R.I.P. Dana | our sweet, albeit misunderstood, GSD

Dana Ash Froio – 11/7/1998 – 5/19/2012

Yesterday was a sad day for my ex-wife and I, we lost another one of our German Shepherd Dogs – Dana passed away peacefully at home with her remaining family at age 13 1/2.

Thankfully, I was able to spend a couple of hours with her yesterday, to let her know that I loved her, and to tell her that I will see her at the Bridge when that time comes. She passed away two hours after I left, I have a feeling that she was waiting for me to come, she has always been a strong girl, and I know that she would have wanted to give me the chance to see her one more time.

I will miss her sooooo much, she and I had a bond that was different from the bond that I shared with the others. A mix of our immediate bond when we rescued her, plus that our personalities are actually very similar – think last, act now, deal with the consequences later.

Sleep well Dana, I will see you at the Bridge later – I hope you and Krychek are back together again and causing mischief!

Dana (L) and Krychek (R)

On the gardening side, I am still awaiting the Amaryllis’ bloom, but she is definitely ready to unfold and she looks like she will be gorgeous

The present on X-Mas Eve…

Looking up from below the Amaryllis

The June bearing and ‘Lipstick’ variety strawberries are filling in very nicely. I decided to move the main June bearing strawberry planter back into the house as Mr. Squirrel is apt to eat a majority of any berries that remain outside long before they are ripe enough for me to eat. There are still a number of strawberry plants outside, so, he will definitely get a few – he is definitely welcome to them.

Strawberries in the making!

Grow little berry, grow!

The pink flower of the new strawberry, fragaria x. lipstick

In other garden happiness, the hydrangea flowers are starting their first furtive opening and deliver the promise of beautiful blue and purple orbs of summer color!

A little constellation erupts into summer color

That’s about all the new items in the garden, it has been a hell of a weekend, and I think that I will be calling it a night early.

Today’s parting shot: Dana on her final day, saying goodbye

The last photo of Miss Dana – RIP baby

HAPPY GARDENING FRIENDS!!!

~Noah

It’s Sunday, I’m In Love With You…

What can one do when one is in love? Especially when one is in love with a close friend? I have been pondering this for a while now, and I am at a loss to figure out what to do next? Any of my fellow gardeners ever find themselves in a similar situation? If so, was is more important to retain the friendship and not risk losing it by letting your feelings be known, or let your feelings be known, and take the risk? If you took the risk, can you honestly tell me how it went?

Her beauty amazes me every day

On the gardening side of life, the garden is in a slow growth period; however, growth is definitely evident. The Amaryllis continues her slow opening and the ginger root continues to unfold her beautiful foliage.

The ginger root continues her growth

Miss Amaryllis continues her slow bloom

I see growth all around me, and it makes my soul want to do something different with my present. She is one of the most important people in my life; however, she is in her own time, and I am not sure if we are in the same life-time at the present. Maybe it’s time to for me to listen to the side of me that tells me that I have been sedentary for too long? Maybe the time has come to follow the voice inside that tells me that this is the time for change? Maybe…

I would like to see you bloom though

The Daisies wander and thrive, so too can I

What is true love? Are you her JH?

A new Primrose grows

The Calla Lilly send up more and more shoots

Anyway, I have no idea of what the next day will bring; however, I do know that I am the one who will make the tomorrow the today that I need it to be for me. Until then, I continue to nurture my garden, I continue to nurture that which makes me who I am, and in the end, the decisions that I will make, will be the decisions that will benefit me and those that I made a promise to be there for.

She is the one who will not be let down

Have a great weekend fellow gardeners.
~Noah

Flowers, Protests, and Aloof Cats… Oh my!!

Vacation, done!

I didn’t actually go anywhere, but, the week to enjoy as I deemed fit was great! I had hoped to use the week to try to get to know my cat, Gretchen, a little better. She is warming-up; however, it was not the breakthrough weekend that I had hoped for. She actually seemed more curious when I would be leaving so that she could have run of the house and enjoy the sun. Sorry sweetie!! Next week is all yours!

Miss Gretchen, the toy stare down

The weather here in the San Francisco Bay Area has been our usual mix of brilliant sunshine and then a day or two of rainy, overcast, weather. Today, we are back to brilliant, warm, early spring sunshine!

I believe that I have identified the bulb that has created a rather large bloom as an Amaryllis Minerva. One of my neighbors has them planted in their front yard and this looks just like them. I should know within a day or two.

Amaryllis Minerva is ready to blossom!

The strawberries (both the new variety and the June bearing) are starting to flower and produce their first little fruiting bodies. I will have to keep an eye on the local squirrel as they begin to fill in. Last year, I lost nearly all of the berries which I left outside to my hungry little neighbor – which is okay. I plan on leaving a few plants outdoors to share with the local critters and to bring the larger planter (which contains the June bearing strawberries) indoors as I did last year, which seemed to help the berries explode.

Right on time – the outlook for June strawberries is good!

The ‘Lipstick’ variety are also flowering and starting to form fruits

I just love the pink strawberry flowers on the new variety – I hope that I can actually try the berries this year. The squirrel beat me to the punch on all of the new strawberries which formed eating size berries.

