suburban garden adventures

I started this blog a few years ago thinking it would make me write a little something everyday. However, as you can clearly see, this has not been the case! And so I will try, try again.

So lets start over. I live in the Bay Area in California in a small town. Zone 9b on the USDA zone map. (I'll add a link if I can figure that out...)http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/ Sunset zone 15. We have a 1/4 acre lot.

I am a professional gardener. In other words I help other people in their gardens which now at my age leaves very little energy for my own garden! Ugh. And with the drought here in California I have let alot of plants go. Sigh.  Which makes me incredibly unmotivated to do much out there in the bleak, brown, dry weedy mess that used to be my beautiful garden.

We have 8 chickens and 2 cats. One of the cats thinks she's part chicken and the chickens dont think much of it except that she's a really weird looking chicken.

So, thats all for today. I will post pictures as soon as I go thru the 10k or so that I have to find 5 that are worth keeping!

Fall is lovely

It surely feels like Fall today! Cool and crisp in the shade but step into the sunshine and the warmth is lovely. Today I planted my Fall season veggies for the 4th time. You see we have 5 chickens and they dont like to stay in their Taj Majal pen. Nope not good enough for them! More about the chickens later. 

In the ground went Chard, Spinach, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Kale, Beets, Onions and Peas. In reality I havent planted it all as I spent most of the time at the nursery buying more starts and then wrangling chickens. And fixing the pen fence. But tomorrow I will finish planting for sure.