Gardens Home & Garden

That is a great age. They are so eager to help and try things.

It hailed for about 20 minutes so it was a fair amount. Yesterday (and today) it's a bit chilly but fairly sunny and bright. By next week it should be spring again.

Last week I pulled my bowl of peanuts from the front porch because the rat was coming around. This morning my polite squirrel came up to where I kept the bowl looking - so I'll put it back out. Unfortunately, Tornado-dog does not approve of Polite Squirrel on the front porch and if I have the door opened, he barks at her.

Most definitely she loves being outside in the garden, her mum says ‘ I don’t know where she gets it from?’ I said I do, me, my side of the family are always outside doing something even if it’s just soaking up the sun. She went yes that’s true.
We’ve had some nice weather here at the moment, sometimes a little chilly but weather has picked up some now. Thank goodness.
My resident pigeons have tried to eat my suet slab that’s hanging but most of it goes over the floor so the other birds pick up and eat it, they’ve eaten all the seed so I’m not going to fill it up yet as nothing else gets a look in then.

Love it! I didn't realize until I was going through a family photo album, but all the way back through my maternal line, animals were a major part of our lives - most all the photos include the family pets from cats and dogs to cows. It was nice to see that show. On my dad's side, only one dog showed in photos before my Mom met my dad - big difference.

I just filled the four main feeders (front porch, back steps, dining room window and day room window). The birds watch for me now - within a couple minutes of my going in the house, they were at the feeders. They know I will always fill the first two no matter what. The cats are happily watching the birds - hanging the feeders outside the windows was the best thing I ever did for them.

Once there are no more storms coming through, I'll start filling the other backyard feeders - there are 11 of them.

Went out and looked at my container plants. They are all doing great. Both my hummingbird sages are blooming - one yellow and one pink. I'll need to up-pot them soon. And my tiny little California fuchsias doubled in size in the past few days. I'll be able to up-pot them into their big planter box in no time. Going to need more soil and perlite within the month.

Yeah we’ve always had dogs at home, I remember one time I went home with a feral kitten from where I used to work and my dad put up with it for about 3 days and then made me give it away as he didn’t like it, I ended up taking it to a farm for them to use as a ratter, they had other cats there too, so I didn’t feel to bad about it.
I did use to just turn up with animals though, be it a budgie or a hamster or fish, lol even dug a fish pond in the back garden once and filled it with plants and fish, he couldn’t make me give that away lmao. To be honest he did enjoy that and even got a seat to sit and watch them in the warm weather.
My brother has a small holding so he has cattle there which the year before last when calving we turned up just as she was giving birth, which was brilliant to see, right up close and personal. They are so cute when they’re little and come up and suck your fingers suckling.
lol I don’t have as many feeders as you do but I do have 6 feeders and a bird table plus I put food on the shed roof and the crows come and use the roof and I’ve noticed the blue tits are going round my bushes now getting the spiders that are starting to move about.
I will have to start and empty my pots to put new compost in ready for this year’s flowers and spread the throw outs over the garden and mix it in, but I’ll wait a couple of more weeks yet.

My Mom did rescue and my dad hated all the animals, but unlike the rest of his family he was good with animals and actually liked them.

I do remember when I was about 17, a friend's cat had kittens and one was a grey & white tuxedo. One of our rescues, a black & white tuxedo, had been returned because "he brings in poison oak and my husband is allergic to it" so I had sort of adopted him. Anyway, I saw the kitten and wanted him. So I brought him home to my Mom. She said I'd have to ask my dad which was a guaranteed no. I had to do some quick thinking.

When he got home, I rushed to put the kitten in my room. Then I waited for my dad to check his milk and cookies and sit in his recliner. Then I said "you know how you bought {older sibling} her dog? And remember how you bought {younger sibling} her dog? Well, I've never gotten to pick out my pet."

He said "you got Mary" and I pointed out that she was a rescue and the deal was if I did dog training she could stay with us, but I didn't actually get to pick from a litter."

My Mom pointed out that was true. So my dad asked "what breed do you want?" thinking he'd naysay my choice. I ran to my room yelling "Remington you get to stay!!!! As I went I heard him say "she already got it?!?!"

I came back out with my kitten and my dad was pissed. He said "that's a cat, you said it was a dog!" I replied "no, I said you bought the others each a dog, but I never said I wanted a dog." It was too late, he couldn't go back on it so Remington stayed. He was a great cat. He and Boswell went with me when I left home a few years later.

Thinking back on that, there may be a reason my dad didn't like me.

My Mom's trick was to bring the cat home and if he asked where it came from she'd tell him "that's not a new cat, that's so-and-so". I don't know if he truly fell for it, but he never called her on it.

The finches just came back to the porch for another feeding. And a bit ago I heard the mockingbird croaking.

I don’t think I ever did ask if I could have anything, I just used to turn up with them because I think I knew what the answer would have been at the end of the day. Apart from one time when my ex’s brother had a rescue collie and they was looking for another home for him as she didn’t have the time for him and I did ask him if he would be interested in having him, anyway we took him home to meet my
Mum and dad and he said yes ok because he was so laid back and calm and he like that, we used to take him out and take him to the pub with us when we went there sometimes so they had no walking to do with him, which suited him fine. We done the dirty work he reaped the cuddles.

