plant near my bean house . Do you think they would look better as a herd gathered around or have them form a path walking somewhere. Any ideas or sugestions would be great. thanks.

Fixing our home too...

2009-05-05T23:51:00.001-07:00

Miguel and his friends re did our back door entrance and paved a portion of our yard. Here the picks of the remodel progress.

Meet the chicks and my little dudes!

2009-05-04T23:55:00.000-07:00

Max and Eli are feeding the girls. We have five hens and plan to get more when we relocate their home. They love chasing them and searching for their eggs since one or two of them lay them hidden in bushes.

Between the girls and our boys, they are squishing our tomatillos and the newly sprouting peas. I had to buy a small 2' fence to outline the bean house. I also placed a doggie gate around my artichoke plant since they are eating all the leaves. Hopefully moving the chickens further back will them prevent the from chopping everything down. I wish I could train them to stomp out the weeds instead.

I hosed down the compost bin my mother-in-law gave me. She won it in a compost class we went to a few years ago. My sister-in-law one the worm bin. She also gave that to me. After many causalities the worms are now starting to settle in and are actually giving me worm casting (really good soil). Click on this for more info on compost bins. My boys step on the wagon and help me cut the leaves off branches and put them on the bin.

Since I didn't have much of a yard to work with at the begining of the year, I used a negleted kiddie pool as a radish and beet veggie patch. The veggies are starting to sprout and my hubby said they tasted good!

Seeding our love of Edibles!

2009-05-04T23:17:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I came across an old sunset magazine which had a "one block diet" garden. To grow almost everything you need in your backyard. I had remembered glimpsing the article and not giving it to much thought. Ed and I had planted a few things last year, but nothing really inspired us to live off our land. With the winter rains along with spring heat caused our yard to become a true jungle, weeds grew well over three feet tall. Our boys had a blast playing hide and seek!

Fast forward to the day I re-found the article! It truly inspired me to return to our yard and revive it with flowing edibles! The first sign of inspiration was when Ed pointed out that the artichoke plant had buds that were beginning to grow.

Luckily Ed's brother Mike and some of his friends came down with weed whackers and did away with our jungle. They also removed an old dog run, turned into a tool shed. I gave the frame of shed another purpose: a bean pole house. We brought in good soil and planted seeds of peas, green beans, onions, garlic and shallots. Our neighbors gave us some tomatillo plants.

We had some old fence wooden fences from a previous project. Most of it was reused to create a coop for the chickens. Two pieces were left over and we decided to use them for a grape vine trellis.

The third project in progress is growing a pumpkin patch. We had grown some our first year living here and they did very well considering I planted them in Mid June. Today I got the seeds in the ground. Next to it, I'm going to sprinkle some corn seeds and see if any grow.

2008-04-09T15:12:00.000-07:00

2008-04-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

Congrats Alexis Gutierrez, she had two butterflies hatch today!

They are a little fragile and don't move much in the begining. After a few hours, they will walk around and fly from side to side.

When you release your butterfly, they don't fly away right away. You can gently place it on a flower or on a tree branch.

Do butterflies get scared? Yes! When we were going to release our butterfly, it lifted its wings together and seemed to be trembling. Once he became calm, he lowered his wings and sipped nectar from the flowers.

The cool thing is: even though we set them free, both butterflies are still around. The following day, we saw in our backyard tree and this morning I saw one basking in the sun on top of a flower pot!

Congrats to Butterfly Parents!

2008-04-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

This week, Karina, Heather and Helen are proud parents of a butterfly! Heather already released hers, as did we! Karina and Helen will be releasing their butterfly in a couple of days!

Thank you guys all for participating!! Maybe we can get together on April 19 and see the huge release party at Kidspace musuem. Let me know if you want to go, I have a couple of free passes!

Small plastic bag with brown stuff...

2008-04-04T17:04:00.000-07:00

If I gave you a small plastic bag fill with brown dirt like stuff in it. It's wild butterfly seed plants. You can sprinkly them in your yard and hope it turns to flowers for the butterfly to feed on later. I thought it was butterfly food, ***SO DON'T PUT IT IN YOUR CONTAINER, IT'S NOT FOOD!"

Hot Wings the Butterfly is HERE!!!

2008-04-04T13:35:00.000-07:00

Hot Wings went from this:

to this:

Ed was the first one in the office today and spotted the pupa open! As he looked around, he spot "Hot Wings" on the side of the box! How amazing such a big creature popped out of the pupa!

