New Herb Garden

Well, the Understory Garden (which I think is really just an herb garden, honestly) is completed! It's taken months to get this project done, from sheet-mulching the weedy grass in this area, to building raised beds, to getting soil delivered, to shoveling and planting and voila!

Ok, let me tell you what you're seeing, because everything is so little and it's going to take a while to fill in. (Gosh, if nothing else, gardening sure teaches you how to be patient!) In the center of the large bed is an Asian Pear (Hosui), it's just a stick at this point. The bushy things are rosemary, which I have elsewhere too but really can't get enough of. All along the paving stones (which I painted, I know they are bright! but they will fade), I planted two each of six different lavenders. These particular lavenders apparently do well in extreme heat and will get to be about 2x2 ft each. On the right side of the pear I planted two rhubarb crowns, and on the left side, two lemon verbenas. Then, filling in, are four groups of each of these herbs: Chives, Thyme, French Thyme, Sage, Parsley, Oregano, Marjoram, and Savory. I started these inside and they've been ready to transplant for weeks, I'm glad to get them in the ground. In two of the little beds I planted seedlings and seeds of dill; in the other two beds, the same of cilantro. I'm hoping to get a nice crop and maybe even some seeds from these before it's time to plant basil. I have four different kinds of basil to put in those little beds in the summer. Oh and around the pear I scattered some marigold seeds. 

So basically it's a glorified herb garden, but I'm glad to have a safe, inside-the-fence place for all those herbs that we use so often. These blooming things will help the bees, too, and I already saw one bee checking out the rosemary, though it has no blooms on it at the moment.

In the background you can see how the winter veg is coming on - peas and broccoli are going great guns, as are greens of all types. The cabbage (which you can't see, it's to the right of the shed behind the broccoli) isn't doing so well, and I had a 'meh' year for spinach. In the pollinator garden, seeds are just coming up, but you can see the Western Redbud in full bloom.

The other vegetable garden is doing quite well, with carrots, beets, and turnips being harvested frequently, and garlic, shallots, and potatoes growing up up up.

We opened the hive today and there are now TWO clusters of brood. So our little colony is growing. I'm so proud that they survived the winter and all the weird invasive things and they are coming back strong! It'll take them a while to get back to the full colony that they were last summer. All the new blooming flowers around the neighborhood are helping immensely. 

One more interesting thing to show you. When I went to shovel dirt in to the new beds, I found this:

This tiny mushroom was about the size of my pinkie fingertip, and there were hundreds, many even smaller, all over the dirt pile that's been sitting in the driveway since I had it delivered two weeks ago. I'd had it covered with a tarp during the recent rains, and it's like a thousand mushroom spores germinated under there. Beautiful! The pile was also chock full of worms, a good sign indeed.

Hope you're having a wonderful Saturday!

Earwig Experiement, Cutworms, Clematis

I was sent home from work early today (guess I'm still not well!), so there's been time to check the earwig traps and see what came of them. The results are.... moderate.

Each bowl looks a lot like this. A few earwigs, a few roly-polys (I didn't intend to kill them, and I'm sorry about it), a couple of baby slugs, and quite a few of these grubby/wormy things too. I'm not sure what they are, but I have almost as many of them as earwigs. Anyone have an idea?

It's not the earwig armageddon I was hoping for. But I did find this huge dude in one of the bowls, and this might also provide a clue to the holey lettuce.

I do believe this is a cutworm. If I have these, it's no wonder my leaves are full of holes. The most common type of cutworm cuts the seedlings down completely, but there are types that eat holes in vegetable leaves. 

Now I'm wondering if the tiny wormy/grubby things are just small cutworms? Or some other kind of damaging worm? Sigh. 

I decided to fill the bowls up even higher and see if I get more creatures tonight. I think because the bowls aren't full, the baddies can simply check out the deadly liquid without getting trapped. I'll let you know what happens.

While I was outside, I noticed the clematis blooming, which led me to to start a whole research thing about what kind of clematis I planted 12 years ago because of course I didn't make a note of it. Turns out I've been pruning these wrong each year. This type of clematis is a 'Montana' variety called 'Mayleen.' It's an early-bloomer, which means it apparently blooms on older wood. Well, every winter I cut this thing back to about four feet tall, because it's grown all the way up the side of our house in two places and it looks terrible when it's dead. That means it has to put out new vines and bloom, all in a season, which is I suppose stresses the plant. So this spring I'll prune it back after it blooms (six months earlier than I usually do it), hopefully it will have time to grow new wood before winter, and it will bloom even more prolifically next spring. 

