I love to visit our local community gardens a couple of times each year because the gardeners are so creative. I always come home with ideas and inspiration. There will be several things I want to grow, build and try. Today’s visit to Emerson Community Garden was no exception. Check out the simple watering solution for this oak barrel garden. Many of the gardeners don’t get to their plots every day. A simple inverted soda bottle can save your crop on an exceptionally hot day.

One plot in particular was a wealth of ‘must build’ items. A delightful gardener named Susan told me that this plot belonged to Ernie who is the star gardener of their group. Like many community gardens, ECG is completely open and people come and go as they please. This can be a problem if you want to have some gardening tools on hand for they have a habit of disappearing. Ernie’s solution is the beautiful storage locker. The top is covered with roofing asphalt paper and sloped to keep water from settling. The pretty red stain weatherproofs it and makes it pretty.  A simple combo lock means your tools are safely stored until you need them. I honestly wouldn’t mind a storage bin like this in my yard.

Ernie also had a great solution for birds nibbling crops. The top portion of these raised beds are covered by a frame of pvc pipe over which he has hung some bird netting. I’ve seen the pvc trick before. But look closely at the top section of board and you will see a little knob. The top section lifts up. How much easier is that than pulling off and re-securing the netting each time you need to work the bed? The entire portion could be removed when no longer needed I suppose. One could also use poultry netting if squirrels or rabbits were a problem.
Not only is this gardener a builder but he seems to really know his stuff. Susan told me she had been gone for a few weeks and all of this was new. We marveled at how far along his plants were compared to other gardens. She told me that before she left Ernie was growing some sort of groundcover over his bed that he was going to till in. “A cover crop,” I thought. I must make it a point to meet this Ernie. I think I could  learn few things.

And last my favorite concept at the community garden, the concept of sharing. I saw this little bag hanging from a fence with the attached note offering up sunflowers seeds to share and an offer to refill it once it was empty. I would have to say one of the best things about community gardens is the sharing that takes place. At Emerson you can see that has been going on for a long time which is evidenced by the irises you will find in almost every bed now. Some of which are already in bloom. Isn’t it lovely?

I got a good jump on my seed starting last night. And as always, I planted too many. I always do. No where is my gardening obsession/plant geekery more apparent than with seeds. I just love them.

Throughout the year I scrape them out of peppers from the grocery, snip them off plants in parking lots, buy them,  trade them, hoard them. Having a seed stash is just a nice way of saying you have a seed hoarding problem. Isn’t it?

As I sift through my stash determining what I want to plant inside now and what I want to sow outside later, my pile always becomes bigger than what my yard will contain. This year was no exception. I know that I have allocated the same square foot to three different plants each needing more space than that. I know that I have done this more than once. Why? I know better, but yet I continue.

Although I have pretty good success with germination of most seeds there is

Kiwi seeds ready to go with very little hope of finding a home once they've germinated.

always that bit of uncertainty. What if something doesn’t come up? Then what? How could I possibly handle a bare patch of soil? Besides, I can always add more edibles to my front yard. That’s cool now, right? Plus there’s always a chance someone might not want to use their community garden plot.

As a means of justifying my behavior, I could say that some of what I do is just to gain experience with different types of germination methods. Also I love sharing seedlings with my gardening friends (and sometimes people I barely know). But I know that I am fortunate that the seeds themselves are small and most are very inexpensive if not free. Why you barely notice the four mason jars in the back of the refrigerator of the ziplock bag in the linen closet. I’m also lucky that my obsession isn’t for something like ostriches or alpacas (although come to think of it, raising my own yarn might be cool). My only consolation in all this is that I know I’m not alone. I know there are many of us seed addicts out there. I know some of you see yourself in this post. Stop by and say hello. I’m Kat and I’m a seed addict.

The ugly lettuce monolith is not quite as ugly anymore. Amazing how a little bit of greenery makes everything look better. Last weekend I constructed the tower and filled it with things to be composted, composted material and top soil. This week I planted it and here is what I learned.

1. The wire I used had 2″ x 3″ openings. This was adequate for the 6 pack starts to fit through. The problem was moving around the soil inside to make enough room for the root ball. I had planned on starting my own, but I got busy and impatient and picked up some 6-packs of strawberries and lettuce at work. At first I used a small stake to poke open the weed barrier, but it didn’t make a nice opening inside. I then improvised with the stake part of a ceramic mushroom that had a pointed (but rounded) end. This worked out pretty well, but the further down I got, the more compacted the soil/compost had become and as I made the holes dirt would want to sift back down to fill them. One solution might be to plant as you fill. Another would be to use smaller starts.

2. I had watered it last week when I constructed it and some areas were still slightly damp. There were, however, dry pockets. So I’m not completely sure that just watering down the center will get enough moisture to the outer layers. Today I’m running the water very slowly and moving the hose to different parts trying to make sure it gets watered in well.

