A Gardener's Notebook

Free Garden Wallpaper for your smartphone – Cherry Blossoms

Douglas E. Welch — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 07:08:25 +0000

Click the image of link below to download your very own copy of this photo, formatted for use as an iPhone or Android wallpaper on your smartphone. I plan on producing these once each month.

Click to download your own copy of this Cherry Blossom desktop for your smartphone

For iPhone, tap and hold on the image, then select Save Image
Wallpaper will now be available as an option under Settings, Wallpaper

Free Garden Wallpaper for your smartphone – Cherry Blossoms is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Photos: Cherry Blossoms at Lake Balboa, Los Angeles, CA

Douglas E. Welch — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:19:04 +0000

A friend mentioned that the Cherry Trees at Lake Balboa near me here in Van Nuys, CA were blooming. It seemed much too early of that according to my records of previous blooms, but I decided to drive buy today and check things out.

Well, as you can see from the photos below, there are indeed some cherry trees blooms, but these are on the smaller trees which I think are slightly different from the Japanese Cherry trees that fill the interior of the park. I did notice a few sporadic blooms on the larger trees, but I would goes they have about another 2 weeks or so before they are in full flower.

That said, the blooms that are there are quite striking. I hope you enjoy the photos! As always, click for larger images via Flickr.

Pictures of Cherry Blossoms in Previous Years – 2003 2008 2010

Lake Balboa is located in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles, CA, near the intersection of the 101 and 405 freeways. Here is a map showing its exact location.

View Larger Map

Photos: Cherry Blossoms at Lake Balboa, Los Angeles, CA is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Photo: Wisteria leaves are popping

Douglas E. Welch — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:42:00 +0000

The wisteria that covers our back pergola has always struggled. Like some other gardeners have written, wisteria is a finicky beast that blooms only when it really wants to and only under the perfect circumstances, which can vary from plant to plant and variety to variety.

Our wisteria has only bloomed twice in the past 15 years, if memory serves and never prolifically at that. It throws off lots of leaves but no flower pikes. Even worse, when we built the new pergola a few years ago, we had to cut it back hard in order to tear down the old structure that was there.

Link: Constructing the new pergola – February 2006

With all of that history, though, I am optimistic for the next couple of years. We recently removed a pine tree that heavily shaded the entire pergola. Now that this has been removed I am already seeing a difference in the wisteria. It seems a bit healthier overall and I think the extra sunlight will do it well.

Here are some photos from today showing leaves both just starting and fully expanded to take in the sun.

Click photos for larger images

Photo: Wisteria leaves are popping is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Photo: Tomatoes in February?!?!

Douglas E. Welch — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:52:03 +0000

Our little volunteer tomato plant is kicking up production this week. I don’t know if it the mild weather or a bit more sun, but I count around 20 new flowers on the plant and I am already seeing new fruit being set. Hard to believe we can have this much production in February, even here in Los Angeles.

This tomato was a volunteer that sprouted from the homemade compost I used to start some other seeds. I left in several seedlings until I could identify them and was so happy when I spotted this tomato. It continues to surprise me everyday with its vigor, even stuck in a pot like it is.

Photo: Tomatoes in February?!?! is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Product: Garden flower cookie cutters

Douglas E. Welch — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:47:01 +0000

I came across these in the Baking Bites blog, which I read via RSS. This posts crosses a couple of my interests. They are cookie cutters, so this post is about food, but they are flower-shaped and other garden shaped cookie cutters, so this crosses in the gardening topic. Oh what to do? Where do I post this? Everywhere, I guess. (SMILE)

These cookie cutters have deep indentations so that they shape the cookie as well as cut it out. You can highlight the design with icing, but I usually just like the plain cookies. The article has some good advice on the best cookie dough to use. You want something that doesn’t spread very much when baked, so that the detail remains in the final product.

Link: Even more cookie cutters from Amazon.com

Garden Cookie Cutters

It may not be time for spring as far as the flowers in your garden are concerned (even during a mild winter), but with this set of Garden Cookie Cutters you can get spring started in the comfort of your kitchen. These cookie cutters are some of the cutest cutters I’ve seen in a long time because the plastic is shaped just like the finished cookies. The cutters punch out very detailed cookies not just the outlines of cookies – in eight different designs, including a rose, daisy, tulip, dahlia, ladybug, butterfly, bumble bee and dragonfly. They’re easy to grip and kids will have just as much fun with them as adults, especially since the plastic handles are more kid-friendly than you’ll find on some cookie cutters.

[…]

Read the entire article on Garden Cookie Cutters from BakingBites.com

Product: Garden flower cookie cutters is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Free Garden Wallpaper for your computer – Paperwhites

Douglas E. Welch — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:55:02 +0000

Click the link below to view/download your own copy of this Paperwhites Desktop Wallpaper for your computer from A Gardener’s Notebook.

Download this garden desktop picture for your computer

Free Garden Wallpaper for your computer – Paperwhites is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Photo: First Daffodil 2012

Douglas E. Welch — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:12:11 +0000

The daffodil foliage had been pushing up over the last few days, but as I drove away from the house today I noticed a flash of yellow from the street side bed. Sure enough, this daffodil was fully opened. Many more tome come, but there is something special about the first one of the season.

Photo: First Daffodil 2012 is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Speak Out! – What is happening/will happen in your garden this year?

Douglas E. Welch — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:55:18 +0000

What is happening in your garden — or what will happen once the snow subsides?

Share your stories, ideas and information here as a comment.

This is an open thread and all non-spam comments will be posted.

Speak Out! – What is happening/will happen in your garden this year? is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Looking to speak with UK Allotmenteers

Project: Steel pipe garden edging

Douglas E. Welch — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:09:24 +0000

You have probably seen my photos and videos of our wine bottle garden edging project. This photo shows a similar approach using an entirely different material. I am not sure where you would source enough of this pipe cheaply, but obviously this person did.

One issue with using unique items for your garden edging is that their small diameter means you need A LOT of them. The wine bottles are probably 4″-5″ in diameter but that is still much smaller than a brick, a stone or using some bender-board edging. This also means it takes more time to install, as you have to lay each piece separately.

I like that the gardener filled each pipe with soil and stones and then planted small succulents. I think this is a great use of otherwise wasted space in the edging.

Still, I really like the look of our wine bottles and these steel pipes. Click through on this Pinterest link for more garden photos and ideas from the original blog.

Source: floradoragardens.blogspot.com via Douglas on Pinterest

Project: Steel pipe garden edging is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Video: Vertical Garden Installation at Descanso Gardens, La Cañada Flintridge, CA

Douglas E. Welch — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:37:40 +0000

We haven’t made a trip out to Descanso recently, but this would certainly be cool to see in person. There is a lot of interest in vertical gardening lately and this does it on a grand scale.

Link: Descanso Gardens Web Site

Vertical Garden Installation at Descanso Gardens from Descanso Gardens on Vimeo.

Video: Vertical Garden Installation at Descanso Gardens, La Cañada Flintridge, CA is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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