Spring Gardening

Winter has finally returned. While most of you lovely people were suffering mightily with huge snowfall and bitter cold weather, we were enjoying temperatures closing in on 80 degrees. One should not complain of such things, 80 degrees in January, but still, here in California, land of the drought, there is always a bit of worry that accompanies such weather. Drought. We had a very wet December, so our snow pack (our source of water) is pretty high, so we’re not too worried. But still, we’re somewhat worried at such a dry and warm January.

Enter February, and thankfully, things have cooled off a bit, and we’re having some rain again. Whew. And it looks like this will not be a drought year (all water politics ignored here, because that’s a whole ‘nother post, and more complicated than I want to get). So, after a few days of cold and rain, and even a dusting of snow on our nearby mountain, mornings in the 30s, afternoons in the mid 50s, it seemed time to do some spring gardening. Maya’s working on her Silver Award for Girl Scouts, and their project this year (they had a project last year, but they were too efficient so did not get enough hours in, and now have a second project) is to put together an herb garden and a drip irrigation system for a local elementary school’s greenhouse. So each family is contributing some herbs and veggies. Our contribution is oregano and some peas for their vegetable garden.

(peas in the foreground, oregano behind, then some flowers for us)
We were supposed to buy seeds and let them grow, but as we’re hoping to have some herbs ready for a pizza party in May or June, it might be easier to purchase some seedlings instead. So we did that, and transplanted them into slightly larger pots so that they can grow a bit before we deliver them to school. They’re looking good so far.

All of which got me motivated to do some extra work in our garden. We have a lot of empty pots around, and since we have a tiny little condo yard, there isn’t much room. So I thought perhaps I might pick up some more plants for the pots, along with some potting soil to transplant the oregano and peas. I went for instant gratification, picking thyme for my strawberry pot, and flowers for the others, and then came home and got good and muddy planting them.

But of course, life seldom turns out the way you expect. Between buying too much dirt, and transferring plants from one pot to another, I found myself with several empty pots, lots of potting soil, and nothing to fill them. So after I went to the grocery store to buy ingredients for stew, I stopped at RiteAid and got some seeds. See, the flowers are instant gratification, and the seeds are some kind of hope for spring and renewal. Nice.

I got basil seeds, because everyone loves basil…here they are next to my newest avocado seed…

Some California Poppy seeds for, well, California Poppies…

In the front yard, I transplanted a plant given to me from a woman on my Meals on Wheels route into a bigger pot. This woman is so sweet, reminds me of a grandma. She probably is a grandma, actually, but I mean, she’s just so…grandmotherly. When I arrive with her lunch on a rainy day, she says, “Oh, dear, I’m so glad that you’re wearing a hat, it’s so wet out there!”, and she remembers the little details of my life from week to week. “How was your visit to Portland, dear?” “Did you make it home in time for your meeting last week, honey?” So this plant must live. You can see a pretty yellow something next to it, that I just bought. Also, another plant given to me by another Meals on Wheels recipient, who always looks fetching in her hats and pearls, and an avocado plant that I grew from a seed (I seem to do that a lot, don’t I?).

Then there’s this whatever the heck it is, which has lovely white blossoms, and clearly I should have trimmed it at some point, but I’m so bad at this stuff, I have missed that time slot, so it’s all pretty and bloomy now, so maybe I should trim it now? I don’t know.

And last, we have this pathetic corner of our front yard. The hose on the left is the worst hose ever. It crinks up every time you use it, and wants to clog up and spray everywhere. The pot in the middle is full of various bulbs from previous years, which are probably dead and not going to grow into anything. But every time I dig through a pot of dirt in order to transplant another flower and find a bulb, I put them in this pot. The fact that there are bulbs blooming all over the place here, and these aren’t doing anything at all, probably means they won’t do squat.

Then there’s the plant on the right, probably the saddest of the pictures I have here. It had really pretty yellow flowers last year, and then mostly died (like something from Princess Bride), so I haven’t had the heart to dump it out in favor of a plant that’s actually alive. See how it has some green on the right there? Still, looking at it now, here, I think I need to just get over it, throw away the poor almost dead plant, and buy a new, young, healthy one. Why does that sound like throwing away a person when they get old and not so fresh looking? I’m not thrilled by that idea. But I’m also not thrilled by the idea of a half dead plant in my yard, with two sad little flowers that make the rest of the plant look even worse than dead. Ugh.

What to do?