Pee In A Jar To Protect Your Plants

People are telling me to pee in a jar and toss it around my vegetable containers to keep out the raccoons.

Im having a real hard time with this. Really?
 P.S. This is not my pee.

The Beauty and the Annoyance of Nature

Last night I peeked out of my back door and saw the cutest little mama raccoon and her three babies. My heart melted of course, so I didn't shake my fist this time. In fact, they started coming to the door but stopped and walked away. So I thought we had made peace until I went outside this morning and found some of my container vegetables dug out and destroyed. I tried to save a tomato plant, but I don't know if it will make it. Hopefully they will leave everything else alone. I guess it was my own damned fault for using all that fish emulsion. I wasnt thinking. Im sure it would have been better if I had fertalized earlier that morning instead of late afternoon. Little assholes. :(

It really made me grouchy this morning, but then I went and watered the other garden and pulled weeds. Watching the bees buzzing around the artichokes made me a whole lot happier.

I feel like I'm in gardening school and that I'm in the right place at the right time. I'm supposed to be learning how to do this. Because whatever I knew in a past life, I have forgotten. I'd love to have  my own yard again to beautify one day. I was a homeowner once. Two homes to be exact - not at the same time. Most don't know that. I was Susie Homemaker. But that was long ago and far away..............we wont go into how long ago that was.......................I moved on to be a cool artist chick - or something like that............... but things are coming full circle and  I would love to fill a yard again with herbs, flowers, and lots of organic edibles. But until then, I'll just make all the mistakes now. I'll relearn..I'll do it better this  time.

Sad Little Beans

 My poor little pole beans are not looking so good. Im pretty sure that this is the bag of the cheapest potting soil that I found a few months back. I had put some homemade compost in there before I planted the beans, and Im trying to make sure that Im watering just enough and not too much. But who knows what the hell Im doing - my guess is as good as yours. So.......I made up a couple 5 gallon buckets of water and fish emulsion, watered the garden as usual, and gave everyone a good long drink of fishie water. And proceeded to spill it all over myself in the process.

Yay.

Hope they green up and start doing thier thing like good little beans should. 

This Guerrilla gardening is not easy.

Little Bears On Crack

 I read this quote somewhere from a wildlife expert: "Raccoons are little bears on crack"

When I moved here, the only real urban wildlife experience that I had had in my adult life was watching city raccoons climb  up steep vertical three story Victorian buildings via the drainpipes outdoors. I was so amazed at their climbing prowess.  And now and then I would see them cross the road at night. Once a friend who was visiting from England saw one on the sidewalk as we were driving down a dark San Francisco road and that was pretty fun because she was so excited. I knew that some lived out back in an old abandoned carriage house and up in the neighbors attic, but I rarely saw one. We pretty much avoided each other. I had my own exciting nightlife going on and we left each other alone.

Upon arriving here in Crockett, I used to get that creepy feeling like eyes were watching me from the depths of the overgrown back yard at night. I would hear a raccoon in the trees now and then. I would see one in the road. I even saw a mama and her babies on the fence. They proceeded to climb up into the tree and that was the last that I saw of them. And then one night when I was on Facebook, minding my own business or trying to save the world, I heard a noise and saw a little hand work its way through the crack between the screen door and the door frame and try to push the screen door open.

I frickin lost it. I screamed and must have scared it because it went away. Unlike real human crack addicts who dont go away when you scream.

Since then, I have had a baby gate over the screen door when the weather starts getting nice, just in case it happens again. It scared the shit out of me. And having had little experience with the wild suburban beasts of the bay area, I was terrified.

But then they left me alone. I kept the baby gate there just in case, but they left me alone.

This summer though, they must be used to me. And it seems like there are a lot of them  in the neighborhood. They are all over the place. The babies are grown and the Mama wanders slowly  through the backyard....wary, but not hesitant to do what ever she feels like doing. She's big and fat and well fed. She knows I'm watching her. I hear them fighting with that growl that sounds like what the Minotaur must have sounded like. They stand there in their stance when I catch them fighting on the deck. One backs off. The other approaches slowly. They stare me down. I have my hand on the sliding glass door - ready to shut it quickly in case they charge. They commence to fighting again right in front of me. Its terrifying, but I brave up and I tell them that I have googled how to skin a raccoon and that they make good eatin. I tell them that they will be my dinner should we have a worst case scenario. I tell them this through my screen door. as I shake my fist. I think they understand that I'm serious. And I am.- in the moment.  In my mind they understand because they finally slowly walk away.