Snowflakes still falling gracefully in Oakland

Dragons continue to guard my patio

Little daisies surround the budding Calla Lilly

I have also been busy showing support for California’s ban on Foie Gras, which is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2012. Sadly, there are a number of Bay Area restauranteurs / chefs who have formed a lobbying coalition to raise funds (by hosting outlandish foie gras themed dinners) to overturn the ban.

The ban was written into law by State Legislators 7-years ago in an effort to give restaurants time to come up with alternatives to the forced feeding / torture. They did nothing, and are now whining that the ban is actually upon them – too bad!

Thankfully, earlier this week, the State ruled that the ban will not be set aside and that June 30, 2012, is the last day to legally sell or manufacturer foie gras in California. However, even with this win, the war chest these restauranteurs are amassing will surely go to future attempts to overturn the ban.

In the picture below, I am on the far left:

Protest at Benu Restaurant in San Francisco last night

We are keeping the pressure on to send a message that cruelty to animals should not be tolerated – Chicago passed a similar law; however, an apathetic public allowed the restaurants to petition their legislators to overturn the ban two years later. There was no public outrage/outcry and the ban was lifted. We protest to help ensure that will NOT happen here in California.

No parting shots today friends, sorry!! I am going to head to the nursery tomorrow to see what’s new – stay tuned!!

HAPPY GARDENING FRIENDS!!

~Noah

And on the 9th Day….

I took a week of vacation…

I am not particularly doing anything or going anywhere; however, I am sure that I will find something fun and interesting to do. The main goal of this coming week will be to get the patio all pruned, weeded, and looking great! The other goal, is to continue to get to know my cat, Gretchen, a little better. I adopted her about a month ago, and was finally able to pet her for the first time since adopting her on Thursday.

Action cat! Ms. Gretchen

I have been taking lots and lots of pictures of the new growth, new flowers, and of my new tomato plants on my desk at work. I figured since I can’t really grow tomatoes on my patio due to insufficient amounts of direct sunlight, that my desk (which has a skylight right above it) would be the perfect place! Plus, I can bestow fresh tomatoes upon my colleagues as they grow.

A field of fledgling tomatoes!

Tomatoes up close & personal

Stay tuned for future updates on the in-office tomato patch!! On the home front, the pansies continue to flourish and provide great color! I also learned that pansies are edible, and will be making great additions to a spring salad sometime soon. I have three different colors growing now, a blue on blue, a yellow on brown, and a white on purple variety. They seem to be picking up where the violas are slowing down, which is fine, as I like the pansies color and size more!

Perfect pansy in glorious bloom

Yellow and brown pansy

Vibrant blue on blue

In other patio happenings, the strawberries continue to set their pre-fruit flowers, I have two varieties growing, the generic, basic June-bearing variety, and a new cultivar, fragaria x. lipstick, which is said to be mainly ornamental. The new variety does set nice fruit; however, last years couple of berries were eaten by the neighborhood squirrel before they ripened so I have no idea if the fruit is tasty or not.

The flower of fragaria x. lipstick strawberry variety

More of the fragaria x. lipstick flowers

June-bearing strawberries starting their fruiting stage!!

One of the three bulbs that my ex-wife gave me appears to be ready to send up a flower stalk soon. I believe it is some form of Iris; however, only time will tell if it’s an Iris, a Lilly, or something else completely! The ornamental ginger also continues to grow and are sending up random spears that I am not sure if they will turn into foliage or flower, again, stay tuned!

One of the bulbs (Iris?) about to send up her flower stalk!

Ornamental Ginger

Finally today my friends, I will leave you with a couple of photos that I am particularly fond of, the usual Parting Shots:

My dainty daisies

Thyme setting flowers

Bright White Violas

HAPPY GARDENING FRIENDS!!

~Noah

Saturday, in the park…

I think it was the 21st of April… Can you dig it?

Hello young strawberries, nice to see you!

… and, I’ve been waiting such a long time for the strawberries!! (Thank you CTA for the morning inspiration!)

For today’s post, I think that I will focus on some of the non-flowering members of my patio garden. Looking back over my last few posts, I noticed that I have featured the flowers way more heavily than I have featured the non-flowering plants. Today’s post will include both; however, I want to start with a few of the plants that are currently just foliage.

Below are two bulbs that my ex-wife dropped off a few month’s ago – I am not sure what they are; however, they are growing and with all of the bulbs in my neighborhood starting to burst into color, I am hopeful that these too will produce something wonderful!! Stay tuned…

Random bulb #1

Random bulb #2

My hydrangea continue to fill in and are producing more and more flower blossoms each week! I can’t wait until the tiny blue flowers begin to open and fill into the glorious blue/purple orbs that will bring my planter box back to life. I have always loved hydrangea; although, when I was young, my love for them was decidedly not for their flowering beauty – they made great stationary swing practice when baseball with friends was more important than beautifying my environment.

Mr. Hydrangea filling in nicely!

Coming Soon, Happy Blooms!!

Am I going to Scarborough Fair?

