December 2018 – Bloom Dammit!

December 26, 2018

Moving and Getting to Know a New Garden in Zone 10

Last year, we moved. It was hard. Hard doesn’t begin to explain it – we got married, had a baby and bought a house. And although it seems like the trifecta of happiness, it can be so hard to leave behind an old house with so many memories and accept change.

My previous garden was limited to raised beds on top of concrete, but there was a lot of learning happening in those raised beds. I mainly overwatered and didn’t really research too much about my zone or the history of my neighborhood. I lived in Elysian Valley, now referred to as Frog Town. It’s on the edge of the Los Angeles river and it’s a hotbed of controversy – which I’ll post about at a later date. The river delivered a lot of sediment and really nurtured the land previously – to the point that there are some magnificent trees with an abundance of citrus. Just about everyone gardened there and walked everywhere. It was a place to learn for sure. We moved to Burbank which is a suburb of Los Angeles and although the zone is the similar if not the same, the soil quality was significantly different – ground versus raised bed. The temperature tends to be hotter in the summer, and much cooler in the winter.

Since this is our first home and we’re no longer renting, I wanted to spend time falling in love with the trees and getting to know the soil. There was a lot already planted – but the cacti were rooting from the inside out and although we had a lot of beautiful trees, it seemed like they were neglected. I didn’t see any guavas the entire first year, and the mandarins produced maybe a dozen or so fruit.

One thing I really dove into was understanding my zone for Burbank, I used USDA hardiness zone: https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/. My zone is 10a according to this, and other lists give me 10b. I think Burbank straddles both and I see similarities so I just go with it. The second thing we did was get a bunch of mulch delivered and we killed the front yard grass. Part of me was just trying to make a statement about not needing grass in Los Angeles, but part of me knew this would heal the soil – but mainly the first part.

I’ll keep posting about my adventures as I get to know my garden, it’s a whole new beast but I will say, we did benefit from beautiful trees that were already established and I can’t wait to plant more.

December 17, 2018

Loofah Sponges and Waste Reduction

I visited my friend, Farmer Rishi at his farm to pick up a mango tree and came across the most beautiful hanging squash. It’s great to go to someone’s home and see their kitchen, their garden, but seeing someone’s farm just gives me next level envy. I asked him what these plants were and he said Loofah gourds. I remembered living in Mexico and this was the standard for exfoliating, for scrubbing counters and for cleaning dishes. And I’m really looking forward to trying it out.

There is so much talk about microfiber cloths and plastic components either ending up in our waterways or ending up in our landfill without the ability to breakdown. I was going to wait to grow it this upcoming year, and hope for the best – still planning on that but I came across some loofah sponges at El Mercadito in East Los. I bought a nice size sponge for $4.00. Yes, it was a trek and a half to get there, and it’s ridiculously crowded at the moment, pre-Christmas, but I really do think I got more than a bargain, since I can probably make upwards of 1 dozen sponges from this baby.

December 16, 2018

Mandarins and Getting Citrus Going

We bought a house in Burbank last year, a small suburb outside of Los Angeles. The house itself needs so much work but the backyard had established trees, which is a dream.

We had a lot of oranges that came, and they were juicy and wonderful and we had a handful of mandarins. These were so delicious but we didn’t get a lot. Part of the problem was the critter to harvest ratio – too many animals feeding on too few fruit. So I tried a little harder the following season, more water, more fertilizer and the leaves seemed to be doing well however, I didn’t see substantial growth.

What I noticed was that the mandarin was planted along the East facing wall, and the south facing hedges had grown too tall, blocking out substantial sun. I trimmed these back, the bamboo and whatever other trees are planted next to them. This helped get some light and I started seeing change after 3 or so months. I’m going to keep attempting to see this process through and go from there.