Wordless Wednesday

Small Space Orchards Presentation at UC Botanical Garden

Are you looking for ways to grow more varieties of fruit and get higher yields from your small garden? I'll be talking about exactly that topic tomorrow (Sunday, Sept. 16, 11:00) at the UC Botanical Garden. Get ideas for choosing, planting and training fruit trees in ways that will give you the most fruit in the least amount of space. The hour-long presentation will include time for questions and answers, and copies of my book, California Fruit and Vegetable Gardening, will be available for purchase afterward. Advance registration is required ($15; $10 for botanical garden members).

Remember, autumn is a great time to plant trees in the Bay Area, so if you're thinking about adding fruit trees, come find out how to do it right! 

Artichokes!

They may be prickly and a magnet for earwigs, but nonetheless I love, love, love artichokes! Debbie Arrington of the Sacramento Bee talked to me a couple weeks ago for an article she was writing on the subject and here it is, along with a mouth-watering selection of recipes. I missed getting a couple artichoke plants in the ground this spring, but they're definitely going in in the fall!

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Oh To Be in England Now That the Chelsea Garden Show Is There

Check out this video from the BBC about this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show. I particularly love that the gardens are actually outdoors--I don't know of any garden shows in the U.S. that aren't mostly indoors with really bad lighting. My favorite part of the video is, of course, the writer's hut in the middle of a garden but I also really love the Caravan Club garden that brings Shabby Chic outdoors. The whole show looks amazing and one day I really hope to be there in person.

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Win a Free Copy of California Fruit and Vegetable Gardening!

All this great weather is making me giddy--seems like a good time for a giveaway!  Want to win a free copy of my new book California Fruit and Vegetable Gardening? You can enter to win at my favorite book site, Goodreads.com. Click here to enter. The contest runs through May 31. (Note: Although I love to get your comments, leaving a comment here does not enter you in the giveaway. You have to enter at Goodreads.com to be eligible.)

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The Elusiveness of Pink Daffodils

photo: Michigan Bulb Co.

The last of my daffodils are blooming right now and it is reminding me that yet another year has passed without a pink daffodil appearing in my garden. The only problem is: I planted pink daffodils--'Pink Charm', they were called. They were a gift from my sister and I was so looking forward to them. They've bloomed each year and they are very nice daffodils with a frilly, somewhat flattened cup, but they are definitely not pink. Peach, maybe. Almost but not quite salmon, possibly if you squint. But most decidedly not pink.

I know I'm not alone in my disappointment in pink daffodils. In my quest to figure out where I went wrong, I've searched through lots of forums and websites about the non-pinkness of pink daffodils. Many comments point out that the bulb companies all say that full sun will cause the color of pink daffodils to be washed out, but I noted that instruction before planting and put mine where they would get only morning sun. I thought perhaps it was a soil pH problem that was affecting the coloration, but I can find no information online that indicates that pH level will change the color one way or the other. Ditto for nutrients.

The only clue I've found was a number of comments noting that the color deepened as the bulbs aged. They seemed to become more pink in the third or fourth year. So I guess there's nothing to do but wait and hope that pinkness will come someday. Perhaps the growers should rename this cultivar 'Dum spiro, spero'--While I live, I hope (for pink).

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It's Here!

One copy of my new book, California Fruit and Vegetable Gardening, is in the house! I have to say it is pretty thrilling to actually hold it my hands and realize it's real. Have you ordered your copy yet? You can get it from Amazon by clicking the link on the left side of the screen.

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