Dahlias and driving

After last year, I vowed I would not have a vegetable garden at DG again until I lived there. It's difficult to keep up with it when I have to drive 10-15 minutes, after work, every couple days. But then M set up a better watering system than last year's (mostly hand watering) system. So I gave in and started tomatoes in my windowsill in March. Or maybe April. But most of my seedlings didn't make it once transplanted them so I supplemented with purchased transplants. But there's something wrong with my beds--the tomatoes aren't thriving (again) and the peppers are tiny. The squash (the only vegetable planted directly in the ground) is exploding. So it's been a mixed bag. I love that it waters itself (thanks M!) but I can tell my beds need some serious work. Maybe when we live there, next year, it'll be better.

In addition to the veggie garden, we put in a mini-orchard (I can't remember whether I wrote about it here or not) last spring. We did major irrigation to make it successful (absolutely NO hand watering for this!), and it really has been. We put in 2 peaches (one grafted with 3 types), one apricot and one pear that were all new (used a nursery gift cert from last year's birthday). Then we transplanted 3 plums from MK (where we live now--ok, by transplant, I mean M dug them up, we moved them from one house to the other, and one went into the ground. All three were all small, and the other two are still in pots).

All this was added to our already-at-DG fig trees (2), Persimmon (we call him Percy) and Apple Tree (we call her Jane Appel--if you know Stanford basketball, it might ring a bell). But most high maintenance of all has been the Orange (Monsier L'Orange--what can I say, we like naming things!). He was given to us by a friend/neighbor of my moms about 2 years ago. He'd lived most of his life in a small, wooden pot, on her backyard, covered patio. He was difficult to move, completely root bound (like, really, no dirt at all) and kind of stunted when he came to DG to live. We placed him near the garden, hand watered him, and hoped for the best. He bloomed. He got new growth, then he went on strike. He got too hot. He got way too cold. He started losing leaves furiously. He was exposed to freezing temps. So we talked to the nursery fellow (very helpful and reassuring) and he told us how to best transplant him in the ground, and we did, when we put in the orchard. Then he lost more leaves. All of them in fact. We waited. We hoped, and miraculously, he overcame his shock and sprouted all new leaves. We rejoiced. Then it got hot here, and his leaves curled. He didn't drop any, but it was like he was hibernating. Then, just 2 weeks ago, he made a mad effort of putting on new growth. He's got at least 6" of new, tender, green growth. We're so proud of him. Now if we can just coax him to bloom so someday we get oranges!

Oh, but I meant to write about dahlias (I get excited about Monsier L'Orange and his growth!). The other major addition to the back yard (remember we're on 1/2 acre, and it not landscaped, so we're trying to define some areas) was M's dahlia garden. We saw beautiful ones in Petaluma last year, so M used her Christmas money to buy tubers, and we planted 70 of them. We were so proud. She's never grown flowers before. She rigged up the irrigation, so again, no hand watering. Then along came Dahlia Dan. He's one of our neighbors who just moved back to the neighborhood. He now has a dahlia garden. But he has over 200. Made what seemed like a really big accomplishment (to us) seem so small. But, for a first-time dahlia gardener, M is doing great. They're a riot of color now. They love this heat we're having.

Here's a bouquet M brought home to me today:

And here's my very favorite one, also just picked today. This one is at least 10 inches across:

With all the irrigation we do, I'm dreading the water bill. But how can you not want to grow something so beautiful!

Happy Weekend everyone. I get a day off Monday!