Cambria

These photos are from last fall. A memorable trip, with gorgeous weather and the California coast. The trip was a birthday gift from the fiance, including a visit to Hearst Castle. A romantic getaway, if you are looking for ideas...

We stayed at The Squibb House. Adorable, I recommend.

orchid in bloom

My orchid bloomed, gorgeous purple flowers.

They smell like grape juice. Delish.

...having second thoughts about the ladybug release.

I was enjoying my garden the other day. And noticing that we had more birds than usual. Jay birds, hummingbirds, finches.

And they kept nipping at my garden plants. Must be eating bugs. That's when I realized---they are eating all the LADYBUGS!

Arrrgh.

Time to get a cat?

ladybug release in the garden

Aphids were getting in some of our plants. And every time I go to Sloat Garden Center I'm dying to buy the little boxed container of ladybugs. 1500 of them! What fun! The fiance was quick to point out that the ladybugs fly away the minute you release them. But I splurged at Sloat this time, a whole $5.99, which was the best $5.99 I ever spent. SO FUN!

(In case you haven't caught on--ladybugs eat the aphids and other bad bugs. It's the organic way to garden, no pesticides. Plus they are purty.)

Here's the opening of the container:



They were like jailed convicts, they couldn't wait to get out.



On flowers:



On lettuce:



Eating aphids (hopefully):



And...they did not fly away. They were covering all the plants for a little less than a week. According to the box, they will stay for a few days, lay eggs, and then fly away.

I was just gardening yesterday, and walked in the house with a ladybug on my shoulder. Any other bug, I would have freaked.

elephant garlic

Here's the garlic, ready to be pulled.



It was in there pretty tight, took a lot of digging.



Ta-dah! It's huge!



We grew a bunch of cloves. Now they are drying out in the garage. Smells delicious.

our first tomato!

We took a chance trying to grow tomato plants in the sunset. So far the plants are still pretty small, but they are flowering.

Here's our first tiny tomato! I'm so proud of it!