Mount Diablo Fairy Lantern

Friends, I promise: Soon, my semester will be over, and I’ll be free to write long rambling posts about the garden again. Oh, I can’t wait! The garden is calling me powerfully, but for a time yet I must resist and stay at my computer, only emerging to take walks for my mental and physical health. I’m presenting my capstone project titled “Facilitating Native Bee Populations in the Urban Bay Area,” on Friday, and I am hastily editing and refining (and biting my nails).

Meanwhile, I wanted to show you this pretty little flower that is only in bloom for a short while each year, in a very narrow endemic range. Isn’t it sweet? This is the Mount Diablo Fairy Lantern, Latin name Calochortus pulchellus, and I’ve only seen it on one other trail, and that many years ago.

Calochortus is an interesting genus, with several fascinating local species. To learn more about it, you can’t beat this article in Bay Nature, published in 2015. The entire story is cool, from the way they were ‘discovered’ (by Douglas, of “Douglas fir” and “Douglas iris” fame), to the way they grow, to the places in which they grow. I thought you too might want to learn more about these pretty little ephemerals!

Side note: Tom, the kids, and I have all had our Covid vaccinations, and it feels like freedom. I am looking forward to in-person garden tours, in-person plant sales, and hugs from all gardeners in a 20 mile vicinity!

Another side note: A month ago Tom and I decided to section hike to the top of Mt Diablo (the western side) from our house, over the course of several weekends. This can be done because there are roads going to the summit on the west side, so we just had to figure out where/at which points to hit a road where we could stop and start again. It took us a few weekends, about 14 miles up (and 14 miles back down), and a gain of about 4300 feet in elevation. It was a fun project to figure out how to get up there from here. Now we want to hike the east side, but there are no roads there except the one at the staging area, so we’ll have to do about 10 miles (round trip) and 3600 feet of elevation in one day. So that’s a summer goal!

A New Trellis

Last year, I planted a new clematis (Clematis paniculata, also known as Sweet Autumn Clematis), which turned out to be a very vigorous grower with really amazing flowers (seen in the photo above in September). We enjoyed it so much, all the way through December, as it went from millions of white flowers to gorgeous winged seedpods that looked like little plumed helicopters. I was hoping that it would scramble up on top of the garage roof, but it seemed to want to grow the opposite way, towards the chicken coop and over the gate. So, this spring, as it’s putting on a lot of new growth, I asked Tom to make me some sort of arch for the gate; this way the clematis can grow the way it wants to. Tom went into his wood-store and found some reclaimed redwood, and cobbled together a fetching little trellis.

I’m excited, because this means that the clematis can grow up and over the gate, and across the wire fence on the other side, mingling with the blackberry and loganberry we have growing there. It should be beautiful, come September!

A word about pruning this kind of clematis: Sweet Autumn Clematis belongs to Group 3, which means it blooms on the current year’s growth. It needs to be pruned vigorously in late winter, and the new growth in spring will produce that year’s flowers. Clematis come in three groups. Group 1 includes the ‘Montana’ types and should be pruned after flowering in the spring as it creates flowers on old wood, and you want it to have time to grow through the year after pruning - it’ll bloom the following spring. Group 2 also flowers on the previous year’s wood so should be pruned after flowering in the summer; this group has the largest and showiest blooms.

A great source for clematis (other than your locally owned nursery, which would be best) is Brushwood Nursery. They have varieties from all three groups, and dozens of each kind. It’s hard to choose one!

In other news, I broke down and put the pepper seedlings in the ground. The soil was quite warm, and the plants were getting too tall for the makeshift greenhouse. So far, despite temps at night in the high 40s, they are doing just fine! I’ll wait until early May to get the tomatoes in the ground. The rest of the summer garden can be sown in batches, as I have time and space - beans, cucumbers, herbs, and squash, will all do best with warm soil, but if you’ve got that, it’s just a matter of walking that fine line of nighttime temps.

Freezing Peas

I can’t think of a better spring supper than peas, briefly warmed in a saucepan with salted butter.

I have realized something. Every vegetable, every fruit, and every flower, is my favorite on the day when they are at their peak. One day asparagus might win the prize, the next it might be a tomato or a dahlia. I just can’t pick a favorite, so I will have a different favorite every single day.

And today, peas win.

Food production has not been a sure thing the past eight months in our garden, but one thing that’s done quite well is shelling peas. With one kid away at college, we are picking far more than we need. So for the first time ever, I can freeze some for the off-season!

The National Center for Food Preservation recommends blanching the shelled peas for 30 seconds in boiling water, then draining and freezing them in jars. So, that’s what I did! It could not be more simple. I’m excited to have sweet peas for the off-season, either to eat plain, or in one of our favorite dinners, pasta carbonara. Peas are not authentic to this dish, but we love them here.

Pasta Carbonara ala Poppy Corners

1 lb. pasta (we prefer thick long noodles for this, like linguine)
1 lb. bacon (preferably pastured), chopped
1-2 cups peas (fresh or frozen)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 eggs (as fresh as possible)
1 C parmesan (plus more for serving), finely shredded
salt and pepper

Get some water heating for pasta.

In a very large skillet, cook the bacon until crisp and all the fat has rendered. Do not drain. Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the peas, and turn the burner down to simmer. Let that go for a bit.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the parmesan. If you have very large eggs, two will be enough. For smaller eggs, use three. Add salt and pepper. Set aside.

