Fall Gardening

This bed was prepped with a some raised bed soil, fertilized, compost and topped with worm compost.

These seedling were sown on August 26th.  They are a mesclun mix. Beautiful mix of colors too.  The seed packet called, "sassy salad mix" from Botanical Interest.  21-58 days.

They no longer show this particular mix on their webpage but they do have other blends.  Mesclun Lettuce.     I highly recommend their seeds. 

This past week we had beautiful fall like weather but next week, we will be back up into the high 90's. I will be using a shade cloth to protect them.  

 

Borage is a plant that you only need to sow once in your garden, it will reseed everywhere.   It is great for attracting bees.

My second round of zinnias. They just started to bloom this week.

I have sunflowers that are starting to open up too.  I will be posted photos of them soon. 
 

First Day Of Spring

Sharing some photos of my garden.

I have some pretty pops of color in my little garden and it has helped brighten up my soul right now.

I hope you are all doing okay.

My prayers go out to everyone.  

One of the borage plants from this summer has continued to bloom even through the winter. We have mild winters her in my zone 10.  I have trimmed the old blooms to make way for some new growth.     Today, rain with some pops of sun.  Can you see the Ladybug.

The borage is growing right next to my pink iceberg rose bush. The bees are very happy too.

Pincushion flower and in the background is a Sweet William.

I have a few Larkspurs that have started to bloom this week.  Next year, I need to sow more.

What a beautiful purple color.  

A lovely pink too.  

Sometimes one sprig can make a lovely arrangement.  

Most of my fall/winter have bolted.  I have just left them alone.  As long as they are healthy, I will let them flower for the bees.  The ladybugs are benefitting from it also.  I see them tucked the lettuce, parsley and spinach.  There are quit a few clusters of their eggs.

A beautiful green bouquet of spinach and Swiss chard.

Now for some Pansies and Violets

I have pressed a few.  I will let you know how they turn out.

Thank you for visiting and I hope to post more photos soon.  Take care and God Bless.

Changes In The Garden - Summer 2019 (Raised Beds)

BEFORE (2018 SUMMER)

AFTER (2019 SUMMER)

The raised beds make a difference in my garden.  A lot more easier to garden too.  Not so hard on my hand and back.  I was not sure what I wanted my garden to look like or what I wanted to grown. But so far, I liked how this past summer turned out.

Showing the rose area in this photo and an area that I'm still working on.  Lower part of the photo shows Borage.  Oh my what an amazing plant and it was the first time growing it too. 

But I want to share some winners for Sumer 2019

These are called "Minnesota Midget" melons.  Fun to grow and they produced well in my zone 10a here in Southern California.  Towards the end of the growing, I had to deal with the powdery white mildew.

So tasty and sweet.  These are my Husbands favorite fruit.  You can see the powdery mildew on the leaves.

The next surprise that grew for me were the mini eggplants called "Little Prince" container eggplants.  Seeds from Renee's Garden.  

They grew well in large containers and amazingly well in one of my raised beds, huge as a matter of fact. They were great producers.  I had to stake the one in the bed because of all the fruit it had on the plant.  First time growing this variety  of eggplants and I had much more success. 

It seems last year, I did not grow as many flowers.  This year I plan to not have that happen.  That is depending what type of summer we have here.

Yarrow, Gina Lollobrigida and zinnias.  

First time growing cover crop.  This is a beautiful and fun cover crop called "common Buckwheat", seeds from Botanical Interests.  Love the tiny little flowers. The plant is good for soil conditioning and attracts bees.  A warmer type cover crop and it will reseed itself.  Need to be careful, it will take over.

It makes great filler to flower bouquets too.  

This is one amazing herb, Borage and it is still growing in my garden.  It loved the summer heat and it really attracted the bees and lay bugs too. Not the most attractive plant but if you need to attract pollinators, this is the plant.  I think I will always be somewhere in my garden.  It has many good uses too.  You need to make sure you wear your garden gloves. A very prickly plant and may cause irritation to your skin.  But it is always good to wear glove while working in the garden.

The long hot days of summer along with the humidity bring this interesting insects, dragonflies.  They were in abundance in summer 2019. 

I could not have done it all without the help from my Husband and my garden buddy Opie.

I hope to post some of the fall and winter garden soon.  The lettuce has been amazing.

Thank you for visiting my blog and have blessed day.