Red, White, and Blue Flowers

I was working on my garden yesterday and took photos of the latest blooms. I noticed colors of the flag, here's a floral tribute to Memorial Day. To all of those courageous soldiers who fought for our country and freedom, we're grateful and we'll never forget!

Red and White Trouper Carnation I planted in a basket, I added Blue Star Creeper ground cover but currently not in bloom yet. I'm glad I purchased this from the nursery a couple weeks ago, definitely my flag colors arrangement! I also sowed carnation seeds, it will be interesting to see a variety of pastel colors.   

Diamonds Blue Delphinium, I love this shade of blue. The petals are lovely and soothing to look at!

Delphinium, Lavender Guardian. I always have a thing for Delphiniums, the clustered petals comes in beautiful bright colors and they're elegant in my rustic garden. Happy Memorial Day to all my friends!  

Vigorous Healthy Seedlings!

My grow light setup upstairs in the art studio loft. Indoor gardening is great because we have a short growing season. Roma and Cherry tomatoes are growing huge but I'm waiting for evenings to warm up some more. I've been hardening tomatoes, jalapenos, lettuce, parsley, cilantro, and leek outdoors that are soon going to be transplanted into raised beds. I must be patient before transplanting, oh I need more patience! 

Organic tomato I sowed from seed in March, it got sooo big! I'm running out of room under the fluorescent light. Fertilizing and spraying weekly with liquid seaweed kept my seedlings growing strong! According to my research kelp contains abundant trace minerals, vitamins, and micronutrients beneficial for plants.

My obsession with seeds is obvious, here's a collection of veggies and flowers. I have a garden calendar journal to keep track of it all, I gotta be organized! 

A few seed packets. I recently sowed a variety of Organic Lettuce, Cabbage, Chives, Sunflowers, Carnations, and more Sweet Peas. Once again I'm waiting! 

Blooming Beauties

BUSY BEE me with tons of organizing plus transplanting out in my garden and endless cleaning inside the cabin. I moved in February of this year (still in the process of moving) so we're arranging all our stuff and getting rid of excessive clutter! To keep me focused and sane I have a to do list, cleaning goals to complete perhaps in the next several weeks...   

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This morning after watering my plants and sowing a variety of summer lettuce seeds, I finally had a chance to transplant one of my favorite flowers into a hanging basket. Here's the pretty Bleeding Heart! 

Dahlinova with water drops loving the sunshine!

Coreopsis Tickseed, yellow cheers me up and brightens the garden. I'm planting more flowers while we wait for veggies, something always exciting to do!       

My Cute Veggie Patch

The deer fence is finally complete! This is a cozy area for veggies and I love it. Thanks to my thoughtful husband who supports my passion for gardening and built the whole fence on his own. It's about 5 feet high using thick strong branches he found in the woods with tree logs and some lumber. Low budget but it's very sturdy and no deer has come near. I planted strawberries, herbs, and some flowers...So far they're still alive! 

Phase 1 of the deer fence. This is the sunniest side of the cabin right by our kitchen and dining table window. Deers usually come by eating shrubs and sometimes our left overs. Yup we feed the deers, they savored organic brown rice one afternoon!   

Digging, arranging, sweating, and working super hard! 

Phase 2 of the deer fence. Welcome to my Hap Hazard Veggie Patch. I'll give you a little tour: Here's a temporary gate hubby made, he might build a different one later  with branches and twigs for a more rustic look.

I spent hours organizing my veggie garden and mulching the pathway with cedar or pine wood bark. 

All the raised beds need are vegetables but I'm hardening  off the seedlings and will be ready in a few more days. Meanwhile, I'm adding sun loving flowers to surround the edibles. The front yard is another project, we need a fence there too so that'll take time...Then I can plant MORE flowers!

Climbing rose I'm trying to train on a trellis. Mini strawberry patch and hanging strawberry basket on the left.    

My herbs are no longer on the windowsill inside but receiving sunlight out here. I also painted these garden markers, something fun to label the herbs. The cabin across is our home!

Pretty in Pink Strawberry Basket!

I planted my everbearing strawberry plant in a hanging coco basket and mulched it with pine needles. We have an endless supply of pine needles in the backyard (aka the woods) and are great for mulching acid loving plants. I admire the blooming pink flowers from this strawberry, they're oh so pretty...I have a thing for pink! The other strawberry plants will be transplanted in the raised bed soon. My sweet husband is almost done building the deer fence for the veggie patch, the area looks fantastic!

Squirrels and My Garden

Adorable Scabiosa seems delicate to touch, I love how it dances in the gentle breeze. It's a lovely sunny day in the mountains. After church this morning I passed by our local Idyllwild nursery to purchase flowers. They recently opened and only here until late summer. The owner said he's been doing business here for 33 years. I was delighted by the vast variety of flowers, roses, and plants that grow well in our climate. For my first time in this nursery I took home Violas, Carnations, Vinca Vine, and one of my favorites which I searched for everywhere, Bleeding Heart. I so badly wanted to pick up deep pink Hydrangeas but my budget didn't allow it...Maybe one day.  

Ladybug resting on my Lavender. There was 2 of them, the other one kept moving on the Friesland Sage. I have many flowers that need larger containers including lavender, Sage, Daylily, Geraniums, and Mexican Primrose. Yesterday I finally transplanted the Scabiosa into a nice big planter, now I'm waiting for butterflies! I need more wooden boxes for flowers and the deer fence (hint to hubby if you're reading this!) I'll be posting other photos of the garden later. I'm organizing at the moment.    