3. I found that if I wanted to plant something in the top level, I couldn’t go all the way up the side because there would be too much root competition. This leaves a rather unattractive section of weed cloth visible. So to cover that up, I’m going to plant nasturtium seeds on top and hope they drape over enough to cover, but not so much they engulf the entire thing.

4. So far there are four 6-packs planted. One each of strawberries ‘Eversweet,’ Migionette’ and ‘Sequoia.” The lettuces are a mixed salad leaf lettuce and ‘Freckles’ which is green with adorable red freckles. I planted each plant with one vertical opening between each plant and two openings horizontally. In some areas I alternated rows. This covered about half the cylinder.

4. The dog really enjoyed the part where I was crouched down low planting the bottom. He took this opportunity to slime me with doggy kisses. He is actually part of the reason for this experiment as he likes to dig holes to hide his bones. As long as he doesn’t decide to jump on the monolith (or pee on it.) I should be getting a nice amount of berries and salad.

5. To finish it off, I’m going to run a ring of diatomaceous earth around the base. I figure why not? Keep the night foraging nasties from creeping up the sides. If you haven’t used diatomaceous earth in your garden, I highly recommend it. I find it the perfect solution to protecting seedlings from snails, earwigs and cutworms. I sprinkle a ring around my plantings (either individual plants or groupings) after planting or as soon as I notice seedlings coming up. This creates an effective barrier against chewing insects that lasts about 2-3 weeks (heavy rain will wash it out) and my seedlings are safe without the use of chemicals.

Here’s an update on how things are growing. This was taken early May and you can see that everything has filled in nicely. I haven’t been as diligent about putting down the the diatomaceus earth and there has been some nibbling. The strawberries have been growing well, but I’ve only had two. It seems my dog likes strawberries as much as I do.  At first I thought it was birds, but then one morning I found him nosing around between the lettuce leaves looking for ripe berries.

The cucumbers have been planted on top but without some really warm weather, they are just sort of sitting there. The amount of salad I have been getting, however, is truly amazing. Which translates into more than I really want to eat. Half a monolith could easily provide salad for two people several times a week.

I spent much of Saturday working on this monolith. Pretty ugly, right? It will get better, though. (Hopefully.) The reason for my creating this hideous, compost bin looking thing is actually experimentation in both vertical gardening and a bit of lasagna gardening. I’ve tried lasagna gardening before and had pretty good success. Lasagna gardening is basically planting over compost. You layer your items that you want to compost with a bit of soil and plant right into that. My first experience was prompted by necessity. I needed to get my cool season veggies in and I still had tomatoes in their spot. The compost bins were already full and I didn’t feel like making a run to the dump. So I pulled out the tomatoes, dug out the bed and then tossed in the chopped of plants followed by garden soil and some manure. I immediately planted directly on top.  It worked! I did a bit of reading after that and found that planting on layered compost is actually a ‘thing’ and has been written about several times.

My new experiment combines the principles of composting/lasagna gardening with vertical gardening. A few weeks back I saw this post on how to grow a vertical lettuce garden on Pinterest. I looked simple enough so I decided to give it a try. Well, it isn’t easy. Especially if you are setting it up by yourself (OK, I must admit the dog did try to help a little. That only set me back further). I could have used an extra pair of hands. But I didn’t want to wait for that so I improvised. A few changes I made to the original design wereI placed the lettuce monolith right on the ground and actually dug it in a few inches for stability. I had noticed in one of the photos on the original blog, it was propped up with a piece of wood. I also pounded in a few pieces of rebar to make sure the dog doesn’t tip it over. The second change I made was substituting bark for gravel down the drainage tube. I didn’t want to have to sift the gravel out of the composted soil at the end of the season  and I figured bark would give me the same drainage properties for at least one season. You use very little. I think I stuffed about 1/4 of a 2 cu. ft. bag down the tube.

I used 4 ft. fencing with 2″ x 3″ holes. The diameter of the monolith is about 2.5 feet. It holds a surprising amount of green material, dried leaves and soil and took me about 2 hours to fill. I’m sure it would have gone faster if I had already raked the leaves and piled up the green waste, but I was sort of cleaning and building. I’ve already decided that I want strawberries on the side that gets the most light and will do various types of lettuce the rest of the way. I may leave the back empty since it gets virtually no direct light. What will be planted on the top is yet to be decided.