Cook the pasta according to package directions. When cooked al dente, drain, then add to skillet with pea mixture and toss pasta so that every strand is coated with bacon drippings, garlic, peas, and bacon.

Add a scoop of the hot pasta mixture to the egg mixture, stirring vigorously (you want the eggs to warm up without cooking. This is not pasta with scrambled eggs!). Add a little bit more of the pasta, stirring all the while, until all the pasta is in and mixed.

Serve in large bowls with extra parmesan.

Some Recommendations

Rin and I took a brief trip to Savannah, Georgia, to visit the Savannah College of Art and Design, which is her #1 choice for college (she’s been accepted already, but I couldn’t let her attend school so far away without seeing it first). We loved the town; it’s flat and very walkable, with beautiful architecture, trees, and green spaces. We enjoyed some southern cooking and seafood, and even got to visit with some dear friends who were coincidentally in the area.

While on the flights to and from Georgia, I listened to a few really great podcasts which I wanted to share with you. One was NPR’s Fresh Air, with Dave Davies interviewing Scott Weidnesaul about migratory birds. I found this episode fascinating, especially how the biology of birds changes to prepare them for a long flight.

Another was Joe L’mpl’s (Growing a Greener World) podcast Joe Gardener, with scientist Jake Mowrer, talking about Regenerative Agriculture and Permaculture. I thought this discussion was one of the best I’ve ever heard that explains why these methods of planting help mitigate climate change, along with how they improve the soil.

The third podcast I want to recommend is A Way to Garden, in which Margaret Roach interviews Doug Tallamy (someone I’ve mentioned before, because he’s an insect guy) about the epidemiological value of oak trees. I love oak trees (that’s a Southern Live Oak, above, with Spanish moss), and it’s one of the best trees you can plant/nurture for wildlife, no matter where you live.

I have also been using a new app a lot, both at home and on the road, called BirdNET. It’s from Cornell, and it records the sounds of birds and then identifies them for you. If, like me, you hear a new bird and find yourself standing stock still while craning your neck trying to spot the dang thing, this app will help you no end. I can’t get enough of it and highly recommend it.

And because I’ve talked to several people lately about this app, I must again recommend iNaturalist. This app will allow you take a photo of anything natural - birds, bugs, flowers, moss, lichen, animal footprints - and identify it for you. If you get the app, follow me @poppycorners and I’ll follow you, and we’ll be able to see what the other is finding and identifying. The only thing that iNat hasn’t identified for me is scat, but I’m sure that will be corrected soon.

Before I left on this recent trip, I managed to pot up the tomatoes and get them in the ‘greenhouse’ for hardening off. The weather here was quite warm while I was gone, but it has cooled off some, so I don’t plan to plant out the tomatoes until the end of the month at the earliest. Tomorrow I will purchase 50 pepper plants from the Master Gardeners, which I will also likely stash in the greenhouse for a few weeks yet. Soon it will be time to plant out cucumbers and squashes and beans! How’s your summer garden coming along?

Fiddleneck Spring

My daily hiking practice has yielded views of wildflowers of all kinds, but the one I am definitely seeing the most is the humble fiddleneck (Amsinckia intermedia). These cheerful yellow flowers are part of the Boraginaceae family, the same family that gives us borage, forget-me-nots, and phacelia, which are also similarly prolific. Flowers in this family have an inflorescence called a ‘cyme,’ which has this distinct curved row of flowers, with the oldest one at the bottom and the newest in the center of the curve. Bees love flowers in this family, though it’s been cold enough here that I haven’t seen a ton of native bees out yet.

Unfortunately the fiddleneck, charming as it may be, is often considered a weed, because it is toxic to livestock - and the hills around here are not just available to hikers. Ranchers use them for grazing as well. The irony is that often our worst weeds grow in disturbed areas, and the hillsides are very disturbed - by those grazing cattle! So sometimes what we most detest is also caused by us, which is not news to environmentalists.

Regardless, I enjoy seeing the fields of sunny fiddlenecks when I’m out walking; a beautiful yellow sheen punctuated by the orange of poppies and the blue of Dichelostemma capitatum.

Well, I have some bad news. My peppers are pretty much all dead. I planted them waaaaay too early, but covered them in the hopes that they’d make it; unfortunately we had some serious cold snaps in early March and that spelled disaster for these heat-loving plants. I also had some sort of animal disturbance in one of the beds…. squirrels? the local marauding cat? Who knows. I’m pretty bummed by 100 dead pepper plants, considering they were babied by me, indoors, for two months. Ugh.

However, my tomatoes are looking just great. I’ve had good germination and they are getting quite tall and beginning to sprout true leaves. I’ll have to decide what to do with them soon. Do I take the pepper lesson to heart and pot the tomatoes up and keep them in the greenhouse for a while yet? Or do I ignore the pepper lesson, throw caution to the wind, and plant them directly into beds? Am I feeling more lucky with the weather now than I did in February?

Luckily, the Master Gardeners are coming through for me this year in a big way. Their yearly sale is going ahead as usual, just not in person. They will take orders on April 6 and have them ready for pick up shortly afterward. I’m planning on ordering a whole bunch of pepper starts! The proceeds go to their garden, where they grow produce for local folks who are facing food insecurity, so it’s a great place to buy your veg starts.