I just read recently that they will cut a hole through your screen door. Oh Great.

I opened up the front door the other night. It was hot and I needed to get some air. My front door is right on the street. I step out onto the sidewalk and a little raccoon walking by at the same time makes a beeline for the door. That little f%*&er is trying to run into my house! I shriek. I step quickly back in, blocking his way and slam the door. But this time I ended up laughing because it was pretty funny. And its way better than a human on crack trying to get in. We have to keep it all in perspective.

I swear to god though, there are some nights that I feel like a prisoner in my own house and that the raccoons are out to get me! But wait. Isnt that how I used to feel in the city?

My neighbor did finally tell me that there was someone who lived on the corner who used to let the raccoons, the possums, and the feral cats come in to her house and eat cat food. It takes all kinds, doesn't it. The woman who lived here before me used to feed Jack, the feral cat who has adopted me, and in doing so, fed the raccoons also. I'm pretty sure word has it that I'm new in town, a sucker for a pretty face and that this is the place for a free meal. But the cat ladies leave food all up and down the street for the ferals. I give them nothing but fist shaking. They just dont need me and it doesn't make sense.

So Ive decided to make friends with the cute little critters. I don't really want to eat them. I cant let them come in the house because just like a bad boyfriend, they will never leave..............but they were here first and fair is fair. I will ignore the plants that they destroy, the fighting, the rampaging, the poop, the intrusions on my privacy and I'll just treat them like annoying children. They will be my Dennis The Menace and I will be their Mr. Wilson.

I Love My Home

I love my home. I wish everyone did.
She's my real mother.
Like true spoiled children, we just assume she will always be there for us.
Until she dies.
Or kicks us out.

Eating Dirt

My friend Homirah just posted this link on Facebook about how we humans eat so little dirt these days - and how this could be related to the rise in our absolute inability to be friends with organisms and bacterias - how we all are starting to have these ungodly allergies and immune disorders. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Unless we buy organic right from the farmer, our produce has practically been disinfected by the time it reaches our mouths. (not to mention all the chemicals and pesticides we are exposed to........)

When I was a kid, my dad always planted a huge garden. He had 9 mouths to feed, and a huge back yard. He raised rabbits and pigeons, and chickens for food - and this manure was used to amend the soil every year. There were no chemicals or fancy gardening implements that I can remember. We ate the peas that grew under the rabbit cages from the pigeon food that fell under the hutches - right straight out of the manure.
I ate bugs and poo and  I have relatively fewer allergies than most of my friends, it seems.

So while, this 21st century woman no longer is willing to eat a vegetable grown straight from poo - ok: I do eat mushrooms --  I don't mind brushing off a little dirt and eating something right out the ground. As long as it is fairly safe dirt. No radiation or horrible toxins that we know of.

garden Update

 It is still growing.
Ive only killed the bell peppers. And this was just because the tomatoes were blocking the spray from the hose and I dont think anyone realized this. When I came back from Tahoe - oops.
Oh well. Im not huge on bell peppers anyway.

But the tomatoes are growing on the garden up the hill. There are tomatoes in there, you just cant see them well.

And they are growing in my container garden as well. Ive realized that the first two tomatoes that I put into containers are root bound. and this is why they don't look so great. They are producing, but I think they should be bigger and lusher. Ive fertilized them, but I think the bottom line is that next year, all tomatoes go in bigger containers if they cant be in the ground.

Nasturtiums

They are not so pretty when they die back and I understand why some people don't like them, but they are one of my favorite plants. And they add so much color at certain times of the year. Besides having yummy flowers for salads, and deterring insects from your garden, they make my daily walks a joy.

I Dont Do Sun

 My sister talked me into taking a few days off to hang out at Squaw Valley with her and the kids. I dont lay out by pools and stuff like that. I dont like to bake myself. I guess thats why I dont look 100%  my age (so they say). Im not a resortie type of person. Its kind of lost on me. Tahoe is beautiful though, there is no denying this. So I did my best to relax and had a good time. It was grand.

And to be honest, it wasn't that warm. So there was no way I was taking my clothes off.

I worried incessantly about my garden. But the beans didnt look bad and the tomatoes are puttin on babies. I mulched really good before I left and watered A LOT before I left. And I came back to 90 degree weather - got in some watering just in the nick of time.

Next time I'll have to enlist someones' help to water while I'm away.Because I'm going to take more vacations. Its time.

The Attack Of The Leaf Miners............