I have to say, it's bloomed beautifully every year even with my pruning hack job. But the point is, don't be like me and plant things without making a record. I do it all the time, completely confident that I will remember. Unfortunately I am deep in to middle age, which means I remember almost nothing these days.

Bees and Earwigs

I wasn't feeling hot today, so I stayed home from work - I haven't had a sick day in a long time, and while it's never fun to be sick, it IS fun to be at home unexpectedly. I got a lot done. I'm not good at resting; I did watch an hour of TV and read a little. But mostly I puttered. I made a black-bottomed banana cream pie for a co-workers birthday, and brownies for the kids. I got bolognese sauce going early on and between all the chocolate and the tomato sauce, the house has smelled good all day. It's sunny and about 75 degrees. Something hard to ignore was all the bee activity in the yard. Big native bees, tiny native bees, and honey bees from the hive. All swirling and buzzing and foraging.

Ceanothus

Western Redbud

Borage

Lavender

Wisteria

I saw some honey bees taking their first flight outside the hive, so the colony is definitely growing, hooray! We'll need to open it up and take a look this weekend.

But I didn't just gape at the bees. I also WENT TO WAR. Those damn earwigs. They are eating everything!  Here are my battle tools:

I got everything on sale, and this was the cheapest olive oil I could find. Everything I read online said to use olive oil, so I went with that instead of something cheaper, but in hindsight, I can't imagine that olive oil is the only oil you could use - the point is just to drown the suckers. I buried the bowls in the dirt, so that they are flush - three to each 4x8 bed. Then I added a layer of oil, a dollop of molasses, and a glug of soy sauce. I'll take a picture in the morning and show you the results. I'm hoping for mass destruction.

a bowl near the spinach. most of my greens are full of holes, this patch isn't awful.

At this point, the greens with large leaves are going to the chickens (we're still eating the young, tender leaves), so it's no big deal if the earwigs eat them. What concerns me is that they are making babies, and every time I disturb the dirt, I notice masses of them. I don't want them here when I begin summer planting in a month. This is a preventative measure for the summer crops. 

I'm feeling slightly better, so back to work tomorrow, but my mind will be with the bees, flying in the flowers!

Weekend Away at The Apple Farm

On Friday, I promised you tales of a grand adventure. I can deliver on that promise! Tom and I took the weekend away, leaving the kids and the dog in the care of my folks, and spent a "Stay and Cook" weekend in Philo at The Apple Farm. 

an ornamental apple tree in the farm's flower garden

The farm is located in the Anderson Valley, a forty-mile stretch of hilly land between Highway 101 and Highway 1, on Highway 128. Many folks take this road from our neck of the woods en route to Mendocino. But Anderson Valley is a good trip in its own right; full of good food, wineries, fun shops, and an excellent State Park, Hendy Woods.  

Wild chamomile was prolific all over the side of the road

When I was in my 20's, I used to take this drive all the time. When Tom and I got married, we came to the Anderson Valley to buy our wedding sparkling wine from Roederer Estate.  We came up here with the kids and my folks several years ago to camp at Hendy Woods and ride the Skunk Train. 

Lilac in the farm's flower garden

On that camping trip, we stopped to buy apples and juice at The Apple Farm's fruit stand. They had a lovely pink apple I had never tried before, the Pink Pearl. It was crisp and sweet and perfect, and that apple stuck in my memory.

This apple tree seems to be looking back at us!

Fast forward to my birthday of this year, a couple of months ago. Tom surprised me with a wonderful trip to this same farm. He had remembered, too, and thought to check out if we could stay there. He booked us on a 'cook and stay' weekend, which meant we would stay in one of the cabins, and cook three delicious meals in the wonderful kitchen, with the owners, Karen and Tim.

Happy chickens on the farm

We took the day off Friday and drove up in pouring rain, stopping for a delightful Cuban sandwich in Windsor at Rumba Cuban Kitchen.  By the time we got to the farm at 3, the skies had cleared, and after getting settled, we immediately went for a walk through the orchard. We were sure glad we took the opportunity, because it started raining again that evening and didn't stop the entire weekend. 

Our cabin, aptly named "Blue Door"

What an incredible farm. Tim grows over 80 different varieties of apples, along with other fruit trees. Karen keeps a large kitchen garden with plenty of veg and herbs, and there are flowers all over the property. At the moment, they have sheep and goats, ducks and chickens, and several farm dogs. 

a friendly goat popping up to say hello

The acreage is bordered by a small, unnamed creek on one side ("some people call it Bitter Creek," Karen told us) and the extremely swollen-at-the-moment Navarro River, which runs all the way down to the Pacific Ocean.

the creek

We very much enjoyed our walk around the property, throwing sticks for the dogs and checking out the flowers growing everywhere. 