Let me know if yours have appeared! Don't forget to put food inside:
Recipe 2 tablespoons of sugar to one cup of water, Mix well, and place half of it in the cup it came it (be sure to clean out the cup!) and place a cotton ball inside the cup to absord the liquid. The butterfly will land on the cottonball to drink! Serve clean sugar water with cottan ball ever day.

AFTER 3 DAYS PLEASE RELEASE YOUR BUTTERFLY IN THE AFTERNOON!!!

Send me pics of your Butterfly's Home! 4-2-08

2008-04-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

Nothing has happened for about a week already! So I'm posting pics of my friends and families decorated butterfly home!

4-26-07 6pm Caterpillar turn Pupa!

2008-03-29T13:28:00.000-07:00

A few hours after I posted the blog, we saw them transform into pupa!

We have a longer footage of the caterpillar opening it's mouth and squeezing itself out of it's skin and then tossing it off! After a few days, they haven't moved and look the same!

Mar 26: Hanging Out

2008-03-26T14:10:00.000-07:00

Adoption Day Number: 8

What do the Painted Ladies look like?
They have stuck themselves on the top of the lid using the last pair of legs on their body. They have curled the head up to look like the letter "J". The 3 pairs of legs from the front are all clustered together.

When I grabed the cup to take a closer look, the caterpillar began to sway around. We thought they were going to spin the web around themselves. Instead, I think they are going to dry up. Today they have not done much, all they do is just hang there.

We have completed their new butterfly home! We will place the branch in after I stick the painted ladies on the box top.

What will happen next?
We think the caterpillars are going to dry up and form their covering.

Mar 24: Building Blocks

2008-03-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

Caterpillar Name: Butter Butt & Hot Wings
Adoption Day Number: 6

What does they look like?
Our caterpillars are huge! The fuzziness now looks like tiny cactus pikes. If we look close enough, we can see the face. The first 3 pairs of legs look like black thorns with candy cane stripes. The rest of the look like tiny suction cups! Four pairs are in the middle of body and one pair at the very end. The mouth kind of looks like a bunnies. The tip of the face has a tiny white stripe just above the mouth. One of the caterpillars presses his face against the cup and we can see him eating or licking the food from the side of container.

They have been forming their food into snowball shapes and stacking them like a pyramid. At 2:40pm, one of the caterpillars climbed to its lid and circulated up there. The suction cup legs keep the body from falling down! He swigs his body back and forth as if looking something. He tore off the webbing it had made just a few days before and we think he at it.

What do we think will happen next?
We think he is getting ready to form into the next stage!

March 21

2008-03-21T23:42:00.000-07:00

Adoption day number: 4

What does your painted ladies look like today?
The one with the white dots on its back seems to be bigger than the other one. It seems that they lost the tip of the tail, but grew another one. There is a fuzzy thing inside each of the cups that does not look like the poops. We can see the legs moving around.

How have they changed since the last time you looked at them?
They are huge compared to just a few days ago! One of them is almost an inch long and the other is about half an inch. They are more active in the day than in the night. We didn't think they would get so big from one day to the next!

How do you think they will look next time?
We think they will continue to grow and eat more!

March 19, 2008

2008-03-21T23:32:00.000-07:00

Adoption Day Number: 2

What does the Painted Lady look like?
Our Painted Ladies are still caterpillars. We can see more details in their bodies. One of the caterpillars has two rows of white dots on its back. We can also see lots of tiny feet marching along and keep the bugs balanced on the webs.

How have they changed since you last seen them?
They look just a tiny bit bigger. They have dug out more of their food. The web has poop dots and food chips stuck on it.

What do you think they will look like next?
I'm home the will spin up the web and turn into a chrysalis (like a cocoon).

March 18, 2008 Welcome Home!

2008-03-21T23:18:00.000-07:00

Adoption day Number: 1

What does the Painted Lady look like?
Our Painted Ladies are itty bitty caterpillars! They are the about length of rice and about half its width. They look so furry and prickly at the same time.

What are they doing?
David brought them into the office in the after noon and they were just lying there not doing much. As the day went on, the sun began to set and the office became really warm. The computer monitors and as the other office equipment began to warm up, the caterpillars became more lively. They began to scrape the food from the bottom of the cup and also create a web- sort of like a spider. Tiny black dots began to appear- I think that is there poop! The caterpillars are suspended from their web.

What do you think they will look like next time?
I think they will be the same.