Leaf Miners............another term for maggots.  Fly maggots burrowing into my chard - here in this garden and up the hill in my other garden. And nothing seems to help. Yes, they say you can just trim it and eat it anyway and I tried. But unless the Apocalypse strikes and I'm starving, maggots just are not cutting it for me as a protein source.

I'll try growing this instead under my skylight and see what happens. And I did hear about using Neem oil - spraying it on the leaves. I guess I should try that before ripping the plants from their pots. Any suggestions would be welcome. I was really excited about growing chard - its one of my faves!

Crockett

My little adopted town of Crockett has so many scenic little streets and nooks and crannies. Many of the roads I find as challenging as those of San Francisco. One hill after another...............

This is my view as I head back home from watering the garden during the transit of venus.today. The plants need all the love they can get.

The Shed

I love going into Sam and Earl's shed. Its like what you would find in a romantic movie. Overgrown ivy climbing in through the holes in the walls, spider webs, farming and gardening tools, hay and feathers, strange little artifacts found in the soil, forgotten treasures.............its like being in a dream..

Summer Savory - The New Sage?

I just learned quite by accident that charred Summer Savory gives off the most pleasant scent very similar to sage!

ummmm..........don't turn on the wrong burner. Better yet: put your drying herbs somewhere other than on top of a burner.

Guerilla Gardening

 My backyard is too shady for growing much of anything. So Ive been forced to do myself some guerrilla gardening in the lot next door. I did obtain permission from the owner who subsequently put the land up for sale.

Sigh.

But I'm sure it wont sell for a while..

Fingers crossed.

This is my second attempt at growing container vegetables. (not counting all the failed attempts when living in San Francisco) My second attempt here in Crockett where it is  warm and sunny in the summer.

I set them out further into the field where they can get sun. I rigged up a hose to water them with (instead of dragging buckets of water back and forth - oh yes I did.) and this is already helping immensely.

 The tomatoes just don't look great despite water and some fish emulsion. I put compost in with the potting soil before planting. But I think I simply have a lot more to learn about this and all the info that I study online is either contradictory or just plain confusing. Too much water, not enough water, too much this, not enough that. Ive got baby tomatoes coming on finally, so we'll see. Maybe pretty plants just are not so important. And maybe its just going to take a lot to turn my thumb green.

 There are radishes and carrots planted in with the tomatoes also. We'll see if this was a good idea or not. I do want to plant a bin of coriander and one of lettuce. Maybe some more beans ...........maybe one for more carrots and radishes. And lets not forget all the herbs that I lust for. But that's a lot of soil and bins to buy. That's a lot of storing bins through the winter. Maybe small is best to start with since I have a tendency to be a homicidal plant killer.

I planted marigolds and wild flowers in the sidewalk also. I pulled up all the weeds and amended the soil with compost and regular old soil from the lot. I carefully put seeds in rows so that I would see where the plants were coming up. Unfortunately , later on, I had a fit of madness and threw in a mess of flower seeds - thinking they probably wouldn't grow - and whats a few more - the birds will eat the seeds, right? Well I was wrong and stuff has come up that I have no idea what on earth it is. So I thin and thin and hope Im actually pulling weeds and not flowers.. It does look like there are lots of  something flowerie sprouting  in there, so I'll continue thinning it out and see what happens. What a mess.

 2012 is the year of WHATEVER for me. So whatever. If it grows and I learn a thing or two, get to gaze on some garden color, and have some vegetables without toxins, I'll be grateful. Already the butterfly's are flitting around this. Ive done my small part to make them happy.

Things I Surround Myself With

My Garden At Sam and Earl's house

Sam and I are doing a kind of trade right now. I give him sewing lessons - or make pillows - or pull weeds and I get to grow vegetables and herbs in one of the garden plots that he made..

I had a great crop of radishes but then I decided to plant cucumbers and squash once those got all eaten up. At first I thought that I was going to lose the squash starts because they were not looking so good, but then they snapped out of it. I also planted two more tomato plants. The two that I have growing now are an Early Girl - and I forget which one the other is. One is a determinate and the other an indeterminate. They are full of foliage and very lush. Ive got a few little tomatoes coming on and some blossoms. But it seems like they are too perfect looking. I don't trust this. Because I killed my last tomatoes last year. They just failed.