Tom made a friend

That night, we had a truly memorable dinner at The Boonville Hotel, which is owned by Karen's brother. After that meal, it was up to us to cook and create Karen's menu for the weekend.

our plan for the weekend

We had a terrific time learning from Karen and her helpers in the kitchen, as well as from the other couples (there were two) that were cooking with us. Karen's family owned, among other restaurants, the French Laundry before Thomas Keller, so she was an excellent teacher and we learned so much from her. I was glad that Tom and I had some pretty extensive cooking experience going in, but it was clear that you didn't need that to succeed over the weekend. Beginners are also quite welcome.

the kitchen, as we were gearing up the first morning

We used many ingredients from the farm itself, as well as local meats and dairy. It was very much a farm-to-table experience as well as a great lesson in locavore eating. We went hoping to learn how to use or preserve some of the excess in our own garden, and perhaps pick up some fancy (and practical!) techniques that would help us in our cooking going forward. We learned all of these things.

Swiss Chard from the garden

There was also plenty of time to get to know the other couples and the owners of the farm. Tim was supposed to take us on an 'official' farm tour, but since it was raining so hard, we just sat and talked about the farm and his operation. It was fascinating.

chopping produce was always a group effort

I don't have to tell you, the meals were excellent. I mean, mind-blowingly good. Karen showed us how to make the most out of our garden herbs to extract fabulous flavor. We used the farm's homemade vinegar and juice constantly. Tim served local Navarro wines with every meal, as well as the farm's own hard cider.

Rhubarb clafouti

We also had plenty of TV-and-computer-free time in our bright and cheerful room, snuggled under duvets, reading books, with the fireplace on, listening to the rain on the roof.

We loved our weekend, cooking, eating, exploring the beautiful farm. I hope we get to come back someday.

Driving home, we wondered how things had fared flood-wise at our little homestead. Sure enough, we came back to extensive standing water in the back yard, and some water in the garage. The experts say the drought isn't over, but I'm guessing we've had a good dent in it, anyway. I made a mistake leaving the tomato and pepper seedlings outside while we were gone, as the forecast was for a little rain and a little sun. They look pretty droopy, but I'm hoping a few days in the sun will perk them up. (We're supposed to have five clear days before the next storm.) I took a short, wet tour of our garden just to make sure everything was ok, and I was given a gift, near the kale.

This is a 'bird's nest fungus,' which I have always hoped to see in our garden, but never have. These are all over right now. Aren't they fabulous and strange?

There's broccoli to pick, as well as shelling peas, carrots and beets, and of course the ever-present greens. I have a heeled-in Asian pear waiting for planting along with 10 lavender plants, two rhubarb crowns, and two lemon verbena plants. Oh yeah, and don't forget 50 plugs of herbs! And before that gets done, three cubic yards of dirt needs to be wheelbarrowed over to the new beds. It's a good thing the weather is supposed to clear up.

the frog friend we found on our steps outside the cabin

It was a wonderful weekend. Here's to vacation!!! And thanks so much to The Apple Farm for a really incredible experience. 

Hops Arrive

The other three sets of hops arrived!

Tom planted some Cascade hops a few weeks ago in one planter, and he ordered some more because it's the hop he uses most in his recipes. Then we've got Centennial and Northern Brewer. We'll see how they all do! We'll have far more hops than we need, but as I've said before, there is some evidence that the pollen from hop flowers prevents varroa mites in honeybees. So we're not just growing hops for the beer.

In other news, I'm going to battle. My foe? Earwigs.

They are eating everything in my garden; it's become not just a nuisance, but a massive problem. I'm going to put out black plastic bowls filled with oil, molasses, and soy sauce, buried in the soil and flush with the surface. Apparently this catches earwigs by the hundreds. I'm going to put three bowls in every raised bed. I'll let you know how that works. Hopefully I'll have lots of dead evidence to show you after a few days. (Do you think the chickens would eat dead earwigs soaked in soy sauce?)

Meanwhile, Tom and I have something exciting planned. I can't tell you about it yet, but I promise to update you before the end of the weekend. It involves food, cooking, farm produce, and probably a hike or two. Stay tuned!

I'll leave you with a lovely picture of some California native wildflowers I found in a local park. Someone thoughtful (the Native Plant Society?) scattered these seeds last fall. I love Baby Blue Eyes.

By the way, it's still raining! Putting a dent in our drought....