Plants, galore! Plus a tasty plant-based lunch.

This weekend, the husband and I tackled our first major yard-related project! Just weeding has been a significant task - after the rain and wind of the winter, it took us a bit of time to clear out our back yard. One of the great things about our house is all of the flower beds! Practically every perimeter is garden. That means a lot of work, and it will eventually mean a lot of satisfaction.

Here's the before picture of our cute little ranch house in Sacramento:

We had to start from the beginning and learn how to prep the soil, select plants, fertilize, and actually get those suckers in the ground. The extent of my pre-existing knowledge of gardening came from two sources: one, my dad was a big gardener in my youth - I learned something about the variety of plants from him (apparently through osmosis!); two, we had lovely rose bushes at our last house, a rental with a mow-and-blow gardener, and I learned exclusively the basics of rose care so I could keep them alive and somewhat healthy. I am still surprised at my own ability to retain plant identification info - wandering through the nursery or flipping through my Western Gardener book, I'll see plants from my past that were hovering at the edge of my gardening subconscious (oh yeah, I remember gaillardia!!). But knowing the names of plants will only get you so far! There is so much other vital information to know before you can pop it in the ground.
These are the before pictures - anybody know what the spidery fern-like plant is in the front? Well, it's gone now!

On Friday, we headed to Lowe's to pick up some gardening supplies, mostly tools. We brought home a shovel, a "clawhand" (is this a hand-held tiller?), another trowel, a transplantor (slightly leaner trowel), a garden rake, a soil testing kit, and an outdoor extension cord for the leafblower.
Saturday was a big day. First we tested our soil with the little kit - the bed where we were going to plant gardenias was about a 6, which is acidic (7 is neutral, below 7 is alkaline). Slightly acidic is good for the gardenias, so we were happy, but we determined that the soil was lacking in other basic nutrients (no big surprise there!). Then we headed to the nursery for plants, compost/organic material, and fertilizer. We had a minor setback - they only had hybrid calla lilies, which die back to the ground over the winter, and I had planned for common callas, which are evergreen. I compromised by taking home a couple of the hybrids in a pretty fuchsia color and special ordering the common callas, which won't be available for another week or two. Then we trucked it all home and the fun began.

We ripped out all of the old plants in the front of the house, leaving only the somewhat sickly bird of paradise next to the door. Everything else had to go - that included a crazy spidery fern-like plant, some overgrown shrubby thing, geraniums, and some mystery bushes with berries and little red flowers. The latter didn't weather our winter freeze too well - they were brittle and woody, with the leaves only recently beginning to fill back in. The husband tackled the monstrous spider-alien plant - it had an extensive root system peppered with icky sac pods. Ew.
In some major news, I have almost conquered my overwhelming fear of worms. I do, however, have to wear gloves to add a layer of protection between myself and the offenders.

After digging out the plants, we worked on the soil for a bit, digging it up and breaking up all the clumps, then working in firmulch (the organic matter - ours included bat guano and chicken manure!! I bet our dogs were intoxicated by the lovely scents) and a basic fertilizer with nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus.

The next morning, we got the plants positioned where we wanted them - and then we planted!

Here's the after!

Here I am, after getting that first plant into the ground:

And the gardenias! (They will get a lot taller.)

Here's the side of the house now - the plants look a little mini, but I think they will fill in as they grow. We put in dwarf blue agapanthus and hybrid callas.

It was almost exhilarating to see the benefits of our hard work. The learning curve is a little steep, but now that we know the basics, I think we are going to make great strides in our yard. Now we just need to learn enough not to kill the plants that we've got. They are in the ground - what next? I should have read farther in the book ...

Here's what we had for lunch on Saturday - great fuel before we put our shovels in the ground. I ran 5 miles Saturday morning, followed by yogurt and cereal, so I needed something substantial before I tackled the yard.

A salad with CSA box mixed greens, almonds, carrots, green onions, cranberries, and cheese, topped with Amy's low-fat honey mustard dressing. Plus a "too-no-fish" open-faced sandwich!


This is such a delightful and unique sandwich! It's like a vegetarian version of tuna fish, or maybe a deconstructed hummus?

Here's how you make it:

Drain one can of chickpeas and mash with a potato masher or fork. Add a couple tablespoons of mayo/miracle whip to taste, as well as mustard to taste (I used both yellow and dijon, probably a teaspoon of each), plus sliced green onions (or chives), a squeeze of lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a pinch or two of smoked paprika or cayenne.

Serve on freshly toasted bread and devour. So yummy!

Visions of spring

Today the weather was beautiful and my husband and I spent some quality time in the garden. We just bought our first house last September, and we are attempting to learn lawn and garden care. It's a pretty steep learning curve! The one plant that I am pretty good with is roses. At our last house, there were a number of pretty rose bushes. We had a gardener, but they didn't really care for the roses. I couldn't let them flounder, so I learned the very basics of how to care for them. I just love them! I think part of my love stems from wonder - roses did not flourish so easily in Virginia, where I grew up. It was possible to grow them with the right care, but in Northern California, you pretty much just need to prune, water, and feed every once in while, and they simply thrive.

Here are some of the blooms from our garden this afternoon:

Eventually, we'd like to have a small vegetable and herb garden. We spent some time at the neighborhood nursery after our weed-a-thon session, planning for the future of our flower beds. In the backyard, we have a great flower bed that runs along the perimeter of our yard, along the fence. In the front yard, there is a bed along the wall of the garage, next to the sidewalk leading up to our front door, and a garden extending along the exterior of the structure from the front door to the edge of the house. Needless to say, we've got lots to do! These are some of the plants on my wish list: butterfly bushes, azaleas, lilacs (some are more hearty than others), gardenias, camellias, foxgloves, and lilies (I like calla lilies better than day lilies). And two special plants: a Meyer lemon tree (dwarf, probably - we don't have a large yard!), and a bird of paradise. The bird of paradise has great sentimental value because my husband and I got married in Maui. We have always loved tropical plants, and that one especially reminds us of our wedding. Plus, we had one in our backyard at our last house, the one with the roses. It was such a special day when we came out and saw it blooming for the first time.

We are going to hopefully work on our yard some next weekend, but until then - I've got about eight to ten rose bushes that are just bursting with buds. Some of them probably have 20 buds just waiting to bloom!

I am so thankful for California's bounty. The vegetables and now the flowers! It's just a wonderful time of year, and this is an amazing place to experience spring.