The Full Catastrophe » garden

Sweet Night Life

Anna — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:49:46 +0000

The first thing on my agenda after putting the kids to bed tonight was smore making. You see, we have plenty of smore fixings in the pantry after a backyard campout with the kids over the weekend (balloons in the tent, jiffy pop, flashlight tag, smores, it is all good.)

and my sugar addicted mind realized last night that a very good smore could be made under the broiler in the kitchen. All day I thought about making another batch of smores that Brian and I could selfishly enjoy sin hijos. Brian decided that our treat should be documented, so please enjoy a look at these lovelies:

I figured that dessert was going to be the sweetest treat of the night, but I was wrong. Our Night blooming Cereus opened tonight. We spent quite a bit of time admiring the flowers and their gorgeous perfume. The blossoms only last one night, so it is kind of a shame to be here at the computer. Once I post this photo I’m headed outside to get one last look. Sweet dreams!

Our Giving Tree

Anna — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:11:58 +0000

Since we’ve lived in this house we have sadly removed five trees from our property. Brian has claimed that the Crape Myrtle was a mercy kill–it was sick and pitiful. The European White Birch was poorly placed and our lot is small so it had to go. Brian’s dad tied a rope around trunk and his bumper, the gave his truck a little gas in order to yank it out of the ground. Next out were a Lemon Tree and a Queen Palm which were casualties to our home construction project. Until this past winter we had a multi-trunked Melaleuca in our front yard which fell during a rain storm. That one was a tragic loss, it was gorgeous and it shaded our big picture window (we really felt the temperature increase inside during last weekend’s heat spell). We now have just one tree in our garden that we love and treasure. This 25′ Chinese Elm has received very expensive lacing style trim work and really is a pretty specimen. It gives us great shade and oxygen and I’m writing this tribute to our tree so that the universe knows that we want nothing to shorten its life. Today we spotted a hummingbird nest [an Anna's Hummingbird nest (Calypte anna), as a matter of fact] in its branches…I’m just saying that this is one great tree.

Zantedeschias

Anna — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:14:20 +0000

The former owners of our house planted this Golden Arum Lily which has just bloomed for me for the first time ever.

It is especially fun to have in the garden because while I was a horticulture student at Cal Poly I grew the pink species of this plant. At the time I called them miniature callas, but now know better that the more accepted common name is Arum. I sold the flowers at the Paso Robles Farmers Market in the back of Brian’s old truck that we called Henry. Funny thing is that had Laurel been a boy we would have used that name again and I’m just now realizing that the name was used already! Here’s a picture of 20 year old me in the greenhouse with my bumper crop:

Nice Surprise

Anna — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:42:20 +0000

Last year Grandma Toki gave me a random Oriental lily plant that was likely one of those flowering plants you buy at the florist that may as well be a cut flower. You know…the plant usually gets disposed of as soon as the blooms die. I had a little space in my mish-mash flower bed at the back fence & threw the lily in with no expectations whatsoever. Today I was removing my over-grown California poppies and nasturtiums and found that Toki’s lily has hung on and is flowering. What a nice surprise! Toki doesn’t read the blog (or have a computer for that matter!). I’ll have to mail her a photo.

Heart Shaped Strawberry

Anna — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:40:11 +0000

If we could replicate this heart shaped strawberry that we found in our strawberry patch then we’d be stinkin’ rich!