Squirrel Attack from Bryan Prince on Vimeo.

For fun, here's a short video of how these furry monsters are invading our birdhouse and wildbird feeder in the garden. They're persistent so we have to find a solution to protect at least one of the bird feeders so we can have it solely for the birds. However, we like squirrels too, they're cute!

Fun Birdhouses

I love being surrounded by nature, watching the birds and hearing them sing. Hubby bought some birdhouses for the garden and we painted them, it was a cool project! He did the red one and mine is yellow. 


The issue we've been having are squirrels fervently trying to get a hold of the bird seeds not leaving much, I see them all the time analyzing the best way to climb up. 


We think these furry creatures are cute so we dedicated one house mounted on the tree only for squirrels, but still they also want the wildbird feeder hanging on the shepherd's hook. We'll need to figure out how to squirrel proof that one!

This birdhouse is now a squirrel feeder.

My yellow birdhouse. The wildbird feeder on

the other hook is being taken over by squirrels! 

What's blooming now

My creative outlet is container gardening, flowers and plants I can safely display in the front porch ledge high enough without the fear of deers consuming them. I can't do much gardening in the front yard until the fence is up. I still have to tediously pull weeds and unwanted ivy ground cover...Just when you thought you're done spring cleaning you realize there are more work to be done! Other than that, I purchased flowers a week ago for about $2 each from the clearance section, they only needed a little cleaning up. I'm all about great bargains so I decided to give these flowers a home and some TLC.

Begonias are doing well outside on the ledge, I love them especially because they're pink! They remind me of miniature roses.     

7 years ago I killed several African Violets. I was new to gardening and didn't realize I over watered and fertilized. These flowers require special soil and bright filtered light. My African Violets are now indoor on our windowsill, let's hope I can keep them alive!      

The Succulent Project

I'm still cleaning the front yard, with so many things I need to do it'll take time to get the garden together. I have containers of flowers waiting to be transplanted, they're all inside the cabin receiving filtered light. I give the flowers fresh air for most of the day everyday in the sun in our back porch to keep them alive, I have to do this especially for my roses. Not having protection from the deers in the yard is holding me back but my husband is working on the fence. 


Meanwhile, I'm designing containers to express creativity. With a tight budget like most of us these days, I have to find ways to use whatever containers I have. Yesterday I found a gift basket from years ago that I think held lotion and stuff. I drilled holes in the bottom and placed gravel inside for drainage.


Succulents worked well for this basket with added rocks as the mulch, we have tons of nice rocks available outside and it's FREE! Succulents require minimal care, they're drought tolerant and hardy. They come in various sizes, shape, color, and texture so there are abundant ways to get artistic.

I combined succulent selection of shape and texture that is visually appealing: Aeonium Catlin hybrid, Calico Kitten, and Anacampseros rufescens. I know the scientific names sounds like medical disease! Stonecrop Sedum album (photo above) is interesting in texture, the thick succulent-like trailing foliage seem to fit perfectly in the arrangement.  

My veggie seedlings are growing crazy indoors under fluorescent light, hubby decided to build the deer fence on the side of the cabin first near the kitchen. This area gets the most sun so that's where we placed the vegetable raised beds. The space is not very large, yet enough to grow edibles plus I could decorate around it with flowers...Something exciting to look forward to!   

Organic Roma and Cherry Tomatoes I started from seed growing healthy and strong! This is about 4.5" and today I transplanted them in 7.5" containers.    

Trip to the Flower Fields

 

One of the highlights of getting away was my first time tour to the spectacular Flower Fields in Carlsbad. They're open only from March to May and we got to visit 3 days before they closed! The Flower Fields is a gardener's dream, 50 acres on a hill overlooking the ocean. The fragrance of flowers lingered in the air, flower petals shimmered in the sun making me smile. I was in awe as we basked in the beauty of vibrant colors, a haven of God's intricate and delicate creations. Above were some photos we took, there was so much to explore. I admired a vast variety of flowers but the roses, poppies, and sweet pea maze was my favorite. Of course I didn't leave without stopping by their garden nursery, I took home Daylily and Creeping Jenny ground covers. I'm getting busier in my mountain garden!     

Traveling Garden

My husband Bryan and I went away for a week to his parent's home in San Juan Capistrano. We were petsitting my mom in-law's cat, 2 kittens, and 2 dogs while everyone was out of town. I considered this mini vacation from the woods. It was relaxing being near the coast, each day was blue skies and warm breeze. I love the ocean and city view from the backyard. The beach was a couple miles away, we took a nice walk along the shore at Dana Point. I appreciate the mountains but I'm still an ocean girl at heart. I couldn't part with my dear plants, they wouldn't be able to survive at the cabin unattended so I place some in a box and brought the veggie seedlings with the grow light! When my handyman hubby had a chance, he built raised beds for my garden at his dad's workshop. 

Here's a 2' x 4' raised bed for the veggies. He's building 2 of them for tomatoes, jalapeno, zucchini, carrots, and beans. Other boxes are dedicated to lettuce, spinach, and herbs.So far we have 7 garden boxes for $40, low budget rules! The smaller ones are for flowers since I decided to do more container gardening. Gophers are a problem where we live so he lined the bottom of the boxes with chicken wires, that might help in the meantime. The weather is gradually getting warmer for gardening, I'm ecstatic to get my hands on the dirt!   

Creative affordable way to stain untreated cedarwood boxes using a blow torch for a weathered and rustic look! Safe for veggies, fruits, or flowers.