see ya, strawberries, hello succulents!

This summer has been really mild which has been great for me, but not so hot for my plants. The only thing I've harvested so far is one summer squash, and we couldn't even eat it because it wasn't ripe yet. Everything else is alive and healthy but about two months behind.

A few strawberries have actually grown, but every time I went out to pick them I found that the squirrels beat me to them. I moved them to a shepherd's hook away from everything to try to protect the berries, but even that didn't work. So to get rid of the awkward hook in my front yard I'm calling it quits on the berries - better luck next year!

Not down and out, I stopped by the co-op and found a bunch of succulents available. Last winter I tried a succulent terrarium, but I over-watered it once and it never recovered. This time I want to learn from that mistake and try a new one.

I used some drainage rocks and cactus soil I bought last year and layered it all in...

 dropped in the plants...

and gave it a bit of water. After watering I left the top open so some can evaporate before I close it up.

So here we be. I might go back and add a few more in because I gather you can pack succulents in pretty tightly, but they might also grown into it, too. We will see this. 

I also picked up another hearty houseplant to fill out some of one of my other pots. Hopefully it grows a bit to fill in the other plants I killed. Oops.

And last but not least, some new leaf lettuce for a fall crop. Yay!

Defeat

OK, squirrels, you win.

After many battles, including several I mentioned here, I admit that the squirrels have won. I covered plants in chicken wire, moved them to a shepherd's pole far away from easily climbable structures, and cast voodoo spells on them (not really).

But after I saw that they had turned my pepper plant and eggplant (which had flowered!) into stalks surrounded by shredded leaves, I call it quits. I don't know if I did anything differently last year to keep them away or if they're just more brazen, but I hate them. I hate the squirrels. Good thing my garden at Twig's house is doing well:

garden in June

I know these pictures look crazy but forgive me - they were taken with a cell phone. At least you can see progress in so far as the plants are bigger than they were last month... right? right?

front row (l to r): swiss chard, lettuce; middle row: basil, beets; back row: eggplant, pepper

front row (l to r): swiss chard, lettuce; 2nd row: tomatoes; 3rd row: squash, zucchini; last row: brussel sprouts

squirrels: 3, me: 1

I thought I had taken more pictures of these battles as they occurred, but I was mistaken. Alas, I'll need to just explain to you how round two went down we can jump to present day.

You may recall I, or more accurately, my strawberries, had a run in with some squirrels. After the massacre I used chicken wire to cover the bucket and the other potted plants I had out on my deck. I went inside feeling so smug, like "I showed you, squirrels!" only to find the next morning that the squirrels had dug around the wire and into the soil/roots. In this round we lost our comrade, the dear brussel sprout. Squirrels: 2, me: 0.

RIP Rus

Undeterred, I rearranged the wire to better cover the exposed soil area in all of the pots, but this didn't leave much room for the plants to grow height-wise. I didn't have any more wire so I made it do and pressed the wire into the soil (as opposed to sort of floating on top) so that the squirrels would need to dig the wire cages out of the pots. It wouldn't have been hard, but it seemed to do the trick. Finally, success! Eat that, squirrels! ...No wait, please don't.

Fast forward a few weeks and it seems like the squirrels found everything they stored last fall and they aren't so interested in digging shit up anymore. Some of the plants are trying to grow through their cages, so I hope that means I can take them off now. I planted a new basil today and used the cage that had previously covered an eggplant - the eggplant was trying to grow up through it and the leaves were shredding in the process, so I'm sure it's happy to be freed. Let's just hope the squirrels really are done digging...

Lavender

herbs

Pepper

summer's coming!

so i planted some more stuff. Tomatoes, basil, summer squash, and zuchinni, to be specific.

BOOM.

Spring planting round two

Yesterday the Troy farmer's market moved back outside (yay!) so I went up to score some new seedlings. For about $11 I got one lavender, one summer squash, one zuchini, 3 spinach, and 1 parsley. Then I went over to the co-op to pick up 6 beets, 6 arugula, and an artichoke. It's still too early for some things to go in the ground, but the arugula, spinach, and beets are planted.

4 arugula

6 beets

3 spinach, 1 arugula

The beets had this weird white fuzz in the roots which I thought was mold. I looked it up in my gardening book and online and didn't find much beyond beet root rot, which may or may not be what this is. I took a chance and planted them anyway, so if the beets taste moldy or the entire garden turns into a fungus bed we know why.

The seedlings I already planted (lettuce, swiss chard, and brussel sprouts) are still going strong. yeaaaaaaa man!

squirrels: 1, me: 0

I went out to look at my plants and dun dun dunnnnnnnn... the squirrels destroyed the strawberries. They shredded them - pulled the seedlings out of the planter and tore them apart leaf, by leaf and stem by stem.

squirrels: 1, me: 0

I tried to salvage the bits of plant with roots still attached and shove them back into the planter. Hopefully they'll take. But to prevent any further squirrel shenanigans I built a little cage of chicken wire. It's not secured in any real way, but there are sharp edges so I hope that's a deterrent.

 
Your move, squirrels.

Spring's first planting

lots of accrued comp time + one of the first nice day's of spring = playing hookie to plant some vegetables. This girl knows how to have a good time.

swiss chard, lettuce, and brussel sprouts

brussel sprouts

oregano

strawberries

Day 7 - Monterrey and San Fransisco

I spent an hour or so finishing up some sight seeing around Monterrey this morning. I took pictures at places featured in Cannery Row and considered going to the aquarium but it was pricy and I was eager to hit the road for my final stop - San Fransisco!

