Here in the Sierra foothills of California, sometimes the Autumn season brings a feeling of melancholy to gardeners, faced with drooping faded flowers, drizzly rains and overcast skies. Larry Rettig, a member of Dave’s Garden website, pondered this feeling one day while out walking and a poem just came to him that expressed all the…
Do you get up early? I do,…but have found that many couples have one. One that gets up at dawn and the other who sleeps through it all. The cool air, the purplish cast in the early, early dawn, the soft peeping of the first birds all draw me out to sleepily make my coffee.…
“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” “Nature is always lovely, invincible, glad, whatever is done and suffered by her creatures. All scars she heals, whether in rocks or water or sky or hearts.” “As…
“In the woods.., a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough , and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should…
I am interested in business practices in general after owning my own small company for 20 years and became fascinated by how businesses get their customers, specifically how trends are set to direct spending. This is off my normal topic but may interest you if you plan on spending any money this year on your garden.…
–Nov 16 Today, I’m happy because I have found a way to create a blog archive in one step. On my wordpress.org blog, the easiest in the world, here’s what you do. Click on Add New Page and type this: …that’s all. Now you have a nice list of every post you’ve written, easy to…
Field Trip: Hornitos On a recent photo trek through the area between the Sierra foothills and the Central Valley of California, the little tiny town of Hornitos was found, baking in the 105 degree heat. My brother Ken accompanied me. Quiet and deserted now, the one-street town once had 15,000 people living there, Mexicans who…
Last month, my friend, Cheryl and I, committed to giving a workshop to the garden club on a subject we were trying for the first time, “How to make Hypertufa Troughs“. Risky? Foolhardy? Fun! We were interested and I must say, excited to see for ourselves how it would turn out.
One finished trough, the largest one we made with a corrugated box mold
Why make hypertufa troughs? For cost of the materials, Portland cement, perlite and peat, for us $37, you can make any size and shape plant container you want for your plants. These can show off small plants that would otherwise get lost if planted in a garden bed.…
Hypertufa (pronounced hyper-toofa) is a mixture of peat moss, perlite, cement and water.
Old stone watering troughs in England could be found in farmer’s fields, sometimes built into stone walls to provide water for two fields of livestock.
Traditional Stone Water Trough in Britain, Wikipedia Commons Photographer Roger Nunn
These troughs are usually one-of-a-kind, and very rare and desirable to alpine gardeners and plant collectors and are very expensive and heavy, as well. Now you can make them yourself.
There is a natural volcanic rock called tufa, which has also been used by gardeners. There are a few natural deposits found around the world, some in Britain, some in North America and various other areas. In the 1800’s, English gardeners found that by mixing certain ingredients they could make a light weight version of stone troughs. In time, hypertufa will develop the look of weathered stone.
For those who like miniature plants which often get lost in a garden, making your own troughs, and really, any shaped stone-like container, is easy and fun! I like growing succulents and other small plants and after hearing about hypertufa long, long ago, have always wanted to try it.
So,… this past month my friend Cheryl and I decided to give ourselves an assignment: to give a workshop to our garden club! O…K…!…
Everyone has seen these garden spheres in the garden, but recently after finding a bowling ball at Oakhurst’s “Clutter Clearance” I decided to try decorating one. I was inspired by an example found online on Google images, bought some bags of ‘gems’ used for filling vases to hold stems straight.
First the materials were gathered, 5 or 6 bags of 'gems', stones or tiles and 2 tubes of G.E. Silicone II for outdoors, in clear.
Start with a clean and prepped bowling ball. Use rubbing alcohol or vinegar to get any wax finish off. Sand lightly, then wash and dry the ball before painting. I filled the two smaller holes with tin foil and just glued right over them. Leave one hole uncovered and positioned at the bottom so if you want you can set it onto a piece of rebar in the garden. It helps to print out a photo of a design you like from Google images, shown. I used 5 0r 6 bags of ‘gems’, shown, and 2 tubes of G.E. Silicone II for outdoors, in clear.
With pencil I marked the top, opposite the largest hole and cut a five pointed star for a design to fill in
I used pencil to mark a dot on the top, opposite the hole I left unfilled. Then I drew freehand lines vertically to mark four sections, then used a paper cut-out of a star to trace around as a starting point.…
Oh, Joy!
Dill is a versatile herb, one that I really use in cooking. First planted in 2005, I’ve never had to buy another plant. I love volunteers, but this is different! This monster dill has found a place it loves.
The Dill, looking somewhat Dr Suess-y
This dill seeded itself next to the potted mother plant, stashed there during Fall patio cleanup. When Tractor Man isn’t tractoring, he looks out this west-facing window and the wispy feathery leaves have been growing up this early Spring to peek in at him. They don’t call it weed for nothing.…
When I’m feeling down and no one likes a post I’ve written well enough to comment, then I cheer myself right up by reading over the constant comments I get from my faithful followers, …my spammers. It’s true, they love me,….and in so many ways.…
After much discussion and agonizing decisions, we have embarked on big changes here at my Sierra Foothill Garden! In this day of slow economy, we’ve had to look into turning our property into more of a money making operation, so I’m announcing that we have joined up with FTD flowers wholesale division and Cal Poly San…
