Clearing sod

Clearing sod

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I’ve been loosing up the sod and pulling it out with a cultivator and my hands (with gloves on). When I dig deeper, I inevitably kill earthworms, and I don’t like that. Besides, they say that grass uses more water than any other commonly grown garden plant. I’m not digging deeply enough to get out all of the rhizomes, but if I stop running the sprinklers and water much less frequently, won’t the roots and rhizomes die eventually?

Pill bug

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I’ve been finding lots of pill bugs. I used to think pill bugs and sow bugs were two names for the same thing, but according to Insects of the Los Angeles Basin, sow bugs are bigger and they can’t roll themselves into balls.

I’ve also been finding lots of light red/orange spiders under the sod with the pill bugs, which, also according to Insects of the Los Angeles Basin, are called Sow Bug Killers (because they eat sow bugs and pill bugs).

Mulch 2

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Our arborist gave us a big truckload of pear tree mulch on Friday. I’ve been slowly spreading it out on the de-sodded areas.

Published on August 3, 2009 8:54 am.
Filed under: Garden

1 Comment »

  1. sarah says:
    August 3, 2009 at 1:30 pm

    and here i’ve been calling them salbugs this whole time. spiders eat them?? i thought the spider would have been no match for them. interesting.

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Red cushions for the Morris chair

Published on June 2, 2010 9:50 pm.
Filed under: Keeping house

Monday’s lunch came from the garden.

We planted potatoes by setting a few old potatoes with lots of eyes on the ground and dumping buckets of dirt over them.  Potato plants grew and then died back. I went into the back yard with my gardening fork and lifted these out of one of the dirt mounds. I think there are still twice as many left in the ground. I figure they’ll keep well there, and if they sprout more eyes they will already be in the right place.

These artichokes grew along the side of the house. I served them with lemon juice from a neighbor’s lemons and my favorite California olive oil from Beyond the Olive. I’ve never tasted artichokes this fresh before, and they were so tender and flavorful that they almost didn’t need a sauce.

Monday’s lunch

Published on May 12, 2010 3:27 pm.
Filed under: Eating and drinking, Garden

Antelope Valley California Poppy Preserve

At the Antelope Valley California Poppy Preserve

Published on May 10, 2010 5:30 pm.
Filed under: Miscellaneous Tags: ,

Front door

Published on May 9, 2010 10:03 pm.
Filed under: Miscellaneous Tags:

Artichokes at Arlington Garden.

Artichokes

Published on May 8, 2010 10:56 pm.
Filed under: Miscellaneous Tags:

Hummingbird Sage

Published on May 5, 2010 2:31 pm.
Filed under: Garden Tags:

I’ve been sewing bright colored seam binding around the edges of my cleaning rags, which are mostly retired washcloths and squares of retired towels.

I like the way they look when they’re hanging on the clothes line. They used to have ragged edges, and they would fray in the washer and dryer or look embarrassingly messy drying on the line in the back yard. These look pretty. And if they get mixed up with the regular laundry, it’s easy to keep retired washcloth cleaning rags from being confused with washcloths in good standing.

Cleaning rags

Published on May 5, 2010 2:19 pm.
Filed under: Keeping house

Nasturtiums

Published on May 5, 2010 1:49 pm.
Filed under: Garden

Boysenberries in the making

Published on May 4, 2010 9:06 am.
Filed under: Garden

I ate this strawberry today

Published on May 3, 2010 10:41 pm.
Filed under: Garden