Winter? Ha! We Laugh in the Face of Winter!

Tomorrow we meet with my daughter's kindergarten teacher to discuss how disruptive she is in class. We'll go over how she acts bored, likes to talk a lot, and is somewhat defiant in a classroom setting.  Today, I feel guilt.  She is me. She is who I was as a child and she is who I am as an adult. And I like her, just the way she is. 

And then I look at my dog, who is only 8 years old but looks so much older....until you throw the ball.  Then she acts like she is two, and she looks happy.  She is me.

And there's me.  This weekend I officially entered my mid-thirties, and I caught a cold. I spent two days napping on the couch catching up on episodes of True Blood (don't judge). And all of the fun I had planned for myself kind of disappeared. But, I was still able to throw a ball for the happy dog, and I was still able to drag a couple of straw bales from our fall decor out to the front yard with the intention of using them to keep some of my plants warm for the hard freeze coming tonight.  I got as far as dragging the bales to front yard garden, then I stopped. 

My daughter may not be able to sit still in class, but put her in a garden and she GROWS.  Here she's cracking open dried pods from our purple hyacinth vines and collecting their seeds.  These have become her favorite to collect. 

And she told me to sit down.  She said, "I've got this! I'll take care of the hay!" and she ran around with chunks at a time, throwing it in the air, in my hair....everywhere.  And for once, I didn't care.

And, the mess she made is everywhere.  But I love her for her passion, her love of the outdoors, and how connected she is with nature.  Tomorrow as we meet with her teacher, I will be defiant.  I won't listen.  I won't sit still, and I will be bored.  Regardless of what anyone says, I've done something right. She is me. And WE are perfectly fine.

DIY Behind-the-Door Wrapping Paper/Ribbon Storage

Today I won the battle with my large collection of wrapping paper and ribbon.  My New Year's resolution for 2012 was to organize our office, specifically all of the wrapping paper and craft items I have. I turned to Pinterest for ideas, and came across this idea that uses behind the door for storage.  As easy as her design was, it didn't hold enough wrapping paper for me, so I drew my own design.  It just took a few hours to make, and can easily be made if you have a hand saw or circular saw. First I took inventory of all of my wrapping paper and ribbons to figure out how many dowels I would need to store all of my stuff.  I had 21 rolls of paper (yeah, you can call me a wrapping paper hoarder), and enough ribbon to fill a couple of dowels.  I had decided to make two of these since I had the space in our office, but these instructions are just for one, using 14 dowels.

Next step is figuring out your shape.  Standard wrapping paper rolls are 24 inches, but I had a few that were 30 inches, so I wanted mine to be wider than 30 inches.  If I had chose to stick with the 24 inch size, it would not peek from behind the door like you see above.  My door is 6 1/2 feet tall, but I opted to keep it at 6 feet tall just so that everything was easily within arms reach.  I went to Home Depot and bought two 2x2x8 boards, and had them cut them to be 6 feet tall.  Home Depot will cut them for free, so it saves me the work!  I picked up 14 dowels that were their 7/16 x 48" size (labeled green or "jade").  I chose this size because any smaller and the dowels would sag with heavy rolls of paper on them.  Any larger and some of the rolls of ribbon I have wouldn't fit on them.  Plus, this size fits perfectly with the standard 1" hook size, thus keeping the costs way down.  Attach your newly cut 2x2 boards behind the door.  I used #10 x 3-1/2" wood screws (3 on each side: 6 total). I pre-drilled holes in the wood and the wall to make it easier. 

Here are the hooks you want.  You'll need to figure out how many dowels you're going to use to determine how many to get.  Since I was making two of these it made more sense to buy a box of 50 to start with.  These are nice because when you screw them in, you don't need to pre-drill. I measured mine to be 5 inches apart, but you can probably put them a little closer in order to get more dowels in. Screw all of the hooks in to both boards.

Next up is cutting the dowels. I admit I didn't measure here.  I just placed one of the dowels in the hooks on the wall and marked where I wanted to cut it, where it was overlapping the hooks by about a half an inch.  I then marked the rest of my dowels at the same location, took them outside, and cut them all with a circular saw.  This can be done with a hand saw as well, but go with a circular saw for a cleaner, faster cut.

Last step is to load up the rack with your rolls of wrapping paper and ribbon.  I paper clip one side of each roll to keep them neat on the rack.

Ta-da!  All done! This was done for a little over $30.  Here's the cost breakdown with items being purchased at Home Depot:

7/16 x 48" dowels: $1.47 each (I used 14 here)
2x2 8 foot boards: $1.48 each (used 2)
#10 x 3-1/2" wood screws $0.98 for pkg of 2 (need 3 pkgs)
Box of 50 hooks: $4.21

Petaluma Seed Bank

Ever since Baker Creek opened up the Seed Bank in Petaluma a few years ago, I have made the drive there to pick out my seeds for my spring/summer garden.  This year I made the trip with my friend Amy from The Lamm Farm.  With handfuls of wish lists from our family and friends, we made the two hour drive to Petaluma.  The building alone is worth the trip- the historic Sonoma County National Bank building, located at 199 N. Petaluma Blvd.  Built in 1926, it has a beautiful 30 foot tall metal ceiling, and a lot of it's original ornate fixtures. 