Sadly, that would be a no. However, my rosemary and thyme continue to provide fresh goodness, ensuring that whenever I feel like making focaccia bread, I don’t have to reach for the dry herbs for added flavor (although, I do use dry rosemary and thyme in the dough…).

Rosemary and Thyme (parsley and sage, maybe later)

On the flowering side of the garden, I leave you with these parting shots – enjoy!

Snapdragon's continue to add colorful joy

A white/blue pansy swims a sea of golden violas!

Snowflakes in Spring? You bet!!

A golden/brown pansy enjoys the shade of Ms. Jade

Blue on Blue pansy says hello

HAPPY GARDENING FRIENDS!!

~ Noah

April Showers…

…bring April flowers, no need to wait until May!

Snapdragon and viola in bloom

My patio garden’s explosion of spring color continues despite a couple of EPIC downpours that I feared were going to destroy the delicate flowers that had graced my garden as of late. By this weekend, everyone was back to their perky lively flowering beauty. The pansies are starting to blossom, albeit they seem to have taken aboard some little clear hitchhikers, don’t know what they are, but, they seem to like the pansies.

Pansies are starting their bloom (with hitchhikers)

Part of the storms that came through last week included a decent thunder-storm which rolled through Thursday night that must have been centered right over my apartment. Some of the  thunder claps were so loud that they woke both myself and my cat in the dead of the night, we both looked at each other wondering what the heck just happened. Seeing that we were both okay, we were able to fall back to sleep, only to be rudely awoken numerous more times to Mother Nature’s symphonic booms! As I looked out at the patio in the morning, everyone was still present and accounted for, albeit a wee droopy from the heavy rain.

Violet and White Snapdragon blooms

More Snapdragon blooms grace my garden

The little purple daisies continue to spread out from the planter, starting to intermingle with the snowstorm ‘giant snowflake’, which are now beginning to climb all over the baker’s rack / plant stand that I found abandoned on the street corner last year.

Delicate little Daisies

Snowflakes graceful decent toward the ground

Snowflake glisten in the spring sunshine

I have been slowly weaving the snowflakes tendrils in and around the baker’s rack, hopefully they will create a blanket of foliage to soften the steel lines of the rack, we will see, but, the vision I have is clear, now, the trick is to translate that vision into reality. The strawberries are starting to set more flowers; hopefully, this will mean fresh berries for my morning cereal in the very near future.

Young strawberry (fragaria x. lipstick)

Another young berry! Yummy!

Finally today, I will leave you all with a lovely shot of my violas.

Viola's enjoying the early morning sunshine

HAPPY GARDENING FRIENDS!!

~Noah

Harrgh!! Thar be Dragon’s here…

…and there be lots of ‘em!! 

Thankfully, my patio’s dragons are an amazing array of early spring snapdragon blooms and not the toothy fire-breathing type (although, that might be pretty cool too!!).

A sea of pastel dragons

Oh, Snap!! Dragons have landed!!

Big Mouth Dragon!!

The rains of the last two-weeks were definitely just what my patio garden needed!! No matter how diligent I am with my watering, nothing matches good old Mother Nature’s watering system. My patio definitely is a happy place to step out into on a lazy Saturday morning and enjoy a cup of coffee and listen to the birds chirping in the trees and gardens nearby.

The voila and pansies I picked up a while back to add some early season color to the garden continue to produce more of their signature flowers than I could have ever hoped for. The viola’s vibrant flowers perched atop a cushion of deep green foliage make wonderful additions to my interior decor. I generally use them for a table centerpiece; however, I found that mine will not re-bloom indoors (not enough sun maybe?) once the flowers fade

- Something needed to be done about this! 

Table Top Happiness!

The easy work-around for the re-blooming problem was to plant three identical 6″ – pots and rotate them in and out as needed. I have been rotating my three pots in and out as the flowers begin to fade and die away for the last 3 – weeks and so far, it has been working like a charm!!

• √ it out - Many nursery’s receive their plant stock in those 6″ black plastic planters – when they replant them for display or into larger planters for growth – they often toss the starter planters – check with you local nursery and you can likely pick-up more than you could ever use for Free!! 

Violas continue to provide amazing color

Now, if I can just get Gretchy-Cat to come out from her hiding place under the bed to enjoy the view of the patio from one of the three large windows in my apartment, I am sure she would find it much more exciting than whatever she can see underneath my bed! Oh well, she will come out and play when she is ready.

In other garden news; the pay off for slogging around in the rain the last couple of weeks is the new growth for just about every plant on the patio, new flowers in abundance, and best of all, a place for me to just sit and do absolutely nothing for a little while if I am so inclined. I am starting to realize the importance of taking a little bit of time each day to turn the outside world off and do as little as humanly possible. The proverbial; stopping to smell the roses, as it were.

Jade, Rosemary, and Thyme

Remind to figure out what these are!

A closer view of the blue mystery flowers

For today’s parting shots, I leave you with some images of the start of some garden happiness in the making…

Hydrangea's first little flower buds

Strawberry's first flower (fragaria x. lipstick)

HAPPY GARDENING FRIENDS!!

~Noah