A Peony Blooms in Danville...

Who knew? I adopted this peony from my sister-in-law from Oregon many years ago. It just now decided to bloom. I guess I'll keep it!

A Partial Victory Garden...

I've always had a garden, even when we lived in an apartment. About 3 years ago, we removed a huge hedge to clear a spot for a garden. I love having my own produce growing in my back yard. I'm not the most dedicated vegetable gardener; however, and sometimes I forget to take a look back there for a week or so. I could probably increase my yield by just visiting more often. So, that's why it's only a partial victory. It's in and we get some food from it.

Well, this year's frost season was freakishly late. We had some frosty mornings all the way through April. I'm impatient. I put everything in while it was still frosty. I'm a firm believer in Darwinism's theory of "survival of the fittest." All my vegetables are raised with tough love!

Good intentions to re-build the raised beds have fallen by the wayside and I'm making due with what I have.

For two weeks, in preparation for planting, I brought in bags of compost to add to the bed, removed the huge amount of redwood roots that have sought out the easy pickings of water and nutrients in the beds and turned the soil. And finally, assembled a variety of structures to hold the future bounty. The effort felt like a sort of tinker toys for adults. Then we planted seeds & transplanted starts from a neighbor.

Here's a list of what I'm growing this year:

Howden Pumpkins
Oregon Sugar Pod Snow Peas
Little Finger Baby Carrots
Cherry Belle Radishes
Yellow Crookneck Squash
Green, Yellow and Purple string beans
Straight Eight Slicing Cucumbers
Genovese Italian Basil
Canteloupe from a neighbor
3 varieties of Tomatoes (Big Boy, and two unknowns) from a neighbor
An unknown pepper from same neighbor
Salad Bowl Mix of Leaf Lettuce
Bean plant that Megan is sure will take us to the Giant (thanks Miss Janie!)
Random Sunflower seeds

The radishes are ready to be harvested and the lettuce should be big enough in a week or so! Everything seems to have sprouted and I lost nothing to the late frosts we had!

April 21, 2009
3 weeks

May 6, 2009
5 weeks
(unsure why picture is sideways...)

Plant of the week...

So I'm pretty much a plant-a-holic. I don't even think there is a twelve step program for people like me. I will purchase plants at the nursery and then wander around my yard looking for a place to put it. You can tell us from the regular gardeners, because there's usually a place in the garden that looks more like a nursery -- full of little pots of plants waiting for a home!

Here's a nifty plant that you might like to find a home for in your garden.

Common Name: Wallflower
Botanical Name: Erysimum

Sunset Zones: 4-9; 14-24
Full Sun to Light Shade
Water needs vary, but tend to require less water
Bloom time: Early Spring through Summer/Fall

Height: 3'
Width: 4'

You will find "Bowles Mauve" - the purple variety, "Lemon Zest" - the yellow one shown. There is also an orange-y colored one too. These shrubs give you that "pop of color" in your garden.

Erysimum look great in a perennial garden, especially if you have low growing plants in front of it. That's because they tend to get leggy after awhile. Deadhead the flowers once they stop blooming to clean up their look.

Don't make a long-term commitment to these plants. They'll only survive a few years in your garden before you'll want to replace them.

What's eating you...

Winged and wingless aphids. The white flecks are the
skins from aphids that molted.

I don't know about your little piece of the world, but my little garden is now a thriving metropolis of aphids. They started appearing about a month or two ago and now are all over the place.

Believe it or not, there are quite a few different types and colors of aphids. They can be green, red, brown, yellow or black in color. Most of them are wingless, but they do sometimes have wings so they can fly to a different host plant if food becomes scarce.

As far as damage is concerned, aphids generally not too destructive. They can in large numbers, stunt your plant's growth and curl or yellow the leaves. I believe the worst thing is that aphids secrete a honeydew while they are feeding which is a clear sticky residue. The honeydew attracts ants and can be a host for 'black sooty mold'. Personally, I think my plants look better without ants or 'black sooty mold' all over them.

The easiest and least expensive way to remove aphids from your plant is to aim the garden hose at them. As I mentioned, most of them don't have wings, so they fall off the plant and can't get back up. If your aphids favorite food is your newly emerging rose buds, make sure you hose the plant in the morning so it has time to dry. You don't want to trade an aphid problem for a mildew or black spot problem!

If you have a mildew or black spot problem already or you don't want to use the hose, here's another solution. Your local garden center will have 'insecticidal soap'. These will contain animal fats and/or plant oils which will suffocate the aphids. There are several brands available, the store staff will be able to tell you which brand they carry.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm heading out to garden with my hose!