Floor to ceiling windows bring in a lot of natural light, as customers browse literally thousands of non-GMO seeds that Baker Creek offers. 

The store is well organized.  One section has flowers, one section has herbs, and the fruits and vegetables are alphabetically sorted A-Z.  There is also a section bulk seed purchases, in case you have the room for 5000 squash plants....

The owners, Jere and Emilee Gettle, just released their first book called The Heirloom Life Gardener.  It contains all of the beautiful full color photos that you'd find in their amazing catalog, and information about saving seeds, their trips around the world to gather seeds, and how to grow most of the seeds you can find at the Seed Bank, organically.  This WAS on my wish list, but five minutes ago it showed up on my doorstep as an early birthday present from my friend Dan.  Yay!  Of course after I finish reading it, I'll probably be making another trip BACK to the Seed Bank!

There's not just seeds and books at the Seed Bank, they have a nice assortment of gifts and seed starting supplies as well.  I'm pretty sure this is the only place around that carries a Romanesco Broccoli candle!  How cute is that?!  Right now they also have discounted  items from the National Heirloom Exposition that took place in September in Santa Rosa.  I didn't go, and I regret it.  Next year, if it is still in Santa Rosa, I'll be there!

I kind of wish I had visited here BEFORE Christmas as they had so many cute gift ideas for all of my gardening friends.  I picked up some plant markers while I was there. And I really wanted to grab some of those wooden seedling boxes that they had too- hopefully they are still there on my next trip! 

A successful trip as usual!  My daughter had simply requested "Lots of different flowers" and I think I covered that with Zebrina Hollyhocks, and various petunias, zinnias, poppies and bachelors buttons. I'm going to take a stab at growing black beans for my first time so I picked up their "Cherokee Trail of Tears". I am also banking...err hoping.... that since our last two summers were COOL(according to my standards), that this will be a summer of HEAT, and I loaded up on various melons.  If my wish comes true, this summer we'll be enjoying melons like "Collective Farm Woman", "Oran's", and "Green Machine".  Before Amy left my place I also grabbed a couple of her Melon "Charentais" seeds (which have been on my wish list for a couple of years), and some of her "Blue Podded Garden Peas", too.  Noticeably absent: tomatoes.  I know, crazy right?  I had left my tomato and pepper wish list at home, and didn't just want to wing it.  I'll be placing an order it January probably (after I finish reading The Heirloom Life Gardener, of course).

For more information about the Seed Bank in Petaluma, or Baker Creek seeds, you can visit their website here, and be sure to sign up for their catalog!  You can also listen to a podcast from Farmer Fred from Get Growing that took place mid-December, where he interviewed Jere Gettle about his new book The Heirloom Life Gardener, and about the National Heirloom Exposition. 

Brrrrrrrr..... Baby it's Cold Outside!

We've had a couple of frosty nights here in Sacramento.  After the first night of frost the garden faired pretty well, but back to back (to back, etc) nights and my garden has turned to mush.  Early this week we had lots of wind to knock the rest of the leaves off the trees (like the Utah Sweet Pomegranate above left, and the bright yellow leaves from our gingko tree to the right), hopefully those leaves offered enough heat and cover for some of my more tender perennials.  Only time will tell.

Pictured above is the so-called "front yard" garden at about 9am this morning.  This side of the yard doesn't start getting sun until around 10am, so the frost tends to linger for a while.  The fence and citrus trees above are covered in C-9 Christmas lights and set on a dusk to dawn timer to provide some heat (and holiday cheer). 

As for things that turned to mush, we have some of the lovelies pictured above.  From left to right, Dahlia imperialis, Verbascum (I can't remember which one, and it's too cold to go outside and read the tag), and Iochroma cyanea 'Burgundy Wine'.  Just last week all three of these were green and perky.  All three should survive, although I'm thinking the iochroma is going to need a little extra protection than I was thinking it would.

The "I'm not afraid of a little frost- I'm too busy looking awesome" award goes to Athansia pinnata, pictured above.  This is one of my favorite plants as it looks good year round.  As you can tell by the photo above, its blooms laugh in the face of frost. 

The pictures above are of my Echium 'Mr. Happy'.  The photo on the left was taken on Sunday.  The photo on the right was taken this morning.  My other Echiums handled the frost pretty well, but this plant in particular just looks droopy and sad now.  I'm praying it recovers as it was growing to be one of the largest Echium "towers" I've grown yet.  Fingers crossed!

Guess what time of year it is?  Yep- it's citrus season!  I managed to get all of the trees wrapped in Christmas lights this past weekend and just in time!  Clearly I wasn't thinking how much energy it would take to keep 12 tree's warm. Lets just hope that my pummelo tree isn't robbed again....



