Trouble in the Hen House

Growing up I thought all succulent plants succed sucked.  (Get it? Succulents succ? I should be a comedian.)  About two years ago I started to appreciate the beauty of all succulents, including Hens and Chicks.  I don’t know the fancy schmancy botanical name but this plant is named for the large succulent in the middle (the hen), which  is surrounded by the smaller succulents (the chicks).

In all but one of the gardens in the world, they look like this:

Image found here.

In our yard, however, the Hens and Chicks look like this:

I really can’t wrap my head around what happened here.  As far as I’m concerned we got a big ole dud. Doug says it must not get enough sun so it is just stretching really tall.

Am I living in the Twilight Zone?

Peony Season

I hadn’t heard of Peonies until I moved in with Doug.  He has two Peony plants but his neighbors have tons.  All throughout the older neighborhood Peonies thrive.

It wasn’t until I started dabbling in party planning did I learn that Peonies are such a prized flower.  It makes sense – they are full of luscious layers and they are in full bloom for only a week or so.  (At least in our yard.)  Since they come and go so fast, this year I wanted to follow them from Spring to Summer.

Don’t their folds look like tissue paper? They are such a delicate flower – sadly, most of ours are already gone – Peony petals are spread all over our lawn from the fierce wind.

Hello, Goodbye Peonies.

Daffodil Days at Red Butte Gardens

This weekend we went to Red Butte Gardens to see the blooming Daffodils.  I’ve never really paid much attention to Daffodils before this weekend but now I really love them.

My twin nieces thought the flowers smelled so good!

We only have tulips planted – do you have any Daffodils in bloom?

P.S. All these photos were taken on my iPhone with the Camera+ App.  What do you think?

How Much Wood Can Doug Chuck?

In November, part of the huge tree in our front yard collapsed during a windstorm.   (Maybe you remember how Doug wore his shorts while cleaning it up? If not you can see it here.)

Doug was able to saw off the lowest limbs but he couldn’t safely reach the tops.  He hired some folks with a tall truck to saw the limbs down.

But – Clever Doug – he chose to save some bucks by hauling the limbs out on his own.  It was quite a sight to watch him dragging them behind him to the backyard, where they withstood the winter.

This weekend Doug set out to clean up the limbs, armed with a chainsaw and a wood chipper. First he cut the biggest pieces into logs for fire wood.

Then he positioned the wood chipper so that the chips would propel into our future vegetable garden, where he believes they will fertilize the soil.

The sad part of this whole plan? That hole for the limbs to be chipped was about the size of a grapefruit.  Poor Doug stood there while he was pushing limb through limb through that hole.    But even that couldn’t keep a smile from his face . . .

Who uses wood chips for fertilizer?

April Showers Bring April Tulips

And now a short ode to one of our few tulips, which lost its blooms this week.

Cheers to May’s flowers!

It’s a Christmas Miracle! (In March)

Our Christmas Cactus marches to the beat of his own drum.  After all, Christmas is sooo cliche.   So ours blooms in March.

Better late than never, I say.

The Result of Our Garlic Harvest

Last week I was already making dinner when I realized my garlic had gone bad.  (That’s what happens when you never cook.)   Before I could bolt to the grocery store, Doug reminded me that we had garlic in the garden that should probably come out anyway.

Here’s how we found it.

There was no time for researching whether the garlic was ready to dig up.  The weather, the sunshine, the happiness of summer – it’s all gone.  More importantly – dinner was on the line.  So we dug first and researched later.

Post-research, I now know that the leaves will brown and dry up when garlic is mature.  Clearly, our little garlic cloves were not ready for harvest.  But here’s how they looked:

I also learned that garlic is meant to be planted in the fall and harvested in the late spring.  I just informed Doug and he said “oh really?”

Apparently we plant first and think later.

Eager to make my meal, I washed the garlic and set it out to dry.  This was also a mistake,  as the bulbs should be hung up in a cool, dry place for about a week before they’re washed.  (Luckily I left them out to dry for several days post-wash. We’ll see what happens.)

My dinner was quite tasty but I don’t know what role the garlic actually played.  Doug’s new goal is to get some in the ground asap as it is, ahem, fall.

