I took a long walk this week around my neighborhood.  I used to do this quite often when I first moved here, pointing out flowers and vegetables to my husband as we’d walk:  “Pansies, and there’s a daisy, oh, look at those sweet peas!”

He always indulgently nodded his head; a few times he asked how I knew so many of the flowers.  I couldn’t explain it, really – I just loved them so much that I couldn’t not know.

So I had some extra time all to myself and I decided to take a walk.

It’s springtime, officially, and there were flowers everywhere.  Manicured lawns and crazy English cottage gardens, run-down yards filled with weeds…  I saw them all.  In my hour of mid-day walking, I happened on some fabulous things.

First was a huge display of purple “paper” flowers.  I have a soft spot in my heart for them; as a kid I remember my dad stopping on the side of the road to pick some for my mom.  Bees buzzed around, totally ignoring me and going for the nectar inside the blooms (honestly I never knew they were so appealing to bees – I may have to plant some once my backyard recovers from the de-weeding).

Then, a tree (I admit I don’t know it’s name) with flowers so delicate they seemed almost fake – miniatures purchased at a craft store.  A few exotic “orchid” trees, a whole lot of freesia and lillies and daisies.  Several breathtaking displays of giant roses.  Sweet peas draped over the chain-link fence of the community garden.  Jasmine called to me from several yards, its intoxicating scent impossible to ignore.

One nice thing about Southern California (aside from our incredible growing season, that is) is the propensity for citrus to take off.  Nearly every other house had one or two trees – ranging from tiny tangerines and limes to ten-foot grapefruits.  All were in full bloom.  At one house, I was sorely tempted to trespass and collect the ripe fruit (there was so much on the ground that I’m fairly certain no one is in residence – which means I’d be doing them a favor, right?).  But it’s against my own very private nature to do so, so I moved along.

There were butterflies and birds and bees everywhere.  Whoever has said we’re having a major bee disappearance hasn’t looked in my neighborhood (frankly, the entire idea scares the bejeezus out of me, since I know how integral the bee population is to my own garden, so it did my heart mountains of good to see this).  I think I even saw some early monarchs, but they flitted around me so fast I couldn’t be sure.

There are a few vegetable gardens already established – of course, I can only see into people’s front (or side) yards, so I’m sure there are more than I’ve seen.  I’ve loved two of them since the moment I moved in – one is just around the corner, a small but extremely well-producing patch on the parkway where the owners grow corn and peppers and broccoli and later on sunflowers and tomatoes.  They’ve also got an incredible strawberry patch, and once gave us a seedling from their giant pumpkin.  The other is a Beatles-themed front yard garden, complete with seven-foot blackberry “waterfalls” and all the veggies you can imagine.  They really have laid out their space nicely, and even though I love the privacy of a backyard garden, if we find a house with a large front yard area I think I’m going to rip off some of their design!

I did see another vegetable patch in the side yard of a corner lot.  Like my first garden, the planters were overly-enthusiastic.  Tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, and lettuce were all squashed into a 6×3′ raised bed.  They looked lovely – as baby plants, they all fit – but the peppers will never grow spaced so close together and the strawberries are already shaded almost entirely (they’ll be even more so once everything else grows, since they’re the closest to the house, behind all the other veggies).  But I loved the enthusiasm!!!

Again with the updates that consist mainly of links…  But I had to share, because this makes me happy:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090320/ap_on_go_pr_wh/white_house_garden

In short, it’s an article about Michelle Obama starting a kitchen garden at the White House.  Now, of course, her garden patch is about 10x the size of mine and will be, I’m certain, well-tended by White House staff…  But the idea is still appealing to me.  It also smacks of World War One and Two Victory Gardens and a time when homes actually grew much of the food they served.  I am in love with the fact that Mrs. Obama was so impatient/excited too!

On my own garden front, my husband and I have been clearing weeds from the back yard and have moved everything out of the way in anticipation of (FINALLY!) rolling out solarizing plastic (now that it’s been almost six months since I started to really talk about it!).  We’re hoping that the weather will return to warm and sunny and that in a month or so we’ll be able to start planing in earnest.  It will actually push our planing season to far later than it’s ever been, but if we can actually get a harvest this year I will be a happy camper.  And who knows?  Next year I might have a large garden in my own backyard (rather than a rented one!).