Tired of looking at that grilled cheese sandwich? I know I was. It’s been a while since I posted hasn’t it? Apparently I needed a break. I hadn’t planned it, but around summer of last year I started to lose the desire to post. I think I got too caught up in the whole promotion side of the blog and started to lose sight of why I started posting in the first place. My original goal was just to share. Share what I know and love about gardening with other gardeners and those that want to be gardeners. It was actually a  long conversation with a customer at work explaining the differences between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes, and why a person might choose one over the other, that got me back here. I love having these conversations. I love sharing what I have learned with those who wish to learn. I have had so many great teachers over the years that I feel it would be a waste not to pass on their guidance and inspiration.

So I’m back. And to kick things off I want to introduce you to a new introduction to my garden. The adorable little flower above is Ipheion uniflorium ‘Wisley Blue’ or Star Flower. I have admired this tiny little bulb from the Alliaceae family for years. It’s easy to see its relation to society garlic with those thin, grass-like leaves and once you tip it out of the pot the aroma of onion lets you who its cousins are. Ipheion naturalizes gracefully here on the Central Coast (grows in zones 5-9). I’ve admired my neighbor’s yard each spring when it’s covered in these dainty blue stars. Bloom time here is a bit earlier than the daffodils and lasts for weeks. Its short height (only 4″-6″) make it perfect for edgings and the front of borders (which is where mine will go). I have a particularly difficult spot in the front of the house that gets sun only for a few hours at the hottest time of the day. Too hot for true shade loving plants and too little light for those that crave full sun. The little star flower is adaptable and will do full or part sun. The plan so far is to have it mingle with some ‘Dragonfly’ Aquilegia, maybe a helebore or two and some ajuga ‘Chocolate Chip.’ Later in the season I will need to add some summer interest since all of the above go a bit dormant when things heat up.

In my search for information about Ipheion, I ran across this lovely photos of some Ipheion naturalized alongside daffodils. If that doesn’t scream “Spring has arrived!” I don’t know what does.

I’ve been contemplating an herbed scone recipe all week and today it was making me particularly hungry. It’s difficult to peruse savory recipes containing garlic, sun dried tomato, rosemary and basil without having my stomach start to rumble. It didn’t help either, that I had skipped breakfast to get a quick start on a project. I wanted something yummy and I wanted it now. Thankfully in my readings I had run across this recipe for Garlic French Grilled Cheese over at Chips That Pass in the Night (cute name, right?). What a wonderfully quick and delicious lunch this would make. The concept of the grilled cheese above was inspired by this recipe. Instead of French bread, however, I used sourdough. The cheddar mozzarella was replaced with muenster slices. I didn’t want to take the time to mix my own ingredients so I grabbed my handy bottle of Spice Hunter’s Garlic Herb Bread blend. I layered 3 slices of cheese on a piece of sourdough and gave it a dash of spice blend. Then I covered it with a slice of bread and buttered both sides of the sandwich. Each side got another sprinkle of seasoning and the top got a good sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. I slid the sandwich onto my Foreman Grill (my favorite way to do grill cheese these days) and gave it a few minutes until the cheese was well melted and the top was a lovely golden brown.

Taking photos was torture as I watched the gooey cheese melt onto the plate. Luckily the lighting was just about perfect and I didn’t need to fuss too much. My stomach was really talking now. After a few quick snaps, the sandwich was devoured in almost the same amount of time. I loved the way the incredibly smooth texture of the muenster contrasted with the crunchy sourdough. The mild flavor of the cheese was perfect with the stronger flavors of the garlic and herbs. A nice glass of sweet tea was all I needed to make this a perfect lunch. I could imagine pairing this with a robust tomato soup for dinner. Total prep and cooking time was about 15 minutes.
Hungry yet?

Keeping this guy in bounds is a great deal of work. But oh the payoff.

Lately I’ve been seeing red. It’s everywhere I look. Red pots, red furniture, red flowers. But I’m not complaining. I like it and lately have been craving it. It could be because our summer here on the coast has been anything but summery. While much of the nation suffers through a heatwave, we have been pretty cool and mild. The sun takes its sweet time breaking through the fog each morning causing the flowers to linger a bit longer in their slumber. Even the tomatoes have been hesitant to ripen. It’s only been this past week that I’ve started seeing that first hint of a color other than green. So, it’s no surprise that the color I’ve been seeking out has been bright and fiery. Creating the container on the left felt more like therapy than work. There’s just something about the power of red to shake things up a bit and make everything seem fresh and new.

Here are some of my favorite reds of the moment. Perhaps you’ll want to add one or more to your garden:

My Ladybird poppies are finally putting on a show. I love the contrasting black spots. They were planted with the intention of co-mingling with the Penny Black Nemophila, but Penny has come and gone (putting on a fantastic show of its own) and left these poppies to hold down the stage. On dreary mornings seeing this cheerful, happy color is a great way to start the day.

