A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

It's way too hot but my land is beautiful. I FINALLY managed to get some California native wildflowers growing from seed, so my goal of replacing most non-native plants with natives is proceeding nicely. I have beautiful patches and strips of pink and white and blue and purple and yellow flowers, some ruffled, some intricate as a Faberge egg, most no bigger than my thumbnail.

My nectarine sapling, my tomatoes, and my corn is growing very well - I have actual unripe nectarines! Very exciting. Even if something other than me ends up eating them this year, I now know that both grow well in the areas I put them.

I didn't finish my defensible space goals before going to Europe, so I'm continuing now. It's a ton of work even though obviously I'm not doing everything they recommend. I live in a forest, I'm committed to rewilding so I'm not raking leaves in the forest areas, and my deck is going to have deck furniture or what's the point?

But I'm doing everything I can, focusing on removing dead weeds, raking paths and other areas with nothing that's supposed to grow on them anyway to create firebreaks, and creating as much of an ember break as I can within the five-foot zone. Unfortunately the only cherry tree branches I can reach to pick the cherries are right up against and over the deck. Still pondering that one. I'm going to consult an arborist anyway so I'll ask about that.

All the leaves, branches, etc, are getting dumped on an ivy-covered downward slope ending in a fence. This is an area which I want to fill in anyway, to smother the ivy and create an area where I can grow... something. It's in dense shade and not easy to reach with a hose so I'm thinking shade-growing native plants.

I have another huge ivy patch I covered in cardboard over a year ago to smother it. I need to cover the cardboard in mulch, then in dirt. Once that's done, I will only have four giant ivy patches remaining, down from the eight or so I started with.

This is half an acre and I'm the only person working on it till I get the arborist involved, so it's a fairly jaw-dropping amount of work. Luckily it's work I enjoy, though I'd enjoy it more if it was cooler.

My plants survived the snowpocalypse amazingly well. Several saplings I'd planted were badly damaged, but even those are still growing so hopefully will survive, if in somewhat unusual shapes.

One tree fell, not a favorite or a particularly big one. I kept the snag as a wildlife habitat, and was pleasantly surprised that when I told that to the arborist I'd hired to remove the fallen tree, rather than arguing, he knew what I was talking about and said that he'd kept several snags on his own property for that exact reason. I had the fallen tree mulched, so now I have an enormous mulch pile taking up one of my parking spaces.

We had a very unusual amount of rain lasting well into months when it's usually dry. Last week I found a salamander under a log I picked up to do something with! The salamander was tiny and adorable, smaller than my pinky finger; I picked it up because I couldn't resist, then replaced it and the log. I guess the log will just live there now. No idea where the salamander came from as it's normally not wet enough for them. Maybe they bury themselves until there's enough moisture to emerge? It was very encouraging to see it, anyway.

After two years of scattering poppy and other native wildflower seeds to no avail, I finally got little poppy sprouts! Really hoping they'll grow up to be plants, because if I can get them to seed stage, they'll reseed themselves and I'll get them every year.

I went to two native plant sales, one at Heaps Arboretum in Skyforest (up the hill from me) and one at Claremont Botanical Gardens (down the hill). Cross your fingers those plants survive better than the last set I got from the Arboretum, which did not do well. The mountains have a lot of microclimates so there's a lot of trial and error involved in seeing what survives where.

Saplings I planted last year, all thriving: birch, scarlet oak, ginkgo, Bartlett pear (main trunk snapped off in snowmageddon, lopsided branches now propped), Satsuma plum (big branch snapped off).

Saplings I planted this year, all thriving: Rainier cherry (has green cherries!), nectarine (has tiny green nectarines!), Carpathian walnut, Honeycrisp apple, Gala apple, Bing cherry (snapped in half when tree fell on it, still growing).

Food plants I have growing now: giant Bing cherry tree (now with some limbs netted to discourage squirrels; last year they ate ALL my cherries while they were still green), corn, squash, tomatoes, kale, herbs, blueberries, raspberries, giant blackberry hedge which I have barely dealt with this year and probably won't have time to.