Of course, anyone who has eaten a tomato ripened in the sun in his or her own backyard knows the quality of home-grown produce. But home gardening also makes a lot of sense financially. The link below is to an article about home gardening and the economy’s impact on gardening. Personally, even at the peak of my garden’s productivity, I never saw my grocery bill go down to $40 – but every little bit helps, and maybe this will inspire people!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090315/ap_on_bi_ge/recession_gardening

Whew!  It’s been a while since I declared I’d start over again, but I’m happy to report I finally made a little progress.  After an extremely long couple of months full of too many things that were keeping me away from the back yard, I came home today and (thanks to Daylight Savings Time!) it was light outside and the backyard beckoned.

It felt so good to be out there, digging.  That beautiful smell of fresh dirt is like no other perfume on earth.  At one point I got down on all fours and just breathed it in.

Unfortunately my garden is really sick right now.  After months of promising myself I’d solarize, I finally bought a black tarp.  But it’s been alternately rainy and blistering, and my decidedly obnoxious work schedule has been keeping me away until dark most nights.  So my entire garden is covered in weeds – shepherd’s purse and dandelions, mostly – and the dandelions are covered in aphids.

Concentrating on the fresh start idea instead of crying about all the damage done, I decided to ready the garden for the solarization process.  Now, I’m not set to put down the tarp yet, but I’m hoping to do a little each day until the weekend, when I can really get out there and get it started for good.  But I had a few things to do first.

I started with my asparagus plants.  Three years ago, I planted one-year shoots in the garden.  They’ve come back every year, despite any adverse water or weed conditions, and have now grown into a nice patch.  But with the major weed problem, the entire garden is going to be covered over.  So I had to move them.  I dug and dug, as carefully as I could, sometimes with my fingers to try to get individual deep roots out.  I don’t know whether there’s enough room in the pot, or whether I got all the roots I needed to.  I might have done more damage than good.  And I felt awful every time I’d hear a root snap.  But in the end I pulled out three large clumps and their accompanying stalks.  I’m unsure whether I should cut them to allow the roots time to concentrate on growing or whether it’s better to allow the stalks to gather more sunlight…  I guess I’ll just wait and see.

I also took the opportunity to pull as many dandelions as I could find – and there were so many.  It was depressing to see them, full of squirming little buglets…  But they’re (mostly) gone now, and the rest should be clear-cut and covered over on the weekend.  Let’s hope it helps.

I also finally threw away the blueberry bush and the orange tree I killed last year.  I had to brush away tears as I hauled them to the trash can – it was like letting go of a pet, or something…  I started to get all depressed when I remembered the day I brought them (both) home, how excited I was to go to my favorite little nursery, how careful I was when I put them in the back seat of my car, how lovingly I took care of them, how much I looked forward to planting them permanently in a yard when we bought a house…  It’s depressing to know that I could have them both still if I hadn’t been such a dope.  But I have to move forward, and I still have plants that depend on me to live.  The second blueberry bush inexplicably survived and is flowering.  The avocado tree we bought back in the fall has tiny buds all over it.   The gardenia isn’t doing so well, but I just transplanted it into a bigger pot.  I’m hoping that helps.

I also picked up a basil plant and a garlic plant yesterday at the store.  I almost didn’t, since I knew I’d have to pot them, but my husband said he’d like to try the garlic, and encouraged me to get another baby plant to ease into the gardening world again.  I potted both of those in the pots vacated by the squash plants I bought when last I posted(which actually fruited once – but I think it just got too cold and wet for them). 

We’ve also still got a few hearty souls left over from last year’s garden – the lavender is doing incredibly, and in fact is blooming right now.  I’m doing my best to harvest the flowers daily so I can dry them and use them.  The artichoke split into two plants, which are enormous.  No stalk yet, but the plants look healthy and strong.  There’s thyme, too.  And as I was watering the newly-potted asparagus, I noticed that there’s a tiny parsley shoot, planted in exactly the same place as the one that appeared over a year ago was – where the water from the hose drips onto the ground and the dryer’s vent warms the earth.

