Late, Very Late, Summer Blooms

For the past five summers, I have been growing sunflowers in the front yard, right along the sidewalk for the enjoyment of everyone.

  

Including the bees. And then I count the bees for The Great Sunflower Project, a citizen science project aimed at studying bees and other pollinators.  And sadly, their decline. 

Participation in the project is not hard to do, takes very little time, and provides the investigators with buckets of data. I especially love the map showing all of the observation gardens. (Next year, you too could be a little colored circle on the map...)

But this year, nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. The bees were out and busy, but I couldn't get any sunflowers to show up. The seeds just wouldn't germinate. If they had, I could of blamed the lack of results on the hungry snails. Instead it had to be all my fault. Except... except for the one little, brave plantlet that could. And slowly, slowly did.

Until finally, on October 10th, it produced a blossom. And who is that perched on the lower left side of the flower? A most very patient bee.

Brag, Brag, Brag #4: Miquette Elliott (and Courtney & Mark Camperell, too)

Photo courtesy of Pauline Marcou 

Miquette strikes again!  She is one of the featured artists at the Dharma Trading Company, a most excellent supplier for textile artists. She now also works full-time at Volcom (think youth, hip and not me).  Once is a while, she even gets to model some of the Volcom creations.

And, in all her free time, she collaborated, designed, created, sewed and, you know, put together a lovely dress for her adorable cousin Courtney (photo at left) for her rehearsal dinner (wonderful wedding last Saturday). Mark, a very special groom-guy, is also in the photo. Yup, the one on the right.

We wish them all well.

Cover Ups

Yup, those fun, gauzy, drapey fabrics which conceal so many fashion "eh-hms" (otherwise known as lumpy-bulgy things that we don't talk about) also help out in the garden.  Called "floating row covers," they are used to protect plants from the ravages of insect life, generally caterpillars and other icky, creepy-crawly life forms that you really don't want to find on your dinner plate.

The plants which seem to benefit the most from row covers include lettuces, broccoli, cabbage, collards, turnips and other members of the mustard family.

I've found that row covers work best when the plants are small. For plants in tin tubs, grab a few of those bamboo chopsticks (you know, the ones that you rescue from take-out sushi) and stand them up in the dirt so that they are taller than your little seedlings.

Drape the row cover over the pot and clip it to the pot with clothespins.  No one can get in. You can even water right through the fabric. (Kinda. I usually end up watering my feet.)

Even if you don't do any of this, at least save those chopsticks and put them in the green bin. I mean, whaddya think, bamboo grows on trees or somethin'?

I use the same technique when I put new seeds in the ground, only I have to use rocks instead of clothespins. This way the regular Oakland night marauders - raccoons and skunks - have a much harder time digging up everything that you just so carefully planted.

Finally, if you are lucky enough to spend time with those young fairy princess types, row covers are the absolute best for playing dress-up. Just ask Princess.

Lily Lust

The lilies were absolutely spectacular this summer.  

For a glorious show next summer, plant your bulbs now.

Free(!) Rain Barrels in Oakland

Yup.  No cost.  Except somehow there's sales tax... ask Governor Jerry.  I'm sure he'll give you an explanation.

In the meanwhile, and just in time for the rainy season (keep your fingers crossed), the Oakland Dept. of Public Works has free rain barrels for your home. The program lasts through December, 2012.

A while ago, they were "low-cost", but not low enough to grab my attention. Now, we have one here (the top one) and our neighbor has one too (the bottom one). Ours, at 60 gallons, is one of the smaller ones. It cost around $6.

Tricks to the program? Well obviously, you have to pay the tax and be an Oakland resident.  Then you either have to pay for delivery or go pick up the barrel(s) at the The Urban Farm Store in Richmond. You also are responsible for the installation.  Not hard - a few tools and bits of hardware - and instructions are included. Just remember to strap that puppy in - water is heavy and big earthquakes make big messes.

Don't live in Oakland? Silly you. But all is not lost. Now many municipalities throughout the country have low-cost rain barrel programs, so check locally and see what is available in your area. You also may want to start practicing those rain dance moves. 