I have been using the Picture This app to identify plants on my property. I highly recommend it - it's by far the most accurate I've tried. Here's a non-exhaustive list of what I have growing in my yard:

Planted by me (non-native): tulips. They grow incredibly well here.

Planted by me (native): California poppies, creeping snowberry, western blue-eyed grass, blueblossom ceanothus, golden currant, salmonberry.

Already there (native): Elegant fairyfan (clarkia), small enchanter's nightshade, false mermaidweed, Humboldt's lily, miner's lettuce, thimbleberry, Pacific dogwoods, incense cedar, pine, wild plum, bracken ferns, wild strawberry, Canyon live oak (accidentally coppiced - cut down, now an enormous bush), black sage, California bay.

Already there (non-native): Lunaria (silver dollar plant/moneyplant), sweet violet, periwinkle (vinca), daffodils, chickweed, honey locust, Norway spruce, hollyhock, guelder rose, camellia, spiraea, feverfew.

The land around my house is absolutely magical in spring. It has so many different areas, all like tiny little forests and gardens. The ferny areas look like how I always imagined the forests in Narnia in spring.

We had autumn for about one week, and then jumped straight into winter. Snow is expected later this week. Alas for my morning glories which will never get a chance to blossom.

Raccoon and garden photos.

I've been slowly working away at my garden, collecting rocks from landslides and using them to shore up crumbling slopes and create paths. I've planted some native plants, and have bulbs coming in that I will plant on an otherwise boring and weedy slope.

Paths and leaves.

I have created a small orchard of two apple trees (Gala and Gravenstein), two cherries (Bing and Rainier), a nectarine, and a Carpathian walnut. Hoping to plant some pluots and maybe hazelnuts this spring, if I can get the local nursery to order them.

The blackberry hedges are once again totally out of control. Thorny green vines have gotten into a nearby tree and drop down like snakes, then root. I'm hoping to dig up and replant some along some fences.

Things which grow well here: Asian greens, miners' lettuce, chickweed, blackberries, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, shallots, garlic, blueberries, thimbleberries.

Things which do not grow well here: Honeyberries - dropped dead. Bell peppers - total failure with multiple attempts. Salal berries, salmonberries, golden currants - very spindly and pathetic. Peas - probably too cold. Melons - NONE of them ever sprouted, and I planted a lot. I had thought also morning glories, except those refused to grow at any point when they'd have had time to grow, then suddenly sprouted and grew vigorously one month before the temperatures hit freezing. Very annoying.

Questionable: Raspberries. The bushes grew okay, but I didn't get much fruit.

The hens continue to lay. Kebi keeps warning me they'll stop for winter or molting or something, but so far they've always staggered that so I get a regular egg supply even if a couple of them aren't laying.

When I bought my house, the owners left me a handy, if incomplete, guide to its garden. They mentioned a hedge of wild raspberries growing between the road and the hedge of wild blackberries. I faithfully pruned them and trellised them, relieved that they were a thornless variety.

When sholio visited, she mentioned that they didn't look like raspberries. I said they were definitely raspberries, as attested to by both the previous owners and my neighbors who had seen them growing. I said they must be some different-looking wild variant. Plus, when I examined the spent canes, they very clearly had raspberry-looking places where berries once had been.

They've been slowly ripening. Today I ate a couple. I was very disappointed that they were the worst raspberries I've ever had.

Then I thought, "Wait a sec..." It turned out that sholio was right! They are not any kind of raspberry. They are...

( Read more... )

But I need to plant some more actual raspberries.

The garden is blossoming marvelously. Bees swarm the pink and white blossoms of the blackberry thicket. Tiny daisy-like feverfew is flowering everywhere, along with an unidentified purple flower. (If you'd like to see pics or try to ID it, they're up at Instagram and Facebook.)

The raspberries have tiny green berries, and my blueberry has berries too! The latter is draped in bird netting, while I'm keeping a close watch on the former. The squirrels ate all my cherries while they were still green, goddammit.