And now, to clear.

I looked outside this morning and whooped.  My husband was worried something was wrong, but it was so right!  We had flowers on our potted summer squash plants – two males and a female!  I should have taken a picture but completely blanked out, I was so excited!

I dug my paintbrush (badly in need of replacing, like all the garden tools that fell into disrepair this year) out of a box and pollenated the female flower.  I harvested the male flowers and brought them inside.  We had squash flower omlettes for breakfast!  I was so happy to have a little bit of garden back, even if it’s just in pots right now…

Oh – and it rained almost 3 inches over the last 4 days…  So the weeds are going to just take.over.  I need to get out there NOW and put the solarizing plastic down (I know, I know… I’ve been busy!).

It rained yesterday!  Mostly tiny, soft drops, but for a few minutes it really came down…  I ran out into the backyard in my socks and pajamas and did a little rain dance…  My potted squash and basil and the new avocado tree and the gardenia perked right up - you could see how much they were enjoying the cool, wet weather.  I have to admit it did me a lot of good too.  Now, of course, it’s supposed to be hot and dry for the next week or two.

Of course, I had the thought: is it too late to grow squash?  Even in pots, which warm up more quickly during the day, is it just too cold?  Even winter squash do most of their growing during the hot summer months…  And these are warm-weather patty pan squash…  I’m curious, and I guess I had to try when I saw them at the nursery.

I had planned this past weekend to get solarizing plastic and rip up all the weeds in the backyard.  That didn’t happen, sadly.  Here’s to trying next weekend.

One strange thing about my wild and untamed backyard…  There’s a single tomato plant that survived not being watered for six months.  It was blooming yesterday.

In the past, I have been criticized for taking too personally the patterns in which my plants grew.  If one were to contract a virus, say, I would cluck over it, babying it, until it either got better or got worse (in which case, I’d tearfully pluck it out).  Once, I accidentally got too close to the roots of an Early Girl tomato vine which I’d been attempting to move once it was rooted.  I watched as she began to wilt, trying desperately to shade her leaves from the afternoon sun.  I didn’t give up on her until the next day, when her leaves and stalks had shriveled up into tiny shadows of their former selves.  When I pulled her out of the ground, I couldn’t help but apologize over and over for being her killer.

Last year, I planted vegetables in the back of my house and made my own mini-pumpkin patch on my parkway.  Flowers graced every spare inch of the front yard.  This summer, my sprinkler system stopped working, my soaker hose sprung a leak, and I was preoccupied by work and life events.  I was also ill for half the year, keeping me in bed more often than not.

But no more.  Two weeks ago, I got a flu shot.  Last weekend, there was a sale at my favorite nursery.  My husband took me there as a treat.  We decided to buy an avocado tree.  “How will we get it home in my car?” I started to ask, before answering my own question.  “Oh – it will fit in the back seat, behind me – that’s how I got the orange tree home…”  I trailed off.  Horrified, my husband whisked me into a darkened corner as I started to cry, thinking of the orange tree that I’d lost.  That I’d killed.

We bought the avocado and some basil and a few squash plants.  I took my first tentative steps into the garden since the spring and almost wailed in agony – it’s all overgrown with weeds, brown and dead.  But the new plants are green and they’re alive.  I’m watering them – and the blueberry bush that somehow managed to survive and the dead orange tree, just in case I’m wrong - and planning to replant them this weekend.  I’m going to Home Depot to purchase some solarizing plastic to de-weed the back yard, a new soaker hose to water with, and a sprinkler to replace the one our landlord refuses to pay for.  I want my garden back.

For now, this blog will probably be slow.  I’ll probably relish in old photographs of my former baby plants for a while before anything exciting happens.  But I refuse to go quietly into the night.  I am going to rebuild my beautiful garden even if it means a lot of tears for lost plants.  I am going to be the Garden Mama again.