Beginning, again

Whoops.

2 months between posts is a little long. My only excuse is work - too much of it to both take care of the garden and blog, so guess which took priority? And I have been working in the garden - replacing summer veggies with winter ones (which the bugs all ate), uncovering the sedums underneath the melon (which promptly caused them to get sun burned) and planting more bulbs. At least that worked!

Daffodils coming up - do they know its still December?

 Since its almost the end of the year (and almost a year since the back garden got re-done!) I figured some comparison pictures might be good:

Manfreda undulata 'Chocolate Chip' (top) and O. macrocentra (bottom), when first planted (left) and now (right)

'Chocolate Chip' actually looked better a few weeks ago, before the crazy cold weather hit, but it's still going. I'm hoping it might make some flowers next year. O. macrocentra pretty much exploded in size, and has regained its purple coloring with the cold nights. It bloomed a lot last year - I wonder if the same will happen this year?

My project for January, to get back into blogging regularly, will be to follow Allison at Bonnie Lassie's example, and post one picture per day. It might be a few bleak pictures, depending on how the weather goes! It's been abnormally cold here the last few nights (down in the 20's, even 17 deg F!), so most of my time lately has been spent wrapping up some of the succulents/cacti... But tell that to the little stone cactus, hiding under the leaves and Mexican Feathergrass:

A flower bud again - I thought this thing would be dead after the first year... Maybe the grass helps to keep it warm?

A new beginning, again, for both the stone cactus and my blogging. Happy New Year!

About Me

Hello!

I know I always like reading a little bit about the blogger behind the blog, so I figured I should put some information out there too. Also, I'm frequently accused of doing nothing but work, so this should answer that question too. (Of course, none of those people will read this, but whatever...) So with that, here are the things I usually spend my time on:

1) Work. Ok, fine, I work a lot. And I actually enjoy it! But it won't show up on this blog at all, other than that I'm trained as an engineer, so I like things like lists and plans and to-scale-drawings of my house and gardens. On graph paper...

2) Running. I usually run 4 to 5 times a week, and I'm training for a half marathon. Running through my neighborhood gives me an excellent excuse to look at other people's front yards, and interesting plants and ideas. I'm going to start taking my camera with me to take "breaks" during long runs, I mean pictures...

Daffodils, Tulips and Ice Plant in the Spring. It will be
interesting to see if the daffodils comes back next year

3) Gardening. Obviously! I bought my home about 3 years ago, and the second thing the neighbors mentioned was "when are you fixing the front yard?" (The first was "welcome to the neighborhood". I have friendly neighbors!). Now I've just finished part 1 of the back garden's overhaul and plantings also, so both of those will be showing up on the blog. And even before I had my house I had plants (indoor and out), so a lot of my indoor container plants will be showing up too. I tend to "rescue" both indoor and outdoor plants also, so both collections are constantly expanding.

4) Sewing. This is what I do when its too cold/hot/dark/wet to go outside for long. It probably won't show up on the blog too much, unless I do that patio project I've been thinking of....

5) Reading. Besides the Sunset Western Garden Book (my gardening bible in many ways), I also like to read as much as possible. I don't have a tv, so books are the way I relax and unwind.

6) Cooking. Preferably with things from the garden, although I suck at growing edible things. But with the back garden now functional, I'm hopeful for more success in the future.

7) Travel. Between work and leisure, I love going to different places and seeing interesting things (like the inside of an office building, and plants that I've never seen) I'm often inspired to try new things at home once I'm back from a trip, and a trip to Hawaii finally got me to buy a camera!

Aloes in Bloom, in early March at the Huntington Gardens

I realize this all makes me sound horribly "domestic" and it is true that I'm more of a homebody than anything else. But I also like going out and seeing everything my area has to offer. From here, I can drive to the snow in the mountains and the beach in the same day, and I have access to everything in the greater So. Cal area to learn about and explore.

So see, I do more than just work!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog: Gardening Turned up to Eleven. Before I get all distracted by interesting plants and all the weeds that need pulling, I figured I should write down my goals for this blog..

Early Spring in the Front Garden - Tulips, Red Yucca, Ice Plant, Blue Fescue, Sedum and More...

Goals for the blog:
1) Keep track of all the stuff that works, doesn't work, helps, grows, dies, and changes in my front and back gardens. With pictures and all! Since I was young, I've loved playing in the dirt, but I haven't been good at writing down what I've learned. So this will be a place to record all those things.

Also, I'm trying to get rid of a lot of "stuff" - which means I need to actually write down which plants are where, and what they need, instead of saving the pots/labels/tags, which inevitably get lost and clutter up the garage.

2) Show some pictures! I resisted getting a camera for years, mostly because I don't like pictures of me. I still don't like those, but since I have a camera now, I figure I better use it some. And what better way than to take pictures of plants? I just have a point-and-shoot right now, and I'm still learning how to use it, but I'm sure the pictures will get better over time. And since pictures are no good just sitting on my computer, I can put them out here to share (even if the only person interested in them is me...)

3) Show Mother Nature you can garden in the desert! And by Mother Nature, I mean the Internet... I've seen a lot of blogs, and been inspired by a lot of blogs, that cover different climates and different parts of the world. I haven't seen one for my area (Southwest part of the Mojave Desert) and I wanted to add to the information out there. My gardens aren't completely a desert landscape, but conserving water and using interesting and native plants is definitely part of the plan.

Right now, the plan for the blog is to post something regularly (3-4 times a week) and see how that goes... I have a whole lot of plants that I want to document (goal 1) as well as some projects. And I'm also hoping to include some pictures of interesting landscapes/ideas (goal 2), especially as I begin to think about the front garden overhaul, part 2.

So please join me as I try to coax something (anything!) to grow in my sort-of desert garden (turned up to eleven)