Gardening: Day 3

Ok, so Day 3. I don't have a photo of my seedlings because nothing has happened yet. I'm impatient so I always assume it's not going to happen when I don't see any sprouting action in the first couple of days, but it says it will take about a week to two weeks on the seed packet. Patience, patience. Instead I am going to post some photos of the rest of the garden.

Three different lavenders. The last one is supposedly French Lavender.




Mint and Aloe.


Tomato


The Lily that Lived


Damn you, palm trees!!


The embarassing reality of our backyard

Gardening: Day 1

I started reading "You Grow Girl", a guidebook to gardening for the urban, younger generation. I've bought plants from time to time (especially this time of year) in hopes of starting a garden, but they have always ended up dying due to the lack of water. This time it'll be different, I would always say to myself. But so far, the results have been the same. The only survivor out of all the plants that I have attempted to grow in the past is Aloe Vera, plus a pot of lily that my roommate (3 roommates ago) had. There is also some lavender that I planted a while ago in the front of the house in the ground, which I'm assuming would not have survived this long if I had planted it in a pot. I just forget to water my plants. It's sad. I feel like a failure every time a leaf turns brown and crispy, crying out for water in this dry, severe SoCal climate.

Ok, so this time, for real. I can do this. That's what I'd like to think. For starters, I actually read a book on gardening this time. The book is really good, and makes understanding about soils much more easier than I had thought. After reading a couple of chapters, I decided to go out and get some plants.

This is what I am starting out with:

- mint [POT]: Can't remember how many time's I've tried to grow this
- lavender [GROUND]: I had a positive experience with it so why not get more
- tomatoes [POT]: Wasn't too sure about this one but maybe actually having some tomatoes to look forward to and harvest might help me water them on a regular basis

- basil [SEED]: Had bought seeds a while back and attempted to grow them once unsuccessfully
- okra [SEED]: Had randomly bought seeds a few weeks ago.

I am worried about the seeds, but I am going to try to keep a journal with photo documentation.

Now that I've put all this up on the Internet, hopefully this will help me keep up my garden.

Making a difference (with baby steps)

When I was at a graduation party in Palmdale last night, I was reminded by a friend about this blog. And how I have not written in it. I was surprised to hear that he had been checking up on it every now and then. But when he told me that the last post I had made was about the Darth Vader samurai doll, I felt better. I had forcasted ahead enough that the topic of my last entry was Children's Day, which just happened a week ago. I had been bloggin on Mixi (Japanese version of myspace) and micro blogging on Twitter, but it's true I had neglected Nabudis and Nabudat.

Lately I have been trying to make small differences to bring back order into my life. Or at least trying to get into the mindset of it. The house was a mess and had been for a long time, the backyard was a jungle, I was arriving at work late, cats were running amok leaving hair everywhere. Something needed to be done.

Cat hair was a problem. They are shedding more due to the season. I bought sitcky roller things to roll up hair on carpet and furniture (and clothes). I try to vacuum more. I also bought an amazing brush called the Furminator. The amount of hair it removes is unbelievable. Too bad the cats kind of freak out when I use it. Another change I made was getting up at before 9 (yes, nine). I have only managed to get to work 30 minutes earlier, but it's better than feeling guilty for being the last one to walk into the office. There was also some home improvement that went on. Nothing more than putting away my countless magazines and moving the unused computer desk into the livingroom so I can finally use my Powerbook on a desk instead of on top of a tiny bookshelf with no room for my legs, but it's made my life and the living room much better. More home improvement to come.

I started on the backyard today which is the biggest obstacle of all. The palm trees that tower between our house and the neighbors (but is technically on their property) drop huge "leaves" on the yard. These leaves are over 10ft long, heavy, dangerously spikey, and there were over 40 of them. While I think about how to get rid of these, I am going to read the book "You Grow Girl" that was delivered in the same Amazon box as the Furminator and figure out how to start a decent garden.