Many thanks to Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for inspiring all of us to stop and snap the flowers each month. You can find a list of lovely bloom days posts on her blog.

]]> http://blog.thekatsgarden.com/?feed=rss2&p=1007 2 http://blog.thekatsgarden.com/?p=997 http://blog.thekatsgarden.com/?p=997#comments Wed, 26 May 2010 13:50:40 +0000 Kat http://blog.thekatsgarden.com/?p=997

When I started off to Farmer’s Market Saturday morning, I noticed that the flowers in the front yard looked a little sad. It has been horribly windy so I figured they had dried out a bit more quickly than I expected and needed a drink. I made a mental note to do some watering when I got back. Upon closer inspection, however, I realized they weren’t merely dry and droopy but they were missing something. Flowers were missing. As I surveyed the stumps where flowers had been just the day before, I realized what had happened. Some time during the evening, someone had made themselves a lovely bouquet with the flowers in my front yard. They helped themselves to most of the bachelor buttons, the gaillardia and the Jupiter’s beard. They clipped some of the ornamental grasses. They had even brought scissors.

At first I was shocked. I couldn’t believe someone would do such a thing. A couple of flowers here and there was one thing. But to clear cut all the lovely blooms was another. Then it made me angry. I wished there was something I could spray on the flowers in case them came back that would give them a terrible rash. It made me sad too. Coming home to those beautiful flowers made me smile. Now they were gone. Sure, they would grow back, but would they be safe?

It seems I’m not alone in experiencing garden thievery. Just yesterday Gayla Trail of You Grow Girl posted a photo of a hole in the ground where her sea holly had been. Carri at Between the Limes tweeted that someone had put broken glass in her veggie garden and she gardens with her daughter. A friend told me how her neighbor has a terrible time losing flowers and persimmons because her tiny front yard is within arms reach of the sidewalk. Do people think that proximity makes it OK? I’ve been told that people gardening at the community garden expect to lose things. A friend told me first you get angry, then you get used to it.

For some reason, some people seem to think that stealing from or vandalizing someone’s garden is alright. It’s only a plant after all. But it’s more than a plant. Gardens give gardeners joy. We nurture and care for our plants because they are living things. We cover them when the nights are too chilly. We vigilantly watch for snails and gophers that might devour them and dispatch the critters without much regret. We scour the internet when a new and unfamiliar disease crops up that we must battle. Now we must protect them from thieves and vandals as well. Somehow it just seems horribly cruel. Because when you steal or damage a person’s garden, you aren’t just destroying mere things. You are destroying something that brings them joy, something they put their heart and soul into, something they love.

To the person or persons that stole my flowers all I can say is that I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. And it would be best if you never came back. Because people like you suck and as Gayla Trail so eloquently put it in her sign to the thief “stealing plants is a low and selfish act.”

Have you been the victim of garden vandalism or thievery? Sound off in the comments section and tell those garden hoodlums how you feel.

My garden seems to fairing much better than I thought. As I was thinking about what would be in this post, I lamented that there wasn’t that much in bloom. But as I puttered around the garden with camera in hand, I find that there is, actually, quite a bit in bloom.

Some other observations in preparing this post:

I love “Jack.” Mimulus ‘Jack’ is part of the ‘kids’ series of mimulus. I don’t like any of his siblings, but ‘Jack’ is amazing. He has been blooming nonstop since last October.

If you plant only one gallardia, make is ‘oranges & lemons.’ This plant only gets better and better as it grows. Another nonstop bloomer and a pollinator attractant.

Oenethera  looks deceptively delicate, but beware. Although I love this plant it is a bit of a menace in the garden. Not only does it reseed like crazy it spreads underground. I also spotted a patch of it growing about a mile away and I’m pretty sure the seeds came from my yard.

Last year I had red and pink Shirley poppies. Now I have a volunteer that is both red & pink combined. These poppies are happy. The Oriental Princess Victoria Louise, however, is not. The warm winter has made the blooming stems grow ridiculously short. All the flowers are in full bloom two inches below the foliage. Had I not been weeding, I would have never seen them.

Row one: Chocolate Mint scented geranium, Mimulus ‘Jack’ (my new favorite plant), Columbine ‘origami’

Row two: Columbine ‘Black Barlow’, Poppy “Queen Victoria Louise’ (showing me she doesn’t like coastal California by her short stems), Chives

Row three: Tickseed, Pepino Melon blooms, Pepino melons (yum!)

Row four: Ever reliable nasturtiums, Yarrow, gargoyle poking out between the lavender buds

Row five:  Borage (pollinator attractant mega star), Helleborus, Tomatillo

Row six: Shirley poppy, Oenothera, Statice limonium

Row seven: Centaurea cyanus in lavender, then blue, Gallardia “oranges & lemons”

Row eight: Gallardia, Centranthus ruber, Lobelia trailing sapphire

Row nine: Viola odorata, white agapanthus almost there

Many thanks to Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for inspiring all of us to stop and snap the flowers each month. You can find a list of lovely bloom days posts on her blog.