Shameless Plug #4: Michael Reardon

Sonoma Fountain by Michael Reardon

He's off again, leaving Princess and me to take out the garbage and do lovey-dovey on the sofa all by our little furry selves.

Uh huh, Sonoma Plein Air, the week-long festival of plein air painting designed to raise funds for art education in the Sonoma public schools starts tomorrow. And, for the first time in years, there is no rain in the forecast!

The artists (all 40 or so of them) spend the entire week painting outdoors in Sonoma County and then showcase their work at two big public events: a gala dinner and art auction on Friday evening (it's already sold out, so wish them well) and an art show and sale on the Sonoma Plaza on Saturday from 10 - 4pm.

Sounds like fun, huh?

Your Civic Duties

Yeah, yeah, they say it's your civic duty to vote, and they're right.  Donating blood (and I don't mean playing rugby) is also your civic duty, but lots of people don't do that either.

Personally, I think that donating blood is more fun than voting, even with that big ol' needle:  first, all you have to do is show up and they are soooo very grateful (kinda like your parents at dinnertime.  Although it's always good to wash your hands);  second, they serve cookies and juice;  third, you really feel that you are truly helping out.

But you still gotta vote. Even without the cookies and juice.  And this year, in case you weren't paying attention, you have one big-ass election to work with. On November 6th, to be precise.  So if you're not registered to vote (or can't remember, or just moved, or whatever), start here.

Even if you will be away from home in November, you may still vote, only you have to do it by mail (yup, you'll also need one of those things called "stamps"). But first you have to be registered.

Then you can request an absentee ballot. For an absentee ballot, click here and let them lead you through the process. It's really easy, but do it soon. Because in many states, even by early October, it may just be too late.

As for donating blood?  Keep in mind that you can do that pretty much any time of the year. And rugby - who knows exactly when that season is?

Mom's Out of Town...

Amaryllis Summer and Winter

Winter Amaryllis

We all know and love those happy holiday blooms of the amaryllis (hippeastrum cultivars) which brighten up winter's short, dark dampyness. Often they even come packaged with their own pot of dirt. They grow, they bloom, look lovely, fade, and then get thrown away. And the following year you buy new ones to shine during those dark days.

That's cool. But what do you get if you keep them throughout the year and allow them to re-bloom?

Summer Amaryllis

Well, what you get is is a monster-blooming, hunk'o flowering thing that won't let up.  Last winter, (after five or so years here), my amaryllis had four stalks of flowers in January. And then in March, it popped out another two stalks ready to bloom. Pretty nice.

After its winter blooming cycle, amaryllis need to go outside for a summer holiday.  And what happens then?  You get another one or two blooming stalks appearing in August. Bad timing, because that is pretty much when they should be stashed in the garage for a long, quiet nap.  Nonetheless, sure lovely to see in the summer.

I would like to say that this show-off performance is utterly miraculous, except that I have two plants that act in this same silly way. And I would love to take credit, but really, it's all their own personal glory.

For (very) complete details on keeping amaryllis bulbs going for years and years, click here.

Well, That Was Fun...

and delicious! Last Saturday, my friend Liz and I went out to Annie's Annuals & Perennials to taste tomatoes from Brad Gate's Wild Boar Farms.

The weather was windy, cold and nasty (welcome to August), but the tomatoes sparkled. We tasted a wide range of tomato varieties, all of which were discovered and bred right on the farm. And we all had opinions.

For Liz and me, the yellow "Porkchop" tomato was the hands-up scarfing-down most favorite. We also really liked the "Green Zebra Cherry". (I bought some of those and fed them to my husband that night. He approved.) And "Evan's Purple Pear" tomato was soooo sweet (Evan was at the tasting, too) that it almost didn't seem like a real tomato.

Wild Boar Farm sells tomato plants and seeds, so I'm ready to buy some Green Zebra seeds for next year. I would love to pretend that I can grow
the large, heat-seeking Porkchop tomato but I take my disappointments too seriously. And in fact, for cherry tomatoes, the Green Zebras are really big...

If you are not into tomatoes, you still get to wander through the most amazing array of flowering plants anywhere. With lust in your heart. And wish that you had an estate. With staff, of course.

I bought only one plant. Liz gathered up four. Or was it five? In all fairness though, that lupine was irresistible.