I can almost watch my Cypress vine grow. I’m a bit embarrassed to say just how long this packet of  seeds sat in that mason jar in the back of my fridge. But let’s just say that with proper storage the seeds stay viable for a long, long time. The red color is so bright that I actually found it a bit hard to photograph. Most likely this will be an annual here in my area, but it is so lovely that I’ll have to make time to save some more seeds.

I already have a red mimulus in my garden, but not this one. This is “Valentine” which is a perfect name for it because I love that color. I have “Jack” which is a more burgundy shade of red. So now I have a problem. Do I stay faithful to Jack or follow my heart and get a new Valentine?

And what about adding some Gaillardia “Burgunder” to the garden. Yes, I already have the traditional blanket flower and a good sized patch of “Oranges and Lemons,” but surely there must be a spot for this beauty.

Pineapple sage. Is it any surprise that my resident hummingbird adores this plant and chastises me loudly if I go anywhere near it with pruners? I grow the plant for its fragrant leaves. That minty pineapple scent makes the leaves a great addition to teas or sugar syrups. Just brushing past the plant in the garden is delightful. But this time of year, and especially this year, it’s those flowers that thrill me. That bright clear red is anything but boring.

Do you have a favorite red? Or a favorite color of the moment? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Sketch a Plant Sunday is a blog carnival started by Steve Asbell over at The Raintforest Garden. It’s a chance to get in the habit of drawing every Sunday and sharing what you’ve done. If you would like to participate in Sketch a Plant Sunday, just hop on over to Steve’s blog for details.

I paint digitally in Photoshop and every piece goes through this really ugly stage. This is at the point where I have worked out a rough sketch (here some ripening plums on a branch) and have blocked in some color. Doesn’t look like much, now does it? Perhaps if you squint, you can see where it’s going. This is just the beginning, however, and I normally don’t share this part. I like to get past this part as quickly as possible, but alas, sometimes work and fatigue get in the way. One interesting thing you can see at the moment (and something that made doing this so interesting) is just how many different colors there are in these plums. Some start out green at one end and go all the way to purple at the other with browns and oranges in between. Panting fruit and plants really does help you see them with a great deal more detail.
Over the next week, time permitting, I’ll be blending the colors and adding detail. I’ll post an update next Sunday.

Thinking ahead to next year. I already know I want more poppies. More of these girly, ruffly pink ones. Normally girly is not my style in manner or dress. But in plants? That’s a completely different story. I love flowers that are delicate and ruffled just like a party dress I’ll never wear. This particular poppy fits the bill perfectly. A volunteer it came up quite a distance from where I had the ‘Thai Silk’ Eschscholzia californica planted last year. In a spot that was rather inconvenient to be honest. But I have such a soft spot for volunteers that I let it grow rather than pull it. (Which is also the reason why I have to step over a pumpkin vine to get to the compost bin.) The amount of pastel blooms it produced this year has been amazing, however, and now that it’s almost finished I realize I will miss it in the garden. So I’m going to save some seeds in hopes that next year’s will be just as pretty.
It’s not always easy when you are new to gardening to determine when seed heads are ripe. Sometimes it’s hard to know what the seed pod even looks like. It can be confusing with a plant like this poppy. The flower is so round and fairly flat when opened. The seed pod, however, in no way resembles the flower. It is long and narrow and pointed.

Once you’ve learned to recognize the seed pod, you then have to recognize when it’s ripe. Seed pod and seed heads are ripe when dry and the seeds easily drop when the pod/head is moved or opened. In the photo at the left you can see the difference between the ripe, unripe and past prime seed pods. Eschscholzia have these cool spring loaded seed pods that burst open when ripe, projecting the seeds a distance from the parent plant. This allows the seeds to cover a larger area and compete less with each other when they come up in spring. It also makes them tricky to harvest. When harvesting the seed pods, pinch or snip the pod above the part where it joins the stem and let the pod drop into your container. Grabbing and pulling on the pod itself can cause it to explode sending seeds everywhere. Once you’ve collected your pods, you need to separate the seed from the pod. Over a large bowl, grab hold of the pod and snap it open in the center. If the pod is ripe, it easily snaps apart like the one in the far right of the photos. Gently scrape out any seeds that don’t drop right into the bowl.

Poppy seeds are tiny round seeds, dark brown to black in color. Place the seeds on a plate or tray and allow them to air dry for few days in room temp location out of direct sunlight. Put them in an  envelope, label and place the envelope inside a mason jar with a few packs of silica gel (the “do not eat” stuff that comes with your shoes) seal jar and place in the refrigerator until you are ready to plant. Heat and moisture cause seeds to become less viable. Storing them in a mason jar in the fridge keeps them dry and cool.

Remember to harvest seeds only from poppies growing in your own yard or your neighbor’s (with permission of course). Harvesting seed in the wild is bad for the future of the poppy population and may be illegal. It’s best to leave the wildflower show for everyone to enjoy.