The biggest disappointment I had was of my Salvia wagneriana.  I have two of them, one is a couple of years old and is huge, and one is only about 6 months old and still in a small size.  I have never seen it bloom in my garden!  Every year it gets close- then BAM! The frost comes and turns the plant to mush.  The plant returns every year without problems, but still I'd like to enjoy to the blooms at least once! 

There were still some blooms in the garden as of this past weekend, but I'm pretty sure most of them are gone after today.  The only blooms that seem unaffected by the frost were the hollyhocks (above).  I guess I should be thankful I have anything blooming this time of year, but it still makes me sad to see less colors. Speaking of color.....

.....in case I get too busy to post again before Christmas-  Merry Christmas from Us! 

Talini's Nursery- 1st Annual Fall Celebration Day!

This Saturday I'll be attending Talini's first fall party- and I can't wait to attend! There will be several speakers there covering all of the major topics that aspiring urban homesteaders want to hear about! Here are the details:

Talini's Fall Party

Saturday, October 15 · 11:00am - 6:00pm

5601 Folsom Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95819

11:30: Kate and Michelle from Worm Fancy will be talking about using worms to assist with composting.  Check out their website !

12:30: Greg and Brian from Two Flew the Coop will be there to talk about keeping chickens in your backyard. These are the same guys that build the beautiful chicken coops that Talini's carries, and they'll even have some of their chickens there for you to meet!

2:00 Brian Fishback, owner of BD Ranch and Apiary, will be speaking on backyard beekeeping. Brian is a past president of the Sacramento Bee Keepers Association, and will be available to answer any questions you might have on the benefits of having bees on your property (on my list of things to do!).

 

Hope to see you there!

The Lamm Farm: Fields of Lavender

Imagine if this was the view you woke up up to every morning.
A few months ago I got up early, made myself coffee, and drove myself 45 minutes over to the Lamm Farm. I admit I've never had anyone say "Hey- we could use help planting nearly a thousand lavender plants," but it wasn't until I got there that I got a better idea of what I was getting myself into.

(okay, so maybe a large reason why I went was to see their bee hive.)But when I arrived.... I was speechless. What a beautiful farm! As the volunteers arrived, we were all commenting on where we'd like to hang our hammock. We had master plans of fine dinners at tables nestled in the future lavender fields, and finding the perfect location to build our yoga platform.

Oh! But we were here to work! The Lamm Farm asked for help, and help they got! This is where social media came in to play! Not only did they get me, but they got help from @tikikristi, @scribbykitty, @the_jenny, and many more! Yes, they all have real names, and once we got past the "wow- you look nothing like your avatar" conversation (kidding!), we grabbed our shovels and started digging.

From there what took place was amazing. First off, we learned that garden bloggers are SLOW planters (ahem, that would be me and Kristi). If you need to plant lavender in record time, DO NOT ask a garden blogger. We sit there and chat with the plants....and we catch frogs and lizards, and we get all excited every time we get a worm in our shovel..... or maybe that's just me?

We also learned that when you need help, turn to your locals. The Lamm Farm utilized Twitter, Facebook and their blog to get enough volunteers to help them start their dream of a lavender farm.

We took a break for a BBQ lunch. It was a chance to bond with new friends, learn more about the Lamm Farm, and chance to relax and enjoy the scenery.

Later we would learn that this landscape fabric was not an ideal choice for weed control here....

And I would also learn that the row closest to a large oak tree was not the best row to adopt.....

But what I would learn is how attached I've become to this farm, and to this family.... and these plants!

I went back here this past weekend to spend a day helping them weed, and again enjoyed the peaceful sounds of country living.

I was excited to see how well these plants have grown over the past few months, and it was an awesome feeling knowing that I had been a part of the original crew that put them in ground back in May 2011.

Have you planted something beautiful lately?

Davis Ranch Harvest Festival

So, our pumpkin got smashed, but I refused to let some snotty teens/young adults ruin our Halloween traditions. The only logical thing to do was to go get another.

The same day that we found our pumpkin smashed in the street, kiddo and I ventured off to Davis Ranch in Sloughhouse, CA, to find ourselves a replacement.

Let's just say we had no problems finding one. Actually, I should say we had a problem sticking to JUST one!

I took her here when she was just about a year old for her first pumpkin, and we hadn't been back since. I regret that now, as they have an awesome selection of pumpkins at AWESOME prices. My husband had taken her to Apple Hill the day before and sat horrible traffic and battled lines of people just to get an apple donut. Davis Ranch was the opposite: well organized parking thanks to their several parking attendants, and lots of check-out stands for you to make your purchases.

We lucked out and showed up during their Harvest Festival, but even though they were busier than normal, it was never out of control. And since there weren't a gazillion people there, my Fall photos with kiddo turned out great without me having to crop random people out of my pictures (I hate doing that).

She and I had a BLAST. We got feathers put in our hair by one of the vendors, then spent the next couple of hours loading up our cart with almonds, pistachios, avocados, corn, green beans, gourds, winter squash for soups, and of course.....pumpkins.

And for the same price of the one pumpkin we lost, we added SO many more pumpkins to our front entry way. Thank you Davis Ranch for a great day! Next year, we're coming here first!