Any garlic growers out there?

Seeking support for my pumpkin problem

Hello.  My name is Tasha and I have a pumpkin problem.

Specifically, the pumpkin problem is that we have no pumpkins.  We have feet and feet and feet of pumpkin vines, none of which have born fruit.

I believe this discoloration is at least part of the problem.

I’m pretty sure this could have something to do with it, too….

Who can help me with my pumpkin problem?

We’re lucky that there is a silver lining amidst all this despair.  We have one hope for a Halloween pumpkin.  It’s about the size of a tennis ball.

With only a few weeks before Halloween, I think we’ll be harvesting our pumpkins from our local grocer.

Anyone with pumpkin experience?

How to Dry Peppers: Make a Mexican Rista

This year one of my faithful readers named our garden “The Revenge of the Killer Tomatoes“  because we have 45 tomato plants.  But in all this tomato craze, our peppers tend to get ignored.  We have several varieties, including cayenne peppers.

Why Doug planted cayenne peppers, I will never know.   I decided to dry them since we don’t, well, eat cayenne peppers on a regular basis.

You can dry peppers several ways but I chose to make a Mexican rista because I decided it was the prettiest option.

Image found here.

To make your own Mexican rista, you’ll need:

• peppers
• cotton string
• wire

Wrap the string around the stems of three peppers several times.

Bring the string up between two of the peppers and pull it tight.

This should give you a semi-firm hold on your peppers.

Then, tie a knot to completely secure the string.  This was pretty difficult for me because I couldn’t figure out where the loop was supposed to go.  After much confusion, I finally started laying a loop flat on the table and inserting the whole bunch of peppers inside the loop.

Continue these steps every few inches.  (By the way, I went way too far between bunches and it caused havoc.  Keep reading.)

Now it’s time to use your wire.  (I used floral wire because cayenne peppers are so small – if you’re using larger peppers I’d try something heavier.  Next time I might even consider using rope.)

The wire is the base for your peppers so you’ll need to make a loop or tie a knot in the end to make sure your peppers don’t fall off.  Jack actually caught a  fallen pepper and his reaction to that spicy pepper was thoroughly entertaining.

Next, braid your string of peppers around the wire.  Rista makers say to do it this way:

“The process is like braiding hair-the wire serves as one strand and stems of two chiles in the cluster are the other two strands.” (See here.)

See here.

Even with the diagram, I could not figure out how to braid something with only two strands.  Tell me I’m not the only one.   It didn’t help that I had so much string between my pepper clumps.  I would have been braiding for days!

So I took the path of least resistance.  I cut each pepper clump from the string and left enough string on either side so that I could tie the clump onto the wire.   I made sure to tie the clumps so they faced opposite directions.

My rista isn’t perfect – you can see the string – but it still is pretty and it might just work!  Stay tuned for the end result!

What do you dry?

Patio Drapes: Super or Superfluous?

Summer is almost over and I’m just now considering sprucing up our patio.    Last summer we added some lighting and a patio table but it still needs some umph.  It’s difficult to work with since it’s all aluminum, traps the heat inside, and is made of 50 year old cracking concrete.

Please pretend like that folding table isn’t there.

Doesn’t it seem like one giant gray blob? I intend to add an outdoor rug under our table set.  Other than that, I’m stumped.

Last month I was reading a magazine when I stumbled across an image of a cozy front porch with drapes.  Yes, a porch with drapes.  I know what you’re thinking:  If the porch is covered or enclosed in some way, you don’t need drapes.  The sun isn’t shining on you.  The rain isn’t a threat. You’re out of your gordexo, you silly girl.

And normally, I’d agree.  Why worry about something that has no purpose at all? What a waste.  But that magazine picture  keeps popping up in my head –   Look at these images and tell me if you can see why.

Image found here.

Image found here.

Image found here.

Image found here.

All right, all right.  Our patio will never look like these.  But wouldn’t a drape our two help dilute the pain of those sad aluminum braces? Couldn’t some simple fabric break up the sad gray coloring?

Tell me: Are outdoor draperies super or superfluous?