Herbs are thriving, as is my shady hugelkulture Asian greens bed, which I worried wouldn't get enough sun. My sunny beds mostly failed to germinate at all; I think I underestimated the heat of the sun even though they don't get it for that long. I'm going to try again in the sunny beds, this time with sun-loving plants like tomatoes.

My strawberries, both cultivated and wild, are very happy in multiple locations. The latter are in a very hard-to-water place, and their berries are not very juicy.

The haskaps did not thrive. I replanted them in a sunnier location, but they seem done for. The salmonberry is thriving, the thimbleberry is struggling, the salal I planted in shade is happy and the salal I planted in sun is miserable so I will try transplanting it.

I pre-sprouted morning glory seeds, and I still only got a few to become actual plants. I think my fences are all too shady for them. Next year I will try climbing roses.

I've further cozified the loft with handmade rag rugs (via Etsy, not made by me) and a knockoff Love Sack from Target.

I'm building a mini retaining wall of unmortared rocks by collecting side-of-the-highway rockfall rocks every time I pass a certain area, then setting them up like Legos, bit by bit. One-handed.

I have had my left wrist mostly out of commission since early February. I have now failed two months of PT and a steroid shot, and am on a second round of PT and steroid iontophoresis. If that fails I may need surgery, hence the questions about dictation. It's a nuisance, not a misery; it's not painful if I wear a brace and don't stress it, and I cope way better with mobility issues than with pain. I mostly mention this so you can be impressed with how much I'm managing to do literally one-handed.

When my last Native Foods Nursery order arrives and is planted, I will have nine types of berries growing on my land: strawberries, blackberries (wild), raspberries (wild and cultivated), blueberries, golden currants, salmonberries, thimbleberries, salal berries, and honeyberries/haskaps.

I have never tried the latter five - please comment if you have! - and in fact only learned about them on the website. But since I've only ever encountered one berry I really dislike, I have high hopes. Except for the salal berries, which are mostly for the birds.)

Spring has just displaced autumn. I'm shocked too. Everything is bursting into either bloom or tiny bright new leaves.

I have a cherry tree flowering enthusiastically over my deck, scarlet camellias by the kitchen, and daffodils and lunaria (moneyplant) coming up everywhere. I am discovering what things are when they bloom; there were a bunch of unidentifiable plants already in the yard. I planted some tulips and crocuses and forgot about them, and they're coming up. All the saplings I planted in winter have buds or little leaves or flowers; my plum blossom has ended, and pear blossom has begun.

It's absolutely magical. The insects have returned, and I'm finding earthworms when I dig. I have spotted robins, chickadees, Stellar's jays, and ringneck pigeons. If it was up to me, I'd spend all day in the garden.

Photos on Instagram and Facebook.

Thank you to the very kind people who sent me books off my wishlist!

I shall try to do reviews of them as a thank-you, insofar as one can review books that aren't meant to be read cover-to-cover.










Meanwhile, spring has sprung. The cats go berserk on an hourly basis, the chickens are laying so much that I am mentally running through people who might want eggs, and I have three yellow crocuses. Photos to come.

Think I'll do some gardening in my yard.

Or bat house? Squirrel feeder? Plant that bees or butterflies go nuts over (California natives preferred)? Or anything else along those lines? Please recommend your favorite bird, animal, or beneficial insect attractor!

NOTE: I am living in Crestline, California, which is in the San Bernardino mountains. My property has a big lot with huge incense cedars and plenty of space to grow. It has four seasons, including very hot summers and winters with snow. We are currently experiencing an extreme drought and birds and other critters could really use a source of water.

OTHER NOTE: I closely monitor wild animal and bird news. There is currently no bird epidemic being spread by bird baths in California. If it hits California, I will of course remove anything spreading disease.

Birds found in Crestline. We also have raccoons, bears, coyotes, and the usual assortment of California mountain critters. I would ideally like to NOT attract bears, though I realize that leaving food outside is never totally safe.