Finally! I can’t tell you how long I have been wanting to try my hand at canning something. I started to get the urge last summer when I had tons of tomatoes and was running out of space in my tiny freezer. I looked into classes at the Parks & Recreation Dept., but they were always on the weekends and I worked weekends. So I let it drop until winter when I checked a few books out of the library. It seemed difficult when I read the “what went wrong” sections of the books. Jars could break, lids could not seal properly or your stuff inside the jar could simply be yucky. There was water bath canning and pressure canning. Things you could can in one but not the other. Levels of acidity required and warnings. It just seemed complicated.

As things will do, however, time will pass and for some reason they start to make sense. I think ones self conscious works on the problem until they figure it out. And it’s strawberry season for Pete’s sake. How could I miss that? So this weekend, I bit the bullet and gave it a shot. You know what? It’s EASY. Let me repeat that… EASY. There were no broken jars, no lids that didn’t seal and that strawberry/ginger jam I had on my oatmeal this morning was downright delicious.

If  you have been thinking about trying your hand at canning, do. It’s a great way to save some of the harvest you work so hard to produce. It is also a great way to make sure that the food your family eats is healthy. They now have No Sugar Needed Pectin which worked fabulously with dried Stevia as a sweetener. Now you may not want to use a sweetener other than sugar, but you might want the option of using less. Did you know that many recipes call for as many cups (or more) of sugar as you have fruit? Four cups of fruit can use 4 cups of sugar. With regular pectin you need the sugar to help things jell. With the No Sugar Needed Pectin you have the choice on how much you use. Think about  how much sugar is in that store bought jam and you might want to consider giving canning a try.

Some things I’ve learned so far:

1. You really don’t need a ton of fancy gadgets. You do need a water bath canner with rack, a  jar lifter (because they are hot) and a good quality funnel is nice. You need canning jars with fresh lids. You can easily get started for around $40. A lid lifter would be nice to have, but isn’t necessary. I got by just using some tongs but had to be careful not to dip the end of the lid in the jam.

2. Sugar does make the jam retain color better. If you are giving them away as gifts, you may want to use at least some sugar.

3. There are tons of resources and information on the internet. You really don’t need a book. Check out the goings on over at Tigress in a Jam’s Can Jam. The monthly challenges can really inspire. There is also tons of information and recipes over at the Ball website. There are even great recipes on the insert in the pectin box.

4. Don’t try and use your water bath canner to warm your jars. It takes too long to reach boiling once you’ve filled the jars and they begin to cool. Use your dishwasher or a separate pot to warm the lids and jars. Get your canner boiling when you start to cook your jam.

5. It’s easy. As a coworker put it, “It’s just steps.” Read the process through a few times and then just take it step by step.

6. Strawberry growers often sell seconds at a discounted rate. Just by asking for seconds (berries that are undersized or a bit overripe) at the strawberry stand I paid $7 instead of $18. You are going to be smashing them up anyway.

7. A full flat of strawberries is a bit much your first time out. Half a flat will give you two batches of jam.

8. Hearing the jars pop as they seal after processing is a very satisfying sound. It means you did it!

8. Canning can be addictive.

9. Canning is fun.

Are any of your plants like totally confused? Let me know in the comments.

This past Saturday, the Central Coast Greenhouse Growers Association held its annual open house where wholesale nurseries in the area open their doors, for one day only, to the public. What gardener wouldn’t want a behind the scenes looks at how their plants are grown? And better yet, how about some great deals on those plants? This was the first year I could attend because although I was still working, Native Sons Nursery just happens to be a short detour on my way to work.

Hidden in a grove Eucalyptus trees, there is very little to indicate the nursery’s presence. The tall fence and sloping ground all but hides the treasures hidden inside. But once you walk through the gate it is like you died and went to gardener’s heaven. Not Grandma’s gardening heaven, but the cool, hip part of heaven where succulents, drought tolerant plants and oddities are the norm. Now you have to understand that I can buy Native Son’s plants at work. We order them in fairly regularly. But nothing creates a feeding frenzy more than eager gardeners rushing through rows and rows of plants filling their wagons to capacity.

So it was probably a good thing for my budget that I only had a short amount of time to shop and browse. You can see my take above. Starting at the top and going clockwise, you have the plant I have been wanting for almost a year, Stachys byzantina ‘Primrose Heron,’ next Agave gentryi ‘Jaws,’ Sedum album ‘Nigra,’ Rhodiola pachyclados, and Sempervivum ‘Royal Ruby.’ If I had more time, there would be more. My “need to see list”  that I created the night before was a full page long. There was the entire selection of Euphorbia that I had to skip and much of the 5 gallon shrubs that I missed. But all things considered, I’m happy with what I got. I got what I came for, the chartreuse Stachys.

If you are a gardener on the Central Coast, the open house is a ton of fun. Most nurseries have refreshments and drawings, and more importantly great deals on plants. You get to see what goes on behind the scenes. You get to smell that lovely greenhouse smell. And you get to blow your plant budget with tons of folks who are doing the same exact thing (and are pretty happy about it). If you don’t live nearby, however, all is not lost. You can check out Native Sons website at the link above. Not only is their plant list quite informational, but the photographs are gorgeous. If you are in California, you can probably find a nursery near you that carries their plants. You can also follow them on Twitter @nativesons where they might tempt you with chartreuse plants if you express your craving for them.