First of all, last year they were in 5 gallon containers, had inconsistent water, and were not getting enough sun. They just didn't produce much. When mushrooms started growing in the soil, I freaked out and tossed them all into a compost pile.  I know now that mushrooms growing in the soil was a good thing - but the poor plants were not doing well any way. It was hopeless. And now, of all the crazy things, Ive got little baby tomato plants growing all over the place. I guess there were a few fruits on the plants that got massacred and those seeds got spread around somehow. Birds, wind..........who knows.  Nature is strange at best and I obviously didn't kill them dead enough...............

So these current tomatoes that Ive got growing up at Sam and Earl's are in soil that has been amended and mulched. They look fabulous and I cant believe that I haven't killed them. I don't have a car yet, so I kind of just get my starts where I can get them  - these came from Home Depot. I'm not promoting Home Depot at all. I'm just letting you know where they came from if that makes a difference to you. I would rather have purchased them from an organic nursery, but we just have to do what we have to do, don't we. I'm sure they are just fine. So hopefully they will continue to be healthy plants with lots of produce! Perhaps living next to a bee hive helps them grow better. I don't trust myself with container growing, but I do have a container garden over by my house right now with varying stages of growth. More will be blogged about that later.

Ive also got a row of lettuce and carrots growing in the ground. Ive been eating lots of salads now and I swear that this lettuce tastes better than any lettuce Ive eaten from a store.

In the plot next to mine, we planted 4 tomatoes for Sam and Earl - and pole beans. I'm sure they all came from a local nursery as Sam is a gardener by trade and very concerned with organics and the environment as well. With any luck, we will have tomatoes and zucchinis coming out of our ears.

There is that mama jay again protecting her nest.

Diatomaceous Earth

Last summer I tried to grow some veggies up under my skylight in my studio. Its a great space with lots of light and I thought this would be so perfect as I wanted to grow lettuce, kale, and chard indoors during the winter. What I ended up with was a small swarm of gnats that laid eggs in the potting soil and made my life miserable.

I tried again this spring - and lo and behold - they came back.They came back despite clean pots, new potting soil, and a spring cleaning.

This just came in the mail.  My weapon.
It safely kills those buggers dead.
And evidently I purchased enough to last a million years.
And its probably already a million years old.
I will let you know how it works out.

Coulter's Matilija Poppy

When I first moved here 2 years ago, I was astounded by these huge poppies growing wild in the hillsides throughout town. They grow super tall and it could be safe to say that some reach 8 inches in width. Evidently they are endangered  and don't grow everywhere. But here in Brigadoon that would make perfect sense.

Actually they do well in very arid conditions, so from what I understand these can easily take over a garden if you try to transplant them into yours. They are seen throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and  are native to California. They were named after a Chief living in the Ventura area. I don't remember them from my early years of living in the bay area, but I could have been looking at other things...........like boys.

So after the wild roses that garnish the hills stop blooming, these pop up and add drama on my walks to the post office. Just an added spring perk of living here!

Coulter's Matilija Poppy

Romneya Coulteri
(Papaveraceae)

Herb Books

I have so many. This is one of my favorites. One day, I would like to take some courses on herbal lore. But I have been collecting these books for over 30 years and this will have to do. I probably know more than I think I do since Ive actually read them, they are falling apart,  and Ive practiced on myself for all these years.

The Troubles

As the world gets more and more out of control, as the thugs who run it care less about what happens to the rest of us, as the food we eat and the air we breathe and the water we drink becomes more toxic with each dawning day, the need to grow our own food  for ourselves and our families has become most important to me.

I don't know what I'm doing. Getting back to my roots maybe. I am not a gardener by trade, but  Ive always loved plants, herbes, medicinals, hedgewitchie ways and healthier living. Ive always been concerned about our planet and what mankind has done to it. I'm always trying to improve myself and the world around me. I'm always terribly concerned about the direction that we are going in. And to be honest, things like watching seedlings pop up out of the ground are what floats my boat these days. Its a very magical thing to behold.

I moved out of the city and into a tiny little town where time has forgotten us and life moves at a slower pace. It has been difficult and joyful and quite a transition for me. And I love it.
Yes, I live in Brigadoon. And if you have ever experienced the fog here in winter, you would agree.

 This is where I wont be focusing on my fashion and costuming world (except that I would dearly love to be running around in those full, pouffe skirts!) , but where I'll be recording my guerrilla gardening adventures and whatever else I'm concerned with as regards to the planet!

And hopefully I wont be pecked by birds along the way. Cuz there is one that follows me up at my friend Sam's house where he lets me have a little garden of my own. She sits on a pole 2 feet away from me and lets me know she doesn't want me there.