The gladiolas are blooming like crazy! I didn’t realize they’d need stakes, they are a very tall variety and are falling down. I am also happy to report my first dahlia has bloomed – a beautiful, deep purple and it looks to be a big bush of great dahlias.

After 191 days I am FINALLY harvesting onions. The package said 110 days…what did I do wrong? They are still small; huge stalks, but the onions themselves are about 1.5 inches around. They are very tasty, I am leaving some in the ground to see if they get larger as the summer goes on. Here’s a peek as of May:

The trouble spot – or rather, one trouble spot — in my yard is the hill. What I envisioned as a winding path to a secret garden hidden by huge elephant ears and other tropical plants instead sits empty, brown dirt (aka clay) and barren of green. This is definitely one section of my garden where I can only go up — so hopefully the “before” and “after” photos will reveal something delightful!

Before: The Barren Hill

The first challenge is starting. I’ve had two gardening masters out to give me their advice on what to plant; both dabble in other parts of my yard, suggesting plants & changes for the flower bed under the window; moving the children’s garden to the back near the vegetable garden; replanting the lemon grove in front. They both loved to talk about everything EXCEPT the “hill”. Finally they proposed their ideas, but honestly I couldn’t summarize them here because I don’t understand their vision clearly.

Do I do the hill myself? Or hire an ‘expert’ to do it?

For now I will attempt it on my own. I have a list of suggested plants from one gardener — latana, kangroo paws (which are already in my garden), ruby slippers, flax, lavender, sage, hibiscus, palersonia occidnetials, penstemon.  First I am reworking the soil, adding gypsum to help with drainage and tilling in about six inches of planting mix.

I still hope to have a secret garden, with a small bench for the kids. Adults have mocked at my path but the kids love running through it, I want to keep the path and make fun little destinations along the way (pick a satsuma; sit at the bench; run geraniums down the back bank for the kids to pick; plant butterfly attracting plants). Here’s the path as it looks now.

So, as my little girl says, “Off we go!”

My 22 month old ate about six satsumas today! She hardly ever eats fruit, and it’s like she just discovered our tree. She walks out saying “orange” and follows the trail until she reaches the tree, slides down on her bottom and picks two — not one, but two — satsumas. She brings them in the house to wash and then waits for me to peel them. So delicious! This is the reward of gardening. . . . .

Today I planted about a hundred bulbs….tulips, apricot beauty, mrs. john scheepers, also crocus, muscari, and hopefully some leucajum (but the bag was unmarked!) It took a couple of hours to prepare the soil and get everything into the ground. Here I have a picture of some of my bulbs in the ground. I’ve planted bulbs so many times — but still I hesitate, wondering which direction is the right way! I hope I’m not sending some flowers into the ground!

Lately I’ve been stressed about a few things in my life — gardening unrelated — and I can’t believe how getting my fingers dirty in the soil for a few hours takes me away, gives perspective. It’s like being connected; knowing there’s this larger thing in life, something beyond human drama, beyond our petty grievances. And it’s also a reminder of what is important; things that live, breathe, grow, be. Things that are present, here and now.

Tulips represent luxury. They last for only a few weeks; they take time to plant, energy and space that you might want to allocate to something that reaps more reward, something longer lasting, something green, something that takes less maitenence and space. But when they bloom, when you have rows and rows of color, standing upright on their stems, you just get to enojoy and part of the enjoyment, truely, is that it doesn’t last. So its the ultimate test of “being present” — i.e. being here to actually see the flowers when they blossom, and notice. Enjoy. It makes me feel rich to be able to plant rows of tulips and even fantasize about seeing their color. Lucky lady that I am!

On to the vegetables….I harvested my first winter tomato today!

So much for that nursury owner who told me there’s no chance I’d get tomatoes during winter in southern California. Several look to be ripe in the next couple of weeks. I’ll report back on how they taste!

We’ve been enjoying satsuma manderines daily. My four year old son goes out and picks a few, peels them and shares with any takers. I love them. Makes me want to plant even more fruit trees. I have a dwarf orange — which has green fruit currently — and tangelo which has no fruit…we’ll see if they come around in the winter months.

Today I planted spinach, bibb lettuce, red and white onions, and six splendid basil plants. It’s November in southern California, so it’s dicey whether or not these things will make it. I mixed worm castings with vegetable grower’s soil together and mixed them in my raised beds. For onions, I planted them from bulb and starters — sweet white & red onions. Harvest time is about 110 days, so we’ll see which do better, by bulb or starter

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It feels good to get my fingers in the soil; it’s been too long! I was inspired to do some planting because we’ve been eating our first batch of satsuma manderines: delicious! We planted that tree in early spring, this is our first fruit tree to be ripe, along with the lemons (which are great to have but just aren’t the same to eat!)

What are you planting for winter harvest? I’m curious to hear what other gardeners reap during the winter months.