We have had a wonderful spell of sunny weather and the gardens have responded, everything looks so fresh and the colours are starting to appear. The wild violets that I encouraged have spread and grown taller, but are now appearing in most of the pots and between the blocks in shady corners.


I love them but wish the camera could capture the true violet colour.


I don't know whether this tub will survive the invasion by Fox and Cubs - another wild flower which looks great in Summer but is proving to be a nuisance on the paving.
The grass has had it's first cut, so now it's out with Tally's little gym. We've got to stop those kilos returning! She has photobombed this shot, must admit she does look fatter than her 12.5k.

Those are so pretty! I wish I had a shady spot for something like that. What a gorgeous blue sky!

And that is an adorable photo bomber! Last time Cat-dog photobombed, she took a dump right in the middle of it...

My coral yuccas (false yucca) have bloom stalks! I've had them 3 years now and this is their first bloom.



The first one was about 2-1/2 feet tall in this photo - it is now over 5 feet tall (the bloom stalk). The second one is about 3 feet tall (he had a slower start due to getting trampled by the yard guys).

Once the flowers appear I'll take another photo.

My catmints are in bloom now. Funny Looney1 comes out on his tether and completely ignores the catmint. Instead he bites the kniphofias. He seems to like the thin blade like leaves best.

Looney1 has gotten very good about going outside. Instead of escaping and trying to avoid me, he has figured out that if he comes to me and lets me put his tether on he can stay outside. He has beenenjoying himself greatly.

My coneflowers are coming back. All but one have nice bushy foliage. The odd one has a couple leaves that look good but not much else. Luckily it's not one of my favorite varieties so if it doesn't do anything I won't be upset.

My grapes are growing like weeds. Lots of new growth.

Two of my Christmas Cheer poker plants have new bloom stalks on them! Nice to see that as they are winter bloomers. My hummingbird sages are all blooming.

Everything else is looking good. I should start seeing the lion's tails putting out new bloom balls soon.

Your false Yuccas look similar to New Zealand Cabbage, (Cordyline). I wonder whether the flower will be similar?
I suppose that you will get dessert grapes living where you do. I think they are very sour if grown in this area.
Our weather forecast is not as good for this week - cooler and showery, but we could do with a little rain as the pots dry out so quickly.

The flowers are more dramatic than the cordyline.


I've planted two table grapes - flame seedless and princess seedless. Flame is a red grape and commonly found in our grocery stores (the Thompson seedless being the most common white variety). Princess is a hybrid and is a white grape but gets some red to it in the fall. Neither is as sweet as the concord. Around here, the concord is the standard for grape juice and jams and jellies. I find it way too sweet as such. The flame has some tartness to it to reduce that sweetness level. I haven't tried the princess before but have read that the flavor is similar to the thompson.

My third grape is the California wild grape. It is less sweet than table grapes and often just grown ornamentally. Once I get some harvested, I'll make jams. I figure the wild grape can be used to cut the sweetness of the others.

Oh yes, much more colour and better balanced. The cordylines always look lop-sided.
Will you be keeping your vines trimmed back vinyard style, or letting them sprawl against a wall or fence?

They are going to sprawl over a couple arbors. The wild grape up and over a cheap arbor and the other two going up either side of a nice sturdy arbor. I don't plan on doing a lot of pruning - just enough to keep them producing but I want them be as free as possible.

Took some photos with my phone today.

Here is the wild grape:


And the other two:





And I found a bloom on my mimulus changeling:


And I paw started on my kangaroo paw:

And here is an updated photo of the front.


The front center plants still have a lot of growing to do. They should get to be about 3 feet tall or so and 5 feet wide. Most of the other plants are at mature size, so I'll be filling in with some groundcover plants and the easter egg emus.

There is a passion fruit growing that will go over the arbor. And it you look in front of the right side of the arbor, you'll see the false yucca. It's flower stalk is now over 5-1/2 feet tall! And there is a second one started. I just added a giant false yucca further back by the copper bird bath - it will be night blooming and attractive to hummingbirds and bats.


And in the back left corner my pineapple guava is doing great. I moved all my ice plants* to that corner also. They are very happy there. As the pineapple guava gets bigger, I'll prune the lower braches so it becomes a tree more than a shrub and the bench will sit underneath.


*I did just finally get two jewel of desert topaz ice plants. I've been trying for two years to find them in stock. I planted those just in front of the bistro set.

I'm thinking I'm going to get an umbrella to put over the chairs.

What a difference! It's going to look great when it's in full bloom, and your vines thicken up.
I love the shape of your house. It's like something out of a fairy storybook.

Thanks! I'm looking forward to the grapes filling up the arbors. Just to the east of them, I have several bird feeders among a large butterfly bush, a South African jasmine climbing up a trellis, and another pineapple guava tree. So that whole section will be a nice dense habitat for the resident birds.