Abundance

It's that time of the year - Southern California is exploding with roses. I took home an entire bucket of them from my mom's garden over the weekend and stuck them in every room of the house.



When they're this close to blown, I don't do much "arranging" per se, it's more just a matter of plopping them in vases and trying not to get too scratched up by the thorns.



You only get a few days out of them, but they're pretty lovely days.

Alllllmost done ...

It actually wasn't all that time consuming except for the fact that I ripped it out and redid it. And then I redid the basket weave at the bottom about 10 times because I was short on cord and desperately trying to make it work.

{knots}

I just have a few finishing touches and then we'll get planting.

{experiments}

Which is it's own story, really.

I have an aversion to house plants. There, I said it. They remind me of everyone's houses in the '80s and I feel like people with houseplants are always worrying about strange sounding diseases and dusting them. Dusting living things! It just seems so strange, and like more upkeep than I can sign on for. I valiantly attempted to keep my balcony herb garden alive at our previous place because it was functional and I dislike paying for herbs. I gave in when D brought home mounds of rescued jade plant and spent a weekend potting it all up, because he swore I wouldn't have to do anything with it. I liked our green space although I generally let everything die during the winter.

And then we moved to an apartment with not a single scrap of outdoor space. We tossed the herbs and rehomed the jade and within a month Dustin started trying to get me to agree to indoor plants. I reluctantly agreed and then I decided that if a corner of our apartment was going to look like my childhood I might as well go the whole way and learn to macrame. Logical, right?

To be honest, the decision may have had less to do with aesthetics and more to do with the fact that I haven't picked up a new craft in a long time and I miss the feeling of it. It felt good. More details once I actually get it planted and hung.

Stealing, sort of

Clevelandia sage is my very favorite for cooking, but none of the nurseries around us stock it. It grows in the hills around here, so the last time we went on a hike I ripped a couple of shoots out of the ground and carried it home. I have such a deeply ingrained fear of getting reprimanded that I kept expecting a ranger to show up and ban me for life. Highly unlikely, given the number of hikers who blatantly disregard the no dogs rule on that particular trail.

{sage transplants}

I planted all three cuttings and one month later it's clear that one is dead, one is perfectly happy and the one in the middle is still uncertain. There are probably tricks to make you more likely to get a good outcome, but the shotgun method works too.

Really looking forward to having our own supply of this sage. I think once it takes it will be sturdy enough to survive my halfhearted gardening efforts.

The weekend, briefly

The onslaught of May birthdays continued with my nieces.

{chocolate cake with chocolate frosting - recipe from here}

I treated myself to a couple new herbs for the "garden" and got them settled.

{french lavender, special basil & rosemary}

And rewarded myself with the fruits of my labor.

{ice, fresh garden mint, sparkling water and a splash of gin}

Greenery on display

I should have shared this for St. Patrick's day. Consider it a belated bit of green celebration.

I love flowers. Loooove flowers.

But sometimes it's nice to let the green bits play the starring role.

{Various CA native greenery, in a vintage milk glass bud vase}

Go take a look around this weekend. You might be surprised (and delighted) by all the different shades of green you'll find.

{Photos clearly not taken in my dinky apartment - this is my parents' lovely kitchen}

Planter solution - repurposed wine crates

You guys are so smart! Several of you mentioned wine crates, which kind of steals my thunder, but I'm glad to see that we're on the same page. I would have loved to use the self watering containers that Christina recommended (see them in use here), but my odd space constraints made it difficult (my patio is very long but not terribly wide).



We already had a storage rack sitting outside on our patio, and I wanted to use it if I could. Luckily, wine crates fit on it perfectly.

Craigslist came through for me, and I scored 11 wooden wine crates for $39, which gave me 6 extra to use as storage on the lower levels. They are pine, so they will deteriorate eventually, but pretty much anything you fill with dirt and water and leave outside is going to do that. I considered treating the insides or lining them with plastic but ultimately decided it would only slightly prolong the inevitable.

Prep: My uncle saw my wine crates and immediately worried that they needed to be reinforced to hold up the extra weight. He screwed little rectangles of wood in each of the corners for me! We drilled holes in the bottom to allow for drainage and then laid down a bit of old screen to prevent soil from leaking out.

Planting: Fill with good potting mix, add your plants and plenty of water to get them started. I also tried some seeds. I have no idea if they will take, because all I did was sprinkle them and then put a bit of soil on top. We'll see. I'm not exactly an expert gardener.



See those funny little terracotta things sticking out of my planters? They are called ollas (oy-yahs), and they are a very traditional way to water in the southwest. For more detail, check out this wonderful post about using ollas. Basically, they drastically reduce the amount of watering you have to do, which saves water and effort.

Olla sources: Mine were given to my by my mom, and she purchased them from the local nursery Tree of Life. I found Arizona Pottery to be the most reasonably priced online source.

Technically, this didn't break my shopping hiatus, because the wine crates were repurposed and my mom treated me to the soil and plants because she was so excited to see I was finally going to start my own garden. If I had done the purchasing myself, it would have been about $35 for the gardening supplies, plus the cost of the wine crates and the ollas.

What did I plant?

Sage + greek oregano - both perennials, which means I shouldn't have to replant next year
Rosemary + mint - also perennials, placed together because they are equally invasive and I figured they could hold their own against each other
Basil (two different kinds) - annual, will need to be replanted each year
Cilantro + red bell pepper + Italian parsley - annuals, will need to be replanted each year

I'll make sure to post updates so you can see if I manage not to kill everything.