It started raining almost as soon as I got on the road. I got lost for what felt like FOREVER around Santa José, even with GPS. On this leg of the trip I started noticing homeless people walking around and congregating on street corners - I knew northern California had a big homeless population but I noticed a few things that were interesting: 1) no one tried to clean my windshield at a red light or ask for money and 2) I didn't notice overt signs of mental illness amongst the homeless people I saw (as is frequently the case in New York or Montréal.)

This is also the only part of the drive where there was traffic. Mostly this was because there were a couple of slow pokes and the road was only two lanes (one in either direction). When a space to pass opened up it was generally near a tight turn or something else that made me afraid to pass so I was frustrated for most of this drive. Ba humbug.

The other thing I noticed on the drive was how many cool foods were growing or being sold along the highway - strawberries, artichokes, all kinds of stuff. Really, really cool.

I finally, FINALLY made it to San Fransisco in the afternoon. I ditched my car at the airport where I was picked up by Diana. She took me to her house in the Mission district - but I'll cover that in another post! Peace out, cub scouts!

Day 2 - LA

My second day in LA started off dreary, like it couldn't decide whether or not it should rain. California has been experiencing an intense drought for a while so even though I didn't want rain everyone around me did. It spat a little and it was chilly (I'm glad I brought a jacket - I had considered not bringing one!) but Lar and I enjoyed it all from inside a diner on the ocean. No litterally - ON the ocean - the diner was on the end of a pier so there was water all around us while we ate our french toast. Not a bad way to start the day!

By the time we were done it had cleared up a bit so we decided we walk around Abbot Kinney in Venice. There are lots of coffee shops, boutiques, book stores, home goods, etc. in that neighborhood. I was so enamoured by the succulents and architecture - everything just looks so different from the east coast!

 

We ended up spending a good amount of time in (what I would call) a hippy store. They sold books about religion and meditation plus aromatherapy and other relaxation type... supplies. They have in house psychics so I got a reading from a numerologist. Apparently he's been on TV and stuff. It was my first time ever having a reading of any kind any it was really interesting. He made a chart based off some basic information (name, birthday) and then told me about myself, my current situation, and some predictions for what's to come in the next year. I was careful to only nod or say OK when he spoke so I couldn't give away information that would lead him to say what he wanted to hear. A lot of what he said was spot on and not totally generic, so that was pretty cool. Hey, when in LA!

We took it easy that afternoon and then that evening accomplished one of my life goals - we had a bonfire on the beach!!! To me this is the stuff of movies or summer beer commercials - no one in real life has beach bonfires! But, my friends, they do. There are beaches in LA with bon fire pits. It was everything I had hoped it would be. Lar and I went with her dad and her cousin met us there. We cooked hot dogs, drank beer, ate smores, talked for hours and kept warm by the fire while we listened to the waves. Lar actually kept her feet a bit too warm and melted one of her uggs. lol. I want to do it every day forever and ever!

Day 3 - Joshua Tree National Park

Today Lar and I ventured out of the city to visit Joshua Tree National Park. It's a few hours out of the city in the middle of the desert and the park is home to some pretty Dr. Seuss lookin trees. Before we left we stopped at an Asian bakery near Lar's house so I could try a specialty - salted iced coffee. Apparently they usually make it really sweet but I ordered it with no sugar. Lar said some of her friends rave about the drink but I honestly couldn't taste the salt anywhere except for in the bit of foam at the top. Whatevs.

I had to be on a work call for some of the drive which was kind of a bummer. That's what I get for going on vacation when we're negotiating contracts.

There's nothing to eat or drink in the park so we stopped by a cafe my aunt's friend had recommended to us. It was another hippy place but the food was solid. We also went in another hippy place next door that mostly sold essential oils. The place smelled really great. The town at the edge of the park is tiny. It seems like it's some locals, some people who set up shop for the tourists, and some people who come for an artistic or spiritual retreat. I was so intrigued by the homes - the way  history and nature influence architecture is so interesting. I didn't get any good pictures, though.

As we drive into the park we saw mountains made of boulders and more and more Joshua Trees. We picked a few mile loop walks to make the most of the trip. It was my first time in the desert so I was pleasantly surprised by the temperature - it was definitely hot, but not as blazing as I had feared. It was also spring and breezy, which helped, and the shade was easily 10* cooler than in the sun. I wore a shirt button down on top of a tank top to try and prevent sunburn, and I didn't even take it off because of the heat until we were on our second mile walk. I was just so glad to not be cold. 

 

 

We drive up to the highest peak in the park to look over a fault line. It was beautiful but very windy. One of the places identified on a park map was Cochella - I had only ever heard of it as a music festival and didn't even know it was a real place. Once I put two and two together all I could think is how miserable it must be to go to a concert in the middle of the desert like that. No thanks.

Before we left the park we walked through a cactus garden. I was hoping to see all kinds of cacti but it was more like a cluster of one type of crazy cactus. By that time we were a bit tired so we walked through quickly.

We stopped at a restaurant just outside the park for a pick-me-up smoothie; it hit the spot after a full day in the hot sun. The decor in the place was really cool - old west and rustic, but without being over the top kitch.

 

Well, maybe the taxidermy was a bit much.

We drove back home, ate some Thai take out, and watched Silver Linings Playbook. Good stuff.