I wonder if I can do that for crows…

to overgrown weedpatch?

Answer: about 28 days.

As promised my late summer garden skills (read: lazy) have ushered all of the gardens’ quick decent from lush landscapes to overgrown, weedy jungles. The worst part is that I do the same thing every year. I get a great start in March and things are absolutely gorgeous by June. Then I get sort of lazy and tired in July and August (it is hot, after all), and by September the whole thing has decayed into a weedy mess which I won’t do anything about until the following March.

Ah well…

August, 2006

(Just click the photo or link above to get started)

Aside from simply being colorful and fun to watch, they also have some of the best names in the animal kingdom. How can you not like creatures with monikers like Meadowhawk, Blue Dasher, and Widow Skimmer?

While they were gone for the winter months, the dragonflies recently made their return in force with more than a dozen hanging around the pond daily.

(Click for larger image)

My lousy photography skills make it nearly impossible to catch one of these guys in flight, but when they stop for a moment, I can snap their picture. Above is a Flame Skimmer (how cool is that name!?) that’s been hanging around the pond the past week or so.

You can read more on the Dragonflies and Damselflies of California right here.

The University of Puget Sound has a very good site dedicated to Dragonflies (including photos, habitat maps and other information) as well. You will find that right here.

Okay, so a few people have written to tell me that our new ChickenCam was placed too high up to clearly see all the good chicken action. So by popular demand I have moved the camera down into the yard where it’s a lot closer to the birds.

Now you’ll be able to see the chickens, ducks (and new ducklings) and Weedo the Goose much more clearly. Too clearly sometimes. In the past couple of days chickens have attacked the camera a number of times and knocked it over or re-aimed it at the orange tree directly above.

I guess that’s the price you pay to get up close and personal with the wildlife.

You can see ChickenCam Right here.

(click image to enlarge)

Everything — poppies, roses, sage, lavender, sweet pea shrub, Pride of Madera, Butterfly Bush, Peruvian Lilly, and more — all showing off together. It only happens for a couple of weeks, so you have to enjoy it while it lasts.

Nothing like peppers with a happy face surprise inside!

It’s about time!

The Vegetable garden after sitting all winter (facing north)

The Vegetable garden after sitting all winter (facing south)

It’s weedy, it’s ugly. What it needs is a good tilling.

The garden is a little over 3,000 square feet (not counting the herb beds in between), so I like to tackle it with what I affectionately refer to as my “Samurai” Hoe and Shovel (both made from Japanese rolled steel), and my trusty 6hp Craftsman Rototiller.

A couple of tiller runs and a heaping helping of compost later

Goodbye weeds, hello rich loamy soil! (although my cat obviously thinks “hello litterbox!”)

An hour or so of dirt and weed wrestling later, and I’ve got beautifully turned planting beds.

After that I add about 300 pounds of compost brewed from chicken manure, goat berries and last fall’s plant cuttings (we’re an organic operation - compost is like gold) and make another pass with the tiller.

After tilling in the compost I line up the beds and lay down the drip irrigation (a must here in dry Southern California). I like to use bulk 1/2 soaker hose– the kind made from recycled tires– connected to standard PVC sprinker pipe.

My nextdoor neighbor, an irrigation consultant for the big avocado groves in the area, thinks that this is way too low tech, but I think it’s the best thing for smaller gardens with raised beds. I’ve tried spot drippers, drip tape and overhead sprinkler systems, and soaker hose is by far the cheapest and most efficient. It costs only about $10 for 100 feet, and it provides nice even watering directly to the soil along the entire length of the beds. Plus, it think spreading out the watering (as opposed to merely watering at the plant’s base) encourages plant roots to branch out making the plant grow faster.

Bulk soaker drip lines are laid down on the beds

Yes, every couple of years you do have to replace the lines because the get clogged with dirt and minerals. And gophers will chew through it given the chance. But over all, the cost savings more than makes up for the inconvenience. I can replace soaker hose lines four or five times and still only spend half what I would on other irrigation systems.

Almost ready for planting

Once the irrigation is in place I’ll run the water for a short time a) to make sure there’s no leaks, and b) to help settle the soil some before plants go into it.

With this done, I’ll be ready to plant next week.

What did I plant? Well, pretty much all the seeds I got from Pinetree Garden Seeds with the exception of the peppers and some of the tomatoes (I think it’s still too cold at night and they won’t germinate. Better to wait a couple more weeks on those.)

I also planted two varieties of tomato my mom got from Tomato Bob. They’re mostly international and and heirloom varieties, so I’m kind of intrigued. (Will they look foreign?)

• Stupice is from the Czech Republic. Produce a lot of small (1 to 2 oz.) but flavorful fruit.
• Black Krim is a Russian variety with a brownish-red color and green shoulders. It’s supposed to be very colorful sliced, but I’m also hoping that because it’s from Russia it’s a short season tomato.